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Comment Re: Corporate welfare (Score 2) 62

StarShip on the other hand is not. It is a reboot of the Commie N1 Rocket.

No. The N-1 suffered from these problems:
1. lack of testing on individual engines. The engines were not built to be restartable. They used e.g. pyrotechnics to open valves, meaning that valve could only be opened once. They tested NK-15 engines by building a batch of 6, testing 3, and if those tests were successful, putting the remaining 3 on the rocket.

2. lack of testing on individual stages. This was because the Soviets didn't want to spend years, $ and thousands of tons of concrete to build the huge test stands that would be needed for such tests. They did their stage tests by launching rockets.
They used the same strategy for Proton, which went into successful service after 14 test launches with lots of explosions.

3. lack of money. The USSR space budget was 1/20 of the Apollo budget.

4. lack of support from the leader of the Soviet space effort, Mishin. This meant N-1 development was not pushed, but allowed to languish.

5. lack of quality control. One launch failed due to welding slag entering an engine.

6. many engines on a stage, with no way to test the behavior of that engine cluster on the ground due to #2.

SpaceX has none of these problems. Yes, they've blown up a lot of rockets. 0 of those failures were in any way similar to the problems seen on N-1 launches. In contrary: those tests show SpaceX has designed Starship to operate reliably with 33 engines, demonstrating engine-out capability and resilience to violent engine failures.

Starship development is similar to N-1 development in the early use of launch tests. For Starship, this has not replaced stage testing on the ground. It just gives early access to a flight regime that cannot be tested on the ground: reentry.

Comment Re:How would a jammer work ? (Score 1) 131

Antennas aren't perfect. A directional antenna is more sensitive in one direction than in others, but does not provide perfect isolation. So a jammer radiating into the antenna from the side can still work.

For Starlink this gets more complicated because they use a phased array, the antenna elements of that array cannot be directional, so the jamming signal comes in at close to full strength and has to be separated from the satellite signal by the processor.

Comment Re:Non-smart 50" TV's don't "cost less than $200" (Score 1) 109

For everyone in the manufacturing chain, there's a difference:
- cost: what they pay to design and build, or procure a widget
- price: what they'll sell that widget for.
The difference between the two is their margin, ie the profit they made on the sale.

Did that help clear things up, or should I include some insults for you?

Comment Clocks are hard to read (Score 3, Insightful) 251

It's not surprising to me people aren't bothering to learn to read analog clocks any more. They stink. They force you to count ticks or estimate the distance between digits, adding up clues until you get to the time. Digital clocks are much easier to read.

Analog clocks are a fossil from a bygone era. Better solutions have been able for decades.

Comment Re:Expensive (Score 1) 29

The article contains some details on the production process. Each detector consists of a single crystal. This has to be grown, starting from a molten CZT mixture, in a process that takes weeks. It's likely the process can be scaled up, similar to how silicon wafers used to be made from a crystal with a diameter with a few centimeters, and current wafers are 30 cm or more.

Submission + - Traveling to the US will require you to reveal your social media for 5 years. (federalregister.gov)

Z00L00K writes: Agency Information Collection Activities; Revision; Arrival and Departure Record

3. Mandatory Social Media: In order to comply with the January 2025 Executive Order 14161 (Protecting the United States From Foreign Terrorists and Other National Security and Public Safety Threats), CBP is adding social media as a mandatory data element for an ESTA application. The data element will require ESTA applicants to provide their social media from the last 5 years.

Comment Re:robot parking lot: no need for lights, sounds? (Score 1) 64

I think we're at the point where more people are killed because the incessant beeping drives them crazy, than are saved because they weren't paying attention until they heard the beeping. My flat's being renovated for the past 8 months, and I'm seriously contemplating sabotaging the fucking horns on all the construction equipment.

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