Happy Me Thread - Page 92

rogue · 2021-06-12, 00:37

Took my wife and kids (at 19 and 20, they are still kids to me) to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida today. The Saturn V rocket and Atlantis space shuttle where awesome! I can now take that off my bucket list, although we actually enjoyed the John C Stennis Space Center in Mississippi more (which we visited 2 years ago) because it had no crowds.

The only negative is that we were not allowed to visit the vehicle assembly building or get near the crawlers parked outside. The crawlers get an amazing 26 ft to the gallon (2.5 meters to the liter).

Uncwilly · 2021-06-12, 01:23

Quote:

Originally Posted by rogue

Took my wife and kids (at 19 and 20, they are still kids to me) to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida today.

I was there in 2011. There is a steak house kind of place in Titusville that is frequented by astronauts etc. (New York, New York I believe).

Quote:

I can now take that off my bucket list, although we actually enjoyed the John C Stennis Space Center in Mississippi more (which we visited 2 years ago) because it had no crowds

.I was going to see that in 2017, but Hurricane Harvey. I 'friend' of a family member works there and was willing to take me a bit behind the scenes.

I am going to try to time my next trip to Kennedy to coincide with a Falcon Heavy launch. In 2011 I was there for STS-134, but there was a delay...

LaurV · 2021-06-12, 04:01

Quote:

Originally Posted by rogue

The crawlers get an amazing 26 ft to the gallon (2.5 meters to the liter).

That's like 0.4 liters per meter, or 40 thousand liters per 100km, for the "normal" world.

WOW !
(didn't know that!)

kriesel · 2021-06-12, 12:34

Imagine the fuel stream as a cylinder the vehicle consumes as it travels. A 20mpg vehicle corresponds to ~0.5mm fuel stream, a 50mpg vehicle ~0.3mm like fine technical pencil lead. The crawler consumes the equivalent of ~22.5 mm diameter, similar to residential water piping. Crawler data sheet shows max load 18 million pounds at 1mph; 2mph empty, hauling only its own 6.6 million pound weight. https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/f...heet_final.pdf Empty works out to about 200 ton-miles/gallon. That's nearly 4 times what my aerodynamic 2006 Honda Insight hybrid gets, although the Honda's on rubber tires and experiencing more wind drag per ton at higher operating velocities and low total mass. The 200 ton-mile / gallon of the crawler is also better than achieved by commercial trucking, and near the low end of commercial rail freight (~200-1200 ton-miles/gallon in this 30 year old study, released at approx mid-life of the crawlers.) It's hard to beat the low rolling coefficient of friction of steel on steel for large scale practical construction. Given the stated accumulated mileage of the crawlers, they've already burned ~400,000 gallons of diesel. Equivalent fuel consumption to ~24 unit trains (100 cars, 100 tons/car) going 2000 miles each at max ton-miles/gallon.

xilman · 2021-07-02, 16:43

Two bits of good news. SWMBO and I returned to La Palma a week ago, this being our first visit since November and the first since Brexit came fully into effect . Despite a 8-month gap the house and observatory were in very good condition. The journey over was smooth and, despite the doom-sayers, the only difference in the administrative details of our journey since last year is a) we had to fill in a form issued by the Spanish Health Ministry to give our address in LP and state our CV19 status --- both fully vaccinated --- and b) our passports were stamped at immigration for the first time since Spain joined the EU. All entrants to Spain, Schengen included, have to satisfy a). So, from this POV Brexit has had essentially no effect on us.

The other was that the observatory telescope control system was experiencing ever more frequent episodes of temporary death back in November. The local computer shop in El Paso replaced a dying CPU cooling fan and verified that the sytem ran for over 24 hours. Despite discomfort from probable gout (see Unhappy Me thread) I managed to connect everything and verify it worked. Shopuld be able to do some astronomy tonight for the first time since October!

Uncwilly · 2021-07-02, 18:03

Quote:

Originally Posted by xilman

Shopuld be able to do some astronomy tonight for the first time since October!

C/2014 UN271 should be around 21.1 but you won't be able to see it for a few months yet. Rise 0653, set 1306 local. Keep it in mind for later. Would be a nice get.

Nick · 2021-07-02, 18:17

Quote:

Originally Posted by xilman

Two bits of good news.

Great! The easy one to forget (for people from the UK) is health insurance,
but I assume you have that sorted too.

xilman · 2021-07-02, 18:32

Quote:

Originally Posted by Uncwilly

C/2014 UN271 should be around 21.1 but you won't be able to see it for a few months yet. Rise 0653, set 1306 local. Keep it in mind for later. Would be a nice get.

Far, far too southerly declination, even for LP. I did consider it ...

xilman · 2021-07-02, 18:33

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nick

Great! The easy one to forget (for people from the UK) is health insurance,
but I assume you have that sorted too.

Of course. AFAIK, all Brit travellers have health insurance before venturing into the foreign.

2021-06-12, 12:34	#1005
kriesel "TF79LL86GIMPS96gpu17" Mar 2017 US midwest 14F3₁₆ Posts	Imagine the fuel stream as a cylinder the vehicle consumes as it travels. A 20mpg vehicle corresponds to ~0.5mm fuel stream, a 50mpg vehicle ~0.3mm like fine technical pencil lead. The crawler consumes the equivalent of ~22.5 mm diameter, similar to residential water piping. Crawler data sheet shows max load 18 million pounds at 1mph; 2mph empty, hauling only its own 6.6 million pound weight. https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/f...heet_final.pdf Empty works out to about 200 ton-miles/gallon. That's nearly 4 times what my aerodynamic 2006 Honda Insight hybrid gets, although the Honda's on rubber tires and experiencing more wind drag per ton at higher operating velocities and low total mass. The 200 ton-mile / gallon of the crawler is also better than achieved by commercial trucking, and near the low end of commercial rail freight (~200-1200 ton-miles/gallon in this 30 year old study, released at approx mid-life of the crawlers.) It's hard to beat the low rolling coefficient of friction of steel on steel for large scale practical construction. Given the stated accumulated mileage of the crawlers, they've already burned ~400,000 gallons of diesel. Equivalent fuel consumption to ~24 unit trains (100 cars, 100 tons/car) going 2000 miles each at max ton-miles/gallon. Last fiddled with by kriesel on 2021-06-12 at 13:09

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2021-06-12, 00:37	#1002
rogue "Mark" Apr 2003 Between here and the 11·577 Posts	Took my wife and kids (at 19 and 20, they are still kids to me) to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida today. The Saturn V rocket and Atlantis space shuttle where awesome! I can now take that off my bucket list, although we actually enjoyed the John C Stennis Space Center in Mississippi more (which we visited 2 years ago) because it had no crowds. The only negative is that we were not allowed to visit the vehicle assembly building or get near the crawlers parked outside. The crawlers get an amazing 26 ft to the gallon (2.5 meters to the liter).

2021-07-02, 16:43	#1006
xilman Bamboozled! "𒉺𒌌𒇷𒆷𒀭" May 2003 Down not across 25001₈ Posts	Two bits of good news. SWMBO and I returned to La Palma a week ago, this being our first visit since November and the first since Brexit came fully into effect . Despite a 8-month gap the house and observatory were in very good condition. The journey over was smooth and, despite the doom-sayers, the only difference in the administrative details of our journey since last year is a) we had to fill in a form issued by the Spanish Health Ministry to give our address in LP and state our CV19 status --- both fully vaccinated --- and b) our passports were stamped at immigration for the first time since Spain joined the EU. All entrants to Spain, Schengen included, have to satisfy a). So, from this POV Brexit has had essentially no effect on us. The other was that the observatory telescope control system was experiencing ever more frequent episodes of temporary death back in November. The local computer shop in El Paso replaced a dying CPU cooling fan and verified that the sytem ran for over 24 hours. Despite discomfort from probable gout (see Unhappy Me thread) I managed to connect everything and verify it worked. Shopuld be able to do some astronomy tonight for the first time since October!