Why lab technicians are required to wear stain-resistant lab coats and eye protection.

Wonder if the calculus changes if they use a different type of fuel for descent vs ascent? That way a hypothetical tanker would only need a supply of descent fuel, whatever that is.

The Chinese appear to have figured out orbital refueling (at least for satellites): https://interestingengineering.com/space/china-refuels-satellites-in-earths-orbit

It’s not clear where that tanker fuel comes from, if it’s being replenished, how long the tanker stays in orbit, and how long it takes to refuel (minutes, hours, days?)

If the tanker is a one-time disposable vehicle, deorbited once the fuel runs out, it likely won’t be cost-effective. Refueling a satellite then pushing it back into service, you’re not under the same time limit you would be for a reusable rocket that needs to get back down and into circulation ASAP.

There are a lot of interesting, hard problems. But theoretically, a self-replenishing, reusable tanker could be the most cost-effective way to get to reusable upper stages. Of course, you would need to also solve where to park it so it stays up while still being reachable by LEO rockets. Again, SciFi now.

I just hope if it’s ever built, they stick a Jetson’s style neon “Gas ⤵️” sign on it.

If they figure out orbital refueling, they can reduce the launch weight, reload, and have controlled, powered descent.

Long-term, even better if they figure out orbital fuel generation out of atmospheric CO2 and greenhouse gases. Win, win.

SciFi now, but most of this stuff was a couple generations ago.

In scriptwriting, they always tell people to ‘Up the Stakes!’

When Crypto and NFTs went bust, everyone jumped on the AI bandwagon and upped the stakes. All you need is the next big, existential thing that ups the stakes even more.

• Climate
• Energy
• Food
• Disease
• War
• Worldwide annihilation

Come on! You gotta pump up the stakes.

Your first reaction will tell how old you are:

• Whee, fun!
• Insurance!
• My knees!

Brought to you by the inventors of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dry_dung_fuel

“No, no, no. The weirdest location.”

https://youtu.be/ZiARvvemLlk

Welcome, fellow travelers. I’ll be your tour guide.

Apple almost went bankrupt in 1997 when Jobs came back. It had to take a $150M investment from Microsoft to keep afloat.

https://www.xda-developers.com/27-years-ago-microsoft-bought-150-million-worth-of-apple-stock-after-the-company-almost-went-bankrupt/

deleted by creator

The seat-post is solid Gold.

Have done it both ways. Will never go back to bare metal. Dependency hell forced multiple clean installs down to bootloader.

The only constant is change.

The FT has used AI tools to identify these mentions of the technology in SEC 10-k filings and earnings transcripts, then to categorise each mention. The results were then checked and analysed to help draw a nuanced picture about what companies were saying to different audiences about the technology.

So… using AI to find out who is using AI and warn of underuse of AI.

That thing really launched! All I saw were mangled ankles.

Let’s hope it’s not launched at a busy intersection with a lot of pedestrians waiting to cross the street.

Wile E. Coyote school of car design.

Saw a kid riding an ebike the other day. Full tinted motorcycle helmet and leathers. Zoomed away from full stop. Guessing a souped up controller. Easily exceeding Class 3 speeds. Didn’t pedal once.

I’ve got a Class 3 bike and an M1 license. They should just drop the pretense and create a midway category.