Sunday Things - SPAAAAAACE edition

posted in Links by Cargo Cult on Sunday June 24 2012

What’s your favourite thing about space? Mine is space.

Now try putting them back together again.
Decommissioning the Space Shuttles - now neatly installed in museums, they required gutting first.

Now try putting THAT back together again.
Fate of the Soviet Buran shuttle - still, the US shuttles had a less traumatic fate than the Soviet version...

I hope it works I hope it works I hope it works (breathe!)

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Curiosity's Seven Minutes of Terror - how do you land a giant nuclear-powered rover on another planet? Extra: full animation is similarly dramatic...

Lookin' good!
Cosmonaut survival training - forget landing on a runway in Florida, or splashing down in a tropical bit of the Pacific. Extra: Soviet space-pyjamas!

Bonus Antiquated Soviet Rocketry corner:

Also, dear readers - who are you people? I've already got loads of subscribers to the RSS feed - but you're all remarkably quiet. Do post comments. Don't be shy!

Article comments (now closed)

phuzz's gravatar

1. Buran

Posted by phuzz at 3:10AM, Sunday June 24 2012

Seeing those photos of a crushed Buran always makes me sad :(
Also, I can't believe they haven't done a test of Curiosity's landing system. Sure the gravity and atmospheric densities are different, but I'd feel a lot happier if I'd seen at least one test. They are rocket scientists I suppose, they have done the maths.

sortie's gravatar

2. Shy?

Posted by sortie at 11:05AM, Sunday June 24 2012

Oh, this place even got HTTPS. Also, why does the website require me to be human? I thought hylobatidae was all about promoting advanced AI.

Cargo Cult's gravatar

3. Re: Curiosity's landing system

Posted by Cargo Cult at 2:13PM, Sunday June 24 2012

They've tested the individual components as much as is possible in Earth's conditions - here's the parachute, for example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-NJamPhtRjA

I also saw a video of a rover ratcheting its way down from a placeholder sky-crane, but I can't find it right now.

They've got a *lot* of experience in landing these things successfully (and unsuccessfully) - but there's still something about Curiosity's landing that's especially terrifying!

Re: promoting advanced AI - the robots and humans get separated early on, so as not to influence test results. ;-)

Cargo Cult's gravatar

4. Re: Re: Curiosity's landing system

Posted by Cargo Cult at 2:19PM, Sunday June 24 2012

Here we go: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YasCQRAWRwU&feature=relmfu

(Ignore the YouTube twits claiming 'THAT WSANSNT' A PROPAR TEST!!1!!1!!'...)

chiasaur11's gravatar

5. space

Posted by chiasaur11 at 8:05PM, Thursday June 28 2012

So, just to make it clear.

Valve employees are the only people who can make Space Sphere jokes now without seeming like idiots?

Just want to know what the rules are in the terrifying world of Space Year 2012.

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