Viewer Questions Episode 3

Covering another selection of questions from my supporters on Patreon
(this is going to take a while isn't it)

[JonathanMickelson]

Best quote ever, "If you're a super bad-ass God, you're going to create a universe with 56 billion light-years across, and hundreds of billions of galaxies with and stars in them... you're not going to create a tiny little disk with a dome over it." -- Scott Manley

[kaifengwu]

Scott: hard for me to see how they will make starship landing safe enough for human flight.
Also Scott: Dear Moon here I come!

[charliemiller]

The Flat Earth Society reports that all the social distancing is pushing some of its members over the edge.

[PotionsmasterDyne]

The best solution I've seen for space junk is the "bottle deposit" idea: when you launch something into orbit you have to pay a fee, as a deposit against its eventual deorbit. If your satellite fails to deorbit, the deposit is used as a bounty, paid to whoever brings it down. Garbage collection companies can now profitably de-orbit junk for the bounty.

[donsample]

For the safety issue: different people accept different levels of risk. Hardly any of us would do something that has a 10% chance of killing us, yet lots of people are still climbing Mount Everest every year at those odds.

[DenhamCrafton]

Re: "The Expanse" question: They weren't using the RCS thrusters. They had to use the keel-mounted railgun since it used a separate power supply from the rest of the ship (it's own bank of batteries normally charged by the fusion reactor). On top of that (and I don't recall if the show has this), the Roci was pretty badly damaged from the corporate's light shuttle/bomb getting turned into shrapnel, so several of the RCS thrusters were damaged beyond repair outside of drydock. Because of the shrapnel impacts, and damage to thrusters, they were in a very complex tri-axis spin, and had to time the railgun shots just perfectly to impart the correct direction of thrust on both ships. The rail gun couldn't have fired continuously because of the complex movement, and the fact that it probably would've melted.

Finally, they can't "move about... with impunity", they *do* have limited fuel in the form of reaction mass, AKA extremely pure distilled water which they use for potables, coolant, RCS "fuel" (they shoot out steam), and for the Epstein Drive.

[coppercore]

Thank you for answering my question about throttling and the lower ISP with lower throttle. Also, the little tidbit about the RS-25 being able to throttle down to 10% blew my mind!

[generalyellor]

Listening to Scott explain things is like listening to your favorite uncle explain something complex; very informative with not a hint of condescension. Which in this case, for me, is weird, because I'm probably twenty years older than he is.

[goldenpun]

I invoked your name when I saw a post saying something like, 'Why blast your enemies into the sun when it takes significantly less Delta V to launch them clear of the solar system?' I said, "Scott Manley Approves this message"

[KevinT]

My question: How much of the propellents used to put vehicles into orbit comes back eventually due to gravity, and how much is lost to space forever? Are we creating an erosion problem for some of the rarer stuff, i.e. helium used as a pressurant, and how imminent is it?

I really appreciate these viewer questions answered videos. You're under no obligations to continue them of course, but I'd be really jazzed if you did. Thank you Scott!

[johnhunt]

I have a question: where can I get a t-shirt that says "Beam me up, Scott Manley!" ?

[MoonWeasel]

These videos are heartbreaking because we will never get full videos on many of these topics.

[ixglocTV]

Guys, seconds ago I found an original newspaper from the 21st July 1969 headlining "The First Men Are On The Moon" under heaps of other stuff my late Dad had stored in the basement! He never told me about it. I was short of two years old back then.

[joshbull]

I just love it when he says “fly safe”

[theSquashSH]

That gas choke condition explainer was super helpful. Makes a lot of sense that it kicks in after you cross the speed of sound, but I'd never heard anyone explain it that clearly before.

[ipreuss]

Another reason for all kinds of conspiracy theories is that it’s an easy way to find social acceptance. No matter who you are, if you just believe the same strange thing, you immediately get accepted as “one of us”. Being an accepted member of a group is a strong drive for humans, and some need to resort to conspiracy theories to fulfill that need.

[TimLF]

The Expanse has FTL so I'd not expect much. I like the thumbnail letting us all know that the real proof the earth is not flat is that cats would have knocked everything off if it were.

[benlutz]

It occurs to me about Starship: The sea bottom is littered with the wrecks of wooden ships. Now hundreds of years later losses at sea are all but unheard of. But we never would have gotten here waiting for the Queen Mary to be constructed. We don't need to be completely reckless, but if we're going to get anything done we probably need to be a little more risk-tolerant again.

[stevemoore]

Hope you're having a great day Mr. Manley!

[solanumtinkr]

Making an entity pay to bring down their junk after it is finished with could lead to 'temporary organizations' launching things so there s no one to ask for money as when the date comes it'll already have shut shop. The temporary being a variable that depends on the circumstance. It's a nice idea but there are loopholes.