SPACEX FALCON HEAVY TEST LAUNCH

[amishmanish]

SpaceX successfully completed its test launch of the Falcon Heavy rocket. In typical Elon fashion, The simulated payload consisted on Elon Musk's own cherry red Tesla roadster with a dummy passenger (named Starman and wearing Tesla's spacesuit).
You gotta fucking love Elon.

The third booster hasn't been accounted for but they re-landed two of the boosters successfully. Its bloody epic to watch the live feed.

Guardian coverage: https://www.theguardian.com/science/live/2018/feb/06/spacex-falcon-heavy-launch-elon-musk-live-updates
Youtube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbSwFU6tY1c

Every Man, Woman and Child everywhere should watch this...

[amishmanish]

It is awesome, and this time we have roadster in space.

Yeah its completely insane. Elon Musk is a masterful marketer too. The Roadster has David Bowie playing in radio.
He tweeted a photograph of a chip inside the roadster which reads "Made on Earth by Humans". How insanely inspiring and cool is that..

Everyone awaits the fate of the core stage now.

[Jitra]

One thing it proved to the naysayers that the earth is indeed round, and not flat...

[BTCMILLIONAIRE]

I love this man. Can't wait to retire on Mars in a few decades. Hope the internet will be figured out to keep a realtime supply of earth memes.

[Vod]

I love this man. Can't wait to retire on Mars in a few decades. Hope the internet will be figured out to keep a realtime supply of earth memes.

You'll probably need to be a BTCBILLIONAIRE to do that....  Emigration to Mars will be limited for the first few decades and only the highest paying will get a ticket.

And physics states that any internet packet leaving earth will have a latency of 180 seconds! at Mars' closest approach to earth.  Obviously any information you are viewing will need to be pre-cached on the Mars-net, or you'll have to wait a few minutes each time you click a link. 

[BTCMILLIONAIRE]

I love this man. Can't wait to retire on Mars in a few decades. Hope the internet will be figured out to keep a realtime supply of earth memes.

You'll probably need to be a BTCBILLIONAIRE to do that....  Emigration to Mars will be limited for the first few decades and only the highest paying will get a ticket.

And physics states that any internet packet leaving earth will have a latency of 180 seconds! at Mars' closest approach to earth.  Obviously any information you are viewing will need to be pre-cached on the Mars-net, or you'll have to wait a few minutes each time you click a link. 

Working on the B.
Still got quite a few decades to get there, as well as for the first Mars colonies to develop, so I'm not very concerned. And that's ignoring potential breakthroughs in longevity research.

I'm fine with 180 seconds delay since I'd be mostly interested in whatever replaces Youtube and shitposting/lurking by that time. Who knows what will happen decades from now though, as I have never seen any conclusive proof about light being the fastest possible transmission of information / upper speed limit. It's a natural consequence in the Mathematics of GR (one naturally emerging limit case), but that's ultimately just a model (with immensely great success) that clearly still has massive gaps that remain to be filled by future models.

[bulldogtattoo]

That was one of the best things I've ever watched while having breakfast!
Awesome!

[Vod]

as I have never seen any conclusive proof about light being the fastest possible transmission of information / upper speed limit.

Ah, you calling Einstein a little bitch eh?   

The running theory is that the speed of light is the limit in our universe.  We've even observed gravity waves moving out at the speed of light - but no faster.

Think about this for a second - if the speed of light is the absolute speed limit, then we will never meet alien life, nor we will colonize the galaxy.

Sobering thoughts.  :/

[BTCMILLIONAIRE]

Ah, you calling Einstein a little bitch eh?   

The running theory is that the speed of light is the limit in our universe.  We've even observed gravity waves moving out at the speed of light - but no faster.

Think about this for a second - if the speed of light is the absolute speed limit, then we will never meet alien life, nor we will colonize the galaxy.

Sobering thoughts.  :/

He was a nerd, of course he's a little bitch.

Jokes aside, while it's well possible that light is the end all be all upper speed limit, I still haven't seen anything that convinced me of that being the case. Heck, we're incapable of even really studying something like 95% of the "stuff" in our observable universe alone, and who knows how much is outside of it. Given from what I've learned from studying Mathematics I don't think that the universe could be in any way finite, so I'm expecting there to be an infinite amount of knowledge to be created in the future for as long as conscious beings exist. The "worst case" scenario would be that we're simply incapable of accessing superluminal speeds (as humans), but I would be quite surprised if they really weren't possible. Viability of practical applications aside, entanglement technically is one type of superluminal transmission of information that we know to exist.

As far as colonizing the galaxy goes. I don't have the exact numbers of the milky way in my head anymore, but wouldn't it be possible for humans to just go from planet to planet slowly if we were capable of moving around close to the speed of light? Galaxies other than the Milky Way would be a completely different story though. And that's ignoring the problem of the expansion of the universe, which drives "stuff" further away from us as time passes.

The sheer size of the universe makes it quite sobering to think of all the stuff that we might never experience if death turns out to be an actual end though. I'm already overloaded with things that I want to do just on earth alone right now, nevermind what will be possible in the near future.

[Vod]

As far as colonizing the galaxy goes. I don't have the exact numbers of the milky way in my head anymore, but wouldn't it be possible for humans to just go from planet to planet slowly if we were capable of moving around close to the speed of light?

You can't just jump to the speed of light.  You need to accelerate large amounts of mass to 99% the speed of light - it takes INCREDIBLE amounts of energy (E=MC^2 and we know what a large number C is).

Currently, the slowest form of propulsion, and the most fuel-efficient, is the ion engine.  For the first half of your journey you would be pressed into your seat by acceleration, then the second half you would be turned around and pressed into your seat by deceleration.  I guess we would probably need to be unconscious.

Proxima Centauri is the nearest star, and it is ONLY 4.24 light years away.

So if ionic propulsion were to be used for a mission to Proxima Centauri, the thrusters would need a huge source of energy production (i.e. nuclear power) and a large quantity of propellant (although still less than conventional rockets). But based on the assumption that a supply of 81.5 kg of xenon propellant translates into a maximum velocity of 56,000 km/hr (and that there are no other forms of propulsion available, such as a gravitational slingshot to accelerate it further), some calculations can be made.

In short, at a maximum velocity of 56,000 km/h, you would take over 81,000 years to traverse the 4.24 light years between Earth and Proxima Centauri. To put that time-scale into perspective, that would be over 2,700 human generations.

Our Galaxy is 980,000 light years across.  :/

[BTCMILLIONAIRE]

As far as colonizing the galaxy goes. I don't have the exact numbers of the milky way in my head anymore, but wouldn't it be possible for humans to just go from planet to planet slowly if we were capable of moving around close to the speed of light?

You can't just jump to the speed of light.  You need to accelerate large amounts of mass to 99% the speed of light - it takes INCREDIBLE amounts of energy (E=MC^2 and we know what a large number C is).

Currently, the slowest form of propulsion, and the most fuel-efficient, is the ion engine.  For the first half of your journey you would be pressed into your seat by acceleration, then the second half you would be turned around and pressed into your seat by deceleration.  I guess we would probably need to be unconscious.

Proxima Centauri is the nearest star, and it is ONLY 4.24 light years away.

So if ionic propulsion were to be used for a mission to Proxima Centauri, the thrusters would need a huge source of energy production (i.e. nuclear power) and a large quantity of propellant (although still less than conventional rockets). But based on the assumption that a supply of 81.5 kg of xenon propellant translates into a maximum velocity of 56,000 km/hr (and that there are no other forms of propulsion available, such as a gravitational slingshot to accelerate it further), some calculations can be made.

In short, at a maximum velocity of 56,000 km/h, you would take over 81,000 years to traverse the 4.24 light years between Earth and Proxima Centauri. To put that time-scale into perspective, that would be over 2,700 human generations.

Our Galaxy is 980,000 light years across.  :/

That would mean something like 2 million years at 50% the speed of light to get across. Let's be generous and overestimate to upwards of 10 million years to colonize whatever can be. That's virtually nothing compared to the time until a potential heat death, which may or may not even take place.

Without any means for teleportation/breaking the speed limit it would certainly require many generations of people to even get to every place that humans can settle in, but it's not impossible. And if humans don't get wiped out by themselves or some natural extinction kind of event, I don't see why we wouldn't end up colonizing the galaxy. In fact, it would seem inevitable to me if humans don't die out. Who knows if whatever reaches different places can still be called human though, the differences are bound to be quite drastic on those time scales. Communication would be pretty much nonexistant without superluminal transmission of information as well and a holiday trip across the galaxy won't be possible either, which makes the whole prospect at least as exciting as sobering.

As far as energy is concerned: https://ourworldindata.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/global-primary-energy-consumption-1800-2015-1.png
And we're still absolutely terrible at harnessing the energy output of the sun. Plus, if "uploading human consciousness" turns out to be possible, the amount of mass that would have to be sent through space could be drastically lowered. That would also allow for conscious travel, perhaps within a digital world. Although that would seem to make the whole endeavour redundant beyond climbing a mountain simply because it's there.

[Vod]

And if humans don't get wiped out by themselves or some natural extinction kind of event, I don't see why we wouldn't end up colonizing the galaxy. In fact, it would seem inevitable to me if humans don't die out.

By that logic, the galaxy should be partly colonized already by civilizations that have been around longer than we have.  We're orbiting a second generation star, so every being that evolved under the first generation stars should be billions of years ahead of us in technology, right?

[Vod]

We're orbiting a second generation star, so every being that evolved under the first generation stars should be billions of years ahead of us in technology, right?

Actually, that's faulty logic on my part....   First generation stars would have been created from nothing but Hydrogen and Helium.  There would be no planets.  The first generation stars would have created and distributed the heavy elements that form our planets and current sun via supernova.   So first generation stars could not have produced life.  :/

[BTCMILLIONAIRE]

By that logic, the galaxy should be partly colonized already by civilizations that have been around longer than we have.  We're orbiting a second generation star, so every being that evolved under the first generation stars should be billions of years ahead of us in technology, right?

That would require a civilization to actually have existed for a long enough time to be millions/billions of years ahead of us without having gone extinct. They would also have to exist in sufficient proximity of us.

Who knows how many galaxies (if any) are already partially or even fully colonized, but simply beyond our reach? We can only see as far as the light allows us to. And if the actual, rather than just the observable, universe is actually expanding faster than light that would make it virtually impossible to even attempt reaching some places. Given the potentially infinite size of the universe it seems potentially infinitely improbable for such a civilization not to exist in some place. But we know for fact that we haven't really seen shit yet. Maybe we got lucky and we're the first to get a shot, or maybe we're unlucky and just happened to be dropped in a place with nobody else close by.

[BTCMILLIONAIRE]

We're orbiting a second generation star, so every being that evolved under the first generation stars should be billions of years ahead of us in technology, right?

Actually, that's faulty logic on my part....   First generation stars would have been created from nothing but Hydrogen and Helium.  There would be no planets.  The first generation stars would have created and distributed the heavy elements that form our planets and current sun via supernova.   So first generation stars could not have produced life.  :/

I haven't studied astrophysics so I wouldn't know this. But that could be another potential reason for not seeing anybody around us.

[Raisa rahmi]

SpaceX successfully completed its test launch of the Falcon Heavy rocket. In typical Elon fashion, The simulated payload consisted on Elon Musk's own cherry red Tesla roadster with a dummy passenger (named Starman and wearing Tesla's spacesuit).
You gotta fucking love Elon.

The third booster hasn't been accounted for but they re-landed two of the boosters successfully. Its bloody epic to watch the live feed.

Guardian coverage: https://www.theguardian.com/science/live/2018/feb/06/spacex-falcon-heavy-launch-elon-musk-live-updates
Youtube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbSwFU6tY1c

Every Man, Woman and Child everywhere should watch this...

for me it was an amazing launch, the SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket successfully launched its newest rocket, Falcon Heavy. This success made SpaceX the company that transformed the space rocket business. SpaceX is led by billionaire Elon Musk who is currently staying digadang as the owner of the company's strongest rocket operations in the world. The WorldX's First Space Challenge Rockets Successfully landed Falcon Heavy airs on Tuesday, February 6 at 3:45 pm local time from Kennedy Space Center, in Cape Carnaveral, Florida. By using recycled rocket boosters, SpaceX packages cost rocket costs so it's cheaper. Before SpaceX implemented this way, the rocket launch company used a disposable thruster that always changed every mission

[Vod]

for me it was an amazing launch, the SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket successfully launched its newest rocket, Falcon Heavy. This success made SpaceX the company that transformed the space rocket business. SpaceX is led by billionaire Elon Musk who is currently staying digadang as the owner of the company's strongest rocket operations in the world. The WorldX's First Space Challenge Rockets Successfully landed Falcon Heavy airs on Tuesday, February 6 at 3:45 pm local time from Kennedy Space Center, in Cape Carnaveral, Florida. By using recycled rocket boosters, SpaceX packages cost rocket costs so it's cheaper. Before SpaceX implemented this way, the rocket launch company used a disposable thruster that always changed every mission

^ ^ ^ Garbage spammer that only reads the first post and comments with as many adjectives/adverbs as they can to boost their word count.  

And I was having such a nice conversation....

[Vod]

Who knows how many galaxies (if any) are already partially or even fully colonized, but simply beyond our reach? We can only see as far as the light allows us to. And if the actual, rather than just the observable, universe is actually expanding faster than light that would make it virtually impossible to even attempt reaching some places.

Why do we have to reach everywhere?  We only need to look nearby.  What if a civilization evolved a million years ahead of us (almost 100% probability when you look at the numbers) - they would be expanding and colonizing by now.  Why haven't we detected anything?

Possible answer:  Earth only broadcast into space for a little under a hundred years.  Now we are mostly digital - which does not send any radio waves into space.  If someone was looking for us, they would have to detect us in that timeframe.   So what are the chances we will detect another civilization via radio waves?

If humanity survives and goes out to the stars, I believe the first contact we will have with another life form is when we invade their planet with our colony vessels.  :/

[LeviTheFrog]

At least first car in space is low pollution. Elon is madman genius. You can say what you want about him, but you have to agree - he has the style.

[BTCMILLIONAIRE]

Why do we have to reach everywhere?  We only need to look nearby.  What if a civilization evolved a million years ahead of us (almost 100% probability when you look at the numbers) - they would be expanding and colonizing by now.  Why haven't we detected anything?

Possible answer:  Earth only broadcast into space for a little under a hundred years.  Now we are mostly digital - which does not send any radio waves into space.  If someone was looking for us, they would have to detect us in that timeframe.   So what are the chances we will detect another civilization via radio waves?

If humanity survives and goes out to the stars, I believe the first contact we will have with another life form is when we invade their planet with our colony vessels.  :/

We don't have to look everywhere, but as far as I'm aware we have looked virtually nowhere so far. I would also be cautious about assuming that radio waves would be used by such an advanced civilization. They could very well be using different frequencies. But that's overall an interesting point that I haven't really thought of yet.

What if we haven't found any other civilizations because they don't broadcast anything that we would search for into space? That combined with the tiny bit of universe that we have even attempted of exploring "in detail" so far further decreases the chances of finding anything.