Deep Space Questions Episode 7 - Rings Around Earth, Zero G Swimming and Soviet Space Planes

[@SundownMarkTwo]

Timestamps for topics: 00:20 Consequences of light-speed capable spacecraft 02:18 More thoughts about the Gateway Foundation and their project 03:49 Rockets making crackling/banging/clanging sounds 05:02 Soviets coming up with spaceplane designs on their own and the design of the Buran 08:39 What books are on Scott's bookshelf, and what does he recommend? 12:55 Orbex or Skrora, which Scottish rocket idea does Scott like the most? 13:43 Why is SpaceX not catching fairings anymore? 14:48 How would a human or a fish swim in microgravity? 16:51 Would a sufficiently large cloud of space dust/debris naturally form a ring? 19:08 Flight termination systems

[@dragovian]

We need more people like you

[@henryshadow7217]

You are a true internet hero

[@harbl99]

Value-added comment. Be like SundownMarkTwo.

[@JoeMckeownMedia]

This guy ∆∆. The guy we all look for. You're the man.

[@MrRolnicek]

There are 2 requirements for a good explosive: 1. It's hard to detonate 2. It detonates hard.

[@K1lostream]

Does an explosive detonate? I thought explosions and detonations were different things? Not sure on the exact difference but I think it's something to do with the speed of the shock wave being slower (explosion) or faster (detonation) than some other thing. I'm ready to be wrong as I'm not really sure, but I think I remember hearing something along those lines.

[@MrRolnicek]

@@K1lostream Yes, all good explosives detonate and yes you're correct that there is a difference between detonation and explosion. Detonation is when the flamefront travels faster than the speed of sound in that particular medium if I remember correctly.

[@progmetalfan4270]

@@K1lostream explosion is a blanket term that covers ‘Detonation’ and ‘Deflagration’. Detonation generates a supersonic flame front, whereas deflagration is strictly subsonic. Both are explosions, so a detonation is an explosion, but an explosion isn’t always a detonation

[@K1lostream]

@@progmetalfan4270 Sums it up nicely! Thank you.

[@star.watchersteven3255]

The world needs more Educators like Scott Manley so much knowledge in such a short period of time you rock Scott thank you starwatcher

[@lancelotlake7609]

I know... let's put him on a rocket around the moon and let him teach us about it?

[@lordbored2706]

Fly safe Steven!

[@johnqpublic2718]

What about “so much knowledge?” So much knowledge is presented? So much knowledge is shared in such a short period of time? Why do so many native English speakers feel the need to omit key parts of speech? Is the sentence a dying structure?

[@guillermoelnino]

its a shame youtube is creeping ever closer to just being a repository of babysitting videos and globalist propaganda. 5 years from now fun videos like this will be copywrite claimed to hell.

[@RaySiu]

Lmao

[@arinharden8718]

It's really cool how you helped with the skies of pern. My mom read them to me before bed. The dragon riders of pern is the book series that gave me a passion for reading. It's so cool to know one of my favorite youtubers also helped in a small way

[@Mike-oz4cv]

The book series was a huge disappointment.

[@Xanthanarium]

One of my favorite memories of my dad is him reading Dragonriders books to me while we were waiting for the school bus in the morning.

[@arinharden8718]

@@Mike-oz4cv how so? Are you talking about what her kid wrote?

[@Mike-oz4cv]

@@arinharden8718 I liked the overall stories but the characters were just sooo dumb and I hated all of them.

[@jerryshobbies8224]

@@Mike-oz4cv As a pre-High School kid, I loved her books. By the time I got to collage, I realized she used the same basic character arc for most all her main characters (poor kid that turns out to be the best ever at their skill). Overall story and story telling is great, though. McCaffery was YA before YA was cool.

[@rodneytrotter2643]

The most important question is. Why is it when ever I take my telescope out on a clear dark night. The minute it is set up a thick cloud cover appears fron nowhere?

[@tedthetreertc1219]

The dark night is rolling out their curtains for some privacy

[@animo9050]

Questions science cannot answer (yet)

[@Error_404-F.cks_Not_Found]

Because mother nature is a spiteful bitch with a terrible sense of humor. Lol

[@BnORailFan]

Just like someone who wants to play golf can make it rain during a drought!

[@TheZoltan-42]

The _real_ question is: What drives you to take out that telescope on clean nights when there is a big cloud already approaching and not on the ones that stay clear?

[@sproctor1958]

22:06 I watched this launch from my front yard about 90 miles NW of the Cape. When the Falcon 9 pitched over, the engines were pointed straight towards me... I watched and waited, and counted off the seconds... several minutes later I heard my first Falcon 9 rocket. No other launch corridor points the business end in my direction.

[@BnORailFan]

My mother was a prolific science fiction book reader and her absolute favorite series was The Dragonriders of Pern. She got me hooked on them and I listened to all 24 audiobooks twice! That's so cool that you helped out with that one book.

[@Hansengineering]

Regarding crackling from rocket exhaust: You get the same sounds from turbofans in afterburn. Since December I have been working at SpaceX in Texas, and I had hands on 9-15. I was also present for and videoed the launches. Previously, I have stood about 20' off the side of the main runway in Balad for more than one combat take-off of F16s. You see, we were out there to launch and recover our RQ-5A UAV, which uses arresting gear to brake, external pilots to take off and land (back then), and a ground crew to control and steer it for all ground operations. So when you're waiting for one of your planes in pattern, and some F16s need to go, you're literally RIGHT THERE! Same sound, like the air itself is ripping open.

[@SpicyTrifongo]

Seems like the rocket sound is a bit more dramatic than a jet in full burner, but it very well could be the same physics.

[@loganmpe7559]

@@SpicyTrifongo It is. The continuous pressure wave of the supersonic gases randomly attenuated by the variable pressure environment in the local atmosphere.

[@JoeySchmidt74]

I thought it was that rockets aren't continuously thrusting. I remember watching a documentary about Space Shuttle launches in super slow motion, which shows the craft rising and slightly falling. They explained it as '6 to 7 explosions per second', which is about the same number of crackles per second. Could be miles off, I'm not claiming any expertise on this subject.

[@Hansengineering]

@@JoeySchmidt74 rockets are definitely producing continuous thrust. The deflagration is continuous.

[@jimsvideos7201]

Those pesky high-energy blasts of high energy 😁

[@scottmanley]

Worth a High Energy Comment?

[@CantankerousDave]

Reminds me of the “Relativistic Baseball” XKCD comic.

[@goupigoupi6953]

Earth definitely has a very coarse ring, called the Moon.

[@whitslack]

There's a great scene in the movie "Passengers" where one of the protagonists is swimming in a pool on a space cruise ship when it loses its artificial gravity. She nearly drowns because no matter which direction she swims, the big water blob that she's inside always redistributes itself around her evenly. I've thought a lot about that scene and whether the physics really check out. Not so sure they do, but I agree with Scott Manley in that the surface tension would be really tough to break through.

[@noop9k]

This is absolutely unrealistic

[@SocialDownclimber]

Getting to the surface of the pool would be pretty easy, as any water you push in one direction would propel you in the other via the reactive force. The hard part would be getting rid of the water sticking to your face. Wiping with hands would kinda work but a nice hair flick would be best.

[@noop9k]

@Rob Bannstrom What will happen, I believe, is that: * You will move within the big water blob and it will of course not chase you. Water is heavy and you pushed it back and it will continue moving back for a while. * The bubble will break into lots of smaller ones very easily even before you reach the edge, because surface tension is minuscule at this scale and your movements will break it apart. * You will likely end up in a cloud of water droplets of random sizes and inhale many, will still be dangerous and unpleasant, but probably not deadly.

[@zigmar7]

Thanks for bringing Ian M Banks into the spotlight. I think he is one of the best sci-fi authors ever and deserves much better recognition among general audience.

[@bennybooboobear3940]

The crackling sound of rocket engines sounds like an old suitcase rolling on a bumpy floor. It’s so satisfying.

[@_KillerD_]

BRRRBRBRBBRRRR

[@haydentravis3348]

This is the kind of absurd realism I need in my takes.

[@bennybooboobear3940]

@L Train45 yeah old suitcases, those are 20 years old

[@brumby92]

Or ripping linoleum flooring.

[@bradallen1832]

Oh so the Raptor engines don't sound sick compared to other rockets?

[@IrreversibleExtents]

I've been reading books by astronauts recently, and Chris Hadfield's "An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth" is so good. Definitely 10/10 for me.

[@rogeramjet100]

The crackling sound comes from the 'collapse' of sound waves. Sound waves are a pressure fluctuation, which through the ideal gas law also causes a temperature fluctuation, which in turn causes a fluctuation in the local speed of sound. For every-day low level noises this effect is negligible. But for very loud noises heard at long distances away the high pressure/temperature/speed part of the wave will catch up with the low pressure/temperature/speed part forming weak shock discontinuities, which sound like crackling.

[@HiroNguy]

"There is a certain amount of Bor-owing...." 😄😄😄 IC Watt you did there!

[@paulmichaelfreedman8334]

Wow. 24 minutes. Scotty you are pampering us! And my GF loves your voice and accent. Cheers from the Netherlands!

[@tristanjillings5]

I started watching just now from the netherlands aswell :)

[@rienparhan7346]

His presentation at ESTEC in the Netherlands during the last ESA Open Day before the pandemic. Hopefully we can have some fun at ESTEC again next year once everyone is vaccinated. They should definitely invite Scott again!

[@nathanhobson1142]

Matter. Not Banks' most high brow culture story, but pure, delicious poetry of a novel throughout. Every paragraph is exquisite prose.

[@SubZeroCommander]

So many books I still want to read from him, RIP gone too soon.

[@geroffmilan3328]

I can't pick one. Each is awesome-sauce. Wish you weren't gone, Iain.

[@ericvulgate]

i love how the laws of physics constrain what shape a shuttle is- it reminds me a lot of convergent evolution, and how physics dictate what shapes of animal will be successful in any specific niche.

[@jwenting]

Lifting body would work as well, see Venturestar. But I'm not sure how it'd compare when it comes to cross range capability for atmospheric flight.

[@shawnpitman876]

Yes, isn't it interesting how all paths of evolution lead to crab?

[@doriWyo]

Michael Collins CARRYING THE FIRE is an absolute favorite of mine!

[@michaeldunne338]

An excellent book.

[@doriWyo]

He just recently passed away at age 90.

[@djerickson8239]

Yet another Scott Manley video that's good enough to watch while eating food

[@rogerstone3068]

...but you end up with a cold dinner to finish.

[@Graham_Rule]

No mention of the copy "Numerical Recipes" in your bookshelf. I was hoping to hear your comparison of the C, Fortran, and Pascal editions. :)

[@arctic_haze]

I can tell you mine: C > Pascal > Fortran

[@tubularap]

0:10 - Scott Manley: "Your questions are months old, but my answers are always fresh."

[@jackeyboy6538]

Bars

[@salvatoreshiggerino6810]

13:16 I guess that makes it a propane accessory

[@TheTrueOneSheep]

Two of my favorite books mentioned by Scott? (The Algebraist and Excession) This video made my day. Thanks, Scott

[@omniskop]

21:49 The falcon knows where it is at all times. By subtracting where it is and where it shouldn't be it obtains a difference, or deviation. The Flight Termination System uses deviations to generate termination commands, to drive the rocket from a position where it shouldn't be to a state where it isn't anymore.

[@bennybooboobear3940]

By subtracting you mean comparing? Subtracting is how the german missle(v-8?) worked

[@TheZoltan-42]

It's not that simple to make a decision. An instantaneous termination may leave the rocket (and debris) on a ballistic trajectory that ned on an Island in the Florida/Cuba region.

[@omniskop]

If you don’t know the reference look up “The Missile Knows Where It Is” it’s great :D

[@OG1813]

can’t believe no one got it

[@bennybooboobear3940]

@@OG1813 oh it’s a joke lmao

[@nighthawk9264]

The bit about SpaceX FTS reminds me a lot of „the missile knows where it is“

[@loganmpe7559]

_"Dragon Riders of Pern!"_ FANTASTIC bro! I absolutely love the entire series! Been a few years but I guess now I'll have to read them all again!

[@gregzsidisin]

Thanks so much for those answers. Good point about later US space planes "borrowing" from Soviet designs. (Oh, and no worries on the last name. I pronounce it as "citizen". :) )

[@jackalexandroff4550]

That tribute to Iain m banks was a beautiful thing to hear. Thank you. I Miss that man so much. I owe him more of my moral compass than I'd care to admit. My favourite is look to windward, my first. It's a surprising tender book. ❤️

[@NotHonkyTonk]

Riding Rockets is the best astronaut memoir out there. Mike Mullane has an incredible perspective on the space program and is a very captivating writer.

[@Spykersan]

Man, I'm super jelly that you have those Dragonrider books. Have been a fan of the series for many years and that's great that you got the chance to be a part of them!

[@cliff4377]

OMG Thank You!! The skys of pern, loved the accuracy, thank you for helping out!!!

[@KaedennYT]

Please do a full video on flight termination systems! I've always been fascinated by the flashier safety systems and never really understood how they worked.

[@UweKlosa]

I fully agree with you about Ian M Banks and Ian Banks books. They are more than fantastic.

[@Hiker58]

Great job and a thumbs up in walking through the swimming in Zero-G question! Nothing worse than getting water up the nose.

[@stevenson720]

Surface detail is amazing.

[@richierescue]

Dude, SO happy to see Iain M Banks getting props. He has his haters but they are, hands down, my favorite sci-fi novels.

[@AllanAlach]

Excellent - keep these question/answer sessions coming

[@tomhill4617]

I know SpaceX changed a lot, but my understanding was that early flight termination systems were a signal constantly being sent to the booster saying "Don't blow up." The button pushed on the ground actually stopped that signal.

[@andersjjensen]

Would be great if some bonehead with a radio license had the wrong crystal in and needed to test it :P

[@kcouche]

Carrying the Fire is THE best of the Mercury-Apollo eras astronaut books. A must read.

[@Opusss]

I love when the fandoms I am extremely passionate about collide. It warms my heart that you worked with Anne McCaffrey. It is a really long story but I discovered her when I was a younger (not so wise) man and spent a weekend in jail. The Ship Who Sang was on the book cart, I snatched it up enthusiastically and fell in love with Anne's writing.

[@DarthAce0048]

Hey Scott, you should do a whole video on Flight Termination Systems!

[@brooklynfirewolf]

I

[@frankgulla2335]

Fascinating, as usual. You do some stuff and reveal it in an interesting manner.

[@homo-sapiens-dubium]

The best thing to see at 12am, thanks a lot scott!

[@ftldesignbureau7891]

12pm for me but still good

[@ftldesignbureau7891]

@PMP England

[@Termuellinator]

Fully agree to Ian Banks being an absolute must have!

[@andrewwmitchell]

Love and fully support your strong plug for Iain M. Banks' books. I've read them all multiple times. And Iain Banks fiction as well.

[@milolouis]

Brilliant again!! My dad will love this. I've been told the Ian banks Ian M banks thing before as I thought he was a contemporary writer but I'm sci-fi through and through.

[@agluebottle]

Omg I'm rereading the Pern books now! That's amazing Scott worked on the last one.

[@torstenziegler4826]

I love you talking what is popping up in your brain!

[@caldodge]

Berger's "Liftoff" is awesome.

[@TallinuTV]

Scott, it's really awesome to find out that you helped Anne McCaffrey with the Skies of Pern! I've read every one of the series, starting when I was a kid. They (among many others) really helped fuel my love of science fiction!

[@richw0123]

wow, the diagram of the rocket plume at 4.52 looks just like what I saw when I was standing outside my house and bolt of lightning hit the garden fence! I happened to be looking directly at it from about 30 meters, and I have never forgotten the image of it. Until now I have never seen anything that looked remotely like it.

[@araflohd]

Of course, the only true FTS is spamming spacebar.

[@geneticdisorder1900]

Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time ! Is an awesome series, very long, but awesome !!!

[@hygri]

Yes!!! Excession is my favourite... book? Perhaps? Probably?

[@waedi73]

Great show ! The shower in the space station is very fascinating for me, would be awesome to see it in action !

[@tybo09]

Carrying the Fire is great. I also recommend Craig Nelson's "Rocket Men" and, of course John Clark's "Ignition"

[@ckdigitaltheqof6th210]

At 05:00, thr crackling sound, is the result of the flare thrust taking a spiral wave formation, as it becomes a more amp radiation wave transitioning between the cone and colder outside temperatures, as every form of energy takes a spiral motion, even the body dna.

[@kenhelmers2603]

Very cool a signed copy of a PERN book! Anne McCaffrey is one of my all time favorite authors. I too have them all :) I'll re-read them and look for your work!

[@TycoonMK]

ty scott, nice explayning, ty

[@TerrySmith1953]

Loved all the Pern books! And Iain Banks😀

[@legowerewolf]

I'd seen the Dragonriders books in previous episodes, but I had no idea you were involved with The Skies of Pern. That's awesome.

[@Keano70a]

Thanks Scottt.

[@Ansset0]

Pern saga... I just love it. And have for the last 30 years. One of my first "adult" books. This and Ender's Game. Xmas gift 1991. I was a bit over 8 yo then.. a lot of memories.

[@ernestglum7688]

Ian Banks was brilliant, "Feersum Endginn" blew my mind and remains my favourite.

[@peterkuti95]

I suggest reading Larry Niven. His short stories and books cover everything from "The theory and practice of teleportation", to cross-time travel, to ringworlds, and most things in between. His universe "officially" (if you count the cartoon series) includes the Star Trek universe, and has inspired many other creators. Some of the science may be dated (The core of our galaxy isn't exploding, and the ringworld is inherently unstable, as well as requiring a sort of unobtanium (Scrith) for the base of the ring, but the stories are still engaging. Enjoy!

[@atheldown]

I'm not sure why I wasn't subscribed before, but the fact that you have Dragon Riders of Pern books on your bookshelf got you the thumbs up and sub!

[@AL3NOD1]

Me and my friend are young space enthusiasts we enjoy your content and help feed our questions and curious minds

[@quaidbergo]

"Riding Rockets", excellent book.

[@kennedymcleod1479]

Great Scott. Fascinating !!! : )

[@thundercactus]

The Buran thing makes perfect sense. Or rather, it makes no sense for the Soviets to have just *built* a space shuttle (close to the US format) independently. Because the Soviets were already doing everything that the space shuttle was being used for, *without having a space shuttle*. Mir has halfway through being built before Buran was test flown. Hundreds of Zenit spy satellites were being recovered from space. And Soyuz was very cost effective at putting cosmonauts into space. So other than for the express purpose of just showing the US they, too were capable of building a shuttle, it really made no sense as to why they *thought* they may have needed that capability. And the way they went about designing the launch system made even LESS sense shuttle-wise, but far more sense if you consider the fact they *realized* they didn't need a shuttle. The US shuttle *IS* the primary engine of the launch system. But with Buran, they launched it on Energia. Energia doens't need Buran to launch. It is a superheavy lift platform in its own right. And so even had they continued developing Buran, it's unlikely they would have used it for any really practical purpose, aside from just propaganda. They'd be able to launch 100t instead of just 20t to LEO. And unless they were sending up a dozen cosmonauts at a time, they could just launch one or two soyuz rockets to crew up a large single-launch space station.

[@southernbear736]

My understanding for Buran is that the US Government never really considered the Space Shuttle to be a classified vehicle. As such it is my understanding that the USSR just downloaded the schematics which pushed their development time ahead by an estimated 5 years due to this information.

[@macjonte]

I see more use of rotating space stations. People living on them, a central hub for the on location space economy. Where you drop off mined resources, refuel space crafts not intended for atmosphere, place to stay but working elsewhere such in mining, space manufacturing or zero G labs.I also see the use case where you put an engine on there for long duration missions, maybe mars before we have nuclear propulsion, asteroid belt, or where you don’t yet know the destination. But unknown destinations is not within this generation. I really wish them the best of luck - good compliment to spacex launches to focus on in space manufacturing.

[@Musikur]

I think what Scott is saying is that the use-cases you describe seem currently like they are a very long way off, and it will be decades before this is necessary

[@macjonte]

@@Musikur Maybe. But it could also create a market that doesn’t exist.

[@danielburges8176]

Absolutely agree with you on Iain M Banks - amazing author, the Culture novels are mind-blowing.

[@recurvestickerdragon]

The missile knows where it is at all times. It knows this because it knows where it isn't. By subtracting where it is from where it isn't, Or where it isn't from where it is (whichever is Greater), it obtains a difference, or deviation.

[@ryanwaege7251]

Read a bunch of Pern novels as a kid, so cool you got to work with Anne! Love the Culture books as well! I'll never get sick of Falcon booster stages landing on Of Course I Still Love You.

[@lebowski_dude]

Excession was the first Banks novel I read and still my favourite to this day. I think anyone familiar with other sci-fi works won't have a problem with it. Against A Dark Background is another favourite - truly imaginative and the band of solipsists is genius 😂

[@etelmo]

In regards to how a faster than light ship might appear to an observer, the best analogue that helped me wrap my head around it was visualising the sound waves generated by a supersonic plane. If said plane is only just breaking the sound barrier it will be silent as it comes towards you, then as it passes all of the sound it previously generated reaches you in the same instant in a sonic boom... followed by the sustained noise of it travelling away from you. If the plane is travelling significantly faster than the speed of sound there's still nothing until the boom, but the sustained sound after it passes will seem to retreat further away in both directions (where it came from, and where it went). Now imagine that it's light instead of sound, if it was moving at exactly the speed of light you wouldn't see the ship coming towards you until suddenly all of it's previous path appeared in the same (blinding) instant before it continued on it's path; and if it was travelling much faster than light it would appear to get further away in the direction it came from as well as the direction it was going (similar to how the sound of a plane behaves). ...but that's also ignoring doppler shift, mainly because I'm not entirely certain how it would work (I suspect the blueshift of something that fast would result in some pretty nasty xrays, and the red would make it hard to observe at all, but that's just a guess).

[@jaredccain]

Thanks for the information.

[@elfenmagix8173]

So to be an astronaut, one mist be hairy? **looks at bald chest** There goes that career choice!

[@tousifzaman9392]

Stop shaving chest, if you do that I mean xD

[@igorsmihailovs52]

But! At the same time, it increases Your chances to get working in a cleanroom!

[@blendpinexus1416]

i never ask a question. but i always learn something cool from those asking. keep up the series

[@mildpandemic3944]

I’m re-reading Excession right now! Banks is utterly superb.

[@YouChoiskee]

I read The Wasp Factory and Consider Phlebas when they were first published. One of my favorite authors, Rest in Peace.

[@michaelbond569]

Also, you should do an entire video on just flight termination systems. I could easily see you making one that's 1+hrs long and it still be riveting til the very end

[@Freerider19]

WoW knowing that you helped with The Skies of Pern... you are so much cooler now.

[@caconym358]

+1 for Against a Dark Background. It never seems to get a mention when Banks comes up, but it's one of my favorites of his.

[@richard--s]

Why do I get hungry when I see lunch companies mentioned in a user question? I don't know ;-) Have fun! And many thanks for your great videos with lots of insights and lots of information! And many thanks to all users with such great questions!

[@WillArtie]

Excessive was my first Ian M Banks read! Got through it, loved it immensely, but had to skip back pages all the time!

[@enoughmonster2886]

Every space video I see so special never get I enough to take in. Simple days I watch and listen to music I like imagine me travel the space. New band too and legend like the deltaparole tool foofighters nirvana and other.

[@NewAgeDIY]

Great video today. So much to take in! Thanks for your suggestion. I’m Now reading EXCESSION using Apple’s BOOKS. They have a his complete library available.

[@MichaelOfRohan]

The crackeling is sonic booms from the tail end of the exhaust stream. You dont hear shock diamonds because they cancel out, thata why they exist. But when its running efficiently, the tail end is supersonic.

[@CraigLYoung]

Thanks for sharing!

[@jpslayermayor9293]

The gateway project could also become relevant when commercial mining in space ( on the moon or asteroids etc) for which an intermediate station would be needed associated with large numbers of people involved as well as transfer of materials.

[@pebmets]

New Sub. Love your videos. Also love the model of the space shuttle behind you.

[@Gameblord]

Frickin love Dragonriders, havn't read them in ages tho and Excession is my favourite Iain M Banks book mainly due to the sparkling repartee between the Minds :)

[@markmcculfor6113]

These videos are getting longer and I love it! Keep it up!

[@larsla]

Ian M. Banks Culture novels series was the first sci-fi series I read and got me hooked. My favorite is also Excession! Also good: everything by Peter F Hamilton, Alastair Reynolds and Ann Leckie

[@Willco5114]

Fun and informative. Many thanks.