The Power of Magnets And Lasers - In Space! Deep Space Questions 18

[@Vodhin]

You get a thumbs up just for going in deep on Ballistic Re-entry Turkey Cooking.

[@BobStein]

He really gobbled that up.

[@JaskoonerSingh]

that is a classic. someone will have to do the equations

[@Petteri82]

I'm thinking the turkey needs to be orbital instead of ballistic to achieve the necessary slow spiraling needed for even cooking. Don't want your space turkey to be halfway done.

[@mikldude9376]

That question was such a turkey !

[@trig]

Now I need to know about Ballistic Re-entry Turkey Basting.

[@glennpearson9348]

Leave it to Scott Manley to address the ages old problem of how to cook a turkey using a decaying orbit with a straight face. Well done, Scott. Made me laugh.

[@eddjordan2399]

i think you need a antipodal turkey

[@radioactive9861]

Straight up!...or should I say 'Straight down', because what good is a cooked turkey if it goes up into space and not down to me for my Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner?

[@dragonatorul]

Leaving aside the absurdity of the levels of impracticality it implies, it is a very good and legitimate engineering question. You have an achievable goal of harnessing a source of power to use it in a well defined system, with well known properties, while working around its well established limitations. You could replace the turkey with a thermo-dynamic generator, like a Sterling engine, but where's the fun in that?

[@glennpearson9348]

@@dragonatorul Plus, thermodynamic generator tends to cook very dry and makes me even sleepier than the tryptophan in turkey.

[@delurkor]

We are into Randall Munroe's "How to" book territory now.

[@redtulip1990]

Regarding JWST visibility from Earth: A friend of mine imaged JWST a couple of times using a 16-inch Dobsonian(with GoTo) and an astro camera, he even recorded its movement across the sky. It was ca. 15-16mag, at one occasion even 13mag(yes, there are flares) So, it's possible to observe JWST with amateur-available equipment.

[@zapfanzapfan]

Cool!

[@rebsredone450]

Although a 16 inch light bucket still rates as amateur equipment, it isn’t really something that your average amateur has in his back yard, I daresay. Admittedly, I am jealous ;-). SkySafari Pro has the JWST in it‘s database. So NP finding it, if you are using a go to mount.

[@redtulip1990]

@@rebsredone450 Haha I know, it's definitely pushing the limit of "amateur" xD It's a beast of a telescope, actually.

[@oadka]

could you share links to your friend's work, if possible?

[@onebylandtwoifbysearunifby5475]

What backyard astronomer doesn't have a 16" mirror in their telescope? Totally normal.

[@jmanEOS17]

Clicked for the lasers, stayed for the orbital mechanic turkey cooking tips. Thanks for the great video

[@mdbssn]

What about a turkey reentry that just relied on thermal mass to get the cooking done - encase the bird in a thick ceramic vessel, drop it through the atmosphere to heat it well beyond needed cooking temperature, then rely on the slow propagation of heat to the center and the long cool down time to even out the heating to a nice long time cooking temperature. With the right vessel and approach, you could probably get the total energy into the system pretty controllable, so then you just need to model it to get your temperature profile. There's a billion dollar business here - if dumping a billion dollars in R&D and suborbital flight for a novelty product counts as a billion dollar business.

[@gruisman]

*This dude is the first one to create a space cooking channel for sure*

[@ARWest-bp4yb]

Martha Stewart is taking notes!

[@austin5060]

Imagine the light show on Thanksgiving with thousands of those falling through the atmosphere directly into people's front yards for dinner

[@xxSWxxNINJA]

The charring effect may then actually result in an ablative heatshield combined with the low mass to surface area of the turkey it might actually survive... whether the middle will be cooked is another matter.

[@Relkond]

@@xxSWxxNINJA maybe include some water mass with the turkey - properly designed, I think you might be able to use it as propellant to extend time in the oven , er, upper atmosphere, and use the quantity of water to fine tune how much energy the turkey has to dump before landing.

[@thanksfernuthin]

"It's easy to fly a first stage and have it fly back." Imagine how outrageous that concept was 50 years ago. Amazing.

[@mortisCZ]

It was quite ourtageous 15 years ago. ;-)

[@richardmattocks]

They should send a HUUUUUGE magnet (probably a nuclear powered electro-one with ACME written on the side) to Mars, then a rocket could just be pulled there by mounting a big lump of metal on its nose. 😁

[@erichimmelblau877]

The inverse square law puts a real damper on your cool idea.

[@wtpauley]

But only if the Coyote is the pilot/astronaut

[@volvo09]

Till aliens pull up and deploy a big retractable 🧲 magnet and steal the rocket.

[@richardmattocks]

@@wtpauley 😁 … and the magnet staffed by Marvin The Martian 😎

[@evilkittyofdoom195]

Use giant fishing rod ...

[@PH-G]

I was able to take a picture of JWST through a 3.5m telescope and it wasn't too hard to find in the image so it's definitely possible!

[@nickhardy9651]

A 3.5 meter telescope is not exactly amateur. ;) I got it with my 8 inch sct too.

[@richardaitkenhead]

You have took a picture of jwst in space, recently?

[@YossiRafelson]

I assume this would have been near full moon

[@AnthemAnimation]

Taking a picture of a telescope with a telescope… the tables have turned

[@nickhardy9651]

@@richardaitkenhead About a month ago.

[@MrAlpacabreeder]

I photographed JWST just as it got to its final position. Used a 200mm Celestron. Very easy to pick it out from the stars due to relative motion making it appear to move fairly quickly across the background stars.

[@seldoon_nemar]

you could also just rely on mass to protect and cook the turkey. i was thinking more along the lines of several inches of aluminum like a big pot. that way it'll absorb a lot of heat during a re-entry and as long as you give it 2 hours or something, it'll cook it fine. i figure between parachute time, recovery and transport back to the dining room, it's probobly 2-3 hours after the actual event. it'll be a hell of a presentation at thanksgiving too, bringing in this big flow formed hunk of aluminium and extracting a cooked turkey from it

[@TheZoltan-42]

Some notes on the ground based telescopes vs space telescopes: Even with radically lower launch prices, there are a couple of factors that will keep ground based telescopes around. A few from the top of my head: - Repairing things in space is still expensive, risky, slow etc. - A space telescope needs everything it will ever need on it and fully automated. e.g. you can't just replace a filter with a new one just because for some photography you need it. (Or, as Scott also mentioned, you can't just upgrade some replaceable component.) - Space telescopes need a lot of additional infrastructure. e.g.: Ground control, tracking. Unless it's geostationary, you need global coverage. To keep these you need constant crew, infra and operational costs. You can't just close the dome for a few months and go down to lower costs. - Building a space telescope is a way more difficult technical challenge and the entry poses a much higher bar. - There are cases when you don't need that level of clarity that can only be achieved from space. The point where we may see a more radical drop is when placing telescopes on the Moon with human bases next door will become "cheap". That way, physicists and engineers can be within reach to hop into a suit and make changes. I'm obviously only talking about high-end astronomy, and not things like amateur/public/university/etc telescopes.

[@andrewfleenor7459]

Nah, the moon telescopes will be integrated into the bases, and basically everything except for the optical path will be T-shirt conditions. :)

[@TheZoltan-42]

@@andrewfleenor7459 Which means you will still have to hop into a suit to service it. Building a human rated sealable dome over a giant telescope for the occasional service activities is not feasible. The easy part is that the telescope can be next to the base. (For optical telescopes.)

[@Kualinar]

For the orbital turkey : Have metallic spikes driven through the whole turkey to carry the heat inside faster. About 30 to 40 should be enough. A distinct problem with using a tether interacting with a magnetic field as a power source is that you are essentially transforming your velocity into electrical power. This will cause your orbit to decay much faster.

[@petera.schneider2140]

One of the Turkey spikes should be the meat thermometer so that we can be sure it has reached 165° F on the inside :-).

[@leeoflincoln7062]

Hi Scott, Just want you to know how much I enjoy these postings of yours. With so much bad news and mindless celebrities in mainstream media, it’s great to see your enthusiasm, knowledge and clear intellect. Please keep posting.

[@jedigramps5402]

Thanks. I was able to understand most of that with my 40 year old 2 year degree. Kudos to you!!👍👍

[@ianegfp]

When I saw the ring-shaped shroud/cowl in the diagram for the Lightcraft concept, my first thought was, Why not have a superconducting current looping around in it? After all, they are an excellent source of energy and space is very cold. Kudos to you Scott, for keeping a straight face throughout the turkey presentation! As for me, I laughed during the entire delivery. Thank you; I needed that!

[@alexlandherr]

Now I want to see a cooking show all about that turkey idea…

[@SarahKchannel]

if Mythbusters where still around....

[@samuraidriver4x4]

Its amazing how he could talk about it with a straight face😂

[@danielhmorgan]

I love this idea. Make it an R&D competition.

[@Skorpychan]

That's actually a great idea.

[@SimonShaws]

Swedish Chef could do it with Professor Bunsen.

[@NormReitzel]

A really nice use for Rutherford-sized turbopumps is to feed the fuel and oxidizer to the gas generator for the turbopumps. It provides easy (asand deep) throttle ability on the main engines, and no (heavy) compressed gas cylinders toi start things up.

[@WWIflyingace62]

Certainly cheaper than helium.

[@TheStormpilgrim]

Butterball 1 was the first mission of the BASTER (Baking and Serving Turkeys Enduring Re-entry) program. The drop was within parameters and the telemetry was nominal during re-entry, with core temperature reaching target. Unfortunately, a pyro failed at chute deploy leading to minimal deployment of the parachute and an unacceptably energetic impact in the ocean several miles from Gravy Boat. The capsule was retrieved and inspected. There was a crack in the ceramic casing, from which steam was seen venting. A sloshing sound was heard when the capsule was moved, suggesting considerable loss of payload integrity. The capsule was opened and the contents were transferred to a roasting pan for analysis. While the failed landing was disappointing, it was actually serendipitous because the impact resulted in partial liquefaction and nearly complete deboning, and combined with the infiltration of a small amount of salt water, created a very tasty and easy to eat soup. For Butterball 2, we intend to rectify the parachute problem, but we now know how to make mashed potatoes and giblet gravy. We may undertake an additional program, proposed as "When Pigs Fly," for ham, provided we can secure funding.

[@ianegfp]

This is hilarious! Thank you!

[@adamdapatsfan]

Magnetotails are one of my favorite concepts - "it's free real estate"! ... except, obviously, it's rather expensive. But the physics are free!

[@davidetamborrini9514]

"The energy is there. The kinetic energy for a turkey at orbital velocity is more than enough to cook a turkey perfectly." This should be the motto for the channel.

[@SpecialEDy]

Astra's goal is to have their rockets fit entirely into standard modular shipping containers. Then you can assemble the rocket almost anywhere and ship it almost anywhere to launch.

[@johndododoe1411]

Launch anywhere is problematic for missile technology, because world peace depends heavily on promising countries that none of their potential enemies have rockets able to reach their capital in less than a certain number of minutes. Recently, one country has been sufficiently nervous about this issue that they invaded a neutral country planning to join another alliance.

[@asynchronous_man]

That made me think again in the modular rockets concept, just the structural problem....but anyway..

[@AllisterCaine]

@@johndododoe1411 no, Russia didn't feel threatened by nato, it was just a sad excuse for their imperialist ambitions.

[@johndododoe1411]

@@AllisterCaine They looked at Europe as a giant chessboard, realized that everything except Ukraine was lost and decided to go on the offensive. However, the rocket placement aspect includes not just country neutrality but also placement of very visible launch sites. Hence the Cuban missile crisis in the 1960s and European missile debates in the 1980s. Submarine launched nuclear rockets can't get closer than the nearest coast (so Washington DC is too close to the Atlantic, Chicago is too close to Hudson Bay, while Kansas provides some additional flight time to identify incoming missiles and respond).

[@armr6937]

@@johndododoe1411 Trident II SLBMs have an 8000km range. They give zero fucks about the coast and there's a lot of them out there. Regarding Ukraine... I think many US politicians (the Democrats to be specific) fucked around aplenty over there. The build-up has been palpable, from the Obama-era regime change (the Maidan Revolution) to all the declarations made about Russian meddling in the 2016 US elections... Vlad could only do one thing to save face and it'll probably mean his demise. If it's Imperialism, it's of the Western kind.

[@unclebobsbees4899]

The tether over produced and started to melt the mounting in the Shuttle. It was damaged too much to retract. The commander went and manually ejected the experiment.

[@lorenzoboyd6889]

7:30 - Reminds me of the turkey recipe in 'Home for the Holidays'.

[@revertfpv2928]

I love that fully scientific answer to cooking turkey question

[@Jason608]

My turkey re-entry-baking solution: Turkey is encapsulated in an oven protected by heat shield. Heat shield has heat pipe(s) in it to direct some of the heating to a thermal energy storage tank (rocks, molten aluminum, take your pick). A parachute lands the re-entry capsule safely on the ground. A heat exchanger then pumps the energy needed to maintain oven at 350° F for 4 hours, and then ejects the thermal energy storage when it is no longer needed (explosively of course).

[@KSparks80]

After the turkey is de-orbited, who's going to slit the foil and remove the brownie when it's halfway through re-entry? Catching a Mach 12 turkey has gotta be a bitch!

[@Alexander_Sannikov]

I see more value in answering less questions in greater depth rather than answering as many questions as possible

[@jamesowens7176]

Related to the ISS solar panel question: we are currently working on how to deal with solar pressure on the arrays and radiators of the Gateway. No atmospheric drag to worry with, but the solar wind and light pressure now present the primary forcing function on those.

[@trichardson8222]

Lol...Scott doesn't smile once explaining cooking a turkey in orbital return. Love it!

[@brentsrx7]

I need more Turkey orbital dynamics. We all need more Turkey orbital dynamics. You made my day Scott.

[@kurumachikuroe442]

Cooking turkey via orbital mechanics is the kinda shit you do to win a drunken bet

[@josephstevens9888]

LOL!

[@chalor182]

I read this title all dramatic like a vintage Sci fi TV show.. "the power of magnets and lasers... IN SPAAAAACE!"

[@Roguescienceguy]

Scott Manley. Your goto-source for baking your turkey just right with atmospheric drag🤣

[@onebylandtwoifbysearunifby5475]

You're absolutely correct about ground based telescopes being irreplaceable. A *30 meter* mirror? You can't launch that. Not to mention the JWST meteor problem, fuel limitations, servicing, lack of upgrade paths, and 5 to 10 year lifespan... All for a cool $20 billion. Adaptive optics and large heavy sensors make ground based and space telescopes 2 very different paths. One cannot really replace the other (unless we build them on the Moon. But it's hard to get good coffee there, so I've been told.)

[@barryon8706]

I do like the idea of a laser launch system. The reaction mass for the first stage can be just air.

[@MartinFrancisEcclesiact]

And any passing birds that fly by - perhaps they could cook a turkey in space that way? 'Fly safe'

[@janpietercornet9364]

7:29 The Great British Bake-off... space edition! 🤣 made me laugh through the entire segment.

[@djdrack4681]

Your re-entry self-cooking turkey is easy: put it in a dutch oven and wrap with duct tape (which we all know survives everything). A little water inside will steam bake it. A high angle bank thru atmos would result in decay orbit, and longer time high up, being baked. Toss on a high alt deployable chute and it'll be able to sit up there and stay hot. Cast Iron dutch oven with enamel/ceramic coating means it'll heat up and stay super hot for 2-3hrs. The only question is what about the stuffing :P

[@donjones4719]

How about combining two of the ideas? Use ground based lasers to power an electric pump fed engine. Or perhaps masers. Alternatively, start with solar powered masers in orbit to beam power to vehicles going to the Moon. Only makes sense if we're sending bulk cargo often, but probably can be done with an SLS-size budget.

[@DaveNarn]

A sub-orbital Turkey drop? “As God is my witness, I thought Turkeys could fly” Well done Sir! :)

[@donjones4719]

Cincinnati is still traumatized.

[@NorseGraphic]

9:22 "The energy is there" LMAO!!! 🤣 Isabelle Erickson, good questions!!

[@2514ben88]

Only on Scott Manley channel, can you have an in-depth conversation about fast moving but slow cooked orbital turkeys, with a crispy re-entry finish and with a soft touchdown, I mean it brings a whole new meaning to orbital delivered fast food services anywhere in the world in 10 minutes or less. that is a thumbs up from me :D

[@schannoman]

Now that would be an Uber eats model. Thanksgiving turkey delivered via parachute after being cooked with atmospheric reentry

[@Ultraramage]

"Have the turkey in an actively stabilized mode" 😆

[@Lukionest]

I'm wondering what the optimal type of stuffing would be for orbital turkey cooking. Have there been any studies on this important issue?

[@AndrewHillis_2024]

THE SPACE SHUTTLE COLUMBIA ASTRONAUTS WERE NICELY COOKED DURING RE-ENTRY ! ! !👍👍👍👍👍👍👍

[@NoNameAtAll2]

4:10 "Vulkanic erruptions generally will not launch anything into space" *happy Kars noises*

[@marianaldenhoevel7240]

Turkey cooking: I have all but patented a system where meat is fired suborbitally and precision targeted to customers. Being freshly cooked on reentry your steak then lands in your backyard. To minimize atmospheric effects on the way up I plan to but my base at a high altitude in Tibet. And then take advantage of locally sourced produce. I call it the Yakapult.

[@RCH3220]

The turkey answer is why I love Scott Manly!

[@chockshoway]

Episode 1 of Cooking with Scott Manley did not disappoint.

[@lesross4442]

Scott, I'm sure your are right about the angling of the ISS solar arrays, mostly. But there is another consideration. Remember that most photographs of the ISS are taken from a visiting vehicle either arriving or leaving. When either of these events happens consideration is given to the RCS plumes from the visitor. Often the panels are feathered in such a way as to minimize RSC plume impingement. When the visitor is far enough away, the arrays are returned to a normal orientation.

[@maxk4324]

Power management issues are very common deep space probe concept designs. Up to now, in every example I've heard about the designers struggled to make sure nearly no power was wasted. This is the first time I've ever heard of one which actually struggled to dump excess power overboard fast enough.

[@Glowbetraveler]

This is one of the most informative and interesting videos by Scott.

[@SangoProductions213]

Reusing the first stage isn't the primary point of laser-powered rockets. It's the whole "I don't need to carry my own fuel" part, which is principally the limiting factor of the rocket equation.

[@richardmattocks]

I wonder when the first space telescope that’s made up of several launches and operates like the ground based radio telescopes do with several collectors all aiming at the same point. JWST has shown that many small mirrors can (with some fierce processing) operate as a single mirror so I wonder when the next step will be taken.

[@lubricustheslippery5028]

Why send it to space when you can place them on earth? Many small mirrors is not as good as one big mirror with the same area because it will be more diffraction. Then it's limited how big mirror we can make and even harder to send them to space.

[@texasslingleadsomtingwong8751]

After seeing JWST , my exact thoughts were , when will there be a factor larger telescope be assembled in orbit then sent to a very stable usable location . Thing would be off the charts in ability to view objects . Clear beautiful daily weather on Mars, maybe.

[@richardmattocks]

@@texasslingleadsomtingwong8751 that’s what I was trying to say, but you put it much better… and yes, my thoughts exactly. 👍

[@richardmattocks]

@@kukuc96 I was using the radio telescope multiplexing technique as an analogy. Totally agree that it wouldn’t gain enough to be worth it. But for light-based observation. Ooh… 😁

[@5000mahmud]

Have you heard of Labeyrie's hypertelescope concept?

[@teddyschenck3534]

Kool vid! I actually worked on Europa Clipper's solar panel substrates. Very big and light about 50 lbs each.

[@psylantwolf]

On the subject of volcano rockets, you could always build an artificial one, of sorts... just dig deep and build up gigantic hydrothermal pressures via steam or other liquids/gasses, then fire the thing off like an old "stomp rocket" :3

[@jessepollard7132]

the Syndrome/Moonraker method (hide the criminal lair in a volcano and launch from it).

[@bobthompson4319]

The tether shuttle mission had some crazy things seen around the shuttle.

[@FourthRoot]

There will never be a time when webb's main reflector will reflect sinliggt back to earth. However, the sunshield is constantly reflecting light back to earth.

[@scottmanley]

But not exactly, based on the telescope pointing it should be variable.

[@FourthRoot]

@@scottmanley That would be true if the surface was perfect flat, but it isn't, so the reflected light scatters a bit, I imagine enough that some of it hits earth directly most of the time.

[@donjones4719]

When was the laser-heated rocket first proposed? I remember "inventing" this idea in ~1970, and also pondered a version using a solar-concentrating mirror array. Drew some stuff on the backs of notebooks when I was bored in class but mostly daydreamed about it. Either I was a bright 15 yr old or I had actually read of this approach and was just daydreaming my own version.

[@grn1]

I wasn't born yet but I seem to recall hearing about experiments or at least theories for the idea dating back to the 60's and 70's. Lasers and rockets were both relatively new/big technologies at the time (technically they both existed prior but you know what I mean) which is probably part of the reason they are often paired up in Sci-Fi.

[@martinisbutik]

Randal Munroe talks about cooking a steak through atmospheric reentry heating in his "What If?" Book.

[@nighthawk043]

One of the webcomics I follow (Questionable Content) put forward the idea of Pizza delivery from on-orbit. Fuel efficiency aside, pizza is definitely more suited for re-entry heating. In addition, the idea of getting a pizza delivered to any location worldwide within 15 minutes is amusing.

[@benjaminshropshire2900]

For on orbit electric pumped rockets, a very small pump and a high pressure accumulator might be viable (off the shelf hydraulics regularly deal with up to around *700* bar) . That would allow the main tank to be very low pressure (maybe right at the vapor pressure) while still keeping everything else all of simple, light and high performance. The major down side is you only get short burns.

[@archiebunkerr9723]

Clever decision on the t-shirt colors. Thanks.

[@tomwolf9420]

I’m getting hypnotized by the ring shaped light reflection in Scott’s eyes. ;-)

[@williamarmstrong7199]

A 2nd Webb spaced as far as is rasonable for the 1st would give fantastic increase in definition of distant objects and give triangulation on closer items too.

[@kiwi_welltraveled4375]

Excellent Q&A, thank you Scott. Two quick questions, possibly for next time. 1. Rather than burning up the ISS why not push it out into space for future generations. 2. Interplanetary travel, could a craft generate its own magnetic field to protect from radiation? As always Massive Respect from Aotearoa, New Zealand 😀👍💙💛

[@jgbreezer]

1. already been asked numerous times to other space folk. Not happening; not reasonably practical (would take a lot of energy to push even one module out to that distance, and we currently don't have anything that could do it anyway as the shuttle ended - maybe in theory a Starship has size and volume inside for a part of the ISS, and power to (dunno really, but a guess); but I don't think there's any plans that mean it could take it in and then let it out again at suitable place. "just attaching a rocket" or fueling up existing station-keeping and keeping that on for a looong time isn't practical or in consideration for the cost either. Probably more to it than that, but thats what I remember. Fraser Cain got asked this and talked about it in a question show on YT vaguely recently (ish...) 2. Yes, but it doesn't protect against all damaging radiation/particles; just charged particles and some fields. Plus, the faster you go the stronger the field needed, and that needs a lot of power plus might well be dangerous for people inside the craft too by the time you've got a big enough one to do a good job. You still need something to protect against the rest, - often suggested is some water - of which you want to take some with you anyway. If you're taking that and using it as a shield anyway, the magnetic field might not be so worthwhile. the Centauri Dreams blog has looked at research into this kinda stuff btw (a long history there of interstellar travel research storied).

[@kiwi_welltraveled4375]

@@jgbreezer Excellent! Thank you John for that very comprehensive answer. Weightlessness, mass and gravity can be a bit confusing when all your life time experiences are only ever dealing with two out of the three. "The faster you go the stronger the field needed" that is interesting. I have never considered that speed would affect a magnetic field? Again, thank you for your reply, informative and thought provoking. 😀👍💙💛

[@OldGamerNoob]

A suborbital hop cheaper than a boat trip? Probably The real question, though, is boat trip vs. delta V cost for an inclination change while already in orbit. I'm curious about that, myself.

[@casacara]

How would a suborbital hop be cheaper than a boat trip?

[@guardcommander278]

After watching that Matt Lowne "Stranded" video "Fly Safe" has a whole new meaning for me now...

[@johngordon1175]

Amazing how one can watch a few launches that sometimes don’t reach targets, and have opinions then be considered some sort of authority.

[@doomslayer7719]

Scale. It's the scale and the thus forced needed scope of what it takes to move the sheer volume of mass, cargo, to where we, whoever we is, wants it to go. As ever, life runs on logistics. And further on the above mentioned scale, magnitude, volume, time... Getting out of a gravity well and up into space is mostly limited by two usually conflicting factors: - Time - Specific impulse in chemical rockets, time to build, time to test... - Logistics. Especially over time. A Moon base is orders of magnitude harder, at least squared, perhaps more of the decimal range orders, depending upon just how much of a logistical presence is available to support a living colony. Pretty much anywhere.

[@JamVar]

8:07 We are...Rotisserie Orbit. Our mission is simple: rapidly roasted space turkey. We're what happens when the ambitions of gastronomy and astronomy collide and come down to Earth - literally - in a magnificent fireball that showers our pale blue dot in succulent juices. So, if you're ready, dinner's ready. Let's light this poultry

[@RCAvhstape]

A better idea would be to place the turkey in a solar oven just prior to deorbiting. It can bake in a solar-heated oven chamber, rotating to make it even, for as long as you'd like, as long as you're in a solar orbit that stays in the sun.

[@Gloppy]

Hey Scott, with the recent images of black holes done by an array of earth based telescopes (EHT), would we get better resolution by making a space based version? Would a wider diameter "lens" give us a better picture?

[@JM-us3fr]

Before the EHT, they actually had a space radio telescope called Spektr-R which was meant for space-based interferometry. It was able to get 8 microarcseconds of angular resolution, whereas EHT was only capable of 25 microarcseconds. However, I think EHT had other benefits, like being able to collect the different data into an actual image using some clever tricks.

[@hjalfi]

Yes, but: if you're willing to take pictures over the course of six months, then you can get an aperture of two astronomical units from ground-based telescopes simply from the Earth's movement around the sun. Of course, this is only useful for certain specialist applications. _Proper_ space-based telescopes are swarms of autonomous reflectors multiple AUs wide in the outer solar system.

[@kamikazejs950]

I don't *think* the earth's atmosphere, at least the thin, dry atmosphere above these radio dishes, causes much attenuation or noticeable diffraction. However, if you could launch a very large millimeter-wave radio telescope out to a Lagrange point then yes, you could combine that data with the earth telescope data. However, I believe you'd want pairs of them in high orbits in order to add meaningful resolution - possibly one orbiting L1, and another orbiting L2, and others in very high polar orbits, as the way they determined detail was through intersection lines between the receivers.

[@benjaminshropshire2900]

@@kamikazejs950 I wonder how effective the reflectors on JWST would be for mm bands? I know it doesn't have the receivers for it but hypothetically ... ?

[@kindlin]

@@benjaminshropshire2900 The question of very accurate time keeping needs to be addressed. That's why telescopes we send out aren't really capable of doing this very well, they only have a clock of a sufficient accuracy to run their electronics.

[@jimharberson9779]

I love that you took the weird question of cooking a turkey and engineered a solution.

[@chaosschnitzl7422]

Cooking Turkey with Scott 😂

[@eekee6034]

Hurricanes transfer energy on the scale of large atomic bombs, if I remember right. Could you use one to launch a rocket? :D After the volcano question, I had to ask.

[@GoCoyote]

Electrician here. There may be other reasons to change the PV array orientation, but curtailing power output is not one of them. It is more likely that they are being moved to optimize power production. Solar panels are one of the few power sources that have no issues being open circuited or close circuited, or anything in between. A 100 Watt appliance (load) will only draw 100 Watts of power from the array, even if the array is capable of outputting 10,000 watts. The array will not "push" out any power that is not being used, but will provide power to any load up to its maximum power output of 10,000 Watts. (Arbitrary numbers for representation only: See your space station operations manual for power output information)

[@UncleManuel]

Orbital turkey cooking - Scott didn't even skip a beat during this rediculous question... 😂😁😇

[@giggleherz]

I was wondering about heat dissipation for Star Ship on entry. This feels like a dumb question but is the heat /energy released by the engines from launch to orbit exactly equal to the heat/energy that the ship has to absorb/shed during landing?

[@benjaminshropshire2900]

Not even close. Gravity drag and air drag take their share. The kinetic energy of the booster at septation takes more. And rockets actually do most of their work accelerating rocket fuel which then gets ejected. I guess it's possible the heat transferred to the various parts of the engines during the burns might match, but that would just be a coincidence.

[@giggleherz]

Guess I over thought that idea lol.

[@stephenbrown40]

The part you answered about first stage Booster's and microwave receivers to heat the propellent, you gave the point of reusability of the first stage as the answer. If the propellent amount could provide an escape velocity to get to Mars at different times. This could alter the Earth-Mars distance calculations due to a higher initial velocity as the rocket leaves earth, due to using up to 4X less propellent. Also, Orbital microwave generators could take over at a certain point to provide the power needed. Or in the idea of using solar sails this could be the second/third stage using lasers to get the satellites to Jupiter and Neptune. The JWT has shown that an area could be protected from the laser energy or sun energy. If a few years could be taken from the exploration of the outer planets. Has the maths been done. It would take a few sheets of paper and dozens of googling for me to do it. It has crossed my mind a few times, I don't except reusability as an answer. There are a few complexities to expand or refute this approach. The star shot program is going to use a similar system to reach the stars.

[@hernerweisenberg7052]

Regarding the volcano launcher: Basically, a volcano is like a soda can right? The pressure comes from the Co2 in the liquid (soda/magma), if you remove the cap or let the pressure build until it ruptures you got the stuff coming out uncontrolled and that might result in a big mess. So i guess the question is if, in theory, you could tap onto an active volcano magma chamber and use the pressure in a contrrolled manner to power stuff.

[@jaspersiegmund]

"Hey honey, what are you watching?" "Oh this guy is explaining how you could cook a turkey on re-entry from orbit" "Uh. Ok..."

[@IXLAZYMANXI]

Cooking a turkey by re-entry, i can see this being a spacex competition in the future haha

[@andrewfleenor7459]

The next, next generation of egg drop challenges.

[@fzyturtle]

"Aero-bake me a turkey, boys; I'll be back before Christmas." -Ace Rimmer

[@bryanwilson8652]

17:01 wouldn’t the space-facing side of JWST reflecting sunlight be BAD? I don’t think there will be any situation that it has sunlight falling on the mirror, right?

[@TheEvilmooseofdoom]

I think that is what he's talking about. The sunshade is a big mirror.

[@X-JAKA7]

Thanksgiving dinner with Turkey thrown from space at reentry would be delicious. 😋

[@alldecadesplaylists1017]

LOL You are crazy funny sometimes. I loved the Turkey. Great job.

[@LegoDork]

There's a lot of Space. A lot of distances. A huge spectrum. Telescopes of all kinds are still useful. The more the merrier.

[@GryphonArmorer]

Cool show. Love the models in the background. 🤙

[@jaredharvey1511]

could you generate electric energy by placing probes in or near the rocket exhaust? Seems like lots of balloon on hair friction is happening in a rocket nozzle.

[@asandax6]

I've also thought if we had higher efficiency Thermo Electric Generators we could reduce the size of the battery and just use it for starting the reaction of the engine than just use the heat as the electric supply.

[@kevinshepardson1628]

Randall Munroe of XKCD addressed the "cooking by reentry" question in his "What If?" blog a few years back.

[@frankgulla2335]

And another great video on the current questions in space.

[@gwendolynscogin9770]

When the tether experiment broke off the shuttle , it was actually naked eye visible. And i actually saw it as a line moving across the early morning sky. I think this is the only time that something in orbit was visible as something other than a dot. You should find some images of it.

[@jtasakorn]

My 2 cents on frying turkey, the bird, not the country: use SpaceX Crew Dragon - specifically, drag the turkey contraption you've described behind Crew Dragon, with a special hatch cover that is partially closed, except for the sling dragging the turkey contraption, for the initial re-entry, until the turkey's cooked, then winch it into the Crew Dragon hatch compartment, amd seal the top cover for the final re-entry. Crew Dragon might need to just skim the atmosphere an orbit or two to control 'oven' temperature during that initial turkey cooking re-entry. The top cover must also survive re-entry to be be water tight to avoid ruining the turkey with salty sea water. Hmm, Starliner might be better at this.

[@lanceferraro3781]

excellent bookshelf art.

[@zzstoner]

Coming soon on your "As Seen on TV" commercials: Space-Fried Turkey via Ballistic Convection.... from Space to your Face.

[@jamesfry8983]

Oh man that turkey question was brilliant

[@xloud2000]

Two High Energy Laser references in two back-to-back videos! Count me in!

[@kennethwood4501]

Re-entry Oven Cooked Bird. YUM!!! Tethering the Turkey into the atmosphere seems like a far more feasible logistical undertaking than an aluminum foil based-eblative-self-proppelled-reaction-controlled heat shield with landing capabilities (Maybe not quite as fun though) and also a lot less expensive of an undertaking. Put in a steel ball cage from the ISS and dip it into the Thermosphere, perhaps 400,000- 327,000 ft to achieve 450 degrees. At 15 minutes per pound of cooking, just reel it back in after 4 orbits. Timing of the deploy & recovery is the key to the speed of the reel and the return to the station; if it can be recovered in the daylight (under 45 minutes) the bird might be edible. If it returns in the dark, it will probably be frozen and no good after re-thaw. Provided that the tether works better than the last time on the Shuttle. Don't forget to activate orbital station boosting thrusters (a practical use for Boeing Strainer) to compensate for any drag or you might roast more than a turkey.

[@larswolter669]

Haha...The turkey analysis was hillarious.