PHYS 4267 - Homework 3, Problem 2
a) Find the solid angle subtended by a fuel tank of dimensions "Google-this-for-yourself" from a distance of 1 mile.
b) Accounting for the statistical variance in accuracy (using Floridian air variability parameters found here: [Google/#lolGoodLuck]) for a standard sniper projectile of shape and weight "Google-again", what is the likelihood of...
Nah, sorry, just kidding. The article is certainly on the conspiratorial side of things, so tear this one apart, you lovely skeptics.
Eh. ULA is not that stupid. They will just write checks and buy off a Congressional Committee nice and legal-like. They are already working on gutting Commercial Crew in Congress and doing everything they can to delay SpaceX and Sierra Nevada from launching people.
So, just to clarify, I can't assume that everything is either a point or a sphere in a vacuum? Damn! This is so weird, but probably less than half an hour ago I had to look up what does "grassy knoll" mean… and where it redirected me. Coincidence? Yes. Obviously. I can't believe if you expected me to say anything else!PHYS 4267
SpaceX had still images from video that appeared to show an odd shadow, then a white spot on the roof of a nearby building belonging to ULA, a joint venture between Lockheed Martin and Boeing.
The building, which had been used to refurbish rocket motors known as the SMARF, is just more than a mile away from the launchpad and has a clear line of sight to it.
Exactly! Although to be fair, after doing some reading on more advanced physics I think it would be closer to the truth with addition "and if it moves then it behaves like a harmonic (or an anharmonic) oscillator". Seriously, it's both baffling and amazing that pretty much anything that deals with matter, energy exchange or radiation can be boiled down to a frigging pendulum with some extra terms to the equation and being put in a context. So far it looks like the 'extra terms' and 'finding context' are the bulk of physicist's work. I don't know if I'll stay behind it a year or two from now, but that's definitely something I'll be pondering.
Apparently, anyone who understands the mathematics of generalizing small oscillations to a continuum can sell their soul to the oil companies and get to frackin'. There's other options too, and Satan himself breathes down my neck as I type this.
Ugh. r/chemicalengineering basically goes full mast as oil and gas prices rise, it's disgusting. Sure, it's our cornerstone but there are so many alternative paths. Same thing for the mathematician/physicist.
My school pushed everyone in math and mathematically inclined CS students towards computational finance/HFT hard. I wanted nothing to do with it, but a good chunk of my classmates did, and then 2007/8 happened and now I know some very well educated locksmiths, electricians and plumbers who never want to look at a graph again. Selling your soul can bite you.Sure, it's our cornerstone but there are so many alternative paths. Same thing for the mathematician/physicist.
Are they happier now compared to when they were looking at graphs?
I don't think I have to worry about it. My father's adventures in the private sector are basically a cautionary tale on their own. Background: theoretical physics phd, main area of research in statistical physics, superconductors and porous materials. Reason to go to private sector: about fifteen times better wage and there's a second kid on the way (aka me). Reason to leave it: Sleep disorders, stress, ulcer and he was literally the only male in my family who could ever managed to get 'fat' (at least by comparison, I don't know of any other family where BMI ~27 would stand out like obesity… I wasn't joking when I told you sometime ago that I'm built like Grey Alien :P). Long story short, while even after a decade he still has quite considerable savings left from the job, no-one thinks it was worth it.
'k I'll play. FIM-92C stinger missile, manufactured in California by Lockheed missile partners General Dynamics/Raytheon since 1978. 60" long, 33lbs weight, 6lb warhead, effective range 5 miles, terminal velocity Mach 2.5. Unit cost $38k, "hundreds unaccounted for" since the fall of Afghanistan. Note: I'm not saying the ULA fired a stinger missile at SpaceX. They're... conspicuous. But ruling out malfeasance via physics is a facile exercise. I mean yeah - Prolly wasn't a Parrot AR. But "we saw something suspicious a mile away" isn't crazytalk.
XM500 is 10K has a range of 2000 yards, looks like a security firearm to a layman. And lot easier to fire from a not-as-visible position. And the projectile does not leave a vapor trail. And easier to clean up after and hide the weapon. Again, this is possible, but is it probable? More likely than not, with billions on the line, any interested party is going to go the lobbyist route as that path is: a. legal b. less risk c. more likely to end up with a positive result. Shit like sabotage does not stay secret and is subject to blow back and other negative externalities. It is neat to think of this as a sabotage story and all, but I don't buy it.
For the record, I think it's stupendously improbable. Ockham's Razor is not fond of the idea of ULA shooting at SpaceX. However, am_ was making the point that the physics don't support it, and my argument is that the physics support the shit out of it.
Agreed. Hell if we want to get all conspiracy theory, it is more likely that ULA is working in the background to make people pressure SpaceX to do more, faster, than they are comfortable with and that rush is allowing small errors to slip into the processes. Now ULA, through no direct action on its own can go to Congress and say "See, they are moving too quickly and blowing up rockets!" Still, it is fun to think of a sniper on a building taking a shot. Totally improbable, but hell Tom Clancy build a fortune on this type of What-If.Ockham's Razor is not fond of the idea of ULA shooting at SpaceX.
By all published accounts, Elon Musk considers this his personal mission.it is more likely that ULA is working in the background to make people pressure SpaceX to do more, faster, than they are comfortable with and that rush is allowing small errors to slip into the processes.
The cash-cannon 5000 is now loaded up and the congress critters are starting to get their PR running. Coffman gets money from satellite manufacturers.
So I know a few people who work for SpaceX (fewer than who work for Telsa), and they didn't have a harder time getting in than any other fashionable tech company. They had engineering degrees from the right schools and they acted like they read TechCrunch, Wired and Fast Company regularly without either hurting themselves laughing or loosing their lunch, and they got the job. If I had deep pockets and wanted to sabotage SpaceX I wouldn't do it by having someone fire a missile or something, I'd find an employee in the right position smart enough not to have dunk the kool-aid and senior enough to be tired of it and pay them never-have-to-deal-with-this-bullshit-ever-again-plus-worth-the-risk-of-jail-time money to throw a wooden shoe in somewhere. Much more expensive than $38k, but much more likely to go unnoticed.
I also know a few people at SpaceX and I don't disagree with your assessment of their security. At the same time, you're arguing that avoiding a paper trail through whatever unknown internal security and document control is going to be easier than taking some sort of pot-shot from outside the control zone of a launchpad. The difference might be that I've been at the edge of the control zone of a launchpad and can say with no quaver in my voice that it's eaaaaaaaaaaaasy to get as much big bulky crap as you could possibly want right up to the perimeter.
I base my assumptions about internal security on a friend from high school who works at Daimler as an engineer now, who has been justly praised for her efficiency because, unknown to her employers, she gets her job done by 'sploiting her way around their draconian but incompetent IT department and avoids hoop-jumping and paper trails entirely. I know this because I've provided a few pointers for 'sploiting her way around The Process. She, unlike everyone else I know of our vintage, still cares about the best interest of her employer. She's both morally superior and more a sucker than all of us, but that's beside the point. I don't believe internal security and document control would be much of an obstacle at all.