An evening pause: Hat tip Jim Mallamace, who writes,
If I understood German, I think I would enjoy this performance even more. Angela Wiedl is Bavarian, Melanie Oesch is Swiss, and Herlinde Lindner is Austrian. From what I read in the comments, each singer sings the “Erzherzog Johann Jodler” in her own country’s version of German.
Boom Supersonic, an aviation company that wants to build commercial supersonic passenger jets, has unveiled its first half-scale prototype, dubbed the XB-1, or “Baby Boom”.
They had announced the development of this jet several years ago, and have experienced some delays since. They had hoped to begin commercial operations of their commercial model, dubbed Overture, by ’23, but this remains unclear. Regardless, there does seem interest in this airplane among the commercial carriers, assuming they survive the Wuhan flu panic.
Boom says that the airliner has a projected unit cost of around $200 million each, not including a customer’s desired interior configuration and other unspecified optional extras. This would make it cheaper than many subsonic widebody airliners now on the market, but those aircraft can also carry substantial more passengers. For example, in 2018, Airbus said that the average price of one of its popular A330-200s was approximately $238.5 million, but that aircraft has a maximum seating capacity of 406, nearly four times that of Overture as presently planned. Boeing says that the average price of one of its 767-300ER airliners is around $217.9 million, but again, those planes can seat nearly 300 passengers, depending on the internal configuration.
There has already been not insubstantial interest in the Overture, though, with Boom saying it has commitments to buy up to 76 of the jets from five airlines, including Virgin and Japan Airlines (JAL). Virgin Group has been a major investor in Boom for years now, as well. The Spaceship Company, a Virgin Galactic subsidiary, was previously reported to be preparing to assist in building and testing the airliners.
I will admit, however, that I do not find it encouraging that Virgin Galactic is involved in the plane’s development. In fact, it might even help explain why development was delayed.
In the past week the Democratic governor of California, Gavin Newsom, has demonstrated that in his quest to cement the dictatorial powers he gave to himself with the arrival of the Wuhan virus, he really has no interest in any facts or real scientific data.
First, he announced with great fanfare on October 5th that the country and his state were entering a new terrible outbreak of COVID-19. “This is the second wave,” he declared grimly, adding,
“We continue to have a lot to do on COVID-19 transmission,” he said. “You’re starting to see an increase in COVID cases across the country,” the governor observed. “You’re seeing this not just across the country, you’re seeing this across the world.” Newsom then reported that 21 states across the U.S. are seeing increases.
Newsom then made reference to the Spanish flu pandemic that hit America in 1918, noting that “the second wave in 1918 was the most deadly.”
The problem for Newsom however are the facts, as shown in the graph below.
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A new tourist attraction, the world’s longest pedestrian suspension bridge, is set to open in Portugal next year.
At this length, the new bridge will be considered the longest pedestrian suspension bridge in the world, beating out the Charles Kuonen Suspension Bridge in Switzerland, which spans 1,621 feet and opened in 2017, according to The Sun. But it isn’t just long, it’s also situated 575 feet above the ground, connecting the Aguieiras Waterfall and Paiva Gorge.
I have embedded below the fold a video showing the bridge under construction. As the article notes, if you are afraid of heights this is not the tourist attraction for you.
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Capitalism in space: With the launch earlier this week of another 60 Starlink satellites, Elon Musk has revealed that they now have enough satellites in orbit to soon begin commercial operations.
After yesterday’s launch of 60 Starlink satellites, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk wrote on Twitter that “[o]nce these satellites reach their target position, we will be able to roll out a fairly wide public beta in northern US & hopefully southern Canada. Other countries to follow as soon as we receive regulatory approval.”
Musk did not say when the satellites will reach their target position. SpaceX has over 700 satellites in orbit after yesterday’s launch.
It will like take a few months to get these satellites into position. Regardless, the speed at which SpaceX operates once again has put them ahead of their competitors. OneWeb, the only other similar constellation with satellites in orbit, was once far ahead of SpaceX but has been stalled as it recovers from bankruptcy. Amazon’s Kuiper satellite constellation is so far only a proposal, and like most everything else the company said it would build, has moved forward with the speed of a glacier.
Capitalism in space: Momentus, an company focused on providing tugboat services in orbit, will become a publicly traded stock in conjunction with its merger with another investment company.
In recent months, Momentus has expanded its staff and business line to include hosting payloads and capturing satellites already in orbit with a robotic arm the firm is developing with Made In Space Europe, a Redwire subsidiary.
Through the merger and public offering, Momentus hopes to obtain capital to speed up development of its family of space tugs. In addition to Vigoride, Momentus is developing Ardoride, a vehicle to move small and medium-size satellites to custom orbits, and Fevoride, a vehicle to move “dozens of tons of cargo anywhere in outer space,” according to the Momentus website.
With this deal I think there will be two new space companies traded publicly, Momentus and Virgin Galactic. Unlike Virgin Galactic, whose stock is based on smoke and mirrors, Momentus is actually providing a commercial product that fills a need in space, and sounds like a good investment.
Capitalism in space: Boeing’s company astronaut chosen to command the first manned mission of its Starliner capsule has stepped down because the flight would prevent him from attending his daughter’s wedding next year.
In a video posted to his Twitter account, Ferguson said it was a difficult decision, but “next year is very important for my family.” He said he has several commitments “which I simply cannot risk missing.” A Boeing spokeswoman confirmed one is his daughter’s wedding. “I’m not going anywhere. I’m just not going into space next year,” Ferguson said. He stressed that he remains committed to the Starliner program and will continue to work for Boeing.
This is the second crew change for this mission. Earlier NASA astronaut Eric Boe had had to back out due to medical reasons.
Assuming the second unmanned Starliner demo mission scheduled for the December-January timeframe succeeds, the first manned mission will happen in June ’21, and last anywhere from two weeks to six months.
Capitalism in space: The U.S. military has begun a study in partnership with SpaceX on whether it will be possible to use Starship as a cargo ship for moving large shipments from point-to-point on the Earth.
Army Gen. Stephen Lyons, commander of U.S. Transportation Command, announced the agreement Oct. 7 at a National Defense Transportation Association virtual conference. “Think about moving the equivalent of a C-17 payload anywhere on the globe in less than an hour,” Lyons said. The C-17 is a very large military cargo plane capable of transporting a 70-ton main battle tank.
Makes sense. This decision also suggests the military is impressed with SpaceX’s progress on Starship, and has also largely abandoned its earlier skepticism of the company.
An evening pause: Performed by a student group.
Hat tip Phill Oltmann.
Click for full image.
Cool image time! The crater on the right, the image cropped and reduced to post here, is a great example of many craters scientists have found in the mid-latitudes on Mars containing a variety of features that suggest buried glaciers. In this case we are looking at what they have dubbed a concentric crater fill, material that resembles glacial material that fills the crater’s interior and floor, and appears often to erode in a series of rings. You can see another example here.
The photo was taken on June 29, 2020 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). The crater itself is located in a region of chaos terrain dubbed Nilosyrtis Mensae, located in the transition zone between the cratered southern highlands and the lowland northern plains.
Nilosyrtis Mensae is part of a region of Mars I call glacier country. When you include the mensae regions Protonilus and Deuteronilus to the west, this transition zone of random mesas, knobs, and criss-crossing canyons stretches about 2,000 miles. The context map below focuses in on Nilosyrtis Mensae, where this crater is located.
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Embedded below the fold in two parts.
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They’re coming for you next: California state officials quickly moved to take down a pro-Trump billboard, even though it was on private property and they apparently did not have permission to do so.
This LA Times report on the massive Trump sign on a hill near the 405 says that state authorities went on private property to take it down because they claimed the political speech was a “visual distraction” to drivers.
So, in California your first, fourth, fifth, and sixth amendment rights are now null and void. If government officials don’t approve of your political signage, they now claim the right to enter your property, without permission and without a search warrant, and take down your signage.
The article at the first link notes that for some reason, these same California authorities did not consider it a “visual distraction” for Antifa and Black Lives Matter protests to stand on these same highways and block traffic.
