Bitchin Dave's Newsletter - December 19

 Dave’s Musings

Although I'm a big believer in spreading the love throughout the year, I know the holidays often bring out the best in all of us. I would like to encourage you to perform a random act of kindness today (or sometime this week) and then try and keep it up maybe once a week. They can be small things -- its the idea that you're doing something unsolicited that matters.

Kindness is easy to pass along. A friend once told me that she carries a box of cereal bars in her car, and whenever she sees a homeless person, she'll offer them one. I loved the idea and adopted it myself (which reminds me that I need to put some more in my car!). But that's just one thing. There are tons of ideas; here to give you some ideas: https://www.mywell.org/blog/30-ways-to-give-back

But by all means, try anything that suits you.

We can help society to be kind once again through our own simple examples.

I saw a pair of articles about the OSIRIS-REx mission (where we sent a probe to take a core sample of an asteroid named Bennu and return it to Earth). These stories are not about what they recovered exactly; rather they are about a few engineering issues. The first is about the bolts that are holding in the main part of the sample. There were 35 in total, and thus far, 33 have been removed - but the other two are (to this point) hopelessly over torqued and can't be removed. While they've been able to retrieve some small material from the probe, without removing the other bolts, the main sample can't be studied. Still, they've found some interesting things which they've reported on. The second is about the parachute that was used to break the fall. The people who built the probe made a very human error, and mixed up the lines and connected the explosive charges incorrectly. The cord for the parachute was cut before the chute deployed, causing it to fall in an unexpected way. Thankfully, it didn't end the mission, but perhaps that contributed to the bolt issue; the impact may have slightly bent the frame. https://futurism.com/the-byte/scientists-surprised-bennu-samples https://hackaday.com/2023/12/12/nasa-blames-probe-chute-failure-on-wire-labels/

Researchers at the Lawrence Livermore National Lab published a paper, sharing their finding that a nuclear device placed onto an asteroid could cause it to break up and thus make it harmless to the Earth.  Wait. Didn't we see this in a movie starring Bruce Willis? Wasn't Armageddon about a team that was sent to an asteroid to blow it up using a nuclear device? At this point, the research done here is theoretical, and they do suggest sending an unmanned device millions of miles away. But once again, life imitates art.... https://phys.org/news/2023-12-nuclear-deflection-simulations-advance-planetary.html

When EPCOT first opened, the concept was to have a World Showcase to act as a permanent world's fair - and a "Future World" that was an innovation park as part of a community experience. The latter would showcase new technologies and evolve over time. Only it never did evolve, and became stuck in the 1980s. It floundered for a long time, before Disney decided to update it into themed areas like Discovery, Celebration, and Nature that would reimagine the concept. After 5 or so years, a pandemic, many stops and starts, and a ton of construction, its partially open. But as the attached article notes its underwhelming. It could still come together later, as more opens, but its too bad Disney - 40 years later - STILL can't figure out what half of the park is, or could be. https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/disney-fan-just-went-major-015751985.html

We've all seen the stories about companies trying to restrict "the right to repair" - anything from preventing you from taking your car to a repair shop to not being able to put generic toner in your printer. But here's the first case I've seen where a company bricked a public transit train, to prevent it from being maintained by anyone else. It happened in Poland, but I have to imagine its not the last time we'll see this sort of thing. By the way, it was hackers to the rescue while they sorted out the long term solution. https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2023/12/manufacturer-deliberately-bricked-trains-repaired-by-competitors-hackers-find/

Latest video

I don't have a new video this week. Instead, I wanted to share a clip from Neil Tyson, where he talks about getting space ships into orbit, and in particular why they roll after liftoff. https://youtu.be/w0CJ4saWatg?si=8cvC2OkDcfQXjRVu

One Little Spark …

Scientific American had a long form article about "workforce woes" at NASA. The main takeaway is that there are too few people, they are underfunded to a point, and there are an increasing number of missions. But the underlying point (and why it fits here) is about work itself, and how its compelling and interesting and at least some of the staff take it as a way of life and ignore the work-life balance issues and the low-ish pay. My personal aside is that it has always been this way. When I worked at NASA nearly 30 years ago, people were always asked to do more. To work longer hours, and weekends. To be deployed into the field to support shuttle missions. And all for a pay scale that was set by the government - and was definitely lower than the industry. And as a final thought, I like to always say that you should do what you love, and what works best for your own situation in life. That's really what its all about. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/nasa-labs-workforce-woes-threaten-major-space-missions/