Nerd Alert... She's standing next to a Pratt and Whitney RL-10 engine, and behind her is Rocketdyne F-1 engine injector plate. Don't know for sure, but wouldn't be surprised if that wasn't taken at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, AL.

Dry ice = CO2 ice, not H2O ice. But yes, sublimation is how dry ice goes from solid to gas w/out a puddle.

Yes... you officially win!

Here here on Thumb Keyboard. I use it on my phone w/ a traditional layout and my rooted nook color with a split layout. Works great!

Once again, I reiterate the fact that the shape is the best design for protecting a crew, at least until we have something safer than chemical rockets. The laws of physics are the same now as they were in 1969, which drives the design of the shape. It's the same reason boats are shaped like boats and cars are shaped…

Actually, the shuttle shed a lot of the equipment used for liftoff. Granted, the two boosters got re-used, but the bog orange tank was disposable. And really, the capsule design is the best route to go from a physics perspective. Good aerodynamics, which means more stable during reentry and easy to pull of the booster…

If I'm not mistaken, that's the Gemini Ingress/Egress trainer (how to enter/exit). JSC probably loaned it out to the dealership as a local goodwill kind of thing. Pretty sure that particular capsule is parked in the Davidson Center at the US Space & Rocket center in Huntsville, AL along with it's companion Gemini…

100 internets to you for knowing Tsiolkovsky!

Heh... this is a true thing! I just wrapped up a major von Braun exhibit where I work. I also wanted to note, not only did he think he wouldn't be excepted by anyone "in-range" he also didn't want the technology to go to the Soviets. As a result, the US ended up with enough parts to build 100 pr so V-2's and the…

Close, but not quite. The link you post talks about the Sanger, and has some images, but the illustration you posted was of Wernher von Braun's A-9. A winged, piloted version of the V-2 taht would also be slotted into the top of the A-10 as per the silhouette you can see between the two elevations of the A-9. (the web…

He's a frog, remember?

Ok.. here you go: 2 years into a term of 4, 3 people are randomly selected by lottery, w/ right to refuse, from all people meeting current presidential criteria (age, education, nationality same as now). They spend 1 year learning the government system and 1 year campaigning. The incumbent can also run for a second…

Technically true, and the larger the debris the worse off. But having seen some penetration tests on various suit materials, including legacy stuff like Apollo and Shuttle., I can tell you that those extra layers cut the amount of damage waaaaay down. Besides, the stuff is intended to slow down the really tiny dust…

Space Shuttle EMU's are also designed with space debris in mind. the loose bulky layers really help slow down hypersonic debris (if it's not to big). The MIT suits are leaning more towards Martian surface exploration. You don't have to worry too much about micro-meteoroids when your on a planetary body that has an…

I'm going to do a little ethical analysis here:

No one got this? I am disappoint, Internet.

Preface: I love Star Wars. All six of them and the Clone Wars. I couldn't care less about the various show and cartoon spinoffs from the eighties *Droids cartoon, I'm lookin' at you!*

Yeah, I have it. the UCS stuff puts this to shame!

I... I... I don't know what that means.... I think my brain just 'sploded.

You obviously don't have any family that has either escaped from there or still lives there. The guys a bastard. A slightly more rational Kim Jong Il. And yes, my maternal grandparents came over just before the "revolution" and I still have great-aunts and other distant family that lives there.