You know there's something wrong with US politics when NASA is forced to communicate in Imperial measurements.
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You know there's something wrong with US politics when NASA is forced to communicate in Imperial measurements.
"Orion’s main engine provides up to 6,000 pounds of thrust, enough to accelerate a car from 0 to 60 mph in about 2.7 seconds. At the time of the burn, Orion’s mass was 58,000 pounds and burned approximately 1,000 pounds of fuel during the firing."
Artemis II Flight Day 2: Orion Completes TLI Burn, Crew Begins Journey to the Moon - NASA
NASA’s Artemis II crew is on the way to the Moon.
NASA (www.nasa.gov)
@mrundkvist Especially when the engine in question is actually European!
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@mrundkvist Especially when the engine in question is actually European!
@mrundkvist It is a longstanding problem with reporting of space missions - the NASA PR machine is so effective that European journalists often forget the European components of missions and assume everything is American. To be fair ESA was pretty bad at this in the past, but their communication strategy is now much improved thanks to people like @markmccaughrean
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@mrundkvist Especially when the engine in question is actually European!
@Luke_Drury @mrundkvist I’m not sure that part is fully true though, Luke – the main propulsion engine on the ESM is an Aerojet AJ10 (in service since 1957!), as the original ATV which ESM is derived from didn’t need a trans-lunar injection capability.
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@Luke_Drury @mrundkvist I’m not sure that part is fully true though, Luke – the main propulsion engine on the ESM is an Aerojet AJ10 (in service since 1957!), as the original ATV which ESM is derived from didn’t need a trans-lunar injection capability.
@markmccaughrean @mrundkvist Ah thanks for the correction Mark. But it is part of the European Service Module.
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@markmccaughrean @mrundkvist Ah thanks for the correction Mark. But it is part of the European Service Module.
@Luke_Drury @mrundkvist That it is
And in a similar if conversely flowing vein, a large part of the US occupied volume of the ISS was built in Italy under direct contract to NASA. Ever wonder why there have been quite so many Italian astronauts?
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I can't overstate this. NASA's use of pounds and cubic feet in its outreach efforts does not come across to science-literate people, inside or outside the US, as a sign that the country is a badass superpower that can do what it likes and ignore everyone else.
Instead it suggests that the US is a provincial nation of dungaree-wearing banjo players.
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I can't overstate this. NASA's use of pounds and cubic feet in its outreach efforts does not come across to science-literate people, inside or outside the US, as a sign that the country is a badass superpower that can do what it likes and ignore everyone else.
Instead it suggests that the US is a provincial nation of dungaree-wearing banjo players.
@mrundkvist I actually wear dungarees and play a banjo.
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I can't overstate this. NASA's use of pounds and cubic feet in its outreach efforts does not come across to science-literate people, inside or outside the US, as a sign that the country is a badass superpower that can do what it likes and ignore everyone else.
Instead it suggests that the US is a provincial nation of dungaree-wearing banjo players.
@mrundkvist Worse, NASA lost a spacecraft due to this oractice. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_Climate_Orbiter
I don’t see it as superpower bravado but rather the inability to adapt and the low values the public places I. Science and engineering.
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I can't overstate this. NASA's use of pounds and cubic feet in its outreach efforts does not come across to science-literate people, inside or outside the US, as a sign that the country is a badass superpower that can do what it likes and ignore everyone else.
Instead it suggests that the US is a provincial nation of dungaree-wearing banjo players.
@mrundkvist It is frustrating as well for the hundreds of millions of Americans who had no choice of measurement standards in school or everyday life, most of whom neither wear dungarees nor play banjo. Every day I am applying complex conversion formulae just to get by in Mexico. I still don't have an innate sense of either metric sizes or celsius temperatures. Metric is easier, but still a struggle. Poor me.
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I can't overstate this. NASA's use of pounds and cubic feet in its outreach efforts does not come across to science-literate people, inside or outside the US, as a sign that the country is a badass superpower that can do what it likes and ignore everyone else.
Instead it suggests that the US is a provincial nation of dungaree-wearing banjo players.
@mrundkvist It only has to make sense to white people who imagine themselves involved in the process.
The rest of us know better, and moved on years ago.
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I can't overstate this. NASA's use of pounds and cubic feet in its outreach efforts does not come across to science-literate people, inside or outside the US, as a sign that the country is a badass superpower that can do what it likes and ignore everyone else.
Instead it suggests that the US is a provincial nation of dungaree-wearing banjo players.
@mrundkvist You know all of our standards are metric then converted to imperial? When you buy a pound of cheese, you’re really getting just under half a kilo.
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I can't overstate this. NASA's use of pounds and cubic feet in its outreach efforts does not come across to science-literate people, inside or outside the US, as a sign that the country is a badass superpower that can do what it likes and ignore everyone else.
Instead it suggests that the US is a provincial nation of dungaree-wearing banjo players.
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I can't overstate this. NASA's use of pounds and cubic feet in its outreach efforts does not come across to science-literate people, inside or outside the US, as a sign that the country is a badass superpower that can do what it likes and ignore everyone else.
Instead it suggests that the US is a provincial nation of dungaree-wearing banjo players.
@mrundkvist It's 4,204,640 football fields to the moon.
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I can't overstate this. NASA's use of pounds and cubic feet in its outreach efforts does not come across to science-literate people, inside or outside the US, as a sign that the country is a badass superpower that can do what it likes and ignore everyone else.
Instead it suggests that the US is a provincial nation of dungaree-wearing banjo players.
@mrundkvist My daughter is a pilot and I'm in the Navy and we use non-SI units daily, and I don't think lesser of either of us as a result.
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@mrundkvist The banjo is a beautiful instrument.
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I can't overstate this. NASA's use of pounds and cubic feet in its outreach efforts does not come across to science-literate people, inside or outside the US, as a sign that the country is a badass superpower that can do what it likes and ignore everyone else.
Instead it suggests that the US is a provincial nation of dungaree-wearing banjo players.
@mrundkvist Unfortunately NASA must pander to the illiterate banjo players to keep its funding. Internally they use metric for everything because that's how science works, even in the US.
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I can't overstate this. NASA's use of pounds and cubic feet in its outreach efforts does not come across to science-literate people, inside or outside the US, as a sign that the country is a badass superpower that can do what it likes and ignore everyone else.
Instead it suggests that the US is a provincial nation of dungaree-wearing banjo players.
Why you gotta do Dungaree Wearing Banjo Players so wrong? I'd take either Pete Seeger or Bela Fleck over Trump any day of the week.
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I can't overstate this. NASA's use of pounds and cubic feet in its outreach efforts does not come across to science-literate people, inside or outside the US, as a sign that the country is a badass superpower that can do what it likes and ignore everyone else.
Instead it suggests that the US is a provincial nation of dungaree-wearing banjo players.
@mrundkvist checks out
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@mrundkvist It is frustrating as well for the hundreds of millions of Americans who had no choice of measurement standards in school or everyday life, most of whom neither wear dungarees nor play banjo. Every day I am applying complex conversion formulae just to get by in Mexico. I still don't have an innate sense of either metric sizes or celsius temperatures. Metric is easier, but still a struggle. Poor me.
@farbel @mrundkvist I mean, it's not like we don't have inches and feet in Europe either. I've had to do conversions all my life too because they're commonly used in many contexts. Since the default is metric, I do the conversion the other way of course, but at the end of the day, it's still an additional cognitive load.
I was just discussing wind speed with my brother, who works at an airport. I'm used to metres per second wind speeds, but they use knots.
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I can't overstate this. NASA's use of pounds and cubic feet in its outreach efforts does not come across to science-literate people, inside or outside the US, as a sign that the country is a badass superpower that can do what it likes and ignore everyone else.
Instead it suggests that the US is a provincial nation of dungaree-wearing banjo players.
@mrundkvist I’m not reflexively opposed to the use of old-school units (many of them have useful mathematical properties that metric lacks). But in science and engineering contexts, it should be all metric all the time.
I’m fortunate to have been a reasonably bright kid during the two weeks the US made a metric push in the late 70s, and then decently trained in science that I’m reasonably comfortable in both systems.
