#asteroid launcher

[world-store]

House-sized asteroid hurtling towards Earth for close approach, NASA reveals

With its advanced tech such as the NEOWISE telescope, Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), Pans-STARRS1 and Catalina Sky Survey, NASA has revealed details about an asteroid that will come close to Earth. An asteroid, given the designation of Asteroid 2023 TC1, is on its way towards Earth and could make its closest approach to the planet today, October 13. NASA has tracked this…

[smartasshat]

You can launch the most Beautiful solid gold, not just gold plated, Asteroid, the likes of which has never been seen before, at Mar-a-Lago, which is a Beautiful place, just Beautiful, making a beautiful Patriotic, and I mean this, crater. Many People are saying this Beautiful website, I know the man who made it, smart man, very smart, maybe even smarter than me, but I doubt it, could be, who knows, controls the Asteroids and if enough Beautiful People, you beautiful people, I’ve never seen anyone so beautiful, except my beautiful wife, who is more beautiful than Michelle Obama, remember her?, I beat her husband, no big deal, send Asteroids to Mar-a-Lago it will actually Happen.

https://neal.fun/asteroid-launcher/

[peachyfnaf]

Do you have any Eclipse (TSAMS) headcanons?

• Simultaneously the most touch starved and touch averse person you've ever met. He is fr like a cat- if you touch him without permission you're getting bit, but if he let's you touch him and you don't you touch you are Also getting bit. Either you gotta Speak Eclipse or get bitten until you Learn The Language

• Purposefully stops his rays from spinning when he's happy. The only way to get him to spin his rays is if you catch him when he thinks he's alone, or if he trusts you with his life. So good luck with either of those

• I KNOW this man sleeps with a stuffed animal, if not multiple stuffed animals. I feel it in me BONES. Maybe even a blank body pillow, too. Again, he's touch starved

• Just like Sun, he also has cats, but he's actually good at hiding them. They're named Missy and Asteroid. (Both are nick-names of their full names, Missile-Launcher and Asteroid-Destroyer)

• Highkey he's not the worst at singing. He's not a superstar, but give him something soft, slow, and in his range and he'll actually surprise you with how good he sounds

• When alone, he has shrimp ass posture. Candy cane ass posture. Lowercase r ass posture. Thank god people bother him so much and therefore force him to appear Tall because if they didn't he'd develop robot scoliosis

• As we've seen, he's actually not that bad with kids. At least, when he only has to deal with a few at a time and not be overwhelmed with them. Give him 1-4 to take care of and those kids will be pampered, both because Eclipse needs to feel that he's the best at it, and also because the dorito does, indeed, care

• F.C. called him Uncle one time when sleepy and Eclipse thought about that for weeks after. He almost cried about it but simply buried himself in work to not think about it instead <3

• He watches SAMS and LAES, but mostly LAES. He wants to keep in check with Earth, and keep an eye on Lunar. He finds the gameplay videos on both channels the funniest, cause' he likes to scream at the screen whenever one of the Celestials do something dumb

• A small part of him will forever miss the main dimension. He has so much baggage there that it makes sense why he felt the need to leave, but that doesn't stop him from going back and watching old SAMS videos every once in a while. He's watched the EALS takeover more times than he can count. His favorite is the Haunted House Cleaning video game episode

[red-black-aesthetic-bout]

Lightning round: Mobile Suit Gundam franchise

who do you want to see in the bracket more?

1. Quattro Bajeena

- ACE PILOT OF THE ANTI-EARTH UNION GROUP, PILOTS A SHINY GOLD MOBILE SUIT BECAUSE HES JUST THAT EXTRA, GAY OR POSSIBLY BISEXUAL MAN (TRUST ME), AND SEXY AF

2. Char Aznable

-extremely emotionally repressed manchild who can pilot a giant robot real good, dropped a space colony on earth and tried to drop a giant asteroid after that, has homosexual tension with TWO different men one of whom he betrayed and indirectly killed and the other of whom was his rival for a full fucking decade. also he decapitated a woman with a rocket launcher which was badass

mod notes: decapitating women doesn't sound very feminist to me but they both sound like they both have gay swag

[speaker-of-the-void-cats]

"When he reached a displacement of eight he told us he was dead."

"He sees the wolves have formed up around him. Eight of them."

"The greatest gaiaforms of our solar system are eight in number—or, if you prefer, [N]ine—but asteroids and minor planets have them too. And in their sidereal generosity, these gaiaforms will protect us, if we ask them."

Fist of Eight Moons

"Only in the Ascendant Plane—where a well-defended idea is a reality—do these moons, in this small way, still exist."

"Eight Barons and an Awoken prince - and only one of you. I so dislike betting on the underdog… But you are resourceful…"

"The man turned to his left and saw a familiar, weathered face staring up at the eight Barons of the Tangled Shore."

[...]

"’Sundance’ appears to be the victim of a single, catastrophic wound from a Devourer Bullet, modified to fire from a Scorn launcher. Projectile classified as ontological.”

“Define Devourer Bullet.”

“Payload matches the ballistics of a Weapon of Sorrow or a comparable Hive implement.”

"We are all pinched silhouettes impaled on the twitching of infinitely long spiderlegs."

"You must reckon with yourself. Can you see the path ahead?

Do you know the shape of your trial?"

Auseklis

Ogdoad

Guñelve

Arevakhach

Schläfli

Compass rose

Isotoxal | edge transitive

Eightfold Path

The Star of Lakshmi

The Star of Ishtar

The morning star

First light of the new dawn

Venus

[Consult Cryptarchy's pre-Golden Age stacks for more information]

"Is it a simple answer? Perhaps none who serve you have the capacity to grasp your vision. And so, rather than waste more of your time and attention on explaining something they will never hold, it is enough that they act as you will. The Witch and her Hive carving single-mindedness out of the cloth of the universe, that whispering Nightmare seeking the fullest gamut of existence, the Upender destroying all differentiation. Shadows on the wall.

In this case, it would be hubris to think I have understood your work, that I alone among your Disciples have grasped what purpose it is we serve. All of us must see darkly reflected.

But there is relief in simplification. There is kindness in winnowing. So then, why is this proliferation permitted?

The shadows, showing the truth by their casting. [...]

There: I have resolved the conflict within my thoughts, and I am at peace again. Once more, I am only your violence and nothing more.

The Final Shape will realize us as we strive."

—Unknown Disciple of the Witness, Inspiral

Who am I?

Call me Coyote. Call me mantis, serpent, Cagn, Anansi, call me Sri-cleans-his-brother's-stomach. Call me the grandmaster of semiosis, the jeweler's hammer which gilds the signal, a purposeful mob none of whose members know its purpose, the infinite regress of enigmas, a self-questioning answer, the word not spoken, black ice, cataract of mimes, the ache and fever of overthought while bedridden with illness, the intolerable thorn of frustrated inquisition, gray regret at the end of a fruitless day, the thing which is unlike your beloved but arbitrarily recalls your beloved to agonizing effect, architrave of the no-window, needle driven in flush with skin so that desperate fingers cannot pull it out, sweet petal, unmemorable, crystal death, the provably improvable.

Here at the center, I lie to you the truth. You have everything you need to know it, but I will give you a clue, as the duelist gives warning before she draws. The answer you seek to the Dreaming City is simple, not complex.

In primordial space, timeless creatures made waves. These waves created us and the others. Waves were the battles, and the battles were waves. Fleeing all W'rkncacnter, Yrro and Pthia settled upon Lh'owon. They brought the S'pht, servants who began to shape the deserts of Lh'owon into marsh and sea, rivers and forests. They made sisters for Lh'owon to protect and maintain the paradise. When the W'rkncacnter came, Pthia was killed, and Yrro in anger, flung the W'rkncacnter into the sun. The sun burned them, but they swam on its surface.

Marathon 2, Six Thousand Feet Under terminal: ax1-40^23<094.95.28.85>

Oryx went down into his throne world. He went out into the abyss, and with each step he read one of his tablets, so that they became like stones beneath his feet. He went out and he created an altar and he prepared an unborn ogre. He called on the Deep, saying: I can see you in the sky. You are the waves, which are battles, and the battles are the waves. Come into this vessel I have prepared for you. And it arrived, the Deep Itself.

Books of Sorrow

XXXI: battle made waves

Verse 4:1 — battle made waves

[pinkrangerv]

Okay yeah fuck it this needs A Post.

So! Power Rangers! Anyone noticed the not just Really Queer but Really Kinky undertones?

Like not even a sex thing. Everyone's banging and we can trace who's banging who but that part is 100% irrelevant. You know what is?

When Tommy joins the MMPR team, he and Jason have to learn to work together. They do it by learning to swap weapons and armor. By learning to let each other access parts of themselves. Coming back, Jason's officially the leader, but they co-lead, and do it by moving power between each other.

When Kim dates Tommy, Kim is the one in the lead and command. She's the most powerful Ranger, and Tommy is very much her service sub. Again--not in sex. Because Tommy gets her a cactus instead of flowers, because it's a rare one she wants for her garden; because Tommy backs her play when she attacks a monster; because Kim is the one with functionally a guided missile launcher in bow form and when she shows up, the monster dies, and she saves Tommy, despite what fandom thought for a long time.

Other seasons? Look at in Space--TJ takes the unquestioned lead almost all the time. Andros is Red, sure, and trains the other Rangers on a lot of things, but TJ is the leader in an almost military style, because TJ is very the fuck competent, but also because TJ takes care of all of them. TJ displays leadership as dominance in the BDSM sense--everyone fully, enthusiastically consenting, and he's taking care of them.

And that means when Karone defects, TJ ends up violating international laws of war--prisoners of war (can't find anything on defectors, but at that point the sensible assumption was to start with her as a prisoner of war and move from there) are entitled to be treated according to rank, and only imprisoned at need. Which means that chaining Karone up in a spare room? Fucking war crime.

Everyone goes along with it, because TJ is the one they trust. And Karone could easily have let them die for it. And being honest, that probably plays into why she volunteers to go try and stop the asteroid and gets recaptured--TJ is taking care of his team, but can she trust him? Because the Princess of Dark Spectre's empire damn well knows the law, and she knows even her own brother won't turn on TJ if he breaks it again.

Another season: Jungle Fury. Camille and Jarrod don't have a direct dynamic where one surrenders power to another. Instead, both of them learn over time--usually in time spans of a couple minutes--how to completely transfer power to the other. And that is the most vital tool of escape either of them have, and saves them both from Dai Shi.

Switching seasons again? Dino Thunder. Mesegog isn't like other villains. His generals aren't loyal, his minions are mindless hordes, his monsters are thoughtless creations.

Because Mesegog's evil is that he takes power without consent, that he abuses people. He spends the entire season using magic to physically abuse everyone, even his own son. Dino Thunder's villain is a warning about abuse, and yes, that means talking about consent and why power can rightfully only be claimed freely.

Because Conner's Triassic Form required freely-given power. And it was more powerful than any Ranger alone, because his teammates gave it freely. And the Rangers won because they moved power between themselves because they wanted to.

Like. We don't really talk about this in fandom, but BDSM is one of the only places I've seen it discussed about how leadership involves power exchange. And Power Rangers has at least one plotline each season about how that works.

With a lot of shipping undertones. Because this is the shipping show. Obviously.

[kesslersymbolic]

The future of space that nobody publically talks about (source: I made it up)

Satellite servicing is going to be another standardisation game as two dozen servicing companies compete for their standard docking mount to be adopted by industry.

Small launchers are not going to suddenly become profitable just because satellites can be smaller.

Super heavy launchers will remain a niche till an asteroid mining boom happens, the bubble bursts after "the Buenas Aires incident" which leads to musk committing suicide live on twitch.

We will land people on mars, seventy years after that we'll be talking about it like the moon landings today.

The EU's first unified military will be space warfare, they will openly talk about having capabilities that the USA doesn't even confirm or deny having.

The first alien warfleet to arrive, having interpreted the voyager disk as a grave insult, is going to be rudely met with the fact we're one of the only species in the galaxy to invent nuclear weapons and not end ourselves before we have the chance to lob them at alien invaders.

mega-constellations will be regarded similarly to how we think about the 60s when we just used shit loads of toxins and burnt a hole in the ozone layer. Some people will say they did work really well and are worth the damage but generally they'll be a minority against saner minds.

[sirfrogsworth]

For some catharsis hurl some asteroids. At Florida perhaps.

[straydogsickness]

committing acts of terrorism in the asteroid launcher game

[smartasshat]

Putin died doing what he loved: shitting himself.

https://neal.fun/asteroid-launcher/

[hackernewsrobot]

Simulate Asteroid Impacts on Earth

https://neal.fun/asteroid-launcher/ Comments

[kianakasiana]

Although cosmo is a von-strangle and the reason fairys made babies illegal, I dont think he would be the one to kill timmys parents, I think it would be wanda.

Cosmo usually isn't the one who resorts to violence in the show (anw example could be that even when playing with hazel, he would rather be a princess watching hazel and wanda pretend to fight.) he usually doesn't do malicious actions (until the later seasons atleast) in "the really bad day" the whole premise of the episode is that cosmo struggles to do "bad" actions and only manages to do so after the threat of having to return to fairy school for 500 years and losing timmy is brought up. You wanna know who had no problem killing off 75% of all life on earth with an asteroid on THEIR "bad day?"? Wanda did. She has no problem with violence. There's even 1 scene where wanda looks through "Da Rules" to check if killing a god-child's (timmy's) parents was legal, only to be angry when it wasnt. Wanda also has the means to kill them, even without magic. Wandas father is a mafia boss, and wanda knows use a rocket launcher (she was holding one in the scene where she looks through "Da Rules." So even without magic, she could probably use a normal gun.

Tldr: i think wanda would kill timmys parents, not cosmo

It’s always the sweetest ones…

[durianinspectors]

Happy Daze

Prologue

"DIU command, this is Codename Pípíxiā. My infiltration route through the Tohaa settlement is stalled. I'm pinned down between two sentry guns and taking heavy fire from a mimetic sniper wearing a porkpie hat. Requesting urgent assistance!"

"Pípíxiā, this is Hsien Yue Fei. We have a plan to get you moving and we're on our way to you. Let's go!"

The Durian Investigation Unit has been infiltrating undercover resources onto 1777 Du-ε. One of the infiltrating agents has blundered into a Tohaa sentry position and needs fire support, but a shadowy individual has chosen to exploit the situation to plan an ambush and counter-infiltrate their own agent. The identity of the mimetic sniper turns out to be all too familiar.

Overview

This is a game against my long-time narrative campaign opponent Obadiah, who has played as noir cube detective Jager Nadim in Wotan, Asteroid Blues, Durgama and Shattergrounds.

Mission: Blockade Runner

Forces: ISS (YueFei23) versus Tohaa (Nehemiah) (300 vs 340 w/ BAMS reinforcements)

Deploy First: Tohaa

First Turn: ISS

ISS List in Army

This is a fairly straightforward list, with three 3-man fireteams. The Deva, Taowu and Celestial guard make up one really fun little team that carries an MSV spitfire, smoke grenade launcher and template/viral surprises. Taowu disguised himself as Adil Mehmut. Hsien Yue Fei had a choice of a bounty hunter sniper, CSU and Xi Zhuang to link, depending if he wanted to defend or attack. The Dakini and pheasant offered chain of command in case the Hsien went down and some solid firepower.

Tohaa List in Army

We decided to play all the BAMS extras, and Nehemiah made the unconventional (to me) choice of playing a Tohaa 340pts reinforcements list against my 300 points of ISS. This would leave me with an early lead trying to steal the central console, but a dangerous counterpunch to deal with later in the game. To toughen up his main group he included a couple of Kaeltars with Symbiobombs and Symbiomates.

Deployment

Nehemiah chose deployment and I set up to go first with my Dakini set up on the left flank and Hsien Yue Fei on the right flank. Both flanks had some madtraps (foreshadowing!) and the ninja hid in the middle to score the console. The Deva team set up in the center to be able to put smoke where it's needed, attack and score centrally and hopefully alpha strike something juicy.

Nehemiah counter-deployed the Dakini link with LeMuet, buffed for surviveability with a Symbiomate and a Kamael Paramedic in case he went down. The Dakini don't have visors and LeMuet ignores their mimitism, so the risk of engaging him directly with would be too high. A libertos guarded the central avenue with a mine covering the console and a hidden clipsos. On his right flank, a team with an MSV spitfire Gao Rael, Sukeul and Makaul threatened an attack run. On his left, a Kerail Preceptor was primed to run down the flank and pick up his HVT. After reviewing what was on the table, I also learnt about the nasty surprise that would land on me mid-game - a Draal, Igao and some nasty template slinging buddies.

Turn 1

"Le Muet, is that you in the hat? Stand down! This is Hsien Yue and the DIU. We can place you under retainer again if you cooperate with us." "Hrh, No! Lou says he'll give me a record contract if I work for him again. Everyone will hear my songs. You can ���� off!" <Several DA rounds slam into the wall by Agent Pípíxiā>

"Get me out of here, I felt that last one!"

Top of 1 - ISS

Xi Zhuang and the Pheasant Agent deploy madtraps into the midfield, breaking and reforming the Dakini link to avoid fire from Le Muet. A TO camo token shuffles carefully around the obvious mine in the midfield. The defensive turrets spin around to discover it, activating the madtraps and glueing themselves out of the game.

Hsien Yue Fei discovers an antipersonel mine laid by a Libertos. The Deva shoots it away as her haris team takes a path to the right of the central church building, into a smoke cloud prepared by Celestial Monitor Zhou.

"Le Muet engaged, his Symbiomate is dead at least."

The Deva team shoots Le Muet from inside the smoke, though he's saved from real damage by throwing his Symbiomate under the bus. Getting rather ambitious, "Adil" moves outside the smoke cloud to prepare to threaten the Kerail Preceptor. Disturbed by the nearby gunfire, a Kaeltar Specialist pops up and aims a boarding shotgun at him. As the Deva is still visible to Le Muet, this locks the fireteam in an annoying position.

Adil breaks out of the fireteam and dodges to get back in the smoke, revealing that he is Taowu... which triggers a Symbiobomb attack from the Kerail. [ A cunning dodge-reset fork! Agh! Taowu is put dogged and somehow the Kaeltar manages to dodge prone again. The Deva shoots LeMuet unconscious, leaving herself and Celestial Zhou in a very exposed position as the orders for the group run out.

Hsien Yue's Haris reforms to include the Bounty Hunter Sniper. The Pheasant's Dakini team also reforms and gains assisted fire on the sniper from the EVO Pangguling.

A Ninja dodges out of camo to score the central console.

Bottom of 1 - Tohaa

Annoyingly, Le Muet is successfully revived by the Kamael Paramedic.

The Gao Rael & Makaul team advances towards midfield to shoot at the Ninja. The Ninja manages to survive, dodging and using the console to block incoming fire from the triad.

There's nowhere good to hide though and the Liberto manages to lay a mine and kill the Ninja with his shotgun.

The Surda, Libertos and Kerail surround the Deva and Celestial Guard. Moving through the building the Libertos is sent dogged by a shot from Celestial Zhou but knocks her unconscious in return. As there aren't many orders left, the Deva manages to survive the Surda's pulzar by failing guts into contact with the dogged libertos, judging that it's less likely to kill her than incoming shooting from the Kerail.

A Clipsos reveals itself by the central console and kills the Bounty Hunter Sniper with a surprise shot from a combi rifle.

Turn 1 ends with a tie, we each scored 1 point on the central console.

Turn 2

Top of 2 - ISS

Shuffling around a little on top of his perch, the Dakini Multi Sniper guns down the Gao Rael.

Reforming his fireteam with Xi Zhuang, Hsien Yue Fei takes the table center, ignoring the mimetism on the Clipsos and the Sukeul Commando and removing them from the game.

In a textbook bit of police work, the Deva shoots the Kerail's Surda and moves back to the table center, successfully convincing Agent Pípíxiā to follow her.

Hsien Yue Fei, Xi Zhuang and the CSU drop a madtrap and take up a position around the central console, worried about comms chatter they're receiving about incoming reinforcements.

ISS score a second point on the central console, though Nehemiah's reinforcements team is about to drop.

Bottom of 2 - Tohaa

Silently appearing from tunnels and rappelling down from holes in the cavern ceiling, a second group of Tohaa appear around Yue Fei and his team in the midfield, attacking as soon as they appear.

A Kauri midget starts by firing tiny nanopulsers at Yue Fei, Xi Zhuang and the CSU, immediately getting covered in a gluey hug from the madtrap. Yue Fei dodges gracefully and drops prone [as key ops he dodges on 17s ] but Xi and the CSU are knocked out by buzzing nanobees.

"Ahaha, it is I! Artichoke Lou! At last, I step out of the shadows of the food service industry to claim my rightful place as the saviour of the Tohaa race!"

Laughing maniacally, Artichoke Lou, Draal Saboteur plants a dazer on the roof of the central building.

The movement on the roof tips the Deva off that an Igao is creeping up on her and she rounds the corner to stare it down.

The Igao charges into combat and the Deva just has time to fire off he nanopulser before getting sliced in half. The Igao is incapacitated by prickly nanobots.

As her rescuer goes unconscious and a nanobot field slows her movements to a crawl, Agent Pípíxiā starts to wonder if she's going to get out of there alive.

Utilizing what remains of the orders in the first group, the Kerail Preceptor runs down a flank and shepherds a strangely familiar-looking CSU towards the ISS deployment zone.

Lou climbs down from the building and spends a couple of orders shooting at Hsien Yue Fei, who takes a wound, but makes impressive use of his Key Ops bonuses and dodges onto the central console. The Kerail makes a dash forwards shooting down a Kuang Shi on the right flank and Yue Fei hits it with a Multi Marksman shot, but only succeeds in killing another Symbiomate.

ISS score a third point here, with the Key Ops on the console.

Turn 3

Top of 3 - ISS

The situation is dire, with a wounded Hsien surrounded by Draal and Kosuil. Yue Fei in a position to score a classified and rescue Agent Pipixia, but if he moves off the central console or dies he also gives away that fourth point. Doing nothing would be the smart choice.

First, a Kuang Shi tries to run up and deal with Lou, but he misses and is flash-pulsed by a Kaeltar. Pheasant Wang advances his Dakini team on the left flank and gets a bead on Lou outside cover with the Dakini hmg. Unfortunately, Draal are excellent at dodging and Lou avoids all the shots, zipping into cover out of LoF of the Dakini. The Kaurii triumphantly shakes itself free of madtrap glue and is promptly executed by fire from the Dakini. At this point, Hsien Yue Fei places glory before prudence and tries to shoot the Draal himself. He fails to wound Lou and goes unconscious to a shot from the Kosuil's boarding shotgun, forfeiting the last point for holding the console.

Bottom of 3 - Tohaa

A Makaul pops out of the coffee shop on the left flank and burns both Dakini Tacbots with his flamethrower. Revealing admirable presence of mind Pheasant Wang neatly puts a boarding shotgun round between the Makaul's eyes.

The Kosuil does something incredibly vigilant near the table center.

Adding insult to injury, the wretched Draal Saboteur runs to the downed Hsien and attempts to steal his cube. Not so fast, Artichoke Lou!

Pheasant Wang levels his shotgun a second time and puts a single critical shot into Artichoke Lou, knocking him out. Tinbot Gǒu makes Hsien Yue Fei's cube secure and the ISS perform a tactical withdrawal before anything else can go wrong. For a second, Pheasant Wang is confused that one of the Corporate Security Contractors appears to be wearing a new fabric pattern on her miniskirt, but assumes it must be some kind of mimetic color shifting fabric and congratulates her on her survival.

Tohaa secure the HVT, pick up the Vigilance Classified, held the console in turn 1 and pick up 4 points for getting their HVT to my DZ. 7 OP to my 3.

Tohaa wins!

Tohaa 7 OP, 113 VP remaining - ISS 3 OP, 47 VP remaining

Post Game Analysis

It will take me a few games before I figure out an effective way to defend against a reinforcements counterattack with ISS. I regret not sending a lone CSU to take the central console in turn 2, which perhaps could have kept Hsien Yue Fei relatively save for turn 3. My poor strategy aside, if the Dakini or Kuang Shi had been able to tie down or shoot Artichoke Lou on turn 3, I might still have been in a good spot to tie or win this game. Hsien Yue Fei was in a position to take me to 7 OP, which all went south when he got hit by the Kosuil. Rather than infiltrating Agent Pípíxiā into Dewey, she was left staggering around in a Dazer field. Meanwhile, the Tohaa managed to counter infiltrate a totally not suspicious CSU into the DIU. I hope that doesn't cause any trouble.

Epilogue

From: Mei Kumae, CEO Jīyuán Unlimited Corporation To: Hsien Yue Fei My Dear Hsien Yue, Congratulations on your latest successful resurrection. I am excited to remind you that the Jīyuán Unlimited Corporation remains absolutely indebted to you following your heroic exploits defending the Jīyuán Open-Pit Site on Novyy Bangkok. As a gesture of our good will we have made sure that a supply of pre-prepared LHOST bodies, replacement components and silk are at your disposal. Your new Tinbot, which you have designated Gǒu, contains advanced subroutines for cube backup and recovery. You can fight on assured that your immortality is now underwritten by our substantial resources. By absolute coincidence, I have a few small errands in the planetoid cluster which might benefit from your specific expertise and documented bravery. A shipment of ungraded, frozen Monthong Durian was accidentally shipped to our Khurland base and has been forwarded on to you for inspection. Please take careful, personal receipt of this precious cargo. If you deem it of acceptable quality and freshness, we request that you personally deliver it to the Sterling Forge and Rocaworks offices on LuY as a gesture of our friendship. We were rebuffed in our last round of negotiations to start our own mining operation on the planetoid, but perhaps they will be more flexible now that they have labor disagreements disrupting their productivity and operational security arrangements. I do hope that nothing happens to further disrupt smooth running of their ammonia mines. We look forward to working with you to secure and advance the StateEmpire's role in the Human Edge territories. Best regards, Mei Kumae Jīyuán Unlimited Corporation

[darkaviarymc]

Did you know there's a website where you can drop a custom virtual asteroid anywhere in the world? I like to drop them on my house, it's fun!

[jcmarchi]

Hera Asteroid Mission Hears The Noise - Technology Org

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/hera-asteroid-mission-hears-the-noise-technology-org/

Hera Asteroid Mission Hears The Noise - Technology Org

ESA’s Hera asteroid mission has completed acoustic testing, confirming the spacecraft can withstand the sound of its lift-off into orbit.

Testing occurred within the Agency’s Large European Acoustic Facility at the ESTEC Test Centre in the Netherlands. This is Europe’s largest and most powerful sound system, fitted with a quartet of noise horns that can generate more than 154 decibels of extreme noise.

Hera being prepared for lifting into the LEAF chamber

Diego Escorial Olmos, Hera system engineer, comments: “Launch will be the single most stressful day of Hera’s life, so we have worked hard to simulate it during our mechanical test phase, first by vibrating the spacecraft on the ESTEC Test Centre’s shaker tables, and now by blasting it with a noise profile sourced from our launch provider, to be as true to life as possible.”

The LEAF chamber stands 11 m wide by 9 m deep and 16.4 m high. One of its walls is embedded with a set of enormous sound horns. Nitrogen shot through the horns can produce a range of noise up to more than 154 decibels, like standing close to multiple jets taking off at once.

As a safety feature, LEAF can operate only once its doors are closed. Steel-reinforced concrete walls safely contain its noise, which are also coated with epoxy resin to reflect noise to produce a uniform sound field within the chamber. The chamber itself is supported on rubber bearing pads to isolate it from its surroundings, preventing damage to the rest of the Test Centre – or nearby human observers.

Hera being lifted into LEAF

Hera was switched on for the test sessions, and placed in launch configuration, with its solar wings folded around its body and its fuel tanks filled with helium, nitrogen and water.

Ahead of testing it had been fitted with more than 130 accelerometers to chart the forces exerted on it then ringed by microphones to record the surrounding noise levels, to ensure the tests attain their planned volume.

ESA’s Hera asteroid mission inside the Large European Acoustic Facility, LEAF, being prepared for acoustic testing in October 2023. LEAF’s wall embedded with sound horns is visible to the left. Image credit: ESA-SJM Photography

ESA structures engineer Simon Whent, supporting the design of the Hera spacecraft structure and many of its payloads, comments: “Even though this acoustic testing has been exhaustively modelled ahead of time, it was still a nerve-wracking moment as the giant doors of the LEAF chamber close and then the horns are activated. Each test session lasts for just a minute – but that still seemed like a very long time as we waited to find out if Hera’s structure and components withstand the sound waves blasting it.”

Installing Hera in the LEAF for acoustic testing

ESA mechanical systems and structures engineer Cliff Ashcroft, who led the design of Hera’s central tube ‘backbone’, adds: “In reality, the highest, most damaging levels of acoustic pressure are felt during the early launch phase, generated at or close to lift-off, when the vibrations reflected from the pad and local facility bombard the departing launcher. It is a kind of final acoustic ‘pat on the back’ as the launcher and spacecraft depart from Earth.”

ESA’s Hera spacecraft in the Large European Acoustic Facility in October 2023. Hera had more than 130 accelerometers installed and had to be surrounded by microphones to record the sound waves reaching it before acoustic testing could be carried out. Image credit: ESA-SJM Photography

Hera is Europe’s contribution to an international planetary defence experiment. Following the DART mission’s impact with the Dimorphos asteroid last year – modifying its orbit and sending a plume of debris thousands of kilometres out into space – Hera will return to Dimorphos to perform a close-up survey of the crater left by DART.

The mission will also measure Dimorphos’ mass and make-up, along with that of the larger Didymos asteroid that Dimorphos orbits around.

Hera, her CubeSats, and their rocky target destination

Hera is scheduled for launch in October 2024, to rendezvous with the Didymos and Dimorphos asteroid system about two years later.

“The successful completion of Hera’s mechanical test phase sets us well on track to meet that deadline, thanks to the collective dedication of ESA’s Hera team, prime contractor OHB and European Test Services, managing the Test Centre for ESA,” comments Paolo Martino, leading the mission engineering team.

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 “The remainder of this year will see the spacecraft undergoing various functional tests and preparation for its next important testing milestone – sustained operation in space-grade vacuum and temperature extremes within a thermal vacuum chamber, scheduled for early next year, followed by testing of the inter-satellite links that will keep Hera connected to the pair of CubeSats it will deploy in the vicinity of Dimorphos.”

Source: European Space Agency

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