Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly

[BuggyDad 4477]

Thank you Elon Musk. Even if no one else does, you understand that every time I crash my DT-03 and break stuff AGAIN it's really just another step forward in my perfectly choreographed march towards RC perfection. 

[OnTheTrail 1152]

I love that newly minted term.   May have to use it at the model airplane fields this season.  

[Mad Ax 9329]

Rapid unscheduled disassembly - is that sometimes the result of percussive maintenance..?

[Cephas 530]

Looking forward to seeing the new perfection

[BuggyDad 4477]

35 minutes ago, Cephas said:

Looking forward to seeing the new perfection

Mine?  😂😂😂

Journey > Destination. Wing Mounts VI and VII both experienced some R.U.D. (in the name of progress, obvs)

They are being destroyed at roughly the same rate as Musk's rockets. World domination imminent. Well, pending new tyres. And a month's lead time on poor man's 3d printing. Bear with me. 

[markbt73 5316]

That's defiitely the Euphemism Of The Year.

[moffman 5752]

What is concerning is these rockets (and the airplane orbiter thing that other crackpot Richard Branson made) always ends up inevitably crashing back down to earth and in Brandon’s case unfortunately killing somebody but they still always insist they have been successful in what they want to accomplish so far!…………..with people around them agreeing……………sorry but I’m I looking at a completely different story? All I see is a very small group of strange (putting it politely) group of people with FAR to much money indulging themselves unsuccessfully into something they all want us to embrace to eventually buy into and more ****hteningly use as the next future generation of transport…yeah good luck with that guy’s if I was you Elon I’d concentrate on getting your over priced milk floats more reliable and better built! And give your rockets a bit of a wide birth and leave it to the people who tend to know what they are actually doing! Like NASA?

[alvinlwh 5895]

24 minutes ago, moffman said:

still always insist they have been successful in what they want to accomplish so far!

I was watching this video after I heard about the "disassembly" and am totally puzzled by why they are cheering when the thing went into a continuous spin (they call it the flick?) and cheered even more when the thing blew up.

That's what a cult does to people I suppose.

[Saito2 6686]

Did you ever have a dark humor joke on the tip of your tongue screaming to get out, but you just know some mindless Elon worshipper will ponce the second you let it go?  

[moffman 5752]

41 minutes ago, alvinlwh said:

I was watching this video after I heard about the "disassembly" and am totally puzzled by why they are cheering when the thing went into a continuous spin (they call it the flick?) and cheered even more when the thing blew up.

That's what a cult does to people I suppose.

Cheers for putting that up it’s the first time I’ve seen it “anything passed the launch tower is icing on the cake” that’s reassuring 

[Nikko85 3454]

I thought the rocket might have consciously uncoupled?

 

[yogi-bear 2321]

48 minutes ago, moffman said:

Cheers for putting that up it’s the first time I’ve seen it “anything passed the launch tower is icing on the cake” that’s reassuring 

it is pretty crazy, but the problem is, what they were doing is immensely difficult. Only the Russians in the late 60s and early 70s have tried this sized rocket and each of the 4 attempts ended in the largest non nuclear explosion (as far as i am aware). I’m not really an Elon Musk fan, he has done some very odd things that i would not personally agree with, but he seems to be running SpaceX they way it needs to be (and certainly better than some of the other space companies), and he knows that to succeed he has to push the limit and that means failing, but they learn a lot from each failure.

[BuggyDad 4477]

My personal view on the man is that although he can be an absolute prize **** (I typed those asterisks myself, you can insert your own word that fails the swear filter, I just ask that you do please use a word that fails the swear filter, obviously), and seems to be becoming more and more so as time goes on, long ago a stated aim of his with Tesla was, rather than to compete with and beat the car industry, to engender a major change in that industry towards something less environmentally harmful. Basically he wanted to do it not to beat them to it but to get them to do it too. When he said that I felt supportive of that intention, because our emissions from personal travel are one of our big environmental crimes and inertia in industries like that, and car culture, is immense, and a few years after that I did my own due diligence on overall environmental impact and then bought a Tesla myself. In that regard I think he has been a considerable force for positive change. In some other regards I think he's been a right plonker, perhaps damaging, and not very nice either. I'm neither fan nor detractor. If we met, I probably wouldn't like him much but I do very much respect certain things he's achieved. 

In physical products we're not so used to this MO they use, of releasing things early then updating then iteratively, like we might be with say software. Impact of tech people moving into markets hitherto more traditional. Pros and cons I guess. You get the benefit of the thing early but it's not as polished as you're used to. And the rocket seems to me to be an extension of this idea. Clearly there are safety issues but I guess it will speed up development.

With a car this approach is also a double edged sword, of course, but I suspect also that this mentality was a key driver in tesla's development and its impact on the car industry. Equally, the ways in which my car has changed over time and occasionally done something "buggy" are not massively worrisome to me, I went in eyes open, and it's nice that the tech in it now is noticeably better than it was when I got it 4 years ago, even if it hasn't advanced as far as Musk had implied it would, but then I never believed that anyway. 

[alvinlwh 5895]

@BuggyDad Love him or hate him, is one thing. However personally, I have two words (that will pass the filter) that sums him up for me, "Hyper Loop". What I cannot stand is EV being rammed down our throats. There are some people (like myself) where EV is truly unsuitable but collectively punished with the rest.

Some of you maybe aware I live in one of the most remote part of the UK. Air quality is never an issue here, and never will be. However, my 2012 2.0l diesel will very soon be illegal (yes, illegal, go read up about the Scottish LEZ fines which makes the ULEZ seems cheap!) to turn right off the ferry at Aberdeen because of the LEZ. The EV fanboys will claim that I can switch to an EV but I do not believe them.

Remove the super long range (and super expensive) EV, most "normal" EV that are affordable have a range of <200miles? And that is paper miles. To get from Scrabster to Inverness (first major city) on my short ferry route is 100 odd miles. Now on paper, it can do that. But can it still do that with a full roof box, car full of people and luggage and going through the Scottish Highlands with climbs that are >10%, in the winter with lights and heater on? Maybe it can do it today, but how about in 11 years time? Same age as my current car, which did the drive with 1/4 tank non stop. Only filled up for the return trip at the end. 

EV fanboys will claim there are charge points along the route, but with, say, 50 EVs coming off the ferry needing a charge at the same time, how long do I have to wait? There are not 50 chargers on that road BTW, maybe a dozen with a few constantly out of order. So a 2.5 hours drive could very well be turned into a whole day!

So I end up having to buy a brand new ICE car now while my old car is still functional just to beat the ICE ban. Many manufacturers are cutting their ICE range which narrows choices down, and I expect to get even lesser soon. 

So to sum it up, I end up polluting more unnecessary due to them trying to reduce pollution, and I am not even getting into the dangerous materials of EV yet!

[Willy iine 18806]

We need people like Elon who think outside the box.. I think it's a shame some folks make fun of innovators.

On the other hand, I mean look at most of the young generation with their mouths open like little chicks in a bird's nest waiting for the perfect fruit to fall from the tree in chewable sizes.  These kids don't even go for the low hanging fruit any more.    

Humanity is ending soon, might as well enjoy it.  

[Elbowloh 1129]

1 hour ago, Willy iine said:

We need people like Elon who think outside the box.. I think it's a shame some folks make fun of innovators.

On the other hand, I mean look at most of the young generation with their mouths open like little chicks in a bird's nest waiting for the perfect fruit to fall from the tree in chewable sizes.  These kids don't even go for the low hanging fruit any more.    

Humanity is ending soon, might as well enjoy it.  

I'm not so sure he is the innovator. He's good at spotting a good idea and investing in it, but he didn't design or invent Tesla or any rocket.

In recent years he's turned into a bit of a loon and a nasty one at that.

[Nick-W 1494]

Oh! An Elon discussion… 

Backs slowly away from the thread and gently closes the door. 

[RC_FunLand 167]

2 hours ago, Willy iine said:

Humanity is ending soon, might as well enjoy it.  

Was thinking just that… Rome will fall so abruptly…

[moffman 5752]

9 hours ago, yogi-bear said:

it is pretty crazy, but the problem is, what they were doing is immensely difficult. Only the Russians in the late 60s and early 70s have tried this sized rocket and each of the 4 attempts ended in the largest non nuclear explosion (as far as i am aware). I’m not really an Elon Musk fan, he has done some very odd things that i would not personally agree with, but he seems to be running SpaceX they way it needs to be (and certainly better than some of the other space companies), and he knows that to succeed he has to push the limit and that means failing, but they learn a lot from each failure.

Yeah I understand all of this space race stuff but what gets my p boiling is in our wonderful British islands at the moment they are obsessed with brow beating us with saving our planet for future generations and ULEZ cameras are popping up everywhere as quick as breeding mice! councils up and down the country are fixated with slapping charges after charges on us in the name of clean air making people get rid of perfectly serviceable vehicles because they don’t comply with ULEZ zones and then I’m watching this lot of egotistical morons put more pollution in the air in 4 minutes that all the ULEZ zones put in the air in one year………and it’s classed as a success…….unbelievable!

[BuggyDad 4477]

2 hours ago, Willy iine said:

We need people like Elon who think outside the box.. I think it's a shame some folks make fun of innovators.

Whether he's the source of innovation is open for debate but I agree with the sentiment. People who do things differently in a big way, which he has done, are at least a catalyst for change to happen. I don't think it's a coincidence that he has also done things most of us dislike. I think if he wasn't that type of person he probably wouldn't have been the enabler for positive change either.

[BuggyDad 4477]

1 hour ago, moffman said:

Yeah I understand all of this space race stuff but what gets my p boiling is in our wonderful British islands at the moment they are obsessed with brow beating us with saving our planet for future generations and ULEZ cameras are popping up everywhere as quick as breeding mice! councils up and down the country are fixated with slapping charges after charges on us in the name of clean air making people get rid of perfectly serviceable vehicles because they don’t comply with ULEZ zones and then I’m watching this lot of egotistical morons put more pollution in the air in 4 minutes that all the ULEZ zones put in the air in one year………and it’s classed as a success…….unbelievable!

I'm similarly uneasy on the damage caused by rockets in the name of progress, although I haven't studied it. I can't say I've formed an opinion on whether it's genuinely being done in the name of something positive or just a flight of fancy, I mean are we going to send people to Mars and to what end? I don't know, but am skeptical.

We do, however, need to improve the environmental impact of our lives, car use is a biggish part of that, and policy to deliver on it is inevitably going to be a challenge on popularity. Perhaps it could be done in a better way than fast implementation of ULEZ zones though. People need fair warning. There are a lot of examples of poor policy making and missed opportunity in this regard. For example, the UK has crap housing stock compared with most of western europe and new building is largely done by 6 House building companies who build rubbish. They lobbied hard against some regulation in 2016 about the standard of new builds and won, where they could've spent a fairly modest amount per house to implement it, giving us better houses which can be run at lower cost, which would've been worth more as a result. Short sighted, damaging, disappointing. Especially when plenty of our neighbours were already doing all of it, so it was all quite achievable. Retrofitting old houses is another matter entirely, difficult, but there's no excuse not to build our new ones well. 

[Sprocket 52]

12 hours ago, moffman said:

What is concerning is these rockets (and the airplane orbiter thing that other crackpot Richard Branson made) always ends up inevitably crashing back down to earth and in Brandon’s case unfortunately killing somebody but they still always insist they have been successful in what they want to accomplish so far!…………..with people around them agreeing……………sorry but I’m I looking at a completely different story? All I see is a very small group of strange (putting it politely) group of people with FAR to much money indulging themselves unsuccessfully into something they all want us to embrace to eventually buy into and more ****hteningly use as the next future generation of transport…yeah good luck with that guy’s if I was you Elon I’d concentrate on getting your over priced milk floats more reliable and better built! And give your rockets a bit of a wide birth and leave it to the people who tend to know what they are actually doing! Like NASA?

NASA? Now I don’t disagree that they know something about rockets. I do find that they are entrenched with bureaucracy and old ways of thinking while being hampered by legacy companies like ULA (a conglomeration of Lockheed and Boeing). So leaving it up to NASA means nothing will get done in a timely manner or on budget with significant innovation. BTW, NASA is supporting SpaceX. 

[Willy iine 18806]

3 hours ago, Elbowloh said:

I'm not so sure he is the innovator. He's good at spotting a good idea and investing in it, but he didn't design or invent Tesla or any rocket.

In recent years he's turned into a bit of a loon and a nasty one at that.

I don't think he sits in a lab everyday designing rocket engines, but there are people that do in his group and I think it's a shame people make fun of other people's hard work.. all I can do is make useless RC cars and Willy's garage accessories which is hardly anything special compared to someone making a frikken rocket engine..     I don't think it's pleasant when I screw up painting Willy's face and people start marking fun of it.. like I KNOW I screwed up and I know I'm no artist. 

I think Elon is an odd character, but most smart people at those levels are.. I work at a global investment firm and our group sits down with genius level folks frequently..  top people that represent their industry.. they don't think like bonehead regular folk like me. 

Anyway, hope they figure out what went wrong.  I also hope I don't screw up my next driver's face.   haha

[yogi-bear 2321]

1 hour ago, Sprocket said:

NASA? Now I don’t disagree that they know something about rockets. I do find that they are entrenched with bureaucracy and old ways of thinking while being hampered by legacy companies like ULA (a conglomeration of Lockheed and Boeing). So leaving it up to NASA means nothing will get done in a timely manner or on budget with significant innovation. BTW, NASA is supporting SpaceX. 

I would add to this that SpaceX is arguably the world’s best rocket manufacturer at the moment. They are currently innovating faster than any one else and doing things that NASA can’t. Their rate of launches is way better than anyone else’s and is only getting better. That is not to take away from the massive achievements that NASA has made (or indeed some other rocket companies), but NASA is defined by a different set of rules, NASA is a government agency after all, and SpaceX isn’t. SpaceX can afford to blow up a rocket or two, NASA can’t. We are now are in the era of the commercialization of space, and NASA and even the military need companies like SpaceX to achieve their goals. There would be a lot of scientist and military watching SpaceXs progress eagerly as once they can do successful launches of the new Starship, it opens up a lot of possibilities both scientifically and military that weren’t available before. 

Whether you agree or not this is all worth it, I do personally, but there is an environmental cost. Rockets launches are bad overall, even the hydrogen powered ones that are used by NASA on the SLS aren’t perfect. Sure they only give of water as a by product, but the production of hydrogen isn’t great. SpaceX’s rockets use Oxygen and Kerosene and lots of liquid nitrogen, think 10s of thousands of gallons of fuel per second! And SpaceX what to launch the giant rocket at some stage at least weekly if not more frequently. But they have to if they want to achieve the goal of establishing a base on Mars eventually. Although I suspect by the time they are ready to get to Mars they will have switched to nuclear powered rockets.

I personally find all this very exciting as we are watching rockets go from the bi-plane era equivalent to potentially the jet engine era in the next decade or so.

[droidy 91]

Inside the SpaceX factory is like any RC hobby room, taken to an amazing extreme of scale and detail. Pretty awesome stuff!

It's a bit like our hobbies (and the thoughtful threads about it here) where there's a lot (to scale) of waste and plastics/chemicals as a by-product. Personally I think that's okay if you consciously accept that it is a waste/harm/cost, but it's being generated towards some creative or productive end ("vanity" rocket launches being none of that).

I hope that this "democratisation" of manufacturing, fabrication and technology that we see with 3d printers, CNC, lasers, microcontrollers and so on allows our children to make micro scale sustainability solutions, like a little sprue-chomper-farm or something. Somewhat ironically it's thanks to economic growth, and exploitation, and Moore's law that we've reached this level of cheap and compact access to technology.

Another take is that hybrid vehicles seem to be the only practical, economical and environmental solution long term? Each extreme of ICE and EV seems to have the worst of some world/cost/material. Don't want to jump from one big problem into another.

Oh, and on the other topic, people are weird