Nobody Cares! (Science & Tech Edition)

Sovereignty

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This past weekend a new TWIV episode dropped where they review a recent paper (not five years ago): Nipah virus dynamics in bats and implications for spillover to humans.

[Nipah virus] has caused repeated outbreaks in Bangladesh and India, with a mean case-fatality rate greater than 70%.
This virus is not easily transmitted from human to human, but infections can be asymptomatic. Virologists have been aware of it since 1999. From listening to TWIV, the risk apparently lies in the bat virus getting into human hosts and persisting long enough to adapt. Mutations are common in viruses, but usually do not significantly change how a virus functions. The less time spent in human hosts, the better.

The TWIV episode also discusses the SARS-CoV-2 infections of mink in Denmark. Link, if you read Danish. The risk is that the virus would adapt to living in mink and perhaps turn into something distinct from SARS-CoV-2. Denmark is destroying the mink (industry was shutting down anyway) and closely monitoring the human population. There already are cases of people being infected with SARS-CoV-2 from mink but no evidence of a distinct virus (e.g., requiring a different vaccine).
 
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Max Haot is not your typical rocket scientist, and Launcher is not your typical rocket company.

To be fair, Haot really isn't a rocket scientist at all. He's more of a video and technology guy, starting his career in the late 1990s by running digital operations for IMG Media and later founding Livestream. He had always maintained a deep interest in space, however, and by 2017 when he began to look around for something else to do, he returned to those dreams.
Bored start-up super rich guy. Always a good combo.

Haot did not start Launcher in March 2017 with the intent of madly racing toward the launch pad as quickly as possible, as Elon Musk had done with SpaceX and other companies were trying to do. He didn't have that kind of money. Rather, he would keep his company small—really small—to keep expenses low and use additive manufacturing where possible. He had a ten-year plan to reach profitability. And he has stuck to that. The Brooklyn, New York-based company has just eight US employees, along with another 10 people in Ukraine helping with design work.
8 US employees. For a rocket company. Definitely keeping things small.
 

danielravennest

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8 US employees. For a rocket company. Definitely keeping things small.
Rocket engines are not that big. This is the Raptor engine for the Starship rocket that SpaceX is developing. It produces half a million pounds of thrust, but sits on a standard shipping pallet and can be hauled to the test stand with a pickup.

 
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Rocket engines are not that big. This is the Raptor engine for the Starship rocket that SpaceX is developing. It produces half a million pounds of thrust, but sits on a standard shipping pallet and can be hauled to the test stand with a pickup.

What does the size of the engines have to do with # of employees for a space rocket company?

They're not picking the things up by hand and moving them around warehouses on wooden pallets.
 

Ashiri

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What does the size of the engines have to do with # of employees for a space rocket company?

They're not picking the things up by hand and moving them around warehouses on wooden pallets.
If they are producing engines, do they really need all the staff that a space launch company needs?
Keeping in mind that a lot of the design work (in general terms of what works and what doesn't) has already been done
 

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If they are producing engines, do they really need all the staff that a space launch company needs?
Possibly not. And that's why I highlighted it, because rocket companies don't tend to exist with an employee count barely large enough to keep a corner grocery open.

Another example: the Skunk Works has been involved with projects where the number of engineers actually involved on them, or say the actual time to completion, would sound made up.
 

danielravennest

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What does the size of the engines have to do with # of employees for a space rocket company?

They're not picking the things up by hand and moving them around warehouses on wooden pallets.
It means the factory can be a small building, rather than the 36 acre United Launch Alliance factory in Decatur, AL. They can also reasonably order parts from elsewhere rather than making it all in-house. One reason the ULA factory is so large is putting together the large rocket tanks and other structures. In turn the finished stages are too big to go by road or rail, so they have be barged down the Tennessee River on a custom barge. All that big stuff involves more people.



If you compare the rocket engine to the truck that's pulling it, they are roughly the same size. So you can imagine building it in a place the size of an auto shop, with like 8 people working there. In fact, the engine they are building is likely much smaller than the Raptor, which is on the large end of rocket engines.
 

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It means the factory can be a small building
Really? So you're saying a company with a very small employee base can totally get by by using a small building to house them all?

Thanks for the information, math man.
 

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Why are you so bitchy these days? Do you need a hug?
It's pretty much how I am when I have to deal with a condescending gasbag who talks down to me like I'm 8 years old.

Now, I can appreciate if you don't see yourself that way, considering you did only explain (with example!) that a company - rocket or otherwise - with a small number of employees, doesn't really require a large building to do business, because - and I'll assume this is only in part because businesses are a labyrinthine subject - but because and I'm quoting you here word for word:

"They can also reasonably order parts from elsewhere rather than making it all in-house".

But I'm honored you at least thought I might be able to comprehend such a complicated idea.

Now, do *you* need a hug?
 

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This has already ended not well.
 

danielravennest

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It's pretty much how I am when I have to deal with a condescending gasbag who talks down to me like I'm 8 years old.
I'm not replying directly to you. I'm replying for the benefit of other people who aren't in the space business. If you hate me that much, put me on ignore. I can't put *you* on ignore, because posting here is your life, and you are responsible for 15% of all the posts ever made on VVO. If I did, I would miss too much of the conversation, and many of your posts are useful, funny, or informative.
 
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Kamilah Hauptmann

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I can't put *you* on ignore
Sure you can. :) Set enough people on ignore and it with practice becomes clear when it’s worthwhile to press the see ignored button. Your blood pressure will thank you in this high volume fire hose of a forum.