Nobody told me the Space Needle was a ⚽️ now!

Unironically, paintings like this by Bryan Larsen is how I feel about engineering sometimes: Confronting the arbitrary limits and punishments that petty people/gods have placed upon humanity, and saying "Oh, that? Yeah, we fixed that." www.bryanlarsenart.com

Flying around Mt. St. Helens. I don't think enough people realize that the lakes here are *still* filled with dead trees from the explosion 46 years ago. Stuff's just got nowhere to go!

Space is cooling ~10,000 of these satellites right now.

kilt gozado do jamie bell@radekllundain.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Space is not chill! Space cannot cool anything!

Our crew. We get to meet *our crew*. 6 years ago, I started this new job because I missed the challenge of human spaceflight. Of engineering for our crew. *Our* crew. And we get to meet them in an hour!!!!

European Space Agency@esa.int · 2mo ago

#WatchLive | Artemis III Tune in on 9 June at 17:00 CEST for a live update from NASA on the Artemis III mission. With the third European Service Module powering Orion, this mission marks a key step towards returning humans to the Moon. 🔗 www.youtube.com/live/g9Upxj1...

Come on down and find me at #AlaskaAviation day at SeaTac today! We've got planes! PLANES! MOAR PLANES!

Again: It's fine to be skeptical of AI. I know I am. But if your AI skepticism is anchored in how AI is portrayed in science fiction, then you are basically calibrating your fears based on page rankings on TV Tropes. Science fiction is *not* science precedent.

Max Fagin@maxfagin.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Back of the envelope, what fraction of AI fears are built on science fiction tropes, rather than an informed understanding of the actual tech? Science fiction is not science precedent. HAL goes bad in 2001 for the same reason Athena saves humanity in A Time Odyssey: It makes for a good story.

Nah. We already solved that threat. It's called Google Translate.

Huh. Claude has figured out that I don't want it to be flattering and affirming. That conclusion is accurate. But also very... flattering and affirming 😅

"No no, I don't think you quite understand. I said 'Tower', not 'Meower'. And no, I don't think the FAA would approve of doing that with a laser pointer. Also, I don't think you are taking this flight briefing very seriously."

The perfect iPad space wallpaper does not exi...

Where we came from and where we're going, together in the sky. What a time to be alive. 🌓🌍

This weird looking object Orion is pointing at is an International Docking System Standard Centerline Docking Target (IDSS CDT), Rev E. It's not just cool looking, there is a lot of information embedded in the geometry that a pilot can use. Print your own here! www.printables.com/model/143055...

The LROC Quickmap website exists, is free, and anyone can use it to make pretty much any map that you would want of any dataset covering any portion of the lunar surface. quickmap.lroc.im-ldi.com

Sarah Hörst@planetdr.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Tell me your favorite thing about the moon. It can be a science fact, a childhood memory, a dream you are still working toward…no rules, just the Moon

Found out a coworker has made it to his mid-20's without ever seeing or playing with a gyroscope. He doesn't know the meeting I scheduled with him tomorrow is to congratulate him on being one of today's lucky 10,000! *xkcd.com/1053/

Update: Paul Ehrlich no longer contributing to the overpopulation problem*

Max Dubler 🏳️‍🌈@maxdubler.com · 5mo ago

Today is a good day to reread this @jerusalem.bsky.social piece on Paul Ehrlich, Zero Population Growth, the Green Revolution, ecofascist immigration politics, and NIMBYism.

I solve this problem with kids by pronouncing it "Kuroo-an-us" (slightly rolled r). Then if any kid corrects me, I get to tell them how "Uranus" is our mispronounciation of the god we now call "Kronos", and by the time a 12 year old untangles that 🤯, they've forgotten the butt joke.

Space Telescope Science Institute@stsci.edu · 5mo ago

Webb Mission Operations Center: 😏

Good question! Why people in space? In simple terms, because: 1) People good 2) More people more good 3) Maximum people maximum good 4) Maximum people need people space. In much more elegant terms 😉: youtu.be/XH8Dn_d5mIs?...

Blue Origin: For the Benefit of Earth

YouTube video by Blue Origin

youtu.be

Nessa@vmcf.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Why do we want and believe in people in space? Is it a hedge on human destruction of Earth? Seems like all that money would be better invested in saving the planet. Also hard to have faith in our ability to maintain a healthy habitable artificial environment when we can’t maintain the one we have

It's perfectly normal to encounter the idea of datacenters in space and wonder, "Why?" As an aerospace engineer who has been in this industry for ~15 years, let me try to give some historical context: No one has yet found The Idea™ that makes space-based civilizations a profitable investment. 1/

"Endeavour, use caution when docking with station. Birds on the target"

I keep encountering this misconception about datacenters in space. So let me make this clear: An individual satellite isn't the datacenter. The constellation of ~thousands of satellites is the datacenter. The satellites are single racks. And that's a very solvable power/thermal problem.

Mike Boylan-Kolchin@mbkplus.bsky.social · 6mo ago

Given your bio, I suspect you know that the heat generated is way larger for a space data center than for starlink and therefore the size of radiation panels to dump the heat is *way* larger (which makes launch costs prohibitive, among other issues)

Respectfully disagree. Alive is better than inanimate. Vibrant is better than pristine. To me, bringing life (not just human life, all life!) to every part of the solar system that our technology can enable it to exist is a profoundly beautiful act of environmentalism.

Dr. Adeene Denton@spacewhalerider.com · 6mo ago

The Moon is not a playground, and it's not free real estate for exploitation just because it's definitely not habitable/of astrobiological significance! The Navajo Nation is one of many nations who have called NASA to account for respectful treatment of the Moon: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Artemis II is taking humans back to the moon soon! Let's talk about their trajectory.

Artemis II and Lunar Free Return Trajectories

YouTube video by Max Fagin

youtu.be

Lawyers, please, I am begging you. Just *try* talking to an engineer. We are just as nerdy as you and delight just as much in a well-constructed "You're wrong". It will save you from writing laws like WA HB 2321. Laws like this actually do make engineers not want to talk to you.

THIS. We need to make "LOL, I suck at math" as shameful and unthinkable a thing for an adult to say as "LOL, I don't read books". Innumeracy needs to be as shameful as illiteracy. Not a self depricatory joke warrenting a "😜"

PMC Vanguardist@tylerboschert.bsky.social · 7mo ago

Screenshot instead of a quote post because this person doesn't deserve to have their mentions destroyed, BUT: I hate this shit. I hate it so much. There is a culture of innumeracy in the legal profession and it does enormous damage. If you're a lawyer who teehees about poor math skills, stop it.

#duvetknowitschristmas @maxfagin.bsky.social

Max Faget, NASA design engineer on Mercury, Gemini, Apollo *and* Shuttle.

Bolide in the sky on the drive back from Portland!

Good design is redesign. That said, if this design could hurry up and converge already, my scrap part bin would really appreciate it.

My high school friends in 2005: "You know what would be fun? Let's spend a year remaking #MontyPython and the Holy Grail and uploading it to this new website called uh... UTube?" Same friends in 2025: "Hey! Let's relive the time we did that!" Tonight at 6PM PT: youtu.be/0YjQArPxL5I

Monty Python and the Holy Grail, 20th Anniversary Full Resolution Livestream

YouTube video by Max Fagin

youtu.be