They are to burn off any pooled combustible gases pre-ignition to avoid destructive, non-directed combustion at liftoff.

Yes, I know.

But we don't have warp drive or quantum torpedoes yet? Not buying it.

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I took it that they could smelt metal sooner than previously thought

Well first they said Egypt wasn't suspected to have developed the skills to smelt iron that early, then they say the dagger was shaped by hammer, then they say it's evidence of early iron smithing in Egypt.

It's really unclear.

He who smelted it, dealted it.

Smelting, forging and hammerforming are subsets of smithing.

Egyptians did not have the tech to reach temperatures to smelt this ore.

The earth's atmosphere smelted it as the meteorite fell to earth.

Egyptians found it and hammered it into shape.

Ok, so I just don't know shit about smithing.

Pretty incredible that they could create such a good-looking dagger with just a hammer.

While it's possible that it happened this way, that is a shit load of speculation about something that happened thousands of years ago to state it as fact.

As opposed to all the firsthand knowledge we usually call on these days about 1400 BC?

They're presently fairly certain, and apparently have been for a while, that Egyptians of the era had no tech to make the alloy.

What they confirmed, what is new, is the actual composition of the alloy, through spectroscopy.

It's a man formed/shaped tool composed of an alloy that had to come from a meteorite, unless this one tiny object was ejected from the bowels of the earth somehow, or they had smelting technology they only used this one time.

Thx.

Bold prediction: A NASA spacecraft will catch fire in space today..... :D

Fire in the Hole: Studying How Flames Grow in Space

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Understanding how fire spreads in a microgravity environment is critical to the safety of astronauts who live and work in space. And while NASA has conducted studies aboard the space shuttle and International Space Station, risks to the crew have forced these experiments to be limited in size and scope.

Now a new experiment, designed, built and managed at NASA’s Glenn Research Center, will ignite an understanding of microgravity fire on a much larger scale. The Spacecraft Fire Experiment, known as Saffire, is a series of experiments to be launched on three different flights beginning in March.

“A spacecraft fire is one of the greatest crew safety concerns for NASA and the international space exploration community,” says Gary Ruff, Saffire project manager.

Saffire will involve far larger flames than previous experiments and will investigate the way fire spreads on a variety of combustible materials. Because the experiments will be conducted away from the space station, there is no risk to the astronauts aboard.

Each Saffire experiment will be remotely operated inside a 3 x 5 foot module, split into two compartments. One side of the module is an avionics bay that contains sensors, high definition video cameras and signal processing equipment. The other side contains the hardware required to ignite a large flame and burn the fabrics and materials inside.

When the experiments begin, Saffire I and III will burn one large 16 by 37-inch piece of SIBAL cloth, which is a blend of fiberglass and cotton. This material has been studied in previous microgravity combustion experiments, although at a much smaller size. The SIBAL cloth will be burned from the bottom to see how the flame spreads. If the flame extinguishes itself, scientists will light it at the top and see what happens as the flame moves opposite to the airflow.

Saffire II, scheduled to launch in June from Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia, will ignite a mix of nine different samples of materials used routinely on the space station including flame reerunant fabrics used for astronaut clothing, station Plexiglas window samples with edge variations and structures used for storage containers and silicone composites. Each sample is two by 11 inches, the size sample NASA uses to screen materials on Earth before they are used on a spacecraft.

“Saffire seeks to answer two questions,” says David Urban, principal investigator. “Will an upward spreading flame continue to grow or will microgravity limit the size? Secondly, what fabrics and materials will catch fire and how will they burn?”

The Saffire I payload will hitch a ride on a resupply mission to the space station in an Orbital ATK Cygnus cargo vehicle from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. When Cygnus arrives, astronauts will unload their supplies, but Saffire will remain on board Cygnus.

“Within the first day after Cygnus pulls away from the space station, we will begin the experiment, which will run autonomously once the RUN command is sent,” says Steven Sinacore, deputy project manager. “It will only take a few hours to run the experiments, but Cygnus will remain in space for seven days to ensure complete data transmission back to the Saffire operations team on the ground.” Eventually, Saffire, along with Cygnus, will be destroyed upon reentry into Earth’s atmosphere.

Concepts for additional Saffire missions- IV, V, VI are in development to focus more on flame spread, smoke propagation, detection and suppression of fire.

As NASA continues to send astronauts to the space station and continues the path toward a human mission to Mars, improving understanding of the structure of spacecraft fires is critical. “Saffire is all about gaining a better understanding of how fire behaves in space so NASA can develop better materials, technologies and procedures to reduce crew risk and increase space flight safety,” says Ruff.

Saffire’s flight systems were sponsored by NASA’s Advanced Exploration Systems (AES) Program. AES develops foundational technologies and high-priority capabilities that are the building blocks for future human space missions. AES technologies are developed using in-house capabilities and NASA’s workforce while fostering public-private partnerships.

Don't know if this is so much cutting edge science as comprehensive engineering.

But I could watch it all day long

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Note this is available in up to 4K.

And here it appears to be on google maps

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/...!4d129.8349381

/r/interestingas****

I'd like to see one of the building of the Death Star