SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
California Gov. Jerry Brown to launch satellite to track greenhouse gas emissions
California Gov. Jerry Brown started the week by signing a pair of actions to get his state to use nothing but electric power drawn from green sources like wind and solar by 2045. He ended the week Friday with a surprise: The state would launch its "own damn satellite" to track down greenhouse gas emitters who fuel global warming.
Brown announces California plan to launch satellite to track climate change
News of California's satellite was among an abundance of pomp and pageantry on Friday when some of the week's biggest names took the stage, including musician Dave Matthews, former Secretary of State John Kerry and chimpanzee expert Jane Goodall.
This discussion has been archived.
No new comments can be posted.
California to Launch Weather Satellite
|
Log In/Create an Account
| Top
| 35 comments
| Search Discussion
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
Croll's Query:
If tin whistles are made of tin, what are foghorns made of?
(Score: 2) by VLM on Tuesday September 18 2018, @12:22PM (9 children)
So they're going to sing it up into space or they'll have a chimp-out?
Remember from a technical perspective this is the kind of people we're dealing with:
https://wagingnonviolence.org/feature/the-day-they-levitated-the-pentagon/ [wagingnonviolence.org]
(Score: 3, Interesting) by takyon on Tuesday September 18 2018, @12:42PM
If Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, or Bulgaria can "launch" a satellite, so can California. There are plenty of satellite companies based in California [wikipedia.org] which would be good choices to receive the contract for building one. SpaceX is a California-based launcher.
Is the real question about money? California is $1.3 trillion in debt, or just $428 billion if you want to be generous. Another $100 million or so thrown onto the pile of debt is negligible. If they want to save some money, they could do a rideshare instead of getting a dedicated Falcon 9 flight. They could build a smaller satellite, such as a CubeSat, for this rideshare. That could cost less than $200,000 including launch, although I don't know if it would meet their goals. They could partner with a California university for the ground operations portion.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 18 2018, @12:45PM (5 children)
They'll use SpaceX, ignoring the impact of rocket emitted alumina in the upper atmosphere. They could indeed sing kumbaya to their rocket god during launch before inevitably lecturing us on "science".
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 18 2018, @01:21PM (1 child)
Pray tell, what that impact would be?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 18 2018, @01:34PM
Warming effect [pnas.org] and likely reduced precipitation. [ametsoc.org]
(Score: 5, Informative) by Immerman on Tuesday September 18 2018, @01:27PM (2 children)
What alumina? The solid rocket boosters on the SLS burn aluminum-ammonium perchlorate, but SpaceX uses strictly liquid propellants. The Falcon burns RP-1, a.k.a. highly refined kerosene. No aluminum included.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 18 2018, @01:49PM (1 child)
Interesting, still produces sulfur dioxide though.
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Tuesday September 18 2018, @03:04PM
From what sulfur? Sulfur attacks metals at high temperature, so they do their best to remove the naturally occurring sulfur impurities it during the production of RP-1. Not 100% effective, but there's far less sulfur than you'd find in normal kerosene, gasoline, etc.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 18 2018, @07:10PM (1 child)
Well we deal with you all the time and the world hasn't exploded, just sayin' if the anti christ reincarnation of Hitler won't do it then neither will a bunch of environmentalists out Caleeforneeway.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Wednesday September 19 2018, @08:34PM
I think I'm in love!