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igneousink t1_it4ijdp wrote

Reply to comment by aecarol1 in China looked at putting a monitoring satellite in retrograde geostationary orbit via the moon by OkOrdinary5299

note to self: add "ball bearings taking out all modern conveniences" to things to worry about at 2 am

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jqubed t1_it4ouu8 wrote

It’s so simple! Maybe you need a refresher course: it’s all ball bearings nowadays!

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igneousink t1_it4qkxv wrote

where i live there is a ball bearing factory that has been a staple of the city for like 100 years and there's an actual display in the library commemorating them with like this elaborate shadow box thing

my adoptive dad used to design ball bearings and he had a lot to say about them

https://softsolder.com/2017/05/07/relics-of-the-empire-bearing-samples/

picture for reference

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ikverhaar t1_it558vk wrote

>my adoptive dad used to design ball bearings and he had a lot to say about them

I know you're talking about the entire mechanism, but the first thing that popped into my head was just the spherical bearings. "Hey Johnny, have you figured out what our next bearings are gonna look like?" "Yes, I was thinking about perfectly spherical balls of metal, just like our thousand previous designs."

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ddejong42 t1_it5iipy wrote

But what if you need ones that are exactly 3.7654mm in diameter? You're going to need Johnny then!

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hiS_oWn t1_it5ufwz wrote

3.8mm? You've gone mad johnny! Mad!

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ikverhaar t1_it6hnmz wrote

"Hey Johny, we need some 3,7654 mm bearings."

"Yeah, I was thinking of a design with perfectly smooth orbs with a diameter of 3,7654mm."

"Johny, you're revolutionary."

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LillBur t1_it4urge wrote

I've always wondered who is designing this stuff. Something so innocuous that everyone uses . . . .

Thank him for his service for me

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igneousink t1_it4w09z wrote

he died of COVID 😥

but he would have liked to hear something like that . . .

. . . and would then launch into an hour diatribe about the uselessness and temporary nature of current objects that we use everyday, his favorite topic

seriously tho, ball bearings are serious business and there's no such thing as a perfect sphere

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LillBur t1_it4ycrv wrote

I'm sorry for our loss.

I've honestly always assumed these people are genius. It sounds like he had all the passion I imagined, I'm so happy to hear he enjoyed his time here. Man, such an uplift to me that I shared a temporary stay on this planet with him -- I really needed to hear about him.

Seriously, what a massive impact

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igneousink t1_it506ox wrote

i was adopted when i was 19

i had never known "dad" before and there he was lol

the kind of guy that built a seaworthy canoe for a church thing when they were just looking for painted props haha

thank you for your kind words, i needed to hear those, too

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adkhotsauce t1_it5pukz wrote

How do you adopt an adult?

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BlueSkyFunGuy t1_it6gtf2 wrote

Through the same legal process of becoming a legal parent of a child, just with someone who's already independent rather than dependent on the state. You pick up the relevant papers at the courthouse, fill out the information and go through the submission process and eventually see a family court for a judge to sign off on it.

A lot of step-parents do it or sometimes people do it so their inheritance is passed on to a person and not the state, there are some heartwarming compilations of the former on youtube.

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igneousink t1_it6lqj7 wrote

in my case my adoptive parents got a lawyer, they filed the paperwork and i was adopted (along with my younger sisters)

once the adoption went through, i got a new birth certificate with my adoptive parents listed as my legal parents rather than my biological ones

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ImPickleRock t1_it4vtti wrote

Prepare that fetzer valve with 3 in 1 oil and gauze pads

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LineChef t1_it5j6u9 wrote

Don’t tell me my business boy, I’m checkin’ the luggage!

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CYAN_DEUTERIUM_IBIS t1_it66eg3 wrote

Even space ball bearings at ultra sonic speeds cannot ruin a truly heartfelt soup.

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igneousink t1_it6lj9c wrote

a way better sentiment than "live laugh love"

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[deleted] t1_it4kmbi wrote

[deleted]

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saberline152 t1_it4milx wrote

those are in LEO tho?

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koohikoo t1_it4oewi wrote

That’s correct, they aren’t really a major concern for space junk because they’re in quite low of an orbit, meaning Even if they explode, most of the debris will burn up in the atmosphere

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thx1138- t1_it4opgw wrote

Not to mention they're designed to have short life spans and continually be replaced.

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GlockAF t1_it4v7eh wrote

Altitude, geostationary orbit:

35,786 km (22,236 miles)

Altitude, Starlink orbit:

550 km (340 miles)

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chadenright t1_it5r38l wrote

Spacex's satellites are intentionally short-lived and have a useful life of just five years. If someone went to the enormous trouble of knocking them all out, SpaceX could just launch a barebones service replacement on the next satellite full of replacements they were going to launch anyways.

Honestly, part of why I'm reluctant to commit to using Starlink is because it sounds like it has very high operating and maintenance costs for that reason. Sure, Musk has made space launches cheaper. Cheap enough to intentionally use short-lived satellites for long-term static services? I don't know....

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StevenTM t1_it8aybo wrote

It's not the fact that a tree in the area surrounding your house means your internet cuts out..?

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igneousink t1_it4l9f7 wrote

i find spacex to be concerning also

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ClearlyCylindrical t1_it4rtjo wrote

How so?

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igneousink t1_it4spoy wrote

specifically elon, i guess

the whole thing feels like an ego trip and yeah i get it, i guess i would be all out there too if i was rich, but there's a lax-ness that is concerning on his part

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phred14 t1_it5bdnh wrote

I used to think of him as Heinlein's "D.D. Harriman" (The Man Who Sold the Moon) in real life. But the more he shoots his mouth off and pulls silly stunts, the more I think of his Mars ideas as the Ultimate Doomsday Prepper, with plans for an out of this world bunker - on Mars.

To be fair, he did more than anyone else to push acceptance of electric cars, to take them from boring to desirable. He also moved the launch business to re-usable and closer to commonplace.

But when he opens his mouth, it can make it hard to remember the good things.

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nowakezones t1_it6qbpm wrote

Laxness like perfect execution, over and over and over again?

Elon has his personal flaws, but SpaceX is not one of them.

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igneousink t1_it8d2xv wrote

You do have a point and I appreciate the commentary.

Gives me something to think about.

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