Tag: launch

The Loudest Animal Upon Earth

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Blue whales communicate at volumes up to 185 decibels, and can be heard tens of kilometers away and possibly even hundreds of kilometers away. It is believed that the U.S. Navy’s Sound Navigation and Ranging (SONAR) transmitters can produce sounds underwater up to 215 decibels. To provide a frame of reference, the Saturn V rocket launch produced a sound of 200 decibels, loud enough to kill a human being. The blue whale is the loudest animal within the ocean in terms of continuous, sustained sound

American Theoretical Physicist Robert Oppenheimer’s Reaction to the First Successful Nuclear Weapon Detonation

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After the Trinity nuclear launch test which occurred on July 16, 1945, the first nuclear detonation in human history, when Manhattan Project lead Julius Robert Oppenheimer was asked about the reaction of himself and others on that fateful day Oppenheimer responded, “we knew the world would not be the same. A few people laughed, a few people cried, most people were silent. I remembered the line from the Hindu scripture the Bhagavad Gita. Vishnu is trying to persuade the prince that he should do his duty and to impress him takes on his multiarmed form and says, Now, I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds. I suppose we all thought that one way or another” (this phrasing/sentence structure while confusing in English, is the correct direct translation from Sanskrit)

The Reason the Challenger Spacecraft Disaster Occured

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The reason the Challenger space craft exploded 73 seconds into its launch on January 28, 1986 was because the temperature the morning of the launch was -1 degrees Celsius which caused the o-rings placed around the rocket’s boosters to shrink and leak fuel upon liftoff. This theory was brought to light by Valentina Tereshkova, who was the first woman in space. Tereshkova relayed her theory to one of the heads of staff at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration who then relayed it to Richard Feynman by showing him how vehicle carburetors which also have o-rings experience the same issue. If the ambient temperature is below 11 degrees Celsius this issue is a common occurrence with all o-rings, regardless of the vehicle or craft it is installed upon