Martin Rundkvist2d ago

You know there's something wrong with US politics when NASA is forced to communicate in Imperial measurements.

"Orion’s main engine provides up to 6,000 pounds of thrust, enough to accelerate a car from 0 to 60 mph in about 2.7 seconds. At the time of the burn, Orion’s mass was 58,000 pounds and burned approximately 1,000 pounds of fuel during the firing."

https://www.nasa.gov/blogs/missions/2026/04/02/artemis-ii-flight-day-2-orion-completes-tli-burn-crew-begins-journey-to-the-moon/

#space #artemis #nasa

Artemis II Flight Day 2: Orion Completes TLI Burn, Crew Begins Journey to the Moon - NASA

NASA’s Artemis II crew is on the way to the Moon.

NASA
Show threadMartin Rundkvist2d ago

OFFS "On the station, crews rely on more than 4,000 pounds of exercise hardware spread across roughly 850 cubic feet." 🙄

#science #nasa #artemis

Show threadMartin Rundkvist2d ago

NASA's use of Imperial measurements is similar to if US biologists started using species names in the Texas dialect instead of in Latin.

#science #nasa #artemis #space

Show threadMartin Rundkvist2d ago

I can't overstate this. NASA's use of pounds and cubic feet in its outreach efforts does not come across to science-literate people, inside or outside the US, as a sign that the country is a badass superpower that can do what it likes and ignore everyone else.

Instead it suggests that the US is a provincial nation of dungaree-wearing banjo players.

#science #nasa #artemis #space

Show threadDavid Scott Moyer2d ago
@mrundkvist It is frustrating as well for the hundreds of millions of Americans who had no choice of measurement standards in school or everyday life, most of whom neither wear dungarees nor play banjo. Every day I am applying complex conversion formulae just to get by in Mexico. I still don't have an innate sense of either metric sizes or celsius temperatures. Metric is easier, but still a struggle. Poor me.
Show threaddrhoopoe14h ago
@farbel @mrundkvist I feel you. I've spent significant time living outside the US, and celsius temps are still all but meaningless to me.
Show threadNorman Wilson5h ago

@drhoopoe @farbel @mrundkvist I moved to Canada 35 years ago, but it took me only a year or so to become comfortable with Celsius in everyday life. You just have to learn new numeric names for things like `really cold', `chilly', `warm', `too damn hot'.

But I had the unfair advantage of being interested in science and studying physics for a time back in my US days.

Show threadDavid Scott Moyer2h ago
@oclsc @drhoopoe @mrundkvist I think the biggest difficulty for me is that the difference between numbers is double that of Farenheit. I'll figure it out.
Show threadNorman Wilson2h ago
@farbel @drhoopoe @mrundkvist Yeah, you get used to it. In either system one mostly just thinks about the nearest round number. e.g. it's over 70 == it's over 20 == it's unreasonably warm (to my taste). 22 or 74 means it's a a bit warmer.
Show threadNorman Wilson
@farbel @drhoopoe @mrundkvist Or to take an active example, I wish the damn facilities people at work would replace the thermostat in my office, which keeps jumping up to 24.9 on its own, winter or summer. At this point I don't really expect them to fix it before I throw in the towel and retire (not for that reason, though).
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