Daily Archives: July 25, 2021
Sour Grapes ?
After we sat outside with our coffee this morning I prepped our Weber 200 grill for the hot dog roast this afternoon. Actually the prep just consisted by wire-brushing off the charred remains of our BBQ ribs from a few weeks ago. And it still smelled really good.
Since 2004 and up until July 20th of this year, the FAA said that a person who flew above 50 miles, or 80km, was entitled to Commercial Astronaut Wings.
Yes, there was that little quibble about outer space not really starting until 62 miles, or 100km. But the rules are (were) the rules.
At least up until July 20th.
On July 9th Richard Branson, along with 5 others flew a 53 mile high sub-orbital flight on his SpaceShipTwo, qualifying them all for Commercial Astronaut Wings.
At least up until July 20th.
Then on July 20th Jeff Bezos and three others, including both the youngest (18) and the oldest (82) crew members ever, flew over 62 miles high, again on a sub-orbital flight. Qualifying them for both Commercial Astronaut Wings and the honor of actually making it above the Kármán Line (62mi/100km) and officially into outer space.
At least up until that same July 20th. That’s the day that the FAA suddenly decided to change the rules.
Now you have to fly above 50 miles and that would-be astronauts must also have “demonstrated activities during flight that were essential to public safety, or contributed to human space flight safety,”
Well, I’m sorry, but I think ‘civilians’ putting 10 people ‘safely’ into space and bringing them ‘safely’ back to earth should qualify. Plus the rules weren’t changed until after Branson’s flight, so he and his crew should still qualify.
Otherwise it just seems like Sour Grapes. I mean, the last time NASA even put anybody into space was 10 years ago, in 2011 with the last shuttle flight. Since then all US astronauts sent up to the ISS went on Russian rockets, or more recently, on SpaceX’s Crew Dragon, another one of those ‘civilian’ companies.
I may need a new front AC or maybe not. Sometime during the afternoon our front AC just up and quit. Every now and then over the last couple of days, Jan and I both thought we smelled something electrical getting hot, but I was never able to narrow it down to a specific location.
At first I thought it might be a bad breaker, but when I switched it over to another one, it popped back off immediately. So my first thought was that the AC compressor had a dead short.
But then I got to thinking that the AC compressor shouldn’t be coming on then anyway because the AC was turned off at the thermostat. Plus even if it were turned on, there’s a 2-3 minute delay when you put power back to the unit before the compressor would come back on anyway.
So now I’m wondering if it might be the same control box up inside the unit that I replaced back in March after it burned out.
So I’ll pull it down tomorrow and take a look at it.
But I’m beginning to wonder if there’s not a problem with these boxes, since everywhere I’ve looked online either shows them Out of Stock or Back-Ordered.
If it’s a burnout relay like the last one, I may end up kludging in a new one. I’ve got the schematic of the box,
so the first thing I’ll do is short across the NO and COM wires on the Compressor Relay. If the AC comes on, then I’ll know it’s not the AC Compressor, but the Compressor Relay.
But if I get a big, blinding arc, then I’ll know the AC compressor is shorted, and I’ll be looking at $800 or so for a new rooftop unit.
We actually weren’t too uncomfortable today. Our rear AC is ducted to the front. Plus the humidity was low and with all our fans running, it only got up to about 83° in the rig, so not too bad.
I did go ahead and grill the dogs and brats outside and they were delicious.
And we’ve still got enough for a couple of more meals.
Thought For The Day:
What if UFO’s are just Billionaires from another planet?
