Back when NASA was flinging things into space for the first time, the tolerances that were even possible were extremely tight. Every pound mattered (every pound still matters, but because we have other things to do once we get to space nowadays, plus every pound is expensive).
600 pounds of white paint for the fuel tank was considered unnecessary, once the engineering team figured that it didn’t actually protect the special foam covering of the fuel tank anyway. Thus the distinctive orange color!
Oh, I thought the pictures were backwards. The orange being the natural color and the white being paint is really critical information for it to make sense lol
PugJesus@piefed.social 2 months ago
Back when NASA was flinging things into space for the first time, the tolerances that were even possible were extremely tight. Every pound mattered (every pound still matters, but because we have other things to do once we get to space nowadays, plus every pound is expensive).
600 pounds of white paint for the fuel tank was considered unnecessary, once the engineering team figured that it didn’t actually protect the special foam covering of the fuel tank anyway. Thus the distinctive orange color!
Scrollone@feddit.it 2 months ago
For all the people in the world except the United States, 600 freedom units = ~272 kg
wieson@feddit.org 2 months ago
Thank you, finally something sensible
tetris11@feddit.uk 2 months ago
That’s 4 and half men. Or a minivan’s worth of kids. Or 100 buckets of KFC
0x0@lemmy.zip 2 months ago
So about 31 adult badgers.
Dicska@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Tsss, it’s barely 1/6th of a skateboarding rhino.
Starski@lemmy.zip 2 months ago
You can just give a conversion without being snarky about it
Honytawk@discuss.tchncs.de 2 months ago
And you could just use standardized metrics that is used by the entire world. Like many Americans claim they can. Yet here we are.
Mulligrubs@lemmy.world 2 months ago
You can just be quiet, what has snarky ever done to you?
mrgoosmoos@lemmy.ca 2 months ago
also Canada. because we don’t use metric in contexts like this
AffineConnection@lemmy.world 2 months ago
You weigh in beavers?
Gladaed@feddit.org 2 months ago
To many significant digits. It’s 300kg
slampisko@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Oh, I thought the pictures were backwards. The orange being the natural color and the white being paint is really critical information for it to make sense lol
morrowind@lemmy.ml 2 months ago
Yeah same. Orange is much more iconic, glad this happened.
LodeMike@lemmy.today 2 months ago
Oh my eyes glossed over the word “paint”. Thanks.
Cekan14@lemmy.org 2 months ago
This is such a cool fact; I’m a sucker for these things, I’m saving this post.