Comments on: High Roller

By: Doug Little

Doug Little — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 19:00:35 +0000

That was awesome, maybe the Top Gear guys need to redo the reliant rocket project using one of Spacex’s Engines! For those of you that aren’t familiar

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIwXtRQQQZc

By: Gordan

Gordan — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 21:31:53 +0000

Paul M Says:
“From about the 3:05 mark there is an arc protruding above the horizon – any ideas what that is?”

Crud in the glass cover on the camera – either water droplets or some other debris, scattering light off the bright limb of Earth. You’ll notice it stays fixed w/respect the frame, but not w/respect to Earth which moves a bit in the frame.

By: Paul M

Paul M — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 06:19:57 +0000

That was made of pure awesome…. one question though:
From about the 3:05 mark there is an arc protruding above the horizon – any ideas what that is?

By: BethK

BethK — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 20:10:10 +0000

I thought it was cool, but my kids (13yo and 15yo both into space and astronomy) were ho-hum even when I explained that it was real and private enterprise rather than NASA. The music did nothing for any of us.

They did get excited that the Kp is high and that someone may be able to see aurora tonight. Probably not us, but with clear skies, we’ll probably go out star-gazing.

By: Paul A.

Paul A. — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 19:57:58 +0000

A few years ago I emailed NASA and asked them to put little cameras on everything and share the show with us. We were all raised on Star Wars level special effects and believe we respond well to seeing the real thing. I think there should be a camera pointing down at the earth on the ISS with a live webcam link on the Internet, a “What Is the Space Station Looking At” webpage.

By: Flight of the Falcon 1 : Stochastic Scribbles

Flight of the Falcon 1 : Stochastic Scribbles — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 15:21:49 +0000

[...] the Bad Astronomer, I learned about the cool music video that SpaceX has released showing footage from their [...]

By: Oded

Oded — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 09:07:20 +0000

Thanks Remek!

I guess that’s a good reason, though it is still solvable… This still doesn’t rule out using a memory stick and bringing it back… But maybe that’s overkill.

I just really wish there was once a really high quality video of this

By: Remek

Remek — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 05:09:34 +0000

Oded Says:

But I have a question – Why is the quality on these videos STILL sub par with video compared to even 10 years ago? They are always so blurry and look like they were done with a regular $10 webcam… Are big HD cameras very difficult to put on a rocket/spaceship? Is that the problem?

Bandwidth. They’re limited by the on-board S-band transmitter bandwidth, so it’s a tradeoff between medium resolution at acceptable video fps, or a higher resolution slideshow at only 1-2 fps.

By: Nentuaby

Nentuaby — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 03:38:09 +0000

Zippy the Pinhead

You know, plenty of common units of measurement don’t mean much unless you mentally append “at STP.”

By: Rui Borges

Rui Borges — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 23:18:55 +0000

Get me on one of these PLEASE!
…But bring back for dinner…

By: Seamyst

Seamyst — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 21:56:10 +0000

Wow… that was awe-inspiring, in the best sense of the phrase. Goosebumps and all.

Shame that the HD version won’t play well on my older computer, but I’m saving it anyway!

By: Damon

Damon — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 21:26:45 +0000

That was pure amazing.

By: Cameron

Cameron — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 20:45:35 +0000

247MB for the HD version…23 minutes remaining.

I’ll wait.

By: The Chemist

The Chemist — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 20:40:06 +0000

Tears man! Tears and I'm not ashamed to admit it! That was teh awesome! Thankyouthankyouthankyou. This reminded me of something less comparable, but similar in some ways : the opening credits for the anime series, Planetes.

By: Raymond Lang

Raymond Lang — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 20:12:54 +0000

Actually for around 10+ years now there has been a series known as Space Night which is broadcast on Bayereischer Rundfunk’s BR-Alpha channel in Germany that is nothing but footage of NASA and ESA missions set to techno and trance music. There are a few video clips floating about on YouTube (look for Earthviews) if you want to see for yourself.

I stumbled across the series quite a few years ago and fell in love with it.

http://www.br-online.de/br-alpha/space-night/ (for the website)

By: Reed

Reed — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 20:12:29 +0000

Cool video. But a nitpick: "Very first privately owned company rocket to reach orbit" is not correct. Orbital did that 18 years ago.

By: Your Name's Not Bruce?

Your Name's Not Bruce? — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 19:33:33 +0000

I liked how the second stage engine bell GLOWS on restart!Way cool!

By: Oded

Oded — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 19:04:13 +0000

Awesome video, really liked it!

Also, seeing how fuzzy it was when it came around, I assume that was because the video was transmitted live – what is the trouble with having the video always recording and use a memory stick?

Truely loved the video, just curious on these questions, on why high quality videos from these kind of things are non existent.

By: Guysmiley

Guysmiley — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 19:00:17 +0000

Highly recommend the Vegas album by Crystal Method (which actually is the one that has High Roller). The follow-up after that I didn’t like as much.

By: PhilB

PhilB — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 18:58:24 +0000

Wow! Yeah, tears… chills, the whole works.

By: Ian

Ian — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 18:46:53 +0000

At the 1:40 – 1:45 mark, right before the stage separation, what is causing the “spinning fan” effect from the boosters exhaust? (apart from it being filmed underwater by ghosts in a huge cover up )

By: Sili

Sili — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 18:35:51 +0000

Whoops. No “?” at the end, please.

By: Sili

Sili — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 18:35:04 +0000

The weightless ice at the end was nifty?

By: Fedaykin

Fedaykin — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 18:23:24 +0000

The Crystal Method is a great group. Once you listen to their albums you’ll notice their songs are used *extensively* in commercials, soundtracks, trailers and other media.

The album “Vegas” (their initial offering) is absolutely fantastic and contains “High Roller”.

I can’t wait to get home so I can watch this!

By: American Voyager

American Voyager — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 18:10:47 +0000

What else can you say? WOW!!!