I’d love for some flat earther influencers to board this.
That said this seems… dangerous. Giving me OceanGate vibes.
That said this seems… dangerous. Giving me OceanGate vibes.
It's clearer at 100k feet, but if you're intent on not seeing it then you still won't see it.
I have doubts that even orbit would change their minds. They've already gone through contortions about why it's night in some places when it's day in others. I am quite certain they're up to the task of explaining why they're over America now and then Africa, previously out of sight, a few minutes later.
It's just not worth arguing with those on intent on being stupid. They can simply say "no" and no power of evidence or logic can force them to do otherwise.
My concern would be that the team would cut safety corners until the probability of success just barely rises above some threshold, rather than engineering everything to have as low a risk as is feasible. Is 0-1atm easier than 1-infinity atm? Yes, but that just means you can cut more corners.
I also remember reading (but cannot find a reference) that it is easier to design a container for overpressure than to design it for underpressure.
In this case, I think providing a safety valve that fails before the container implodes violently may be a a good option (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pressure_vessel#Safety_feature...)
It's like the cheaper knock off (poorly funded) version (not in a space ship) of going to space vs the well funded rocket based company.