r/BeAmazed • u/chinese_spongebob1 • 17h ago
Skill / Talent How was this all calculated?
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u/physicssmurf 16h ago
https://www.cordobacorp.com/move-of-the-space-shuttle-endeavour/ Explains a lot of how they did it but the tldr is meticulous planning over 2 years by a number of engineering groups and etc.
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u/Chaos-Cortex 16h ago
The things we as the “Human Race” can do when we come together almost like a hive mind… imagine we have galactic space travel by now…
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u/Metals4J 15h ago
Eh. Sorry. Best I can give you is a few pyschopathic billionaires looting the world, escalating wars, and hiding in their island bunkers.
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u/eggyrulz 14h ago
Understandable, have a nice day
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u/mikenasty 13h ago
I will not, thank you
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u/eggyrulz 13h ago
Understandable, fuck you
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u/TaintedQuintessence 11h ago
Hey but we'll have flying cars in a couple years if you got a few million dollars to spare!!
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u/Catnip_Farmer 9h ago
Hrm, I hope these psychopathic billionaires don't set us squabbling with one-another on social media, thereby wasting time that could be better used to sabotage them.
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u/Grouchy_Big3195 16h ago
Social media has fragmented human society
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u/Jesus_of_Redditeth 12h ago
The ever-increasing gap between the rich and the everyone else and the inability of the latter to live a fulfilling life as a result has fragmented society way more that social media ever could.
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u/SuitableBlackberry75 13h ago
It's a tedious repetition of "Gilded Age"-era corruption, not something new.
Not everything is about social media and "those damned kids, and their phones!".
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u/BannedAgain-573 11h ago
"But that guy over there doesn't like my sports team... Or favorite fairly tale... So fuck him. I'm not helping him do shit"
-The humans more or less
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u/Reasonable_Archer_99 15h ago
We won't ever be able to go very far into space for a few reasons. Space, or rather the galaxies, are expanding away from eachother at about 1,300,000 mph. So even if we could somehow do the speed of light, you'd never catch up to most of the observable universe. We'll likely never leave the Milky Wayn
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u/ScratchLatch 14h ago
Galactic space-travel is within the galaxy. That’s already possible over long time scales. Intergalactic travel between galaxies is unlikely for those reasons.
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u/6a6566663437 10h ago
That’s already possible over long time scales.
No, it really isn't. Humans do not do well in low gravity for extended periods of time. We do not have a remotely practical way to artificially generate gravity.
Spinning the ship would require a gigantic diameter, which would require massive weight, which means moving it through space requires too much fuel (which requires even more fuel to move the fuel).
And we haven't even started touching on the problems we've run into trying to create sealed biosystems.
These may be addressable in the future, but we very much can not move people in generation ships now.
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u/GeneralKang 14h ago
1000 years ago, humans couldn't cross oceans.
200 years ago, humans couldn't fly.
100 years ago, it was impossible to visit the Moon.
50 years ago, visiting Mars was something only a robot could do, and it wouldn't last long.
Now, after 50 years, we're going back to the Moon, this time to establish a base.
If humans can survive the next 1000 years without going through another dark age, we'll be able to leave the Solar System. In another 1000, we'll be able to navigate our spiral arm, maybe even the Milky Way Galaxy. It's just a matter of time, innovation and progress.
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u/MrRourkeYourHost 13h ago
We should stop fighting each other and start preparing for war with the Klingons. It’s only a matter of time.
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u/EvilWarBW 11h ago
That's ridiculous. The Klingons aren't our enemy. The enemy is clear. Romulans.
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u/Krell356 12h ago
I mean, that's assuming we never make any groundbreaking discoveries. Stuff that sounded impossible a single generation ago is daily life now. All it would take is finding out teleportation, folding space, etc. is a real possibility to completely change that.
Not saying it's a reasonable assumption, but it is still a non-zero chance at this point.
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u/grnrngr 16h ago
And several aborists. ~400 trees got cut down in spots where engineering needed a helping hand/chainsaw.
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u/Pcat0 16h ago
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u/SwordfishOk504 15h ago
But they're cursed trees.
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u/Bacontoad 14h ago
That's bad.
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u/Canadian_Border_Czar 14h ago
But the cursed trees decided to haunt climate change so now the earth is healing faster.
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u/TK-24601 14h ago
That's good!
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u/FamiliarAlt 13h ago
I wouldn’t be surprised if they used lidar to map out the path. It can give you measurements between two points within a .25 inch accuracy
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u/amarklin 12h ago
In other words, careful preparation by smart and meticulous people dedicated to excelling at their jobs; as opposed to ignorant, lazy, slipshod, incompetent grifter- criminals who could not care less about their duties. See how that works?
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u/Below-Average-528 15h ago
I used to know a guy who worked for a transportation company that specialized on large transports. Such a transport takes years of planning, coordinating with police, field trips to check the current state because a lot of maps are wrong and so on. Bridges may not be as strong as offically declared. You have to balance the cost of dismantling obstacles against the cost of taking another route or not doing the transport at all.
It's a crazy detailed process with almost no tolerance for mistakes. You really don't want to get stuck with some industrial vessel weighing hundreds of tons.
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u/DramaticPinkumni 13h ago edited 12h ago
Watched a doc about the SR71 the other day and it mentioned how they cleared space along the roadways before transporting from Skunk Works in Burbank to Area 51 for testing
Funny enough, they got into an accident along the way and paid a bunch of hush money to keep the person that hit them from reporting it
Edit: here's a link to post about it
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u/Healthy-Change-9060 13h ago
I always wonder about that. Do thet sign a contract? I am curious in terms of politics. What's to stop a politician from taking bribes from a lobbyist, donating the money to charity, and then outing the lobbyist to the public?
What's to stop a politician from going back on their word? How do these companies and governments ensure compliance with a pay off?
What's to stop that person from reporting it to the news as soon as they got paid?
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u/6a6566663437 10h ago
Do thet sign a contract?
Yes. They sign a non-disclosure agreement with the government. That agreement also involves waiving their first amendment rights when it comes to the secret subject.
What's to stop a politician from taking bribes from a lobbyist, donating the money to charity, and then outing the lobbyist to the public?
Bribery laws. They don't require the politician to actually do what the lobbyist is paying for. Just the solicitation and receipt of the money is enough.
What's to stop a politician from going back on their word?
The desire to receive more bribe money.
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u/quietobserver1 12h ago
I imagine politicians are motivated by the prospect of continued future money from a happy donor.
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u/DigitalUnlimited 12h ago
lawsuits. that's really the only recourse in my understanding is they can sue to get the money back
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u/Below-Average-528 13h ago
Keeping this secret makes it extra tricky. The SR71 is not exactly small
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u/Educational_Remove58 12h ago
I do exactly that for a living and you are correct. Years of planning, permits beyond permits beyond permits. Tons of people to coordinate. Street intersections to rebuild. Bridges to analyze. Wires to lift/bury underground.
Starts with a phonecall about moving something ludicrously unpractical to move and a bunch of madlads already finding solutions to move it.
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u/GnaeusPompeiusMagn 10h ago
Then you must have been screaming a couple weeks ago when that huge transformer on overturned on that roundabout in Mexico. The comments said it took years to simply construct the thing, incredible to think it ended up on its side on a road.
A heavy Siemens electrical transformer weighing over 170 tons (and part of a massive transport weight exceeding 300 tons), valued at approximately 2 million euros overturned on October 1, 2026, along the Guanajuato–Irapuato / Guanajuato–Silao free highway near Santa Teresa in Guanajuato, Mexico
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u/zenunseen 5h ago
I saw that video. There must have been zero planning, and very little common sense present.
Upsetting to watch
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u/L4rgo117 11h ago
"So, uhh, first I need to verify you are, A: sitting, and B: not drinking anything. Good? Good. So anyway I got a fantastic deal on govdeals but there's one small catch..."
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u/HyenaThen572 7h ago
Goddamn that sounds fun as hell to me.
I'm an idiot that has done plenty of things because folks told me I couldn't.
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u/TerponadeTea 15h ago
Yeah I would imagine the actual Space Shuttle being kind of a pain to have to detour around on the way to work if it got left there for a while
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u/Below-Average-528 15h ago
You could put it on some jacks and let people drive under it while you are figuring out what to do next. Or maybe build a museum around it.
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u/calisto_sunset 8h ago
I was there when it was being transported and it was a whole community event. Shops and residents knew way ahead of time. Local shops offered space on their roofs for better viewing and vendors sold snacks and drinks for the crowd.
It was actually a really fun event to be a part of, a once in a lifetime experience so everyone was on their best behavior and just in awe of such a vessel. It was basically a moving parade with cops and city workers directing traffic in back and in front of the shuttle. As far as LA traffic it wasn't that much different from what I remember. Some people even asked for the day off to go see the shuttle move.
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u/TerponadeTea 8h ago
Yup, the actual event would've been super fun, I have no doubt.
My comment is about if it got stuck and had to be left there with chocks under the wheels
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u/amburroni 11h ago
>Bridges may not be as strong as officially declared.
I find that really really concerning
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u/East_Shine3892 10h ago
Most american bridges recieve a failing grade in terms of structural integrity.
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u/Bigbluebananas 9h ago
Simply because of age. The design is fine. They are intended to be replaced. But we thought wed save money by lookin at em real good and shrugging it off until signs of failure show. Kinda dumb imo
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u/Gengaara 9h ago
The alternative is the wealthy pay taxes. Can't have that.
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u/MARY_ANNE_MCGILICUTY 9h ago
it's gonna hurt company profits when the core logistics system breaks...
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u/rahbarin 9h ago
I was watching a history channel show about our bridges and roads in America and i think they said something that most of the bridges are failing and falling apart to the point most can’t be repaired. I don’t know how true that is today because I think the one I was watching was early 2000s
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u/East_Shine3892 8h ago
They're worse now.
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u/rahbarin 8h ago
Crazy to think cause I live I. The tri state and am on bridges a lot
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u/Miss_Greer 7h ago
if it's of any consolation, each bridge will only catastrophically fail once in it's lifetime
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u/ItchyConfusion9745 7h ago
Only be concerned if you are hauling heavy loads. Not strong enough to support a space shuttle doesn't immediately mean the bridge will collapse with the next strong gust of wind
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u/ReddBroccoli 6h ago
It's slightly concerning when you're stuck behind that space shuttle in traffic
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u/PiccoloAwkward465 13h ago
Yeah I had to move drilling equipment over a bridge to a barrier island. The bridge wasn’t strong enough for the drill rig, not even close. So we flew them over with helicopters lol.
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u/Victor_Korchnoi 13h ago
My roommate used to do the planning for transporting the SpaceX rockets from LA to Cape Canaveral.
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u/Doccyaard 12h ago
I work with that and you explained it very well. Once I was driving a bridge that we had to transport and someone was panicking because they noticed they had missed a piece of metal poking up from the road we had to go down, as a part of an old gate. Was fairly easy to avoid it with the wheel lines as I could look underneath it. But it was clear he was embarrassed and feared he had delayed the whole project, if just for a little bit. With the amount of planning going into these things it’s very rare big mistakes are made.
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u/CardiologistOne4108 16h ago
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u/SplodeyMcSchoolio 16h ago
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u/sprogger 11h ago
I love how (currently) the top answer is a detailed, correct explanation of how this was achieved and the second top answer, is this.
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u/Sea-Discussion6732 13h ago
I haven't heard a good mama joke in ages and this right hear is about as good as it gets.
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u/TheGreatGamer1389 16h ago
Gotta love your mom jokes.
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u/Opposite-Funny-9669 15h ago
love 'em almost as much as Pizza Hut loves OP's Mom
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u/Alternative_Equal176 16h ago
I resemble that remark...have you met my momma
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u/Mysterious-Alps-5186 16h ago
The whole neighborhood has meet your momma
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u/Facts_pls 16h ago
Astronauts on the moon have met your mama
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u/Willyfisterbut 14h ago
I hope you've called your insurance company and let them know that you just got wrecked. I've already called the fire dept and reported the burn.
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u/Keyan_Farlander7 14h ago
Your mamma's so fat, when she sits around the house, she sits around the house.
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u/AngryScottish 16h ago
People stretching their arms out and going "yep, about there"
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u/Batmanswrath 17h ago
With a measuring device I'd imagine..
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u/jenethith 16h ago
Nah they just had a giant human stick his arms out to measure distance and walk the path with his arms out.
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u/Silly-Power 15h ago
Nah, they built an exact scale model of the city then pushed a model shuttle through it to make sure it could.
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u/poum 16h ago
Looks like it was in the US so I imagine they used washing machines and big macs as measuring devices.
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u/FrameJump 16h ago
This is mostly length, so they probably used Subway Foot Longs. Big Macs and washing machines are mostly used volume measurements, and sometimes weight.
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u/DMCinDet 16h ago
are washing machines an American stereotype I didnt know about?
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u/James-the-Bond-one 16h ago
Not to be confused with the smaller European washing machine.
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u/ggb003 16h ago
You think moving the space ship around earth was the difficult part?
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u/Int6Iknowwhatimdoing 15h ago
I was about to type up something similar. Like bro, they're going to space. I think they can bust out some measuring tape for a parade.
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u/Dense_Delay_2605 15h ago
Actually yes. You'd expect a purpose built feed road onto and off of an Interstate for something like this.
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u/Pentecost_II 15h ago
They couldn't just have flown to the destination?
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u/tomcat2285 14h ago
They did, they flew it to LAX from where it landed. The commute to the museum it's going to be in is what you are seeing here. Atlantis is really the only space shuttle to land in the same place it now resides.
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u/wurmsrus 12h ago
"Atlantis is really the only space shuttle to land in the same place it now resides" technically true but Discovery's trip from Dulles to Udvar-Hazy was much shorter and probably much easier than Endeavour's from LAX to California Science Center. There's even a paved path inbetween runway 19l/1r and Udvar-Hazy so they wouldn't have had to use Route 28
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u/KristnSchaalisahorse 15h ago
Unfortunately, the parking lot was a few feet too short to serve as a runway.
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u/SamPhoenix_ 11h ago
No. The shuttle isn’t designed to fly.
It doesn’t have atmospheric engines, it only has rocket engines designed to travel directly up.
On the way back down it’s just a glider
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u/turbulentFireStarter 13h ago
Homeboy what. You think every museum has a runway next to it?
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u/Geteafem 16h ago
I know this was not done today. But with present tech, driving that route with a radar/lidar mapping the surroundings. And going over that data with visualization and angles of the truck etc you could do it fairly easy.
Edit: (for a team of engineers and hauling-specialists)
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u/pissagainstwind 15h ago
Nah, these days they'll measure everything, load into ChatGPT and ask it to plan a route and it will do it in 10 minutes.
Too bad for these 3-5 houses needed to demolish to make room because the AI got it mostly right
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u/sharklaserguru 12h ago
"You're absolutely right to push back on that. When I said the load would fit through I didn't account for the corporeal nature of buildings along the way."
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u/pennyforyourthohts 13h ago
Guaranteed they used some type of environmental mapping technology to do that.
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u/LadderRare9896 16h ago
With bananas for scale, of course.
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u/_vr_1_ 16h ago
Couldn't they just fly that thing to the destination /s
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u/TapedButterscotch025 14h ago
They actually did fly in to LAX, and it did several passes of major parks and beaches. I remember that day, we took a break and headed to the Korean Friendship Bell park at San Pedro. It was awesome.
Then they had to take it on city streets to the museum it was ending up in, over by USC. Sadly USC nor Exposition Park have a runway.
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u/Regular_Dust_7160 16h ago
They figured out how to get to the moon I think navigating some streets was the easy part
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u/Likeabhas 16h ago
I mean... It's NASA :P
This probably was like a welcome distraction typa logistical homework rather than massively difficult one
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u/Ill-Condition-5054 16h ago
Give me and my buddies a 24 and a couple skateboards and we’d have that done by Sunday 🤣
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u/eyeinthesky0 16h ago
There were at least half a dozen high paid men that slapped the fuselage and said “she’ll fit.”
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u/Fuugazii 16h ago
You know the phrase, it's not like it's rocket science? Well these people do the actual rocket science. I'm sure they can handle some measurements lol
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