Mechanical Engineering

The US Space Force is tracking 20 pieces of debris from the Intelsat 33e.

I've been dealing with this for months. I've received yet another drawing from a company calling "Diameters on a common axis/center to be 0.XX" TIR U.O.I. "

Total Runout requires a Datum. Your "common axis" is not a datum and can not referenced. It's driving me mad. Like, where did everyone get this notion that it's acceptable? It'd be one thing if it was just one or two drawings, but I'm into the dozens at this point. It's getting to the point that I'm starting to question if I'm either the one in the wrong or everyone has some sort of mass psychosis.

Am I in the wrong here?

Scientists and engineers have successfully tested a high-powered laser weapon mounted on a British Army combat vehicle.

According to the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) and the Ministry of Defence (MOD), this trial marks the first instance of such a weapon being fired from a UK land vehicle.

What aspect are you most passionate about and why ?

Hey folks, I'm working on a project involving the design of a heat exchanger, and I've hit a bit of a wall. I'm trying to optimize the fin design for maximum thermal efficiency while keeping the pressure drop within acceptable limits. I know the general principles, but I'm struggling with the specifics of selecting the right fin geometry and material.

Any tips or resources you could recommend for tackling this?

Appreciate any advice from those who've been down this road before!

Crosspost from the "Energy" Community. Seemed too good not to put here.

Is there any mechanical engineers? What you would wish to know when you were starting learning? What skills and topics you consider the most useful in mechanical engineering?

What is the fastest way to learn mechanical engineering in the nowadays when 3d printers are avaliable to be able to design and make custom clocks, engines, generators?

Just build a replacement nuclear power plant and reuse the water. Right?

I can't stand the SpaceMouse Pro. They ruined it! Why would they swap the nice tactile buttons for stupid gummy membrane buttons? And why coat the whole thing in nasty soft touch coating that is going to turn to goo? We peaked with the previous generation of space balls.

Since I've been working from home though, it has gotten quite annoying to unplug my SpaceExplorer and take it back and forth to the office. It would be so nice to have one of those fancy new wireless ones. But that's not happening, since they ruined it.

So, I added USB-C to mine, instead. Now, I'll just have a cable at the office, and a cable at home and just take the unit itself back and forth. I can even leave a USB-C to USB-C cord in my case, in case I need to use it with my laptop away from my docks! If anyone is interested, I can share the STL for the little breakout board mounting piece I made.

A University of Virginia professor believes he has discovered how to create a freeze-ray device, inspired by the Batman villain, Mr. Freeze. Rather than being a weapon, this device is intended to cool down electronics within spacecraft and high-altitude jets.

A tiny, hard-working bacterium -- which weighs one-trillionth of a gram -- may soon have a large influence on processing rare earth elements in an eco-friendly way.

"Traditional thermochemical methods for separating lanthanides are environmentally horrible," said Buz Barstow, assistant professor of biological and environmental engineering at Cornell, the corresponding author. "It's difficult to refine these elements. That's why we send rare earth elements offshore -- generally to China -- to process them."