The nights are drawing in, the weather is getting colder and the big coats are being dug out the attic. This means that instead of spending your nights drinking on trendy terraces, working away on your car in the driveway or kicking a ball around with friends, you’re probably wrapped up inside drinking a hot cocoa, right?
Well, if you want something to gather around while you warm your cockles, NASA has you covered with the space agency’s own take on the classic yule log. Instead of lighting a real fire or spending hours streaming videos of Nick Offerman drinking whisky by the fire, the American space agency has released an eight hour mix of its rocket engines burning to warm your very soul.
The NASA yule log would make a great centerpiece for your Thanksgiving celebrations today because, after all, who wouldn’t want to watch the sheer power of four RS-25 rocket engines burn for hour upon hour? While you look into the vibrant glow of the roaring jet engines, why not consider what you’ve achieved this year or what you’re thankful for?
Personally, I’m feeling pretty thankful for this particularly rare Aston Martin, as well as my lovely orange bike, which has been great for exploring the new area I’ve moved to. In terms of achievements, I went over 100 mph for the first time, that was exciting, and also managed one impressive drift during a whole day of drift school. But those kind of achievements pale to insignificance when you’re staring into the sheer power of a rocket engine.
The power of the rocket engine in question is about 512,300 lbs of thrust when in a vacuum, and four of these mighty machines will be used on the Space Launch System. The engines usually burn for around eight minutes, and in that time can consume as much as 175,000 gallons of super-cooled liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen.
This means that if you watch the entire eight hour loop, you’ll have seen four enormous rocket engines burn through 42 million gallons of fuel. Interestingly, that’s about the same as the amount of gas you’d need to drive your lifted truck to the Christmas tree farm and back.