this post was submitted on 15 Mar 2026
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Science Memes

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Every little bit counts (media.piefed.social)
submitted 3 months ago by PugJesus@piefed.social to c/science_memes@mander.xyz
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[–] PugJesus@piefed.social 164 points 3 months ago (4 children)

Back when NASA was flinging things into space for the first time, the tolerances that were even possible were extremely tight. Every pound mattered (every pound still matters, but because we have other things to do once we get to space nowadays, plus every pound is expensive).

600 pounds of white paint for the fuel tank was considered unnecessary, once the engineering team figured that it didn't actually protect the special foam covering of the fuel tank anyway. Thus the distinctive orange color!

[–] Scrollone@feddit.it 101 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (6 children)

For all the people in the world except the ones from Liberia, Myanmar and the United States, 600 freedom units = ~272 kg

[–] wieson@feddit.org 24 points 3 months ago

Thank you, finally something sensible

[–] tetris11@feddit.uk 15 points 3 months ago

That's 4 and half men. Or a minivan's worth of kids. Or 100 buckets of KFC

[–] 0x0@lemmy.zip 13 points 3 months ago (1 children)

So about 31 adult badgers.

[–] Dicska@lemmy.world 4 points 3 months ago

Tsss, it's barely 1/6th of a skateboarding rhino.

[–] mrgoosmoos@lemmy.ca 3 points 3 months ago (1 children)

also Canada. because we don't use metric in contexts like this

[–] AffineConnection@lemmy.world 3 points 3 months ago

You weigh in beavers?

[–] Gladaed@feddit.org 2 points 3 months ago

To many significant digits. It's 300kg

[–] slampisko@lemmy.world 41 points 3 months ago

Oh, I thought the pictures were backwards. The orange being the natural color and the white being paint is really critical information for it to make sense lol

[–] LodeMike@lemmy.today 32 points 3 months ago

Oh my eyes glossed over the word "paint". Thanks.

[–] Cekan14@lemmy.org 2 points 3 months ago

This is such a cool fact; I'm a sucker for these things, I'm saving this post.