tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post4261612886911218609..comments2024-03-29T00:39:31.629-07:00Comments on CONTRARY BRIN: A New Barnstorming Age: the Near Future of Manned SpaceflightDavid Brinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comBlogger37125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-292381359399854122018-10-27T14:05:36.786-07:002018-10-27T14:05:36.786-07:00This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.www.norton.com/setuphttps://setnortoncom.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-35250017251019482622018-10-27T14:02:07.625-07:002018-10-27T14:02:07.625-07:00This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.webroot.com/safe activatehttps://www.safe-webroot.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-5153099133833913142018-10-27T13:59:32.038-07:002018-10-27T13:59:32.038-07:00This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.webroot.com/safe's home pagehttps://www.safe-webroot.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-62894629395868164942018-10-27T13:57:28.186-07:002018-10-27T13:57:28.186-07:00This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.webroot.com/safehttps://www.safe-webroot.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-76954054411352877862018-10-27T13:55:28.785-07:002018-10-27T13:55:28.785-07:00This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.www.webroot.com/safe downloadhttps://www.safe-webroot.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-60870152058165454712018-10-27T13:51:14.539-07:002018-10-27T13:51:14.539-07:00This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.www.webroot.com/safehttps://www.safe-webroot.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-67146048689436547522013-02-16T19:20:36.283-08:002013-02-16T19:20:36.283-08:00What a hornet's nest! Space travel can cause p...What a hornet's nest! Space travel can cause people to bear opinions. It just cool. Being able to do it is suggestive that humans can survive anything. The person most startled is the one who has the most to lose. You bring 'outer space' into the social dialogue, you have just changed the world. Self-sufficient humans 100 million miles away aren't going to be sheep! To take a lesson from returning black veterans of WW1; 'How you going to keep the boys on the farm once they tasted Paris.'<br />This is a broad boast, but its out there... if you think space can be ignored, might as well give up on literacy and invention too.tomhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05659018685939890936noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-89343646858899830342013-01-03T08:42:00.579-08:002013-01-03T08:42:00.579-08:00Re the moon being useless - I seem to recall readi...Re the moon being useless - I seem to recall reading a study somewhere about Lunar Solar Power being much more feasible than Solar Power Satellites - materials being available from the moon itself without the need to boost up from earth?<br /><br />That is of course if we don't get some alternate possible energy source eg fusion and the cost benefits work out in favour of beamed solar power..Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-80274216032270297832012-12-20T22:27:33.506-08:002012-12-20T22:27:33.506-08:00Just FYI, the latest chapter in Harry Potter and...Just FYI, the latest chapter in <i> Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality</i> has updated, and the most recent other chapter has had its ending changed.sociotardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11697154298087412934noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-30190981063788693372012-12-20T18:25:55.313-08:002012-12-20T18:25:55.313-08:00Related to that will be tech. to tidy up the bits ...Related to that will be tech. to tidy up the bits and pieces already in orbit, so they remain usable. (as Gilbert was doing, to begin with, in Existence)Tony Fiskhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14578160528746657971noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-59611867169189192292012-12-20T17:37:53.247-08:002012-12-20T17:37:53.247-08:00I kno David's focus here is on manned flight b...I kno David's focus here is on manned flight but I think on of the key developments of the next few ears will be developing the technology to recover satellites for repair and for boosting them into higher orbits or deorbiting them.<br /><br />Mainly because that will open the way to assembling interplanetary craft in orbit and to recovering small earth-grazing asteroids for in situ resource extraction.Ian Gouldhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07666385933765478081noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-90275677878283861572012-12-20T17:33:02.269-08:002012-12-20T17:33:02.269-08:00In regard to my gender-based statement about the a...In regard to my gender-based statement about the appeal of science fiction, no slight was intended to female science fiction authors and/or fans.<br /><br />As documented in "Science-Fiction Fans in Socio-Economic Perspective" by A. Berger (below):<br />____<br /><br />"Traditionally, science fiction has been a literature written by males for male readers. As shown by the Maine researchers, one magazine, Astounding/Analog, reported a female readership of only 6.7% in 1949 and 11.9% in 1958. Surveys taken for the British magazines Nebula and New Worlds during the fifties and early sixties report female readership of between 5% and 15%. This orientation began to change during the sixties. The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction (F&SF), normally considered the least technologically oriented of the three major American science-fiction magazines, reported a female readership of 29% at that time, a figure paralleled in 1974 by Analog, the most technologically oriented magazine, with a female readership of 25%."<br /><br />Of course, most of these figures (first reported in 1977) refer to the "Golden Age" and, as noted above, female authors have made great inroads into Scifi since that time. So, although gender proportions may have changed in the last 30 years, anecdotal evidence says no and no hard data exists. <br /><br />Still, most Scifi tends to emphasize the largely imaginary relationship between technical accomplishment and reproductive success, a viewpoint that seems to target the adolescent male (?) who -- although intrigued -- is still largely repulsed by human intimacy and/or sexuality.<br /><br />Wink-wink.locumranchnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-76189973869160537972012-12-20T16:18:58.552-08:002012-12-20T16:18:58.552-08:00I shall take a leaf out our host's manual and ...I shall take a leaf out our host's manual and let the girls handle this one! <br /><br />( Ramoth? Sic'im!)Tony Fiskhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14578160528746657971noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-48090242450819778632012-12-20T14:42:08.817-08:002012-12-20T14:42:08.817-08:00Locumranch, with your statement about science fict...Locumranch, with your statement about science fiction rarely appealing to or attracting women, you have just dissed better than half of the world's population. Not to mention CJ Cherryh, Jo Walton, Nancy Kress, and a large contingent of other highly regarded female authors. Care to rethink that?<br /><br />TheMadLibrarian<br />Motheysa: larval form of MothraTheMadLibrariannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-40551136214316214622012-12-20T13:58:24.024-08:002012-12-20T13:58:24.024-08:00The moon's got water ice, metals and reaction ...The moon's got water ice, metals and reaction mass.<br /><br />All in a lower gravity well than the Earth's.<br /><br />whether it'll ever be economic to exploit those resources depends on a couple of things:<br /><br />1. If the astronomical start-up costs can ever be offset by the lower energy costs of launching relative to launching from the Earth; <br /><br />2.Whether the size and relative proximity of the moon offsets the even lower gravity wells offered by the asteroids.Ian Gouldhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07666385933765478081noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-74357875457076756562012-12-20T12:55:02.623-08:002012-12-20T12:55:02.623-08:00And science fiction fans are pretty nice guys. The...And science fiction fans are pretty nice guys. They don't often just go steal their women.<br /><br />If I said you are better when you are funny, locumrich, as above, that might imply I think it's meaningful, as if I represent a majority or something. I don't know.Jumperhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11794110173836133321noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-64837785482480387582012-12-20T12:50:50.883-08:002012-12-20T12:50:50.883-08:00This comment has been removed by the author.Jumperhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11794110173836133321noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-15773250851775816532012-12-20T12:11:20.451-08:002012-12-20T12:11:20.451-08:00The moon is useless? Then give it to all the kids...The moon is useless? Then give it to all the kids of the world as a STEM playground. <br /><br />A few billion dollars (peanuts compared to the yearly Dept of Education budget) to develop and deliver some bootstrap drones and other tools and raw materials. A few tens of million dollars a year to maintain communications from Earth. <br /><br />Plus a lot of volunteer work to bootstrap KidSpace as a mostly self-sustaining driver of STEM - modelled on Scouts with a touch of StarFleet Academy. <br /><br />Ask kids to earn the right to contribute to the KidSpace moon base by learning enough to be useful to the program - and then to provide new learning modules, documentation, ideas, designs, models, prototypes, simulations, training, control software, etc.TomCnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-83026920162055278202012-12-20T12:09:12.333-08:002012-12-20T12:09:12.333-08:00I know a number of women who enjoy science fiction...I know a number of women who enjoy science fiction, thank you very much. I'm good friends with several of them. (Sadly, finding one who is single and interested in dating is... not as easy. But then again, I'm unlucky at love, unlucky at cards.)<br /><br />Rob H.Acacia H.https://www.blogger.com/profile/07678539067303911329noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-38597011364395993502012-12-20T11:54:29.481-08:002012-12-20T11:54:29.481-08:00Thanks, Jumper. Rule 34 is lovely meme. True, to...Thanks, Jumper. Rule 34 is lovely meme. True, too. Designed to excite and titillate, there's Porn for everything.<br /><br />There's "Drill, Baby, Drill" for Petroleum-based Porn and Violence for Hollywood-based Porn but my personal fave is Spacecraft Porn. <br /><br />Titan, Delta, Saturn & the Shuttle upright, erect, thrusting, always thrusting into Space, an extension of own virility, penetrating the atmosphere, consummating our manifest destiny with Kirk's green animal women, 7 of 9 and Padme, using rebel missiles to fertilize the Death Star, achieving the little death with a climactic KABOOM !!**<br /><br />It's quite entertaining but not quite as popular as "End of the World" Porn:<br /><br />Fifth Element, Armageddon, Constantine, Soylent Green, Silent Summer, any & every Calender-based Catastrophe, Montezuma's Revenge, Global Warming, Climate Change or Zombie Apocalypse.<br /><br />I invoke Internet Rule 20. ;)<br /><br />Best.<br />____<br />**Explaining, perhaps, why Science Fiction rarely attracts or appeals to women.locumranchnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-81241313370425716362012-12-20T09:24:03.496-08:002012-12-20T09:24:03.496-08:00Optimism ain't quaint, o psychopathic one, and...Optimism ain't quaint, o psychopathic one, and porn 'n' petroleum has driven tech as much as weapons.<br />Rule 34. Jumperhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11794110173836133321noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-30201992234400339352012-12-20T09:00:49.403-08:002012-12-20T09:00:49.403-08:00Something sensible has to motivate the spending of...Something sensible has to motivate the spending of the money ....<br />_______<br /><br />So much quaint optimism.<br /><br />Historically speaking, most human technological advances -- whether they be mechanical, chemical, electrical or medical -- spring from man's inhumanity to man and an overwhelming desire to kill each other.<br /><br />From canned food to physics, penicillin and the microchip, all these advances were initially developed to give one side or the other a tactical advantage on the battlefield. Has everyone forgotten the Coldwar based +Space Race" ??<br /><br />Don't fret though. We can still turn this basic human drive to our advantage by stealing some pages G Lucas & G Roddenbary. We can capture the imagination of an entire generation by declaring war in space.<br /><br />Young men will line up to kill each in orbit with zero G battlesuits, remote-controlled drones, guns & energy weapons just like Halo meets March Madness. The war will be televised and we can all cheer for the home team. Fight. Fight. Kill. We'll make billions on mechandising alone.<br /><br />Go Team.<br /><br />Best.locumranchnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-56058995170822478082012-12-20T05:29:42.871-08:002012-12-20T05:29:42.871-08:00I like the Martian Farmville concept a lot. To beg...I like the Martian Farmville concept a lot. To begin it, we need a video game with a variable delay rate, perhaps synched to actual Earth - Mars radio transit times. Then test how well Waldo-bots can perform: how often operators goof and cause accidents, how long it really takes to build and assemble things such as hydroponic farms, storage bays, (don't want the wind scattering your dehydrated corn and peas you are saving for the future). Making freeze-cast silica bricks, crude industrial chemicals and fertilizers, etc.<br />Once a few million gamers have amassed the stats, we would know how the real 'bots would likely perform using Earth-based operators.Jumperhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11794110173836133321noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-84143981547874559502012-12-20T01:58:47.423-08:002012-12-20T01:58:47.423-08:00Rob H,
Re: Using the moon to develop for Mars.
Whi...Rob H,<br />Re: Using the moon to develop for Mars.<br />While I agree that both moon and Mars dust will present problems, they are similar only at the most superficial level ("keep dust out of the equipment"); in detail, equipment will need to be separately designed for each. Dust is a perfect example of what I was saying about the lack of overlap.<br /><br />Re: Gravity.<br />We don't know if 1/6th G is enough to offset the damage of microgravity. Hence we need a variable gravity facility to find out how much we need. Which would be an excellent incremental development from the ISS, except that the ISS program was never intended as an incrementally improving series of space stations. It's stunning how little we've achieved in manned space flight in the last 40 years.<br /><br />Re: Lunar space elevator.<br />Although the required strength is more realistic than an Earth space elevator, a 100,000km minimum length makes the engineering is just as intimidating. But it's a waste: a short rotating tether in lunar orbit would be more efficient, and is possible with current materials. Low or zero ground-speed, multiple drop/pick-up points around the equator, "free" boost into higher orbit or return trajectory. Add another rotating tether in LEO and a third in L2, and you have a system of propellantless transfer all the way to the moon and back. And with much softer engineering requirements than any single space elevator. And no actual "elevator" required, since you don't climb the tether, making it faster to go from pick up at one end, to release at the other (ie, just wait half a rotation). In Earth orbit, this is much better, since you don't spend weeks slowly climbing through the Van Allen Belts.<br /><br />Just to be clear, I don't think the moon is worthless. When humans spread into space, I expect the moon will become a major production hub. But as a next step, it isn't a "next step". Like the shuttle and ISS, it is a closed goal, it doesn't lend itself to incremental development that aids the further spread outwards into space. It <i>could</i> do so (the ice at the poles, for example), but once "Return to the moon" or "Lunar Base" becomes a goal, anything useful becomes stripped away and the stated goal becomes the <i>only</i> purpose of the program. Constellation had PR shots of lunar bases and discussion of polar ice and astronomy, but what was funded was a rocket, a capsule, a lander, a rover, and a very limited number of landings. Apollo redux. Except without the incremental Redstone/Mercury/Gemini portions that allowed the development of deep skill, which is why Constellation failed.Paul451https://www.blogger.com/profile/12119086761190994938noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-82807877369129637272012-12-19T22:16:43.314-08:002012-12-19T22:16:43.314-08:00The weapons platform up there will get built, but ...The weapons platform up there will get built, but it will probably be a US construct. I doubt we will bother, though, until the next cold war arrives on our door step. I have no doubt it will be expensive. 8)<br /><br />Just because a nation can build a thing doesn't mean they will. Something sensible has to motivate the spending of the money... something of a geopolitical nature.Alfred Differhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01170159981105973192noreply@blogger.com