tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post1588490273780295757..comments2024-03-18T21:52:45.757-07:00Comments on CONTRARY BRIN: From near to far, amazing things are everywhere...David Brinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comBlogger64125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-32920398225831949712015-03-03T18:12:20.752-08:002015-03-03T18:12:20.752-08:00Daniel Duffy said...
"Instead of hollowing ou...Daniel Duffy said...<br /><i>"Instead of hollowing out Ceres to construct a centrifuge you could build a maglev train round its equator going so fast that it would overcome Ceres weak gravity (.03g)."</i><br /><br />I'm not suggesting "hollowing out Ceres" any more than a subway system can be said to be "hollowing out the Earth". In the 950km diameter Ceres, you only need to burrow 50-100m or so below the surface. 1/10,000th of the diameter. Even building entire cities 50-100km across with a population in the millions, is still only a tenth of one percent of Ceres' volume.<br /><br />The reason for building underground is to protect against radiation and micrometeorite impacts (and for a city, not-so-micro-meteorites), something your upside-down maglev train wouldn't do.<br /><br />As for the maglev train, it doesn't have to go around the equator. For people at 1g, you don't need a 1000 mile inverted track for a train running upside down at 1000mph. You just need a 500m wide loop at 50m/s (that's 500 metres wide, not miles) . Or a 200m wide loop at 30m/s. Or a 100m wide loop at a mere 50mph. That's slow enough to allow you to pressurise the loop itself and leave the "train" unpressurised. And it doesn't need to be maglev, or anything that complex, a toroidal habitat would float nearly weightless, spinning as it would in free space. Only the slightest guides would be necessary to keep it off the "floor" of the tunnel.<br /><br />(And on the surface, a track just a few kilometres long (right-side up) will get you to Ceres escape velocity. Making transport off-world a doddle. Might even be able to land on it, it's only two or three times faster than an normal airport approach and there's no turbulence or weather.)Paul451https://www.blogger.com/profile/12119086761190994938noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-40052197023630929192015-03-02T17:08:30.542-08:002015-03-02T17:08:30.542-08:00Also, Daniel, your very fast maglev train would ha...Also, Daniel, your very fast maglev train would have to be well anchored into bedrock of unknown bedrockedness.Tony Fiskhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14578160528746657971noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-49232252750807036422015-03-02T16:58:51.330-08:002015-03-02T16:58:51.330-08:00I got no probs with conservatives who think, even ...I got no probs with conservatives who think, even if they got evil goatees...<br /><br /><br />...now...<br /><br />onwardDavid Brinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-72125201836708449892015-03-02T16:48:02.264-08:002015-03-02T16:48:02.264-08:00I mention as a public service that Brin got linked...I mention as a public service that Brin got linked from his mention in the WaPo article on SETI over to the notorious right wing site Instapundit. This actually happens several times a year...they like him there.<br /><br />I am now raising a virtual hand to admit that I too have a goatee, so presumably on the other side of the "Mirror" I am a die hard liberal locked in endless debate with Conservative Brin.<br /><br />It is an oddly pleasing thought.<br /><br />TacitusTacitushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17007086196578740689noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-81827804055206073702015-03-02T15:34:21.241-08:002015-03-02T15:34:21.241-08:00Instead of hollowing out Ceres to construct a cent...Instead of hollowing out Ceres to construct a centrifuge you could build a maglev train round its equator going so fast that it would overcome Ceres weak gravity (.03g). <br /><br />The resultant centripetal force would turn the inhabitants of this "train" upside down with their feet to the sky /roof of the train and their heads to the planet surface.<br /><br />Ceres is 950 km in diameter, a radius of 475 km (475,000 m). The train track would have to be 1,492 km (927 mile - about the distance from New York to Atlanta).<br /><br />1.0g is 9.8 m/s^2. Divide this by 0.97 and you have a centripetal acceleration of 10.1 m/s^2 that would overcome the weak 0.03g gravity of Ceres and give the upside down passengers of the train an artificial gravity of 1.0g.<br /><br />Using a handy dandy centripetal acceleration calculator (http://www.calculatoredge.com/new/centripetal.htm) and the required velocity of the "train" would be 2,190 m/s (2.2 km/sec or 7,920 km/hr, equal to 4,921 mph - mach 6.46). <br /><br />The SR-71 Blackbird can do mach 3.3. The fastest commercial maglev train goes 268 mph. <br /><br />So all we need is a train that goes 2x as fast as the fastest air breathing airplane ever built, or 18x the fastest maglev.<br /><br />Piece of cake.DPhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07087941506162882852noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-91647928032620364552015-03-02T15:30:37.588-08:002015-03-02T15:30:37.588-08:00Sounds like it is time to bring up Amendment #9.Sounds like it is time to bring up Amendment #9.Alfred Differhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01170159981105973192noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-92207527170484927242015-03-02T13:43:31.588-08:002015-03-02T13:43:31.588-08:00Unfortunately it looks like Arizona (and likely Ca...Unfortunately it looks like Arizona (and likely California's) attempt to reduce gerrymadering is about to be ruled unconstitutional by a conservative majority of the Supreme court.<br /><br />http://www.scotusblog.com/2015/03/argument-analysis-literalism-vs-the-power-of-the-people/Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-17849218929979629542015-03-02T13:09:20.517-08:002015-03-02T13:09:20.517-08:00For UV to be used in photosynthesis, one needs an ...For UV to be used in photosynthesis, one needs an intermediary layer that goes phosphorescent. It could evolve as a UV defense first, I suppose. I'm imagining our CFL bulbs in reverse.<br /><br />UV emitting stars are shorter lived, though, so we should be skeptical about the time scale needed for advancing past simplistic water worlds.<br /><br />IR options are much more intriguing. So many solids and plastics could be made to do work with NIR and slightly less. Hmm... Seems one should have options for this even on water worlds like ours. Not every niche is up high where oxidation is a risk and the Earth is plenty warm.Alfred Differhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01170159981105973192noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-81481715603145448112015-03-02T12:38:22.904-08:002015-03-02T12:38:22.904-08:00Anonymous, anyone that thinks OSC is "great&q...Anonymous, anyone that thinks OSC is "great" probably should stay anonymous. Wise choice in not identifying yourself. <br /><br />David, are you planning on any sort of commentary / rebuttal-type thing to Bruce Schneider's "Data and Goliath?" From reviews (I haven't gotten a copy yet) it sounds like he is pushing some concepts in concert with you and is odds with others (use of crypto springs to mind). As "Mr. Transparency" are you hearing the intellectual call to battle yet? matthewhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17757867868731829206noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-33182430490081557702015-03-02T11:10:11.336-08:002015-03-02T11:10:11.336-08:00
Other authors colonized Ceres first, including As...<br />Other authors colonized Ceres first, including Asimov, Bester, Pournelle, Sterling and the great Orson Scott Card.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-67700266760318898212015-03-02T09:59:13.097-08:002015-03-02T09:59:13.097-08:00David,
"Ceres could be the core of habitation...David,<br /><i>"Ceres could be the core of habitation... [...] Alas, at 1/30 th of a gravity, it is not a wholesome place for kids. You would want nearby O'Neil colonies that can spin up for habitats."</i><br /><br />Ceres is so large that you could have an entire O'Neil-scale colony spinning in a cavity underground. (**) Or more reasonably, hundreds or thousands of smaller spin-modules serving the same role as buildings do in cities on Earth. Linked together by non-rotating common infrastructure. There's no need for a separate colony off-Ceres.<br /><br />Indeed, this is my preferred model for small-asteroid habitats. Develop a tunnel boring machine that works on asteroid regolith, once you have your initial tunnel you sinter the walls, add an access point at the entrance to act as a dock and a hard-point to attach external systems (comms, solar-power, radiators, etc). Further in, you add inflatable hab-modules for the initial stay. Later on your TBM digs out a ring tunnel, inside the ring-tunnel you join up modules in a ring which you spin up for gravity. (It's floating inside the tunnel, simple guides keep it centred.) Depending on your available power and the diameter of the torus, you might be able pressurise the entire torus-tunnel allowing you to have unpressurised modules. The asteroid gives you instant radiation and micro-meteorite shielding, a uniform thermal mass, and structure to bolt onto. The spin-station gives you gravity. Your mining continues throughout the asteroid, only the work areas having to deal with dust. Reducing external mining also lowers the amount of dust around the asteroid, reducing the effect on habitat modules, incoming spacecraft, etc. And lets you separate active mining from processing areas, from habitat areas, from docking areas, etc. If you want to add a nuclear reactor for power, you can also place it in its own chamber, 20-30m under the surface, the asteroid providing radiation shielding for the rest of the facility.<br /><br />It requires one big invention, the asteroid-TBM. But once you have that, it solves almost every other problem with building a long-duration human settlement.<br /><br />(** But not a McKendree habitat. Sorry, Laurent.)Paul451https://www.blogger.com/profile/12119086761190994938noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-51806603024601495942015-03-02T09:50:56.156-08:002015-03-02T09:50:56.156-08:00Daniel Duffy,
"It would be far cheaper to acc...Daniel Duffy,<br /><i>"It would be far cheaper to accommodate families for arctic oil rigs - and it is not done because of cost considerations."</i><br /><br />No, it's not done because it only takes a few hours to reach land. Likewise modern mining uses fly-in-fly-out work practices. However, when transport was harder and slower, mining towns rose up around mining operations; with miners initially coming out alone, making money, then sending for their families. Other people followed to supply the miners and their families. Same thing happened at any trading hub or cross-roads. When you're 6 months or a year away from everyone else, eventually we will move towards a settlement model.<br /><br />Paul Shen-Brown,<br /><i>"I think that whether Ceres will become suitable as a colony depends on how far into the future we want to speculate. Probably initially we would be sending miners and using it as a base,"</i><br /><br />Asteroid mining will not begin in the asteroid belt. It will, by necessity, revolve around NEOs. We would expand into the asteroid belt as part of the expansion of early settlements, not prior to settlement.<br /><br />Start with fuel depots in LEO, supplied by end-of-life reusable launchers. Later lunar ice developed to supply BEO missions (if you can refuel at L2 you break the exponential in the rocket equation). NEOs following on from lunar ice (first as research destinations, then as resource). Lower cost HSF in LEO (due to lower launch costs and refuelling) means the balance shifts back from unmanned facilities (like GEO satellites) to manned facilities (operating more like shared broadcast towers, like AC Clarke's GEO stations). Lunar research bases follow as lunar resources simplify access to the surface. This allows far-side astronomy, lunar geology, etc. Development of manned commercial LEO/GEO/L1/L2 facilities allows NEO asteroid mining to become possible (robotic mining will probably be too expensive, someone has to fix the robots). Settlements follow the mining. As more people live and work in space, settlements continue spread out into virgin territory. (Somewhere in there, there's a Mars research base. God forbid, maybe someone ever tries to colonise the damn place.) As power, transport, etc, improve, people spread further out into the solar system. If technology allows, perhaps into the Kuiper belt and the Oort cloud. If Oort clouds intermingle, then one day, thousands of years hence, someone in a colony out there will work out that they are now closer to another star than to the Sun.<br /><br />[Assuming no fusion drives, wormholes, artificial gravity, matter transporters, super-AI, brain uploads, etc etc.]Paul451https://www.blogger.com/profile/12119086761190994938noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-63111554124656285022015-03-02T09:32:58.824-08:002015-03-02T09:32:58.824-08:00To be frank I look at Space with both awe and terr...To be frank I look at Space with both awe and terror.<br /><br />Awe of the amazing beauty out there and terror of the monsters that could be out there, hiding in the darkness, waiting.<br />Cesar Samhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05000538250677118084noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-57543829950916525732015-03-02T08:31:18.202-08:002015-03-02T08:31:18.202-08:00Bad news. The Supreme Court is going to review wh...Bad news. The Supreme Court is going to review whether it is constitutional for states to delegate redistricting to independent commissions, rather than by partisan legislatures.<br /><br />http://www.npr.org/2015/03/02/389573352/supreme-court-to-weigh-power-of-redistricting-commissions<br /><br />In one fell swoop, gerrymandering may actually become a constitutional right. :(A.F. Reynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-43386938228142975222015-03-02T08:15:13.628-08:002015-03-02T08:15:13.628-08:00I get a 404 error from the "Neil Armstrong’s ...I get a 404 error from the "Neil Armstrong’s Widow Finds His Moon Purse Stashed in a Closet. " link.<br /><br />I think it's because your link adds a "%EF%BB%BF" to the end of the link, because otherwise the link looks fine.Berialhttp://berial.orgnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-87961889937585253792015-03-02T04:56:56.764-08:002015-03-02T04:56:56.764-08:00"You ould want nearby O'Neil colonies tha..."<i>You ould want nearby O'Neil colonies that can spin up for habitats</i>"<br /><br />Why would you be so unambitious: one giant McKendree habitat would be so much better.Laurent Weppenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-63661620132046306982015-03-01T23:05:49.610-08:002015-03-01T23:05:49.610-08:00Tony thanks and glad you are still around! We can...Tony thanks and glad you are still around! We can discuss further, down the road.<br /><br />As for Yudkowsky, well, talent calls upon forgiveness. I want him to get done with this HP thing so he can write fiction that PAYS!<br /><br />But yes, I know the only way it can end and I sent it to him. ;-)David Brinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-50573043227132238122015-03-01T22:27:22.940-08:002015-03-01T22:27:22.940-08:00Despite Yudkowsky's epic fail at saving the wo...Despite Yudkowsky's epic fail at saving the world by creating super-intelligence (after 20 years of trying, he's failed to even produce vapourware), we thought that at least the guy had finally found his calling writing decent rationalist fiction.<br /><br />It turns out that even in fiction, he had to start tormenting his readers with more and more mind games - he just couldn't resist the temptation to prove he's smarter than everyone else *sigh*<br /><br />I would imagine that there's more than one valid solution, and Yudkowsky has written one chapter for each valid solution. <br /><br />Logically, I would expect 1 solution for each of the 4 houses:<br /><br />Hufflepuff: Harry wins by persuasion involving demonstrations of power, interpretations of prophecy, pre-commitments, etc.<br /><br />Slytherin: Harry wins by trickery - disguise and double-crossing<br /><br />Ravenclaw: Harry wins by some clever complex scheme involving the timer-turners<br /><br />Gryffindor - Harry wins by a full-frontal heroic magic attack<br /><br />On the other hand, the time-turner allows 6 hours retro-casual effects - so its possible there could be up to 6 valid solutions (1 hour each)?<br /><br />Decent fiction by all accounts, but at the end of the day, its just Yudkowsky indulging his own monster ego and playing mind games with us all yet again.ZARZUELAZENhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07742429508206464486noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-54243611668259091142015-03-01T22:14:07.775-08:002015-03-01T22:14:07.775-08:00@David. Got the same email. Have re-activated the ...@David. Got the same email. Have re-activated the site. Should start updating it to include other sources, I suppose. Might suggest a rename...<br />Odd that you bounced, since you're still listed as an Admin, using your sbcglobal account.Tony Fiskhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14578160528746657971noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-19802197833013059412015-03-01T20:01:01.511-08:002015-03-01T20:01:01.511-08:00Paul Shen-Brown:
Personally, I'm not looking ...Paul Shen-Brown:<br /><i><br />Personally, I'm not looking forward to the Summer months. My North Sea metabolism does not care for the heat. But then, I'm living in a place that did not get hit by climate change snowballs this Winter. <br /></i><br /><br />My affinity for the months with fewer-than-seven letters is only partially related to weather. It has a lot to do with the old school calendar beginning in September and leading toward summer vacation June thrun August. Even though I haven't been in any kind of school for over 25 years, the psychological connotations still stick.LarryHartnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-479260380809917082015-03-01T19:29:47.191-08:002015-03-01T19:29:47.191-08:00Tony Fisk, you still around? You still running th...Tony Fisk, you still around? You still running this page?<br /><br />http://earthbydavidbrin.pbWORKS.COM/<br /><br />My log in doesn't work anymore and they say they need some activity or they'll dissolve it.<br /><br />Seemed a cool and fun thing and a shame to let it go!David Brinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-58693525471007187612015-03-01T17:56:43.673-08:002015-03-01T17:56:43.673-08:00Re: Nimoy's passing--
He is only the first act...Re: Nimoy's passing--<br />He is only the first actor to play Spock. And the character he created is now in the same company as Iago, Romeo, and Hamlet. The entire bridge crew, despite fumbled reboot, will now or soon join that same club of iconic characters we enjoy for many playwrights and screen writers. In the decades and centuries ahead we can hope that the story can be reinterpreted without being warped and deconstructed...a new take on an ols paperback: Spock Must (NOT) Die!Zen Cosmoshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06448866570352590221noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-65731658293705005222015-03-01T17:24:59.197-08:002015-03-01T17:24:59.197-08:00Paul my hollowing out comment was not the importan...Paul my hollowing out comment was not the important one. You want to spin up an extremely massive body till its centrifugal force is much greater than its inward gravity. Picture it!<br /><br />Maybe for a small asteroid.David Brinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-32594760533856724732015-03-01T16:37:28.867-08:002015-03-01T16:37:28.867-08:00Are you sure it would be necessary to hollow it co...Are you sure it would be necessary to hollow it completely? I would expect that centrifugal force would work in a system of tunnels and chambers just as well, or is there some bit of physics I'm missing? Paul Shen-Brownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-92223430396892058682015-03-01T15:21:57.786-08:002015-03-01T15:21:57.786-08:00Paul, you'd have to hollow Ceres out and the s...Paul, you'd have to hollow Ceres out and the spin to make OUTWARD g forces would tear it apart, alas....David Brinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.com