The Astronomy Thread
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Guest, it's time once again for the massively important and exciting FoH Asshat Tournament!
Go here and give us your nominations!Who's been the biggest Asshat in the last year? Give us your worst ones!
iannis
Musty Nester
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Well yeah. But it's not magic, man. Even that article is basically just "we need to re-familiarize our workforce with the systems in order to improve them". Well I mean yeah, nobody's actually used one for going on 60 years. The implication of that is that with a little bit of retraining we could shoot up saturn rockets again if we wanted to, but we'd rather make something better. But in order to do that they have to remember where the weakest spots on the rockets are, and even the guys who did the initial work on them don't remember anymore. They're also talking about quality control with contractors.
Sure there are entire skillsets that would have to be learned, but it's not like that skillset can't be relearned. I'd have to think that the relearning would be much quicker than the initial exploration. Even if some important parts of that initial exploration were undocumented. State Secrets just keep fucking us!
I'm just sayin -- If they can 3 stage land that ridiculously small rover on mars I think they're up to the challenge of making a big-ass-rocket that doesn't blow up when you turn it on.
Sure there are entire skillsets that would have to be learned, but it's not like that skillset can't be relearned. I'd have to think that the relearning would be much quicker than the initial exploration. Even if some important parts of that initial exploration were undocumented. State Secrets just keep fucking us!
I'm just sayin -- If they can 3 stage land that ridiculously small rover on mars I think they're up to the challenge of making a big-ass-rocket that doesn't blow up when you turn it on.
Fadaar
That guy
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I really really hope they restore those boosters back to 'like-new' condition and put them on display somewhere.http://www.cnn.com/2013/07/19/tech/i...html?hpt=hp_t2
Seems Bezos found the Apollo 11 rocket engines after they were able to verify serial numbers. Very nice find
fanaskin
Well known agitator
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I can't wait until i can grab things from across the room like i'm a Jedi
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...0531103910.htm
Artificial Magnetic Monopoles Discovered
May 31, 2013 - A team of researchers from Cologne, Munich and Dresden have managed to create artificial magnetic monopoles. To do this, the scientists merged tiny magnetic whirls, so-called skyrmions. At the point of merging, the physicists were able to create a monopole, which has similar characteristics to a fundamental particle postulated by Paul Dirac in 1931. In addition to fundamental research, the monopoles may also have application potential. The question of whether magnetic whirls can be used in the production of computer components one day is currently being researched by a number of groups worldwide.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...0531103910.htm
Artificial Magnetic Monopoles Discovered
May 31, 2013 - A team of researchers from Cologne, Munich and Dresden have managed to create artificial magnetic monopoles. To do this, the scientists merged tiny magnetic whirls, so-called skyrmions. At the point of merging, the physicists were able to create a monopole, which has similar characteristics to a fundamental particle postulated by Paul Dirac in 1931. In addition to fundamental research, the monopoles may also have application potential. The question of whether magnetic whirls can be used in the production of computer components one day is currently being researched by a number of groups worldwide.
Tuco
I got Tuco'd!
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At this point I don't care much about manned exploration to the moon or even mars. I'm most excited about asteroid mining because that's the next step in human progression into space, a huge industry waiting to happen and cheaper availability of heavy metal would be good for our technology.
Phazael
Confirmed Beta Shitlord, Fat Bastard
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Nothing will move forward until the issues surrounding supporting our biology in low gravity are solved, anyhow. In that sense, Mars makes more sense for a colony, because the gravity is relatively close and its near the asteroid belt. I guess if automation progresses enough we could mine the Asteroid belt using unmanned craft, but once automation reaches that point you are looking at a major shift in the social dynamics of the human race, which could be really turbulent. If we luck into finding a method of producing artificial gravity, that would solve a lot of problems but that is fairly unlikely compared to the other possible outcomes.
We need to get payload costs down. Space elevator. I hope to see one in my life time. I'd much rather see a push for that instead of going to Mars at this point.
I also hope stuff like this actually gets off the ground
http://phys.org/news172224356.html
I also hope stuff like this actually gets off the ground
http://phys.org/news172224356.html
Julian The Apostate
Vyemm Raider
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Eomer
Trakanon Raider
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I don't think that resource production in space is going to be done by humans. It's going to be automated to the max. Maybe some humans will need to be present to do repairs here and there, but that's it. I don't see the very real limitations of living in space precluding the development of resource extraction. It's more of a robotics/AI problem.
As far as artificial gravity goes, we know how to make it: centripetal force. It's just a matter of being able to make structures in space large enough for centripetal gravity to be practical.
Tuco
I got Tuco'd!
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Yep. Dudes in space suits hitting asteroids with picks is not the future. I'm in ai/robotics now (for land vehicles) and I hope that the industry grows enough that I can work on that in the future.
hodj
Vox Populi Jihadi
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We would probably send machines out to bring asteroids back to orbit near the Earth. Each one would be worth like 1.6 trillion dollars in rare metals, alone, so the effort would be more than worth it, and it would actually save money in the long run because bringing the newly extracted ores back to Earth would be far cheaper.
Fuck having to do 1000 trips back and forth to the asteroid belt to mine one asteroid, make one trip, bring 2-3 back at a time, and extract those fuckers here.
When we finish extracting it, blow it up and let it burn up in Earth's atmosphere, or launch that fucker at the Sun. Problem solved.
Fuck having to do 1000 trips back and forth to the asteroid belt to mine one asteroid, make one trip, bring 2-3 back at a time, and extract those fuckers here.
When we finish extracting it, blow it up and let it burn up in Earth's atmosphere, or launch that fucker at the Sun. Problem solved.
Big Phoenix
Pronouns: zie/zhem/zer
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Um you might want to read up on physics and orbital mechanics and probably asteroids as well if you think were going to be hauling in 1.6 trillion dollar nuggets.
hodj
Vox Populi Jihadi
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I was thinking more about using controlled detonations to get them moving, then using machines and the Earth's gravitational forces to pull them into an orbital position once they arrive in the vicinity.
Otherwise we're going to be making really expensive trips back and forth from Earth to the Asteroid belt to bring back a fraction of the minerals at many times greater cost. I just don't see how its possible without bringing them back to near Earth orbit and then stripping them clean of minerals. At least not in any way that would make engaging in the activity profitable enough to warrant doing it in the first place.
Otherwise we're going to be making really expensive trips back and forth from Earth to the Asteroid belt to bring back a fraction of the minerals at many times greater cost. I just don't see how its possible without bringing them back to near Earth orbit and then stripping them clean of minerals. At least not in any way that would make engaging in the activity profitable enough to warrant doing it in the first place.