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#626 Re: Science, Technology, and Astronomy » Nuclear vs. Solar vs. Others » 2021-07-03 16:47:38
Good news.
Solar plus storage already beating the most efficient and cheap (hitherto) conventional form of electricity generation, which is combined cycle gas generation.
This is the conclusion of an analysis of solar-plus-storage facilities in Morocco and Jordan.
https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles … nd-morocco
We can expect this situation to gradually extend beyond countries with very good insolation to countries with less, in temperate zones for example, where green energy packages may also include wind power.
It might take two or three decades but I think we can now say the trend is unstoppable.
#627 Re: Human missions » Starship is Go... » 2021-07-03 07:03:25
BN3 being rolled out for ground testing.
BN4 scheduled as first orbital rocket.
Do people think getting the Boosters right is more or less difficult than getting the Starships right? I'm assuming more on the basis there are more engines...or is there some inbuilt redundancy?
#628 Re: Human missions » Starship is Go... » 2021-07-03 07:00:49
So more like an abort rocket?
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/ … test_1.jpg
This would certainly require a major design which nothing from Musk has suggested is in the offing.
Mostly to avoid damage to the engines from flying debris, or in the case of the moon--sending stones and debris into low lunar orbit. The early designs of Robert Goddard as well as those of the German program of Herman Oberth & von Braun all used tractor style designs instead of more commonly seen today--"pusher" style designs.
Flame diverters are avoided in both takeoff and landings.
#629 Re: Terraformation » Is Global Warming real? » 2021-07-02 18:36:06
Re water vapour I don't think we do know what the net effect is since clouds reflect insolation back into space as well as acting like blankets.
The change to the atmospher of earth also contains water vapor as well as methane both are known contributors as well to the warming effect.
We run our vehicles and power plants without a care for the exhaust output...all because of the need to move faster as well as further just to turn around and do it again hours later.
We use power just for the sake of having things on even though we will not use it anytime soon..
#630 Re: Terraformation » Is Global Warming real? » 2021-07-02 18:34:55
The thing about temperature is that is not at all easy to say what the average air temperature of the whole globe is, even using satellite measurement.
But sea level rise is a much more objective measure. We don't have to measure sea level - we can rely on sea level as against land, particularly islands, whilst understanding that some land areas are rising or falling due to geological forces (I don't think there's any land that isn't either rising or falling relative to the oceans). So, at least with sea level we will know objectively when we see islands that aren't falling begin to disappear. We haven't seen any of that. In fact the Maldives and Seychells government are so confident the islands aren't going to disappear that they are spending billions on building international airports on these very low lying islands.
Whilst I am happy to accept that human-origin carbon emissions are affecting the climate, it's more difficult to say how and by how much.
I think we should try an return to pre-industrial carbon emissions levels on the precautionary principle.
There are other factors at work. THere has been a huge increase in irrigation schemes. Because these are often in desert or semi-desert areas there is a huge increase in water vapour into the atmosphere - from water that would otherwise have gone into the oceans. Could that be preventing sea level rise?
Equally, water vapour means clouds. No one really knows if water vapour is a greenhouse gas (well it is in one sense) or whether the albedo effect is more important (clouds reflecting insolation).
The fact that carbon dioxide absorbs infrared light and therefore results in radiative forcing, is quite basic physics. It is a greenhouse gas, as average surface temperature needs to rise to overcome the feedback effect resulting from reradiation from the atmosphere to the surface. Carbon dioxide is a relatively weak greenhouse gas, but is being released in enormous quantities. Human beings are burning gigatonnes of fossil carbon every year and dumping the CO2 into the atmosphere. So, the fact that human beings are responsible for some amount of global climate change, is not controversial as far as I am concerned and I am puzzled as to why anyone would doubt that. What is less certain, is how feed back effects will combine to reinforce or dampen the effects resulting from increased radiative forcing.
It often amazes me how many people think that they can change what is true simply by arguing it. As if the eloquence of their words will somehow change reality, like some kind of magic spell turning piss into wine simply by quoting eloquent Latin words in the right order. We see it on this board and we see it in the wider world wherever vested interests are threatened. Renewable energy fanatics and fossil fuel supporting lobbies are both guilty of it. The problem is, that truth doesn't change just because you contest it or bury it in eloquent arguments. It remains exactly what it was before, just hidden by lies and distortions.
I think part of the reason that so many people are sceptical of human induced climate change, is due to perceptual error. Standing on the ground and looking up on a clear day, the sky appears as a vast, unending ocean of air. The apparent scale of sky to a human standing on the ground, reinforces the impression that any human impacts upon it must be tiny. But it is an illusion. If that ocean of air were to be condensed onto the surface of the Earth as a liquid, it would be a puny thirty feet thick. That isn't much taller than the average house. Compare that to the depth of the oceans, which average almost 1 mile deep. The atmosphere is a puny skin of fluid in comparison. The illusion of the boundless atmosphere disappears when travelling on a jet aeroplane. At 33,000' some three quarters of the atmosphere is beneath you, a thin skin of gas hugging the surface of our little world, just 6 miles thick. It doesn't look boundless at all when you look at it from above. Given how evidently human beings have changed the surface of the planet, one wonders why human action changing the composition of the atmosphere would be a controversial proposition?
#631 Re: Human missions » Starship is Go... » 2021-07-02 18:12:25
Well, I think this is why I come back to the rock platform.
Every other sort of surface risks engine damage - which could seriously compromise the return element of the Mission and/or risk an explosion on landing.
I think we need first to establish if such rock platforms exist.
The issue of massive dust cloud displacement from the Mars landing hasn't really been addressed on this forum. Maybe this is why Musk has jumped into the lunar landing program, because it will address a similar if not more extreme issue on the moon. Landing legs and lotsa fire from the engines exhaust aren't a particularly compatible situation.
My thoughts:
Use the similar engine arrangement for both lunar lander and Mars landing Starships, with engines high on the body of the landing vehicle with exhausts angled away from the touchdown point. Landing legs could be a part of a dockable extension attached in LEO after refueling the Starship for the Hohman transfer maneuver. After Mars departure on the return flight back to Earth, those wide tracked legs could simply be left behind and landing on a prepared pad accomplished at Starbase.
#632 Re: Human missions » Starship is Go... » 2021-07-02 14:26:25
Thanks for relaying Gary's thoughts, New Mars Member...
The Erebus Montes area appears to be the current JPL/Space X favourites region for potential landing sites.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erebus_Montes
https://www.geekwire.com/2019/nasa-chec … ater-mind/
Reading up the Mars human landing site workshops conference from a couple of years ago (still the best resources I think):
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/mars-human … entations/
we can see that the main requirements are
- shallow gradient angle (less than 5 degrees preferably but 10 degrees probably the max)
- absence of large individual rocks that could compromise a landing
- low levels of dust
Mountains are made of rock by definition, but of course the slopes will generally tend to be too extreme for a landing site. However there may be some lower slopes of mountains which will be acceptable.
So taking all these factors into account it seems to me that a rocky "platform" would be ideal.
They do exist on Earth - often found in coastal areas as wave cut platforms. I think the Erebus Mountains would have been islands in the Northen Ocean, so there might well be wave cut platforms around them.
Happy to accept I may be wrong, but if such platforms did exist with a low gradient they could be the ideal landing areas.
I have no doubt Starships could land on rock fields but the fear of engine damage is a real one. It may be possible to take replacement engines to Mars in one of the Starships but how to fit them would be problematical I imagine.
As for landing on sand, well sand is another way of saying dust (cf dust storms). And dust damage is certainly a concern to the people looking at human landing sites (as set out in the above NASA workshop link).
The only other alternative I can think of is clay. But what happens to clay when blasted with rocket exhaust? Hmmmm...
One other thought - could you come in for a landing semi-horizontal and then suddenly go vertical in the last few seconds. Would that redcue the risk of damage to the engines?
Message from GW Johnson via Portal ...
Gary Johnson
Jul 1, 2021, 5:08 PM (15 hours ago)I did as I said I might. I wrote another ramjet article about my work on ASALM-PTV decades ago. I just posted the thing on "exrocketman". It picks up where the SA-6 exploitation article left off.
I see in post 1275 of "Starship is Go" under "Human Missions" that Louis is still insisting that a Mars Starship will land on exposed level bedrock. Not with a narrow stance of legs that lack hydraulic shock absorption it won't!
Besides, 99% of Mars is soft dry sands with rocks dispersed in it, without any cohesion between sand grains (!!!), and without any cohesion between the sand and the embedded rocks(!!!). That is the very definition of regolith, by the way. The other 1% of Mars is hard rock, but very, very little of it is smooth, much less level.
I would bet on the soft sand in order not to restrict my choices of landing sites, and just use large footpads on the landing legs to handle the soft sand. And I would use wide-stance legs with hydraulic shock absorption to handle (with impunity) rough, uneven, or sloping ground, plus boulders-as-obstructions, and any potholes or creek beds. I've already figured out how much pad area is needed. And refilling for takeoff is the weight that sizes pads, not touchdown weight, even factored up for dynamic impact effects. And yes, I figured weights from masses at 38% gee.
99% sand versus way-under-1% hard, smooth, level rock. Louis is backing a very BAD bet! We old-hand engineers know better than that. Murphy's Law is not a joke, it is a way to survive when venturing into the unknown. And don't let anybody kid you about how good the remote sensing is. It is still crap, although it is much better than it was in the 1970's.
GW
Thomas Hanson
8:15 AM (0 minutes ago)
to GaryFor Dr. Johnson,
Thanks for news of your new blog article! I'll post your message shortly.
Best wishes to Mrs. Johnson for her health challenges!
Glad to see her laptop is still reliable for the blog and email.(th)
#633 Re: Civilization and Culture » Social Structures: Financial - Ownership - Responsibility - Risk » 2021-07-01 09:28:26
We have a similar problem in the UK regarding responsibility for cladding of apartment block buildings (following a hugely lethal fire caused by non fire retardant cladding). It's too easy for central government, owners, builders, building managers, local authority building control, Fire Service and others to pass responsibility one to the other and disclaim any responsiblity.
For Mars I think rather than create an economic sector around insurance, it would be better to have the Mars Consortium or Mars Government cover a range of risks, which would be in a published schedule. This would be backed up by law/regulation making clear the responsibility of various persons and organisations.
For SpaceNut ... there was no topic containing the words: social and structure
This new topic is offered for those who might wish to add to a body of knowledge about social structures for various purposes, on Mars, on Earth or anywhere humans venture in times to come ...
The collapse of a 12 story building in Florida recently is revealing a weakness of a social structure in the United States, called "condominium".
This social structure was invented (I suspect) to solve the problem of one individual carrying all the risk of managing a large building occupied by hundreds of people for decades.
It is natural and understandable that the individual who arranged financing for this building would like to make a clean profit for construction, and then escape responsibility by finding another individual or an entity to accept responsibility.
The social structure created in the United States to permit the builder to escape responsibility is called "condominium". The concept is that the ownership of the structure is distributed over a large number of people, and the management of the complex is assumed by a board of directors who come from the membership. The membership are the owners of shares of the property.
In the case of the Florida condominium, the design was flawed, so that the building was deteriorating more rapidly than it should have. According to early news reports, the nature of the increased risk was made known to the board, and a number of them resigned.
The costs of repairs were (reported to have been) quite large, and it is understandable that those who had invested their life savings to acquire a share of this building were unable to assume the costs of maintenance.
There is a possibility that the original builder can be held responsible for the design failure, but in defense, the builder may be able to argue that the building stood for 40 years, and that any responsibility on the part of the builder should have been retired after some reasonable number of years.
In the case of an automobile, a guarantee may last for three years. In the case of a condominium, I would imagine a warranty of 10 years would be worth considering.
The point of this new topic within Civilization and Culture is to provide a way for forum members with posting privileges to add to collective wisdom about how best to arrange social structures to build and then maintain complex physical structures.
The physical structures to be constructed on Mars will be even more complex than those on Earth, because of the life threatening consequences of failure that come with pressure loss, energy loss, water loss and many other threats not faced by builders on Earth.
(th)
#634 Re: Human missions » Mars Mission Update: June 2021 Must See Amazing Video » 2021-07-01 03:47:49
Yes, I posted a link to that a while back. It's a very good summary of the development of the Starship project and "next steps". Would be very useful to future historians I imagine!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLaUM2XbyJc
The Starship vehicle is poised to revolutionize human spaceflight. With SpaceX and NASA working together to develop Starship for the Artemis Program, our ambitions in space have profoundly changed. Aspiring Martian Colonist Dr Ryan MacDonald charts the course towards the first human missions to the Red Planet.
***** Chapters *****
0:00 - Introduction
1:20 - SpaceX Starship Overview
4:00 - Early Starship Hardware
5:00 - Starbase Boca Chica Begins
5:33 - Cryogenic Tests & Static Fires
8:06 - Starship Low-Altitude Flights
9:09 - Starship High-Altitude Flights
15:10 - Future of the Starship Program
15:50 - Super Heavy Construction
16:52 - Orbital Starship Design
17:49 - Orbital Starship Launch Profile
18:42 - Starbase Orbital Flight Preparations
19:11 - Starship Program Timeline (2020 - 2021)
20:05 - Starship Sea Launch Platforms
21:45 - Human Spaceflight Overview
22:39 - Commercial Astronaut Flights
25:17 - Artemis Program Overview
26:04 - Artemis I Updates
27:02 - Artemis II & Artemis III
29:40 - Lunar Starship Timeline (2022 - 2024)
32:27 - Starship Mars Missions
34:08 - Human Mars Mission Timeline (2024 - 2029)
34:35 - New 2021 Mars Missions
35:11 - Mars Hope (UAE)
37:33 - Tianwen-1 (China)
38:27 - Zhurong Rover (China)
39:37 - Perseverance Rover (USA)
42:31 - Ingenuity Helicopter (USA)
45:16 - Mars Sample Return
47:42 - Final Thoughts
#635 Re: Science, Technology, and Astronomy » Refrigeration Refrigerator Food Preservation Habitat Air Conditioning » 2021-06-30 15:56:04
Presumably large scale refrigeration on Mars is simple in that you could build a poorly insulated unit in a shaded part of the surface and then top up the temperature to the required level using heating.
#636 Re: Science, Technology, and Astronomy » Global Energy Balance » 2021-06-30 15:50:35
Don't forget the excess energy from nuclear power as well. 
The NASA studies are highly problematic. When I've read into this topic, you find basically that all the data collected by orbiting satellites has to be processed and interpreted, which involves incorporating assumptions eg about things like wave height IIRC.
The temptation for NASA must be to err on the side of climate alarmism, because that's the best way to get positive publicity and avoid criticism.
Until we actually starting losing significant islands in the Maldives and Seychelles I'm not inclined to believe the global warming propaganda.
For SpaceNut .... there was no topic containing these three words.
The purpose of this topic is to provide a place for forum members to add to knowledge about the energy imbalance currently reported for the Earth, and to contribute to creative thinking about how to address it.
The inspiration for this topic comes from a combination of statements made in other topics about various energy collection methods, and reports of NASA studies showing that in recent times, the Earth has collected more energy from the Sun than it has radiated back to space.
It should be noted that the energy budget of the Earth includes radioactivity in the core, as well as burning of fossil fuels by humans and occasionally by Nature when fires occur.
I'm hoping that creative thinking will reveal ways to radiate excess energy to space, although as I launch this new topic, I have no idea what those ideas might be.
One thing I'm pretty sure of ... whoever comes up with ways of radiating excess energy to space, and thus restoring the energy balance of the planet, will deserve whatever accolades will be forthcoming.
(th)
#637 Re: Science, Technology, and Astronomy » Asteroid Mining - profit from space » 2021-06-30 15:03:54
A lot of financial analyses of asteroid mining are based on Earth-to-asteroid rocket flight costs. We know these will fall dramatically with development of the Starship. But is Earth 2 Asteroid the right way to look at this?
I can imagine a system where perhaps you take chunks of an asteroid - using robot miners of course - and load them (robotically) into your Starship that then returns to Earth orbit. The chunks are put into purpose-built units with parachutes and fired towards Earth. Perhaps there will be some sophisticated "Chunk-catcher" at sea or on the ground.
The parachute units are recovered and can be returned to the orbital Starship(s) periodically.
The advantages of this system are that:
(a) propellant usage would be much. much lower that otherwise would be the case and Starship would last much longer without having to ascend from and descend to Earth multiple times
(b) speed is not of the essence (with no humans involved)...even if it takes your robot Starship two years to do the round trip, it doesn't matter if you have maybe ten Starships working off the same asteroid - you'll have a steady supply of minerals returning to Earth at about 2-3 month intervals
(c) no humans are used in the production process.
Would still require a high value mineral, high purity ore and also development of robot mining technology - but the latter is more a matter of adapting the robot mining technology that already exists on Earth.
We can already land on Comets and Asteroids like the Japanese and European missions did but can we live there maybe not yet. mission did. Maybe there will be an economy out there Musk often talks about building some kind fo Galactic Stock Exchange and one day having a Bitcoin or a Dogecoin up there in space. Perhaps Mars is the much better option and putting miners on an Asteroid won't be happening any time soon....but then again.
Japan passes space resources law
https://spacenews.com/japan-passes-space-resources-law/
The House of Councilors, the upper house of the National Diet of Japan, passed the bill June 15. The lower house, the House of Representatives, approved the bill June 10. The bill has support from the two largest political parties, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and the Constitutional Democratic Party.The bill, formally known as the Law Concerning the Promotion of Business Activities Related to the Exploration and Development of Space Resources, grants Japanese companies permission to prospect for, extract and use various space resources. Companies that wish to do so must first obtain permission from the Japanese government.
Asteroid mining- Is it too good to be true?
#638 Re: Human missions » Starship is Go... » 2021-06-30 14:52:28
BN3 is fully stacked in the High Bay!
#639 Re: Human missions » Starship is Go... » 2021-06-29 18:42:30
Phobos and Deimos First is delusional. Adds complexity for no gain. I think Lockheed-Boeing have proposed the same. Musk's naming of his sea platforms Phobos and Deimos is probably intended as a satirical commentary on using Mars's moons.
These P-D schemes offer nothing. The guy's a fool to claim Musk doesn't know how much fuel is required for a Mars landing.
The arguments against direct landing on Mars based on the problems of retro-propulsion in a thin atmosphere are really from another generation. We've already heard in recent days about how the Raptor engines are extremely efficient and getting max power from the fuel.
There are rock platforms on Mars perfectly well suited to landing Starships and we know where the water-ice is only a few metres below the surface. The landing sites will be scouted out - by the cargo ships that arrive first.
As an aside, NASA have already chosen Starship to help create a lunar base.
Fusing regolith to create a "pad" for landing sounds crazy to me. given the mass of a Starship. It will be like landing on a brittle carpet.
Much better to land on natural rock platforms.
I found the video totally unpersuasive. Thank God he's not employed by Space X.
Here's an interesting video with a possible alternative to early Starship landings on Mars.
#640 Re: Human missions » Starship is Go... » 2021-06-29 17:07:20
#641 Re: Human missions » Louis' Solar Power Strategy » 2021-06-29 13:45:24
I have seen nothing to suggest any breakthroughs in power transmission by microwave or laser beam (and I am very keen to see the technology develop). Japan is a world leader in the technology - I think the best they've achieved is well under 1 Km and that's with significant power loss. This story is talking about sending power over 35,000 Kms!!!
Isn't this just China throwing out "chaff" to confuse the enemy? I suspect their focus is on satellite technology, lunar landing and building a Mars base.
Space Based Solar Power Station
https://spacenews.com/chinas-super-heav … r-station/
China’s super heavy rocket to construct space-based solar power station
#642 Re: Terraformation » Terraforming Earth » 2021-06-28 17:44:51
Since you're interested in this subject Void, just wondered whether you were aware of the plan by some guy (German I think) back in the 1950s to drain the Mediterranean and increase the land area around the Med by something like 20%? It got serious consideration at the time, when food shortages were still a very recent memory and the idea of creating new farmland was attractive.
Such mega-projects have been considered for a while. The Soviet Union had plans to divert rivers flowing north, to make them flow south to and irrigate huge areas of central Asia. I think they actually started on those plans.
The UK could quite easily start rebuilding Doggerland - in very low tides the land in the middle of the North Sea is revealed. It could be built up and reclaimed.
Good input Louis.
I read the materials, and they said the Sahara turned into desert in only 200 years.
If my assertion that vegetation cools the sky is true, then perhaps it is explained.
Some vegetation would resist the desert for a while, but little by little it would die out in the dryer areas, and then above that location the ground reflection to the sky would inhibit precipitations.
The night of the Sahara is surprisingly cool at times.
https://thinkmorocco.com/sahara-desert- … %20Celsius.
Quote:The Sahara Desert temperature is usually between 30°C and 50°C during the day. The highest temperature ever recorded in the Sahara Desert is 58°C. At night, the average temperature is between 10 and 20 degrees Celsius.
What is needed is a source of water vapor. They suggested that hot summers with a certain tilt of the Earth would draw moisture from the ocean. Then if the moisture is drawn into a cold altitude, rain might occur. Having vegetation would also be a reservoir for repeat rains, but a more humid atmosphere would lead to a condensation situation I am not sure of.
One factor we have just now that they do not mention is that plants do not have to loose as much moisture through their stomata since the atmosphere has more CO2 in it.
https://principia-scientific.com/co2-cl … ng%20world.
Quote:CO2 ‘Climate Change’ Shrinks Sahara Desert By Whopping 8%!
OK, so that's good and bad. If you like water it is good, if you are strongly adapted to desert, then perhaps that is bad.
Most climate change anxious people can only see a dark lining in their clouded minds. I prefer to think that I can have an open mind.
The shrinking of that dessert by CO2 abundance should also lead to a reservoir of moisture that repeatedly rains to adjacent areas, and so the feedback might reduce the desert even more.
Is this good, or bad, or not natural, or are humans natural, and so what they do is natural?
I guess I will punt.
------
It seems that we may have some latitude to change the nature of the world for better or worse. Who determines what that might be, I guess the future may tell.
This would be a situation similar to the Salton Sea, where it may be possible to store energy, and also do aquaculture:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qattara_DepressionHow about an Israel Canal, and involve the Dead Sea, for Hydro Storage of solar power, and also maybe aquaculture?
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/sue … -1.9668705
But I am most interested in North America, and to a degree the UK and Europe.
There have been some notions that eventually the UK might join to NAFTA per Canada. Time will tell.
Done
#643 Re: Terraformation » Terraforming Earth » 2021-06-28 14:33:36
The Sahara was green not so long ago.
https://www.livescience.com/will-sahara … green.html
If the world is warming under our human influence, then it looks like it will turn green again - so we are already terraforming. That can only be good as a way of using up the increased water vapour.
Terraforming Earth
This is my post #571 from: "Index» Not So Free Chat» When Science becomes perverted by Politics."
Good thinking by my evaluation. Not very far from many other things.
This is particularly similar to some of my past and recent thinking:
Quote: (By kbd512 per conversation with Spacenut)
We need to use nuclear power to pump the sea water inland, solar thermal power to convert the sea water into fresh water, and then dump the salt in the great salt flats. Adding more salt to nature's land speed record race track won't hurt anything. The Russians and the Chinese can do the same, in order to stop the spread of the Gobi Desert.
I would try to get a pilot project for Southern California, presuming Mexico can get favor from it, and that Southern California can have enough power against Northern California to get it done.
This would involve the Salton Sea:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salton_SeaWhat I am thinking of is Hydro Storage between the Gulf of California and the Salton Sea. As it is I believe that the Salton Sea is becoming too salty for fish.
A solution would be to generate energy during the night by dropping sea water into it, and then using energy, hopefully solar, perhaps thermal, to pump the water back up into the sea. So then the Salton Sea would experience something like tides, and perhaps the salinity could be reduced in that little salty lake. There is plenty more that I am interested in, but with the permission of the high powers I will open a terraforming topic for the expansion of this, so that I do not further interrupt your conversation any further.Done.
#644 Re: Life support systems » Chinese greenhouses » 2021-06-28 13:06:01
Video about various greenhouse material used on Earth:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2Y3tWmdcMc
Any thoughts in relation to Mars? I would have thought a UV blocking coating would be required.
#645 Re: Not So Free Chat » Current Gasoline/Petrol Price$ » 2021-06-28 06:24:42
I hope it's a cause for celebration. Oil in Nigeria was virtually a total socio-economic disaster. Gabon was better, I think.
For Calliban re #344
Thanks for reporting this find!
While I agree it is cause for celebration for Namibia, I'm wondering what effect dumping that much more Carbon into the atmosphere might have.
A better use for that irreplaceable resource is as feedstock for materials needed by industry, instead of as a fuel.
If the human race fails to get it's act together, life on Earth will be daunting for generations after ours.
Meanwhile, all that energy just keeps flowing by the Earth, minute after minute, day after day, totally untapped.
(th)
#646 Re: Human missions » Musk's plans for Mars » 2021-06-27 13:56:54
Well, if CCP China are serious about the 2033 date and not trying to pull the wool over our eyes, then that's great. Space X should have a six year lead on them - three landing trips. Space X will have a head start.
But we might see two nations developing on Mars. An English-speaking Free Republic of Mars and a Chinese CCP-PLA Colony.
Elon Musk’s outsider status ‘key to SpaceX success’
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/busine … f5f0f78831China reveals plans to colonise space with a Mars base, cargo fleets, alien cities, and a ‘sky ladder’
https://news.yahoo.com/china-reveals-pl … 17208.htmlMusk Criticizes NASA, Says Spaceships Should Fly Between Space Stations
https://twitter.com/TheMarsSociety/stat … 4900643840
Elon Musk took to Twitter (surprise!) to criticize NASA for signaling it would continue prohibiting direct cooperation between the agency and China indefinitely.
#647 Re: Human missions » Starship is Go... » 2021-06-27 09:01:15
They've got 5 years to get all that right and they won't be inventing or reinventing the wheel.
The ships are not currently outfitted with any life support items let alone a working toilet. Its got a long ways to go before men will be onboard...
#648 Re: Not So Free Chat » What do you make of alleged UFO/Alien claims during Lunar Landings? » 2021-06-26 17:35:22
One comment:
People often say "Why don't these aliens land in Time Square instead of only showing themselves to people in remote locations!"
That's not really an issue.
There is a very primitive tribe on North Sentinel Island that the Indian government have decided to leave alone.
They could of course decide to send in the India Army and occupy the island but the government feel they are in a guardian role in relation to this tribe. To create close contact would make the tribe susceptible to disease and to cultural implosion.
If governments on Earth can exercise this sort of self-restraint, there's no reason why alien visitors cannot.
Perhaps aliens are aware of similar development paths of thousands of planets with many planetary civilisations destroying themselves through nuclear war or other weapons of mass destruction. This would certainly explain why they might have suddently "appeared" in the late 1940s and why they seem particularly interested in nuclear facilities and major weapons systems like aircraft carriers. They may have an ethical policy of non-involvement in our lives except for readying themselves to prevent wars involving weapons of mass destruction.
It's a rather comforting thought...
#649 Re: Human missions » Starship is Go... » 2021-06-26 16:30:33
If they can get orbital by the end of the year, I think we are on for humans on Mars by 2026/27.
SpaceX plans to launch its first orbital Starship test flight in July
https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/Yy0yo … fafb3f9754
The current orbital flight plan has a Starship prototype launching from Boca Chica, Texas, and dropping its Super Heavy booster stage into the Gulf of Mexico after roughly three minutes. The spacecraft would enter orbit and make a soft water landing near Hawaii after a total time of about 90 minutes.
Not a full orbit gee....
#650 Re: Science, Technology, and Astronomy » 2019 NCOV a.k.a. Wuhan's Diseases » 2021-06-26 16:28:09
You can't tell from a positive test. Remember these tests are not accurate. Some studies suggest they could be 40% inaccurate. Everyone who goes to hospital now gets tested for Covid. But they don't get tested for flu as standard. Or common cold. Or various bacteria. All of which can kill people through lung disease.
You can certainly look at excess deaths over average to get an idea of the impact of Covid. You will find that is a lot less than the headline figures. But then you need to accept that this is no different from a bad flu year when you will see similar excess deaths.
Covid has been essentially the same as a very bad flu years so a lot of people near the end of life have been taken 3 to 6 months earlier than would otherwise be the case.
It's bad but no reason for giving away all your liberty and turning yourself into a slave of the state.
Do any of those others illnesses or diseases cause death in less than 2 weeks from getting them?
That means those are secondary to the main cause which was getting covid....