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#51 Re: Human missions » Battlestars » 2013-09-10 13:18:53
Are you capable of tracking down the doctoral thesis of a researcher mentioned in the media? Then locating the library that archives doctoral theses, and ordering a copy? Neither the receptionist who answered the phone, nor the librarian, were able to speak English. Ordering that paper tested my grade school French. By the way, after reading the actual thesis, the media got it wrong.
Kudos on locating the libray, but then you could have made it easier for yourself by asking your local library to do the part of getting a copy to you, ILL or interlibraly loan, it a great thing.
(In practice, they often just scan an old thesis and send you a pdf)
Source: I work in a university Library, and chat a lot with the people of ILL, it's one of the very few international systems that actually work :-)
#52 Human missions » A New Wave of Settlers? » 2013-09-10 13:06:46
- Rxke
- Replies: 8
I read tons of scenario's how to get to Mars,
I dreamed for years to go myself, one way or another,
I got old all of a sudden and realised it won't happen in my lifetime. So I buried the dream and got on with my life.
... And two days ago I had a chat with someone from another continent, and then with another young man from yet another continent. They were adamant they will get there one day.
... And I realised there are now young people among us who want to go and -for the first time in history- have a reason to believe it will actually be possible. (Musk's plans)
They were both people like you and me, saving all but every penny to get a ticket, studying hard to have a relevant experience/diploma.
It blew my mind.
So I started reading the comment section of articles on Mars plans (not on places like space.com etc, that's too positively biased)
And sure, a lot of people laugh it away, say we have to solve problems on Earth first yadda yadda yadda.
But there seems to be quite a bit of buzz from people saying it inspires them, people thinking it's cool etc
It helps a lot that Musk is being portrayed as the super cool glamour superhero....
Of course, it's not a given Musk will succeed, but I'm sensing there is now a real change in how people think about going to Mars, it's not 100% crazy anymore, only, say 70%.
Or am I seeing things?
I mean, I never ever heard a hemi-demi-semi believable plan to go to Mars from any of the big Spaceorgs when I was young, Musk's plans are barely more tangible, but there is a sense he really really is going to do it or die trying (and since he's somewhat of a superhero, he won't die 
)
#53 Re: Human missions » Landing on Mars » 2013-09-10 12:48:03
(Hi Josh,
yes, I all but fully regressed to a lurking state... )
#54 Re: Human missions » Landing on Mars » 2013-09-10 00:26:49
GW, first let me re-iterate my gratitude for the fact you go to the trouble to actually write out your musings in a clear, structured way. It is always a huge pleasure to read your posts. Even at 6 AM, heh.
Your costly but sure thing concept sounds very reasonable. But... Expensive (needs to be said) which will always lead to people screaming bloody murder.
Only way around this is to semi sell of or fund or sponsor... the different pieces to different parties. McLarenMitshubishi sponsoring lander #1, Arianespace funding tanker #3 etc etc.
Hugely complex re: politics and legals implications. We're not ready for that, I'm even not sure this is what we would want....
Or SpaceX and Orbital Sciences et al come up with a plan to do the ferrying really cheap and standardized, while NASA and other Governmental agencies (JAXA, Arianespace Roskomov etc) come up with other non-built-in-series parts....
Sigh, I dunno. 2030's all of a sudden seems unrealistic.
#55 Re: Meta New Mars » NewMars.com Technical Error Reporting » 2013-07-08 07:55:45
Had the same thing here... Mac with firefox. (@ work, after hours quick peek around 
)
#56 Re: Meta New Mars » NEWLY REGISTERED USERS MUST BE APPROVED BEFORE THEY CAN POST. » 2013-02-26 01:23:55
what's up with all the new spamlinks in the profile pages of the newer users?
What's happening to this place?
#57 Re: Human missions » Inspiration Mars Foundation » 2013-02-26 01:22:14
Yep, it's just me speaking to myself! How sad!!!
NMForums seem to be totally dead, no?
#58 Re: Human missions » Landing on Mars » 2013-02-12 12:45:01
interesting stuff, keep 'em coming! 8)
#59 Re: Pictures of Mars » Color images of Mars from the Spirit and Opportunity rovers » 2012-11-01 02:12:18
Wow! That looks pretty used up already.... Hope this is by design... And was expected...
#60 Re: Not So Free Chat » are you playing a computer game? PS3? XBOX? » 2012-10-31 14:08:40
'open' Elite clone, the first open-ended space-trader-sim.
Open source, Windows, Mac, Linux, BSD.... moddable, grrrreat community, more than 500 (functional) expansion pacs at last count
#61 Re: Youth Group / Educational Outreach » Does anyone play "Mars Simulation Project"? » 2012-10-30 02:14:18
BTW I thought it was pretty clever stuff....
like when sh*t hitting the fan (say a rover breaking down in a remote place and people getting in *real* problems because no air, fro instance) you could see other crew adapting, changing tasks, all automatically, you'd see the lab being run with minimal staff, the others suiting up, going out, trying to rescue, wow, that was impressive.
#62 Re: Youth Group / Educational Outreach » Does anyone play "Mars Simulation Project"? » 2012-10-30 02:11:31
It is foremost a simulation.
Loooooong ago I used to play, but had an old PPC mac with lacking Java support (Apple being sloooow to update their Java stuff, it was a pain. It felt like they were willingly sabotaging Java uptake or something :s )
... so it ran slow. sloooow slooooow
offtopic: this simulation was actually one of the reasons I started having second thoughts about the whole mac thing, despite having been using it for ages (have since completely switched to linux, never regretted it AT ALL, heh. xfce rulez)
BUT!
The guy writing it is a sterling chap, I even got some of my input almost instantly applied to one of his updates, complete with correct citing of whose idea it was in the first place
the starting point was based on a Zubrin-style-mission, with follow-up missions building things up.
#63 Re: Pictures of Mars » Color images of Mars from the Spirit and Opportunity rovers » 2012-10-30 02:02:30
Sweet stuff! You can almost feel the texture of it just by looking at it.
#64 Life support systems » Thorium reactors are go! (In India) » 2012-10-27 01:34:48
- Rxke
- Replies: 24
http://www.deccanherald.com/content/286 … ities.html
cue heated debate between Louis and... 
#65 Re: Not So Free Chat » "medieval" jail sentences for Italian Scientists in earthquake error » 2012-10-27 01:30:56
In other Italian news, professional liar Berlusconi gets 4 years, will simply appeal and is guaranteed to walk free (thanks to a law he had himself changed because he knew this was coming.)
Enough said.
#66 Re: Mars Society International » All the grid power in the world for your Mars simulation application?! » 2012-09-21 14:09:34
I just did.
#67 Re: Meta New Mars » Spammer » 2012-09-07 02:31:30
BTW... at 6 AM-ish, before work, I tried to report several spam messages, but one has to wait at least 60 secs between reports.
... So I basically said: "fsk this sh*t, I don't have time for that!"
#68 Re: Meta New Mars » Spammer » 2012-09-06 23:05:27
Wow, that's not right.
Do you happen to have a gmail account? Josh seems to dislike gmail
(I have one too, but i'm an 'oldie' here...)
#69 Re: Mars Society International » All the grid power in the world for your Mars simulation application?! » 2012-09-06 08:24:57
darn, I just joined another team!
#70 Re: Unmanned probes » Official MSL / Curiosity Rover Thread | Aug 5, 2012 10:31 p.m. PT » 2012-08-30 00:03:08
wooooow!!! 
geologists popping veins all over the world!
#71 Re: Unmanned probes » Official MSL / Curiosity Rover Thread | Aug 5, 2012 10:31 p.m. PT » 2012-08-17 06:52:49
#72 Re: Not So Free Chat » Direct a space telescope for a day! » 2012-08-17 05:38:50
Okay, all you guys who did *not* chose Mars as target for a picture, please report to the nearest flogging-station! 
I'd see this being a good source of revenue when the conspiracy fiends find out about this, lining up to take pics of area 51, HAARP etc
seriously, isn't this a potential privacy nightmare? 'accidental' pic of neighbor's wife sunbathing in summer, neighbor finds out, lawsuit et c....
#73 Unmanned probes » Q&A with the engineers and scientists currently working with Curiosity » 2012-08-17 01:22:10
- Rxke
- Replies: 1
http://nl.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/yb … _the_mars/
We're a group of engineers from landing night, plus team members (scientists and engineers) working on surface operations. Here's the list of participants:
Bobak Ferdowsi aka “Mohawk Guy” - Flight Director
Steve Collins aka “Hippy NASA Guy” - Cruise Attitude Control/System engineer
Aaron Stehura - EDL Systems Engineer
Jonny Grinblat aka “Pre-celebration Guy” - Avionics System Engineer
Brian Schratz - EDL telecommunications lead
Keri Bean - Mastcam uplink lead/environmental science theme group lead
Rob Zimmerman - Power/Pyro Systems Engineer
Steve Sell - Deputy Operations Lead for EDL
Scott McCloskey - Turret Rover Planner
Magdy Bareh - Fault Protection
Eric Blood - Surface systems
Beth Dewell - Surface tactical uplinking
@MarsCuriosity Twitter Team
some nice stuff, some interesting links.
#74 Not So Free Chat » Operation: Let's build a Nikola Tesla Museum! » 2012-08-17 01:07:08
- Rxke
- Replies: 1
Please take a moment to read this (entertaining) writeup:
http://theoatmeal.com/blog/tesla_museum
Tesla is the 'cool' version of Edison.
He had a big lab, that is now at risk to being demolished, so there's a drive to buy the land and the lab to build a museum.
It looks impossible, but the main goal is to get this in the mainstream press, to get 'big name' backers, like GM or even David Bowie (who played Tesla in The Prestige) to add to the story, get the ball rolling.
#75 Re: Meta New Mars » The great crash » 2012-08-17 00:52:11
you got ( a little bit of ) money
(I sent this as a gift, so you don't have to pay costs , I paid 1% costs, now I have 26 cent left, on my account, heehee! )