New Mars Forums

Oh, look!  It's coming this way!   :laugh:

Another possibility for lowering launch costs is to develop non-rocket launch technologies.  Some, like the JP Aerospace Airship-To-Orbit plan (yes, I'm becoming an apologist :;): ) could lend themselves to mass production techniques. However, these all currently suffer under the same dilema as rocketry: opportunity costs are higher than the altitudes they seek to attain.

On a more serious note:

When Roald Amundson and his crew made their famous trek to the south pole, he had the name of every sled dog he brought with him written down in a log book, along with the date he intended to kill and eat it during the journey.  Most of the names were crossed out by the time they returned home.

Despite the fact that I've nearly killed me a terrier on several occasions, I never once considered eating the corpse.

Amundson was a brave and often unexpectedly selfless man, but also fundamentally a heartless bastard.  He was the kind of person who should never have a dog.

Professor Curlyarse!  Hey, this thing is good!   

Well there you go!  I'll bet that sideroscope gives it just enough english for all sorts of voyeurism.  This kind of lude behavior must never be sanctioned by the university!   
:laugh:

Just don't go too far.  You don't want to end up with a curtain thrown over it like the semi-nude statue of Blind Lady Justice in the US Justice Department.    :;):

We had a similar problem, also involving a donated telescope, at my old university.  There may still be hope if you approach this from the right angle. 

Your first change in vector should be to disregard the current opinion of "most people", because it's worthless.  "Most people" are not going to come after hours to use a telescope, and "Most people" aren't going to make the actual decision of what to do with this thing.  Find out who will, and talk to them.  If you do, I'll bet you'll find that this dilema is at its heart either A) a money problem or B) a space-related political problem.  It's cheaper to leave the scope lying in a storeroom somewhere than it is to install a mount for it, or the university maintenance staff don't want to mess with it, or Professor X refuses to give up his Danger Room, or something.

The problem is probably something much more specific than "everybody here is a lazy idiot."  Solve the specific problem, and "most people" will fall into line.  (They're lazy idiots - it's what they do.)  You appear to have a fantastic advantage in that your scope is mobile and can be stowed in any converted storeroom of the proper size - including a hallway alcove - provided you can get the power supply set up.  This allows a very wide margin for any necessary compromises in the space-related political department.

PS - If attempts to break the problem down into soluble elements don't work, you can always try something sneaky and underhanded.  For example, you could raise a stink over the nearest co-ed dormitory being clearly visible through the same window intended for the telescope.   :;):

Looks like Ivan's poised to do to the west coast of Florida what Frances did to the east (and west).  For the next few days, it's going to really suck to be a Floridian. 

It may still turn or lose strength though.  Hurricanes only reach maximum fury and stay there when they're following a minimum energy trajectory defined by the local weather and Coriolis force.  (That's the line down the middle of their projected path on the NOAA maps.)  However, a hurricane pumps air through itself like a giant turbine, and can thrust itself any direction as long as it's expending the energy to change course. 

Slowing down expends a lot of energy for hurricanes.  So does turning.  But they've got it to spare.  I've even seen them stop, turn about and head south. 

Let's hope that Ivan does a lot of fancy maneuvers in the next few days and blows off some of that energy, because right now it's the strongest storm in years and Florida is right in its glory lane.   

And I liked Martian Republic's answer: they're pursuing the technology because it's potentially useful in its own right, even if it never sees a spacecraft.  Spin-off's, man, spin-off's.

Human insanity has played almost as significant role in the technological advancement of our species as logical thought has.

Why would another, more logical species reach our level of advancement?  Why would another species at our level of advancement enjoy complete sanity among all its members?

As for radio broadcasting, I agree it's a risk to develop the technology.  So is not developing the technology.  We're taking the nobler course, which is not the same as the logical course.

My dog's nemesis is my neighbor's wooden owl lawn ornament.   It's been a long-time rivalry - not even the neighborhood squirrels are more hated.  You can tell she wants it dead.  And she's not being playful, either. 

I fear I must resign myself to the fact that I have a stupid dog...   

That does depend on what you mean by "lost." 

If you mean "no longer usable as a space station," then IMHO Skylab and Mir were taken out of service right on time.  They weren't built to be serviced (a bit like a car with the hood welded shut), and stuff wears out - including entire space stations.  They just broke down. 

If you mean "sent to their firey doom and destroyed," then, yes, I feel that's a dangerous trend.  I think we should get out of the habit of abandoning satellites when they stop working to our satisfaction.

Confirmation by a different radio telescope is vital, yes.  It can rule out one of our own satellites, as well as local RFI.  Also, Aricebo can only examine stellar objects for brief periods because it only points straight up.

Given the information that the signal frequency does go outside of the 250 Hz per signal bandwidth used by SETI@Home's algorithms, we can get a minimum guess as to its maximum speed if its in an orbit.

delta-f = f * delta-v / c

Thus,

delta-v = c * delta-f / f

where delta-f = 125 Hz = Doppler shift, f = 1420 MHz = Approximate Frequency, and c = 300 * 10^6 m/s = speed of radio waves.  Delta-v is actually the velocity away from us, which in a circular orbit accelerates (drifts) most when the source is moving at a 45 degree angle to us.

So, the max delta-v is greater than 36 m/s.  Each source is examined for only 12 seconds at a time, so it's safe to assume the actual drift is less than 500 Hz over each observation.  That corresponds to a velocity of less than
150 m/s if this source is some sort of emitter in an orbit.

That sort of velocity does not correspond to a 35 minute circular orbit around a planet.  Perhaps an asteroid or moon, but not a planet.  It could be on the surface of a planet, but then there would be long periods with no apparent frequency drift at all.  Unfortunately, there isn't enough data to tell the two cases apart.

The behavior of this source over time is vital to identifying it.  Aricebo is not equipped to study it for more than a few minutes at a time.  (The estimated period is probably just a projection.)  We need to look at it with another scope.