Happy Birthday JoshNH4H

Terraformer · 2011-12-23 13:00:27

Or should that be JoshNH5? You must be incredibly basic...

Here's a filk song. I want to know if you'll recognise it.

"Wanted fan in Luna City, wanted fan on Dune and Down,
Wanted fan at Ophiuchus, wanted fan in Dydee-town.
All across the sky they want me, am I flattered?
Yes I am!
If I could just reach orbit, then I'd be a wanted fan.
"Wanted fan for mining coal and wanted fan for drilling oil,
I went very fast through Portland, hunted hard like Gully Foyle.
Built reactors in Seattle against every man's advice,
Couldn't do that in Alaska, Fonda says it isn't nice.
"Wanted fan for plain sedition, like the singing of this tune.
If NASA hadn't failed us we'd have cities on the moon.
If it weren't for fucking NASA we'd at least have walked on Mars.
And if I can't make orbit, then I'll never reach the stars.
"Nader's Raiders want my freedom, OSHA wants my scalp and hair,
If I'm wanted in Wisconsin, be damned sure I won't be there!
If the E-P-A still wants me, I'll avoid them if I can.
They're tearing down the cities, so I'll be a wanted fan!
"Wanted fan on Chthon and Sparta and the Hub's ten million stars,
Wanted fan for singing silly in a thousand spaceport bars.
If it's what we really want, we'll build a starship when we can;
If I could just make orbit then I'd be a wanted fan.
"Wanted fan for building spacecraft, wanted fan for dipping air,
Sending microwave transmissions, building habitats up there.
Oh the glacier got us last time, next time we'll try to land!
And when the Ice is conquered, it'll be by wanted fans.
And when the stars are conquered, it'll be by wanted fans!"

Rune · 2011-12-23 16:32:41

That was sooo awesome to describe in words... You got a birthday present better than I can ever hope to get!!

Rune. Happy "we only get presents once a year"!! I know how it feels...

Terraformer · 2011-12-23 17:06:00

That was Niven and Pournelle (and another author whose name I have forgotten...). I'd be interested in who gets which story it's'from.

Rune · 2011-12-23 17:45:57

Can it be from Fallen Angels? 'Cause if it is then I totally forgot about it, and I deserve a reprimand!!

Rune. I'm starting to get the feeling I should ask you about good sci-fi books I haven't read...

Terraformer · 2011-12-23 18:15:08

Yep, it's right at the end. I just finished reading the book, online, yesterday (it's been published there for free... I hope). Though the verse I've put in my thread on the Outer Space Treaty (space policy) is my own creation.

I hereby reprimand you, Rune. You haven't Fafiated have you? Pah, who wants to live in the Danelaw?

We might have to pull a Fallen Angels to colonise the solar system the way things are and are going... d'you think Paul Allen and Elon Musk would trade their fortunes and become wanted fans if it would get mankind on that path? No need hopefully, though a few billion here and there wouldn't go amiss...

Josh Cryer · 2011-12-23 22:21:40

Happy Birthday Josh.

JoshNH4H · 2011-12-25 22:07:06

I haven't been online in a bit, but thanks, everyone! I'm a bit ashamed to say I've never read the book from which that comes. 18 now, old enough to not vote for people who slash NASA's budget

And Yep, NH4H is actually supposed to be Ammonium Hydride. It would be quite the rocket fuel, would it not? (in combination with LOX, of course)

Terraformer · 2011-12-26 05:30:40

So ypu'll be voting Gingrich in 2012? I would, if the 'states would let me vote (so what if I've never been domiciled in America; I'm an American citizen who will be 18 in November... Stupid flawed electoral college system, the President shouldn't be tied to the states but to the people grumble grumble).

Ammonium Hydride would be good... if it's possible. However, Lithium Hydride exists, and Lithium rockets have reached Isp's up to 500 seconds before, I seem to recall. Products would be Li2O and H2O in equimolar quantities...

Read Fallen Angels, it's online for free. It's got radical greenies in it, and I hear you're a member of the Green party...

Mark Friedenbach · 2011-12-26 12:19:10

Happy birthday!

Rxke · 2011-12-26 15:30:53

Happy-belated-birthday!

I might be completely dim here, but that text is Johnny Cash's classic, no? (No idea how popular the man actualy is/was in the US, my dad had quite a selection of his records, here in Belgium (!)

... Though I prefer Nick Cave's version, which is much, much darker...

Terraformer · 2011-12-26 15:59:27

No, it's Leslie Fish's version (to the tune of Wanted Man by Johny Cash).

JoshNH4H · 2011-12-27 00:13:40

Haha, thanks Mark and Rik.

And Terraformer- I'm registered as a Green, so I won't be voting in the Republican primaries. Gingrich looks like he won't get the nomination so it's a moot point. In any case, I could not vote for any of the Republican candidates for president. As a proudly gay American, I have too much self-respect for that.

Lithium Hydride suffers from the problem that the lithium in the exhaust would mood-stabilize everyone for miles and miles around (it's used to treat bipolar). Also, you're getting the source of a lithium-fueled rocket with Isp 500 from me, and I can tell you for a fact that in retrospect my math was entirely wrong and you should disregard it. Unless you're talking about Li-H-F Isp 545 s, though I've never seen it mentioned without a citation to wikipedia (e.g., no other sources). NH4H would be better if possible cause it'd be closer to being a liquid.

And I'll take a look at that story. Wouldn't call myself much of a radical green but I'm always up fort good scifi.

Last edited by JoshNH4H (2011-12-27 00:19:31)

Rxke · 2011-12-27 02:31:49

Wut?

You guys have to register which party you're going to vote for????

How is that even remotely democratic?

Darn, I forgot, no politics, disregard question, but can someone give me an outside, non-partisan link to more info on this?

Terraformer · 2011-12-27 05:09:42

No, but in America they have some weird system where the parties pick their candidates in a state-by-state election (primaries). They then field the winning candidates in another state-by-state election (presidential). I don't really understand why...

Rxke · 2011-12-27 05:59:44

yes, that part I know about, but what's up with the registering to a predefined party?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elections_ … gistration there's nothing in Wikipedia saying you have to register green, dem or rep?

(Mods: is asking questions politics? if so, delet this post.)

JoshNH4H · 2011-12-27 10:32:21

I believe the rule was intended to prevent the same old dem. vs. rep. politics. Assuming we don't get too heated (and I don't see how this could) we're okay.

Not all states allow you to register as a member of a political party, I believe it's something like 28 states. Your party registration is a way of showing support for your party. It also allows you to vote in party primaries, if your party has them (only the dems and reps do, seeing as the greens, libertarians, and the constitution party are not nearly big enough or well-enough organized to make primaries possible). Your party affiliation does not in any way affect your vote in the general election, except insofar as most democrats usually vote democrat, and same for the republicans. Those of uys in the smaller parties usually vote for candidates in the larger party which actually have a chance of winning. There is also a large proportion of independents, about a third of the electorate, with no party affiliation.

Rxke · 2011-12-27 12:38:23

O... Kay... I guess it makes sense, in some alternate dimension or so... (Boy, and me thinking politics in my country is crazily obfuscated above average, heehee!)

Rune · 2011-12-27 18:41:34

I don't know where, but I seem to remember you asked is it was also my birthday, Terraformer. Not really, it was the 24th (didn't it use to appear in our profiles?). So I get the presents even closer to Christmas. Which kind of explains my posts here. As to the crazyness of the US electoral system, or any other for that matter... I'd better not comment. Fervent democracy 2.0 believer, ardent cynical of the one we more or less have.

Rune. Happy holidays, enjoy the food and family! And if it can't be both, I'd pick the food...

JoshNH4H · 2011-12-29 17:50:18

Rxke wrote:

O... Kay... I guess it makes sense, in some alternate dimension or so... (Boy, and me thinking politics in my country is crazily obfuscated above average, heehee!)

Haha. I don't know much about the politics of Belgium in particular, but if it's a parliamentary republic like a lot of the other countries in Europe (hell, like almost every republic in the world that isn't the US), members of your legislative body can be forced to vote in line with party policy; This is not true in the US, not in the slightest. This makes the importance of party affiliation significantly less, especially since there are only two major ones.

Rune-

Happy Birthday! I hope Spain's economic troubles haven't been affecting you or those close to you too badly!

Rune · 2011-12-30 05:14:14

Thanks! I'm not looking for a job yet, so no trouble on that front. And when I finally do... well, being able to steal the job of pretty much any other brand of engineering should help . Nah, to be honest, I will go somewhere else then, somewhere where real planes are made (or even better, rockets). I think I have the english to pull that off. I'm seriously considering asking for a SpaceX internship in a year or two...

Rune. I guess the french aeronautical industry is out. But I never liked the language, or the fact bars close sooo early there.

Glandu · 2011-12-30 08:08:37

Well, Toulouse is not far From Spain. But I understand : SpaceX is where things will happen, & better go where stuff happens.

JoshNH4H · 2011-12-30 09:38:18

Rune-

Sounds a fair deal like my plan. I don't know when you graduate/start looking for a job, so I can't talk about time scales, but if I have my way I'll be ending up with SpaceX too. I still have 3½years of undergrad to go though, then I want to live in the city (oops, the vast majority of you are not from the tri-state area; that is, the City of New York) for a couple of years doing mechanical engineering (that's what my degree will be in, and I've always wanted to live there), then go back to school for my master's, maybe at MIT or CalTech if I can get in... So 7½ years from now, I may be working at SpaceX, if all goes well- unless there's another company at which I want to work more (or unless I don't get a job there). By that time, I think the aerospace industry will be completely revolutionized, one way or another. Hopefully it will be in lower prices and new production models which have led to a lot more investment in space.

Terraformer · 2011-12-30 11:44:01

You have a four year degree - and it's not a combined Masters degree course? Hmmm. I'll get a degree at the same time as you, then, despite starting University a year later, though I'll still have another year to go (Masters year; perhaps I'll be able to do a research project based on Dawn data that we ought to have by then, or maybe something biological - Natural Science is very flexible).

Aaargh, there are too many Aeronautics engineers involved in space and not enough natural scientists (who, in my most humble opinion, are the people you want on missions given their varied training, and especielly when building life support systems, and most certainly when trying to terraform somewhere)...

Rune · 2011-12-30 13:01:14

Glandu wrote:

Well, Toulouse is not far From Spain. But I understand : SpaceX is where things will happen, & better go where stuff happens.

Lots of people I know there... from what I hear, it's almost a spanish city, by the number of aeronautical engineers we export there. Which is sad in a way. But my french is non-existent, my english is good (or so I'm told), and even though I'll graduate in mostly aerodynamics and structures, rockets and rocket engines kind of won my heart a long time ago. Even of we dedicate <1% of class time to them... no one else dedicates more time, that I know of (in spain, of course).

Of course, if I can get some internship at ESA I really wouldn't mind! ^^

As to how much to go, 12 subjects. Which is not to say I will end 12 exams from now, my university has the habit of passing less than 50% of people in every exam. When I passed calculus, I was one of 40 among 200, and 40% of the new arrivals got expelled because they didn't pass anything the first year... Good times.

Rune. Idiotic system, I know. At least we know we can do ANYTHING afterwards.

JoshNH4H · 2011-12-30 23:19:20

Terraformer- I don't know what's going on with the US vs. UK university system. US universities are ranked quite highly worldwide, though, so I can't say I see an issue with what's going on here.

On missions you want natural scientists because they're going to be exploration, or at most prospecting missions, where natural scientists will be of more use. When it comes to building or designing something... well, that's exactly what we engineers are best at. Hiring a scientist to do an engineer's work is never a good idea.

Rune- That's totally crazy. I thought my Calc II class that I just took was hard, but most of the people I know about passed. When the pass rate is that low I think the usual strategy is to blame the teacher haha. Anyway, though, it's not inconceivable that we could end up in the same place eventually. I would just check SpaceX's employment policy to make sure that you don't have to be a US citizen, since (I don't know the rules on this one) it may be that the federal government has some kind of crazy stipulation saying that all employees must be US citizens as opposed to foreigners with work visas/green cards etc. You never know. Otherwise, you could always marry American (Okay, well I don't know the policies on that one either).

You, me, and just about every other aerospace engineering student is probably looking at SpaceX right now.

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Happy Birthday JoshNH4H

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