Tocky on 24/8/2022 at 03:30
Quote Posted by ZylonBane
Being over the same spot all day would be a
geostationary orbit.
With one small correction, if I may, if an object is geostationary it is also geosynchronous and thus I was not wrong. Anyway, that was not the smarty pants answer I was looking for. What I wanted to know was how much such a thing would, though it made a ground to moon elevator possible if bendy stretchy and segment addable to account for the constant drift, also reduce the electromagnetic field and totally fuck us. And yes, yes, geosynchronous isn't necessarily geostationary.
In any event, it's just a distraction from my worrying over the trip. I have no premonitions of danger or anything like that but I do worry about traffic and whether or not we may get a parking spot near. That's why I want to leave at 3 AM. We can always sleep on an air mattress once we get there in the back of the Expedition if the heat isn't too bad and I don't actually have to bury any would be thieves in the marsh.
Does anyone have any advice? Has anyone been to a launch? Is there anything I'm not foreseeing? Sunscreen, chairs, snacks, drinks, umbrellas, rain ponchos, lens cover extension, ear plugs, cap, alarm clock, a full tank, a full phone charge, new sim card, anything else? I've travelled the route on google maps using the little man and only the turn onto Kennedy drive is a tad obscure. Well, the turn on 1 from the hotel is also not well marked but I've little manned it to that point too. It's freaking Daytona 500 weekend Saturday but maybe those bastards will be heading the other way by the time I pull in. I should check the water in the radiator overflow. The alternator is new so that won't go out. It's been a while since I changed brake pads. Shit the battery is about four years old. Ugh. I don't feel anything going wrong yet though.
I had wanted to go on down the Keyes to Hemmingway's house but not enough time this trip.
Mr.Duck on 24/8/2022 at 05:09
Fly me to the Moon...
demagogue on 24/8/2022 at 07:29
I outlined a novel (actually a series) about the moon race.
It's funny because it follows a lot of the beats of For All Mankind, the tv show, actually kind of disturbingly so, but I think my version can still stand independently. My version has one little difference that made the stakes a lot higher and the drama a lot bigger, but even with that I played it straight, I mean, as in it's based on history exactly as it was in the 1960s on-wards, mutatis mutandis with the little change.
I'm kind of surprised, as far as I know no one has played out this idea and connected it to real history.
Anyway, long story short I studied a lot about that period of the space race for that story.
It's not probably hard to guess what the hook is, but anyway the working title is By the Shores of Tranquility.
It'll be interesting following this. Be nice to see our closest neighbor in a lot more detail.
It's so close to us, it's actually scandalous how little we've explored it up close.
All that said, the one I'll be really interested in seeing is when they send a lander to one of the outer planet moons.
That'll be the day!
Aged Raver on 24/8/2022 at 08:10
> ...
Is there anything I'm not foreseeing? Looks like everything's covered. These days when I go anywhere I try to go with empty bladder in case there aren’t nearby toilets (or long queues). But if it’s marsh land ... A pair of strong boots?
I see there’s an (
https://www.nasa.gov/nasalive) Artemis Web Cast so I’ll be watching. How far away from the action do you think you’ll be? If you've got a humongous pole and flag on your
moon buggy I’ll look out for you. :joke: Mind you, if there's 100,000 going there could be loads of flags ... Perhaps a giant inflatable banana. Seriously it looks like you're well prepared. Improvisation on the day will cover anything else. :thumb:
Tocky on 25/8/2022 at 05:06
The sea is a friend in such situations as well. That only requires braving the sharks these days. I doubt the web cast will cover those on the beach but if it does I'll be the old bearded hippy in the NASA T shirt grinning from ear to ear. I've loved NASA since I was a little boy. I've watched every mission. I've followed every exploit. I've hoped for this for so long.
It's not just going to the moon. It's that it is a stepping stone to Mars. I had so hoped we would be farther along. There were plans to be. Did you know that? They teased for so long. The show "For All Mankind" is based on much of it. That moon base was a plan in the seventies. The time we bombed the south pole? I joked that we poked it in the ice hole. But we had to know. The resultant plume showed a spectrometer reading of water. We got distracted with low budgets leading to other missions. I'm not so certain they were wrong. We needed the things that interval brought us. But now we are going back. Back to the dream.
I'm fairly certain I'm not going to see it. Like Bradbury it will be out of reach for me. But it won't for mankind. That is enough. That will soothe my soul. Some of you may see it. I'm happy for you. I want to know we will rise above all the bullshit and do what is good and true and right as a species. Nothing else will do. There is no substitute. No political evangelical oil company science denying bullshit. Just science. Just those who make me proud to be human giving every ounce of brainpower and even their lives to further our advancement to the place we should be... in the stars.
I want to believe that. I have to believe that. And I will be cheering loudest.
Cipheron on 25/8/2022 at 07:33
Quote Posted by Tocky
We got distracted with low budgets leading to other missions. I'm not so certain they were wrong. We needed the things that interval brought us.
I'm not too sure about that logic. It would be equivalent to, for example, imagine investment in computers in 1980 crashed and never recovered, and computers stayed as big clunky mainframes with terminals, then in that alternative future you're trying to explain the idea of the internet to people as why we should invest in computers, but they still can't envision it other than as terminals logging into some big central computer.
So similarly, when we say "there were plans for a moon base in the 1970s" it's wrong to just envision them building a whole moon base just with 1970s tech, just as you can't explain the 1980s PC boom leading up to widespread internet access, to someone who's only thinking in 1970s computer technology terms. The plans themselves would have fueled the research and creation of technology and manufacturing capacities we have no idea about.
Tocky on 25/8/2022 at 18:12
We had to have the satellites the 80's brought us by way of the shuttle program. And having Gates and Jobs bring computers into the competitive arena boosted their output and storage. As far as the moon base goes, we certainly could have built it with 70's tech. Airtight aluminum sections age well in a non-corrosive environment. An update or two through the years and you are good to go. But all in all things likely happened as they had to. My main gripe is that they should have happened faster. But then, I didn't help, did you? Had there been a rockets not bombs box to check on my taxes I certainly would have picked it.
Electing Trump sure brought down my expectations for our future. Artemis will help my feelings considerably.
Aged Raver on 26/8/2022 at 09:52
> … we are going back. Back to the dream. I'm fairly certain I'm not going to see it.
Well… an advert from a couple of years ago, but the vehicle might interest you, it’s a Van Morrison with autopilot.
[CENTER][video=youtube;3dDA7aqTk-M]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dDA7aqTk-M[/video]
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[CENTER]
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[CENTER]These two are in London in 4 weeks, with Josh and Carson and Mary Spender but the show has been marked “sold out” all year so I won’t be going. It seems all tickets for a 2021 show that were cancelled due to lockdown are valid for the new date, but no extra dates added. Probably just as well. I’d be too excited. :D
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Tocky on 26/8/2022 at 14:40
WE'RE NOT GOING. The biopsy on my mother-in-law turned into three biopsies and a "we don't know what the hell it is but it is rare". Last night she took a turn for the worse. She isn't getting the oxygen she needs and may well be dying. There is a mass on one of her lungs. They have her sedated and haven't told us a damn thing so far. For the past eight years they had her diagnosed as COPD without checking anything else. All that time it must have been growing.
My wife looked at me and asked was there anyone else I could go with to see Artemis take off. No. I'm not going to leave her at a time like this.
"... gang aft agley and leave us naught but grief and pain for promised joy." Maybe there will be an Artemis two and three and twenty. I hope so. I just have this terrible feeling this was my one shot to be there for it.
Harvester on 26/8/2022 at 16:03
Sorry to hear that Tocky, good on you for supporting your wife, even if that means missing an event you were looking forward to. Best of luck to all involved, and I wish all family members lots of comfort and strength if the time should come to say goodbye to a loved one.