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Perimeter Railway for ISS; HETE-1 Comes Down

Quirk writes "The Sydney Morning Herald is touting the mission to start construction of an orbiting railway. Space Shuttle Atlantis will carry the astronauts who will initiate the planned 107 meter rail line along the outside of the International Space Station. The remote controlled train will move at speeds of 2.5 centimeters a second and be able to carry more than 20 tonnes of cargo. Construction is projected for completion in 2004." And B3avis followed up with news about the HETE re-entry: "The pieces of the HETE-1 spacecraft seem to have crashed somewhere in the Himalayas. "The final notification from Space Command indicates that the debris re-entered at 31.5 degrees North and 92.4 degrees East." says NASA. And they should know."

11 of 166 comments (clear)

  1. life imitates art? by drik00 · · Score: 2, Funny
    Does this remind anyone of that movie "The Gods Must Be Crazy," when the bushmen find that Coca-cola bottle and think its from the gods?

    There's probably some people up in the Himalaya's that saw the thing come down and think its the end of the world....

    ...if only they knew.

    --
    Beer, now there's a temporary solution -- Homer Jay S.
  2. In other news... by Rhinobird · · Score: 4, Funny

    The crushed remains of the legendary beast 'Yeti' were found today, near a recent crater of unspecified origin...

    --
    If Mr. Edison had thought smarter he wouldn't sweat as much. --Nikola Tesla
  3. hmmm by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    Interesting similarity, IIS and ISS both carry a huge load and move very, very slowly.

  4. Heh... by diggem · · Score: 3, Funny

    Brings a whole new meaning to the term "Space STATION" eh? :D

    1. Re:Heh... by heikkile · · Score: 3, Funny

      Yes. Trains stop at train stations, buses stop at bus stations, on my desk I have a work station, and up there we have a space station...

      --

      In Murphy We Turst

  5. Be glad... by Ctrl-Alt-Del · · Score: 3, Funny

    ... it's faster than the British rail network, and probably cheaper to build/run as well

    --
    "Life is like a sewer - what you get out of it depends on what you put into it" - Tom Lehrer
  6. Re:cm/s - mph by LadyLucky · · Score: 3, Funny
    Heh, well, that was useful. Convert it from a decent unit to a confusing one...

    Now, the question on everyone's lips is...

    What is that in (gallons)^1/2 / (century * sqrt(lightyears) )?

    --
    dominionrd.blogspot.com - Restaurants on
  7. $A357 million by Stackster · · Score: 5, Funny

    "Although the $A357 million train..."

    Is that "A" a typo, or are the numbers in hexadecimal to make it look cheaper?

    --

    There are 010 kinds of people. Those who understand octal, those who don't, and 06 other kinds of morons.
  8. Re:cm/s - mph by onnellinen · · Score: 2, Funny
    What is that in (gallons)^1/2 / (century * sqrt(lightyears) )?


    I don't know that, but you might be interested to know that it is 150 furlongs per forthnight.

  9. Train? Don't let the British build it! by mccalli · · Score: 4, Funny
    As a train-travelling Britain myself, I can just imagine the announcement:

    "NASA Spacetrains (UK) regret to announce the late departure of the 17:48 'Dark Side of the Station' service. This is due to the wrong kind of sub-atomic particles bombarding the track. We apologise for any inconvenience caused."

    "NASA Spacetrains (UK) regret to announce the cancellation of the 17:53 'Earthside' service. This is due to a shortage of rolling stock. We apologise for any inconvenience caused."

    "NASA Spacetrains (UK) regret to announce that all anti-clockwise trains are running approximately three hours late. This is due to overrunning engineering works and signalling problems near Mars. We apologise for any inconvenience caused."

    etc...

    (Probably have to have experienced UK trains to find any of that funny. If you have experienced UK trains though, then you have my deepest sympathies.)

    Cheers,
    Ian

    1. Re:Train? Don't let the British build it! by Bob+McCown · · Score: 3, Funny
      Dont you mean something similar to:

      "bing-bong. Brimish Rull regret that mumble maz bem dermumble a mir mumble mumble bimble late. Passengers mizzing to mumble rimble mumble are advised to momble mar at murmble. Thank you mor mumble mimbling Brimble mum. bing-bong."