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More on Planetary Society Solar Sail Launch
gwernol writes "The BBC is reporting that a spacecraft powered by the solar wind will be launched into orbit in the fall. This is a direct competitor to the similar Russian effort recently discussed on Slashdot. Interestingly this is not a NASA-funded mission; it is financed by the Planetary Society using private money. Not quite the build-your-own rocketship recently reported here, but still good to see private funding in space driving some real innovation." We've mentioned this launch before.
heheheheh everything i needed to know about being a man i learned from batman by Seamus Heffernan There are a series of classic questions that plague all young men, boys who have emerged from their childhood but have not yet boarded the neon hormonal freight train known as puberty. We all argued about what the truly greatest chocolate bar experience was; we pondered over what was in the middle of golf balls and what made that rattle inside spray-paint cans; we agonized over what the best Star Wars movie was. And, of course, there was the tough question in my circle of friends, boys weaned on too many Saturday morning cartoons and late-night horror flicks, boys whose vision of the world was seen through the pop-culture goggles of good versus evil. We were ten-year-olds who thought comic books were literature, and the greatest Before We Discover Sex question of all was this: Who is your favourite super-hero? I always said Batman. Often, my friends scoffed at me, pointing out the foolish limitations of my choice. Batman could not fly. He was not bulletproof, super-fast, or blessed with the proportionate speed and strength of a spider (whatever that means). There was nothing particularly super about this hero, and yet he captivated my hyper-extended imagination as a child, and it went beyond the dark costume and the looming bat-ears. My interest has lasted into adulthood, and I assume that my friends now think that I keep a Batman action-figure on my desk as a claim to youthful charm. I may let them think that, but it runs far deeper. While other heroes were often imbued with an "aw-shucks" charm that was meant to re-enforce their humanity, quite often it left me with resentment for what I saw as their smug self-satisfaction. Bullets bouncing off their chests, their power-rings ablaze or their laser eye-beams blasting through the bad guys, they were always ready to clap one of us regular folk on the back, give that toothy the-world-is-just-bully-'cause-the-good-guys-alway s-win grin, and reassure us they would be back when we needed them.
Conversely, Batman was one of us "regular folk." Without powers, he was forced to rely on his skill and his wits. Oh sure, he was rich and had access to an incredible amount of gadgets and technological innovations, but lose the Batmobile and the well-stacked utility belt, and you were left with just flesh and blood. His humanity was a huge attraction to me, as I found it hard to relate to his super-powered brethren. Perhaps I equated them with the kids who were too good-looking, too smart, or too athletic, but in Batman I saw a guy succeed in life because he wanted to, and not because he caught a few breaks.
Of course, I was too young to articulate this at the time, and probably just said "Cool, man" and chugged some more cherry soda. But Batman has stayed with me when other icons of my pre-adolescence have slipped away.
First, there's a darkness to Batman that is quite appealing to the older comic book fan. Since Batman was distanced from the campy TV show and re-introduced to his darker roots (thanks mainly to Frank Miller's work in Batman: Year One and The Dark Knight Returns) he became perhaps the mot psychologically compelling character in comic books. Here was a guy who saw his parents get gunned down as a kid, and carried that with him for years. His whole life is about trying to fix that one wrong, and he can't. In real life, we'd probably pay a bunch of psychiatrists to anlayze his feeling and explain what was going on, and they'd tell us he was a control freak suffering from delusions of grandeur, driven by revenge fantasies. Thankfully, this isn't real-life, and in comics we're spared the Oprahfication of modern society. As a character, he's simply hard not to care about, because he cares so much himself.
It is this drive that separates him from the typical spandex-clad vigilante. Batman did not become a hero because some fluke accident - that seemed to invariably involve "radiation" - left him with strange abilities. He has his share of titles and accolades (world's greatest detective, world's best escape artist, world's best hand-to-hand combatant, etc.) but ultimately, he exists as an example of a man who pushes himself to greatness through discipline and an unshakeable confidence in what is right. His dark beginnings prove that he did not have heroics thrust upon him; he grabbed heroics by the throat and took them for himself.
As I have become increasingly individualistic as I've grown into adulthood, it is this quality of my childhood idol that sticks with me. Never once did you see him complain, or cry victim, or bray about a misplaced sense of entitlement. He was guided by an unwavering sense of justice and never compromised his principles in the face of convenience. Here was the "rugged individualism" of the classical liberal, leaping to four-colour life on the pages before my young eyes, a man whose "powers" could be emulated far easier in my day-to-day life than, say, Superman's.
Batman is a permanent fixture of our culture, a name that enjoys almost universal recognition. He symbolizes something more than the cape and cowl. To his fans, he represents a darkness we have all faced, a question that we sometimes cannot push away: Will I have the courage to push myself, to not be a coward, to do the right thing? In that sense, this fictional character very much represents real life, and our own self-doubt. Batman never had one of those big, the-good-guys-always-win smiles. He knew better.
is it that bad seein a hot chick again? if i see a hot chick walkin down the hall i dont say "repost"
The Planetary Society is working with the Russians. Both solar sail projects listed in the article are really the same project.
There are 10 types of people in this world, those who can count in binary and those who can't.
I would like to use this technology to fly through space and live my dream.
Karma: Good (despite my invention of the Karma: sig)
What happens if they get a little breeze of tachyons and get hurled into Cardassian space?
Unfortunately the ocean sailing analogy breaks down: solar sails are not propelled by the solar wind, which is essentially a stream of particles from the sun. Solar sails are propelled by pure light pressure - by photons bouncing off of them.
Through the history of technology, most innovations have followed this path. A government spends the massive capitol to prove a concept, and then industry and the public take over. No sane businessman in the 1400's would have tried to sail across the Atlantic, even with known benefits, but a government could afford to try, just to see. I think (and hope) that space travel will work the same way. We proved that space is real, and now private industry and the public will find ways to use it. I just hope they happen in my lifetime.
Sounds like a cool way to send missions to the outer planets. (Hello Pluto!)
Wonder how steerable it is?
Click here if you just like to click on shit.
This concept uses a simple electromagnet that has it's field lines dragged out by helium plasma. It would create a magnetic bubble 10 miles in diameter. This would use the solar wind as a sail, producing a constant 1 newton of thrust. This concept would be very simple to build with existing tech and would only weigh a few pounds. It could achieve speeds of around 200,000 miles per hour. The addition of dust to the bubble could accelerate it even more for a mission to another star.
If you don't understand any of my sayings, come to me in private and I shall take you in my German mouth.
Go look at this article concerning nano-computers. Near the bottom, Small Times it discusses GOVERNMENT funding of transistor research. Not to say that private business couldn't have done it, but they wouldnt have, not without knowing the benefits. And notice, in my post I DID say they were trying to find a route to Asia. The thing about known benefits refering to a shorter sea route to Asia, of course.