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Mars500 Mission Begins
krou writes "The six participants in the Mars500 project have entered their sealed facility. The project, which lasts for 18 months, is designed to try and simulate a mission to Mars, completely isolated and cut off from the outside world, with a '20-minute, one-way time-delay in communications to mirror the real lag in sending messages over the vast distance between Mars and Earth.' They also have limited consumables, with everything required being loaded onboard from the start. You can follow developments via the blog, or the Twitter feed of Diego Urbina, one of the would-be cosmonauts."
20 minute delay ... they won't be getting first post then
That's going to suck for WoW raids.
...so if the mission is supposed to be a "true" simulation, does that mean the cosmonauts would be using Twitter during the real voyage?
Living With a Nerd
I submit David Hasselhoff is the AntiChrist
And I have the proof
How can one explain the phenomenal global success of one of this country's least talented individuals? There are only three ways.
* Mr. Hasselhoff actually is talented, but this goes unnoticed in his own country.
* Mr. Hasselhoff has sold his soul to Satan in return for global success.
* David Hasselhoff is the AntiChrist.
I vote for the latter -- and perhaps, after seeing the facts involved, the rest of the world will agree.
The Facts First, the obvious. Add a little beard and a couple of horns -- David Hasselhoff looks like the Devil, doesn't he? And the letters in his name can be rearranged to spell
fad of devil's hash.
What does this mean? Well, Baywatch is David's fad. David is the devil. The Hash is what makes Knight Rider popular in Amsterdam.
(I was actually hoping to make the letters in his name spell out he is of the devil, which would be possible if his middle name was "Ethesis," which it might be. I'm sure his publicist would hide such a middle name if it were true.)
Second -- and most importantly -- David Hasselhoff and his television series were foretold in the Bible. Biblical scholars worldwide may quibble over interpretations, but they all agree on this. For a few telling examples let's skip to the end of the Bible. If any book of the Bible will tell us who the AntiChrist is, it's the Revelation of Saint John, which basically describes the AntiChrist and the Armageddon He causes. I'll just give you the verse, and the current theological interpretation of that verse.
Who is the Beast?
Rev 13:1 And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns The Beast, of course, is David Hasselhoff. The Heads are His separate television incarnations. Young and the Restless, Revenge of the Cheerleaders, Knight Rider, Terror at London Bridge, Ring of the Musketeers, Baywatch and Baywatch Nights.
The ten horns represent His musical releases: Crazy For You, David, David Hasselhoff, Do You Love Me?, Du, Everybody Sunshine, I Believe, Looking For Freedom, Night Lover and Night Rockers.
Not only does Mitch The Lifeguard literally "rise out of the sea" on Baywatch, but David's musical career has mostly occurred in Europe, a metaphoric rise to fame from across the sea.
Rev 13:3 And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast. Of course, this is a reference to his third head: Knight of the Phoenix, the first episode of Knight Rider. In this episode, "Michael Long, a policeman, is shot and left for dead. The shot is deflected by a plate in his head, but ruins his face. He is saved and his face reconstructed. He is reluctant, but agrees to use K.I.T.T. to help the Foundation for Law and Government fight criminals who are 'beyond the reach of the law'. " Knight Rider has been shown in 82 countries.
Rev 13:5 And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months. The following blasphemies are actual quotes from David Hasselhoff -- I read these while he was 42 years old.
"I'm good-looking, and I make a lot of money."
"There are many dying children out there whose last wish is to meet me."
"I'm six foot four, an all-American guy, and handsome and talented as well!"
"Before long, I'll have my own channel -- I'll be like Barney."
"(Baywatch) is responsible for a lot of world peace." which the Hoff said at the Bollywood Oscars. Don't believe me? Read the original article!
And here's a blasphemy that came from David's recent (Feb 2004) visit to the Berlin Wall museum. I couldn't have made something this great up by myself. He was upset that the museum didn't spend more tim
Gone!
Yeah, this is a nice show and all. But with neither the U.S. nor Russia possessing the technology to even remotely consider a manned Mars mission anytime in the next 20-30 years, this goes beyond premature and well into the realm of an absurd PR stunt. I'm not exactly sure why the Russian Academy of Sciences is supporting this. Russia scientific agencies haven't shown a particular propensity for PR whoring in the past, unlike some other agencies whose names I won't mention (*coughNASA*). But it's about as meaningful an "experiment" as that silly "Biosphere 2" trainwreck in the early 90's. And at least we got a crappy Pauly Shore movie out of *that*.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
Aren't they called Nursing Homes? Care for the Elderly is strangely akin to this...
http://www.beanleafpress.com
Ground control operator: "Hey uh.....Steve, while you're in space and all, mind if I go over to your house and sleep with your wife? I'll give you about 19 minutes to say no"
... the blog's in Russian. In Russia blogs translate you, etc. etc. ESA has a mission diary available though, written by Diego Urbina and Romain Charles.
'If Christ had tweeted the sermon on the mount, it might have lasted until nightfall.' - John Perry Barlow
First rule of new bio-dome: No Pauly Shore.
"I'm not a quack, I'm a mad scientist! There's a difference." - Dr. Cockroach
Personally I'd consider the distance to the, oh, let's say M31, as vast. Or even the distance to the other side of our own galaxy.
The distance to Mars is, all things being relative, right around the corner.
Did they see it as too big a risk to lock up mixed genders in there?
We are all God's parents.
Last time the Russians tried this, two of them bloodied each other and one of the women was nearly raped. No women this time.
"Men willingly believe what they wish." - Julius Caesar
it's right between the udder and the asshole
loving the wrong derby
...sailing the sausage seas!
but only one Wang among them.
Reminds me of the big train sketch
:D
From 0:15 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u80ZMJSyEzo
How are they going to handle sex?
Some with one hand. Others with two.
"I'm not a quack, I'm a mad scientist! There's a difference." - Dr. Cockroach
http://kayrosblog.ru
These people are obsessional fools, not scientists or explorers. If these morons were serious in finding out what it was like to spend 500 days locked in a room, they could just ask any of the millions of people that the government (USA or Russian Federation, what's the difference?) is holding in prison.
Space Exploration is a 20th-century quasi-religion that is beginning to manifest itself as a mental disease among those people who continue to believe it too strongly.
Get over it. Manned space flight was a 20th-century phenomenon that has been determined to be too expensive and too limited in returns to be continued at its former funding levels. We have serious problems now that we didn't have then, and throwing hundreds of billions of dollars (that we don't have anymore) into space doesn't solve them. Grown-up people who have to make hard and realistic decisions about our public funds and resources have decided this. Tom Swift halfwits can't accept it. Too bad. Time to get real.
People born into 20th-century America are prone to economic fantasy because they have lived their whole lives inside one. What they don't realize is that their country and their government is broke. There is no trillion dollars for space explorations. There is no trillion dollars for anything. There is no trillion dollars left anywhere in the USA.
There WAS a trillion dollars spent on a Iraq-Afghanistan war that accomplished nothing. There was a trillion dollars spent on maintaining the fantasy that some Wall Street banks and investment firms are too big to fail. There was a trillion dollars spent giving $600,000 mortgages to janitors. There was a trillion dollars spent on federal government budget deficits. Money is not a physical good. Money can be created out of nothing and can disappear back to nothing. Technical people never understand this. They don't study economics, and they don't understand economics.
There were trillions of dollars unwisely spent...and 'there were' means the past. America was rich, now it's not. There was money in the past but there isn't going to be in the future. The trillions of dollars that space enthusiasts believe could and should be spent on the glorious future in space and its endless possibilities for the betterment of humanity don't exist anymore. They've been already spent; and they're gone. The Burger Kings and endless suburban strip malls is what you got for it. It's all that you're going to get. This is the great tragedy that is America and what it could have been, but isn't and now never will be.
How long its takes to Columbus to go from Spain to the New World and back ?
It's the same amont of time that someone will use do go the the next new world.
But, we're not there yet, we just begun the new dark age with some moors invasion and some inquisition...
It sounds like World Championship Big Brother.
They should add Pauly Shore to the crew. This way, they recoup their budget expenses as a direct to DVD comedy release.
18 months in a confined, dark space is nothing for most Slashdotters.. ofcourse, sociallizing with 5 other people would be.
that supports in jocks or chaps your spare time 33 on a wrong
Cool.
we get to also watch them fry from radiation SHOULD be funny
Couldn't we send supplies to the crew en-route, or would that be a practical impossibility?
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
Some of the big problem areas involved - the psychological issues regarding isolation & small group dynamics, logistics of maintaining a sealed environment, etc... are exactly the kinds of things this experiment is supposed to address. Not that it couldn't be all for show, but it seems at least potentially worthwhile.
And regarding Biosphere 2: not really an apt comparison for the space flight portion of this. Biosphere 2 was meant to be an entire enclosed ecosystem, and yeah, it really did a pretty bad job of it - they had to ventilate it on more than one occasion (as I understand it) because the atmosphere was becoming unsuitable. Biosphere 2 had important lessons to teach us about forming an actual permanent colony on someplace like Mars (lesson: we still don't know what we're doing with respect to closed ecosystems, therefore we're not ready to colonize)... but about prolonged space flight: not so much. That mission is a lot like being in a submerged submarine, with artificial air purifiers, etc. We can already do that, but it isn't routinely done for such extended periods. So this mission will be helpful in testing that aspect out.
This idea keeps coming up, but repetition doesn't make it any more sensible. There's absolutely no way to make space mining or manufacturing pay off. Consider that 1) The asteroids, the Moon, Mars, etc, are made of silicates, iron, nickel, and a small amount of carbonaceous stuff. So is the earth. 2) There's no reason to fabricate anything in space because we don't really have a use for stuff in space. No one lives there, remember? 3) Even if you could think of a reason to mine/make stuff in space, you'd have to lift all the materials necessary to build your factory, mining equipment, whatever... millions of miles, and fight against earth's gravity to get there. Then you'd need to bring along all the people necessary to run this gear, plus their life support, minimal personal possessions, housing, etc. Then consider that it costs $10k/kg just to get to low earth orbit.
So what you're talking about is an absolutely colossal expenditure, and what do you get? The same stuff we can get right here on earth for a lot cheaper. There's a reason why the Lockheeds, Boeings, and Raytheons of the world are not going hog wild into this business - no one can figure out how to make any money at it.
While I could quibble with some of the particulars in your argument (the government is actually getting back almost all of the money spent in "bailouts", and a "deficit" is not something you can "spend money on", for example), the overall point here is correct. The economics of getting your ass to Mars simply don't work out. And a lot of the responses here only help prove your point - that people are in denial over this.
Not so bad for Eve. Not only is it somewhat relevant to the subject matter, but by the time they get back, they would have skilled up!
College-Pages.com - Online Colleges, Degrees, and Programs
Biosphere2 gets an unfairly bad rap most times someone brings it up.
The primary difference in the current experiment vs. Biosphere2 is that Biosphere2 made a number of mistakes that these guys appear to have corrected. The number one mistake was the use of concrete, which can take decades to cure, and in so doing, consumes Oxygen from the atmosphere. Inside Biosphere2, this turned into very low Oxygen levels, and a need to replenish the Oxygen frequently. The other issue was pre-loading of supplies (good for a mission, bad for a colony).
They also had crew/staffing problems, like the crew ordering pizza and letting it in through the airlock, in violation of the experimental protocols.
That said, Biosphere2 would be a good model for a moon colony, and not so good a model for a Mars mission, given that they dealt with a number of the issues that would have to be dealt with regarding expansion and contraction of the interior atmosphere, and that they depended on exterior sunlight (the reason they built outside of Tucson, AZ was because it has more sunlit days than almost any place on Earth). Neither of these would be relevant to a Mars mission.
-- Terry
... ask my grandmother what it's like. She never leaves her house ... at least not for the last 20 odd years.
The guy is a anti-space exploration troll.
Just the other day he was against Japanese sending robots to the Moon claiming that "there is nothing there" and how "Space Exploration is a 20th century American quasi-religion that is beginning to manifest itself as a mental disease among those people who believed it too strongly.".
And he really likes to repeat that line.
My guess is that he was molested as a child by a close relative dressed as an astronaut and using a toy rocket.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
He is a bit of a racist.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens