Is hanging in the Air and Space Museum right now. The Orion probe. Solve the exploration problem and nuke proliferation at the same time. Just toss shaped nuke charges out the back, use the push against a giant dinner plate, so to speak, for the probe.
The British Interplanetary Society thought experimented out this concept a long time ago for its Project Daedalus... a fly-by probe of Barnard's Star. That's a little over a six ly trip, folks... so if it could work for a six ly
trip, it should be a reasonable concept for the
trip to Pluto, Kuiper belt, and the 1/2 ly or so out to the real 9th planet (probably a cool, brown dwarf) that analysis of some cometary orbits suggests is out there (Hubbell isn't good enough (yet) to image a jovian size planet a 1/2 ly out).
You could certainly take a MUCH bigger payload with an Orion vehicle. I agree with previous posters that it doesn't make much sense to send a flyby such a great distance if all you're going to do is spend a few hours at Pluto (regardless of the interesting info you'd get flying through the Kuiper belt). With a powerful vehicle like an Orion ship, you could drop off a few orbiting/mapping satellites on the way out.
But I highly doubt that any gov't is going to have the guts to put disassembled nukes in orbit for the purpose of pushing a giant dinner plate a 1/2 ly out. If pictures is what we're after, eventually, the planetary imaging interferometers that we'll be flying in the next decade should be able to get much better pics of Pluto and Charon than we can get now with Hubble.
Also, as we move towards nanotechnology, we might be able to send very small probes with solar-powered lasers into deep space at a very high rate of speed.
My own personal view is that humans, being the impatient creatures we are, are more likely to be interested in exploring the stars rather than airless places like the Moon, Mars, etc. Once we can manufacture and store antimatter in quantity - something that seems easier to acheive, in some aspects, than nuclear fusion - we can easily build relativistic starships if we so incline to do so. Its not that big of a deal, and its not that terribly expensive, when you consider the amount of money that is "thrown away" in our economy for such extravagances as cosmetics:)
In a sense, we already "terraform" our environment on Earth via altering the effects the effects of natural phenomena, such as the weather, when we heat or a/c our homes, buildings and vehicles. I think that there is an interesting debate forming here when we talk about the difficulties of terraforming Mars or Venus. It all depends, I believe, on what happens with nanotech, biotech, and AI in the next, let's say, 20-30 years. If we can get Von Neumann machines small enough, understand the genomes of humans and other organisms and how to manipulate their genetic makeup, and control the process with reliable AI, then we can do a James Hoganesque thing and send robots to places like Mars and Venus and terraform those places at a relatively low cost;) as long as we are willing to be patient. If genetics also greatly expands human life span, we also may develop the cultural patience as a species to commit to long-term projects that may not come to fruition for centuries (if not millenia). However, even if we somehow can live 200 or more years with the body of a 25 year old supermodel, I don't think its human nature to be patient. It will be interesting to see if we can get over our current cultural fears about nuclear fission and build the fast rockets we would need for a more "brute" force approach to colonization of places like Mars, the Asteroid Belt, and the moons of Jupiter and Saturn. Then again, guys like Robert Forward have stated that at the current pace of tech advance, we should be able to build antimatter powered relativistic starships sometime towards the middle of this century. I think its more likely that once we find earthlike planets orbiting nearby stars - and this assumes that the Terrestrial Planet Finder flies on schedule after 2010 - that we'll be more interested in Going There than Staying Home. Yeah, its tough to build starships. But its probably a lot tougher to terraform a planetary environment considering that we barely understand our own!:)
Its a similar machine, but instead of producing rocket fuel, it produces oxygen. Both will be needed on Mars. Zubrin has had enormous influence on NASA's thinking about Mars missions.
So what's all the hullaballoo about this? There are a jillion other IRC networks that are better administered. The planet isn't going to stop rotating because they've decided to become AOL-like. Point being - you can't shut up free speech, and closing yourself off from the rest of the 'Net ultimately will result in the Death Of Your Online Community Via Entrophy. Black Dog
Isn't it amazing how quickly the media can spread inaccurate information? Either they don't care, they're lazy, or the all-consuming competition to be "first" merely means being the fastest with the copy and paste commands in Windows:) Those who have used IRC a billion times know how easy it is to grab a nick when there's a split if the server is unsecured. But its pretty obvious the technoretards still don't get it, as evidenced by what I just copied and pasted below from abcnews.com: "You can only imagine what they were asking Bill Clinton on Valentine's Day," said CNN spokesman Paul Schur. Schur confirmed that at one point the filtering system failed and some watching the chat online saw the comment about pornography, which a user posted under the president's name. "Because we had such a large volume of information coming in, one question got through the filters," he said. It was not clear whether Clinton knew that the comment had been made. "We did not ask Clinton if he wanted more porno on the site," Schur said. Evidently, CNN's computer people haven't read the IRC specs either:P I think the prank was a good thing, if impromptu, as the prankster pointed out how full the internet is of security holes to the ignorant. Its really no different than locking the door to your house to keep intruders out. CNN's too embarrassed, or too stupid to admit that they didn't bother to use a good lock - i.e., software program - on their chat room door.
Steve Case is an evil, evil man. Far more evil than Bill Gates on his worst, Full-Metal Jacket Day. Aside from the obvious attempt to further dumb down the internet and entertainment to the lowest common denominator, I can't see why these mega-mergers are being undertaken other than for some short-term profiteering. Do Case, and the Crew at Warner U REALLY think that they can take a lame ISP, and a relatively lame group of entertainment companies and make gold out of the guano they collective hold? Don't think so. But there's also a more foreboding way to look at this. Big corporations aren't likely to tolerate free speech. Are we NOW going to get TOS applied to all entertainment? (shudder)
I've never gotten the darn - its probably the downloaded version - of Corel Linux to install (got the 1 CD from my lug). The install proceeds through the first few screens and then the video goes all barfy. Seems to me that Corel is attempting to bring Linux to the Lame (er, Windows user). Which is NOT A Bad Thing At All. I prefer SuSE. Includes the kitchen sink and everything else, but their new YaST2 installer sucks the big one. Yeah, I realize that the trend to graphical installers is probably irreversible, but, for the time being, I hope the distributions maintain a text-based mode for installing distros when the graphical one might hang for a series of reasons in the install process. I prefer more control over my installs anyway, but how can I fairly evaluate a new distro if the darn thing won't install? Scott A. Carson
I enjoyed reading this new script and I think it is enormously improved over the previous version that you had posted. Ender's Game is a very complex story, from many angles, and with any screen treatment there are always going to be parts cut that someone out there doesn't "like being left out":) I also think its amazing that you continue to write stories in the Ender universe (given your many other interests in writing and the obvious demands of too many good ideas, not enough time to write). Has there been thought, by you, your agent, or publisher about licensing a series of stories in the Ender universe to other writers? I realize that in itself would represent a committment of your time, but I can think of a half dozen writers that I would like to see explore Ender's universe. Then again, I don't see many other speculative fiction writers that have your ability to explore the emotional sides of human nature. I *certainly* would not want to tackle this difficult material!:) Also, thank you for replying about my post on animation. I agree with you that the state of the art still isn't quite there from the standpoint that you'd have to have the RIGHT collection of animators doing it, along with the requisite $$$ and backing from the studio. Its probably hard enough making a deal in Hollywood with live action and FX than it is to try and make an animation deal that you, the studio doing it, and the fans would be happy with! Scott A. Carson
Um, I know this dates me, but speaking of the stupid, remember the late Chicago guitarist Terry Kath, who was playing around with what he *thought* was an unloaded handgun and shot himself in the head? Wonder if he's on the Darwin site...
Its been posted forever already. I like the book - don't get me wrong... but, wouldn't this work better in animation than with live actors, ala Earth 2 which is coming out real soon any time now? Animation also would make capturing Card's vision easier. And then we don't get into the fuss of finding actors at different ages, either.
I read this article to my wife and she found it quite offensive and sexist. We're both nerds, and found most of the "advice" overtly simplistic. Your comments are good. We'd like to point out, though that geek guys NEED to dress better. Showing up in a pair of baggy jeans, with running shoes and an untucked shirt does not endear you with the girls. Try looking a little preppy, cut the hair neatly, and shave off the facial hair if you can't grow a decent beard. Its that simple.
Slashdot Mirror
Is hanging in the Air and Space Museum right now. The Orion probe. Solve the exploration problem and nuke proliferation at the same time. Just toss shaped nuke charges out the back, use the push against a giant dinner plate, so to speak, for the probe. The British Interplanetary Society thought experimented out this concept a long time ago for its Project Daedalus... a fly-by probe of Barnard's Star. That's a little over a six ly trip, folks... so if it could work for a six ly trip, it should be a reasonable concept for the trip to Pluto, Kuiper belt, and the 1/2 ly or so out to the real 9th planet (probably a cool, brown dwarf) that analysis of some cometary orbits suggests is out there (Hubbell isn't good enough (yet) to image a jovian size planet a 1/2 ly out). You could certainly take a MUCH bigger payload with an Orion vehicle. I agree with previous posters that it doesn't make much sense to send a flyby such a great distance if all you're going to do is spend a few hours at Pluto (regardless of the interesting info you'd get flying through the Kuiper belt). With a powerful vehicle like an Orion ship, you could drop off a few orbiting/mapping satellites on the way out. But I highly doubt that any gov't is going to have the guts to put disassembled nukes in orbit for the purpose of pushing a giant dinner plate a 1/2 ly out. If pictures is what we're after, eventually, the planetary imaging interferometers that we'll be flying in the next decade should be able to get much better pics of Pluto and Charon than we can get now with Hubble. Also, as we move towards nanotechnology, we might be able to send very small probes with solar-powered lasers into deep space at a very high rate of speed. My own personal view is that humans, being the impatient creatures we are, are more likely to be interested in exploring the stars rather than airless places like the Moon, Mars, etc. Once we can manufacture and store antimatter in quantity - something that seems easier to acheive, in some aspects, than nuclear fusion - we can easily build relativistic starships if we so incline to do so. Its not that big of a deal, and its not that terribly expensive, when you consider the amount of money that is "thrown away" in our economy for such extravagances as cosmetics :)
In a sense, we already "terraform" our environment on Earth via altering the effects the effects of natural phenomena, such as the weather, when we heat or a/c our homes, buildings and vehicles. I think that there is an interesting debate forming here when we talk about the difficulties of terraforming Mars or Venus. It all depends, I believe, on what happens with nanotech, biotech, and AI in the next, let's say, 20-30 years. If we can get Von Neumann machines small enough, understand the genomes of humans and other organisms and how to manipulate their genetic makeup, and control the process with reliable AI, then we can do a James Hoganesque thing and send robots to places like Mars and Venus and terraform those places at a relatively low cost ;) as long as we are willing to be patient. If genetics also greatly expands human life span, we also may develop the cultural patience as a species to commit to long-term projects that may not come to fruition for centuries (if not millenia). However, even if we somehow can live 200 or more years with the body of a 25 year old supermodel, I don't think its human nature to be patient. It will be interesting to see if we can get over our current cultural fears about nuclear fission and build the fast rockets we would need for a more "brute" force approach to colonization of places like Mars, the Asteroid Belt, and the moons of Jupiter and Saturn. Then again, guys like Robert Forward have stated that at the current pace of tech advance, we should be able to build antimatter powered relativistic starships sometime towards the middle of this century. I think its more likely that once we find earthlike planets orbiting nearby stars - and this assumes that the Terrestrial Planet Finder flies on schedule after 2010 - that we'll be more interested in Going There than Staying Home. Yeah, its tough to build starships. But its probably a lot tougher to terraform a planetary environment considering that we barely understand our own! :)
Its a similar machine, but instead of producing rocket fuel, it produces oxygen. Both will be needed on Mars. Zubrin has had enormous influence on NASA's thinking about Mars missions.
So what's all the hullaballoo about this? There are a jillion other IRC networks that are better administered. The planet isn't going to stop rotating because they've decided to become AOL-like. Point being - you can't shut up free speech, and closing yourself off from the rest of the 'Net ultimately will result in the Death Of Your Online Community Via Entrophy. Black Dog
Isn't it amazing how quickly the media can spread inaccurate information? Either they don't care, they're lazy, or the all-consuming competition to be "first" merely means being the fastest with the copy and paste commands in Windows :) Those who have used IRC a billion times know how easy it is to grab a nick when there's a split if the server is unsecured. But its pretty obvious the technoretards still don't get it, as evidenced by what I just copied and pasted below from abcnews.com: "You can only imagine what they were asking Bill Clinton on Valentine's Day," said CNN spokesman Paul Schur. Schur confirmed that at one point the filtering system failed and some watching the chat online saw the comment about pornography, which a user posted under the president's name. "Because we had such a large volume of information coming in, one question got through the filters," he said. It was not clear whether Clinton knew that the comment had been made. "We did not ask Clinton if he wanted more porno on the site," Schur said. Evidently, CNN's computer people haven't read the IRC specs either :P I think the prank was a good thing, if impromptu, as the prankster pointed out how full the internet is of security holes to the ignorant. Its really no different than locking the door to your house to keep intruders out. CNN's too embarrassed, or too stupid to admit that they didn't bother to use a good lock - i.e., software program - on their chat room door.
Steve Case is an evil, evil man. Far more evil than Bill Gates on his worst, Full-Metal Jacket Day. Aside from the obvious attempt to further dumb down the internet and entertainment to the lowest common denominator, I can't see why these mega-mergers are being undertaken other than for some short-term profiteering. Do Case, and the Crew at Warner U REALLY think that they can take a lame ISP, and a relatively lame group of entertainment companies and make gold out of the guano they collective hold? Don't think so. But there's also a more foreboding way to look at this. Big corporations aren't likely to tolerate free speech. Are we NOW going to get TOS applied to all entertainment? (shudder)
I've never gotten the darn - its probably the downloaded version - of Corel Linux to install (got the 1 CD from my lug). The install proceeds through the first few screens and then the video goes all barfy. Seems to me that Corel is attempting to bring Linux to the Lame (er, Windows user). Which is NOT A Bad Thing At All. I prefer SuSE. Includes the kitchen sink and everything else, but their new YaST2 installer sucks the big one. Yeah, I realize that the trend to graphical installers is probably irreversible, but, for the time being, I hope the distributions maintain a text-based mode for installing distros when the graphical one might hang for a series of reasons in the install process. I prefer more control over my installs anyway, but how can I fairly evaluate a new distro if the darn thing won't install? Scott A. Carson
I enjoyed reading this new script and I think it is enormously improved over the previous version that you had posted. Ender's Game is a very complex story, from many angles, and with any screen treatment there are always going to be parts cut that someone out there doesn't "like being left out" :) I also think its amazing that you continue to write stories in the Ender universe (given your many other interests in writing and the obvious demands of too many good ideas, not enough time to write). Has there been thought, by you, your agent, or publisher about licensing a series of stories in the Ender universe to other writers? I realize that in itself would represent a committment of your time, but I can think of a half dozen writers that I would like to see explore Ender's universe. Then again, I don't see many other speculative fiction writers that have your ability to explore the emotional sides of human nature. I *certainly* would not want to tackle this difficult material! :) Also, thank you for replying about my post on animation. I agree with you that the state of the art still isn't quite there from the standpoint that you'd have to have the RIGHT collection of animators doing it, along with the requisite $$$ and backing from the studio. Its probably hard enough making a deal in Hollywood with live action and FX than it is to try and make an animation deal that you, the studio doing it, and the fans would be happy with! Scott A. Carson
And then claim that the "Milkman" did it? :P
Um, I know this dates me, but speaking of the stupid, remember the late Chicago guitarist Terry Kath, who was playing around with what he *thought* was an unloaded handgun and shot himself in the head? Wonder if he's on the Darwin site...
You expect a movie with probably a 100 million FX budget to NOT be dumb? Gimme a break, man :)
Its been posted forever already. I like the book - don't get me wrong... but, wouldn't this work better in animation than with live actors, ala Earth 2 which is coming out real soon any time now? Animation also would make capturing Card's vision easier. And then we don't get into the fuss of finding actors at different ages, either.
I read this article to my wife and she found it quite offensive and sexist. We're both nerds, and found most of the "advice" overtly simplistic. Your comments are good. We'd like to point out, though that geek guys NEED to dress better. Showing up in a pair of baggy jeans, with running shoes and an untucked shirt does not endear you with the girls. Try looking a little preppy, cut the hair neatly, and shave off the facial hair if you can't grow a decent beard. Its that simple.