About as well as they to a 5G liftoff as is experienced by most expendible launchers, or 3g as experienced on the space shuttle, or the 10G experiences during a carrier landing.
Do your math. 30mph -> 0mph / 1s * 3600 s / 1h * 1 mile / 5280 ft = 20.45 ft/s
Gravity is 32 ft/s^2. Assuming your stopping time is about 1/4 of a second, you experience the same force required to get you into space.
It's still an order of magnetude more kinetic energy that has to be bled off by mechanical means on the surface of the Earth under unforgiving conditions.
Several items popped to my attention. First, the Russians have some fabulous Kerosene/L02 engines. Second, said engines have made their way into the Atlas and Delta launch suites. Both of which have configurations that will easily lob 20,000 lbs into LEO.
The difficulty is in rating these expendable platforms for manned flight. There are a whole lot of extra things to check for when sending people instead of freight. Indeed, the simplest answer might be to adapt the Soyuz launch system. Replace the third stage with our new whizbang spaceplane, or simply put our own capsule up top.
If the plan is to grow our own, the Atlas/Centaur seems to be a good cost effective way to lob a capsule up.
Re:Agreed, humans are ill-suited for space
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The Return of Apollo?
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· Score: 0, Offtopic
You could plug your mind into a nuero-interactive simulation that allowed you to pretend you were at home, living your life, and posting on slashdot.
Sure you wake up every few months, walk around the deck, and get poked with a few needles. But as soon as you get back to the simulation you pass it all off as a bad dream.
The shuttle hits the ground at 200 MPH. A capsule at less that 15MPH. A capsule will land wherever, a shuttle requires a special supersized runway, and if your landing gear is damaged you are in a world of hurt.
Problem being? Look at code. People used to horde it, now it's minted onto CD's that are tossed around at trade shows. Why? Some folks actually LIKE codeing and will do it for free, so long as someone isn't scarfing it up and copyrighting it. (As is what happened to poor BSD.)
Music flourished before all this nasty copyright stuff. Now when I go to a folk festival, I'm more likely to hear a beatles cover than an old Irish ballad. Why? People aren't used to sharing music from person to person. They think it all has to be delivered on tape or played from sheet music.
I'll have you know that she has retired from modeling, and is now a full time aerobics instructor.
I also prefer to spin around in my Ford Focus. It's easier to park, the kid usually beats me to the Porsche anyway, and it gives the folks I lay off less ammunition to call me a money grubbing SOB.
And for the record I don't use Kazaa, I use the Darwin port of Gnuetella on my Ti-Book. Just for the hard to get titles I can't find on Amazon. Hell, some Grateful dead dubs are ONLY available on the net.
A truly good man is not aware of his goodness,
And is therefore good.
A foolish man tries to be good,
And is therefore not good.
A truly good man does nothing,
Yet leaves nothing undone.
A foolish man is always doing,
Yet much remains to be done.
When a truly kind man does something, he leaves nothing undone.
When a just man does something, he leaves a great deal to be done.
When a disciplinarian does something and no-one responds,
He rolls up his sleeves in an attempt to enforce order.
Therefore when Tao is lost, there is goodness.
When goodness is lost, there is kindness.
When kindness is lost, there is justice.
When justice is lost, there is ritual.
Now ritual is the husk of faith and loyalty, the beginning of confusion.
Knowledge of the future is only a flowery trapping of Tao.
It is the beginning of folly.
Therefore the truly great man dwells on what is real and not what is on the surface,
On the fruit and not the flower.
Therefore accept the one and reject the other.
-- Lao Tsu, The Tao Te Ching, Chapter 38
Too bad relativism hasn't caught on that much in the real world.
Like in religion?
I'm just imagining the big guy, doing his best drill Sergent impression: What part of THOU SHALT NOT was not clear to you...
Islam is supposed to be a religion of peace. Christianity is supposed to be about treating all humanity with dignaty and respect, regardless of what the other guy practices. Judiaism... I don't know enough about.
I think it's time for folks to stop practicing their religion, and maybe start living it.
I hear you in that the law is largely blind to age. However, at no point have we actually established what that law IS in this matter.
There is still the principle of First Sale that the RIAA has not demonstrated has been violated. Digital duplication is still a bit murky in the legal tradition. They are also applying a law designed to snare the real pirates, makers of bootleg CD's, to individual users. And of course, there is the ever present Fair Use provision. You also have the issue that the RIAA does not have any rights to the music in question. Those rights belong to the individual labels.
None of these matters have been tested in a court of law. The RIAA strategy was to trick these folks into settleing, because none had the legal means to mount an appeal.
However the case turns out, I for one am declaring Shenangans on the RIAA.
The idea was to select soft targets who would cave in and settle out of court. They forgot to check that these folks would be in a position to pay in the first place.
What the date has to do with anything I'll never know. Whether a book is written in 1948 or 1548, it only has staying power if it possesses a timeless quality that allows it to trancend generations.
In answer to your second question, Tolkien has everything to do with Science Fiction. The plot is driven by an arifact of human(?) design. It represents ultimate power, while at the same time ultimate corruption. The heros are helped along the way by magic, that is systematically laid out as far as what it could and could not do. The reader is exposed to alien languages that are richer than any other developed for fiction.
In other words replace Humans, Orc, Dwarves, Halflings, and Elves with Terrans, Klingons, Andorians, Deltans, and Vulcans and you would have Star Trek.
Amen to that. Besides, at least after mating with Elf chicks you don't end up spending 6 weeks in quarenteen. We had this one moron during the Rigellian campaign that could not keep it in his pants. You remember the breakfast scene from Alien? That was actually based on this moron. That time he didn't even bother to check if he was screwing a male or a female of the species.
Indeed, one can't deny that 50 years ago technology and magic were one and the same. Most people couldn't tell you what Newton's 3 laws were, and Einstein's relativity was considered utterly incomprehensible. Most people's understanding of math stopped at arithmetic. A learned man might know algebra. The true wizards of the math world grocked calculis.
Computer control systems were almost unheard of, and used only on system of fantastic proportions like Nuclear reactors and weapon targeting systems.
Don't forget that technology was largely credited at the time for winning the war. It also brought an end to many plagues affecting americans: smallpox and polio. 50 years ago was a much different time.
50 years ago technology WAS magic. Few who used it understood it. Those that made it happen were wizards in labcoats.
I think you hid the nail on the head. How many Sci-Fi stories end up concluding with the low-tech savages beat out the high-tech conquerors? How often is a supercomputer or a golemesque form of life the primary plot device for a story? How often are SF novel filled with popsicle stick characters that are flat compared to the technology the author is describing.
It's a reflection of taste that we are moving from the tech driven SF genre into the character driven fantasy world. At least in fantasy, they aren't trying to explain HOW the magic works. They simply use it to get around a peculiar problem, or to leverage the abilities of the protagonist against an otherwise overwhelming foe.
The thing to remember back in Heinlien and Asimov's time was that the sky was the limit. In the following decades we have seen the problems of pure technological solutions: Pollution, social unrest, empty lives filled with useless junk.
Tolkien had very anti-technology undertones. He constantly refered to the dark clouds of Mordor, the decimation of the forests in Eisengard. That strikes a note with the post-hippie kids of the 70's and 80's.
Slashdot Mirror
Do your math. 30mph -> 0mph / 1s * 3600 s / 1h * 1 mile / 5280 ft = 20.45 ft/s
Gravity is 32 ft/s^2. Assuming your stopping time is about 1/4 of a second, you experience the same force required to get you into space.
Better known as f*ck up and you are dead.
An HMO is answerable only to stockholders.
Really, you could retrieve the capsule with a fishing boat. No need for the fleet.
Several items popped to my attention. First, the Russians have some fabulous Kerosene/L02 engines. Second, said engines have made their way into the Atlas and Delta launch suites. Both of which have configurations that will easily lob 20,000 lbs into LEO.
The difficulty is in rating these expendable platforms for manned flight. There are a whole lot of extra things to check for when sending people instead of freight. Indeed, the simplest answer might be to adapt the Soyuz launch system. Replace the third stage with our new whizbang spaceplane, or simply put our own capsule up top.
If the plan is to grow our own, the Atlas/Centaur seems to be a good cost effective way to lob a capsule up.
Sure you wake up every few months, walk around the deck, and get poked with a few needles. But as soon as you get back to the simulation you pass it all off as a bad dream.
The shuttle hits the ground at 200 MPH. A capsule at less that 15MPH. A capsule will land wherever, a shuttle requires a special supersized runway, and if your landing gear is damaged you are in a world of hurt.
Something had to draw those matter de-materializing aliens back to our Solar System. Remeber to wave to the tiny spaceman in every scene.
Music flourished before all this nasty copyright stuff. Now when I go to a folk festival, I'm more likely to hear a beatles cover than an old Irish ballad. Why? People aren't used to sharing music from person to person. They think it all has to be delivered on tape or played from sheet music.
Don't worry. You are not the only one amused. No wait, that's even more terrible.
I also prefer to spin around in my Ford Focus. It's easier to park, the kid usually beats me to the Porsche anyway, and it gives the folks I lay off less ammunition to call me a money grubbing SOB.
And for the record I don't use Kazaa, I use the Darwin port of Gnuetella on my Ti-Book. Just for the hard to get titles I can't find on Amazon. Hell, some Grateful dead dubs are ONLY available on the net.
A truly good man is not aware of his goodness, And is therefore good. A foolish man tries to be good, And is therefore not good. A truly good man does nothing, Yet leaves nothing undone. A foolish man is always doing, Yet much remains to be done. When a truly kind man does something, he leaves nothing undone. When a just man does something, he leaves a great deal to be done. When a disciplinarian does something and no-one responds, He rolls up his sleeves in an attempt to enforce order. Therefore when Tao is lost, there is goodness. When goodness is lost, there is kindness. When kindness is lost, there is justice. When justice is lost, there is ritual. Now ritual is the husk of faith and loyalty, the beginning of confusion. Knowledge of the future is only a flowery trapping of Tao. It is the beginning of folly. Therefore the truly great man dwells on what is real and not what is on the surface, On the fruit and not the flower. Therefore accept the one and reject the other. -- Lao Tsu, The Tao Te Ching, Chapter 38
Like in religion?
I'm just imagining the big guy, doing his best drill Sergent impression: What part of THOU SHALT NOT was not clear to you...
Islam is supposed to be a religion of peace. Christianity is supposed to be about treating all humanity with dignaty and respect, regardless of what the other guy practices. Judiaism... I don't know enough about.
I think it's time for folks to stop practicing their religion, and maybe start living it.
(Cough) look I see lines of Unix code in Linux (cough).
I tip my hat to an equally enlightened question. For the answer is naught without it.
There is still the principle of First Sale that the RIAA has not demonstrated has been violated. Digital duplication is still a bit murky in the legal tradition. They are also applying a law designed to snare the real pirates, makers of bootleg CD's, to individual users. And of course, there is the ever present Fair Use provision. You also have the issue that the RIAA does not have any rights to the music in question. Those rights belong to the individual labels.
None of these matters have been tested in a court of law. The RIAA strategy was to trick these folks into settleing, because none had the legal means to mount an appeal.
However the case turns out, I for one am declaring Shenangans on the RIAA.
Surak, sometimes the best weapons at your disposal are the ones given to you by the enemy.
Don't think the bell won't toll for everyone else at some point.
The idea was to select soft targets who would cave in and settle out of court. They forgot to check that these folks would be in a position to pay in the first place.
In answer to your second question, Tolkien has everything to do with Science Fiction. The plot is driven by an arifact of human(?) design. It represents ultimate power, while at the same time ultimate corruption. The heros are helped along the way by magic, that is systematically laid out as far as what it could and could not do. The reader is exposed to alien languages that are richer than any other developed for fiction.
In other words replace Humans, Orc, Dwarves, Halflings, and Elves with Terrans, Klingons, Andorians, Deltans, and Vulcans and you would have Star Trek.
I know ;)
Amen to that. Besides, at least after mating with Elf chicks you don't end up spending 6 weeks in quarenteen. We had this one moron during the Rigellian campaign that could not keep it in his pants. You remember the breakfast scene from Alien? That was actually based on this moron. That time he didn't even bother to check if he was screwing a male or a female of the species.
Computer control systems were almost unheard of, and used only on system of fantastic proportions like Nuclear reactors and weapon targeting systems.
Don't forget that technology was largely credited at the time for winning the war. It also brought an end to many plagues affecting americans: smallpox and polio. 50 years ago was a much different time.
50 years ago technology WAS magic. Few who used it understood it. Those that made it happen were wizards in labcoats.
It's a reflection of taste that we are moving from the tech driven SF genre into the character driven fantasy world. At least in fantasy, they aren't trying to explain HOW the magic works. They simply use it to get around a peculiar problem, or to leverage the abilities of the protagonist against an otherwise overwhelming foe.
Damn it. I'm starting to sound like Campbell.
Tolkien had very anti-technology undertones. He constantly refered to the dark clouds of Mordor, the decimation of the forests in Eisengard. That strikes a note with the post-hippie kids of the 70's and 80's.