I know you're probably being flippant, but prior to the whole re-entry shenanigans this thing was boss. The gyros alone contain the roundest thing ever built by humans (anecdotal, from my Prof). Ridiculously fine sensing apparatus
RE fuel: Not really; GOCE only has an ion engine which has nowhere near enough (instantaneous) thrust to effect a controlled re-entry (over realistic timescales)
RE prediction:Again, not really - there are too many variables; you can get a landing ellipse once re-entry has begun but before that, for a satellite this size, its really hard to get a handle on things more than a few days in advance.
Having said this, the initial article is a tad misleading, they'll be able to say pretty accurately soon if not now. It's probably fine.
He was a fan of Enoch Powell (a racist) He was anti equality legislation for women and non-white people He was at one time a BNP supporter (British National Party - racist) He wanted to ban women from the BBC
I wish all the fawning articles on the net today would mention some of this
Where you live maybe. I live in a city, and use my car very rarely. Unlimited electricity could lead to wireless power (if efficiency is a minor concern, it wouldn't be too hard)
But what is the point of getting experts to answer questions when seemingly the majority of commenters (and theoretically readers) will disregard their answers and/or bitch about tax?
Could the riots not be symptomatic of a disconnect among certain groups in society with their communities?
Just because the majority of the rioters were not expressing political motivations does not mean that there is not an underlying socio-economic cause to their actions. I work in a shop in south east london (we survived, but are boarded up except for the doors) and the general mood seems to be that the rioters were idiots, yes, but there is none of the bile and bitterness expressed by the government, more a feeling that something like this was inevitable.
Its true, I went on holiday to the states a few years ago, and everything was effectively half price (the exchange rate at the time was particularly good/bad):)
To be honest I think 4£ is fairly reasonable for something like that from a store.
mmm but the cheapest lead you'll see in a high street store over here at the moment is gonna be at least a fiver. I work weekends at a large electronics retailer here and our cheapest is 12.99£. So 4£ is really cheap for an actual shop.
... because we won't be making any more long distance human space flight before then.
I've just returned form a 3 week class/conference on "human spaceflight and exploration" at the IRF in Sweden and the near unanimous conclusion is that the global space industry needs to sort itself out. At the moment we have at least 3 major space agencies worldwide (NASA, ESA and the RKA), all using different standards on simple things like docking hatch sizes, let alone things like objectives and policy. As there is no big enemy that needs to be shown up anymore so there is no reason to assume that any single agency will complete the next milestone, be it mars or an asteroid or even "just" a lagrange point station. ESA and NASA are both currently involved in massive restructuring programs including standardising interfaces and looking to contract out to private industry rather than build things themselves. Whilst sad from a pure science point of view it does make sense; as specialised industry develops more and more private, non governmental agents get involved, there comes the money.
The development of new systems is becoming more of an international affair and the "next generation" of internationally compatible spacecraft should (supposedly) take 10 years... then 10 to build.
As far as choosing a destination goes the elements required to get there and back and do something useful when there are the same; you need people able to hand long periods in a small place together, more efficient life support and propulsion, new "planetary" suits, and money, lots of money. The current thinking is that NASA, RKA and ESA will have to work together on any future large scale mission. Possibly with JAXA and ISRO and CNSA support, and each would supply parts or money or whatever.
One of the key speakers at the IRF said he expected that people would go to mars first and that it would happen in the next 20-25 years. He was an astronaut for ESA and most of the other experts agreed with him (including fairly high up members of ESA and the SSC). So i'm gonna go with that point of veiw.
Plus, from a purley simplistic and personal point of veiw; a man on mars would be WAY better than a man on an asteroid or floating around at L2. Why? Because its MARS! its the second most logical place for a first base on another body... its just exciting.
yes its more logical, and cheaper, to send machines into space. its also logical, and cheaper to video conference than to work next to someone, but those things aren't the same. using immense quantities of energy and huge machines to propel humans across large distances is what half of the engineering sector is about (auto, mech, aero, lots of civil). Machines would do an admirable job, but humans EXPERIENCE it and, well, experience is half the fun. Without the fun engineering and science are just work. Space exploration is supposed to be exciting and inspiring, and robots on Mars are nowhere near as exciting as humans on Mars.
Slashdot Mirror
I know you're probably being flippant, but prior to the whole re-entry shenanigans this thing was boss. The gyros alone contain the roundest thing ever built by humans (anecdotal, from my Prof). Ridiculously fine sensing apparatus
RE fuel: Not really; GOCE only has an ion engine which has nowhere near enough (instantaneous) thrust to effect a controlled re-entry (over realistic timescales)
RE prediction:Again, not really - there are too many variables; you can get a landing ellipse once re-entry has begun but before that, for a satellite this size, its really hard to get a handle on things more than a few days in advance.
Having said this, the initial article is a tad misleading, they'll be able to say pretty accurately soon if not now. It's probably fine.
... is Doctor Who in inverted commas in the title? Its annoying me!
this book is the standard intro to general space engineering according to my lecturer (I'm doing an MSc in Astronautics and Space Engineering)
He was a fan of Enoch Powell (a racist)
He was anti equality legislation for women and non-white people
He was at one time a BNP supporter (British National Party - racist)
He wanted to ban women from the BBC
I wish all the fawning articles on the net today would mention some of this
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_Moore#Activism_and_political_beliefs
Where you live maybe. I live in a city, and use my car very rarely. Unlimited electricity could lead to wireless power (if efficiency is a minor concern, it wouldn't be too hard)
But what is the point of getting experts to answer questions when seemingly the majority of commenters (and theoretically readers) will disregard their answers and/or bitch about tax?
Seems stealing phones just got a lot less risky...
Could the riots not be symptomatic of a disconnect among certain groups in society with their communities? Just because the majority of the rioters were not expressing political motivations does not mean that there is not an underlying socio-economic cause to their actions. I work in a shop in south east london (we survived, but are boarded up except for the doors) and the general mood seems to be that the rioters were idiots, yes, but there is none of the bile and bitterness expressed by the government, more a feeling that something like this was inevitable.
People are dead and all most of you can do is whinge because the headline might be slightly inaccurate, but in all likelihood isn't?
Its true, I went on holiday to the states a few years ago, and everything was effectively half price (the exchange rate at the time was particularly good/bad) :)
To be honest I think 4£ is fairly reasonable for something like that from a store.
mmm but the cheapest lead you'll see in a high street store over here at the moment is gonna be at least a fiver. I work weekends at a large electronics retailer here and our cheapest is 12.99£. So 4£ is really cheap for an actual shop.
... because we won't be making any more long distance human space flight before then. I've just returned form a 3 week class/conference on "human spaceflight and exploration" at the IRF in Sweden and the near unanimous conclusion is that the global space industry needs to sort itself out. At the moment we have at least 3 major space agencies worldwide (NASA, ESA and the RKA), all using different standards on simple things like docking hatch sizes, let alone things like objectives and policy. As there is no big enemy that needs to be shown up anymore so there is no reason to assume that any single agency will complete the next milestone, be it mars or an asteroid or even "just" a lagrange point station. ESA and NASA are both currently involved in massive restructuring programs including standardising interfaces and looking to contract out to private industry rather than build things themselves. Whilst sad from a pure science point of view it does make sense; as specialised industry develops more and more private, non governmental agents get involved, there comes the money. The development of new systems is becoming more of an international affair and the "next generation" of internationally compatible spacecraft should (supposedly) take 10 years... then 10 to build. As far as choosing a destination goes the elements required to get there and back and do something useful when there are the same; you need people able to hand long periods in a small place together, more efficient life support and propulsion, new "planetary" suits, and money, lots of money. The current thinking is that NASA, RKA and ESA will have to work together on any future large scale mission. Possibly with JAXA and ISRO and CNSA support, and each would supply parts or money or whatever. One of the key speakers at the IRF said he expected that people would go to mars first and that it would happen in the next 20-25 years. He was an astronaut for ESA and most of the other experts agreed with him (including fairly high up members of ESA and the SSC). So i'm gonna go with that point of veiw. Plus, from a purley simplistic and personal point of veiw; a man on mars would be WAY better than a man on an asteroid or floating around at L2. Why? Because its MARS! its the second most logical place for a first base on another body... its just exciting.
well, skynet does exist... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skynet_(satellites)
obviously has been eaten by some kind of Mega Shark. Or possibly a Giant Octopus
i for one welcome our new botnet overlords
yes its more logical, and cheaper, to send machines into space. its also logical, and cheaper to video conference than to work next to someone, but those things aren't the same. using immense quantities of energy and huge machines to propel humans across large distances is what half of the engineering sector is about (auto, mech, aero, lots of civil). Machines would do an admirable job, but humans EXPERIENCE it and, well, experience is half the fun. Without the fun engineering and science are just work. Space exploration is supposed to be exciting and inspiring, and robots on Mars are nowhere near as exciting as humans on Mars.