Probably boring, at least if you're not on the plane, or the part of the elevator that gets hit, or below it. Otherwise, the cables will just hang. If it throws it off balance, they could either move some mass closer to the earth, or cut off part of the cable above midway. It shouldn't be that hard to keep it centered at geosynchronous orbit either way.
Sort of. The effect is gravitational, though. The space elevator only needs to be anchored to keep it from slowly drifting away. The center of mass is at geosynchronous orbit, so it stays above the same point on earth. In the simplest intuitive way to build one, you extend cable downward and upward at the same rate, so the center of mass is still at geo. Eventually you have a cable that almost touches the earth, and an equally long cable (which could be partially replaced with a counterweight) extending away from geo. The cable extended the other direction keeps the whole thing under tension, not being tied to the earth. That would require a lot more difficulty (how would you get the thing into space in the first place?).
Is it really? Obviously if it's fastened to the ground it has to be at the equator, but as long as it's center of mass is at geosynchronous height, I wonder how much of an effect drag over the bottom 10 km or so would have on it's orbit. THen you could have an international space elevator. You could have several, circling the earth like trains in the subway. "Next space elevator arriving at 3:00 Monday."
My understanding was that music was put in to soothe people as they rode the elevator. With the rise in Muzaak costs in the '80's and '90's, most properties decided that elevator music was no longer worth it.
If they were moving at orbital velocity, they wouldn't be dropping out of orbit. If you jumped out at the edge of the atmosphere, you might be ok. Problem is at that point, terminal velocity is very high, so there will still be a fair amount of heat from friction as you descend. If you jumped from below geosynchronous orbit, but much above the fringe of the atmosphere, you'll pick up a lot of acceleration by the time you hit. How much speed do you think you could pick up by dropping 5 km? How about 20000?
Well, if you're below geosynchronous orbit, but more than a few kilometers above the surface, things are going to get hot when you re-enter the atmosphere. You'd want the heat shield. If you're at geosynchronous orbit, you'll stay there, and you won't need the heat shield. If you're above geosynchronous orbit, you'll get flung out into space with a delta vee somewhere between 0 and 3 km/second. Again, you won't need the heat shield.
As long as youre wearing a spacesuit theres no reason why you couldn't base jump off to escape......Or for the fainter of heart - atmospheric bungee jumping!
... except for burning up on re-entry. Or getting flung into space into space.
Fortunately, we have the BSDs waiting in the wings if the FSF ever did something as stupid as this, just as Linux stepped in while the ATT/BSD lawsuit was putting free Unix in jeopardy. I can't see them doing this. I can't see them even keeping this guy on the committee after this. In fact, I'm sort of surprised that a huge denial that this is a consideration hasn't already been made. This is a FUD nightmare that has to be dismissed now.
Dammit, I didn't take high school economics. I am majoring in it at university - is that OK?
There was a big story when the toonie came out. Finance was excited, because each bill in circulation represents an obligation, whereas each coin minted and circulated represents the sale of an asset. Every time they traded a $2 bill for a toonie, they improved their net position by $4 less the cost of producing the coin.
Maybe so, but if they'd open-source the damned thing then I could compile it for my system, and it would work. I've always had problems using the nVidia pre-compiled driver.
I'd rather have a fully functional driver, too. It's a lot easier to get if it's open.
Funny thing is, Fedora Core 3 worked fine the first time on my Dell laptop. So did FC2 in 2004. I guess Linux has been ready for the laptop for some time, just not the author's laptop.
That may be an issue. Older parents are sometimes at greater risk. However, one of the issues with Huntington's is the fact that the person has usually reproduced by the time the condition is discovered, with a 50% chance of passing it on to a child. Postponing parenting potentially increases the severity of Huntington's, but may drastically reduce the risk that you have children before discovering the condition.
The counter to your arguments is that we benefit more from our brain power and social constructs than we do from having stronger, fitter bodies. We, at least in the developed world, easily produce enough wealth that we can support the weak and the sick. We also live such comfortable lives that strength and fitness are barely tested. We do this despite being afflicted by diabetes, or delivering via c-section, because we can be productive as well. The cost of eliminating this portion of the population due to lost human capital is far greater than the cost of carrying them along.
It is not legitimate. By violating the GPL previously, they lost their rights under the GPL. Now they have no right to use the PearPC code unless the owners of that code explicitly give them permission. If they continue, even if they open source it, they are guilty of copyright violation.
What do you suppose the odds of that happening are?
I know what you mean. I had a cousin who left 5 kids when she died. My wife's mother fought it for 10 years, dying when my wife (not then) was 19. You hear about all these great advances, and wonder what took so long. On the other hand, they are going to save a lot of lives in the future.
Look at how many people survive cancer today, though. It may be that in our lifetime, only the most advanced cases will require more than a few visits to the doctors office.
Another theory is that it's not metabolically expensive, but that since we tend to reproduce between the ages of 15 and 35, as long as we don't die before then evolution doesn't give a crap.
I once read a suggestion that if everyone waited to reproduce at age 40, without medical intervention, then after 3 or so generations humans would live a lot longer. Only those who managed to survive that long, and only women whose eggs managed to fight off the ravages of 40 years of life, would pass on their genes. Of course, there would be a lot fewer of us.
Why do we keep reading this stuff? Who thinks Sun is relevant anymore? In a couple of years, after they've managed to choke the life out of Java, what's left?
This dust could get everywhere. Sooner or later you take off your space suit, you track dust into the biodome on your boots, you park the moon buggy in the garage, etc. Dust just a few microns has the potential to work its way all through air circulation systems, etc. It'll be a nightmare to deal with.
Even if you get a source that will produce enough power for 1000 years, you need equipment that will also survive 1000 years, and hold up under radiation for that time. Alpha and beta particles, let alone nuclei, will cause material to decay.
In many places you don't need to fertilize or water your grass in order to get it to grow. I think the issue people have with these ideas is they expect that an alternative fuel has to be an alternative that's applicable everywhere. Why? This would be a great solution for areas where it doesn't take any effort to grow grass. Other areas will have other optimal solutions. But investigation of alternatives like these will allow development of a variety of solutions that can be implemented locally.
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Isn't it more like 30000 miles?
Probably boring, at least if you're not on the plane, or the part of the elevator that gets hit, or below it. Otherwise, the cables will just hang. If it throws it off balance, they could either move some mass closer to the earth, or cut off part of the cable above midway. It shouldn't be that hard to keep it centered at geosynchronous orbit either way.
But if boat tickets were a few hundred dollars, and plane tickets were $10 million apiece, I think there would be virtually no market for airlines.
Sort of. The effect is gravitational, though. The space elevator only needs to be anchored to keep it from slowly drifting away. The center of mass is at geosynchronous orbit, so it stays above the same point on earth. In the simplest intuitive way to build one, you extend cable downward and upward at the same rate, so the center of mass is still at geo. Eventually you have a cable that almost touches the earth, and an equally long cable (which could be partially replaced with a counterweight) extending away from geo. The cable extended the other direction keeps the whole thing under tension, not being tied to the earth. That would require a lot more difficulty (how would you get the thing into space in the first place?).
Is it really? Obviously if it's fastened to the ground it has to be at the equator, but as long as it's center of mass is at geosynchronous height, I wonder how much of an effect drag over the bottom 10 km or so would have on it's orbit. THen you could have an international space elevator. You could have several, circling the earth like trains in the subway. "Next space elevator arriving at 3:00 Monday."
My understanding was that music was put in to soothe people as they rode the elevator. With the rise in Muzaak costs in the '80's and '90's, most properties decided that elevator music was no longer worth it.
If they were moving at orbital velocity, they wouldn't be dropping out of orbit. If you jumped out at the edge of the atmosphere, you might be ok. Problem is at that point, terminal velocity is very high, so there will still be a fair amount of heat from friction as you descend. If you jumped from below geosynchronous orbit, but much above the fringe of the atmosphere, you'll pick up a lot of acceleration by the time you hit. How much speed do you think you could pick up by dropping 5 km? How about 20000?
Well, if you're below geosynchronous orbit, but more than a few kilometers above the surface, things are going to get hot when you re-enter the atmosphere. You'd want the heat shield.
If you're at geosynchronous orbit, you'll stay there, and you won't need the heat shield.
If you're above geosynchronous orbit, you'll get flung out into space with a delta vee somewhere between 0 and 3 km/second. Again, you won't need the heat shield.
Fortunately, we have the BSDs waiting in the wings if the FSF ever did something as stupid as this, just as Linux stepped in while the ATT/BSD lawsuit was putting free Unix in jeopardy. I can't see them doing this. I can't see them even keeping this guy on the committee after this. In fact, I'm sort of surprised that a huge denial that this is a consideration hasn't already been made. This is a FUD nightmare that has to be dismissed now.
I'm looking forward to watching the Saturday morning cartoon, seeing the crappy movie based on it, and buying the merchandise.
He did look a little like SpongeBob.
Dammit, I didn't take high school economics. I am majoring in it at university - is that OK?
There was a big story when the toonie came out. Finance was excited, because each bill in circulation represents an obligation, whereas each coin minted and circulated represents the sale of an asset. Every time they traded a $2 bill for a toonie, they improved their net position by $4 less the cost of producing the coin.
Maybe so, but if they'd open-source the damned thing then I could compile it for my system, and it would work. I've always had problems using the nVidia pre-compiled driver.
I'd rather have a fully functional driver, too. It's a lot easier to get if it's open.
I have the same problem with windows. I guess Linux has caught up there.
Funny thing is, Fedora Core 3 worked fine the first time on my Dell laptop. So did FC2 in 2004. I guess Linux has been ready for the laptop for some time, just not the author's laptop.
That may be an issue. Older parents are sometimes at greater risk. However, one of the issues with Huntington's is the fact that the person has usually reproduced by the time the condition is discovered, with a 50% chance of passing it on to a child. Postponing parenting potentially increases the severity of Huntington's, but may drastically reduce the risk that you have children before discovering the condition.
The counter to your arguments is that we benefit more from our brain power and social constructs than we do from having stronger, fitter bodies. We, at least in the developed world, easily produce enough wealth that we can support the weak and the sick. We also live such comfortable lives that strength and fitness are barely tested. We do this despite being afflicted by diabetes, or delivering via c-section, because we can be productive as well. The cost of eliminating this portion of the population due to lost human capital is far greater than the cost of carrying them along.
It is not legitimate. By violating the GPL previously, they lost their rights under the GPL. Now they have no right to use the PearPC code unless the owners of that code explicitly give them permission. If they continue, even if they open source it, they are guilty of copyright violation.
What do you suppose the odds of that happening are?
I know what you mean. I had a cousin who left 5 kids when she died. My wife's mother fought it for 10 years, dying when my wife (not then) was 19. You hear about all these great advances, and wonder what took so long. On the other hand, they are going to save a lot of lives in the future.
Look at how many people survive cancer today, though. It may be that in our lifetime, only the most advanced cases will require more than a few visits to the doctors office.
Another theory is that it's not metabolically expensive, but that since we tend to reproduce between the ages of 15 and 35, as long as we don't die before then evolution doesn't give a crap.
I once read a suggestion that if everyone waited to reproduce at age 40, without medical intervention, then after 3 or so generations humans would live a lot longer. Only those who managed to survive that long, and only women whose eggs managed to fight off the ravages of 40 years of life, would pass on their genes. Of course, there would be a lot fewer of us.
Why do we keep reading this stuff? Who thinks Sun is relevant anymore? In a couple of years, after they've managed to choke the life out of Java, what's left?
I'm expecting the announcement of incoming Draconis Combine dropships any time now.
I think I'd better stock up on Inferno missiles and launchers now, to beat the rush.
This dust could get everywhere. Sooner or later you take off your space suit, you track dust into the biodome on your boots, you park the moon buggy in the garage, etc. Dust just a few microns has the potential to work its way all through air circulation systems, etc. It'll be a nightmare to deal with.
Even if you get a source that will produce enough power for 1000 years, you need equipment that will also survive 1000 years, and hold up under radiation for that time. Alpha and beta particles, let alone nuclei, will cause material to decay.
In many places you don't need to fertilize or water your grass in order to get it to grow. I think the issue people have with these ideas is they expect that an alternative fuel has to be an alternative that's applicable everywhere. Why? This would be a great solution for areas where it doesn't take any effort to grow grass. Other areas will have other optimal solutions. But investigation of alternatives like these will allow development of a variety of solutions that can be implemented locally.