I like this - I wonder if one mandate could be âoealways be prepared to launch a rescue mission capable of evacuating X number of personnel from a location in low earth orbit within Y time frame?â
As national and private space activity increases, there will be more chances for problems. A high-profile mishap that resulted in a bunch of astronauts and/or civilians suffocating when their air runs out could sour the public on space and make it hard to get budget $.
You bring up a point here - by creating a âoeSpace Forceâ aligned with the military, we could be putting a threatening shine on what could be innocent activities. If NASA launches a satellite, and the Space Force launches one, which makes you more nervous hanging in the sky?
It might not be long before China or Russia decides that since they planted flags at the lunar poles they own all the ice. Russia is already dropping sea floor markers in the Artic to map out geographic claims to sea floor.
True, but like a Navy and not an Army, a Space Force will be operating out of discrete ships and bases, fighting other ships and attacking stationary targets. Of course someday there will be specially-trained combat troops who are transported to various targets to take and hold, which will need to be called something different... the Space Force Army? Or instead of âoeMarines,â âoeVacuum Army Corpsâ (VACs)?
... and heat the blades with solar power so they cook the birds mid-slice... rotating hoppers full of Kansas City dry rub to catch them... I smell a business plan.
When SpaceX announced they were building boosters that could be recovered, every launch-capable entity said flat out it couldnâ(TM)t be done economically. As soon as Musk and Co. proved them wrong, they all scrambled to re-use their boosters or engines. SpaceX didnâ(TM)t build a new booster, they ended the one-launch paradigm. Musk put it (something like) this: would you fly a jumbo jet if the airline admitted the model had never flown before? Or would you opt for the jet with multiple safe flights on record?
What if Sloot found a way to rapidly Godelize and deGodelize huge files? Maybe he didn't realize that this would make encryption obsolete? I'm sure our guys (if not THEIR guys) would make all that go away.
No, there are lots of workaholics. People don't like working when it doesn't directly benefit THEM. Some people don't like working if it benefits people or classes of people they don't like, no matter how tangentially.
This to me is what the role of government should be, where the market fails to serve citizens. One state had shitty, super-expensive monopoly electric service. State and/or federal agencies helped a fledgling electric co-op get organized and recruit more members until it was big enough to force the shitty utility to upgrade its equipment and slash its rates. Why can't the FCC start a program that models broadband co-ops?
One issue not pointed out - this move empowers any amateur crank to cherry pick outlying data points out of a study and say "SEE? They're lying to you! Since one Soviet paratrooper somehow survived a fall from 27,000 feet, it's safe to jump out of airplanes without a parachute!"
Imagine what well-funded corporate deniers will do.
I remember a prominent mathematician saying that the thousands of uniquely shaped tiles could be replaced by a set of only 3 (maybe 5?) different tiles. I want to say Penrose. Too lazy to look up.
I must be missing the part where the Army brass asks each soldier about their personal feelings regarding a mission. For want of a batter word, soldiers are brainwashed: trained to obey orders, to kill without remorse, and a violent military culture reinforces this. Soldiers obey orders, and the punishments for refusing are severe. You want to blame somebody? Blame the asshole chickenhawks in Congress who get a sweaty boner at the thought of blowing up foreigners, and who shitcanned the economy so a military career is the only route out of poverty for a lot of people.
Why have I never heard this brought up? You've ruined my morning as I mull over the implications.
1. The Congress building is a juicy target, the US government was almost decapitated on 9/11. Is it safer having all our Congresscritters spread out all over the USA? We'd probably be making individual Congresscritters a little less secure, but the body itself much more so.
2. We're assuming some uber-secure redundant teleconferencing capability here, and a lot of ultrasecure courier traffic of documents.
3. Maybe the rules of the Senate and House could be hard-wired into a videoconferencing interface where the Congresscritter had to select from buttons "Vote Yay", "Vote Nay," "Filibuster," "Accept Bribe From Petroleum Interests" etc. Might cut down on some of the rules abuse?
4. For Constitutional reasons, the Congress would still have to physically meet at least once during each session, I would think. Pass a law making air travel illegal for members of Congress. Bingo! National high-speed maglev train system.
Don't laugh, sports fans. My father-in-law is an engineer who supervised the construction of multiple airport baggage systems, and is somewhat of an expert on luggage. For Christmas he gave us a double set of hideous tapestry-patterned luggage in all the colors of vomit, all made out of heavy ballistic nylon. He pointed out that 95% of luggage is black, dark blue or occasionally dark green. The floral stuff is easy to spot, on a carousel or in a thief's hands, but so ugly it leaves an afterimage. We've had it for 10 years - the original hideousness and added cosmetic wear make it theftproof.
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I like this - I wonder if one mandate could be âoealways be prepared to launch a rescue mission capable of evacuating X number of personnel from a location in low earth orbit within Y time frame?â As national and private space activity increases, there will be more chances for problems. A high-profile mishap that resulted in a bunch of astronauts and/or civilians suffocating when their air runs out could sour the public on space and make it hard to get budget $.
You bring up a point here - by creating a âoeSpace Forceâ aligned with the military, we could be putting a threatening shine on what could be innocent activities. If NASA launches a satellite, and the Space Force launches one, which makes you more nervous hanging in the sky?
It might not be long before China or Russia decides that since they planted flags at the lunar poles they own all the ice. Russia is already dropping sea floor markers in the Artic to map out geographic claims to sea floor.
True, but like a Navy and not an Army, a Space Force will be operating out of discrete ships and bases, fighting other ships and attacking stationary targets. Of course someday there will be specially-trained combat troops who are transported to various targets to take and hold, which will need to be called something different ... the Space Force Army? Or instead of âoeMarines,â âoeVacuum Army Corpsâ (VACs)?
... and heat the blades with solar power so they cook the birds mid-slice ... rotating hoppers full of Kansas City dry rub to catch them ... I smell a business plan.
When SpaceX announced they were building boosters that could be recovered, every launch-capable entity said flat out it couldnâ(TM)t be done economically. As soon as Musk and Co. proved them wrong, they all scrambled to re-use their boosters or engines. SpaceX didnâ(TM)t build a new booster, they ended the one-launch paradigm. Musk put it (something like) this: would you fly a jumbo jet if the airline admitted the model had never flown before? Or would you opt for the jet with multiple safe flights on record?
What if Sloot found a way to rapidly Godelize and deGodelize huge files? Maybe he didn't realize that this would make encryption obsolete? I'm sure our guys (if not THEIR guys) would make all that go away.
No, there are lots of workaholics. People don't like working when it doesn't directly benefit THEM. Some people don't like working if it benefits people or classes of people they don't like, no matter how tangentially.
This to me is what the role of government should be, where the market fails to serve citizens. One state had shitty, super-expensive monopoly electric service. State and/or federal agencies helped a fledgling electric co-op get organized and recruit more members until it was big enough to force the shitty utility to upgrade its equipment and slash its rates. Why can't the FCC start a program that models broadband co-ops?
One issue not pointed out - this move empowers any amateur crank to cherry pick outlying data points out of a study and say "SEE? They're lying to you! Since one Soviet paratrooper somehow survived a fall from 27,000 feet, it's safe to jump out of airplanes without a parachute!" Imagine what well-funded corporate deniers will do.
Terraform for the lizard people secretly running the world, you mean.
Wasn't Alpha a giant nuclear waste dump? Was the spacecraft mission something that came up later in the series?
I remember a prominent mathematician saying that the thousands of uniquely shaped tiles could be replaced by a set of only 3 (maybe 5?) different tiles. I want to say Penrose. Too lazy to look up.
I must be missing the part where the Army brass asks each soldier about their personal feelings regarding a mission. For want of a batter word, soldiers are brainwashed: trained to obey orders, to kill without remorse, and a violent military culture reinforces this. Soldiers obey orders, and the punishments for refusing are severe. You want to blame somebody? Blame the asshole chickenhawks in Congress who get a sweaty boner at the thought of blowing up foreigners, and who shitcanned the economy so a military career is the only route out of poverty for a lot of people.
Why have I never heard this brought up? You've ruined my morning as I mull over the implications. 1. The Congress building is a juicy target, the US government was almost decapitated on 9/11. Is it safer having all our Congresscritters spread out all over the USA? We'd probably be making individual Congresscritters a little less secure, but the body itself much more so. 2. We're assuming some uber-secure redundant teleconferencing capability here, and a lot of ultrasecure courier traffic of documents. 3. Maybe the rules of the Senate and House could be hard-wired into a videoconferencing interface where the Congresscritter had to select from buttons "Vote Yay", "Vote Nay," "Filibuster," "Accept Bribe From Petroleum Interests" etc. Might cut down on some of the rules abuse? 4. For Constitutional reasons, the Congress would still have to physically meet at least once during each session, I would think. Pass a law making air travel illegal for members of Congress. Bingo! National high-speed maglev train system.
Don't laugh, sports fans. My father-in-law is an engineer who supervised the construction of multiple airport baggage systems, and is somewhat of an expert on luggage. For Christmas he gave us a double set of hideous tapestry-patterned luggage in all the colors of vomit, all made out of heavy ballistic nylon. He pointed out that 95% of luggage is black, dark blue or occasionally dark green. The floral stuff is easy to spot, on a carousel or in a thief's hands, but so ugly it leaves an afterimage. We've had it for 10 years - the original hideousness and added cosmetic wear make it theftproof.