Back in the late 60s/early 70s NASA took proposals for a Mars mission. Most involved rather large and elaborate craft, to be launched on multiple Saturn 5 rockets and assembled in orbit. IIRC one required 8 Saturn 5s and proposed two ships in a convoy, with a crew of 8 on each.
They looked at using the Moon as a base for launches, but it would have been much more expensive. A lot of new technology would have been needed to live up there and produce fuel, and to launch large vehicles from the surface. The in-orbit assembly could be done using existing technology, long term space habitats were already being developed for Skylab. The only new thing was an ion drive with nuclear power plant, and the USSR had already demonstrated one of those.
I do wonder if there is enough tourism to even break even.
To become a moon tourist you have to be extremely wealthy, reasonably fit, willing to put up with the somewhat unpleasant journey there and back (you have see a space toilet?) and have some interest in actually going there. That seems like quite a narrow market.
Alita was supposed to start a franchise, but failed. Like so many other franchise starters in the last few years... Robin Hood and Mortal Engines being recent examples.
Avatar seems to have stalled too. What was supposed to me a multi-movie franchise has failed to produce even one sequel so far.
Personally I'm still bitter that Tron Legacy didn't do well enough to get a third movie.
No deal was always political suicide. No Tory leader could ever get anything through because their party was so divided, as May demonstrated. There was never any chance of it going well.
Interesting that Wonder Woman has suddenly become a great example of a recent female lead movie, despite at the time there being all the same rage over it being extremely sexist. Remember that photo of the crew that was all female? And the complaints that Gal Gadot wasn't as hot or busty as Linda Carter?
reducing it to the strawman "omg they're sexists mad because it's a female lead!"
Buddy, that's your strawman. I never said any such thing.
How intellectually dishonest of you.
"I don't need a 40-year-old white dude to tell me what didn't work about A Wrinkle in Time. It wasn't made for him!"
At least that one is real. Perhaps you can explain what is actually wrong with it though? Arguing that someone who didn't enjoy the movie was not the target audience and you never intended to try to please them seems like a legitimate defence.
Wait, wanting to support International Women's Day by releasing your film on it (or more likely just cashing in, whatever) is divisive now?
As I said, it's only a small number of snowflakes who get triggered and try to bomb the user scores on these things, most people either don't care or think it's a good thing.
Marvel didn't spread division. Some guys got upset over one quote out of context by the lead actress, that's it.
Expecting actors and anyone else involved to never have said anything to offend anyone ever is unrealistic and done purely to create drama and division. There are people trying to manufacture a backlash against people they consider to be "SJWs", but for all the noise they make most people really don't care.
Quitting does not satisfy the moral imperative. People are being harmed, and taking no action to stop it when you could have is not a moral course of action.
or else they'd see a whole raft of countries also wanting half-way-out.
It's more like they would see a raft of countries also wanting half-way in. Everyone wants access to the EU single market because it's so lucrative, but it's only so lucrative because of it's integrity. The moment that gets compromised it's ruined.
That's why they EU won't do anything about the backstop. If the UK can unilaterally exit the backstop then it fucks the single market, which is over 6x bigger than the UK one so obviously they are going to prioritize it.
The best argument for aborting this madness is democracy.
The first referendum was flawed. It betrayed the recent Scottish referendum which was won on the promise of continued EU membership for a start. The campaigns were awful, the amount of misinformation and cheating was unprecedented, even before looking at the foreign interference.
What has been done since then does not resemble any of the promises or proposals that were made. In fact it is the exact opposite of many of them.
And now it's all deadlocked anyway. The best, the only democratic way to resolve this is another referendum. Present concrete options that will result in well defined, clearly spelt out actions.
Before joining the EU the UK was known as the "sick man of Europe", even in the UK.
When countries join the EU they are helped to develop. That's the basic idea now - expand the single market but helping new countries come up to standard with it in terms of wages and quality of life, widening the market for high end goods and services. Ireland is a great example.
It was the other way around. Hate speech was the first thing they came for. So the haters tried to dress it up as journalism, but eventually Alex Jones got banned too.
Aerospace has some unique issues, mainly around things like type approval and other permissions that are needed. Even if you get engineering work done in the UK, it has to be to EU standards and approved by EU regulators and testing bodies.
That's a pretty big disadvantage for companies based in the UK.
Brexiteers like to chant "Project Fear!" and claim that serious predictions of instant disaster were made. Of course some politicians did say some shit and the Pound did take a pretty big hit right after the vote, but in reality we haven't even left yet.
Still, we are already suffering the effects. Businesses and jobs leaving, the economy stalling, and Project Reality starting to set in.
No Deal is the biggest threat, but undeniably we would be better off with the deal we already have, inside the EU.
Slashdot Mirror
Back in the late 60s/early 70s NASA took proposals for a Mars mission. Most involved rather large and elaborate craft, to be launched on multiple Saturn 5 rockets and assembled in orbit. IIRC one required 8 Saturn 5s and proposed two ships in a convoy, with a crew of 8 on each.
They looked at using the Moon as a base for launches, but it would have been much more expensive. A lot of new technology would have been needed to live up there and produce fuel, and to launch large vehicles from the surface. The in-orbit assembly could be done using existing technology, long term space habitats were already being developed for Skylab. The only new thing was an ion drive with nuclear power plant, and the USSR had already demonstrated one of those.
I do wonder if there is enough tourism to even break even.
To become a moon tourist you have to be extremely wealthy, reasonably fit, willing to put up with the somewhat unpleasant journey there and back (you have see a space toilet?) and have some interest in actually going there. That seems like quite a narrow market.
There is O3, which could be useful for fusion if we ever get that working.
Alita was supposed to start a franchise, but failed. Like so many other franchise starters in the last few years... Robin Hood and Mortal Engines being recent examples.
Avatar seems to have stalled too. What was supposed to me a multi-movie franchise has failed to produce even one sequel so far.
Personally I'm still bitter that Tron Legacy didn't do well enough to get a third movie.
Arguing from a position of ignorance is never a winning strategy.
No deal was always political suicide. No Tory leader could ever get anything through because their party was so divided, as May demonstrated. There was never any chance of it going well.
Interesting that Wonder Woman has suddenly become a great example of a recent female lead movie, despite at the time there being all the same rage over it being extremely sexist. Remember that photo of the crew that was all female? And the complaints that Gal Gadot wasn't as hot or busty as Linda Carter?
reducing it to the strawman "omg they're sexists mad because it's a female lead!"
Buddy, that's your strawman. I never said any such thing.
How intellectually dishonest of you.
"I don't need a 40-year-old white dude to tell me what didn't work about A Wrinkle in Time. It wasn't made for him!"
At least that one is real. Perhaps you can explain what is actually wrong with it though? Arguing that someone who didn't enjoy the movie was not the target audience and you never intended to try to please them seems like a legitimate defence.
They don't even have to pay them. Just have the star say she is a feminist and let the outraged keyboard warriors do it for you.
Does every movie have to have a straight while male good guy now?
What is the logic here, that it's some kind of subtle attack on white males? How does that work?
Wait, wanting to support International Women's Day by releasing your film on it (or more likely just cashing in, whatever) is divisive now?
As I said, it's only a small number of snowflakes who get triggered and try to bomb the user scores on these things, most people either don't care or think it's a good thing.
Why do you think I'm in Pakistan?
Marvel didn't spread division. Some guys got upset over one quote out of context by the lead actress, that's it.
Expecting actors and anyone else involved to never have said anything to offend anyone ever is unrealistic and done purely to create drama and division. There are people trying to manufacture a backlash against people they consider to be "SJWs", but for all the noise they make most people really don't care.
Does posting on Slashdot count as a "break"? Because if so my ratio is pretty good.
That's one of the most batshit things you have ever posted, and you have some form on the matter.
Quitting does not satisfy the moral imperative. People are being harmed, and taking no action to stop it when you could have is not a moral course of action.
That would make life difficult for parents who need to get their kids ready for school and then get themselves to work though.
or else they'd see a whole raft of countries also wanting half-way-out.
It's more like they would see a raft of countries also wanting half-way in. Everyone wants access to the EU single market because it's so lucrative, but it's only so lucrative because of it's integrity. The moment that gets compromised it's ruined.
That's why they EU won't do anything about the backstop. If the UK can unilaterally exit the backstop then it fucks the single market, which is over 6x bigger than the UK one so obviously they are going to prioritize it.
The best argument for aborting this madness is democracy.
The first referendum was flawed. It betrayed the recent Scottish referendum which was won on the promise of continued EU membership for a start. The campaigns were awful, the amount of misinformation and cheating was unprecedented, even before looking at the foreign interference.
What has been done since then does not resemble any of the promises or proposals that were made. In fact it is the exact opposite of many of them.
And now it's all deadlocked anyway. The best, the only democratic way to resolve this is another referendum. Present concrete options that will result in well defined, clearly spelt out actions.
Before joining the EU the UK was known as the "sick man of Europe", even in the UK.
When countries join the EU they are helped to develop. That's the basic idea now - expand the single market but helping new countries come up to standard with it in terms of wages and quality of life, widening the market for high end goods and services. Ireland is a great example.
Unhackable = "We don't understand security"
It was the other way around. Hate speech was the first thing they came for. So the haters tried to dress it up as journalism, but eventually Alex Jones got banned too.
Seems like if they were going after conservatives they would start with the Nazis on Facebook. Even less controversial than vaccination.
Aerospace has some unique issues, mainly around things like type approval and other permissions that are needed. Even if you get engineering work done in the UK, it has to be to EU standards and approved by EU regulators and testing bodies.
That's a pretty big disadvantage for companies based in the UK.
Brexiteers like to chant "Project Fear!" and claim that serious predictions of instant disaster were made. Of course some politicians did say some shit and the Pound did take a pretty big hit right after the vote, but in reality we haven't even left yet.
Still, we are already suffering the effects. Businesses and jobs leaving, the economy stalling, and Project Reality starting to set in.
No Deal is the biggest threat, but undeniably we would be better off with the deal we already have, inside the EU.