This reminds me of the "inversion of the human visual field of view experiment" first performed by George Stratton that now seems an obligatory reference in any image processing/human visual perception classes: http://eyetap.org/research/wearables/wearcomp/teth erless/node4.html
Basically, you can wear glasses that invert the perceived image on your retina, and your brain will(in time) "correct" for this inversion.
I think this link is worth reading for the following quote:
The unusual appearance of the apparatus was itself a hinderance in my daily activities (for example when I wore it to a formal dinner), but after some time people appeared to become accustomed to seeing me this way.
In a 26-month period, one mission to Mars can be launched, while 13 missions could be flown to the Moon during the same period. The rate of buildup of infrastructure mass on the lunar surface is about 80% greater than the rate on the martian surface. nasa.gov
A moon base would be useful as a proving ground for Mars mission technology, sort of a as a technological stepping stone.
As for it being a gravity well, that's not a bad thing: currently we assemble space shuttles on the ground, where contracted workers don't need to spacewalk as part of their construction routine. A moon base would provide a similar working environment for the construction laborers needed to build a ship capable of sustaining interplanetary flight. After all, a 26 month long mission can't be accomplished by 3 astronauts in a Pinto.
If you built it on the moon, you could eliminate a lot of bulk necessary for atmospheric entry/exit. No tiles. No wings. More design options. More windows for space tourists. (back to the topic;)
I agree that a lunar base should not be a wayfaring station for all Mars missions. But, it is a logical step to build an outpost from which to maintain resources. Currently, the ISS is our best space outfitting facility. It is costly and requires reboosts into higher orbits(falling 30 km per year), so basically, one can only expect the same fate as MIR(at 350km out, you do the math), without a huge funding boost.
Yes, a single Mars mission would be more economical as a sling-shot journey. But, we can assume more than one mission would be necessary in order to gain any worthwhile scientific understanding of the red planet.
A Moon base could expedite multiple missions by providing training/living facilities, valuable extraterrestrial storage space(for fuel, oxygen, supplies), and a sixth of the gravity. Also, the possibilities for non-Mars related missions associated with a Moon base are awesome: larger, further reaching telescopes, hydrogen propellent via polar lunar ice, communications relay via microsatellites...
For more info: some NASA site.
On a full tangent, current technology is not feasible for multiple missions to Mars: it is obvious that we need to use more efficient long-distance propulsion systems. Let me know what you find...
...but, a Lunar waystation would have to come first, in order to simplify the logistics(costs) of establishing a Martian settlement.
This makes me wonder: someday when we have our CruiseShipOnes orbiting the Earth, our mega-casinos on the Moon, and our extreme golf courses for the uber-elite on Mars... I wonder if we'll all look at ourselves collectively and simultaneously and just say, wtf?
That is a pretty brash statement, given that Google has only been public for a couple months. What happens when all their creative, loyal employees are able to cash out their stock options(500 employees grabbing 5 mil each) -- they could experience the classic brain drain.
Maybe it just got out of the shower, or the swimming pool or something... Anyway, I'm sure it's not indicative of its real size, I mean COME ON!! It happens! It's just a little shrinkage!
That's pretty much right: A wide bandwidth translates to a narrow pulse in the time-domain.
OFDM(orthogonal frequency division multiplexing) is a spread-spectrum technique meaning it spreads its energy(the data) out over a wide range of carrier frequencies -- the total power output required is actually less than by using a single carrier.
The moons are approximately 3 kilometers (2 miles) and 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) across -- smaller than the city of Boulder, Colorado.'
Hey -- this means we can at least move MOST of the population of Boulder to one of the moons and still have one for a frickin laser.
Aaah, but would you have wanted to find your liver in a guy you hated?
A priority listing upon death would be great -- it would help each of us communicate beyond the grave who our real buddies are... hmmm, that could make for a good short story/full budget hollywood film
Btw, did this guy really spend that much money on his "public relations campaign", or did the media(including slashdot awareness) recognize this as good fodder and give him some free promotion...
nice joke, dr bongo, no one could SEE that coming... you totally Blind-Sided the forum... one could almost say that your laser-edged wit has sliced microscopic cuts that have changed the index of refraction of our prime perceptive cortex!
My wife's uncle(55 yrs old) underwent a Lasik procedure in order to correct both his near-sightedness and his failing far-sightedness. This involves correcting the non-dominant eye for far-field vision and the dominant eye for near-field.
As the old leg-amputee joke goes(we sawed off the wrong leg), they corrected his eyes incorrectly -- dominant eye went far-field and non-dominant went near-field, irreversibly, mind you.
The end result was that they had to go in 3 months later and re-correct his eyes such that they were both far-field, so that now he still has to wear reading glasses.
So, now, simultaneously, let us all point to an object far away, cover one eye, trace your finger back to your eyes...
Slashdot Mirror
Aye, some men's cyclotron's are longer than others'
Considering that bottlenose dolphins have a life expectancy of 25 years and max longevity of 45, this one's not looking too shagadelic.
Darwin 1
Diseased Unattractive Plastic-Fin Dolphin 0
This reminds me of the "inversion of the human visual field of view experiment" first performed by George Stratton that now seems an obligatory reference in any image processing/human visual perception classes:h erless/node4.html
http://eyetap.org/research/wearables/wearcomp/tet
Basically, you can wear glasses that invert the perceived image on your retina, and your brain will(in time) "correct" for this inversion.
I think this link is worth reading for the following quote:
The unusual appearance of the apparatus was itself a hinderance in my daily activities (for example when I wore it to a formal dinner), but after some time people appeared to become accustomed to seeing me this way.
How (much) do current events play a role in shaping the different aspects of your works-in-progress?
hmm, space elevators...l
http://flightprojects.msfc.nasa.gov/fd02_elev.htm
That would be a sweet amusement ride.
In a 26-month period, one mission to Mars can be launched, while 13 missions could be flown to the Moon during the same period. The rate of buildup of infrastructure mass on the lunar surface is about 80% greater than the rate on the martian surface. nasa.gov
;)
A moon base would be useful as a proving ground for Mars mission technology, sort of a as a technological stepping stone.
As for it being a gravity well, that's not a bad thing: currently we assemble space shuttles on the ground, where contracted workers don't need to spacewalk as part of their construction routine. A moon base would provide a similar working environment for the construction laborers needed to build a ship capable of sustaining interplanetary flight. After all, a 26 month long mission can't be accomplished by 3 astronauts in a Pinto.
If you built it on the moon, you could eliminate a lot of bulk necessary for atmospheric entry/exit. No tiles. No wings. More design options. More windows for space tourists. (back to the topic
Yes, a single Mars mission would be more economical as a sling-shot journey. But, we can assume more than one mission would be necessary in order to gain any worthwhile scientific understanding of the red planet.
A Moon base could expedite multiple missions by providing training/living facilities, valuable extraterrestrial storage space(for fuel, oxygen, supplies), and a sixth of the gravity. Also, the possibilities for non-Mars related missions associated with a Moon base are awesome: larger, further reaching telescopes, hydrogen propellent via polar lunar ice, communications relay via microsatellites... For more info: some NASA site.
On a full tangent, current technology is not feasible for multiple missions to Mars: it is obvious that we need to use more efficient long-distance propulsion systems. Let me know what you find...
...but, a Lunar waystation would have to come first, in order to simplify the logistics(costs) of establishing a Martian settlement.
This makes me wonder: someday when we have our CruiseShipOnes orbiting the Earth, our mega-casinos on the Moon, and our extreme golf courses for the uber-elite on Mars...
I wonder if we'll all look at ourselves collectively and simultaneously and just say, wtf?
That is a pretty brash statement, given that Google has only been public for a couple months. What happens when all their creative, loyal employees are able to cash out their stock options(500 employees grabbing 5 mil each) -- they could experience the classic brain drain.
And, can you put an AOL icon on Unix somewhere, so that I can access the internet?
Rank your candidates in order of preference.
That doesn't seem so difficult to me...
Maybe it just got out of the shower, or the swimming pool or something... Anyway, I'm sure it's not indicative of its real size, I mean COME ON!! It happens! It's just a little shrinkage!
Wow, catch-22:
If the value of your house goes up, you pay higher property taxes.
If the value goes down, the obnoxious neighbors complain and won't move away.
That's pretty much right:
A wide bandwidth translates to a narrow pulse in the time-domain.
OFDM(orthogonal frequency division multiplexing) is a spread-spectrum technique meaning it spreads its energy(the data) out over a wide range of carrier frequencies -- the total power output required is actually less than by using a single carrier.
...26 year olds with good ideas will increasingly have an edge over 50 year olds with powerful connections.
now go get me some coffee, b@#ch!
No way man -- maybe cyanobacteria at 10,000:1, or even those little sweet ants that never seem to die, but not ponies!
The moons are approximately 3 kilometers (2 miles) and 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) across -- smaller than the city of Boulder, Colorado.'
Hey -- this means we can at least move MOST of the population of Boulder to one of the moons and still have one for a frickin laser.
does this mean Half-Life 2 will be postponed another quarter???
Aaah, but would you have wanted to find your liver in a guy you hated?
A priority listing upon death would be great -- it would help each of us communicate beyond the grave who our real buddies are... hmmm, that could make for a good short story/full budget hollywood film
Btw, did this guy really spend that much money on his "public relations campaign", or did the media(including slashdot awareness) recognize this as good fodder and give him some free promotion...
nice joke, dr bongo, no one could SEE that coming... you totally Blind-Sided the forum... one could almost say that your laser-edged wit has sliced microscopic cuts that have changed the index of refraction of our prime perceptive cortex!
My wife's uncle(55 yrs old) underwent a Lasik procedure in order to correct both his near-sightedness and his failing far-sightedness. This involves correcting the non-dominant eye for far-field vision and the dominant eye for near-field.
As the old leg-amputee joke goes(we sawed off the wrong leg), they corrected his eyes incorrectly -- dominant eye went far-field and non-dominant went near-field, irreversibly, mind you.
The end result was that they had to go in 3 months later and re-correct his eyes such that they were both far-field, so that now he still has to wear reading glasses.
So, now, simultaneously, let us all point to an object far away, cover one eye, trace your finger back to your eyes...