I'd be wondering why my new VCR can't reliably display colors if I didn't recognize Macrovision damage.
I ended up with a TV with a built-in VCR. The built-in VCR broke. It's much cheaper to buy a new VCR. The TV is obeying Macrovision damage so I can't watch many movies properly. Well, I couldn't if I didn't know how to fix the stupidity, which I do.
Sure, the Space Shuttle could go anyplace if you give it more fuel...and more coolant water.
But after dropping the external tank, the Shuttle only has its small orbital maneuvering engines. To use the main engines you'd have to take up a tank assembly with the external tank's coupling...and before heading to the Moon someone has to bolt the tanks to the Shuttle and do that fuel/oxydizer plumbing. Of course, this could be modified if necessary to make it easier to do in orbit.
Of course, if you're starting the trip in orbit you can also end there. So you don't need a Command Module with a heat shield. Thus you don't need the Service Module. So you can have a larger LEM and use its restartable descent engine. And to provide more living space and supplies you push ahead of it a "living room" module -- which can be similar to an ISS module.
Hmm.. if you want more living space and supplies on the lunar surface, I wonder if the surround-it-with-balloons landing method would work at the speeds reached when falling from lunar orbit. There would be some falling, as you can't use a parachute as was done on Mars...unless your braking/descent engine is on a snap-off rod sticking out from the balloon cushion. But rather than have the rod going down it could go up, and have a descent engine assembly with the blast pattern aimed around the balloons. The rocket equivalent of a parachute, although maybe after it disconnects it can push itself back to orbit. No, it's a rocket skyhook...if it has enough thrust to ascend with the load it can behave like a helicopter. Drop from orbit, hover, set the load down, let go, then go back to orbit or land if equipped to do so.
And those aren't "fossil" fuels, they're abiogenic except for coal. It's not a matter of using it all, it's a matter of whether we use it faster than it trickles up.
Yes, the Space Shuttle can not get to the Moon. But it could carry a Moon ship to orbit.
The Space Shuttle has a payload bay of 15 feet around and 98 feet long. Payload weights can be up to 65,000 pounds.
The Saturn IVB stage, used to leave Earth orbit to the Moon was 58.4 feet long and 21.7 feet around. The Space Shuttle can't carry that up, but it can carry something almost twice as long and almost 3/4ths the diameter -- should be enough volume for fuel tanks large enough. The S-IVB weights 23,000 empty, which is well within the Shuttle weight limit. The 230,000 pounds of fuel would require four Shuttle trips -- probably five or six due to weight of tanks.
Assuming we have to take the spacecraft up in a separate launch, an Apollo CM/SM/LEM weighs 43,196 Kg/95,230Lbs. That's 1.5 times the Shuttle payload max weight, so have to carry those up in two trips. The SM and CM are 12.8 feet around, so can fit in the Shuttle. The LM ascent stage is 14.1 feet, so it fits too. The LM descent stage is 31 feet from leg-to-leg, so a different design for that is needed.
Well, yes. The Saturn V was amazing. Until those monster engines were created nobody expected to reach the Moon with a single launch. It was expected that at least the spacecraft (CM,LEM) would go up separately, the lunar injection unit (later the Saturn IVB) in another launch, and perhaps fuels would need more trips.
Even that was a lot to carry up and assemble. There were a lot of designs which involved first building a space station, then using that as a construction base to actually assemble the moon rockets.
I wish I could find the 1960s animated films which showed the whole process, concluding with lunar ships with a crew of a dozen or so. And, of course, it's best to send several ships at once in case one encounters trouble.
If we'll be on the Moon or elsewhere in space for "any period of time", the Moon does have plenty worth landing for. There are raw materials and a solid surface on which to build manufacturing facilities. And launching from the Moon is very easy -- orbital velocity is small and there is no atmospheric drag to fight.
An asteroid has even more raw materials, as the heavy metals haven't settled to the bottom as they mostly have done on the Moon (well, a lot of the heavy metals actually settled to the bottom of the Earth -- the Moon is so light because it's the upper layers of the original Earth). But travel to an asteroid is a bit more complex.
Yes, it is interesting to see the secrecy labels and warnings on the old Apollo Guidance Computer documents. Wouldn't want everyone building Moon rockets...of course, at the time a guidance computer was dangerous due to competition to engineer nuclear missiles. (Now there's more computing power in a handheld GPS unit than is needed by a simple ballistic missile)
The Saturn V, the Apollo rocket, was not reusable and did not "return" from the Moon. Only the upper thrust stage reached orbit and was used to leave Earth orbit toward the Moon. The upper stage remained attached until the LEM had been extracted, then was abandoned.
Some of these stages probably went into unknown solar orbit -- astronomers recently spotted an object which might be an Apollo component. Later flights often aimed it at the Moon so the crash could be examined by seismometers left behind by earlier flights.
The only things which returned from the Moon were the Command and the Service Modules, but those were more payload than Saturn V stages. (Well, Apollo 13 also returned with the LEM...) Of course, only the conical Command Module actually survived reentry.
Well, keep in mind that at that time "integrated circuit" meant one logical gate (AND, OR, XOR..etc) on a chip, having 5-15 electronic components (only 1-5 being transistors). It was wonderful a few years later when the high-density chips became available, with 4-8 logical gates.
Of course Word will be replaced by something much cooler by then. It will look really pretty, but none of your old Word documents will be valid under it. Thus you are protected from all the things which you thought were true but turned out to not be.
There is a way to charge for spam. It's right there in the article.
The advertiser pays $1 for each click on the response.
So if half a million spams are sent out and everyone clicks on the ad...the advertiser has spent half a million dollars, without getting any income yet.
Sure, the spammer gets half a million dollars. But if all ads are getting a high click rate, how many advertisers will be able to afford it -- or believe that the clickers are truly interested?
Also, the advertisers will have to have servers which can deal with that much traffic...
"Awww, Ricky! I brought this souvenir back from Honduras and accidentally swallowed it! And now the whole country is suing me! Aaaaaahhhhhhwwwwww! Aaaaahhhhwwww! I should have known there was something suspicious when the souvenir seller in the black suit called me Mrs. Ricardo before I introduced myself! Hoow ddoooo I gett iinn theeese thiinngs! Aaaaaahhhwww!"
Local customs? as in every other country in the world?
It is polite to assume that this was his first trip to a foreign country. And that this was his first time mountain climbing. And that this was the first time he had a prepaid phone.
"the pictures are always viewable" "archival properties of photographic processes"
Wrong. Photo prints fade. Look at family color pictures from 1970. Black and white before then. And once it has faded, it is gone.
There are two advantages in archiving in digital form:
The digital copy can be refreshed perfectly by making a copy. If a CD-R will fade in 10 years, you can copy it every 5 years and never lose data.
When you get a DVD-R and CD-ROM drives start to vanish, copying your entire collection is certainly easier than making backups of your film prints. And your CD-R images will be easier to handle because they'll fit on fewer DVDs. Repeat with future technologies...
All that we know is that he survived 24 hours. We don't know why. Maybe he would have survived 72 hours if he hadn't drunk brandy, maybe he was one hour from death because he drunk brandy. We just don't know.
I do believe this guy is a Darwin Award candidate. He simply didn't qualify this time.
Re:hrm. 911 (at least in the US)
on
Can You Hear Me Now?
·
· Score: 5, Insightful
You're assuming he knew of the 112 emergency number. In the USA 911 is the only number which people are told about.
I doubt he knew of local customs (assuming he's from the USA -- I don't know if BellSouth runs cell systems outside the USA). He's not very well informed.
He didn't know this blizzard was approaching -- or that conditions made it likely.
He packed brandy instead of more necessary equipment -- like cell phone batteries or something that might have helped him not become "stranded" or "lost"...or a sleeping bag.
He got "lost". At least we don't know if it was his fault (no GPS? no map? not watching landmarks on the way in? just went "up" and didn't know the way back to town? couldn't read the trail signs in Spanish? no guide?) or not (genetically unable to learn map reading? white-out blizzard hid landmarks? -- how did rescuers get to him, then?).
He thought brandy would help keep him warm.
He left his cell phone on after he thought it was useless, instead of making his only battery last longer in case he thought of a use for it.
He thought cold was charging his battery. More likely just letting it rest is what allowed it to work again for a short time.
He had been putting his batteries in the freezer without knowing why he should. (Because it slows the chemical reactions which discharge even an unused battery.) And in the time since he was a child he hadn't found out.
He chose prepaid minutes but didn't make sure he had some for the climb...and he reached for his phone because he thought it was usable.
He thought there was cellular coverage in the mountains.
Slashdot Mirror
(What, you expect a government agency involved with publication to know how to properly publish announcements?)
I ended up with a TV with a built-in VCR. The built-in VCR broke. It's much cheaper to buy a new VCR. The TV is obeying Macrovision damage so I can't watch many movies properly. Well, I couldn't if I didn't know how to fix the stupidity, which I do.
A: Why do different people ask me that question every ten minutes?
But after dropping the external tank, the Shuttle only has its small orbital maneuvering engines. To use the main engines you'd have to take up a tank assembly with the external tank's coupling...and before heading to the Moon someone has to bolt the tanks to the Shuttle and do that fuel/oxydizer plumbing. Of course, this could be modified if necessary to make it easier to do in orbit.
Of course, if you're starting the trip in orbit you can also end there. So you don't need a Command Module with a heat shield. Thus you don't need the Service Module. So you can have a larger LEM and use its restartable descent engine. And to provide more living space and supplies you push ahead of it a "living room" module -- which can be similar to an ISS module.
Hmm.. if you want more living space and supplies on the lunar surface, I wonder if the surround-it-with-balloons landing method would work at the speeds reached when falling from lunar orbit. There would be some falling, as you can't use a parachute as was done on Mars...unless your braking/descent engine is on a snap-off rod sticking out from the balloon cushion. But rather than have the rod going down it could go up, and have a descent engine assembly with the blast pattern aimed around the balloons. The rocket equivalent of a parachute, although maybe after it disconnects it can push itself back to orbit. No, it's a rocket skyhook...if it has enough thrust to ascend with the load it can behave like a helicopter. Drop from orbit, hover, set the load down, let go, then go back to orbit or land if equipped to do so.
Hey, have we yet had Slashdot ask us for our questions for Alice?
It's called a fan. Most systems include that feature. Where you direct the warm air is up to you.
Many people do overrate the actual amount of heat generated. If your power supply is less than 1,000 watts, you can't even create as much heat as a toaster. Just a furnace fan uses 750 watts. An electric furnace is 8,500 watts.
And those aren't "fossil" fuels, they're abiogenic except for coal. It's not a matter of using it all, it's a matter of whether we use it faster than it trickles up.
The Space Shuttle has a payload bay of 15 feet around and 98 feet long. Payload weights can be up to 65,000 pounds.
The Saturn IVB stage, used to leave Earth orbit to the Moon was 58.4 feet long and 21.7 feet around. The Space Shuttle can't carry that up, but it can carry something almost twice as long and almost 3/4ths the diameter -- should be enough volume for fuel tanks large enough. The S-IVB weights 23,000 empty, which is well within the Shuttle weight limit. The 230,000 pounds of fuel would require four Shuttle trips -- probably five or six due to weight of tanks.
Assuming we have to take the spacecraft up in a separate launch, an Apollo CM/SM/LEM weighs 43,196 Kg/95,230Lbs. That's 1.5 times the Shuttle payload max weight, so have to carry those up in two trips. The SM and CM are 12.8 feet around, so can fit in the Shuttle. The LM ascent stage is 14.1 feet, so it fits too. The LM descent stage is 31 feet from leg-to-leg, so a different design for that is needed.
Even that was a lot to carry up and assemble. There were a lot of designs which involved first building a space station, then using that as a construction base to actually assemble the moon rockets.
I wish I could find the 1960s animated films which showed the whole process, concluding with lunar ships with a crew of a dozen or so. And, of course, it's best to send several ships at once in case one encounters trouble.
For only $1 Billion, you can buy a ride 5% of the way to Mars!
A proposal has been made to establish a permanent base on the Moon. By China. A mining facility is the current goal of their space program.
An asteroid has even more raw materials, as the heavy metals haven't settled to the bottom as they mostly have done on the Moon (well, a lot of the heavy metals actually settled to the bottom of the Earth -- the Moon is so light because it's the upper layers of the original Earth). But travel to an asteroid is a bit more complex.
Yes, it is interesting to see the secrecy labels and warnings on the old Apollo Guidance Computer documents. Wouldn't want everyone building Moon rockets...of course, at the time a guidance computer was dangerous due to competition to engineer nuclear missiles. (Now there's more computing power in a handheld GPS unit than is needed by a simple ballistic missile)
Some of these stages probably went into unknown solar orbit -- astronomers recently spotted an object which might be an Apollo component. Later flights often aimed it at the Moon so the crash could be examined by seismometers left behind by earlier flights.
The only things which returned from the Moon were the Command and the Service Modules, but those were more payload than Saturn V stages. (Well, Apollo 13 also returned with the LEM...) Of course, only the conical Command Module actually survived reentry.
Well, keep in mind that at that time "integrated circuit" meant one logical gate (AND, OR, XOR..etc) on a chip, having 5-15 electronic components (only 1-5 being transistors). It was wonderful a few years later when the high-density chips became available, with 4-8 logical gates.
Chapter 11.28
Suspension And Debarment Of Contractors
Word.
I didn't know there were magnetic letters so small.
So if half a million spams are sent out and everyone clicks on the ad...the advertiser has spent half a million dollars, without getting any income yet.
Sure, the spammer gets half a million dollars. But if all ads are getting a high click rate, how many advertisers will be able to afford it -- or believe that the clickers are truly interested?
Also, the advertisers will have to have servers which can deal with that much traffic...
Yup.
I wouldn't want to climb with him. Maybe we know why he was alone on that mountain.
"Awww, Ricky! I brought this souvenir back from Honduras and accidentally swallowed it! And now the whole country is suing me! Aaaaaahhhhhhwwwwww! Aaaaahhhhwwww! I should have known there was something suspicious when the souvenir seller in the black suit called me Mrs. Ricardo before I introduced myself! Hoow ddoooo I gett iinn theeese thiinngs! Aaaaaahhhwww!"
Do not put thumbprints on pictures.
It is polite to assume that this was his first trip to a foreign country. And that this was his first time mountain climbing. And that this was the first time he had a prepaid phone.
"archival properties of photographic processes"
Wrong. Photo prints fade. Look at family color pictures from 1970. Black and white before then. And once it has faded, it is gone.
I do believe this guy is a Darwin Award candidate. He simply didn't qualify this time.
I doubt he knew of local customs (assuming he's from the USA -- I don't know if BellSouth runs cell systems outside the USA). He's not very well informed.
- He didn't know this blizzard was approaching -- or that conditions made it likely.
- He packed brandy instead of more necessary equipment -- like cell phone batteries or something that might have helped him not become "stranded" or "lost"...or a sleeping bag.
- He got "lost". At least we don't know if it was his fault (no GPS? no map? not watching landmarks on the way in? just went "up" and didn't know the way back to town? couldn't read the trail signs in Spanish? no guide?) or not (genetically unable to learn map reading? white-out blizzard hid landmarks? -- how did rescuers get to him, then?).
- He thought brandy would help keep him warm.
- He left his cell phone on after he thought it was useless, instead of making his only battery last longer in case he thought of a use for it.
- He thought cold was charging his battery. More likely just letting it rest is what allowed it to work again for a short time.
- He had been putting his batteries in the freezer without knowing why he should. (Because it slows the chemical reactions which discharge even an unused battery.) And in the time since he was a child he hadn't found out.
- He chose prepaid minutes but didn't make sure he had some for the climb...and he reached for his phone because he thought it was usable.
- He thought there was cellular coverage in the mountains.
He certainly was more lucky than good.