Well, at least the government would get lots of instruction on how to make its pecker bigger. And considering what it's already doing to us, that's not a very good thing.
It's certainly a complicated dynamics problem, but the velocity changes associated with moving from one planetary orbit to another are orders of magnitude bigger than anything the gravity of the planets themselves can deliver. If you have the fuel to get into and out of the transfer orbit, you can maneuver around the planets themselves with the leftovers.
It's hinted at in the story, but the reason the probe is taking its sweet time to actually achieve an orbit is Mercury's high orbital velocity.
Well, actually, Mercury's low orbital velocity. It's more than Earth's, but when that elliptical transfer orbit reaches Mercury's orbit, the spacecraft is purely hauling ass. It actually takes a negative delta-V to match velocities.
To reach a superior planet (one outside your own orbit) you initiate the transfer orbit with a positive delta-V, then circularize it with another positive delta-V when you get there. For an inferior planet (inside your orbit), substitute "negative" for "positive" in both places.
The US is far and away the largest, if not the only, producer of helium
Correct. The way you get helium is: go to Amarillo, Texas and drill a hole.
Amarillo sits atop a huge deposit of alpha-emitting radioactive ores. An alpha particle is two protons with two neutrons attached, which from another perspective is a helium nucleus. As soon as it finds two electrons it grabs them, and ba-bing, ba-boom, helium atom.
The consortium that holds the government contract to extract helium has been a major local profit center for decades, which is why Amarillo is the only city with a monument to an element.
Matter of fact, the Goodyear Blimps quite often collect bullet holes; part of the preflight inspection is to look up into the bag through a clear panel in the gondola roof and look for pinpoints of light. Normal leakage will account for more helium loss than a couple of bullet holes.
Don't remember what the OEM firmware does, but with the DD-WRT firmware on my WRT54GL, you're not permitted to enable remote router access with the default password in effect.
I wonder which will be the first of the three Mars-orbiting spacecraft currently active to observe it ?
It would also be interesting to know if, given that there's an impact, the Opportunity Rover has a chance of seeing it. One report describes the possible impact point as "north of" the rover, but doesn't say how far.
The same object missed us by 5 million miles -- about 1/8 the separation between Earth and Mars orbits -- two months ago and we didn't see it until two weeks later.
The orbit geometries of Mars and the asteroid -- which are driven by the Sun's gravity -- will almost totally determine the impact velocity. The effects of Mars's gravity will be trivial by comparison.
OTOH, the thin atmosphere of Mars will alter the mechanics of the impact significantly compared to an Earth impact.
TheSpoom's reply is correct: there is civil fraud, remedied with lawsuits, and there is criminal fraud, remedied with prosecution. It's often possible to give the perp both barrels.
Putting it differently, if the only consequence of being caught in fraud were having to give the money back, fraud would be consistently profitable. Cheat ten people out of $100 apiece, get caught twice, and you're $800 ahead...so we have punitive damages to discourage that.
You could call it a large-scale version of shortchanging...same principle.
Thanks for the exposition, doc. Is there a body of knowledge at this time that interprets heart sounds by doing signal processing deeper than the traditional EKG trace? Can you actually draw conclusions about a heart by looking at, say, an FFT of the sound?
Are you old enough to remember Anthony Abraham, a Chevy dealer, and Abe Aronovitz, a mayor of Miami? They lived across a street from each other in the Gables, and Jewish though they were, they competed every year for the most garish Christmas lights. I used to take people for airplane rides over there at night.
trade in your stupid-ass SUV for something more efficient
And that will take your SUV off the road, right? Nope, just off your block. The guy who buys it probably makes less money than you do; what shape will he keep it in?
You're better off to drive and maintain that SUV until you're willing to junk it yourself.
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Well, at least the government would get lots of instruction on how to make its pecker bigger. And considering what it's already doing to us, that's not a very good thing.
rj
With enough publicity in the right places, this could expose IP trolling for the absurdity it is. Stewart, Colbert, Leno, Letterman, listen up...
rj
https://forms.house.gov/wyr/welcome.shtml
http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
rj
Well, true...it's more rigorous to say "posigrade" and "retrograde".
rj
It's certainly a complicated dynamics problem, but the velocity changes associated with moving from one planetary orbit to another are orders of magnitude bigger than anything the gravity of the planets themselves can deliver. If you have the fuel to get into and out of the transfer orbit, you can maneuver around the planets themselves with the leftovers.
rj
Well, actually, Mercury's low orbital velocity. It's more than Earth's, but when that elliptical transfer orbit reaches Mercury's orbit, the spacecraft is purely hauling ass. It actually takes a negative delta-V to match velocities.
To reach a superior planet (one outside your own orbit) you initiate the transfer orbit with a positive delta-V, then circularize it with another positive delta-V when you get there. For an inferior planet (inside your orbit), substitute "negative" for "positive" in both places.
rj
Correct. The way you get helium is: go to Amarillo, Texas and drill a hole.
Amarillo sits atop a huge deposit of alpha-emitting radioactive ores. An alpha particle is two protons with two neutrons attached, which from another perspective is a helium nucleus. As soon as it finds two electrons it grabs them, and ba-bing, ba-boom, helium atom.
The consortium that holds the government contract to extract helium has been a major local profit center for decades, which is why Amarillo is the only city with a monument to an element.
rj
rj
rj
Where do people get this stuff?
British zeppelin R-101, 1930: 48 dead.
USS Akron, 1933: 73 dead.
Hindenburg, 1937: 36 dead.
The only thing special about the Hindenburg was the presence of reporters with wire recorders and movie cameras.
rj
Like the air around your wireless laptop?
rj
Don't remember what the OEM firmware does, but with the DD-WRT firmware on my WRT54GL, you're not permitted to enable remote router access with the default password in effect.
rj
In more general terms, the G load in a coordinated turn is just the secant of the bank angle.
rj
It would also be interesting to know if, given that there's an impact, the Opportunity Rover has a chance of seeing it. One report describes the possible impact point as "north of" the rover, but doesn't say how far.
rj
The same object missed us by 5 million miles -- about 1/8 the separation between Earth and Mars orbits -- two months ago and we didn't see it until two weeks later.
rj
The orbit geometries of Mars and the asteroid -- which are driven by the Sun's gravity -- will almost totally determine the impact velocity. The effects of Mars's gravity will be trivial by comparison.
OTOH, the thin atmosphere of Mars will alter the mechanics of the impact significantly compared to an Earth impact.
rj
TheSpoom's reply is correct: there is civil fraud, remedied with lawsuits, and there is criminal fraud, remedied with prosecution. It's often possible to give the perp both barrels.
rj
Putting it differently, if the only consequence of being caught in fraud were having to give the money back, fraud would be consistently profitable. Cheat ten people out of $100 apiece, get caught twice, and you're $800 ahead...so we have punitive damages to discourage that.
You could call it a large-scale version of shortchanging...same principle.
rj
Thanks for the exposition, doc. Is there a body of knowledge at this time that interprets heart sounds by doing signal processing deeper than the traditional EKG trace? Can you actually draw conclusions about a heart by looking at, say, an FFT of the sound?
rj
How would the ability to do that depend on having robots? What kind of communication device can robots carry around that human soldiers can't?
rj
Been done, by the Papuan Cargo Cult...
rj
rj
Just don't clean fish in your cube, OK?
rj
There is.
rj
And that will take your SUV off the road, right? Nope, just off your block. The guy who buys it probably makes less money than you do; what shape will he keep it in?
You're better off to drive and maintain that SUV until you're willing to junk it yourself.
rj