Are you sure about that? Just guess what kinda of cheese recently liberated, pissed off mice will want: human cheese most likely, I tell you!
Oh wait, give from where human milk comes from, maybe supervising those factories won't be bad at all...
"Artificial lips as subtle as human lips
The 35kg as yet unnamed robot has artificial lips which can alter their position as subtly as human lips as air is forced through them, enabling it to play a trumpet as it presses the stops with its hands."
I'd also suggest you take a look at some of Heinlein's works;) He goes a long way explainning how 'easy' it could be to pretty much throw rocks from Moon to Earth.
I understand it pretty well. It's all about escape velocity.
From http://www.bartleby.com/65/es/escapeve.html:
"Escape velocity depends on the mass of the larger body and the distance of the smaller body from its center, being proportional to the square root of the ratio of these two quantities. The velocity of escape from the earth at its surface is about 7 mi (11.3 km) per sec, or 25,000 mi per hr; from the moon's surface it is 1.5 mi (2.4 km) per sec."
So... we can say that throwing anything from the moon to the earth is almost 5 times easier than the other way around. No wonder the couple Apollo landing missions didn't need a Saturn V for the trip back, uh?
---
I think thats exactly the point. There isno guaranteer whatsoever that the US will beat China in some arms-race-to-the-moon.
As was explainned above, the US seems much more tied down to bureaucracy and regulations than it used to be back in the 50s and 60s. There seems to be much less political room for maneuver, so to speak, and much less money to throw around.
I also believe the recent talks about the US going back to space/moon are pretty much electoral garbage. I hope not: Im a space enthusiast myself. But knowing what little I know about politics... well, it seems pretty unlikely anything real will come out of this.
Manned space exploration requires an enourmous investment from the State, and a serious commitment of more than just 4 (or even 8) years. Both seem unlikely for the US as it is nowadays. Unless innitiatives like the X-Prize are incredibly sucessfull beyond all expectations, we may only see *real* Manned Space Programs again when China reaches the required level of home-made technology.
But I may be just wrong, of course. Hope so.
We dont need to colonize Mars right now - but we are able to (well, in the process of). And wed better do it, because eventually the time will come when we will have to colonize Mars, but we may lack the capacity by then.
And then, we will wish so much that we had done it when we could.
Slashdot Mirror
Are you sure about that? Just guess what kinda of cheese recently liberated, pissed off mice will want: human cheese most likely, I tell you! Oh wait, give from where human milk comes from, maybe supervising those factories won't be bad at all...
"Artificial lips as subtle as human lips
The 35kg as yet unnamed robot has artificial lips which can alter their position as subtly as human lips as air is forced through them, enabling it to play a trumpet as it presses the stops with its hands."
Am I the only one wondering...
I'd also suggest you take a look at some of Heinlein's works ;) He goes a long way explainning how 'easy' it could be to pretty much throw rocks from Moon to Earth.
I understand it pretty well. It's all about escape velocity.
From http://www.bartleby.com/65/es/escapeve.html:
"Escape velocity depends on the mass of the larger body and the distance of the smaller body from its center, being proportional to the square root of the ratio of these two quantities. The velocity of escape from the earth at its surface is about 7 mi (11.3 km) per sec, or 25,000 mi per hr; from the moon's surface it is 1.5 mi (2.4 km) per sec."
So... we can say that throwing anything from the moon to the earth is almost 5 times easier than the other way around. No wonder the couple Apollo landing missions didn't need a Saturn V for the trip back, uh?
---
Just of think of it this way: the moon is the higher ground.
go go line breaks. Sorry about that. Feel free to place paragraphs, in your mind, as you see fit.
I think thats exactly the point. There isno guaranteer whatsoever that the US will beat China in some arms-race-to-the-moon. As was explainned above, the US seems much more tied down to bureaucracy and regulations than it used to be back in the 50s and 60s. There seems to be much less political room for maneuver, so to speak, and much less money to throw around. I also believe the recent talks about the US going back to space/moon are pretty much electoral garbage. I hope not: Im a space enthusiast myself. But knowing what little I know about politics... well, it seems pretty unlikely anything real will come out of this. Manned space exploration requires an enourmous investment from the State, and a serious commitment of more than just 4 (or even 8) years. Both seem unlikely for the US as it is nowadays. Unless innitiatives like the X-Prize are incredibly sucessfull beyond all expectations, we may only see *real* Manned Space Programs again when China reaches the required level of home-made technology. But I may be just wrong, of course. Hope so.
We dont need to colonize Mars right now - but we are able to (well, in the process of). And wed better do it, because eventually the time will come when we will have to colonize Mars, but we may lack the capacity by then. And then, we will wish so much that we had done it when we could.
do you remember that one? ;)
I know of a guy who would have loved that kind of news.. a couple years ago.