Reminds me about a story I heard about the math department at a university I attended (yes, I'm deliberately being vague here). They had a large number of computers for which they no longer had a use. However, they were forbidden by their purchasing contract from re-selling them, giving them away, or even disposing of them. So the machines were put into storage. On the loading dock. Outside. The contract didn't forbid the department from having the goods stolen.
Because we want it to look believable, and entertain the audience.
Happily, it doesn't affect the discussion here, since we're only talking about interplanetary travel.
Yeah, it's hard to get to Mercury. That's why MESSENBER has to go though this punkerish orbit involving gravity assists from an Earth flyby, two Venus flybys, three Merc. flybys and a total of five deep space maneuversbefore orbit insertion. You can see the trajectory here. 7 years and 15 orbits of the Sun to go essentially 1 AU away. That's the same amount of time it took Cassini to get to Saturn. The last flyby is at the end of the month.
Just choose the "Bill me later" option. Don't bother wasting time with the meter, just walk off. When you get back to your car, someone will have already placed the bill on your windshield.
Very nice description. However, Earth's plate tectonics can affect the rate of recession of the Moon. The configuration of the continents controls the size of the ocean basins, which in turn controls how dissipative the Earth is. The dissipation rate controls how quickly angular momentum is transferred from the Earth's rotation to the Moon's mean motion. As the moon gets more angular momentum, it moves away from the Earth.
That said, I agree with your post. I just thought this was a neat, if only tangentially related tidbit.
Also, with paper maps, you can do things like the Wall of Maps we used to have when we lived in CA. My wife's job required her to drive various places all over South Bay. If you're a AAA member, they give you all the maps you want for free. So we cut up a bunch of the city-scale maps from Los Gatos north to Fremont and Hayward, lined everything up and covered a wall in the office with it. She could mark all her stores up there, plan routes, etc. Sure you can do that all on a computer, but you can't see the whole thing at once that way. After a while, she learned where everything was and didn't really need it, but we left it up because it's cooler that way.
So what is your plan for getting a star that exceeds the Chandrasekhar mass limit into the Solar System? As in, a star that can actually undergo supernova, which our puny Sun cannot.
A slight correction: Ed Weiler is the _Associate_ Administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, not the agency's overall Administrator. That post has been vacant since Michael Griffin resigned in January. You can see the organization structure here.
Personally, I'm expecting Mike Griffin to be replaced with Peter Griffin.
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Reminds me about a story I heard about the math department at a university I attended (yes, I'm deliberately being vague here). They had a large number of computers for which they no longer had a use. However, they were forbidden by their purchasing contract from re-selling them, giving them away, or even disposing of them. So the machines were put into storage. On the loading dock. Outside. The contract didn't forbid the department from having the goods stolen.
So, for about six months?
Because we want it to look believable, and entertain the audience. Happily, it doesn't affect the discussion here, since we're only talking about interplanetary travel.
Yeah, it's hard to get to Mercury. That's why MESSENBER has to go though this punkerish orbit involving gravity assists from an Earth flyby, two Venus flybys, three Merc. flybys and a total of five deep space maneuversbefore orbit insertion. You can see the trajectory here. 7 years and 15 orbits of the Sun to go essentially 1 AU away. That's the same amount of time it took Cassini to get to Saturn. The last flyby is at the end of the month.
Just choose the "Bill me later" option. Don't bother wasting time with the meter, just walk off. When you get back to your car, someone will have already placed the bill on your windshield.
That's not necessarily a good thing for science.
I don't think it much matters, since the U.S. mint only produces our coins. You want the Bureau of Engraving and Printing.
Does this qualify as "capital" punishment?
Got your hand in the microwave oven while it's running, do you?
This debate's hard enough without bringing facts into it..
They haven't used storks since 1973 when the Ciconiiformes Rights Protection Act was passed. Nowadays the baby is usually sent by first-class mail.
You put the bug zappers around the Xbox?
And the Number One threat to Astronomy? Bears!
Could be worse. You could read it as Zapp Brannigan.
Enjoying your job is the same as stealing from the company.
The Saturn V rocket didn't go to the Moon or back. It just lifted the Apollo CSM/LM into Earth orbit.
Very nice description. However, Earth's plate tectonics can affect the rate of recession of the Moon. The configuration of the continents controls the size of the ocean basins, which in turn controls how dissipative the Earth is. The dissipation rate controls how quickly angular momentum is transferred from the Earth's rotation to the Moon's mean motion. As the moon gets more angular momentum, it moves away from the Earth.
That said, I agree with your post. I just thought this was a neat, if only tangentially related tidbit.
Also, with paper maps, you can do things like the Wall of Maps we used to have when we lived in CA. My wife's job required her to drive various places all over South Bay. If you're a AAA member, they give you all the maps you want for free. So we cut up a bunch of the city-scale maps from Los Gatos north to Fremont and Hayward, lined everything up and covered a wall in the office with it. She could mark all her stores up there, plan routes, etc. Sure you can do that all on a computer, but you can't see the whole thing at once that way. After a while, she learned where everything was and didn't really need it, but we left it up because it's cooler that way.
"Who's the Journal of Quantum Physics going to believe?"
That's called "ejecta".
So what is your plan for getting a star that exceeds the Chandrasekhar mass limit into the Solar System? As in, a star that can actually undergo supernova, which our puny Sun cannot.
That would be a great observation except that:
2007 - Chinese year of the Boar
2008 - Chinese year of the Rat
2009 - Chinese year of the Ox
So next year, we should be worried about Tiger Flu.
In college, my friends and I would always have to go get Milky Way bars after Astronomy labs.
A slight correction: Ed Weiler is the _Associate_ Administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, not the agency's overall Administrator. That post has been vacant since Michael Griffin resigned in January. You can see the organization structure here.
Personally, I'm expecting Mike Griffin to be replaced with Peter Griffin.
"What's that?"
"It appears to be the Mother Ship."
"Then what did we just blow up?"
"The Hubble Telescope."