The thread for space cadets!

[PlutonianEmpire]

Inb4 the killjoys Winner, Crezth, SS-18 et al.

 

[Gucumatz]

What job Hobbs?

 

[hobbsyoyo]

Building the SLS - space launch system, the big rocket on th right.e

 

[Gucumatz]

Good luck man! Hopefully one day you will show Civfanatics the new skylab

 

[hobbsyoyo]

I can only hope. Thx

 

[PlutonianEmpire]

Yeah man, good luck!

EDIT: How 'bout some positive space news from me for once?

http://arxiv.org/abs/1304.1157

The aim of our study is to investigate the possibility of habitable moons orbiting the giant planet HD 23079b, a Jupiter-mass planet, which follows a low-eccentricity orbit in the outer region of HD 23079's habitable zone. We show that HD 23079b is able to host habitable moons in prograde and retrograde orbits, as expected, noting that the outer stability limit for retrograde orbits is increased by nearly 90% compared to that of prograde orbits, a result consistent with previous generalized studies.

 

[warpus]

NASA transcripts from the Apollo 10 mission

 

[hobbsyoyo]

Yeah, they had to poop into little baggies then put in some cream into the baggie and mix it up with their hands. I guess one of those bags probably opened up on accident. They hated those baggies with a passion and they had to stow them all for later analysis or something instead of dumping them overboard.

 

[ace99]

So what I'm to get from this is that NASA astronauts played with their poop. Alright.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

In SPACE.

 

[Joecoolyo]

So what I'm to get from this is that NASA astronauts played with their poop. Alright.

As Hobbs said before, NASA's run by 5 year olds.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

Well I think PE said that, but then again my signature says it all.

Or did I say it?

 

[Joecoolyo]

Check your post a page back

 

[hobbsyoyo]

Oh geeze I didn't even remember that. Plus, it was in a spoiler so I kept skimming right past it when I looked at the thread. derpa derp

Oh I fixed the picture link in case no one got to see it.

 

[Kaitzilla]

So was reading this thread and couldn't remember what it was missing.

Figured it out.



Link to video.


Back to ah readin


@ The Poop.

I heard somewhere that the astronauts talk to Earth on an open frequency, so always use diplomatic language for the people listening. So instead of ground control saying "No, that's completely wrong you dumb mother*@^#@r", they say "Mmm, why don't you check those equations again."

 

[El_Machinae]

So help me out on this one.

Say I really really really want to find an asteroid loaded with platinum to mine and become filthy rich.

What technical thing would I have to do to find it?

Are you subscribed to Planetary Resources? That might be step 1 to figuring out how to actually be involved.

 

[Thorgalaeg]

So was reading this thread and couldn't remember what it was missing.

Figured it out.

Spoiler :

Link to video.

That is possibly the best moment of the whole movie.

BTW I am not an expert precisely but after what i have learned playing Orbiter and KSP i am rather skeptic about space mining. At least while we have not some new propulsion technology to make it profitable. Even more after reading the article posted above:

One of the asteroids on Anderson's "top 20 list" of prospects is an object cataloged as 2011 UW158, which is about a kilometer (half a mile) wide. The travel time for a space probe would be a little more than half a year, and if 2011 UW158 could be successfully mined, the value of the raw materials could range from $300 billion to $5.4 trillion, Anderson said. "That is a nice piece of rock," he said

So how much would cost to mine an asteroid a kilometer wide entirely? Does this guy how huge such asteroid is? How many missions would be needed? How much time? Uncountable i guess, the cost being much higher than a $300 billion to $5.4 trillion profit. For instance, the Apollo program (going six times to the moon) cost was about 100 billions...

 

[hobbsyoyo]

There is a lot I want to say to the post above but the time is short so I'll just leave you with one thing.

You know in KSP how there is a mod that allows you to mine Kethane, which makes exploration enormously easier in that you can refill a ship at the destination? Well asteroids tend to have water, which is also called rocket fuel (Hydrogen & Oxygen). I'll add more later but that alone makes a huge difference to the economics.

Plus, obligatory Winner statement about asteroid mining only good for getting materials to use in space to build more space infrastructure. I don't fully agree with him but it's a compelling argument that makes a lot of sense.

 

[El_Machinae]

We need more momentum from the general public and through crowdsourcing efforts. Most of my time is spent being a biology researcher, so I am certainly trying to focus my volunteer efforts there, too. But, crowdsourcing would be a big boost to these efforts.

 

[Kaitzilla]

Are you subscribed to Planetary Resources? That might be step 1 to figuring out how to actually be involved.

Haha, they have various options like donate a ton of money or help with your media influence or legal expertise. I chose spread the word.

Apparently, they are eyeing only near earth asteroids because getting those babies beyond Mars home are currently just too much time/effort.

Looking at 983 1km+ asteroids near Earth between 0.983 and 1.3 Astronomical Units from the Sun. There are also oodles between 100m and 1000m.


They go on and on about water, so it must be pretty important.

No crazy speculation though. That's what this thread is for


Wonder what they plan on using as a power source if they are going to try to make stuff in space for other space ventures? Solar power just isn't strong enough to do real mining work.