The thread for space cadets!

[PlutonianEmpire]

Question: Can a planet remain stable and sustain a humid hothouse for very long periods of time without it snowballing into a runaway greenhouse that dooms said planet? The image I see in my head of this planet gives me lush, green, Amazon-like vegetation covering the overwhelmingly vast majority of this world's continents (assuming anywhere between 50% to 70% ocean cover), save for perhaps the highest peaks, for tens, perhaps hundreds, of millions of years. Is this possible?

 

[warpus]

A fairly long graphic outlining every major space mission by our species ever. Very cool

Spoiler :

 

[SouthernKing]

Question: Can a planet remain stable and sustain a humid hothouse for very long periods of time without it snowballing into a runaway greenhouse that dooms said planet? The image I see in my head of this planet gives me lush, green, Amazon-like vegetation covering the overwhelmingly vast majority of this world's continents (assuming anywhere between 50% to 70% ocean cover), save for perhaps the highest peaks, for tens, perhaps hundreds, of millions of years. Is this possible?

AFAIK Earth was kind of like this in the early Mesozoic (and most likely several other times as well) so there's no reason why it wouldn't be replicable elsewhere.

 

[peter grimes]

The speed of light in a vacuum may not be a constant

I know this isn't exactly a new idea, but I'm still interested to hear what this thread has to day about it.

You'd likely get a better response by posting in the Science and Technology sub forum:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/forumdisplay.php?f=283

 

[Kaitzilla]

So if I'm in a rocket blasting my way up into space and I have some really good noise cancellation headphones, what is the best song to listen to on the way up?

 

[Kaitzilla]

The speed of light in a vacuum may not be a constant

I know this isn't exactly a new idea, but I'm still interested to hear what this thread has to day about it.

The speed of light is something that can be talked about for days!

The whole universe is wired to keep that speed constant through time dilation.


Did you know magnetic fields are just time dilation acting on electric fields?

http://www.askamathematician.com/2010/11/q-what-is-a-magnetic-field/

And light is an electromagnetic wave


Some more history:
http://njsas.org/projects/speed_of_light/em_const/
http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physics/Relativity/SpeedOfLight/measure_c.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:On_Physical_Lines_of_Force
http://www.physforum.com/index.php?showtopic=43073

 

[hobbsyoyo]

So if I'm in a rocket blasting my way up into space and I have some really good noise cancellation headphones, what is the best song to listen to on the way up?

Rocket Man by William Shatner, naturally.

[YOUTUBE-OLD]DvQwXOCKNLY[/YOUTUBE-OLD]

 

[peter grimes]

Link to video.

Captain Kirk is...

 

[warpus]

That's Yosemite valley behind him, right?

And how did you get me to watch that whole video anyway?

 

[peter grimes]

That's Yosemite valley behind him, right?

And how did you get me to watch that whole video anyway?

I think he's on a set, and this is him getting into character, which made it onto the outtakes reel.

 

[warpus]

Hey, that methane ammonia leak on the iSS is getting fixed right now

live spacewalk stream

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html

 

[Borachio]

So they reckon it's serious but not life-threatening? And it was caused by a meteor strike?

 

[warpus]

I have no idea what happened actually, but the replacement spacewalk thing was pretty cool.. although eventually it would go completely quiet for long periods of time, I'd get immersed in some game, and next thing I know I hear somebody's breathing in a weird almost but not quite darth vader type of voice.. It was weird each time it happened.. This was a 4 hour long spacewalk I think though iirc, and it was SLOW. They'd talk about the wrench for 5 minutes and go over details and then turn it 45 degrees and then spend time analyzing what happened, etc. Incredibly slow moving but kind of fascinating to have on in the background, usually on my other monitor as I'm gaming

 

[Borachio]

That sounds really serious if they're behaving like that.

http://news.sky.com/story/1089633/astronauts-in-spacewalk-to-fix-ammonia-leak

Norm Knight, NASA chief flight director, said earlier the spacewalk would be "precedent-setting" because it had to be performed on short notice.

He added that it was "probably one of the fastest ones" that the US space agency had had to assemble.

NASA said the leak of ammonia, which is used to cool the station's power system, was coming from the same general area as in a previous episode in November last year.

A meteorite or a piece of orbital debris is suspected to have hit the cooling radiator and caused the problem.

ISS programme manager Michael Suffredini described it as an "annoyance because of all the work we have to do to work around the problem".

The issue took a turn for the worse on Thursday when it began leaking about five pounds of ammonia per day, up from its previous level of five pounds per year.

 

[peter grimes]

That sounds really serious if they're behaving like that.

Maybe not so serious as in dangerous, but serious as in any small error could snowball into a space disaster:


Link to video.

 

[Michkov]

The leak had been there for some years but the leaking rate suddenly increased a couple of days ago. They dont know what exactly broke, but it looks like a wear issue

 

[hobbsyoyo]

I have no idea what happened actually, but the replacement spacewalk thing was pretty cool.. although eventually it would go completely quiet for long periods of time, I'd get immersed in some game, and next thing I know I hear somebody's breathing in a weird almost but not quite darth vader type of voice.. It was weird each time it happened.. This was a 4 hour long spacewalk I think though iirc, and it was SLOW. They'd talk about the wrench for 5 minutes and go over details and then turn it 45 degrees and then spend time analyzing what happened, etc. Incredibly slow moving but kind of fascinating to have on in the background, usually on my other monitor as I'm gaming

They really have to methodically plan their movements out there because they don't usually get second chances and (for example) it's not like they can easily replace the wrench that just floated away because they didn't think through the awkward position the astronaut was going to be in trying to hold it in a cramped space with gloves that are about as dexterous as boxing mitts. It's complicated stuff, really.

Just thank God they didn't send out the Russians to fix this (or even plan the fix). Did you guys hear that the last automated Progress module they sent up a couple weeks back had technical issues almost immediately? They can't even get 30 year old tech right...

 

[warpus]

I would make a horrible astronaut, or at least horrible spacewalk astronaut, judging by my competence with IKEA instructions. I'd just go crazy sitting there for 5 hours trying to get some screws in place or whatever, listening to all those detailed instructions.

It's also telling how many backups they must have up there, for all their systems.

 

[Kaitzilla]

That Gravity trailer is scary!


If I'm going into space, I'd have this on a loop.

[YOUTUBE-OLD]?v=5UWRypqz5-o[/YOUTUBE-OLD]


Although, opinions do vary

[YOUTUBE-OLD]?v=jZJczZ6gbVU[/YOUTUBE-OLD]

I like how the spectators are about 75 feet away from the takeoff site. Hardcore

 

[warpus]

Commander Tom singing for us... First music video recorded in space?


Link to video.