Posts by Dave Walker

Didn't like the exposed joints

The Tech and Society suits looked better, I was surprised that only the Bio suit had fabric covering the joints.

Just wondering about planetary dust and grit......

I agree with the idea of subtle navigational lighting.

Coat? Of course: we're talking space coats :-P

@TheFunkyGibbon: Like A Candle In The Wind....

Mandatory Pedant:

"Challenger" never exploded, it was torn apart in by aerodynamic stresses when the booster knocked the stack out of alignment according to the Rogers Report.

If anyone has wondered why the orbiter hangs on the side of the tank, instead of like on top in all of those Chelsey Bonestell illustrations, it's because the fragile orbiter (its wings in particular) is partially shielded by the shock cone from the main tank.

None of this diminishes the loss of the brave astronauts.

DX Philly

"...No Kill I..."

That is all

Dirty Books are *Fun*

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LzmtYkPCQgg

Thank you Mr. Lehrer, you were truly a man ahead of your time.

Thank You

That listing of taxonomy was very helpful!

@ Graham RE "Parachutes"

Probably because the stage separation would occur far down range, over an ocean, from where the launch site was.

If they wanted quick/easy turn around it is likely that the designers plan to have the first stage return to home site to save transport costs.

Of course, given a Florida Launch, you could have it fly a path similar to the Shuttles Trans-Atlantic Abort (TAL) and land the first stage at a prepared site in Africa or Spain then return home by ship.

Hmmmm...

Burdening the poor; the poor are *always* burdened

Ah, that familiar old canard: we can't use expensive renewables because it would burden the poor.

The poor are, by nature, already burdened.

Time and time again in the U.S. a fuel tax that would support alternative fuel or mass transit has been defeated because "it unfairly burdens the poor".

The poor then have no transit, buy a car, use cheap gas, then get devastated when the price spikes.

The well off use much more energy than the poor and are therefore more affected. The poor would be, in the long run, better served by more expensive, but less price volatile, forms of energy.

Comparative Technology

There are some relevant points to consider when seriously discussing routine access to Mars

1) Pace of technologic development and cost: Gagarin to Armstrong/Aldrin was 8 years, but the Apollo craft was very delicate, very expensive, pushed every envelope to the breaking point and was therefore very dangerous despite the relatively few serious accidents given the nature of the beast.

2) Moving from experimental to production technology: One goal of the new companies is to make the craft more reliable, use less experimental technology, and make it more comfortable. Both Apollo and Shuttle are experimental technology that require large staffs of highly trained people to operate; the ground operations for Shuttle are a significant part of the program. Early autos required frequent maintenance (tire repair, water, oil, etc...) and still broke down frequently. Today cars go forever despite the lack of maintenance we give them. Form factor aside the Orion and Dragon craft are as completely different than the Apollo craft as a Model T is from a Honda Civic.

3) Sustainable interplanetary infrastructure: for reliable access to Mars we need to invest in something like the Aldrin Cycler. A quick shot to the Mars, like the one to the Moon, is akin to the Lewis and Clark expedition. To open up the frontier the government, decades later, invested in the railroads which provided frequent, reliable, and sustainable round trip capacity. They took longer to build than the carts and boats that took Lewis and Clark, but made settling the West possible.

Just my 2c

Albums as Concept Have Life, Bad Music dies quickly

I love albums, and I thing that even the youngsters will buy them for the whole concept, if it is a whole concept album vis-a-vis "Dark Side of the Moon". The "Two Hits Plus Filler" deserves to die.

Some "Filler" turns out to be good, but that's why Amazon and iTunes have their "Discovery Features"

Death of the Music Industry? Hardly. Death of the "Buy it Blind" model? Yep, Sure, Buh-Bye!

As long ago as 1985 (remember 1985?) a sage man once surmised the death of the industry was from "Sales are Slumbing... Could it be One Too Many Lousy Records?!?"

*Eric Buchard, et al...