Space

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[XAP]Bob
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Re: Space

Post by [XAP]Bob »

Oldjohnw wrote: 13 Jul 2021, 8:27am The question is, is there any benefit here for mankind? This questions is genuine.
Yes - such research leads to unexpected benefits.


The biggest benefit will be from the work spacex is doing - but that's not to suggest that the information we get from the suborbital companies won't be valuable in its own right.
A shortcut has to be a challenge, otherwise it would just be the way. No situation is so dire that panic cannot make it worse.
There are two kinds of people in this world: those can extrapolate from incomplete data.
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simonineaston
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Re: Space

Post by simonineaston »

My knee-jerk reaction to all this is:
how typical of us, an ignorant and unsophisticated animal, to take the view that it's fine to [slang word for defecate] roundly and with gusto, in one's own nest and then look around, scratching and farting, for another one to foul...
S
(on the look out for Armageddon, on board a Brompton nano & ever-changing Moultons)
Oldjohnw
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Re: Space

Post by Oldjohnw »

simonineaston wrote: 14 Jul 2021, 5:25pm My knee-jerk reaction to all this is:
how typical of us, an ignorant and unsophisticated animal, to take the view that it's fine to [slang word for defecate] roundly and with gusto, in one's own nest and then look around, scratching and farting, for another one to foul...
I couldn’t have put it more delicately myself! 😀
John
Mike Sales
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Re: Space

Post by Mike Sales »

simonineaston wrote: 14 Jul 2021, 5:25pm My knee-jerk reaction to all this is:
how typical of us, an ignorant and unsophisticated animal, to take the view that it's fine to [slang word for defecate] roundly and with gusto, in one's own nest and then look around, scratching and farting, for another one to foul...
There was an interesting article in The Guardian yesterday about contaminating other planets.
Some of Earth’s extremophiles are now Martians; that much is evident. “We know there’s life on Mars already because we sent it there,” Nasa’s former chief scientist John Grunsfeld admitted in 2015. Whether these microbes can emerge from dormancy and grow – whether they, as Venkat put it, are capable of “making the red planet green” – is much less well understood.
“I think we screwed up this planet well enough that we don’t deserve another one – but that’s just my personal bias and I’m very careful not to bring it into my job.”
https://www.theguardian.com/science/202 ... -mars-nasa
It's the same the whole world over
It's the poor what gets the blame
It's the rich what gets the pleasure
Isn't it a blooming shame?
Mike Sales
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Re: Space

Post by Mike Sales »

Another good article by George Monbiot about how we are befouling our rivers.
Mentions the Southern Water case.
What’s remarkable is not that a water company knowingly and deliberately poured billions of litres of raw sewage into the sea to cut its costs. What’s remarkable is that the Environment Agency investigated and prosecuted it. Every day, water companies pour tonnes of unprocessed filth into England’s rivers and seas, and the government does nothing.
Even in the wake of the sentence last week, under which Southern Water was fined £90m, the company’s own maps show a continued flow of raw filth into coastal waters. Same <i>[inappropriate word removed]</i>, different day. The only occasions on which water companies are allowed by law to release raw sewage are when “exceptional rainfall” overwhelms their treatment works. But the crap keeps coming, rain or no rain.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... ent-agency
It's the same the whole world over
It's the poor what gets the blame
It's the rich what gets the pleasure
Isn't it a blooming shame?
francovendee
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Re: Space

Post by francovendee »

Just a polluting joy ride for the mega rich.
I can't see it being anything else other than saying to the world 'I've been into space.'
I see some benefits from exploring space but it doesn't need to include manned flight.
merseymouth
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Re: Space

Post by merseymouth »

Yeh, I'm currently watching "Radar Men From The Moon",1952 kid's Saturday film serial. Commando Cody and his jet rocket back pack, tin helmet etc.
That's proper space travel, sparks and smoke, no pressurisation, real seat of the pants stuff, not the wimpish Branston rubbish! MM
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[XAP]Bob
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Re: Space

Post by [XAP]Bob »

francovendee wrote: 15 Jul 2021, 8:04am Just a polluting joy ride for the mega rich.
About as polluting (per passenger) as a single transatlantic flight, so not nearly as bad as you think - even less for the bald tax evader's efforts, since the output is water.
I can't see it being anything else other than saying to the world 'I've been into space.'
Really, you can't think of any experiments which require several minutes of microgravity, but don't need months of it?
I can't see these horseless carriages ever being anything other than saying to the world "I've been on a horseless carriage"...
I see some benefits from exploring space but it doesn't need to include manned flight.
There are benefits to robotic exploration, but there are plenty of things that are far better done with people. We should never have left the trees, or if you listen to some people, the sea.
A shortcut has to be a challenge, otherwise it would just be the way. No situation is so dire that panic cannot make it worse.
There are two kinds of people in this world: those can extrapolate from incomplete data.
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NATURAL ANKLING
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Re: Space

Post by NATURAL ANKLING »

Hi,
I see today they are redefining the word astronaut.
I don't regard these private space people as astronauts at all simply don't have the training all the technical acumen.

They are saying you need to be part of the crew and need to be working constructively in the safety of?
NA Thinks Just End 2 End Return + Bivvy - Some day Soon I hope
You'll Still Find Me At The Top Of A Hill
Please forgive the poor Grammar I blame it on my mobile and phat thinkers.
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Audax67
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Re: Space

Post by Audax67 »

Oldjohnw wrote: 13 Jul 2021, 2:13pm
Audax67 wrote: 13 Jul 2021, 2:10pm
Oldjohnw wrote: 13 Jul 2021, 8:27am So Richard Branson, spends hundreds of millions on his little adventure (there are those who consider where he went Washington quite space). He now needs a massive capital injection to go forward.
Y'what?
Oops!

Wasn't quite space.
"Autocomplete is more of a curse than space billionaires" - discuss. :D
Have we got time for another cuppa?
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Audax67
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Re: Space

Post by Audax67 »

NATURAL ANKLING wrote: 24 Jul 2021, 10:41am Hi,
I see today they are redefining the word astronaut.
Yeah, needs an extra S.

My take on these folk? Sure, let them play. We'll maybe get some new ideas and new tech out of it.
Have we got time for another cuppa?
Psamathe
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Re: Space

Post by Psamathe »

Audax67 wrote: 24 Jul 2021, 11:04am
NATURAL ANKLING wrote: 24 Jul 2021, 10:41am Hi,
I see today they are redefining the word astronaut.
Yeah, needs an extra S.

My take on these folk? Sure, let them play. We'll maybe get some new ideas and new tech out of it.
Except the tax situation means it's actually us who are paying a lot towards it all
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/amazon-workers-slam-jeff-bezos-b1887944.html wrote:Jeff Bezos criticised by Amazon workers and customers after thanking them for funding space launch
...
After returning to earth on Tuesday following the successful launch of his Blue Origin spacecraft, Mr Bezos thanked “every Amazon employee and every Amazon customer, because you guys paid for all this”.
...
Ian
merseymouth
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Re: Space

Post by merseymouth »

Well, I think UNESCO should step in to establish the criteria, then they can de-list those who they don't think are respecting the greatness and beauty of the wonder of space! MM
Tangled Metal
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Re: Space

Post by Tangled Metal »

The day Liverpool city council sends a man, woman or other into space is the day UNESCO steps in to define space as anywhere the scousers didn't get to. On the grounds the rocket was a bit too tall.

So you think the tech advances of even the purely tourism based enterprises won't reach in to benefit us all? AIUI some are using tourism to fund the research so they can get into the space delivery business. I thought that was Bezos' goal long term. Then Elon Musk's spacex is already a space delivery business as is what Boeing trying to be. Virgin Galactic are employing some very bright people but the expertise that company has isn't isolated. People move into other b things and at the end of it all the people doing the engineering, science and technology behind it all will be valuable outcome too.

Technology developed for Virgin Galactic widget could end up being a widget on your super high efficiency fridge freezer? You simply can not know what benefits come from space research. Didn't velcro. Memory foam, Teflon and many other things come from the research output needed for space exploration? That's before you get into the pure science aspects of observing and exploring space, matter, gravity, energy, etc. Then growth of organisms, plants, etc. Medical research. There's so much benefits from such programmes that even the tourism ones contribute to. Exciting times I say.
sizbut
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Re: Space

Post by sizbut »

Yes, under the ego tripping, the Musk and Bezos projects do include significant steps forward in control and reuse. Not so sure about Brandon's, but even that might be opening up paths to low altitude rapid satellite launches for some applications.

The timing of the FAA action seems suspiciously unnecessary. They could have let it go for a few months and then upped the rules for future flights.
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