Cycling UK Forum

reohn2 wrote:I'll bet they said that about the plastic in the seas

Plastic lasts about 500 years in the sea. A bit long considering we have to live with it, but almost no time at all in universal terms.
Interestingly some bacteria are evolving to 'eat' plastic (it is organic after all). The problem in the future might not be how long it lasts but how short a lifetime it has! Might be like leaving steel out in the rain...

Something interesting I noticed whilst having another look at 'starman' to see how far the car had moved away from earth.

The car has no disc brakes visible.
You can see straight through both front wheels and the only thing visible is the white supports.
I guess that means the car has been stripped so the only thing there is a shell. Perhaps there is a concrete block up there after all since if the mechanics (and presumably batteries) have been removed it's just a lump of iron (which should please R2 since most meteorites are just lumps of iron too).

kwackers wrote:

reohn2 wrote:I'll bet they said that about the plastic in the seas :?

Plastic lasts about 500 years in the sea. A bit long considering we have to live with it, but almost no time at all in universal terms.....

On the radio (or a podcast) the other day Norwegian research highlighted that vast amounts of plastic waste are getting trapped in Artic ice. Seems as the sea gets frozen, so the plastic is incorporated into the ice which then floats up thus locking the plastic in the ice as more gets incorporated as more plastic polluted sea water gets frozen ...
http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2014/05/trillions-plastic-pieces-may-be-trapped-arctic-ice

But the sea ice is not thawing and releasing.

My interpretation is that the plastic pollution could be a lot worse than we thought as plastic pollution has been hidden away and is now being released

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/jul/05/plastic-waste-dumped-in-uk-seas-carried-to-arctic-within-two-years wrote:Previous research estimated that at least 1tn pieces of plastic had been frozen into the Arctic ice over past decades, making it a major global sink for plastic pollution, many times more concentrated than the well-known great Pacific garbage patch.

And will plastic frozen into sea ice still gradually break down or is the 500 year clock "paused"?

Ian

Psamathe wrote:And will plastic frozen into sea ice still gradually break down or is the 500 year clock "paused"?
Ian

The clock is slowed, rather than paused. And the plastic is often in tiny pieces by the time it gets to the Arctic (think grain sized pieces of plastic). The currents that crried it there sink to the ocean floor before carrying on their journeys, but the plastic doesn't, cannot sink.

reohn2 wrote:

Audax67 wrote:

reohn2 wrote:I don't think anyone's questioning the success of the rocket and it's capabilities,which as you rightly suggest is a fantastic achievement,it's the unnecessary space junk that's in queastion.

The three boosters returned, and the second stage is on its way to the asteroids. That vehicle, and the car, are now monuments on a level with the probes and dead vehicles left on the Moon and Mars (Venus and Titan having probably done for anything that landed there already). Anyone who finds them in the future will be delighted and probably rich, if radiation hasn't whittled them away - I can't see the plastic surviving long.

I'll bet they said that about the plastic in the seas
Not content with littering our own planet we have to litter everyone else's,and all in the name of progress......

Anyway I've said all I wish to on the matter,I'll leave it at that.

We’re not littering another planet...
Serious misunderstanding demonstrated

kwackers wrote:Something interesting I noticed whilst having another look at 'starman' to see how far the car had moved away from earth.

The car has no disc brakes visible.
You can see straight through both front wheels and the only thing visible is the white supports.
I guess that means the car has been stripped so the only thing there is a shell. Perhaps there is a concrete block up there after all since if the mechanics (and presumably batteries) have been removed it's just a lump of iron (which should please R2 since most meteorites are just lumps of iron too).

Scattering all thatblitjium in the event of a rocket failure wasn’t an option, sonyes - it was stripped:

http://www.motortrend.com/news/like-roc ... ter-space/

Glass also replaced with something that could take launch

Vorpal wrote:but the plastic doesn't, cannot sink.

Are you sure about that? One way of sorting plastic is to immerse it in water and sort it into two piles, floaters and sinkers.

Admittedly my only source for this information is Precious Plastic (I'm mid way through making his shredder and extrusion machines) but there's a video in there that shows how to sort plastics that aren't labelled.

kwackers wrote:

Vorpal wrote:but the plastic doesn't, cannot sink.

Are you sure about that? One way of sorting plastic is to immerse it in water and sort it into two piles, floaters and sinkers.

Admittedly my only source for this information is Precious Plastic (I'm mid way through making his shredder and extrusion machines) but there's a video in there that shows how to sort plastics that aren't labelled.

Well, I expect that some of it sinks. Or gets dragged along with the current. But most of it floats.

edited to add: http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/newsandevent ... 7-13-52-29

It was an amazing takeoff and returned booster rockets.
But the best and greatest thing ever to go into space, is the continuous loop tape playing Starman from David Bowie which is simply wonderful.
John


I'm a trendy consumer. Just look at my wobbly bog brush using hovercraft full of eels

leftpoole wrote:It was an amazing takeoff and returned booster rockets.
But the best and greatest thing ever to go into space, is the continuous loop tape playing Starman from David Bowie which is simply wonderful.
John


I'm a trendy consumer. Just look at my stupid phone.

There you go, supporting intergalactic noise pollution. Down with this sort of thing.

Bonefishblues wrote:

leftpoole wrote:It was an amazing takeoff and returned booster rockets.
But the best and greatest thing ever to go into space, is the continuous loop tape playing Starman from David Bowie which is simply wonderful.
John


I'm a trendy consumer. Just look at my stupid phone.

There you go, supporting intergalactic noise pollution. Down with this sort of thing.

I wonder how long before the batteries weR out?



I'm a trendy consumer. Just look at my wobbly bog brush using hovercraft full of eels

leftpoole wrote:

Bonefishblues wrote:

leftpoole wrote:It was an amazing takeoff and returned booster rockets.
But the best and greatest thing ever to go into space, is the continuous loop tape playing Starman from David Bowie which is simply wonderful.
John


I'm a trendy consumer. Just look at my stupid phone.

There you go, supporting intergalactic noise pollution. Down with this sort of thing.

I wonder how long before the batteries weR out?



I'm a trendy consumer. Just look at my stupid phone.

Have you seen the battery life of a Tesla. Millennia, for sure, maybe even longer.

Bonefishblues wrote:Have you seen the battery life of a Tesla. Millennia, for sure, maybe even longer.

No batteries in it, they were taken out in case it blew up on take off scattering 1000kg of lithium into the atmosphere.
The car is mostly inert otherwise it wouldn't have been allowed up.

But it must have a power source and I wonder how long it will last?
It's slowly rotating so I'm guessing there's no comms dish which means it must be using a fairly high power transmitter through a fairly crap antenna so I suspect whatever is running it they're not expecting it to last that long.

Perhaps mistaking me for someone being serious

Bonefishblues wrote:Perhaps mistaking me for someone being serious

Perhaps...

Almost but not quite completely unrelated story alert:
I had a party and invited my (new) neighbours, I was talking to the elderly couple who live a few houses up from me (in their late 70's) and the conversation got around to cars and she said she'd just bought herself a new car, a Tesla 100D.
I nearly fell off my seat. Most Tesla owners I know are young 'entrepreneurial' types, not retired elderly couples...

I did get to have a go though and I must admit it was every bit as good as I imagined although at close to £100k mine will be staying in the showroom.