A few horrifyingly hilarious tales. Don’t miss the exploding whales.
Category Archives: Technology and Society
“Snarkyboy” Persists
In a follow-up to the original Orion worship post:
The Saturn V, the biggest thing we’ve ever launched (just go with me here) weighed in at 6,699,000 lbs, or 3,350 tons, and managed to put a measly 100,000 lbs (50 tons) into lunar orbit.
So lets pretend we want to build a classic L5 space colony. How big does it have to be?
Sorry, but we’re not going to “go with you there.”
This is an inappropriate methodology, and the assumptions here are completely nonsensical. The problem has nothing to do with scaling Saturn Vs, and no one in their right mind ever thought that a “classic L5 space colony” would be built completely out of materials launched from the planet.
There is no good reason that we can’t have launch costs of less than a hundred dollars a pound with chemical rockets, and give rides to millions of pounds of passengers and cargo. All that is needed is to make the investment into space transports, and set multiple teams of engineers loose on the problem, something that we have not done to date.
The cargo would be used to bootstrap production facilities for extraterrestrial resources, with high-value/pound payloads (i.e., electronics) coming up from earth. We do not need Orion to build space colonies. We need a lot of other things, but not that.
An Effective Alzheimers Treatment?
Let’s hope so. Alzheimers is, to me, one of the worst diseases, because it steals not just your body, but your mind, to the point that you’re essentially dead while the empty husk metabolizes on. If it’s actually possible to reverse the progress of the disease, that’s huge news. But I wonder if in doing so, you’ve still lost some irretrievable memories? And if so, who are you?
Space Elevators
Alan Boyle has a report from this weekend’s conference on them. It’s unfortunate that it conflicted with NewSpace 2008, in the other Washington. But there are only so many weekends in a year.
[Update a few minutes later]
Alan’s report is great, but there sure is an appalling level of ignorance in the comments.
If We Can Put A Man On The Moon…
…why can’t we kick the fossil fuel habit? Well, we can, but not the way we put a man on the moon, and certainly not within a decade. On the thirty-ninth anniversary of the first landing, I explain.
[Afternoon update]
It’s interesting to note that the original landing was on a Sunday as well. I don’t know how many of the anniversaries have fallen on a Sunday, but I would guess five or so. It’s not too late to plan to commemorate the event with a ceremony at dinner tonight, with friends and family. Also, a collection of remembrances here. If you’re old enough to remember it yourself, you might want to add one.
It Came From Outer Space
Ron Bailey has more from the end-of-the-world conference, on the risks of asteroids, comets, and gamma-ray bursters. As he notes, comets are the biggest problem, because we might not see them until it’s too late. That’s why we have to have an infrastructure in space that can rapidly respond.
Constructing Sovereignty
…on the high seas. Though he doesn’t discuss it explicitly, Chris Borgen makes another case for why we need to get off the planet.
The End Of The World
Ron Bailey reports.
Well, OK, it’s just a conference on the subject. Which isn’t as interesting, but a lot less scary.
[Saturday morning update]
We have met the enemy, and he is us:
“All of the biggest risks, the existential risks are seen to be anthropogenic, that is, they originate from human beings.”
All the more reason to get some eggs into baskets other than this one. Also, the rise (again) of the neo-Malthusians. It’s hard to keep them down for long, even though so far, they’ve predicted about five out of the last zero world overpopulation crises.
A New Toy For Rich People
A submersible speedboat that can dive to twelve hundred feet. If there’s a market for this, at a few million a pop, I’ll bet that XCOR will be able so sell a few Lynx’s to private owners.
The Science Of Batman
How plausible is he? Alan Boyle has done some research.
I agree that the getting-knocked-out-all-the-time thing is a problem. But no more so for Bruce Wayne than almost every teevee detective I watched when I was young. It seems like Mannix or Jim Rockford should have been sitting around drooling with all of the concussions they took almost every episode.