tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3596550435682943926.post4737204389806046367..comments2024-03-21T17:50:42.377-07:00Comments on Hop's Blog: Hope to resume space blogs soon.Hop Davidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12923433894475072056noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3596550435682943926.post-16506271308694477632015-12-19T03:49:06.870-08:002015-12-19T03:49:06.870-08:00Actually, come to think of it, autonomous trucks w...Actually, come to think of it, autonomous trucks would probably be a good way to get started. At 15 km/hr, probably powered by fuel cells, they'd make the trip in 8 days. That's not unreasonable, since there wouldn't be anyone onboard.Cerereanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14935694167944319731noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3596550435682943926.post-35119954610480931872015-12-18T15:34:38.538-08:002015-12-18T15:34:38.538-08:00Re. a lunar tether, the best material to use, if p...Re. a lunar tether, the best material to use, if possible, would be basalt fibre, because it's something Luna has a lot of (as does Vesta). There might be the potential to launch a low mass tether from Terra and then use it to bootstrap a full elevator, which would of course make transporting Lunar fuel to L1 much cheaper, as well as significantly reducing the costs of resupplying the base.<br /><br />Given that it would be equatorial though, and the first colonies would probably be polar, it would probably be advisable to build a trans-Lunar railroad to go with it... which itself would influence settlement patterns. Could a ground-based straddle beam monorail work, using sintered regolith to construct the beam? Hmmm. On the one hand there wouldn't be air resistance, but on the other, conventional rubber wheels would not be suitable, and other aspects come into play that would limit it's top speed. It's a distance of roughly 2700 km, so at 150 km/hr it would take 18 hours to go from Shackleton City to Stalktown...Cerereanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14935694167944319731noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3596550435682943926.post-72146438277609542472015-12-12T10:04:23.081-08:002015-12-12T10:04:23.081-08:00I use an iterative approach similar to Chris Wolfe...I use an iterative approach similar to Chris Wolfe's to calculate the changing forces while extending a tether. The tether is shaped somewhat like a very stretched diamond. Reels in the middle will extend the tether outward. The tether can be extended more rapidly by having more reels. The rotational speed slows as extension occurs due to conservation or angular momentum. If extended enough, the rotation can be nullified relative to the body the tether is orbiting. This allows for simplified docking to the ends of the tether and maintenance. The speed at which a spacecraft is released from the tether can also be adjusted by changing the rotational speed.Peter McArthurnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3596550435682943926.post-57531660043273783252015-11-01T04:16:45.059-08:002015-11-01T04:16:45.059-08:00It seems to me that the line between meat and digi...It seems to me that the line between meat and digits is blurred already by nature. What is microbiology if not a computing machine? Copying, storing, adding, dividing, selecting, transforming, checking, executing, networking, terminating with extreme precision. We don't understand what we ourselves are.<br /><br />I'm listening this Halloween to an audio book version of Paradise Lost by John Milton from the mid-17th century. The language is like Shakespeare on crack, cubed. If I say I understand half of it, I cannot be more than half a liar. It is kind of the Saga of Christianity. There are angels and God and creation of worlds and Hell and of a creature, man, which possesses the mysterious power of free will. "They pass the Planets seven, and pass the fixt, And that Crystalline Sphear". In spite of tremendous progress, I'm not sure we're much the wiser at the core of the issue today. I also recommend Hieronymous Bosch's paintings of heavens, worlds, men and flying angels if you still want some Halloween mood.LocalFluffnoreply@blogger.com