Work for Senior Citizens on Mars Maybe
2 Sep 2009 22:03:07 UTC
Topic 194519
(moderation:
Who knows I might get a second career ...:-)
Edit: Would you go on a one way trip??
There are some who can live without wild things and some who cannot. - Aldo Leopold
Work for Senior Citizens on Mars Maybe
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Phew. Euthanasia by space travel. Do some science before you die, and build for those yet to arrive. Spend 'less valuable' lives to the benefit of the 'more valuable' ones. No offense meant to you Rod, but they are implying that. That still leaves the question of how anyone, of any 'value', at any stage of the enterprise, gets across without getting their DNA fried.
I could cope with some colony ship type of thing where I knew I'd die in space ( at some unspecified time and cause ), with my descendants carrying on. Sometimes ignorance is truly bliss, and a diagnosis can be a definite downer.
So who else do we send to Mars, death row inmates? So we are rid of them either way, but they repay us with a favour before they go? I don't advocate that of course, I'm just indicating the presence of a crumbling edge and slippery slope near this path. We humans are well known for morphing morality to suit the task.
Cheers, Mike.
( edit ) Mind you this does highlight the bravery of all our astronauts, of any nation, that have risked such an utterly hostile environment.
I have made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it shorter ...
... and my other CPU is a Ryzen 5950X :-) Blaise Pascal
RE: RE: Who knows I might
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I think its a free choice.. Its not that the government would send seniors to mars.. If I was 75 I would go in a heart beat..
There are some who can live without wild things and some who cannot. - Aldo Leopold
RE: RE: Who knows I might
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I think its a free choice... to do science .. Its not that the government would send seniors to mars at least my government would not do it.. but to volunteer .. If I was 75 I would go in a heart beat.. If my heath is OK.. Do you think we treat our seniors any better.. It better than being warehoused in some nursing facility latter on..
There are some who can live without wild things and some who cannot. - Aldo Leopold
RE: I think its a free
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It's quite surreal I think. I'm trying to imagine. Say I'll get 3 to maybe 6 months tops. But towards the end I'm gonna be fairly crap, as radiation sickness is not pretty. Sure you'd take stuff along ( which had better be radiation hardened ) to keep me comfortable as needed. Bit then would I be physically able or even willing to do anything useful on arrival? It might wind up being a case of "ground control to Major Tom ... " :-)
Cheers, Mike.
( edit ) Suppose I go as the director of robots, no EVA's and gentle physical stuff only. Nice short time loop with a better feeling for what's going on. The man on the spot so to speak. I'd have to able to explore in some buggy or somesuch - do the rounds of the project. Be a real bad idea to just sit and wait ..... you could really live just one day at a time.
I have made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it shorter ...
... and my other CPU is a Ryzen 5950X :-) Blaise Pascal
Somebody should ask Clint
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Somebody should ask Clint Eastwood if he wants to film a sequel to "Space Cowboys" :-).
CU
Bikeman
RE: RE: I think its a
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Oop's I did not read the article careful enough, I read something completely different in it the second time.. Is it to late to change my mind.. we haven't taking off yet have we :-)
There are some who can live without wild things and some who cannot. - Aldo Leopold
RE: Oop's I did not read
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Yeah, they didn't really state it outright, did they? :-)
That is : you're gonna die from radiation sickness, quite deliberately and soon, because we're sending you across with little of no shielding. Because you're old then you were gonna die sooner anyway, and hence your life is less valuable than a younger person's. And it's not 'just a death' - it is a fairly unpleasant one!
Which is what I was getting at with my 'morphing morality' comment. If they can't put it plainly, even as speculation, then what happens when the idea firms up?
But we'll let you off the hook, as we haven't closed off the capsule yet!
Hmmmm ....... "I vunder vere Günter vent?" :-)
Cheers, Mike.
( edit ) If you want a cracking good first person read of the experiences of an astronaut, then may I suggest Wally Schirra's book 'Schirra's Space'. Mind you, not everyone likes him or his story - quirky, opinionated, superconfident, self-serving etc. Particularly some of his bosses. But I guess history has since independently validated more or less all of his concerns about NASA management style. He's sorta like Richard Feynman in a space suit! :-)
( edit ) Oops and I've just noticed it's a SciAm article! Say no more. Oh how the mighty have fallen.
I have made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it shorter ...
... and my other CPU is a Ryzen 5950X :-) Blaise Pascal
I remember a book, maybe by
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I remember a book, maybe by Walter Cunningham, about the "Walter and Wally show". Was it "All American boys"? I remember a story about an astronaut buzzing his girlfriend's home without lowering any flaps on his T38 and another story about an APOLLO astronaut having winked at a pretty woman in an audience, and seeing that the woman would not leave her seat after the conference had ended went to her and said "Sorry, lady, I was just simulating". I tried to have it translated and published by Mondadori, but they would not accept such a book so contrary to the image given by NASA of its white-clad astronauts.
Tullio
RE: I remember a book,
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Wally Schirra piloted an amazing series of flyarounds in the double Gemini missions ( 6 and 7 in orbit together ) and really nailed the whole rendevous thing, from distant sextant sightings right on in. In particular he did loops around the other Gemini capsule in a plane perpendicular to the orbit(s), but which intersected the radial vector - this is sort of like a tricky crosswind landing of an aeroplane. You have to use all available degrees of freedom/control quite precisely lest it rapidly becomes a dog's breakfast.
I just adore the descriptions of the flight dynamics : you have to go lower and faster to catch up someone else, to dock you can't just point at your target and hit the gas, rotation doesn't just stop because you stop thrust - you have to reverse it, and although you are 'weightless' you still get the inertial kicks when stuff happens. Alot of ground simulation centered on not only achieving a given manoeuvre but within some fuel budget. Fuel used is also mass lost so that affects behaviour. So you can't stuff about all day! :-)
Cheers, Mike.
I have made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it shorter ...
... and my other CPU is a Ryzen 5950X :-) Blaise Pascal
I used to land on the Moon on
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I used to land on the Moon on my TI99/4A. You had a limited amount of fuel and if you wasted it you would just crash and hear a laughing sound. Also if you landed at a high speed. You had to understand the dynamics, since height and entry speed varied every time. The TI9900 had a very good 16 bit FP unit.