Zero G is a fun carnival ride. Nice for a vacation, I suppose, if your inner ear doesn't cause you to have near-continuous Astronaut Puke.
"Jake Garn was sick, was pretty sick. I don't know whether we should tell stories like that. But anyway, Jake Garn, he has made a mark in the Astronaut Corps because he represents the maximum level of space sickness that anyone can ever attain, and so the mark of being totally sick and totally incompetent is one Garn. Most guys will get maybe to a tenth Garn, if that high. And within the Astronaut Corps, he forever will be remembered by that."
Truly I am sick and tired of the Buck Rogers manned space flight crowd. It's all so much national prestige bollox, where it isn't the plaything of billionaires.
I dunno. I'm the sort of person who got his kids up in the middle of the night to watch the images come in from the Voyager 2 spacecraft at Uranus and Neptune, obsesses over every new telescope which gets built. Radio astronomy, the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, I've been to VLA in New Mexico...
But manned space flight... I have worn a dosimeter. I know how it works. I know those sieverts stack up.
I'm all for space exploration 'n whizbang Buck Rogers stuff. But I took enough statistics courses ( and accounting and finance courses, too ) to secretly snicker at the folks who think human beings who evolved at 1G are going to thrive at Zero G.
That ISS going overhead? That's not a stepping stone to the stars. That's an experiment on how to live on a ruined planet, of airlocks and hard radiation and recycling your own pee. Except they haven't really done anything about that hard radiation and can't even remotely manage self-sufficiency. Mankind's most expensive contraption.
Now, if we did learn to live in a self-contained vessel, that would be useful science. We've got one. It's a sphere and rotates very nicely in a great orbit. And the seabirds and whales are washing up on our shores, full of plastic. Just like those fucking astronauts are stuffing back into those supply modules to return to Earth.
Dan Weese Yup. We're poorly evolved (ie, not at all) for microgravity.
To do off-world life well will require a little more engineering. Tin cans are for the birds. Human 1.0 thrives with dirt, trees, and roughly 1gee. But those three things aren't necessarily on the outer surface of a sphere.
James Garry The part which pisses me off - I could tolerate all the rest of the inanity of manned space flight - is the flag flying and the national posturing and the billionaires seen from below in a two-point perspective as their rockets roar up into the sky - what is the point?
Yes, missions such as Hubble Space Telescope and suchlike are deeply important. The Mars rovers, an accomplishment for the ages. The Voyager missions, one of mankind's finest moments. I'm all for that sort of endeavour.
Sticking the flag on the surface of the moon, I remember thinking at the time, of Ponce de Leon in 1513, with the flag of Ferdinand and Isabella. Still up there, no doubt. And they're still speaking Spanish in Florida. Yep.
And now the Chinese are inviting other nations to participate in their space station program and a whole bunch of ninnies are running around on tiptoe and flapping their wrists and shrieking in little falsetto voices about Chinese Prestige.
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Mind, the swimming pool might be a bit tricky.
ReplyDelete(mandatory scuba gear?)
Ian Rawlings Whip out the cardboard wings and flap to safety.
ReplyDeleteZero G is a fun carnival ride. Nice for a vacation, I suppose, if your inner ear doesn't cause you to have near-continuous Astronaut Puke.
ReplyDelete"Jake Garn was sick, was pretty sick. I don't know whether we should tell stories like that. But anyway, Jake Garn, he has made a mark in the Astronaut Corps because he represents the maximum level of space sickness that anyone can ever attain, and so the mark of being totally sick and totally incompetent is one Garn. Most guys will get maybe to a tenth Garn, if that high. And within the Astronaut Corps, he forever will be remembered by that."
Truly I am sick and tired of the Buck Rogers manned space flight crowd. It's all so much national prestige bollox, where it isn't the plaything of billionaires.
Dan Weese Two colleagues of mine flew in the ESA parabolic airplane.
ReplyDeleteHajime took to zero-gee like a duck to water. Cavorted effortlessly with a smile on his face.
Wayne had to be strapped down at the back with a bag and was heaving continuously for an hour every 2 minutes.
:/
James Garry The Vomit Comet.
ReplyDeleteI dunno. I'm the sort of person who got his kids up in the middle of the night to watch the images come in from the Voyager 2 spacecraft at Uranus and Neptune, obsesses over every new telescope which gets built. Radio astronomy, the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, I've been to VLA in New Mexico...
But manned space flight... I have worn a dosimeter. I know how it works. I know those sieverts stack up.
xkcd.com - Sources here. CC0 I waive all copyright to this chart and place it in ...
I'm all for space exploration 'n whizbang Buck Rogers stuff. But I took enough statistics courses ( and accounting and finance courses, too ) to secretly snicker at the folks who think human beings who evolved at 1G are going to thrive at Zero G.
That ISS going overhead? That's not a stepping stone to the stars. That's an experiment on how to live on a ruined planet, of airlocks and hard radiation and recycling your own pee. Except they haven't really done anything about that hard radiation and can't even remotely manage self-sufficiency. Mankind's most expensive contraption.
Now, if we did learn to live in a self-contained vessel, that would be useful science. We've got one. It's a sphere and rotates very nicely in a great orbit. And the seabirds and whales are washing up on our shores, full of plastic. Just like those fucking astronauts are stuffing back into those supply modules to return to Earth.
Dan Weese Yup. We're poorly evolved (ie, not at all) for microgravity.
ReplyDeleteTo do off-world life well will require a little more engineering. Tin cans are for the birds. Human 1.0 thrives with dirt, trees, and roughly 1gee. But those three things aren't necessarily on the outer surface of a sphere.
James Garry The part which pisses me off - I could tolerate all the rest of the inanity of manned space flight - is the flag flying and the national posturing and the billionaires seen from below in a two-point perspective as their rockets roar up into the sky - what is the point?
ReplyDeleteYes, missions such as Hubble Space Telescope and suchlike are deeply important. The Mars rovers, an accomplishment for the ages. The Voyager missions, one of mankind's finest moments. I'm all for that sort of endeavour.
Sticking the flag on the surface of the moon, I remember thinking at the time, of Ponce de Leon in 1513, with the flag of Ferdinand and Isabella. Still up there, no doubt. And they're still speaking Spanish in Florida. Yep.
And now the Chinese are inviting other nations to participate in their space station program and a whole bunch of ninnies are running around on tiptoe and flapping their wrists and shrieking in little falsetto voices about Chinese Prestige.
It's just annoying.