If you have any interest in the upcoming Mars Rover project, you may have forgotten, as I did, that the thing lands on Monday after months of flight.
Even if you don't care much about Martian exploration and the search for the possibility of life there, you might be interested in the engineering behind extraordinary landing method, which is entirely new. Whether it work remains to be seen; I certainly hope it does.
In brief, it will approach Mars very fast, slow down a bit in the Martian atmosphere, slow down some more with a parachute (if it holds up), then at the last minute, use radar to detect the ground, fire some rockets, hover, and drop the Rover on a cable, winching it down. And all entirely autonomously. Extraordinary.
Anyway, there's a BBC Horizon programme currently on iPlayer about it - typically lightweight but a good overview. It's called Horizon - Mission to Mars. And of course NASA TV will be covering it, which is available in various ways.
My telly will be on at 6:00 am on Monday morning anyway.
Last edited by: Crankcase on Thu 2 Aug 12 at 08:36
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I will be watching. Always been interested in space flight since I was a boy. The fact that it has become reality still seems incredible to me.
Link to Horizon.
www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01llnb2/Horizon_20122013_Mission_to_Mars/
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5 minute video on youtube concentrating on the '7 minutes of terror' landing*:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2I8AoB1xgU
Near the start there's a caption '500,000 l1ines of cod3' - spelling mistake or specialist programming language? :)
* they point out that signals take 14 minutes to reach Earth...
Last edited by: Focus on Thu 2 Aug 12 at 09:28
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Just watched that video. What an incredible piece of engineering. Imagine being on Mars and watching it land!
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I hope it works but I believe in keeping things simple, there must be a less complicated way of achieving the landing.
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Let NASA know if you come up with something. They probably didn't give it a lot of thought!
;-)
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They managed to land previous rovers without a hover crane (skyhook). :-)
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The difference here is is that's a big beast - which it needs to be to do its mission - and therefore it's too big to use the previous methods.
Mind you, I'm not clear why if they can hover it they didn't just hover down to the surface and unload it from there.
If they'd asked me, I'd have suggested putting the rover up in two or three small bits that can self assemble once landed, but maybe that's an even bigger engineering challenge.
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I had a special birthday last month, and Mrs C gave me a copy of the Martian Chronicles, which I haven't yet read, although I have enthused about the TV series here before. Good stuff Dog.
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I have the TV series on DVD, Cc, I bought them a few years ago when I had a 32" LCD so you've now fired me up to digging them out and watching them again on the 42 incher.
That clip where the Martian speaks to the colonel - my wife maintains to-this-very-day that he says "have a cigar and a lager :-D
Re: Third Ear Band, I 'discovered' this last week, its the actual composition I remember c1969.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NP0Y6rQBIk
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Also have the DVD collection - ah, Roddy McDowell in a dog collar. Who'd have thought it?
Youtube video excellent fun. Ta. It feels like a link between progressive jazz and something like Philip Glass. At least it's different, always a plus in my book.
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>> Let NASA know if you come up with something. They probably didn't give it a
>> lot of thought!
>>
>> ;-)
lets hope they haven't mixed up imperial and metric in the calculations this time.
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Sounds great if it works! - but why do I get a feeling that it is fruitless, they already know it`s a barren wilderness and even if they discover life or minerals it wont benefit us due to the distance involved.
Probably why they called it "Curiosity" because after all the millions spent, thats all it will ever be.
Last edited by: devonite on Thu 2 Aug 12 at 12:01
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Do you not have any interest in the possibility of life elsewhere, devonite old fruit, even in the distant past, and what it might mean?
That seems a little surprising to me, but each to his own I suppose.
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Without getting all uptight and luddite about this I have to say that with billions starving, with no health care however basic. no clean water and millions of children dying without seeing their 5th birthdays there are better things to spend money on than investigating the possibilities of water/life on distant planets.
That said, I have to love the technology and wonder, like others, why the lander has to be lowered from a hovering crane/platform rather going down as a single unit.
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>> ........... with billions
>> starving, with no health care however basic. no clean water and millions of children dying
>> without seeing their 5th birthdays ............
Perhaps this is The Earth trying to protect itself against overpopulation.
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Without getting all uptight and luddite about this I have to say that with billions starving, with no health care however basic. no clean water and millions of children dying without seeing their 5th birthdays there are better things to spend money on than some men running about in circles and a few people jumping over a stick.
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>> why the lander has to be lowered from a hovering crane/platform rather going down as a single unit.
Dust, as explained in the link.
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To paraphrase Blackadder - so, some sort of dustsheet seems to be in order.
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>> Without getting all uptight and luddite about this I have to say that with billions
>> starving, with no health care however basic. no clean water and millions of children dying
>> without seeing their 5th birthdays there are better things to spend money on than investigating
>> the possibilities of water/life on distant planets.
Even tho we might discover something that gives us more knowledge and insight that might benefit water/life on this planet?
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A big "Might" and a lot of money. I suggest that the money is better spent on this planet and in the near future. It night result in something like this
www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-17775211
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you will find that was discovered by mapping the world from space......
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Quite possibly but not from Mars or a Mars Lander/orbiter.
Last edited by: Meldrew on Thu 2 Aug 12 at 20:48
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>> Quite possibly but not from Mars or a Mars Lander/orbiter.
Its all knowledge and technology that comes out of space exploration. You cant pick and choose now what you think will be useful in the future because you dont know. Thats why its done.
Last edited by: Zero on Thu 2 Aug 12 at 20:53
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No but I can pick and choose what I think will give a better return per £/$, re addressing the World shortages of energy, water and food. Obviously I have no say in the policy but my best guess is that nothing useful will come from Mars (specifically) to address these problems in the next 25 years, say.
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As you were not aware that space technology helped find the water in namibia, I would'nt bet on your picking and choosing.....;p
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The best bet is not to bet!
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>> No but I can pick and choose what I think will give a better return
>> per £/$, re addressing the World shortages of energy, water and food.
>>
www.hq.nasa.gov/office/hqlibrary/pathfinders/spinoff.htm
"One of the familiar complaints that NASA receives when its budget comes up for approval is that "...the money really ought to be spent down here instead of up there". ..... "
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It seems to me that once humanity loses the desire to explore and push the boundaries of science we might as well all give up. The spacecraft is aptly named Curiosity. Without curiosity we our species would have achieved nothing.
"Nothing to be gained by moving out of Africa is there lads said Og - lets stay here and watch the hyaenas"
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>> Imagine being on Mars and
>> watching it land!
>>
I should think the workers in the eponymous bar factory were looking up nervously, hoping it was going to land on someone else.
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>> >> Imagine being on Mars and
>> >> watching it land!
>> >>
>>
>> I should think the workers in the eponymous bar factory were looking up nervously, hoping
>> it was going to land on someone else.
Its landing on Slough? Bring it on, I must get down there with the video.
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I'm yet to be convinced that anybody landed on the Moon.
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How do you explain the presence of laser reflectors on the surface, still used for critical distance measurements?
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_Laser_Ranging_experiment
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>> I'm yet to be convinced that anybody landed on the Moon.
>>
I was at Cape Canaveral during the moon shot period, I am a believer.
How about Skylab, the Space Shuttle, and the space station? It is difficult to imagine the scale of these programs if you have not seen the facilities up close.
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>>
How about Skylab, the Space Shuttle, and the space station?
All manned at one time or another, and ALL orbiting this side of the Van-Allen radiation belts.
I dont deny that Mans machines have landed on the Moon, after all as you say, the evidence is there! - but Man himself? - Nah! filmed in the Northen dessert region of Arizona!
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You can now view satellite pictures of the moon landing craft that have been left on the lunar surface including the lunar rover and all of the USA flags that are still standing (apart from Apollo 11 which was blown down as the Lander returned to the obiter), very detailed and pretty conclusive.
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>> very detailed and pretty conclusive.
Nah, nah, that's all just a film set in a hangar innit? And slowed down replays and that. Stands to reason.
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I have no doubts at all the Americans put men on the moon, they were terrified the russians would get there first and turn it into a weapons base.
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So....why haven`t they developed it? and whats stopping the Ruskies/Argentinians/Al Queda doing that now?
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The Argies and Al Queuda dont have the technology. And as it turns out, neither did the russians.
Edit. you have to remember this was the 60's and 70's, the height of the cold war scare period, the time we nearly got dragged into real nuclear war.
Last edited by: Zero on Thu 2 Aug 12 at 19:30
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>> The Argies and Al Queuda dont have the technology.
Anyone can get the 'technology'. Knowledge is free and freely available. The problem is the goddam money.
Actually if it came to bad guys getting to the moon I'd put my money on the drug mafia.
Er, :o}
Last edited by: Armel Coussine on Thu 2 Aug 12 at 19:38
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You've all got it wrong - the Nazis got there first as anyone who has seen "Iron Sky" would know.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=uX2cS8wvQHI&feature=related
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Its the only place to get a london bus at 03:30 in the morning
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>> So....why haven`t they developed it? and whats stopping the Ruskies/Argentinians/Al Queda doing that now?
Heh heh.... going there once or even twice is one thing, making repeated trips to 'develop' all that carborundum dust and green cheese is another order of enterprise altogether. It's basically a question of energy. We have to wait for antigrav or warp drive or some carp like that.
'Because it was there.' But after Sherpa Tenzing and Edmund Hillary it was quite a time before anyone else did it, and quite a time more before it became a tourist thing (only for the rich and fit though).
The moon is similar, but much, much worse. I won't see sexy weekends in one-seventh of earth gravity for only 200 million credits, more's the pity. And despite your youth I doubt if any of you will either. You just don't deserve it anyway.
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>>It's basically a question of energy. We have to wait for antigrav or warp drive or
>> some carp like that.
>>
No chance, we can't even make a viable electric car.
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>> we can't even make a viable electric car.
Never mind MAKE a viable leccy car - We cant even get an already existing train to Lancaster at 06:10! Grrrr!
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On the subject of global poverty, the elephant in the room is population control.
Governments are terrified by the subject, they won't address it, or even respond to a question about it.
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>> On the subject of global poverty, the elephant in the room is population control.
>>
>> Governments are terrified by the subject, they won't address it, or even respond to a
>> question about it.
>>
The next big war, big asteroid hit, or major volcanic event will sort that out.
Last edited by: Old Navy on Fri 3 Aug 12 at 08:08
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>> Governments are terrified by the subject,
Not all governments. The Chinese have, or had, a policy. What I don't know really is whether it is working.
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>> >> Governments are terrified by the subject,
>>
>> Not all governments. The Chinese have, or had, a policy. What I don't know really
>> is whether it is working.
>>
Most "advanced" Western countries don't have a problem with population growth. In fact they have the reverse problem, their populations are ageing with less than 2 children born to each woman in the population.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sovereign_states_and_dependent_territories_by_fertility_rate
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Since the introduction, in China, of a one child only policy there has been a mysterious reduction in the number of female children born and living for more than few minutes. At the end of the next 10 years China expects to have 24M more males than females.
www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/175974.php
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>> Since the introduction, in China, of a one child only policy there has been a
>> mysterious reduction in the number of female children born and living for more than few
>> minutes. At the end of the next 10 years China expects to have 24M more
>> males than females.
I wonder what social problems this will bring them.
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>> Most "advanced" Western countries don't have a problem with population growth. In fact they have the reverse problem, their populations are ageing with less than 2 children born to each woman in the population.
>> en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sovereign_states_and_dependent_territories_by_fertility_rate
>>
Perhaps you haven't looked out of the window lately?
It couldn't be, could it? That large numbers of the population of less developed nations are emigrating to the developed nations?
tinyurl.com/ykfcv2w
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"It couldn't be, could it? That large numbers of the population of less developed nations are emigrating to the developed nations? "
That makes sense for both parties.
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The religions tend to be backward on population, especially fundamentalist Islam and the Catholic church.
It's true that rich advanced countries don't have a population growth problem really, but the population keeps growing largely because people are living longer.
However the tendency of some sectors of the population to have more children than they can support or raise properly will in the end, I feel, require some tough-love social legislation even in those squeamish lands where no one can bear to call a spade a spade. And yes, this country is one of them.
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"It's true that rich advanced countries don't have a population growth problem really, but the population keeps growing largely because people are living longer"
Well to a degree that is true but the effect will level out and eventually the population will level out. What we will have and indeed do have now is an unbalanced population with a comparatively small working population supporting a large elderly population.
The obvious answer is a cull
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>> The obvious answer is a cull
What a good idea CGN. A nice series of gruelling non-nuclear land wars to cull those whippersnappers and put them out of their misery.
Or were you thinking of some form of myxomatosis for over-45s?
Sheeesh...
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People are working to a later retirement age CGN. People adjust to circumstances, or else as it were.
I know there are people here who have taken various forms of early retirement in their forties or fifties, either with good pensions or having made shrewd provision, or both. Perhaps not all are doing anything constructive with their time although some obviously are.
But Humph who is no spring chicken isn't talking about retirement. I still work too, if you can call it work. I knew I would never be able to afford to retire in the normal sense of the word, and I never will. Between the shafts right into the knacker's yard.
Old experienced guys are missed in factories where anything complex is done, or on building and engineering sites. Forcing people into retirement to make room for young workers who aren't as good is stupid. Keep the little sods at school and university to fit them for higher-tech stuff in the future. The 'traditional three-stage career' is almost a thing of the past, jolly good too. It was an aberration forced on everyone by corporate and governmental rationalizing.
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I'm really glad I don't now have to work.
I have never subscribed to the view which says work is its own satisfaction, but have always seen it as an unfortunate necessity between periods of doing as little as possible.
We have just about enough income to survive, with careful management and a degree of thriftiness, but I live in hope of Euromillions providing a tad more!
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I wouldn't mind winning the Euromillions Roger.Our three children will be there knocking on the door where is our share.>;) You should't have to work till you drop.Fourty four years was long enough for me having to work.Did some work for daughter with brother in law putting a fence up.Paying the price now my back is playing up painfull.
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>>The obvious answer is a cull
Mother Nature has been trying to do this in impoverished,overcrowded underdeveloped Countries for Eons! - but Man, thinking he is God and humane, has been thwarting her at every opportunity, by sending Aid etc etc. All we have achieved is to prolong and compound the situation, to no worthwhile end, instead of allowing Nature to do her work and sort the problem. Sometimes you have to harden your heart and be cruel to be kind.
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I've culled 3 blind mice this week, so I'm doing my bit.
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"Or were you thinking of some form of myxomatosis for over-45s? "
Not quite thought the plan through yet but I like your thinking - sure it might upset a few of those wishy washy liberal humanitarians who will start on about the sanctity of human life but we need to look at the greater economic good here. It's the oldies who are holding us back so that's where we need to start
Winter flu vaccine anybody?
Last edited by: CGNorwich on Fri 3 Aug 12 at 20:51
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I think we need to up the threshold a little, I mean I am over 55 and now in my spending money phase, no support needed yet.
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>>no support needed yet.
Yeah but to be fair, English blokes don't generally have enough kit to fill a support do they?
:-)
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not that kind of support, jeez you blokes in skirts are willy obsessed.
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I think there is too much emphasis on the relative numbers of different age groups in the population.
The elderly population is not "supported" by the actual numbers of younger people, but by the GNP generated by the entire population. That might have been true when a self-sufficient subsistence-farming family dirrectly supported its own old people, but it hasn't been like that for centuries here.
If 10 men used to work as road diggers, but now the same amount of digging can be done by one man with a machine, then 9 of the men can be retired or made redundant and the one man can continue to "support" them, because the total economic output and demands are unchanged and balanced.
It simply requires a mechanism for re-routing the resources. But it's got nothing to do with the numbers of people, and there is not necessarily any age imbalance.
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What you mean that that everyone and not just those in employment might be entitled to a share of the wealth generated by the economy? Sounds like socialism to me. :-)
Last edited by: CGNorwich on Fri 3 Aug 12 at 22:24
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>> What you mean that that everyone and not just those in employment might be entitled
>> to a share of the wealth generated by the economy? Sounds like socialism to me.
>> :-)
>>
I'm not suggesting the mechanism, just observing that the economy as a whole would be in a position to support 9 retired people on the efforts of one employed person.
I agree it's an unrealistic and oversimplified example, but I'm just trying to point out that the usual stuff churned out about the number of retired people being unsupportably high compared with the number of workers is a fallacy.
It's the GDP that supports people, not the number of workers. The workers don't even have to be in the country, if the national income is earned abroad.
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That doesn't work - one man and a digger is considerably cheaper than ten men.
And anyway he'd go on strike if he was the only one working...
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I hope this Curiosity landing doesn't upset the locals.
It might then be Mars Attacks all over again. ack ack.
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Nooo, the Tim Burton film. All star cast with Jack Nicholson as the US President, even Tom Jones made an appearance. Love the goldfish bowl headgear. Ack ack.
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Latest/best info I can find right now is that the landing will be at 22.32 Pasadena time which I calculate to be 06.32 Monday morning UK time. Will it be live on TV does anyone know? Worth setting the alarm, for those of us who aren't already up and about. Crankcase - you said there were ways of getting to NASA Tv, please can you post some links or instructions?
I have just found this but I don't think it will work for me LOL
NASA Television is available in continental North America, Alaska and Hawaii by C-band signal via Satellite AMC-18C, at 105 degrees west longitude, transponder 3C, 3760 MHz, vertical polarization. A Digital Video Broadcast-compliant Integrated Receiver Decoder is needed for reception. Transmission format is DVB-S, 4:2:0. Data rate is 38.80 Mbps; symbol rate 28.0681, modulation QPSK/DVB-S, FEC 3/4.
Read more here: www.sacbee.com/2012/07/30/4675731/nasa-announces-media-activities.html#storylink=cpy
Last edited by: Meldrew on Sat 4 Aug 12 at 11:31
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>
>> aren't already up and about. Crankcase - you said there were ways of getting to
>> NASA Tv, please can you post some links or instructions?
>>
Type "nasa tv" in to google, and go to the first link to watch.
p.s. L'escargot won't be able to watch it as he disables his Adobe Flash add-on. :0)
Last edited by: John H on Sat 4 Aug 12 at 11:36
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>> p.s. L'escargot won't be able to watch it as he disables his Adobe Flash add-on.
>> :0)
Not any more, he doesn't. Everything is now hunky-dory Flash/Java-wise.
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Who`s filming it actually coming in to land? - Hubble?
If they are onboard cameras, you could get the same effect zooming-in vertically on a box of sand!
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Thanks Zero and JohnH -you know where to find this stuff! Almost as significant as the first moon landing but way more computing power!
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Others have pointed out the web links for NASA tv.
You can also get it as an app for free, if you have iPhone or iPad. I don't know about Android but I imagine so.
My preferred method is directly on my actual tv and through the external amp for sound, which is a method that gives the best results in HD but requires kit nobody else here has or will be bothered with. But it can be done.
I won't explain in detail unless asked as it's boring if you don't want to do it.
The NASA live commentary on the event starts about eight or ten hours earlier, so there's plenty of coverage whatever time you tune in.
The BBC, that paragon of science broadcasting, is showing some more Olympics stuff and Postman Pat, so forget them.
Last edited by: Crankcase on Sat 4 Aug 12 at 12:24
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Iphone app/ link works a treat!
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>
>> I won't explain in detail unless asked as it's boring if you don't want to
>> do it.
tech is never boring - explain!
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>> tech is never boring - explain!
Access the NASA tv plug in that's available for Xbmc. Xbmc is a bit of software that manages your media on a nas, delivers it to whatever you want, including, if you wish, over the Internet so you can watch your ripped DVDs on your iPad on holiday or whatever, if you are that sad.
Lots of ways of doing this, but for me, it's
Apple TV connected to my Panasonic telly via hdmi. Yamaha amp connected to apple tv via optical tos cable for 5.1 sound.
Jail broken appletv (dead simple and quick) allows Xbmc to run on it. Change the default library of plugins to get access to NASA tv.
Sorted. Even Mrs C can get it to play NASA tv just trawling through a couple of menus to get there.
Xbmc is also used by me to watch all our movies, as it automatically grabs posters for the menu backdrop, gathers details about actors, directors etc and makes a searchable database of your collection, looks very pretty, customizable, runs on both appletv and that Roku thing, as well just a standard pc if you prefer, and is entirely and enjoyably free other than your time required to tweak it your satisfaction.
Also use it for accessing the Internet movie archive, which has many many thousands of old clips and movies going right back to turn of the 20th century, all our holiday pics and movies, and if you want, it can do al your music too, although we use the apple tv to stream spotify instead. Also has extra plugins by the dozen for things we don't use, but are there if we ever want to.
Told you it was dull.
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Just to add. Don't normally do time sensitive things, but NASA tv right this minute are doing a piece about how all the landing stuff is going to work, but unlike Horizon, in depth.
Not at depth, we hope.
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>
>> Told you it was dull.
Not at all, glad someone has found a use for Apple TV. What are you expecting to hear from Mars in 5.1 surround sound?
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>> Latest/best info I can find right now is that the landing will be at 22.32
>> Pasadena time which I calculate to be 06.32 Monday morning UK time.
If that's when it actually lands, I guess we won't see the pictures until about 6.45?
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Are they going to bring back some of the eponymous chocolate bars?
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No - it will find some, analyse them and consider them to be unfit for human consumption! They may even be identified as the fecal matter of some ancient Martian life-form.
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Exactly my thoughts Cliff.
Remember all those sci fi visions of the future where the machines did most of the work? We've gone the opposite way with parents both going out to work while somebody else looks after their children, and the gubberment telling people they'll have to work until they're 78 or whatever.
As I usually say about now, capitalism and the market are good at generating wealth but rubbish at sharing it around, and that's before you even think about sustainability.
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>> The religions tend to be backward on population, especially fundamentalist Islam and the Catholic church.
So true, one wonders when they will come into the 21st century?
>> It's true that rich advanced countries don't have a population growth problem really, but the population keeps growing largely because people are living longer.
So, little or nothing to do with immigration from less developed countries to rich advanced countries?
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>> So, little or nothing to do with immigration from less developed countries to rich advanced countries?
It's a factor, but not the major factor it is made out to be. The immigration taps, legal and illegal, can be turned on and off. People surviving longer isn't easy to stop or reverse without looking quite bad.
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>> I'm yet to be convinced that anybody landed on the Moon.
Well I know creatures from Mars live in Slough...
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The search for a possibility of live strange notion that we the human species thinks we are the only ones in space.Of course we are not they are playing with us.>:)
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We're not in space - it's everything else which is in space!
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Apparently the right way up, wheels on the ground (well at least one).
Pictures coming in live now
www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html
The euphoria in ground control beats even Olympic style Gold medal celebrations.
Last edited by: pmh on Mon 6 Aug 12 at 06:40
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That was all pretty exciting. Congrats to them for making it happen.
Who wrote "ok guys. Let's see where Curiosity will take us"? Genius.
More pics in two hours.
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The question is did it land early? or have the Americans finally got things to travel faster than the speed of light!
I am of course discounting a Moon style conspiracy theory.
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Fantastic achievement. Best news for a long time.
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Pic of it hanging from its parachute on the way down:
www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-19150849
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Do we have any microbiologist knocking around this forum I wonder?
I was just wondering if some sort of bacteria/virus etc. could have survived the 9 month journey to Mars tucked away in a yet-to-be-opened piece of apparatus, and if it could multiply .. lay dormant ... or mutate!
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>> The euphoria in ground control beats even Olympic style Gold medal celebrations.
>>
That comes from knowing the chances of it going wrong and their jobs being on the line if they parked it on its roof.
I wonder what the chances are of getting people there, and more importantly, back in one piece?
Last edited by: Old Navy on Mon 6 Aug 12 at 08:04
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>> I wonder what the chances are of getting people there, and more importantly, back in
>> one piece?
Currently none at all, partly because of technology but mostly because of lack of political will.
Unless one of the one way volunteer projects works:
newsfeed.time.com/2011/01/12/space-cadets-400-people-volunteer-for-one-way-trip-to-mars/
for example. There are others too.
Last edited by: Crankcase on Mon 6 Aug 12 at 08:15
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>> Unless one of the one way volunteer projects works:
>>
>> newsfeed.time.com/2011/01/12/space-cadets-400-people-volunteer-for-one-way-trip-to-mars/
>>
>> for example. There are others too.
Can we nominate people?
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No that would be completely unacceptable here.
We'll have to start a new thread;-)
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No point in sending people, they would only breed, fight and eventually starve. The machines will do a better job, whatever they are trying to achieve up there.
It would make a good prison, come to think of it some parts of Australia look like Mars. :-)
Last edited by: Old Navy on Mon 6 Aug 12 at 08:55
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Curiously reminiscent of the Golgafrincham Ark fleet.
Having told them that their planet was under threat by a mutant star goat, the useless third of the population (consisting of hairdressers, tired TV producers, insurance salesmen, personnel officers, security guards, management consultants, telephone sanitisers and the like) were packed into the B-Ark, one of three purported giant Ark spaceships, and told that everyone else would follow shortly in the other two.
The other two thirds of the population, of course, did not follow and "led full, rich and happy lives until they were all suddenly wiped out by a virulent disease contracted from a dirty telephone".
Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy
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That occupation list is oddly enough pretty similar to the one-time list of preferred occupations for emigrants to Australia. A pal of mine tried to get in 30 years ago, and was turned down. I know insurance salesmen were on the list because he got hold of it and re-applied as one - they cross referenced his applications and rejected him again! Hairdressers were on there too IIRC, lots of service jobs.
He made it in the end - married an Australian!
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Bit techy, this one, but in case anyone is interested, there is a downloadable "game" which is a space flight program simulator.
You design and build spacecraft and try to achieve various challenges (like taking off without exploding for a start!). Very pretty and the physics is purportedly very accurate.
kerbalspaceprogram.com/about.php
and
kerbalspaceprogram.com/forum/forumdisplay.php/26-Challenges
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My son put the following on Facebook this morning:
'NASA has successfully landed a rover on Mars - it makes me feel quite humble'.
My response: 'Oh no, not a Rover - I bet there isn't a dealer for miles'.
Of course they'll be OK if it has a Honda engine.
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you got more chance of finding your honda ex on there.
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Update here, including a great pic of the surface with mountains (crater rim) in the far distance:
www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-19186237
Looks like it's going to plan at the moment.
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They ain't kidding me m8, that's Fuerteventura!
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The barren land of Mars reminded me how beautiful our planet Earth is!
In the picture I saw something labeled as "Nuclear Battery". Why can't we put that in an electric car?
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>> The barren land of Mars reminded me how beautiful our planet Earth is!
Indeed one only has to travel three miles to Windsor.
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>>In the picture I saw something labeled as "Nuclear Battery". Why can't we put that in an electric car?<<
Cost? en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic_battery
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>> >>In the picture I saw something labeled as "Nuclear Battery". Why can't we put that
>> in an electric car?<<
>>
>> Cost? en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic_battery
>>
Can you just imagine how long a motorway would be closed for if one of them was involved in an accident? The H&S jobsworths would be ecstatic.
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NS Savannah first nuclear powered cargo ship.She arrived in Rotterdam when I was a sixteen year old long time ago..;) We need people like Nicola Tesla I am surprised we hear so little about him.A genius.
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Let's hope that the Mars Rover is not fitted with a catalytic converter.
With all those short, low-speed journeys . . . . . . Curiosity will kill the cat.
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>> Let's hope that the Mars Rover is not fitted with a catalytic converter.
>>
>> With all those short, low-speed journeys . . . . . . Curiosity will kill
>> the cat.
>>
Do you mean a Diesel Particulate Filter (DPF)?
Curiosity will not kill that cat. :-)
Last edited by: Old Navy on Thu 9 Aug 12 at 11:45
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Mars Curiosity Landing - CGNorwich
