Welcome to Thunderdome

Posted: **Tue Dec 02, 2014 1:18 pm**

NASA says saddle up because here we come!

Posted: **Tue Dec 02, 2014 1:45 pm**

We'll see. I'll be shocked if any of us live to see that. It's been over 40 years since we've landed on anything out there.

Posted: **Tue Dec 02, 2014 2:40 pm**

This is a mistake. With our current technology and knowledge Mars is hard. NASA shouldn't do that until after we have a permanent presence either on the moon or in L4 or L5.

You have to crawl before you can run. We crawled a little bit 40 years ago. And now we are ready to run a 4k? No.

Posted: **Tue Dec 02, 2014 2:47 pm**

Yeah. Lunar regolith is bad enough. Martian regolith gets kicked into massive dust storms that would fuck your equipment something fierce.

Posted: **Tue Dec 02, 2014 3:16 pm**

More importantly Mars is so very much further away. We need to get some experience in this century with landing and living on non-terrestrial bodies here in our own backyard before trying to do it a year's distance away.

Something goes wrong on the moon and you might be able to pick up any survivors. Something goes wrong on Mars and they're probably going to starve to death or run out of water before you can get back to them.

Edited By TPRJones on 1417551488

Posted: **Tue Dec 02, 2014 3:43 pm**

Malcolm wrote:Yeah. Lunar regolith is bad enough. Martian regolith gets kicked into massive dust storms that would fuck your equipment something fierce.

Yeah, but the air pressure is so low relative to Earth that a 100mph wind does not feel anything like a 100mph wind.

And now that I have said it, I am not sure what it has to do with your statement.

Posted: **Tue Dec 02, 2014 3:45 pm**

TPRJones wrote:More importantly Mars is so very much further away. We need to get some experience in this century with landing and living on non-terrestrial bodies here in our own backyard before trying to do it a year's distance away.

Something goes wrong on the moon and you might be able to pick up any survivors. Something goes wrong on Mars and they're probably going to starve to death or run out of water before you can get back to them.

Read a thing recently that suggested take the tech that they want to live in on Mars and drop it in the middle of Antarctica, which has a MUCH more forgiving climate. If they can survive there for 6 months, we are ready to give Mars a shot.

Posted: **Tue Dec 02, 2014 3:55 pm**

Even Antarctica has an atmosphere that'll block some solar death rays.

Posted: **Tue Dec 02, 2014 3:59 pm**

Last I'd heard on trying it was admittedly a couple of decades ago. But the issue then was much as Malcolm said...radiation in space. Got to shield from it. At the time they said they needed something to shield as much as a foot of granite. Can we do that now? Without the Granite, I mean?

Posted: **Tue Dec 02, 2014 5:22 pm**

Vince wrote:Last I'd heard on trying it was admittedly a couple of decades ago. But the issue then was much as Malcolm said...radiation in space. Got to shield from it. At the time they said they needed something to shield as much as a foot of granite. Can we do that now? Without the Granite, I mean?

Turns out that human waste does a spectacular job. I'm not joking.

Posted: **Tue Dec 02, 2014 5:33 pm**

Malcolm wrote:
Vince wrote:Last I'd heard on trying it was admittedly a couple of decades ago. But the issue then was much as Malcolm said...radiation in space. Got to shield from it. At the time they said they needed something to shield as much as a foot of granite. Can we do that now? Without the Granite, I mean?
Turns out that human waste does a spectacular job. I'm not joking.

Yeah, I heard they would have a huddle room in the middle of the ship surrounded by their water and waste supply for the solar storms.

Posted: **Tue Dec 02, 2014 6:13 pm**

GORDON wrote:
Malcolm wrote:
Vince wrote:Last I'd heard on trying it was admittedly a couple of decades ago. But the issue then was much as Malcolm said...radiation in space. Got to shield from it. At the time they said they needed something to shield as much as a foot of granite. Can we do that now? Without the Granite, I mean?

Turns out that human waste does a spectacular job. I'm not joking.

Yeah, I heard they would have a huddle room in the middle of the ship surrounded by their water and waste supply for the solar storms.

You have to assume that what all the aliens have been probing things for, raw material for radiation shields.

Edited By Malcolm on 1417562047

Posted: **Tue Dec 02, 2014 7:25 pm**

I always wondered why beings with the technology to travel from another star system couldn't come up with a damned MRI machine.

Posted: **Tue Dec 02, 2014 8:48 pm**

Where's the fun in an MRI machine? Where's the romance?

Posted: **Sun Apr 19, 2015 1:40 pm**

NASA being a dick. When's the last time you sent men to the moon, dipshits? If we wait for your asses, we might get to Mars by the time the rest of the planet transforms into the Star Children at the end of 2001.

Posted: **Sun Apr 19, 2015 4:18 pm**

Childhood's End?

Posted: **Tue May 05, 2015 1:32 pm**

Wtf?

NASA: We can totally go to Mars.

NASA: Dude, can you help us shield the 'nauts from radiation?

Posted: **Tue May 05, 2015 1:46 pm**

Heh... Vox.

Posted: **Tue May 05, 2015 1:54 pm**

Probably a hundred sci-fi writers have addressed this in the last few decades.

Posted: **Tue May 05, 2015 2:13 pm**

Do we have a thread for the EMDrive yet? The possibility of real warp drive tech is so cool.