Green Baron

I have laid out the tracks for the shadow station for demonstration. In the background is the place where the helix will be. The zigzag on the left is the incoming track. The station has 10 tracks. The rightmost is just for transit. Then come 5 tracks for freight cars, the two longest have 2.9m, enough for 13-14 cars. Then come 4 tracks for passenger cars and trains. This part will have a switch to switch off the track current so that the interior lighting of passenger cars don't draw to many mAs while parked. They all have leds but nevertheless ... I will use up most of these ugly tracks with bedding for the underground part ;-) Edit: don't use a saw for cutting tracks. The stuff is hard and will have ugly flashes (?). Invest some funds for a miniature grinder with a cutting wheel. Much cleaner cutting, less swearing :-)

Many actually dedicate some time every day to keep up with their respective subject ...

Cheaper. Better ? idk. When one can actually get geocehmical/geophysical labs on the Marsian surface (i mean more than the rovers that are well done but still quite limited) with people who actually run those, judge where to take samples thet'll be one of those giant leaps, imo. But that still takes some time ...

They don't declare independence on first chance :-) Edit: definition "colony" ...

Vvott ? I'd like to see a publication in a peer reviewed medical journal that says so. Not everyone wearing a lab coat is actually a scientist ! The consensus is "Smoking kills by causing cancer !". I can't imagine that an upright medical scientist says otherwise, or he/she was bribed to doing so. Yes. That is so. Because the means and methods to conduct an experiment are beyond what the average citizen can afford, build or control. Few people have an LHC in their garden ;-) But usually such discoveries are made by teams and have been checked against other hypotheses before they head on and submit a publication. Such new things are often put to discussion in the community, the impact on our every day life is small. Also it is a good habit to principally distrust all stuff from colourful internet sources. There are some pop science sites (like Scientific American for example, in Germany Spektrum) that can per default be regarded as honest and correct. Ridiculous stuff us generally simply ignored and the ignoramus then howls "nobody likes me" and "they all have no idea". A single voice against the rest of the world ? A clear sign that there is something wrong. A hypothesis needs proof to become a theory. The proof must be checked and generally accepted. Usually a new idea is not immediately shouted out, but a working hypothesis formulated, that tested and checked, and the result put to a review process. The process takes months, sometimes longer and there are enough opportunities in the meantime to discuss and question. Usually scientists do not boast with their knowledge. The one at the next desk may know more ;-). Those who do often do so because of .... deficiencies. Ignore them. What counts is that what is generally agreed on. Of course one is happy and joyful if something turns out to be correct ! OK, hope that wasn't too high stitched :-) Oh, i have studied geoscience, prehistory and palaeoanthroplogy, but only out of interest, never worked in the subject. I try to keep myself informed by browsing thourgh the (paid) publications of a few journals.

Hi ! Good question. The contracts aren't necessarily logical and never were, they are just a gameplay element. But in this case, it is actually easier to try Minmus before Mun, you'll see ;-) Cheers and happy landings

Wait until it really exists before calculating dV. There isn't even a full featured engine yet, nor structural parts ...

The news find their way into pop science (automatic videos in the first link): https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2018/02/neanderthals-cave-art-humans-evolution-science/ More serious (pun intended): https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/ancient-cave-paintings-clinch-the-case-for-neandertal-symbolism1/ My comment: there aren't many reasons any more to strictly distinguish between the abilities of so called modern humans and their former contemporaries the Neandertals in Europe and Asia. In Africa that distinction always was difficult anyway. Gradual differences are still there. Some step on the window board with "we must look for modernity in the common ancestors", which would be late erectusses and subspecies. Anyway, the cultural explosion that was seen to have happened with modern humans 40.000 years ago now has been put to the historical archives of science.

This is much more than a random science fact but the Palaeo-thread was sadly closed. This is nothing less than a break in the view on human evolution. Until shortly it was the general notion that behavioral modernity was unique to modern humans, homo sapiens sapiens or whatever you want to call the likes of us. The oldest art (wall paintings, figurines, music instruments) was dated to max. 42.000 bp and always found together or in a layer with stone tools that are attributed to modern humans (Aurignacien). Neandertals were seen as being on the way to modernity (Chatelperronien discussion for example) but not having quite arrived there. Until shortly, and i (and others of course) have been waiting for this: http://science.sciencemag.org/content/359/6378/912 Cave art dated to >62000bp, before the arrival of modern humans in Spain. Commentary: http://science.sciencemag.org/content/359/6378/852 Additional info: mussels, pigmented and with artificial holes for use as personal adornment, dated to 115,000bp. http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/4/2/eaar5255 Haven't yet read all of the papers, will do later.

The frame is almost done. The three legs in the front need to be fastened and the whole thing will be doweled to wall in background. Also i must rasp down 1 millimeter or so from some of the legs, due to the floor's topography. That is the plan for tomorrow. It is very stable and will become even more so when the sheets are in place.

Not to Marsian ground if that was the impression but into its "vicinity", according to https://www.nasa.gov/exploration/systems/orion/about/index.html Edit: if (insert usual conditional stuff here) ... :-)

They swam and they picked them out of the water ? Somehow i feel like i am missing something ... :-)

For chemical corrosion yes. For galvanical not. Aluminiumboats need a very thorough electric system. Since not everybody in a marina takes equal care, sacrificial anodes must be placed that are higher in the galvanical order (Zinc). Parts like the propeller or in- and outlets, usually of bronze, must be protected likely.

No :-) So am i. Hypothesis is that a runaway greenhouse effect occurred. Exact reasons unclear ...

Nope. She rolls along slowly on her path ... not enough movement in the core :-)

Hi, nice task :-) I am not a crack for space weather. Example implementations for your models are online, you probably know them: http://ccar.colorado.edu/asen5050/projects/projects_2013/whitmire_ryder/ https://es.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/41752-a-matlab-implementation-of-the-jacchia-atmosphere-model https://sourceforge.net/projects/j77/ I can't help you directly with variations derived from momentary space weather https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/models. With the Jacchia model, you'd be fine with temp., density, season, height. It sounds like you want to go more into detail than the pure atmosphere models compute ... You probably know this as well: https://omniweb.gsfc.nasa.gov/vitmo/msis_vitmo.html The model description link seems to be broken ... Not much of a help i fear.

Yeah, saving a 150 megafunds is a word. Corrosion/delamination/alteration of plastic in salt water depends on the type of plastic and the care that was taken when making it. Inclusions and bubbles will accelerate the decay, but i doubt that these relatively basic things are a problem here. Plastic boats swim for decades, if taken care of. I would say that a short swim will have no negative influence on the structural integrity of the egg shells. Salt water is more a problem for metals, corroding them chemically and through electrolysis if a current is present. It astonishes me that the thing has no visible traces of reentry, like a burnt surface.

Well done, SpaceX !

In my case the sheets will be glued in place, fixed with a series of screw clamps while drying and then receive a screws every 40cm or so. I hope nothing tears, so it'll take a day or three until it's fixed and dried out. Am doing good progress, but now watching the spacex webcast :-) Edit: Half of the table frame: The other half is almost done. Problem: the intra-habitat variability. As nice as the wooden floor (not parquet, real planks) is, it has a significant wave height that cannot be ignored. I found small sheets of 3mm plywood which i will use to feed under the feet. Also the corner has no 90° but 89°. The other side has 91° but it is occupied. The almost rectangular rectangle leads to problems with the other half of the table which gets in the way with a pillar (like the one in the background) in a slightly different way than precalculated.

Oh, there is more than a minimum of aluminium in the Marsian crust, you don't need to throw down pebbles from Phobos. Just bring this: and the mining stuff and all the industry and people you need to run it. And to use the raw materials it produces. Aluminium anyone ? For a minimum price ? Cheers with an aluminiumminimumimmunity :-) Edit: the water in the background is only the artist's impression

Here's the difference between our views. I think it is impossible because nobody can move the mass and provide the energy, control the dynamics etc. pp. And i still don't see how that works. The fantasies i read deal with how to heat the core in such way that it starts working as a dynamo. Like blow up the planet with a doomsday bomb, connect a giant battery and heat it by resistance (duracell might sponsor ;-)), coil up a wire around it and send a current through it to heat the core inductively ... this sort of things. All more or less funny and fantastic. And it still won't help to hold a thick atmosphere. There is not enough atmosphere, Mars isn't Venus. Maybe one could persuade the bound O in the Marsian crust to come out (*), but C isn't really there in quantity. The atmosphere is extremely thin. And the O, once released, will immediately start live out its tendencies to oxidise the place again afap. (*) timelines and energies needed are handwavingly ridiculous. Well, be it as it may. Colonization will remain a fantasy for the next couple of decades and probably beyond. Meanwhile hopefully moar data comes in the picture gets moar complete than before ...

idk, is there a dedicated one ? Go for the mmsi if you want to track it ... Edit: Navtex navigational warning messages area 12, station idk ... C (San Francisco ?), subjects A, L, X, Y. You need a decoder and be in the vicinity of a transmitter. It is VHF. Or access to one of the internet sources. Be warned (A), you'll have to scroll through a long list of moved buoys, damaged lights, weather advices, etc. until you find somnething that looks like ZCZC CAxx timestamp text NNNN where text could be something like "Tug name of ship, MMSI, callsign in vicinity of position with course list of positions or direction with barge, cable length x km/NM. All vessels are requested to keep a wide berth." Another message might deal with a temporary restricted area and circle around it where the barge is waiting for the impact. It'll name a watch ship with MMSI and callsign for any contacts. With that information you can access marinetraffic or vesselfinder to get a picture, if the vessels are in reach of a receiver station. :-)

none. And no mmsi or call sign. You must call the tug.

Have not done much today. From what i read in aGerman forum (stummiforum) i am at the lower border of thickness of plywood, but still ok. Will finish the frames tomorrow and post apicture, but the plywood work will take time. I expect the spiral at the end of the next week and i expect it to be pretty rigid.

That question can't be answered for quite some time. We can be happy if the first astro-, cosmo- or taikonaut team will return from a successful roundtrip. Before anytwo make short ones and constantly document their development.