cubinator

It was crazy. We got like 1/8" and some of it didn't melt until almost noon. I jest. The reason I posted was just the weather was particularly glum that day.

Today's tribulations... https://imgur.com/a/TFlTAJQ I have some recurring issues with the solar panels being on only one side...also there is only one docking port on the hab sections, so I will need to deal with that when the thing is fully put together. And parts of the station fly around freely, making it difficult to gather them up... I made a compromise between single-launch and orbital assembly by launching nine sections in one booster, that all still have to be maneuvered around and docked. Just one more to go! Then I can dock to the propulsion component, although I don't have much monopropellant left and that could be a problem

Well I'm cooped up in quarantine, and I've been playing KSP in my down time. I've decided to do something rather more ambitious than usual, since I've got time to see it through. I'm building a space station to ship off to Jool, and it's called CLOUD ONE. It'll have landers of all sorts, miniature probes, "droids", and housing for 80 Kerbals on top of a huge NTR-propelled booster stage. I may as well write silly stuff about its travels to share with you all. Here's some pictures as I was beginning assembly of the hab section yesterday. https://imgur.com/a/zzyfT5d

It's snowing. Go away, snow!

Yup. Particularly when different cultures collide. Look at what happened when Europeans encountered the very smart and ingenious Maya and other American civilizations...Because they were different there was great destruction instead of acceptance and cultural mingling. We all hope that by the time we reach the stars we will be able to control our fear but there is the risk that we don't learn by then. Imagine what would happen if you gave those different groups a whole planet each and thousands or millions of years to develop. If everyone has not ended the problem of war there will be devastation. The best case scenario here is either a living planet the people of Earth Prime can eventually visit, or the new Earth with all its people is sufficiently distant that we must master the entire universe before we meet. Or a million dollars. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering. -Yoda

It would be lonely for them, but humanity 2.0 in my opinion is something we don't need a fresh planet for. We have everything we need to be successful right here, and I think another planet full of naturally-developing humans would just complicate things too much, especially when we finally meet. Now they are likely to walk the world and find each other. I won't live to see it happen, though, which is problematic. I'd have to tell them early on about the other human, then let them wander their world. It does change where I put the planet, though - it would be much farther away - maybe the Circinus galaxy.

Well, the planet has all the rest of our animals and life and such, so who cares about the humans? We already have humans on Earth Prime, and helping them figure out how to travel the stars is way easier than being God for a few brand new humans on a new planet for only the first few decades. I would accept, discourage the two humans from creating more by putting them on opposite sides of the planet so that meeting would be inconvenient, and once their lives are done we have a 'control' Earth full of life but empty of humans, quite beautiful. I'd visit from time to time, maybe help out the humans if they need it. And I'd consider placing the planet in a relatively nearby spot, maybe 30-50 ly away so it's not too easy to get to, but something we could find and use as an oasis on our way out into the galaxy.

I SAW THE SPACE STATION Except I really, REALLY saw it. It's clear tonight, and there was going to be a pass, so I took out the telescope and looked at some stuff while waiting - Orion nebula, Venus, random Starlink satellites...When the station came up I noticed it would go right past the Pleiades, and I realized I could point the telescope right on its path and wait for it. I managed to catch it and follow it with the scope, and I saw: -The orange glow of the solar panels' back side -The parallelogram shape of the solar array from my viewing angle -Some of the lines and texture of the solar panels -Bright white dot in the very center, that being the main part of the station which is made of reflective aluminum That's the best look I can hope to get unless I'm invited aboard!

Sounds like all the stuff I'm doing in my rocket group, along with every other university rocket program.

Now I'm imagining sharpshooter doctors sniping random people on the street with vaccine darts.

There wasn't any bread at the store, so we're making our own bread with the bread machine.

Also, what planet is that? Looks kind of like Earth minus 100 My or so...

Wow, that's pretty recent for lava flows!

that's a big picture. Any recommendations on software I can use to actually look at it?

Before, heh. Home within a home. Of course it's their rice.

That flag's gonna get knocked over, I can feel it.

We found weevils in a big container of rice we had at home.

I think it needs a little work.

I certainly hope so. And I hope they pick up the pace. Proper exploration requires many frequent launches, which is why I think SpaceX and Blue Origin's launch vehicles are far better suited for the task. Meanwhile, SLS will be ready in 2018? I think cargo Starship and the first SLS test flight will occur around the same time.

https://www.space.com/nasa-remove-lunar-gateway-artemis-critical-path.html Emphasis mine. And now we have an Apollo project clone, with the same promise of greater lunar infrastructure we got in the '70s, and the same politically insurmountable costs and twisted bureaucracy. What's more, Artemis is now shying away from doing anything new! That's terrible, we won't ever really get out there thinking like that. Any new crewed lunar program must explore ISRU water mining and utilization of regolith for base and road building, but since that's never been done before it's off the table for NASA. They should be designing payloads for Starship, and collaborating on its expansive crew cabin. The real explorers are in the private sector now, they are the ones willing to take any risks at all and most importantly try something new once in a while. /strong opinions Edit: JPL is still cool tho. :3

I know it. I'm doing my part, and it's not like I'm missing out on anything more than any other person.

I just went to a supermarket in the US for the first time since...before this. I haven't ever seen the shelves this empty. They still have plenty of stuff, just very low on certain things - most notably meat and bread. Well, time to stay at home for a while I guess. Even though I'm the sort of person who probably wouldn't even notice if I got it.

MN public schools are closed for the next two weeks, as per the governor.

Another movie dream, sort of...Thomas the Train but it was really dark. A group of kids were trapped in an underground complex beneath a train station, kept there by a calculated and sinister overseer. They were provided for, but they were essentially slaves on a tight leash. They made a grand attempt to escape, but failed and faced even worse scrutiny. Eventually they manage to communicate with Thomas, who was visiting the station, and tell him their dilemma. Thomas remarks that although it is near impossible for humans to leave the station, for trains it is very easy. The kids make their way to the train station secretly and board Thomas, who takes them away into the free world. I have seen almost nothing of the actual Thomas the Tank Engine media, so consider this my interpretation of that world, where children are indoctrinated in subterranean camps and Thomas runs a sort of 'underground railroad' on an actual railroad. =============== I also dreamt about The Dark Crystal, where I gave Rian a magic marble from Earth and got a seed from the Mystics which contained two gold USB sticks containing information about how to defeat the Skeksis. However, the computer I had at hand was a strange emulator system that didn't know how to read Word documents. So, my friends and I ended up troubleshooting until I woke up.

THIS...SENTENCE...IS...FALSEdont think about it don't think about it don't think about it don't