JoeSchmuckatelli

That was a good read. Thanks!

True. However:

@Nuke should appreciate this. Backstory: my son decided he wanted a new 144hz gaming monitor, saved up his money and bought new 24" 1080p to replace the hand-me-down one I'd given him. Not to be outdone, I saved up my money and bought a 32" 144hz 4k monitor for myself. ... My daughter, who was saving her money to redo her room, was playing on her brother's computer and leaning back in her chair. He told her not to do it, and like any sister would, she ignored him. Lost her balance, grabbed the desk and... down came the new monitor. Boop. There went the money she was saving (Best Buy had one in stock). Not to be outdone, two nights later I fell back in my own chair, grabbed the desk... and yep. (Thankfully I 'caught' it, bruising the tops of both hands, and while it wasn't 'ok' I was able to snap things back together. Monitor still works; but I'm not gonna tease my daughter over her mistake!)

NASA Confirms DART Mission Impact Changed Asteroid’s Motion in Space | NASA

Space mining business still highly speculative (cnbc.com)

Don't exactly know where to put this: but Isaacman (of the 'Buy a few flights on SX' fame) comments about the investment environment and the rising cost of money as interest rates go up. Space companies face difficult investment environment - SpaceNews

New stuff about / from Webb. The articles are definitely worth the read! The James Webb Space Telescope spied the earliest born stars yet seen | Science News NASA Enhances James Webb Space Telescope Images With X-ray Filter - CNET How Webb images are processed: How NASA’S JWST photos get their iconic look - The Verge

Yeah, we have a problem. Did you get the memo?

Isn't the energy requirements of sintering pretty high? I've looked into this a tiny bit; looks like an infrastructure project. I.e. not small. You'd need one rover to bulk scoop regolith and transport to a processing plant, that would then either sort or pulverize the regolith into a fine powder. The fines could then be sent to another plant to sinter - apparently there's a slow process that's less energy intensive, but we're still talking relatively high temps. Might need a warehousing / cooling unit. Then you'd need another rover to take and process those to where you want them placed. The sintering kinetics and properties of sintered glass-ceramics from coal fly ash of different particle size - ScienceDirect (Fly ash, not regolith) I was hoping for something that could basically be sent out to scoop/flatten an area and poop out 3D printed bricks behind it, laying a 'pad' for something to land on. Probably nothing that easy would work...

Um.

Yeah, not interested in anything TT related.

Hmmmm... None of those words are "copper". Shows how much I remember from Freshman Chem!

Big green flash on the startup. Any idea why?

Grin! Can you comment on what level of interaction players will have with the writing beyond a 'tool tip' pop up or 'product information page'? I.e... Will we have the ability to search for something like an 'ion drive' and be able to read about it - and perhaps follow links to related topics or parts? (like a Civpedia, but instead a Kerbilopedia?)

Happy little clouds!

Yeppers.

Anyone looked into 3d printing with regolith? ESA - 3D-printed ceramic parts made from lunar regolith I'm wondering what the binding agent is. Guessing since cured with light, its some kind of resin based composite, like they use in teeth. Question is; could we dump a dedicated rover on the moon and have it build anything with 3d printing tech? Like a landing pad? I'm guessing the binder is no small part of the whole; the payload would have to be full of the stuff.

Nope. With proper training, it's just as easy to hit a target with the hand cranks and Auxiliary Sight (think rifle scope) as it is the powered system... Except not nearly so fast. (there are other advantages - but speed is the primary) The advantages of computerized fire control is a lot less time needed for training to use the system vs become skilled in manual engagements. If by this, you are referring to the Turret Monster... Yeah, it's a thing... And not a gentle thing - a tear your leg out of the socket / puree your skull without anyone noticing kind of thing.

Is PAX East sometime around April of next year?

The longer form answer is the well known disconnect between people who design things (and have never been to combat) and those who have been in combat and want common sense things to make their ability to do the job more effective. Military force structure is and always has been a fluid environment, a dance between what is possible and what is practicable. Something like a manned & drome swarm jet fighter / strike package (one piloted aircraft with a swarm of semi autonomous drone aircraft) makes more sense to me than trying to do it with land warfare (much denser and dirtier environment).

From the article; "why put a human in your heavy tank? Because, bluntly, remote control remains awkward and autonomous robots remain stupid. Sometimes you need an experienced human in the vehicle, onboard. That way they can use all their senses to understand the situation – the smell of smoke, the sound of the guns, the vibration of the engine — instead of staring at a screen. That way, too, their input can’t be hacked, jammed, or otherwise disconnected" ... Thanks for the call out! Interesting article!

While this is subjective (I prefer more bitter, hoppy bier)... mass produced beers likely to become 'better tasting' in the near future: Scientists Just Figured Out a Way to Make Beer Taste Even Better : ScienceAlert

I literally did not get that until Mike's post! Bravo Zulu NFUN. I had to reclick the link and see what happened. The article has the correct formulation of the exponent, but the summary does, indeed, show 1023!

Wally. He got sick and tired of everyone staring at him. Poor guy; just wanted to blend into the crowd. Always getting called out. What more would you expect?

More Dino stuff. Earth got rang like a bell: vibration continued for weeks https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/10/221006160638.htm The amount of energy released in this 'mega-earthquake' is estimated at 1023 joules, which is about 50,000 times more energy than was released in the magnitude 9.1 Sumatra earthquake in 2004 Faults and deformation due to shaking continue up through the spherule-rich layer that was deposited post-impact, indicating that the shaking must have continued for the weeks and months it took for these finer-grained deposits to reach the ocean floor. Just above those spherule deposits, preserved fern spores signal the first recovery of plant-life after the impact.