darthgently

Not to mention the probable fact that the resonant frequencies likely drop as the hypothetically dampening fuel level drops

Maybe. I think they will try to stick with the cadence

Well, sure, but if they could survive the lunar night the mission wouldn’t be so short. A bit of a self fulfilling prophesy. A cheaper, shorter half-life, isotope could be used as appropriate to the desired duration

I do not think it works that way in this age of industrial robotics

I find it frustrating that we don’t include just enough of an isotope to keep the batteries just warm enough on these landers. That is the weak spot by orders of magnitude. Seems like a no brainer

What if so many cyclers were in the same orbit they could be connected together into a huge ellipsoid looping train?

So, from a physics POV^2? That means digging out the quadratic eqn

Nicely done, great little thread [Edit: it should be noted that one of the pics is of the Babbage engine, not this device. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ]

Much more so if we can source hydrogen and oxygen from the moon for the LEO depot. Bring carbon only up from Earth and we can even make methane at the depot. All space solar powered

The angle that apparent expansion acceleration is caused by gravity induced time dilation that came up lately makes intuitive sense. It would certainly vary as mass distribution altered over time. Basically, as I understand it, time goes faster in emptier space so there is more expansion there. Not saying I truly understand it though

Fun fact:

Not a landing only flame trench

Some rough criteria: Definitely a moon: Big enough for a crewed lander to land on and enough gravity to drive a manned buggy around on. This will require crewed missions to many rocks to determine their moon status Probably not a moon: If an astronaut can jump into space from the surface, probably not a moon. If the rock moves more than the human when jumping into space zero percent chance of moonhood

Kerbals exist. This guy was an intern assigned to Jeb at KSC

None for L4 and L5 if done correctly

I thought L1, 2, &3 were unstable saddles and L4,5 were stable

Your post reminded me of this one

I briefly thought about something like this as a component for some far-fetched hypothetical sci-fi story a few years back. Who can keep up? What a time to be alive! https://news.mit.edu/2025/tiny-tardigrades-protein-may-help-cancer-patients-tolerate-radiation-therapy-0226

It needs a small turbine APU that starts on hypergolics. Or better; a small version of the below that uses something cheaper with a shorter half life https://science.nasa.gov/science-research/science-enabling-technology/technology-highlights/high-efficiency-stirling-convertor-demonstrates-long-term-performance/

Dirigibles kind of fit this. They’ve settled into a very narrow niche but at one time people had Big Plans for them

Best part is more part. Keep workers busy. But seriously, that overhead crane is cool

SpaceX should send an even number of Optimus bots so as their final activity they can compete in the first sports competition on Mars to do “gravity science”. Soccer would be easy as only a ball would be needed. If we only send one bot we will have to settle for hacky sack, juggling, and a mime performance. Perhaps the lone bot lounging in a chair dramatically reading to us from Bradbury’s The Martian Chronicles.

I posted this in the CLPS topic but seemed appropriate to put here also given it is a landmark event for Firefly

Fantastic imagery, including slo-mo and riveting analysis

It has recently been found that mothers have their children’s dna permanently as part of their bodies after giving birth that stays a part of them for the rest of their lives. Not merely the maternal portion, but the actual full dna of the children. One might wonder if this would be the case in an egg laying variant of us. What would it entail for the mother-child bond? Or the bond between the mother and the entire family as she may not have her children’s paternal dna as part of her body any longer On further thought, the lack of a placental connection could have big effects on the mother-child physiological, and perhaps psychological, relationship