Kryten

phoenix_ca, would you seriously make the claim that we didn't have an 'advanced civilisation' before the activation of the GPS network? If not, how is any of this relevant to the thread?

They seem to have reverted to the original plan of flying the T-1 backup as T-2, albeit with pretty extensive modifications. There's only one docking port, the cargo freighter will transfer fuel only between shenzhou visits. Given it's still very much an experimental station, I doubt they'll drag it out to anything like 2020 and instead switch to T-3 as soon as CZ-7/5 (depending on how big it ultimately is) is ready for the launch. BtW, this isn't secret at all, it's just not terribly well covered in english. Most of the stuff in this post can be gleaned from of a Chinese presentation, in english, at a public international space travel conference.

Burning the byproducts gets you exactly back where you started in terms of energy.

It'd be pretty damned hard, given electrolysis of water is endothermic.

They have a small air-launched orbital LV in the works, 'LauncherOne'. It's to use WK2 as mothership, but other than that they already seem to have abandoned any commonalities with SS2; the engines are kerolox, and developed in-house rather than by SNC.

The fact that that is impossible. Gyroscopes do not work that way, they don't magically add angular momentum to a system.

I can quite easily disprove yours, actually, because you proposed the earth would just change axial tilt without outside influence; that violates conservation of angular momentum. The earth would either have to be hit by something (something big) or somehow eject mass to change the tilt in that matter and by that much.

Ants have no command structure, everything is controlled by quorum sensing.

You're the one claiming to have records of exact changes. The billions of years figure is simply the last time anything could possibly have occurred that would be violent enough to change the axial tilt-just think about how much energy that would actually take. An impact large enough to change axial tilt 30-odd degrees would likely wipe out life, never mind any civilisation.

Silicone isn't naturally occurring, silicon is ridiculously common, and diamonds would take much less energy to just make than return from Venus.

Note the part about extra missions being added to the list for NH5; that's a breach of normal procedure, and only occurred because NASA wasn't sure any of the NH4 mission proposals would be doable within the cost cap; so added more missions to avoid throwing away the mission and budget.

As well as the other points here, this would also apply literally; there are huge numbers of us and we deliberately bury our dead, so we'd likely show up in in relatively large numbers. The fossil record would show a group of clearly large-brained organisms suddenly appearing worldwide at the same time as almost all other animals larger than a housecat go extinct; clear signs of civilisation at some level.

The great pyramid is at over 29 degrees north, and axial tilt doesn't exactly change rapidly. In order for it to be on a 'past equator line', it'd have to be literally billions of years old.

India's program is far ahead of China's; they see it as their only real chance for energy independence. All new reactors are partially fueled with thorium, they're producing large-scale breeder reactors, and they've even tested a 233U bomb.

233U is fully usable as weapons material, and they produce plenty of that. MSR does not require a thorium fuel cycle, most have used low-enriched 235U.

A petrol-powered car would be equally useless after being left that long, due to the fractions in the fuel separating.

You could've just said 'no'. It's impossible to prove anything scientifically, that's the whole point of the scientific method.

Do you even have any idea what the scientific method is? You seem to be talking about a pop culture caricature of science rather than anything that actually exists.

He received ridicule because his hypothesis was ridiculous.

I'm simply pointing out it's a bad example. That his model is vaguely similar to modern models doesn't change that it involved continents literally plowing through oceanic crust, rates of movement that would be fast enough to be visible just by comparing maps, and an energy source that was thousands of times less powerful than necessary. It's like saying Emmanual Velikovsky was a rejected genius because his 'theories' suggested planets could change orbital positions, just like modern models of solar system evolution.

Minmus doesn't really look anything like a comet. Yes, comet nuclei are predominately icy, but that's overwhelmed by simple carbon compounds-they're a deep, deep black.

Wegener was wrong. He wasn't rejected because he had crazy ideas, he was rejected because he had provably false ideas. He claimed centrifugal force was powerful enough to move continents, and calculations by others showed that to be impossible. His claims for actual rate of movement for plates was far higher than modern estimates, and also easily proved incorrect.

The Chinese mentioned that one of the factors limiting tiangong 1 lifespan was it didn't have good enough air filtering to prevent growth of mould. I'd hate to think what it'd be like by this point...

Nobody's posted in a month. It's dead, I'm sorry.

It's Dnepr, a commercial launcher modified from the R-36. As for a kerbal rocket, how's this? NOTS EV-1 Pilot. Clustered solid rockets, launched from a supersonic aircraft, at least a 90% failure rate-it practically has Jeb's name on it. For bonus crazy points, the payload was so tiny they couldn't work out if one of the launches reached orbit or not-it was simply too small to show up on any contemporary radar.