Kryten

Given life on earth almost certainly didn't have DNA or proteins at all initially, I don't find this argument at all plausible, at least to the level you're suggesting. Life on earth is biochemically homogenous because of descent from a complex common ancestor, not convergence.

That's right; even craft that mainly use reaction wheels need to use RCS from time to time for desaturation. Only very small satellites rely solely on reaction wheels or magnetic torque devices.

They wanted it to be seen as having civilian aims-Vanguard, based on a civilian sounding rocket rather than a missile, was perfect for this. The NRL was also a much more open semi-civilian establishment than the army effort with Jupiter, or the other navy effort at China Lake (which was hence kept classified).

You can usually access articles by putting the title and filetype: pdf into Google.

Given his posting history, I'm pretty sure xeno is aware the Chinese have orbited satellites before.

It is indeed, the first Chinese satellite was DFH-1 back in 1970. We now have confirmation that the satellite is in orbit, as well as some official launch photos: http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=34122.msg1352886#msg1352886

That's not what 'heat death of the universe' means.

This is true, but not in the sense you seem to mean. Plant and animal varieties are patentable whether they've been produced through GMO or through normal selective breeding, and this has been standard throughout the industry for decades. Blaming it on GMO or Monsanto is nonsense.

You seem to have forgotten something... http://www.tsenki.com/en/broadcast/broadcast/ http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/

A DC-8 broke the sound barrier (in a dive) in a test flight in 1961.

ULA are only going with BE-4 because it was already in development, similarly to how Delta IV is hydrolox because that's where most of the experience in the industry was post-shuttle. BO initiated it, and we know they are trying for full reusability.

Main advantage is coking is very limited, which is important for reuse. Cleaning out deposits would be very expensive, and missing some could be catastrophic.

I'm seeing some common myths in this thread, and I feel the need to respond. GMO crops are sterile This arises because of Monsanto's 'terminator' system, which was indeed designed to do this; development was voluntarily stopped and it has never been used outside of trials. Of course nothing ever dies in propaganda or the internet, so it still pops up ten years later. GMO allows for patents New plant varieties can be patented without GMO, and this has been standard for decades. It's a red herring. Farmers can be sued because of natural cross-pollination This is extremely dubious legally, but has actually not been tested in the US. The case that is typically bought up involved a farmer deliberately, by his own admission, selecting for plants pollinated with the modification, gathering seeds from those plants, and planting a near monoculture (95%) GMO. This involved willful violation of copyright, and this would apply with any patented strain GMO or not.

Anybody who moans about unnatural food should have to live off natural grass seeds and wild onions. Most of our crops are already practically unrecognisable as part of their parent species, and many have particularly freaky genetics already. Common wheat contains three otherwise compete genomes, one not even from the same genus, and you want to worry about a few genes?

Vulcan is a good name, it deserves to adorn a real rocket. Zeus is a bit weird due to the previous Jupiter missile; I'm pretty sure those are identical names in a lot of non-romance languages.

The ribcage is a lot tougher than that. People have survived exposure to vacuum.

1. Is there gravity in space? A. Yes 2. How high do you have to fly to reach space? B. 100 kilometers or E. 50 miles, depending on who you ask. FAA uses B, USAF uses E. 3. Which is larger? B. The Sun 4. What is the primary cause of heating during reentry? B. Compression 5. Which of these was the name of the program to land a human on the Moon? D. Apollo or E. L3 6. Who was the first human to go to space? A. Yuri Gagarin 7. Why did the Space Shuttle have wings? B. To land 8. What are Russian spaceflight personnel called? C. Cosmonauts 9. What is the name of the large, multinational, modular space station currently in orbit? C. The International Space Station 10. What year did humans first land on the Moon? A. 1969 11. What is the name of the largest object in the asteroid belt B. Ceres (Officially 1 Ceres) 12. How many moons does Mars have? C. Two 13. What was the name of the first animal to be sent into orbit? B. Laika 14. What is the closest star to Earth (not counting the Sun)? A. Proximi Centauri 15. What is the name of the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy? C. Sagittarius A* 16. How do stars produce heat and light? A. Fussion of hydrogen 17. Why do astronauts in orbit float? B. They're in freefall 18. What does NASA stand for? B. National Aeronautics and Space Administration 19. During Apollo 11, which astronaut stayed behind in Lunar orbit in the Command/Service Module while Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the Moon? B. Michael Collins Space History 1. What was the first man made object in space? B. A V2 missile 2. What was the name of the first animal in orbit? B. Laika 3. Who was the first human to go to space? A. Yuri Gagarin 4. Which of these was the name of the program to land a human on the Moon? D. Apollo or E. L3 5. What year did humans first land on the Moon? A. 1969 6. During the first Moon landing, which astronaut stayed behind in Lunar orbit in the Command/Service Module while Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the Moon? B. Michael Collins 7. What does NASA stand for? B. National Aeronautics and Space Administration 8. What are Russian spaceflight personnel called? C. Cosmonauts 9. What is the name of the large, multinational, modular space station currently in orbit? C. The International Space Station 10. What is the name of the Russian spacecraft used to transport astronauts and cosmonauts to orbit? A. Soyuz Astronomy 11. Which is larger? B. The Sun 12. What is the name of the largest asteroid in the asteroid belt? B. Ceres (Strictly 1 Ceres) 13. How many moons does Mars have? C. Two 14. Which of these stars is closest to Earth? A. Alpha Centauri 15. What is the name of the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy? C. Sagittarius A* 16. Which of these planets has a retrograde (clockwise when viewed from above the plane of the ecliptic) rotation? D. Venus 17. What comes next in this sequence: Io, Europa, Ganymede, _____? C. Callisto 18. What is the name of the massive anticyclonic storm that is Jupiter's most prominent feature? B. The Great Red Spot 19. A solar eclipse happens when ____? A. The Moon is between the Earth and the Sun 20. Who was the Italian astronomer who discovered Jupiter's four largest moons? B. Galileo Galilei Physics 21. Is there gravity in space? A. Yes 22. What is the altitude of the Kàrmàn line, the internationally accepted boundary between the upper atmosphere and outer space? B. 100 kilometers (62 miles) 23. What is the primary cause of heating during reentry? B. Compression 24. How do (main sequence) stars produce heat and light? A. Fusion of hydrogen 25. Why do astronauts in orbit float? B. They're in freefall 26. What is the lowest point in an orbit called? B. Periapsis 27. A spaceship is in a stable orbit. If it performs a short prograde burn at periapsis, what will happen to its orbit? A. The apoapsis will increase 28. What is a Hohmann transfer? B. An elliptical orbit used to transfer between two circular orbits in the same plane 29. What physical law do rocket engines use to produce thrust? C. Newton's Third Law of Motion 30. Approximately how fast must you travel to maintain a low orbit around the Earth? A. 8000 m/s (18000 mph) Edited to version 0.2.

Voting is going on inside ULA for a couple of additional names. So far are 'Zeus' and 'Vulcan'.

We can easily get samples from asteroids that have re-entered already; what we're after are pristine, primordial samples.

Expense. Very few people actually took the option when it was available, they were basically little more than status symbols most of their service lives. When you take into account all the checks and the fact they only flew into a few airports, they didn't shave much time off of most journeys in practice.

Next launch in ten minutes; https://youtu.be/ML2yMmdMGWc

http://www.ulalaunch.com/webcast.aspx Launch in 10 minutes.

Blatant strawman. The sued farmer had deliberately used roundup to select for resistant plants. The crop was over 95% GMO-you don't get that by accident.

I think every user or Twitch received this email. What a farce.

Oklo shows what happens if you have a large concentration of the compounds, with water available as a moderator, two billion years ago-when natural uranium had about four times the -235 content it has now. Natural uranium in it's current state will not produce fission without a very efficient moderator.