lajoswinkler

Why? (10char)

Are people running around and shouting "TORNAAADEEERRRR!!!" ? Any photos? How low is the atmospheric pressure?

Have you watched the newest Cosmos? The authors depicted Venera 13 probe in a totally bad shape, as it was melted and corroded. There is no reason for that. The surface does not have corrosive properties for alloys used on the lander. Sulfuric acid never reaches the ground, and the traces of corrosive chemicals form a passivated layer of products, disabling further corrosion. Either this is a subtle propaganda, or the people working on this didn't do their job right...

Water ice boulders contaminated with regular rocks, sand, probably bunch of silt, and maybe some organic minerals. No life at cryogenic temperatures. Maybe microbes, but only deep below the sea bottom, where it's warmer. We don't know about the transparency of Titan's seas. They seem to absorb near infrared quite strongly, but that doesn't tell us a lot about what we'd see on those shores. It's liquid methane and ethane, so if pure, it would be transparent, but it's not pure. It's a nonpolar cryogenic solution of organic chemicals made by photolysis in the upper atmosphere. It might be blood red for all we know. Maybe transparent red, maybe opaque, maybe dichroic? We can't tell.

Not nearly enough energy. Just look at the energy hogs our phones have become. You need to charge them every day if you use them often. I'm seriously considering buying a solar charger for mine, because I don't want to stay stranded somewhere. You can't go on a one day trip into the wilderness with these phones. They're a disaster.

I don't understand what's so confusing about Curse. You go to www.curse.com, and there is KSP among featured games. http://kerbal.curseforge.com Bam. KSP. You go to projects, and you have mods and shareables. Unlike insane Spaceport, which mashed all together, had copies and didn't display download count (just to mention the obvious flaws), Curse has a user friendly interface. http://www.curse.com/ksp-mods/kerbal It's all there, plenty of info. I must say, when people started bashing Curse, I was like: "Hey, this must suck worse than Spaceport", and when I went there I was like: "I don't get it, this is perfectly fine". I yet have to read one argument why is Spaceport better. I'm craving for it.

It's fashionable to be against Curse. I don't get it. Angst?

Deep Impact in your pants.

There is a crooked campaign by some individuals online, indeed. It's powered by hype and the need to be different, very closely related to quack population. Thorium has its own advantages and disadvantages over uranium, and "they wanted uranium because of bombs!" is not the sole or the most important reason behind the fact we use uranium. And RTG... that will never enter general citizen application. It would be a radiological disaster waiting to happen even if it was cheap enough, and it's far from cheap. The problem is - you can't scale it. A digital quartz watch consumes extremely small amounts of energy compared to a smartphone. So... it's not genius. It's *genius* Those levers and stuff like that... nope. Too weak. It would not heat to those temperatures. The only reason you see those photos of incadescent pieces is because they were testing them. Scientists would cover the pieces with a thermal insulator and wait for quite some time (hours, probably) until the heat would build up sufficiently to cause glowing. You'd have to remove the heat in order to make it efficient, but it would not be very hot under normal handling. It would be warm to the touch.

Flubber in your pants.

Duel in your pants.

Also: Pu238: Heat engine is efficient as the heat transfer is. Unless that phone has a large metallic radiator on its back, it would overheat or at least have lower efficiency than expected. In addition to that, daughter products emit gamma rays which would induce damage, at least to the camera sensor. Solar power: Getting rid of the heat would be a huge problem. Batteries would quickly die if they were subjected to such stress every day. Shake charged: Damage to accelerometer and camera focusing mechanism. Possibly this, too.

Also, this. http://phys.org/news/2014-04-ancient-egyptians-pyramid-stones-sand.html

You're missing a point. You can't have a nuclear reactor the size of a smartphone battery. You need a pile of the fissionable material, or else you have no criticality.

Those problems are an engineer's task. An archaeologist can be of assistance, but you need a structural engineer for that. None of these problems exist and they've all been explained to this date. You, too, should avoid stupid History channel, because it's pseudohistory propaganda, and not history.

No, what thunderf00t said is exactly a set of obstacles that can't be avoided. I was waiting for someone to make that video because I was facepalming so hard when douchebags started spreading the original viral video around. It's unbelieveably stupid. Those roads not only present impossible technological problems, but also try to violate the basic thermodynamic principles. thunderf00t explained it brilliantly with such clear arguments. The whole solar power electrical business is poorly feasible (or not at all) outside highly insolated areas, let alone a road covered with tempered glass which would be a driving hazard. The whole thing is not comparable to Wright brothers, to Galileo or any other token guy out there that people like to pull out from their sleeves when they're faced with arguments.

You can't power a phone using thorium alone. Not oxide, not metallic. It's not a suitable atom like you have in RTGs, where isotope of plutonium alpha-decays like mad and creates heat. You could use thorium in a chemical battery, but it would be shortlasting. Thorium has similar chemical reactivity like lithium. But nuclear, no. Won't happen. Also, rays emanating from thorium samples (metal, oxide, chloride, etc.) can't be blocked by an aluminium foil. Thorium and its products emanate gamma-rays. You need few centimetres of lead to attenuate that sufficiently. So, no thorium phones, no thorium cars. Can't happen. I don't know what you mean by those impulses, but there are chargers that use body motion and body heat, but they are used to slow down the battery discharge. They can't power the phone because those energy sources are too weak. I don't think you know what zero point energy is, or in fact how energy behaves. There's a reason why it's called zero point.

Of course no. There are no traces of such civilization, and there simply wasn't enough time for them to evolve, assuming we're talking about a species that emerged on Earth, and not some visitors that were settling here because of reasons. The archaeological records undoubtedly support the current scientific consensus about the evolution of our species and civilization. There simply aren't any physical remnants of anyone more advanced than us and there would have to be. Some artificial materials degrade very slowly. Radioisotope distribution and composition in nature before explosion of Trinity were consistent and did not indicate of any artificial radioisotope production before that. Any civilization more advanced than us would leave such remnants. That's bull****, times two. Not only they aren't aligned like that, but their precision is not stunning, and it can be replicated today. All they needed was enough people. You'd be surprised what superstition and slavery are capable of. To them, pharaohs were live embodiments of deities. Living gods on Earth. I'd suggest you to stop watching pseudoscientific shows and channels like History channel, and to learn stuff from proper sources.

After a period of throwing up, I'd put The Blue Danube on the speakers and then spin like guys on Skylab, among other stuff I've set spinning. Then I'd throw up some more.

Manned mission to the surface of Venus?

That's why they should wear teeth protectors and keep their mouths shut during the landing.

The booster on Soyuz capsule is used to cushion the fall. You can get out alive without it, but you'll be bruised and you might get a brain concussion.

The station is in orbit around Ablate, and I have noted delta-v data for future efforts of others. I've started with more than 24 km/s in LKO, equatorial orbit. After several firings at periapsis, the station was able to free of Kerbin's influence. First inclination correction took 808 m/s. First periapsis lowering took 3917 m/s. Inclination correction 43 m/s. Second periapsis lowering 2000 m/s. Inclination correction 10 m/s. First apoapsis lowering took 2826 m/s. Second apoapsis lowering 2294 m/s. Third apoapsis lowering 2578 m/s. Fourth apoapsis lowering 5091 m/s. By this time, station was in approximately 700,000 km orbit around Kerbol, less than 50,000 km difference from Ablate. This is a must, otherwise you'll never catch it, and you'll be spending fuel chasing it around. Lowering periapsis for rendezvous took 516 m/s. Lowering apoapsis for capture took 532 m/s. Correction of orbit to approx. 10 km took 67 m/s. No inclination correction was made. Resulting inclination is around 45°. Delta-v requirement in my case, from the edge of Kerbin's SOI, to an established 10 km orbit around Ablate is 20682 m/s. Doing all this in one shot is next to impossible to me, so I've had to resort to building a station armed with huge amounts of fuel in LKO. As you can see, the station has no large solar panels. It doesn't have to, being this close to Kerbol. With 3211 m/s left, I could land and launch the whole station several times, but I'll use it for emergency rescue of Kerbals. Now a returnable ship with a lander needs to be built. I don't think I'm up to that. With Deadly Reentry installed, I couldn't rely on aerocapture. Anything thrown at such incredible speeds at Kerbin would be vaporized. I think I'll have to resort to Kethane, something I have zero experience with.

Well, then it's about your taste. I don't think it's wrong. It's your taste. I think it would be a disaster to remake it. The director who'd even speak about it would be utterly shunned by the academia. It's simply one of those movies you don't remake. Ever. I'd like to see "2001" on big screen, but chances for that are slim. Maybe, if someone made a total digital restoration and enchanced the sound, it would be a big hit, but honestly, I have doubts about that. Hollywood has raised a pathetic global audience that readily gulps down crap it produces in copious amounts. Nassault did something similar to what you're mentioning.

"The end of decades long LEO exploration occured when, stunned by the smell and thus lacking proper judgment, a newbie astronaut caressly opened the window."