For Questions That Don't Merit Their Own Thread

[DDE]

3 hours ago, ARS said:

In many sci-fi settings, there's a lot of plot points of mining asteroid or planet to satisfy the demand of precious metals, and just now, I saw an article about 2 high-density ore asteroid that's supposedly could satisfy global demand of precious metal. If we take a real-life logic to this situation, is it worth setting up a space mining operation (orbital operations, spaceflight, the mining, and logistic transport) for ores with jacked up market price just to satisfy economic demand? (assuming that space travel is still limited, like today)

https://thespacereview.com/article/3586/1

[kerbiloid]

1 hour ago, DDE said:

https://thespacereview.com/article/3586/1

Wondering if there is 100 g of gold in the depicted rock or 200 g.

The smaller the asteroid - the less money it contains to pay for the mission.

The larger it is - the deeper the treasures are.

[wumpus]

8 hours ago, K^2 said:

The underlying problem is not transportation, but the die shortage. There are only so many factories in the world capable of processing silicone wafers into chips of various quality. The process is energy, resource, labor, and equipment intensive. That means that coming up short on even one of these can cause problems. COVID has acted as a catalyst for a perfect storm of shortages across the sector, and now the demand has backed up. The problem is that absolutely everyone with need for a high end chip is competing over the same manufacturing capacity. PC and console components (RAM, CPU, GPU, SSDs...), cell phones, car computers, components for servers, routers, and gateways, and a bunch of other tech you might not even think of in day-to-day. Some of the lower end stuff can be shifted to older processes, but a lot of it can't simply because it was designed with more modern components in mind. The recent releases of new generations of consoles, GPUs, and CPUs kind of matched up to bring the problem to the attention of the consumer, but just because demand for these died down a bit and supply had a chance to catch up a little, doesn't mean the problem went away. On the contrary, we are expecting the situation with some of the existing manufacturing to get worse, as some areas are now also impacted by draught, labor shortages, and potentially makes it difficult to replace some of the equipment used on production lines.

There are new facilities being built, and supply will eventually catch up. But some people expect another year or two of shortages and outrageous component prices.

Except that the "silicon shortage" has caught up to the list prices of CPUs from when the shortages started, RAM is below that, and SSDs are reasonably close as well (all of these are basically buying silicon dice).  The only issue is trying to find any old stock (mostly picked clean during the shortages) so you are pretty much stuck with the latest and fairly expensive (although a new Intel i3 should be reasonable).

GPUs cost at least twice what they did before the shortages started.  Nothing else comes close.

[kerbiloid]

 

A flat red spot.

[DDE]

29 minutes ago, kerbiloid said:

 

A flat red spot.

TIL Jupiter is made of lava.

[mikegarrison]

[kerbiloid]

1 hour ago, DDE said:

TIL Jupiter is made of lava.

It's not just made of lava.

It's a cryogenic spinning lava lamp.

***

Saturn, too. And that's why it has a hexagonal nut on top. A counterfeit analog, cheap assembly.

Edited October 29, 2021 by kerbiloid

[magnemoe]

2 hours ago, kerbiloid said:

 

A flat red spot.

Thought the same 350 km deep. 40.000 km wide, making it over 100 times wider than thick, if it was one meter wide it would be less than an cm thick. 
Makes it weird it lasted so long  
 

[kerbiloid]

11 minutes ago, magnemoe said:

Makes it weird it lasted so long 

Imho, makes to think that it's a cloud of colored smoke above something much bigger or much deeper.
Like a piece of something is lying below, causes a whirl like a rock in the river and paints it with color.

Some sunk Titan.

Edited October 29, 2021 by kerbiloid

[JoeSchmuckatelli]

Juno is cool.  Looking forward to a new 'National Geographic' special on its discoveries. 

[kerbiloid]

Finally NASA has installed the KSP version with Jool dynamic clouds.

[StrandedonEarth]

4 hours ago, kerbiloid said:

Imho, makes to think that it's a cloud of colored smoke above something much bigger or much deeper.

It’s from the exhaust stack of Jovian industry…

[JoeSchmuckatelli]

Throwback to middle school science question about microscope use:

I sent the kids to the nearby creek to gather water samples intending to show them what kind of critters live in the water.  I put a drop on a slide and covered it with a glass sheet... And then nothing.  We did not find anything interesting. 

This contrasts with my 35 year old memories of doing this in school - where we found lots of critters. 

Am I missing a step?  Do I need some kind of contrast added to the drop? 

Anyone know off hand or remember how to do this? 

[kerbiloid]

40 minutes ago, JoeSchmuckatelli said:

I sent the kids to the nearby creek to gather water samples intending to show them what kind of critters live in the water.  I put a drop on a slide and covered it with a glass sheet... And then nothing.  We did not find anything interesting. 

The water should be taken right near the coastal mud.

Also you can try the fish live food, microscopic crustacea (daphnes and cyclopes) from a pet shop.

[StrandedonEarth]

44 minutes ago, JoeSchmuckatelli said:

Am I missing a step?  Do I need some kind of contrast added to the drop? 

Anyone know off hand or remember how to do this? 

Try stagnant or at least standing water, instead of running water? Sounds like the creek was too clean for your purposes,  

[Shpaget]

Decaded ago, when I was but a wee lad and did the same experiment, I put some dirt, straw and whatnot in the water and let it sit on a window sill for a few days.

There were plenty of creepy crawlies swimming about.

[JoeSchmuckatelli]

Okay - so no die needed.  Just dirtier water.

Thanks fellers.

[JoeSchmuckatelli]

For those interested in virgin births:

https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2021/10/california-condors-are-capable-virgin-birth/620517/

 

[JoeSchmuckatelli]

Also tonight is a good chance for aurora in the north 

https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/products/aurora-30-minute-forecast

https://weather.com/science/space/video/northern-lights-could-be-seen-by-millions-this-weekend

 

[kerbiloid]

6 hours ago, JoeSchmuckatelli said:

For those interested in virgin births:

https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2021/10/california-condors-are-capable-virgin-birth/620517/

 

With such face, I'm not surprised.

Spoiler

 

[StrandedonEarth]

8 hours ago, kerbiloid said:

With such face, I'm not surprised.

  Hide contents

 

I was reminded of THe Dark Crystal, but that guy is downright handsome in comparison...

[JoeSchmuckatelli]

31 minutes ago, StrandedonEarth said:

I was reminded of THe Dark Crystal, but that guy is downright handsome in comparison...

I always thought this was Mark Hamill, but he's only in the prequel:

 

Edited October 31, 2021 by JoeSchmuckatelli

[ARS]

I wanna ask some stuff about Outer Space Treaty:

1. If country A build a moonbase, then country B landed a rocket nearby and also build their own moonbase. Both (technically) didn't violate each other's territory since it was a neutral territory to begin with (and as long as they behave peacefully with each other)

2. Since the OST only specify WMDs and nukes that's prohibited to be placed in orbit, that means regular ballistic weapon (cannons, railguns, autocannons) and non-WMD weapons (missiles) are still allowed right?

3. If a country didn't participate in the OST (non-parties), does it mean they are exempt from the WMD rule? (aka, they can place nukes and WMDs in orbit)

4. What actually constitutes as contaminating space? Does a spent shell casings, discarded booster rockets, defunct satellites and missed railgun shot that continually travels out of solar system count as 'contaminating' it?

5. If we take a sci-fi tech such as phase technology (i.e technology that allows phasing between realspace and phasespace) and place a nuke in phasespace, technically it isn't a violation of OST right? (since the nuke isn't in realspace (actual space))

[DDE]

15 minutes ago, ARS said:

2. Since the OST only specify WMDs and nukes that's prohibited to be placed in orbit, that means regular ballistic weapon (cannons, railguns, autocannons) and non-WMD weapons (missiles) are still allowed right?

Emphatically. There are two ways to bypass this rule: through avoiding "placement" (e.g.. FOBS isn't permanently stationed in space) and through avoiding "WMD" (e.g. kinetic Rods from God). Russia and China presently want to close the WMD loophole by prohibiting the placement of any weapons into space.

ASAT on the ground ready to launch at a moment's notice is fine tho /s

[kerbiloid]

The OST was just a constatation of the fact that to that date no party was able to perform an economically achievable military space fortification, so everyone officially refrains from trolling others with fake attempts, until the future technological progress makes to review the treaty provisions.

To the current date the parties are still competing with 3d models. 

Probably, in 2040s they will return and review the treaty.

And as we can see right now, the peaceful cooperation in space is possible.

https://www-interfax-ru.translate.goog/business/800798?_x_tr_sl=ru&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=ru&_x_tr_pto=nui