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Post by Weyland on Feb 5, 2011 19:14:01 GMT
Coming it a bit strong there. O.K. Let's say we do without banks. What will you do with your money? Stuff it under the matress? Let's say we do without lawyers. What happens when you need representing in court ;D, or when you sell your house I'm not saying we can do without banks and lawyers and accountants. I'm saying that those jobs should be just like any other semi-skilled, or even -- let's be generous -- skilled job. That's what they are, and I am being generous. Investment bankers, stock traders, hedge-fund managers, and the rest -- it's better than working. That's their gift.
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Post by Weyland on Feb 27, 2011 1:47:58 GMT
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Post by trubble on Feb 27, 2011 20:54:04 GMT
I think - in fact I am 95% certain - that I have just seen the International Space Station! It was travelling, pretty damn quick, overhead and looked like venus at its brightest but moved along the trajectory of a satellite; appeared and vanished like a satellite too! It was beautiful. I didn't know what it was but it was absoutely beautiful. I saw it at about 7pm. For about 4 minutes. From North West to South East (roughly). It is visible until the first week of March so you can see it too. I don't know how the orbit works but I suppose it will be later tomorrow maybe 20 minutes or 90 minutes later. Have a look. And that means I also saw the shuttle. Updated: Sunday, 27 Feb 2011, 12:12 PM EST Published : Sunday, 27 Feb 2011, 12:12 PM EST
(NewsCover) - HOUSTON, Texas -- The US shuttle Discovery docked Saturday for its final visit at the orbiting International Space Station, where all five of the world's participating space agencies now have vehicles or equipment.
"This is the first time all visiting vehicles have something represented," NASA mission control in Houston said, after the oldest and most heavily traveled US shuttle linked up with the space outpost 220 miles (350km) over Western Australia.
Japan's HTV vehicle, Russia's Progress and Soyuz craft, the European ATV-2 supply ship and the Canadian Dextre robot are all there, NASA said.
Discovery arrived in spectacular fashion, with American commander Steve Lindsey executing a "rendezvous pitch maneuver," a one-degree-per-second rotational back flip, before mooring at the space lab.
The act of latching on caused quite a stir at the crowded lab.
Discovery's orbiter and payload at launch weighed 268,620 pounds (121,843kg), and the shuttle's arrival caused a rocking-the-boat motion on the orbiting station that took about 45 minutes to smooth out.
"A hard mate between Discovery and the station was delayed to 3:04pm ET while relative motions between the spacecraft dampened out," NASA said in a Twitter message.
The mass of the floating ISS is now a whopping 1.2 million pounds (540,000kg), NASA said.
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Post by Weyland on Feb 28, 2011 10:58:24 GMT
I think - in fact I am 95% certain - that I have just seen the International Space Station! Thanks, Trubs — if it's clear I'll be watching this evening. It says it'll be visible for about two minutes from here (mid-Wales). Doesn't seem logical, but I suppose NASA should know. ISS Mon Feb 28 / 07:29 PM 2 67 25 above WSW 53 above SE [Forecast says Partly Cloudy.]
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Post by trubble on Feb 28, 2011 15:42:52 GMT
Aha! Thank you, oh clever one. Nasa. Good idea.
Top of the list for sightings from Dublin was mine. Superb. Best night to see it by the looks of things. That makes me even more lucky! What a coup.
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Post by Weyland on Feb 28, 2011 19:42:10 GMT
Aha! Thank you, oh clever one. Nasa. Good idea. Top of the list for sightings from Dublin was mine. Superb. Best night to see it by the looks of things. That makes me even more lucky! What a coup. 100% cloud here at the crucial moment. I had two (2) cameras at the ready, one of them with a 500mm lens, motor drive, and mounted on a tripod.
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Post by trubble on Feb 28, 2011 22:32:46 GMT
Sorry about that. You have a week though! I don't know what sort of photo you could take. It's moving very fast and it's very far away... I saw it again. It wasn't as near/low or as bright as last night but still very bright and quite beautiful. Arrived and left bang on time. Those NASA lot know their stuff. My time was 7.28, by the way. So now we know how long it takes to travel from mine to yours if we all travelled by space station. That's good. You never know when this information will come in handy.
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Post by Weyland on Mar 1, 2011 8:18:25 GMT
My time was 7.28, by the way. So now we know how long it takes to travel from mine to yours if we all travelled by space station. That's good. You never know when this information will come in handy. That's all very well, but does it have a bar on board, and proper tapas?
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Post by riotgrrl on Mar 1, 2011 10:04:21 GMT
Humans should never have gone to space. We should have left it alone. It serves no purpose.
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Post by Weyland on Mar 1, 2011 11:22:46 GMT
Humans should never have gone to space. We should have left it alone. It serves no purpose. Cobblers. I shall leave you to the Wrath of Alph.
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Post by trubble on Mar 1, 2011 11:24:02 GMT
www.aero.org/publications/crosslink/fall2006/backpage.htmlAnother Apollo-era technology that has found terrestrial applications is metallized plastic film. The first large-scale application of this technology was in Echo I, launched in 1960. Echo, the first passive communications satellite, was essentially a huge balloon of aluminized Mylar polyester film. While metallized plastic films had been produced for decorative purposes on a small scale for years, the market was limited before the aerospace industry took an interest.
Researchers soon produced a double-sided fabric for the manned space program that became NASA's most widely used insulator. This radiant-barrier technology was initially designed to protect against the intense heating of reentry, but soon found applications on satellites in orbit, in space suits, and around sensitive instruments. The orbital environment experiences temperatures ranging from nearly absolute zero to more than 260°C; conventional insulation on a space suit would have required a layer 2 meters thick; clearly, the radiant-barrier material has been a real enabling technology for the space program.
Terrestrial applications were rapidly developed—most notably, the "space blanket" that weighs a few ounces and reflects and retains 80 percent of the user's body heat. Its insulating properties are life-saving, and its small size makes it perfect for emergency kits. Single-sided metallized tear-resistant fabrics are used for all-weather clothing, enabling the wearer to retain heat on cold days and reflect sunlight on hot days. Radiant-barrier fabrics are also widely used in protective apparel for firefighters.
Also, it keeps Alph off the streets.
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Post by Weyland on Mar 1, 2011 21:32:52 GMT
Cloud again today. I'll keep trying.
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Post by Weyland on Mar 2, 2011 19:35:39 GMT
Sorry about that. You have a week though! I don't know what sort of photo you could take. It's moving very fast and it's very far away... Got it at last. Wonderful! This is the best shot I got, out of ten or more . . . Still, at least you can see the Shuttle clearly, bottom right. A bit rusty, true, but then it's not exactly a 2011 model.
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Post by riotgrrl on Mar 2, 2011 20:16:03 GMT
Wow Weyland, you captured every little detail . . .
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Post by riotgrrl on Mar 2, 2011 20:16:39 GMT
See, humans shouldn't have gone to space. There's no point.
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Post by Weyland on Mar 2, 2011 20:59:18 GMT
Wow Weyland, you captured every little detail . . . Limited signed and numbered edition available for Stub members only: €120.+VAT Framed: €240+VAT. On black velvet: €60+VAT extra. [By the way, just to put it in perspective, the view is from a distance of about 300km, of a fast-moving object, shot with a camera anyone can buy at Comet for not much more than £100. And I'd had a couple of beers. And it's all thanks to information from Trubs as well.]
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Post by Weyland on Mar 2, 2011 21:00:57 GMT
See, humans shouldn't have gone to space. There's no point. Alph!ALPH!!
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Post by aubrey on Mar 2, 2011 22:06:17 GMT
There is a point. We have to colonise hundreds of planets. Terraforming first, then moving in.
You move down one level of civilisation when you go to a new planet. We need a lot of time - hundreds, thousands, of years. But there is a point. Our descendants will thank us for it (they will not thank us for anything else.
Did anyone here know that Isla, She Wolf of the SS was filmed on the sets of Hogan's Heroes?
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Post by riotgrrl on Mar 3, 2011 8:28:10 GMT
You move down one level of civilisation when you go to a new planet. We need a lot of time - hundreds, thousands, of years. But there is a point. Our descendants will thank us for it (they will not thank us for anything else. I don't care about my descendants; they never phone unless they want money.
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Post by trubble on Mar 3, 2011 9:00:04 GMT
I like it! I've seen it every night, and the first was the best. The night before last, it disappeared mid-flight so you missed nothing. However, I think I saw it twice, the earlier sighting being in daylight and so no doubt NASA thought I wouldn't see it and so hadn't listed it. But I am canny. I stood waiting for it the other night; like you wait in the airport to see an old friend walk through arrivals. I am going to miss it when it's gone.
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