3x3

[gridlore]

lysana picked the following three icons and interests for me to explain to y'all. Normally, this is where I say "leave a comment, and I'll do the same for you!" but I'm either in a lot of pain or on heavy painkillers this week, so no guarantees about getting that done. Comment if you like.

The Icons:



This was taken from an article on MOUT (Military Operations in Urbanized Terrain) training. I liked it because it showed the intensity of a combat infantryman and, if you look closely, he's from the 3/75th Rangers. I use this as one of my "I'm talking about the military" icons.



This one is a panel from the webcomic Todd & Penguin. I've stopped reading it (the artist went in a direction that I really did not like) but Penguin is a classic three-year old. Very loving, trusting, and filled with wonder. Mr. Bear is a very good companion for him. I use this icon on those rare occasions when I need a hug, or for posts about bears.



OK, it's a cat macro. Made by a friend from a picture of his cat leaping around the room (the MAC-10 was added later) I just loved the Matrix-kitty feel of this one. You can almost hear the thudding techno soundtrack. I use this one when I feel like it.

The Interests:

areology Areology is the study of Mars, specifically Mars' physical makeup and "geology." Mars is a fascinating place, and obviously was once warmer and wetter with an active core. Sadly, it's smaller volume means it lost that core heat much fast and the engines that keep our oceans and atmosphere going died out billions of years ago. Still, there might be some residual heat at the core (which would explain the evidence of water flows we've discovered.) Mars is also a world of extremes. Gigantic shield volcanoes that could swallow Everest without a trace, a canyon system that would from NYC to LA.. so much to learn!

beanstalks Also known as space elevators; beanstalks are a low cost method of moving heavy cargo into orbit. Rather than wasteful rockets, your cargo is placed on a crawler that climbs a ribbon that stretches from the Earth station all the way out to geosynchronous orbit. Power is beamed to the crawler using lasers until it clears atmosphere then solar cells take over. After the cargo is offloaded (and that's simple, the cargo platform is pretty much a that.. a platform you secure packages on with netting) you can either transfer the crawler to a second ribbon for the trip back down to to Earth (hopefully with a paying cargo) or use the crawler to expand the base at the top end of the beanstalk. There's a company, LiftPort Group that plans to have their first load moving on October 27, 2031.

nwobhm New Wave Of British Heavy Metal. When the firsts wave of British metal bands began to fade or move into other genres in the late 70s, there came a huge wave of new metal bands. Heavily influenced by the London punk scene, these bands loud, fast, and in many cases overtly political. There were literally thousands of them, and just as many EPs and bootlegs. Many nwobhm records are considered collectibles know, and some are quite valuable. The only known copy of Hollow Ground's only recording sold at auction for several thousand pounds recently. The two most notable bands to come out of the nwobhm scene were Iron Maiden and Def Leppard. After a couple of years, the metal scene shifted to California with then rise of bands like Metallica and Motley Crue.

Comments

[chaotic-nipple.livejournal.com]

Re: Beanstalks: Sadly, with the relatively slow crawlers that Liftport plans to use, the amount of shielding required to protect a human passenger during the trip thru the Van Allen belts would be prohibitively heavy. Looks like passengers will still be riding rockets. :-P

[gridlore.livejournal.com]

Which isn't a huge loss. Figure the original SSTO goal of 10,000lbs. to orbit. For ease of calculation, will assign each passenger an average mass of 500lbs total (body, couch, life support for the trip, etc.)

This gives us a lift of 20 passengers in each SSTO. With the projected 3-day turnaround, every SSTO, freed from cargo duty, can make 5 lifts a month (3 days in orbit doing transfers, three day turnaround on the ground)

That's 100 people a month to LEO. From there OTVs (built using parts lifted by beanstalk) can mover them to where ever they are needed. That's for one SSTO. Build ten, and you have a thousand people a month moving back and forth between the ground and orbit. Meanwhile, the beanstalk is carrying all the heavy materials (like water) up to where it is needed.

As a comparison, the first widely used commercial airliner, the Douglas DC-3, carried between 21 and 32 passengers. At the peak of its popularity, over 7,000 were in use. Imagine 7,000 SSTO ships ferrying up almost a million people to orbit while dozens of beanstalks send up needed goods and bring back the fruits of zero-g industries.

[bdunbar.livejournal.com]

the amount of shielding required to protect a human passenger during the trip thru the Van Allen belts would be prohibitively heavy.

It's not just the weight of shielding. It's also requiring a life-support system for X people for x days. That stuff takes up weight and room aboard the lifter. We don't think we can compete on price.

And there is insurance for passengers aboard a new and rarely tried launch system ...

Consider that a successful space elevator company could subsidize manned space flights to orbit ...

[blackfyr.livejournal.com]

Just so you have a little a musement during your down time, I would like to bring to your attention this little comic I just found about some penguin - Vikodin (http://vikodin.comicgenesis.com/)