Results 91 to 120 of 142
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2020-09-20, 02:36 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Oct 2010
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Re: What is the deal with all the astronaut stuff we are getting?
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2020-09-20, 02:41 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jun 2004
- Location
- Everywhere you want to be
Re: What is the deal with all the astronaut stuff we are getting?
Those sound like good ideas. More good ideas include figuring out why we'd want to send humans to any particular spot in space. We've concluded that the Moon isn't a good place for mining because, due to the lack of tectonic activity, volcanoes, etc., substances aren't concentrated but are scattered more-or-less evenly throughout the Moon. So there aren't any veins of ore or similar resources worth mining. It would be cheaper and easier to find ways of extracting substances from unfavorable locations on Earth than to ever mine anything from the Moon.
Alignments are objective. Right and wrong are not.
Good: Will act to prevent harm to others even at personal cost.
Evil: Will seek personal benefit even if it causes harm to others.
Law: General, universal, and consistent trump specific, local, and inconsistent.
Chaos: Specific, local, and inconsistent trump general, universal, and consistent.
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2020-09-20, 03:56 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jun 2011
Re: What is the deal with all the astronaut stuff we are getting?
Why are you setting up self contained biospheres, if spaceflight is not a priority?
You seem to think space is "get there, then figure it out." I am hard pressed to think of anything that COULD be further from the truth. Everything DOES get figured out here on earth before it ever goes into space, because getting to space is so hard in the first place. But it is the INTENT to go to space that leads to pushing the boundaries of engineering.
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2020-09-20, 05:03 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Sep 2016
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2020-09-20, 05:15 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jul 2006
- Location
Re: What is the deal with all the astronaut stuff we are getting?
Numerous reasons. One of which is Spaceflight may be a long term goal but also things like greenhouses may be better way to grow food. Port in power from someplace else like the desert and then literally do vertical farming and so on. This in turn allow less farmland to be used and possibly allow us to recreate other ecosystems we may have destroyed such as forests and so on.
Scientists and Engineers may get this, but the general public and politicians do not. Once you start making people realize Space is not about out there, but creating a better life here we may get the industrial policy and sustainability stuff that I crave. I also think it allows more Space out there for Space out there problem is partly cost (there are dozens of other reasons.)
But if you do not focus on how to make Space cheap then no industrial policy will occur, it will be seen as wasted money. We only spent 3 years and 5 months sending people to the Moon and touching the lunar surface. Of course we did far more than that, but lots of those stuff was trial runs, robots, etc. I am for science exploration, rockets, etc, but lots of those things should not require people and doing people just makes everything more complicated, more expensive, wastes money, and delivers little benefit.
If the goal is humans in safe, research biospheres. If the goal is to explore space then more rockets and more robots. I tire of magical thinking that is all. Lots of space advocates are really just male fanboys who engage in magical thinking.Stupendous Man drawn by Linklele
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2020-09-20, 05:42 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Oct 2009
- Location
- In my library
Re: What is the deal with all the astronaut stuff we are getting?
Eh, I think my original punchline worked well. Troughton is pretty much the punchline Doctor for bad monsters, while the Hartnell years had some terrible moments with things like visible zips on the Sensorites and the Zarbi Troughton had stories where the monsters were invisible or some kind of invisible gas to help with saving money on costumes. Although at the same time his years brought us great effects work such as Ramon Salamander and apparently managing to make the rather silly Macra prop scary via angles, lighting, and mist. While I could punch at the years of my least favourite Doctors (*cough* new series Macra are much less scary *cough*) I find it's more enjoyable to poke fun at the shortcomings of some of my favourite years. 'They couldn't afford decent monsters, but could still sell it with the acting.'
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2020-09-20, 09:35 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Feb 2016
- Location
- Earth and/or not-Earth
- Gender
Re: What is the deal with all the astronaut stuff we are getting?
I made a webcomic, featuring absurdity, terrible art, and alleged morals.
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2020-09-20, 10:12 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jun 2011
Re: What is the deal with all the astronaut stuff we are getting?
Thing is, we know enough about biospheres for the medium term- not well enough for a perfectly sealed can with no resupply, but noone is planning perfectly sealed cans with no resupply for a long time. Apollo used big cans of powdered limestone, and that was enough to put men on the moon and bring them home, almost half a dozen times, plus several that didnt quite land. (8, 10, and 13, at least) The ISS goes months between resupply, and has a more elaborate system.
But what we can NOT test on earth is what not having an earth below us (or 70 miles of air above us, even if the pressure is right) does to the human body... and what can be done to mitigate that. And yes, we started with animal studies- dogs and apes, initially, before the first man ever went into space at all. There's mice expiriments in the ISS right now. But ultimately to find out what happens to people, you need to send people.
We now have decades of data on the human body in microgravity. The next question, is lunar and/or martian gravity. Like microgravity, we cant simulate that on earth. We can simulate it in LEO, but not in the same place we continue to test microgravity stuff. And ultimately, we need to test the difference between spin gravity and natural gravity.
But all that is science, not engineering. Science poses a question- what would happen if X, Y and Z? Engineering makes sure X and Y happens at Z and you can see the result... but if Z is space, you still have to go to space to do the science.
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2020-09-21, 01:40 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Sep 2016
Re: What is the deal with all the astronaut stuff we are getting?
I'll be watching the Sensorites this week (on a much bigger screen than the original broadcast, and with a rewind button).
As you say it's mostly true and a compliment (to Troughton at least), so I took it as being played straight.
Which lead to wanting to poke fun with the easy inversion, but not want to accredit any specific actor with bad acting (I do like them all, really).
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2020-09-21, 05:46 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jun 2004
- Location
- Everywhere you want to be
Re: What is the deal with all the astronaut stuff we are getting?
I think the Sixth Doctor is under-appreciated. Never got the chance to complete his development arc.
Alignments are objective. Right and wrong are not.
Good: Will act to prevent harm to others even at personal cost.
Evil: Will seek personal benefit even if it causes harm to others.
Law: General, universal, and consistent trump specific, local, and inconsistent.
Chaos: Specific, local, and inconsistent trump general, universal, and consistent.
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2020-09-22, 01:54 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Oct 2009
- Location
- In my library
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2020-09-22, 03:35 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Aug 2020
Re: What is the deal with all the astronaut stuff we are getting?
There's life Jim! But not as we know it...
https://www.scientificamerican.com/a...very-suggests/
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2020-09-24, 07:50 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jan 2007
- Location
- Switzerland
- Gender
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2020-09-24, 08:48 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Oct 2009
- Location
- In my library
Re: What is the deal with all the astronaut stuff we are getting?
My first experience with Colin Baker's Doctor was the audios. The first two with him weren't engaging, but by the second Evelyn story I was hooked, due to the mixture of him actually getting meaningful character development in them and Evelyn being an amazing companion and one of the few who isn't in awe of the Doctor. I actually started skipping other stories just for more Six and Evelyn.
Doctor Who really does need more companions in their fifties and older.
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2020-09-24, 02:10 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Aug 2017
- Location
- France
- Gender
Re: What is the deal with all the astronaut stuff we are getting?
Forum Wisdom
Mage avatar by smutmulch & linklele.
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2020-09-25, 08:53 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Oct 2009
- Location
- In my library
Re: What is the deal with all the astronaut stuff we are getting?
Colin Baker's doctor suffers from a variant of what happened to Paul McGann but arguably worse. McGann might be thought of as the guy who played the Doctor
oncetwice, but he's agreed to be a good Doctor. Colin Baker had a bad TV run, due to both behind the scenes drama and only getting to play the first half (at best, a third or a quarter is more likely) of his planned character arc. And like McGann he's significantly more popular with people who engage in the EU because he gets legitimately good stories there as well as completing his character arc.
Colin Baker got the traditional dodgy first season shared by most Doctors, and then never got his vastly improved second season due to the Trial of a Time Lord and being booted off the show (and not agreeing to come back for a regeneration story, but given how he was treated who can blame him).
Then again, I also quite like the technicolour nightmare coat, so I might not be the best judge of quality (although it might have worked better if the rest of the outfit had been simpler).
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2020-09-25, 09:17 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jan 2007
- Location
- Switzerland
- Gender
Re: What is the deal with all the astronaut stuff we are getting?
I don't know... I listened to a lot of the McGann audio stories, and his doctor never really clicked with me. I don't like him. Also, he has some utterly terrible stories. (Zagreus)
Resident Vancian Apologist
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2020-09-25, 09:55 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Oct 2009
- Location
- In my library
Re: What is the deal with all the astronaut stuff we are getting?
I've not listened to all of them, but they certainly clicked for me. But that wasn't my point for him, my point was that for people who only watch the TV series he's pretty much a footnote, having appeared in the Movie and Night of the Doctor but not anything else, whereas if you're into the EU there's a whole host of audios and novels starring him, I hear the books even give him a boyfriend! For him it's less about quality and more about prominence, to many he's the actor who 'played the Doctor once', although I have to admit to really quite liking the Eighth Doctor and Lucie stories.
Meanwhile Colin Baker did get a legitimately bad TV series run, but gets a quite frankly amazing run in the audios, at least partially due to his first audio-original companion being the best in any medium. It helps that there wasn't a need to build sets around the coat of many colours, but the Sixth Doctor audios tend to have the strong writing and engaging character development he needed (plus the Sixth Doctor gets Jubilee, one of the best DW serials ever).
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2020-09-26, 01:32 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Dec 2008
- Location
- Carlisle, Englund
- Gender
Re: What is the deal with all the astronaut stuff we are getting?
"Three blokes walk into a pub. One of them is a little bit stupid, and the whole scene unfolds with a tedious inevitability." - Bill Bailey
Androgeus' 3 step guide to Doctor Who speculation:
Spoiler- Pick a random character
- State that person is The Rani
- goto 1
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2020-09-26, 06:35 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Sep 2016
Re: What is the deal with all the astronaut stuff we are getting?
What came out of the Sensorite's (which I enjoyed), was how much the episodes from then, are like theatre (with recording breaks being 'expensive', and everything being week by week)
Audio wise I've liked the 7th Dr ones more, Protect&Survive breaks normalish Dr who and film conventions (not in unique ways, they are pretty much copying "where the wind blows" )
And Klein (with openly different motivations) & Rachel () are definitily different 'companions'.
Though I suspect that's more a question of which I've heard and when.
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2020-09-26, 08:06 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Feb 2015
Re: What is the deal with all the astronaut stuff we are getting?
Has Dr. Who ever done any astronaut stuff? I mean, with astronauts from 20th or 21st century Earth human space programs?
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2020-09-27, 02:24 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Oct 2009
- Location
- In my library
Re: What is the deal with all the astronaut stuff we are getting?
Yes, also much slower and action-light, which I personally enjoy.
Yes. Although not always realistically, because Doctor Who is from the period where the 21st century was comprised of space years. So you've got stuff like The Wheel In Space where we've got space stations with artificial gravity in the 21st century and weirdly mention of disagreements like those in this very thread leading to sabotage. But at the same tone you've got stuff like The Waters of Mars bl using more realistic 20th century space tech.
This is because the Time War destroyed the Raygun Gothic twenty first century we have to have and replaced it with the current version, or something like that. And took our 21st century space catsuits with it.
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2020-09-27, 02:27 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Aug 2017
- Location
- France
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Re: What is the deal with all the astronaut stuff we are getting?
Forum Wisdom
Mage avatar by smutmulch & linklele.
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2020-09-27, 06:11 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Sep 2016
Re: What is the deal with all the astronaut stuff we are getting?
The 1st Doctor's last episode is also spacey and very 'normal' for the first part.
The 4th Doctor also has at least one.
And some of the new ones ("waters of mars", "day of the moon" [historic], "kill the moon"[now you see why they don't do many... :grin: ])
Ironically as soon as we landed on the moon until we stopped the Doctor was earthbound... (with 4 or so Timelord shenanigans).
I think for most of the shows at the time, they were expecting to be now contemporary, it is Space 1999 and 2001 a Space Odyssey for a reason.
So back to the OP:
50 Year Anniversary (topical)
China,India&SpaceX missions give hope of new progress again, make it topical, and give need to Americanise the story
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2020-09-27, 07:04 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Oct 2009
- Location
- In my library
Re: What is the deal with all the astronaut stuff we are getting?
To be fair al to them, the first part of the Third Doctor's era was basically Doctor Who: the Quatermass years (I've not got to the Pertwee serials yet, still got an entire season of Troughton to go, but it's the clearest inspiration for the pre-Three Doctors Earthbound serials).
And yeah, The Tenth Planet is also a relatively realistic astronaut story (before the Cybermen show up), just focused on Mission Control instead of the astronauts themselves. But considering how many genres Doctor Who has dabbled in the lack of such a story would be more weird.
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2020-09-28, 11:12 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jun 2015
Re: What is the deal with all the astronaut stuff we are getting?
You are entitled a house. Everyone starving on Earth is entitled to food.
But Disney vacations every year are where I draw the line.
For humanity to stop and ultimately reverse climate change it will have to make incredible sacrifices. Those sacrifices include giving up CO2 emitting vacations.
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2020-09-28, 11:15 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jun 2015
Re: What is the deal with all the astronaut stuff we are getting?
One of the best documentaries I have ever seen!
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2020-09-28, 09:07 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jun 2011
Re: What is the deal with all the astronaut stuff we are getting?
The more money one has, the easier it is to make money.
Once basic needs are filled, additional money is little more than running up a score.
It is hard to find legitimate expenses that return that money back to the economy, especially since Regan eliminated the 90% tax bracket (and people like Sanders are called communist for wanting to restore the top bracket to 80%)
Space tourisim is something that can be done to offer billionares who have nothing else worth spending on, something not available for any lesser amount of money. The "vacation cost" pays for actual work being done by the company. It is not an advancement of science any more than going to an airshow advances the state of aeronautics design.
There is exactly one mars lander that has had any kind of serious design work behind it. The company making it is offering a joyride to a Japanese fashion designer billionaire and 11 of his friends, for extra money to develop their lander. They have also interested NASA in using a modified version of their mars lander on the moon, for the Artemis program. This has to be delivered by 2024.
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2020-09-29, 12:51 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Aug 2009
- Location
- Maryland
- Gender
Re: What is the deal with all the astronaut stuff we are getting?
I dunno about you, but if your plan requires me to give up things like entertainment and travel and be content with food and housing, I'm not interested in it.
Life isn't about just barely surviving.
Space travel as entertainment isn't a bad thing. It may not be super popular or affordable now, but there's nothing wrong with people taking inspiration from it.Last edited by Tyndmyr; 2020-09-29 at 12:52 PM.
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2020-09-30, 02:35 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Apr 2009
- Location
- Germany
Re: What is the deal with all the astronaut stuff we are getting?
People in Bangladesh and on the Maldives are also entitled to a house and food. Our entertainment can't continue to come at the cost of their bare necessities.
We are not standing on the shoulders of giants, but on very tall tower of other dwarves.
Spriggan's Den Heroic Fantasy Roleplaying