Jack William Bell @jackwilliambell@rustedneuron.com
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Whenever you are past the edge, out in the wind, look for me.
Joined Aug 2018
> See the First Images NASA’s Juno Took As It Sailed by Ganymede. https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/see-the-first-images-nasa-s-juno-took-as-it-sailed-by-ganymede
> NASA’s Mars helicopter had a midair brain fart. Ingenuity made frantic attempts to correct ‘phantom errors’ based on glitchy navigation data. https://www.theverge.com/2021/5/28/22457316/nasa-ingenuity-mars-helicopter-navigation-glitch-sixth-flight
I really feel for Ingenuity here. I mean, I know exactly what it's like to get up, walk across the room, suddenly realize I forgot why, start back, stop, turn around, and then finally just give up and collapse on the floor in a confused heap.
Don't you?
> When a Mars Simulation Goes Wrong. A recent mission atop a Hawaiian volcano shows humans still have much to learn before they set foot on another world. https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/06/mars-simulation-hi-seas-nasa-hawaii/553532/
People love the idea of colonizing Mars; often either ignoring or hand waving away the dangers of living on a planet inhospitable to life as we know it, six or more months away from help if things go wrong.
Thing is? We can't even figure out how to *pretend* we are living on Mars safely…
> SpinCalc, an artificial-gravity calculator in JavaScript. https://www.artificial-gravity.com/sw/SpinCalc/
Useful little #webtool for those of us who write #ScienceFiction
Yesterday a very brave man passed away. RIP Allan McDonald.
> The Challenges of Building Human Habitats in #Space. https://interestingengineering.com/the-challenges-of-building-human-habitats-in-space
> NASA’s Mars Perseverance Rover Provides Front-Row Seat to Landing, First Audio Recording of Red Planet. https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-s-mars-perseverance-rover-provides-front-row-seat-to-landing-first-audio
Literally the first time any human being has heard what it sounds like to be on another planet. How cool is that?
Encyclopedia Astronautica. http://www.astronautix.com/
There's a lot of great information here! History of #space flight, specs and data for space vehicles, details on propellants and engines, and more.
> A newly discovered space object called 'Farfarout' is the most distant thing in our solar system. https://www.businessinsider.com/astronomers-discover-solar-system-most-distant-object-farfarout-2021-2
Far out, man!
> Where Are All the Tiny Black Holes? The discovery of a celestial “unicorn” that’s just a slim 2.9 solar masses may help unravel a mystery that has long puzzled astronomers. https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2021/01/tiny-black-holes-mass-gap/617866/
The One Place on the #Space Station Astronauts Aren’t Supposed to Clean. https://www.universetoday.com/149727/the-one-place-on-the-space-station-astronauts-arent-supposed-to-clean/
> Humans could move to this floating asteroid belt colony in the next 15 years, astrophysicist says. Should we build a 'megasatellite' of human habitats around the dwarf planet Ceres? It's more plausible than it sounds. https://www.livescience.com/megasatellite-colony-ceres-oneill-cylinder.html
I'm a longtime fan of colonizing asteroid instead of Mars. After all, why fight your way out of a deep gravity well, only to go back down into another one? And the engineering challenges are nearly equivalent.
Holy Fuck!
> There Is No Secret Underground Base on Mars. https://slate.com/culture/2020/12/mars-base-haim-eshed-galactic-federation-debunked-no-need-to-look-into-it-further.html?via=recirc_recent
Oh, wait… They said 'no'. 'No Secret Underground Base…'
Sorry. Please return to your previous Fediversing.
> Spent Rockets Are Dangerous Space Trash, but They Could Be the Future of Living and Working in Orbit. “It’s remarkable how little we still know about #manufacturing in #space after 70 years.” https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2020/11/spent-rockets-are-dangerous-space-trash-but-they-could-be-the-future-of-living-and-working-in-orbit/
Mystery of Interstellar Visitor ‘#Oumuamua Gets Trickier. Aliens? Or a chunk of solid hydrogen? Which idea makes less sense? https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/mystery-of-interstellar-visitor-oumuamua-gets-trickier/
It appears the 'natural object' explanations for Oumuamua aren't passing the Occam's Razor test; instead getting more and more complicated in order to support the known facts.
Cool, cool… I've been team "Discarded Solar Sail' for a long time now anyway.
Crash course in #hacking satellites. https://nyan-sat.com/chapter0.html
Lot's to read here. Looks interesting as hell.
After 30 years of searching, astroboffins finally detect the universe's 'missing matter' – using fast radio bursts. https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/05/29/fast_radio_matter/
This isn't 'dark matter', but rather detritus left over from the Big Bang which never coalesced into stars and galaxies.
If they can get a good measurement of how much there is out there in the universe's 'wastelands', they could possibly confirm current theories of the Big Bang.
ESPRESSO confirms the presence of an Earth-sized planet around the nearest star. https://phys.org/news/2020-05-espresso-presence-earth-nearest-star.html
It's sort of in the habitable zone, albeit with a far different kind of sun than our own and very likely the planet is also bathed in hard radiation much of the time.
There may even be a second planet as well. So much more information to come.
Here's your weird #COVID19 news of the day: a ham radio operator in lockdown had the time to look for an old military satellite in geosync 'graveyard' orbit. This is a great read. https://www.npr.org/2020/04/24/843493304/long-lost-u-s-military-satellite-found-by-amateur-radio-operator
- Programmer
- Writer
- Musician
- Tourist
Admin
Whenever you are past the edge, out in the wind, look for me.
Joined Aug 2018
