Tagged “space”

very very very very big things

Lot of interesting stats throughout.

1. To add enough CO2 to Mars to make the atmosphere thicker (which reduces temp fluctations), would make the atmosphere unbreathable regardless of O2 content
2. Earth-like does not mean like current earth. For most of the planet's history the water and atmosphere were toxic to us
3. It would take 79,000 years at current rocket speeds to get to Alpha Centauri

Some craaazy facts about microbes in there. And I actually came away convinced! Have previously taken the same argument NASA made for space exploration originally - all the incidental inventions and discoveries made make it worthwhile. But the extreme cost (and risk of contamination) make sending humans to Mars seem like a not great idea. Just let robots do it.

Humans in space is more of a biology problem than an engineering problem. Or at least the engineering of life support systems is the bigger challenge than building rockets.

Pretty damn hard to make things that last

Except the batteries on that rover are long dead. Many, if not all, of the plastic and paper insulators exposed to vacuum are now brittle and broken. All labels or painted surfaces are likely bleached white. Differential expansion during lunar daylight cycles has likely snapped a few things here and there too. Fifty years of exposure to static electric charges on the moon has put lunar dust in all sorts of places it doesn't belong.

good writing, particularly some of the analogies

Animation rendered from photos taken by Cassini spacecraft

tldr: exposure time is too short, so the stars are very faint