Front Office Football Central  

Go Back   Front Office Football Central > Main Forums > Off Topic
Register FAQ Members List Calendar Mark Forums Read Statistics

Reply
 
Thread Tools
Old 10-24-2019, 02:28 PM   #151
PilotMan
Head Coach
 
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Seven miles up
Here's what gets me. We have intelligent life on this planet (whales, dolphins, elephants) and not only do we not make much of an attempt to understand or communicate with them, we look down on them as much less than they really are. What makes anyone think that we would have any success at figuring out something not from this world?
__________________
He's just like if Snow White was competitive, horny, and capable of beating the shit out of anyone that called her Pops.

Like Steam?
Join the FOFC Steam group here: http://steamcommunity.com/groups/FOFConSteam



PilotMan is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-24-2019, 02:29 PM   #152
NobodyHere
Grizzled Veteran
 
Join Date: Nov 2013
I'm in the camp that if there is intelligent life then I hope we never meet them lest be walk into a 'To Serve Man' situation.
__________________
"I am God's prophet, and I need an attorney"
NobodyHere is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-24-2019, 02:31 PM   #153
NobodyHere
Grizzled Veteran
 
Join Date: Nov 2013
Quote:
Originally Posted by PilotMan View Post
Here's what gets me. We have intelligent life on this planet (whales, dolphins, elephants) and not only do we not make much of an attempt to understand or communicate with them, we look down on them as much less than they really are. What makes anyone think that we would have any success at figuring out something not from this world?

Hey, we just taught some rats how do drive cars. Isn't that enough?

Rats taught to drive tiny cars to lower their stress levels - BBC News
__________________
"I am God's prophet, and I need an attorney"
NobodyHere is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-24-2019, 02:49 PM   #154
PilotMan
Head Coach
 
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Seven miles up
It's not really the same as two way communication.
__________________
He's just like if Snow White was competitive, horny, and capable of beating the shit out of anyone that called her Pops.

Like Steam?
Join the FOFC Steam group here: http://steamcommunity.com/groups/FOFConSteam



PilotMan is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-24-2019, 03:16 PM   #155
NobodyHere
Grizzled Veteran
 
Join Date: Nov 2013
Well we do need to communicate with whales, Star Trek has taught us that much at least.

But what kind of conversations do you expect to have with a Dolphin or an Elephant?
__________________
"I am God's prophet, and I need an attorney"
NobodyHere is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-24-2019, 05:58 PM   #156
PilotMan
Head Coach
 
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Seven miles up
Quote:
Originally Posted by NobodyHere View Post
Well we do need to communicate with whales, Star Trek has taught us that much at least.

But what kind of conversations do you expect to have with a Dolphin or an Elephant?

I would think any sort of higher lever communication might, at the very least, give me optimism that we might be able to do the same with aliens.

We know elephants have a very sophisticated social and emotional system, learning how to communicate that, on their level, using their methods seems like a place to start.
__________________
He's just like if Snow White was competitive, horny, and capable of beating the shit out of anyone that called her Pops.

Like Steam?
Join the FOFC Steam group here: http://steamcommunity.com/groups/FOFConSteam



PilotMan is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-24-2019, 09:20 PM   #157
Edward64
Head Coach
 
Join Date: Oct 2005
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kodos View Post
There's probably other intelligent life out there, but the space between us makes it hard/impossible for them to come to us.

Timing also. They may have existed 50,000 years ago just like us but died off 40,000 years ago. Millienia is nothing in the age of the universe.
Edward64 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-24-2019, 09:45 PM   #158
cartman
Death Herald
 
Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: Le stelle la notte sono grandi e luminose nel cuore profondo del Texas
And in with the timing thing, it has been less than 200 years since radio was discovered on this planet.
__________________
Thinkin' of a master plan
'Cuz ain't nuthin' but sweat inside my hand
So I dig into my pocket, all my money is spent
So I dig deeper but still comin' up with lint
cartman is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-30-2019, 12:56 PM   #159
NobodyHere
Grizzled Veteran
 
Join Date: Nov 2013
__________________
"I am God's prophet, and I need an attorney"
NobodyHere is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-30-2019, 03:17 PM   #160
Thomkal
Head Coach
 
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Surfside Beach,SC USA
cool
__________________
Coastal Carolina Baseball-2016 National Champion!
10/17/20-Coastal Football ranked in Top 25 for first time!
Thomkal is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-17-2019, 05:47 AM   #161
Edward64
Head Coach
 
Join Date: Oct 2005
In playing Stellaris, you are essentially roleplaying and trying to conquer a galaxy. There are M/Billions of galaxies in the Universe (great DLC expansion if we can do multiple galaxies) and a random question came up -- are there stars/solar systems between galaxies just floating around intergalactic space.

Apparently there are:

Lost in Space: Half of All Stars Drifting Free of Galaxies | Space
Quote:
Instead, this finding of bright, blue light unexpectedly reveals these fluctuations may come from something called "intrahalo light," which is created by stars flung into intergalactic space during titanic collisions and mergers of galaxies. The researchers found that there was as much light from these intergalactic stars as there was from stars located in galaxies.

Then the next follow-up question is ... are those orphaned stars like solar systems and still have planets going around it? My guess is, in some cases, yes (but have not been able to find anything that specifically addresses planets)
Edward64 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-29-2020, 08:43 AM   #162
NobodyHere
Grizzled Veteran
 
Join Date: Nov 2013
Uranus has started leaking gas, NASA scientists confirm

I didn't need a scientist to tell me that.
__________________
"I am God's prophet, and I need an attorney"
NobodyHere is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-26-2020, 12:57 PM   #163
Edward64
Head Coach
 
Join Date: Oct 2005
Okay, so there is water on the moon.

Let's go find those bugs!
Edward64 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-15-2020, 04:07 PM   #164
Edward64
Head Coach
 
Join Date: Oct 2005
SpaceX launch happening today. Cool stuff.

In the middle of watching Disney's The Right Stuff. It's kinda amazing to me that the US is the only country that had men on the moon vs landers/orbits so far. I do wonder if that is because of the technical challenges or other countries just don't consider it worthwhile. You would think China and USSR had the skill.
Edward64 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-15-2020, 06:34 PM   #165
Edward64
Head Coach
 
Join Date: Oct 2005
Cool lift-off. T+5 min now on CNN.

Didn't see much other than engine burn (sun had set in FL). Go Elon!
Edward64 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-15-2020, 07:13 PM   #166
Brian Swartz
Grizzled Veteran
 
Join Date: May 2006
I think the answer to your question is it's not worth it. Being able to have launch/production facilities on the moon, asteroid mining, etc. will change things eventually but we're still a ways away from that. Just too expensive to get large payloads to orbit and beyond without a really good reason to do so.
Brian Swartz is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-09-2020, 06:52 PM   #167
Edward64
Head Coach
 
Join Date: Oct 2005
Almost ... but still impressive IMO. Check out the video.

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/12/09/spac...t-flight-.html
Edward64 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-09-2021, 07:19 AM   #168
Edward64
Head Coach
 
Join Date: Oct 2005
Great month for space & Mars. UAE, China and US visiting.
Edward64 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-18-2021, 01:46 PM   #169
Mizzou B-ball fan
General Manager
 
Join Date: Aug 2001
Location: Kansas City, MO
About an hour left until landing! Fingers crossed. I want to see that helicopter drone work.
Mizzou B-ball fan is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-18-2021, 02:56 PM   #170
JPhillips
General Manager
 
Join Date: Nov 2002
Location: Newburgh, NY
Tremendous work.
__________________
To love someone is to strive to accept that person exactly the way he or she is, right here and now.. - Mr. Rogers
JPhillips is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-18-2021, 02:57 PM   #171
albionmoonlight
Head Coach
 
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: North Carolina
Watching NASA folks celebrate still gives me goosebumps
albionmoonlight is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-18-2021, 03:00 PM   #172
JPhillips
General Manager
 
Join Date: Nov 2002
Location: Newburgh, NY
That first picture is so cool.
__________________
To love someone is to strive to accept that person exactly the way he or she is, right here and now.. - Mr. Rogers
JPhillips is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-18-2021, 03:02 PM   #173
albionmoonlight
Head Coach
 
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: North Carolina
I've enjoyed being a lawyer.

But, man, if I had it to do again, working for NASA would be a pretty cool life.
albionmoonlight is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-18-2021, 03:11 PM   #174
tarcone
Coordinator
 
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Pacific
My daughter is going to college to be an aerospace engineer, focusing on the space side. I hope I get to see her one day celebrating something like this.
__________________
Excuses are for wusses- Spencer Lee
Punting is Winning- Tory Taylor

The word is Fight! Fight! Fight! For Iowa

FOFC 30 Dollar Challenge Champion-OOTP '15
tarcone is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-18-2021, 03:17 PM   #175
PilotMan
Head Coach
 
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Seven miles up
That was so much fun to watch. All the engineering pieces that had to come together to make it all work, and it was flawless. Big smiles on the years of work it took to get to this moment. Great job all around.
__________________
He's just like if Snow White was competitive, horny, and capable of beating the shit out of anyone that called her Pops.

Like Steam?
Join the FOFC Steam group here: http://steamcommunity.com/groups/FOFConSteam



PilotMan is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-19-2021, 08:59 PM   #176
Edward64
Head Coach
 
Join Date: Oct 2005
Congrats to NASA on the landing.

Now find me an alien bacteria, amoeba etc. I hope there are years of pics and science experiment results.
Edward64 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-04-2021, 09:10 AM   #177
Edward64
Head Coach
 
Join Date: Oct 2005
Ingenuity detached from rover Perserverance and first flight planned on Apr 11. This will be pretty cool if it works!



NASA's Mars helicopter Ingenuity touches down on the Red Planet | Space
Quote:
Weighing in at just 4 lbs. (1.8 kilograms), Ingenuity is a tiny, solar-powered helicopter that relies on a rechargeable battery to keep its systems warm during the harsh Martian night. Until today, Ingenuity has been attached to Perseverance's belly, feeding off the rover's nuclear-powered system to stay warm.

Now, the helicopter is using its internal battery to power a vital heater.

"This heater keeps the interior at about 45 degrees F through the bitter cold of the Martian night, where temperatures can drop to as low as -130 F (minus 90 degrees Celsius)," NASA's Bob Balaram, chief engineer for the Mars Helicopter project, wrote in a status update Friday (April 2). "That comfortably protects key components such as the battery and some of the sensitive electronics from harm at very cold temperatures."

Ingenuity is expected to make its first flight on April 11, with the data from that test reaching Earth on April 12, NASA officials have said.
Edward64 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-04-2021, 11:30 AM   #178
pantera
n00b
 
Join Date: Mar 2021
^^^ Is this the first time ever that one man-made object has taken a photo of another man-made object on another planet?
pantera is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-05-2021, 09:24 PM   #179
Edward64
Head Coach
 
Join Date: Oct 2005
Quote:
Originally Posted by pantera View Post
^^^ Is this the first time ever that one man-made object has taken a photo of another man-made object on another planet?

I don't think so. Think there has been orbiting modules taking pics of man-made stuff on the surface.

I do think this is the first time one man-made object on a surface has taken photo of another on the surface.
Edward64 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-10-2021, 03:17 AM   #180
Edward64
Head Coach
 
Join Date: Oct 2005
Tomorrow is the day! Hope this works

How to watch the Mars helicopter Ingenuity's first flight online | Space
Quote:
The first helicopter is expected to attempt the first-ever flight on Mars on Sunday (April 11), with NASA unveiling the results a day later, and you can follow it all online.

NASA's Mars helicopter Ingenuity flight coverage actually begins today (April 9) with a preflight press conference at 1 p.m. EDT (1700 GMT). You can watch that live on Space.com and on this page, courtesy of NASA TV, or directly from NASA Television, the NASA smartphone app, the agency's website and several social media platforms (such as the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's YouTube and Facebook channels.)
Edward64 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-18-2021, 06:29 AM   #181
Edward64
Head Coach
 
Join Date: Oct 2005
Tomorrow is the day! Hope it works (this time)
Edward64 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-19-2021, 07:50 AM   #182
pantera
n00b
 
Join Date: Mar 2021
It flew! Amazing stuff.
pantera is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-19-2021, 08:28 AM   #183
Edward64
Head Coach
 
Join Date: Oct 2005
The video I saw was more like it went up, hovered and came back down. Was hoping for more but guess I get it as this was the first "flight".
Edward64 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-19-2021, 08:58 AM   #184
Thomkal
Head Coach
 
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Surfside Beach,SC USA
neat
__________________
Coastal Carolina Baseball-2016 National Champion!
10/17/20-Coastal Football ranked in Top 25 for first time!
Thomkal is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-19-2021, 09:10 AM   #185
pantera
n00b
 
Join Date: Mar 2021
Quote:
Originally Posted by Edward64 View Post
The video I saw was more like it went up, hovered and came back down. Was hoping for more but guess I get it as this was the first "flight".
Haha, I know. But it's still pretty cool. I haven't read enough about it to understand how it can actually stay off the ground if there's not an atmosphere like we have?
pantera is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-20-2021, 06:36 AM   #186
GrantDawg
World Champion Mis-speller
 
Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: Covington, Ga.
What is the time delay for video from the surface to Earth? I imagine any flight (as well as any movement for the rovers) have to be programmed and sent. They are not really in live control, right?
GrantDawg is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-20-2021, 07:03 AM   #187
Brian Swartz
Grizzled Veteran
 
Join Date: May 2006
Correct. There's about a 15-minute communications delay.
Brian Swartz is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-20-2021, 07:06 AM   #188
Brian Swartz
Grizzled Veteran
 
Join Date: May 2006
Quote:
Originally Posted by pantera
I haven't read enough about it to understand how it can actually stay off the ground if there's not an atmosphere like we have?

Short version is that it has much larger, faster-spinning blades. Mars has an atmosphere, it's not a vacuum that near the surface, it's just very thin compared to ours.
Brian Swartz is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-20-2021, 07:08 AM   #189
sabotai
General Manager
 
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: The Satellite of Love
Quote:
Originally Posted by GrantDawg View Post
What is the time delay for video from the surface to Earth? I imagine any flight (as well as any movement for the rovers) have to be programmed and sent. They are not really in live control, right?

Depends on how far the planets are apart at any given time. Right now in their orbits, Earth and Mars are ~289 million km apart, so light (and communication) takes 16 minutes to go from one planet to another. So if they send a command to Mars, they wait 32 minutes to get a response back.
sabotai is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-30-2021, 05:27 AM   #190
Edward64
Head Coach
 
Join Date: Oct 2005
This is pretty cool. Looking forward to decades of great pics and findings.

With private sector SpaceX and like, I wonder if they could (or would want to risk) to pull this off. Seemingly with limited commercial appeal but vast potential for science.

Hubble's enormous, ambitious successor is poised to change our understanding of the universe | Salon.com
Quote:
Folded like a $9.7 billion piece of metal origami and nestled into the nose of an Ariane 5 rocket, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) will, in late December, be sent nearly one million miles from the surface of the Earth. Once it reaches its destination — a region of space with open views, where the sun and Earth's gravity counterbalance each other — the Hubble telescope's bigger, grander successor will spend the next decade answering questions that are as scientific as they are existential.

"How did we get here? What is the universe? And how did it come into being?" said David Hunter, a project manager at the Space Telescope Science Institute. "With something like the JWST, you actually have a tangible way of finding answers."

Over two decades of work — totaling 100 million hours of labor from more than 1,000 scientists, engineers, and technicians — went into the development of this next-generation space telescope. For their efforts, Webb will be able to peer into distant corners of the universe, using infrared detection to penetrate clouds of dust, survey the atmospheres of potentially habitable exoplanets, and look backward in time over 13 billion years, picking up faint light emitted by galaxies formed in the aftermath of the Big Bang.
Edward64 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-30-2021, 05:32 AM   #191
Edward64
Head Coach
 
Join Date: Oct 2005
Zhurong and Perseverance are both still going strong. Examining boring rocks.

Not sure if both teams are sharing data and collaborating. Probably some but limited. They should get together in a room and watch second half of Martian together.
Edward64 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-30-2021, 11:37 AM   #192
Brian Swartz
Grizzled Veteran
 
Join Date: May 2006
The Webb telescope will be remarkable assuming it works. I say that because it's been delayed multiple times, and if it doesn't work properly it will be hard to impossible to fix once it's out there, so worst-case scenario is it's a big space paper-weight. Plus side of course is being this generation's Hubble, showing us parts of space that we haven't seen before, increased detail, etc.
Brian Swartz is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-24-2021, 02:16 PM   #193
Brian Swartz
Grizzled Veteran
 
Join Date: May 2006
Looks like Webb is going to be a big Christmas present to all astronomy & similar enthusiasts. Launches tomorrow 7:20 AM EST. Of course we won't get any actual imagery till next summer, but just knowing that it's up there, and - hopefully - getting the setup & unfolding process going properly will be really cool.

I've been looking into more of the how it was made, engineering of the thing, etc. I was pretty well gobsmacked as they say. I think it's remarkable that we managed to produce it, even in the worst-case scenario where it goes completely wrong and fails which would be horrible, I'm still very impressed that we managed to build it in the first place.

Last edited by Brian Swartz : 12-24-2021 at 02:16 PM.
Brian Swartz is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-24-2021, 03:28 PM   #194
PilotMan
Head Coach
 
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Seven miles up
Yeah, it makes me excited to think about the progress we could make, knowing the next level progress that we made with Hubble. It would be crushing if something happened that kept us from using it.
__________________
He's just like if Snow White was competitive, horny, and capable of beating the shit out of anyone that called her Pops.

Like Steam?
Join the FOFC Steam group here: http://steamcommunity.com/groups/FOFConSteam



PilotMan is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-24-2021, 05:22 PM   #195
Edward64
Head Coach
 
Join Date: Oct 2005
About $10B. If it works as expected, well worth it IMO.

Quote:
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is expected to cost NASA $9.7 billion over 24 years. Of that amount, $8.8 billion was spent on spacecraft development between 2003 and 2021; $861 million is planned to support five years of operations. Adjusted for inflation to 2020 dollars, the lifetime cost to NASA will be approximately $10.8 billion.

That is only NASA’s portion. The European Space Agency provided the Ariane 5 launch vehicle and two of the four science instruments for an estimated cost of €700 million. The Canadian Space Agency contributed sensors and scientific instrumentation, which cost approximately CA$200 million.

This places the James Webb Space Telescope among the most expensive scientific platforms in history, comparable only to the Hubble Space Telescope and the Large Hadron Collider at CERN.
Edward64 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-25-2021, 06:42 AM   #196
Edward64
Head Coach
 
Join Date: Oct 2005
Just watched the launched. A little disappointing, could see it for first 20-30 seconds, then it went into the clouds and NASA showed a "simulation".

Launched from French Guiana. So assume the telescope and rockets had to shipped from US and Europe, and then reassembled (?).

They have live views of telescope now. All in all, pretty cool.
Edward64 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-25-2021, 11:18 AM   #197
Brian Swartz
Grizzled Veteran
 
Join Date: May 2006
Quote:
Originally Posted by Edward64
Launched from French Guiana. So assume the telescope and rockets had to shipped from US and Europe, and then reassembled (?).

Yep. Launching from near the equator allows the rocket to utilize the earth's rotation to aid in getting the telescope going in the proper vector. So far so good. The most likely failure points begin tomorrow or the next day from what I understand.

Edit: Tuesday, when they start unfolding the sunshield.

Last edited by Brian Swartz : 12-25-2021 at 11:27 AM.
Brian Swartz is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-25-2021, 06:56 PM   #198
Brian Swartz
Grizzled Veteran
 
Join Date: May 2006
For anyone interested in following it, they've got regular tracking here: Where Is Webb? NASA/Webb. Speed appears to update hourly. Temps will update daily starting in a day or two. What I'm looking forward to seeing is the growing temperature difference when the sunshield gets into place hopefully starting about a week in.
Brian Swartz is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-27-2021, 10:31 PM   #199
Brian Swartz
Grizzled Veteran
 
Join Date: May 2006
On target so far. Pucker time begins tomorrow, as sun shield deployment starts.
Brian Swartz is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-04-2022, 01:21 PM   #200
Brian Swartz
Grizzled Veteran
 
Join Date: May 2006
There were a couple of delays for rest of the mission team and some non-critical issues, but the sunshield finished deploying today. Most of the potential failure points have now been surpassed. Getting the mirrors deployed correctly is next, and then the long process of cooling and calibration.
Brian Swartz is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply


Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)
 
Thread Tools

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

vB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is On
Forum Jump


All times are GMT -5. The time now is 02:55 AM.



Powered by vBulletin Version 3.6.0
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.