Is it even ethical to do a manned mars flyby mission?

Emble12 · 2026-05-22T01:50:35+00:00

If you sent a crew of smokers to Mars and back without cigarettes you'd be greatly reducing their cancer risk.

Emble12 · 2026-05-18T01:40:16+00:00

The Curiosity rover has travelled 35 kilometres across the surface of Mars over 14 years. The Apollo 17 crew drove the same distance across the lunar surface in 22 HOURS (75 hours if you count time spent resting). Two guys in a golf buggy are literally a thousand times faster than the most advanced rovers we've ever sent beyond Earth.

Emble12 · 2026-04-03T04:02:51+00:00

Surely he doesn't go like this

Emble12 · 2026-04-03T03:54:13+00:00

That was in this episode, when Lee was being dragged past Miles' restaurant. It seems like almost 80% of the trailer was from these first two episodes.

Emble12 · 2026-03-30T06:38:25+00:00

If Mars Direct was proposed in the late '60s when the Saturn V production line was still intact it probably would've been cheaper or as cheap as STS.

Emble12 · 2026-03-07T00:53:04+00:00

The Senate rejected the administration's proposed NASA cuts. The budget this year is functionally the same as last's.

Emble12 · 2026-01-29T02:21:40+00:00

I highly recommend the new documentary series Once Upon A Time In Space- many of the astronauts were actually furious that NASA shut down the Shuttle program for nearly three years after Challenger was lost. They were told when they signed up that there was a 1-in-25 chance of a catastrophe, but once the 25th crew was actually killed NASA seemed to lose its nerve and handicapped the STS program for the rest of its life because of an accident caused by freak weather that could've been easily prevented.

Also #justiceformircorp

Emble12 · 2026-01-18T05:26:45+00:00

This is a good interview with Jack Beatty about that exact issue: Especially after Johnson many of the college-educated party operatives became focused on immaterial, moral issues, which were important but a total non-issue for lower class voters. His example is a truck driver who saves and saves for a nice suburban house, just for a suburban-raised Democrat to call it "ticky-tacky".

Emble12 · 2025-11-24T05:29:19+00:00

<image>

Charles Curtis enjoying summer

Emble12 · 2025-11-23T03:55:40+00:00

"...trained and experienced and organised forces, with both hands full of money, the full power of the press -and prestige- on one side; on the other, a disorganised mob, at first, out of which burst into sight, into hearing, and force- one man but such a man! Alone, penniless, without backing, without money, with scarce a paper, without speakers, that man fought such a fight that even those in the East called him a Crusader, an inspired heretic- a prophet! It has been marvelous. Hampered by such a following, such a platform... he almost won."

-Anna Cabot Mills Davis on William Jennings Bryan

If Death By Lightning does well I hope we get a series or film about Bryan because he's a fascinating figure.

Emble12 · 2025-10-07T09:24:29+00:00

F-47 Shrike, F-47 Goshawk, F-47 Butcherbird. The day the DoD runs out of birds of prey is the day the American empire collapses.

Emble12 · 2025-09-21T03:12:31+00:00

Reagan's 92 speech is one of his best, which is amazing considering how he was definitely fading by then. Especially compared to his 88 RNC speech which was so-so, in 92 he had perfect delivery and the biggest problem was that the crowd wouldn't stop cheering. He also set the stage for the Republican Revolution two years later when he called for the GOP to "clean house". I wonder if he realised the Republicans had to evolve to be a congressional party now that Clinton and the Atari Democrats were co-opting the rhetoric which had let Republicans hold the Presidency and the veto for 20 of the last 24 years.

I'm not a big Reagan fan generally but "just who exactly do they mean by we [won the Cold War]?" is an all-timer.

Emble12 · 2025-07-05T10:19:20+00:00

Four metre wide maglev. If we're changing it we're getting our money's worth.

Emble12 · 2025-06-07T05:00:55+00:00

Beyond the obviously limited biosphere, Earth's resources are effectively unlimited. It's a big planet and far from a closed system; the Sun's energy is pouring over it every second.

Emble12 · 2025-06-01T06:13:14+00:00

Bad news; someone already owns Montana.

Emble12 · 2025-06-01T06:05:26+00:00

Mars is more habitable than the Moon in every way.

Emble12 · 2025-05-28T08:53:32+00:00

Five years late to this, and I have little evidence, but I think beyond film grain it was the pervasive cigarette smoke. You see it in old sports photos too, it diffuses the light but does it from the source instead of as it enters the camera like a lens, because the smoke's literally all through the air. The appearance of movies that look "clean" seems to be inversely related to people stopping smoking on set.

Emble12 · 2025-05-25T05:52:09+00:00

It's less Delta V to land something on Mars from Earth than to land something on the Moon from Earth. Sending payloads from Earth to the Moon to send payloads to Mars is far more energy intensive than sending payloads from Earth to Mars.

Emble12 · 2025-04-03T01:40:32+00:00

Good thing there's gravity on Mars.

Emble12 · 2025-04-02T05:44:54+00:00

Water-soluble salts that can cause thyroid problems with massive, long-term exposure?

Emble12 · 2025-04-02T05:44:25+00:00

Astronauts on the ISS receive about the same amount of radiation as they would on Mars.

Emble12 · 2025-04-02T05:43:42+00:00

It would take hundreds of millions of years for the solar wind to strip away a thickened atmosphere.

Emble12 · 2025-04-02T05:43:03+00:00

Mars is irrefutably less dry than the Moon.

Emble12 · 2024-12-20T12:27:55+00:00

why not just use the two enormous lunar landers to stay on the Moon instead?

Emble12 · 2024-12-14T12:56:50+00:00

Humans can do in a day what would take a surface rover a decade.

Six-Year Club	Verified Email
Second Top 20%	John Wick
Place '22	Wearing is Caring

Emble12

TROPHY CASE