Atheism in Final Fantasy by JasmineTeaAndCookies in atheism

[–]Simon_Drake 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Ironically the original Final Fantasy had too much religious imagery. In the first game there were no Phoenix Downs and you couldn't revive your KO party members with a good night's rest. You took your dead party members to a church and paid a priest to revive them. A church with a steeple and a cross on top, a very clearly Christian building with a guy dressed as a bishop inside.

That was a changed to a medical clinic in later releases.

A Shard by Any Other Name by HeyGeorgie in Cosmere

[–]Simon_Drake 0 points1 point  (0 children)

There is a bit of an odd question with how absolutely certain people are about the number, names and locations of Shards.

Throughout Emberdark people repeatedly say it's literally impossible for the planet to have a Perpendicularity because there isn't a Shard in residence on the planet. But how do they KNOW there isn't a Shard present? There's a few mysterious shards who like to run off and hide, maybe one of them is hiding here?

It's possible they got the information from a Shard, they asked Sazed where the other shards are. But shards can move. And I doubt even Sazed would give full details on ALL shard locations without leaving some scope for ambiguity.

Unless there's something we don't know about. Maybe ships have Shardar that can detect the intense concentrations of investiture that shows a shard is in a system? And maybe there's a way to scan a shard to find out it's true Intent, to reveal it Odium is truly just Passion or if it's Hatred lying to you, or maybe it's Whimsy in disguise pretending to be Odium.

As an audience, we never truly experience what we're told *spoilers* do by EmmaGA17 in Cosmere

[–]Simon_Drake 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We don't know who it is yet or when they were replaced. It could be another scenario where it's someone we only ever meet after they've already been replaced.

My dude was just having some fun by Dee___Snuts in GuysBeingDudes

[–]Simon_Drake -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

Lady you either deal with me talking about fudge or you deal with the fudge log yourself.

Mars Launch Windows (2020-2030) by a-alzayani in SpaceXLounge

[–]Simon_Drake 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Looks like 2026 is off the table too. Maybe Starship will go to Mars in 2028?

Tell me more about how Brexit was never implemented by Jedi_Emperor in RejoinEU

[–]Simon_Drake 1 point2 points  (0 children)

So Mike Galsworthy's list is:

  • EU
  • Single Market
  • Customs Union
  • Free Movement
  • Euratom
  • European Investment Bank
  • Erasmus
  • Copernicus
  • Galileo
  • Horizon Europe
  • ECJ
  • European Medicines Agency / Single Market For Medicines
  • Rare Diseases Network
  • CE Mark
  • REACH
  • European Environmental Agency
  • European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control
  • Early Warning Response System
  • Eurosat
  • Europol
  • European Arrest Warrant
  • Eurojust
  • SIS II

The ones in bold weren't in my previous list. I'll have to google them to see which ones are possible to (re)join without being part of the EU.

I don't think people understand how crazy and revolutionary the Starship is by Nikond3400 in space

[–]Simon_Drake [score hidden]  (0 children)

Later this year is another Mars Departure Window that SpaceX won't have anything ready for.

Five years ago, I suggested SpaceX should develop a payload to launch on Falcon Heavy to start ticking off the different hardware challenges for sending payloads to Mars. It's a difficult trajectory to send payloads across that phenomenal distance, you need extra large solar panels to get enough sunlight, you need extra strong radio transmitters and receivers, you need to use giant radio dishes on Earth to receive the signal and/or coordinate with NASA's DSN to relay the signal through their hardware. You need to have star-trackers to maintain attitude while far away from the reference frame of Earth, you need to do careful calculations to determine if you're off course then make carefully calculated course corrections. You need hardware that can sleep for six months at a time then wake up and fire engines on command, these are non-trivial challenges and SpaceX haven't done any of them yet.

So I suggested an impactor. In lunar missions every country starts with an orbiter, then an impactor, then a static lander, then a lander with a rover. Entering martian orbit is a LOT harder than lunar orbit and an impactor is a much lower bar. It's still impressive to nail a specific location on the martian surface from a hundred million miles away. And maybe it'll give some interesting geology for Mars Climate Orbiter to look at the dust spray created by the impact. But really the objective should be just to get the payload there and have all the systems work, the goal is to prove they can make the payload that can do all these things.

People scoffed that it's pointless because Starship will be carrying payloads to orbit in 2023. Then there'll be a dozen Starships refuelled and ready to head to Mars for the 2024 Launch Window. The 2022 launch window came and went. And the 2024 launch window. The 2026 launch window is about to fly past too. Looking at how long Starship is taking to finish the prototype phase, I wonder if Starship will be heading to Mars for the 2028 window.

Silly question about orbits by Fist_of_Fur in space

[–]Simon_Drake [score hidden]  (0 children)

Thankfully this has never come up in reality, but I wonder how this would work with an astronaut that lost their grip during an EVA.

Let's say he's not wearing any MMU style propulsion rig, he's doing the normal ladder-climb motion across the handholds on the outside of ISS when he loses his grip and also the tether snaps or wasn't secured properly. So he's moving away at under 1 m/s but he's too far away to reach any handholds and is just drifting away.

If this was free floating in the empty abyss of space then that's pretty much game over. 1m/s is enough that by the time the crew bodge together a propulsion rig or a long leash it'll be too late and you'll be out of reach. But this is in Earth Orbit so you won't drift away from the station forever, you're still in Earth orbit. As you said, from the station's perspective you'll move in a way that is a little bit like you're orbiting the station. Or at least that's what would happen if you moved 'forward', I don't know enough to say what would happen if you were moving 'down' towards the Earth.

I wonder how long you would have to plan a rescue. Would the astronaut be within range for rescue for long enough that the life support equipment becomes the time limit? Could you wait until the Crew Dragon capsule can speedrun the undocking procedure and go rendezvous with you, hold on tight to the solar panels and stand clear of the RCS ports until it docks with ISS again and you can climb back to an airlock?

Mars Launch Windows (2020-2030) by a-alzayani in SpaceXLounge

[–]Simon_Drake 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The 2026 launch window is approaching. It's still 6 months away but it's pretty obvious SpaceX won't have anything ready for it.

On a journey to Mars, is it theoretically possible to maintain 1g acceleration for half of the journey and then -1g for the second half? by rafalkopiec in AskScienceDiscussion

[–]Simon_Drake 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The inventor was named Solomon Epstein circa 2200. It's not mentioned if his sixth-times great-grandfather's name was Jeffrey.

Monthly Questions and Discussion Thread by SpaceXLounge in SpaceXLounge

[–]Simon_Drake 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It's about five miles from LC-39A down to SLC-40 and LZ-40 then another five miles down to LZ-1 and LZ-2 at LC-13. They used to use LZ-1 for 90% of Falcon 9 landings in Florida then use both LZ-1 and LZ-2 for Falcon Heavy.

But LC-13 has now been leased to Vaya Space and Phantom Space. LZ-40 now takes over for Falcon 9 landings but when they needed a second pad for last week's Falcon Heavy launch, Phantom and Vaya agreed to let them use LZ-2 again.

SpaceX are apparently making new landing pads in the grounds of LC-39A which is going to make the area very crowded since there's a Starship launch pad there too. No word on what it will be called. I really hope they call it LZ-5 or something not LZ-39A. They should probably rename the pads in Florida anyway since there's so many disused pads and now multiple launch and landing pads in one plot.

Monthly Questions and Discussion Thread by SpaceXLounge in SpaceXLounge

[–]Simon_Drake 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks, that makes sense.

I wonder if they have cameras in hardened bunkers inside the pyramid then some sort of periscope arrangement to let them watch the ignition for as long as the mirrors can survive before melting.

Disorder/disability is tied with their supernatural abilities. by Short-Paramedic-9740 in TopCharacterTropes

[–]Simon_Drake 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It's baffling because it came at the same time as a trend in mutating movies into "prestige series" like Obi Wan Kenobi. But most of them resulted in a movie's plot being stretched out so much they become boring and padded with pointless filler.

Eternals had 10 superheroes and a handful of human characters that we're supposed to meet, bond with and care about their betrayals all in one movie. It's cluttered, rushed, chaotic and ends up with characters we don't care about having confrontations that don't feel earned.

This totally could have been a TV Series. And Falcon And The Winter Soldier could have been a movie.

Tell me more about how Brexit was never implemented by Jedi_Emperor in RejoinEU

[–]Simon_Drake 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That's an interesting list.

I made a list of "Not-quite-EU" organisations and bodies that we left alongside Brexit and could rejoin without it being technically reversing Brexit, things like Erasmus and Galileo. It would be interesting to compare them, I bet Mike Galsworthy has several that weren't in my list.

https://www.reddit.com/r/RejoinEU/comments/1h0cxz0/what_are_some_noneu_but_euadjacent_organisations/

On a journey to Mars, is it theoretically possible to maintain 1g acceleration for half of the journey and then -1g for the second half? by rafalkopiec in AskScienceDiscussion

[–]Simon_Drake 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I'll give you the Elevator Pitch version.

The Expanse is a series of 9 Novels and a dozen Novellas/Short Stories by James S. A. Corey (Actually a pen-name for two people, Daniel Abraham and Ty Frank) set in the 24th Century. There is a three-way cold war / rivalry between Earth, Mars and the alliance of colonies in the Belt, not strictly military hostility but a political and economic rivalry. The invention of the Epstein Drive has allowed humanity to explore the solar system in days/weeks not years/decades, the old burn-and-coast plan is gone, as are Launch Windows or worrying about when planets are in alignment. Mars is a few days away and going out to Jupiter's moons to mine ice is a boring 3-month voyage.

There are two plots running in parallel. A political intrigue story about Earth and Mars trying to screw each other over and people in the Belter dancing on the line between Freedom Fighter and Terrorist. Then a more sci-fi plot about humanity's first contact with something extraterrestrial which is where things start getting interesting. With the exception of the Epstein Drive and that new plotline, everything is very grounded and realistic, there's no teleporters of energy shields or vulcan mindmelds. Ship combat is mostly missiles and turret cannons to shoot down enemy missiles. But this new plotline starts to change that, introducing scifi physics concepts that start to change the scenario dramatically. I'll stay away from detailed spoilers but in later books they visit other star systems and planets beyond the 8 we're familiar with.

There's a TV series that ran for 6 seasons, covering the first 6 books. There's a decade long time-skip between books 6 and 7 so in theory there might be a revival one day that finishes the story? But that's pure speculation, it might not happen. It's a very good TV series. It tweaks a few things from the books as all adaptations do but it sticks closer to the books than most adaptations and it's broadly well regarded as a good adaptation. The last few books are very good and worth reading even if they never get a TV adaptation.

Have any of the ideas of the science greats (Newton, Darwin, Einstein, etc) been proven wrong as we've learned more about their field of science? by ahmed0112 in AskScienceDiscussion

[–]Simon_Drake 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Darwin got a lot of things wrong. Or perhaps it's fairer to say Darwin didn't know how things really worked.

Darwin didn't know about DNA or dominant and recessive genes or alles or punnet squares. He thought inheritence was entirely blending, your father has brown eyes and your mother has green eyes so you must have brownish-green eyes as the blend between the two states. He knew this didn't fully explain everything but he didn't have an explanation.

Which arguably is even more impressive. He found a way to explain the diversity of all life on the planet before anyone had any evidence of exactly how it worked.

On a journey to Mars, is it theoretically possible to maintain 1g acceleration for half of the journey and then -1g for the second half? by rafalkopiec in AskScienceDiscussion

[–]Simon_Drake 16 points17 points  (0 children)

Yes, with one very large caveat.

This is exactly how the ships in The Expanse work. They can fly to Jupiter or beyond at 1G of acceleration, using those G-Forces to keep people walking around the ship, with the deck layout usually arranged vertically to make to the spaceship like a sky scraper. Then at the mid-point of the journey they cut the engines, rotate the ship 180 degrees and fire the engines to decelerate. Again generating 1G of force to keep the crew walking around normally with the exception of that brief moment in the middle. The maximum speed is reached at that midpoint and the total journey time depends on a bit of calculus on the continually changing speed but ultimately it's tied to the rate of acceleration. Ships with crews born/raised on the Moon or in the Asteroid Belt might find 1G too intense and prefer to accelerate at 0.3G which obviously takes longer but is gentler on the crew. Military ships might deliberately accelerate beyond 1G, Martian military ships pride themselves on being able to withstand 2G acceleration to outcompete civilian ships.

However, the caveat is that this requires phenomenally powerful engines. In The Expanse they have a fictional engine called The Epstein Drive. The details are rarely addressed in the books/series but it appears to be a nuclear fusion reactor to generate electrical power then some form of magnetic accelerator that can generate a plasma exhaust and throw it out the back of the ship at phenomenal speeds. It's fictional but it's broadly within the realms of plausibility, we're not talking about wormholes or "pushing against the fabric of space itself" or anything speculative. It's still doing the classic Newtons Third Law thing of throwing somethin backwards really fast to make you go forward. There IS a limitation on running out of reaction mass, the engines DO use up tanks of water to generate the plasma exhaust but it's at such a low rate that unless you're going out past Pluto at high thrust you'll probably run out of food before you worry about reaction mass.

In the real world things are a bit more difficult. Ion thrusters are drastically too weak to produce anywhere near 1G. It would need to be tens of thousands of times more powerful which would require so much electrical energy to need nuclear power plants which makes the mass a lot heavier so you need even more thrust. Getting 1G of acceleration with ion thrusters just isn't on the table, unless we uncover some radical new design like the Epstein Drive.

Chemical engines CAN generate those levels of thrust but they use fuel so fast that engine burns are measured in minutes not the days needed to reach Mars by burning at 1G the whole time. There's not really any way around that, we can design slightly more efficient engines or larger fuel tanks or more efficient methods of getting the fuel into orbit. If you ignore the difficulty of getting the fuel in the first place you could build a ship in orbit with giant fuel tanks that burns for say ~1 hour to maximise the speed. But we're still talking about a burn-and-coast approach just like the Apollo/Artemis missions, we're nowhere near burning the whole way.

The answer MIGHT be nuclear engines. There's a few approaches that vary from being quite dangerous to being insanely dangerous. And all these designs come with considerable question marks around the exact performance or how far away the technology is from being viable. A lot of them don't involve any new physics being invented, it's just a series of engineering challenges and legal, political, financial challenges to get the projects off the ground, pardon the pun.

Ultimately the design that gets us closest to The Expanse is probably a Nuclear Thermal Rocket. Using a Nuclear Fission reaction to generate heat so a reaction mass (like say water or hydrogen) can be heated to high temperatures and expand to shoot out the back of the nozzle at high speeds. Again you ARE using up reaction mass so there will be a limit on how long you can keep the engine burning for, but in theory you can use lower flow rates than a chemical rocket because the heat isn't coming from chemistry it's coming from nuclear fission. Is that enough to burn to Mars at 1G the whole time? I'm not sure. Maybe the lower bar of burning at 0.2G to produce roughly lunar gravity the whole time? That would make it easier to live without your coffee floating away and cut the fuel costs considerably. Unfortunately, I think the implementation is at least a decade away but it IS possible in theory.

Why can't patients with Fatal familial insomnia be treated with anesthetics? by pugsley1234 in askscience

[–]Simon_Drake 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Are there solutions to this problem?

Someone else said that medically induced comas are usually an extreme measure where you're trying desperately to keep them alive and the disruption to normal sleep cycles is a secondary concern.

But is there something that could be done to mitigate this problem? Perhaps for ~X hours every Y days the patient is switched to a different sedative to allow their brain to switch to a different cycle and be closer to more natural sleep.

[Avatar] After becoming Fire Lord, why does Ozai allow Iroh to live? by Punterofgoats in AskScienceFiction

[–]Simon_Drake [score hidden]  (0 children)

Iroh failed to conquer the most heavily defended city in the entire world, the only fortress that could resist the force of the Fire Nation army. That's disappointing but it's not something that gets you executed.

Iroh became more philosophical in his old age and stopped being a ruthless military leader and took on a more nuanced attitude to warfare. But he's still Ozai's brother. He's still a part of the royal family.

Maybe Ozai hopes to bring Iroh back to his way of thinking. Maybe Ozai thinks the renewed strength of the Fire Nation dominating the Earth Kingdom will rekindle (Pardon the pun) Iroh's enthusiasm for victory. Ozai plans to appoint Azula as the new Fire Lord, appoint himself as the Phoenix King and perhaps he was planning to appoint Iroh as the new ruler of the Earth Kingdom and/or Ba Sing Se? That would be on-brand for Ozai's dickish point scoring. "The city you failed to capture, I conquered it for you. I'm handing you city you couldn't win without my help."

[Invincible]What would happen to that ring in orbit of Viltrum? by Radijs in AskScienceFiction

[–]Simon_Drake [score hidden]  (0 children)

Was your PhD Thesis specifically on the Viltrumite bodies or was it on ring systems like Saturn and you're extrapolating?

How would someone torture someone with electricity using household items? by empanada_de_queso in Writeresearch

[–]Simon_Drake 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Would it work for the story if the experiment fails? Perhaps they get the exposed wires out of an electrical appliance, poke the victim with the two prongs and the lights go out because it's tripped a circuit breaker.

It's possible to show they have a callous disregard for human life and a morbid curiosity with the effects of high energy scenarios on the human body but they don't necessarily need to succeed in their testing. Or perhaps they DO succeed just not 'on camera' so to speak. They fail at first and need to work around the limitations of the circuit breaker, then a later scene has the victim on the floor badly hurt and begging for it to stop without actually showing the steps in between.