SpaceX – Mars Plan
“You want to wake up in the morning and think the future is going to be great – and that’s what being a spacefaring civilization is all about. It’s about believing in the future and thinking that the future will be better than the past. And I can’t think of anything more exciting than going out there and being among the stars.” -Elon Musk.
At an average distance of 140 million miles, Mars is one of Earth’s closest habitable neighbors. Mars is about half again as far from the Sun as Earth is, so it still has decent sunlight. It is a bit cold, but we can warm it up. Its atmosphere is primarily CO2 with some nitrogen, argon, and other trace elements, so we can grow plants on Mars by compressing the atmosphere. Gravity on Mars is about 38% of that of Earth, so you can lift heavy things and move them around. Furthermore, the day is remarkably close to that of Earth.
Together, the Starship spacecraft and Super Heavy rocket create a reusable transportation system capable of refueling on orbit and leveraging Mars’ natural H2O and CO2 resources to refuel on the surface. Starship leverages tanker vehicles (essentially the Starship spacecraft minus the windows) to refill the Starship spacecraft in low-Earth orbit before departing for Mars. Refilling on-orbit enables the transport of up to 100 tons to Mars. And if the tanker ship has high reuse capability, the primary cost is just that of the oxygen and methane, which is extremely low.
Starship will enter Mars’ atmosphere at 7.5 kilometers per second and decelerate aerodynamically. The vehicle’s heat shield is designed to withstand multiple entries, but given that the vehicle is coming into Mars’ atmosphere so hot, we still expect to see some ablation of the heat shield (similar to wear and tear on a brake pad).
I have no idea when or if this will happen, but it’s encouraging that it’s being seriously considered. The US led in spaceflight, then we quit and relied on Russian vehicles to get us to and from the International Space Station. The USGOV failed us – as they so often have. Obama wanted NASA to make Muslims feel good about themselves – why? But that seems behind us now that SpaceX is taking the initiative with vision and the capacity to turn vision into reality.
When in doubt, go Prospecting
It’s a fossil hunt
Bullet Points:
** Elsa lays it out. The never-Trump people in the Republican Party still say, “Let’s go with the Ho,” and I don’t get it.
** The US security umbrella over the Gulf is getting $2.2 billion bigger after the State Department approved weapons sales to Saudi Arabia and the UAE. The Hellfire II missiles and rocket systems are a long-term investment for Gulf Arab states bracing for potential Israeli retaliation against Iran. Tehran has warned Arab states against allowing Israel to use their territories or airspace for strikes. Saudi Arabia and the UAE urged Washington not to involve their military infrastructure in any offensive. The US should ignore the Persian mullahs.
** It’s not that Democrats didn’t know. They don’t care, just like they didn’t care that Biden was senile until the debate proved it. Trump has driven them stark raving mad, pure and simple. They can’t accept that V.P. Tim Kaine isn’t running for Hillary’s third term.
** (h/t Claudio) Ukraine is all in with drone wars (more here). The modern battlefield changes, and it’s not going back. The question for nations beyond Russia and Ukraine is what will it look like in a decade. And here as well. Cost is an issue, as is simplicity of use. In a battlefield situation, you need to be able to have close-range (under 1 km) drones work seamlessly with operators so that they don’t have to “fly” the drones continuously. As a former UAV designer-builder, this was our primary focus. When the batteries are low, they automatically return to an induction charger and are replaced by another drone. Drones are deemed extendible when you’re doing this, and the cost must also reflect that. Fuel type defines the mission duration in most cases. As the name implies, volatile fuel is, and you don’t want to be splashing it around the battlefield with short-range tactical UAVs.
** Jules shares a shroom with a view for your Wednesday. So Jules, do you wonder what rotting corpse in the graveyard pushed the red mushroom up?
Identify the Aircraft
1
2
3
Identify the Feature Films
A
B
He had great taste.
C
D
End
A a James Bond??
B The Creature from the Black Lagoon.
C is James Bond film Goldfinger
D is the Horse Soldiers a John Wayne civil war movie
A – No
B, C & D, YES!
I have learned a lot from John Wayne movies. From “Horse Soldiers,” to picket the horses downstream of the waterway you are drawing your cooking water from.
A was a semi guess. Pretty girls in cars happen a lot in early Bond movies.
A worthy guess – Suzanne Sommers in one of her first movie roles.
American Grafitti.
Absolutely!
American Grafitti? Never watched it, I have watched American Graffiti though… See, living in Assachusetts dulled your Where were you in ’62 vibe…
In 1962 I was not even the proverbial gleam.
American Grafitti is a little known (in the States) knockoff of American Graffiti preying on the semi-literate in Asia. It’s like my prized “Abibis” t-shirt with the three stripes, and the “PLAVBOY” shirt with the famous bunny logo.
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The Abibas and PLAVBOY shirts are real things, BTW.
The Wolfman, baby!
Identify the Aircraft:
1. Bristol Brabazon
2. Moynet Jupiter
3. Antonov An-14 Clod
Identify the Feature Films:
A. American Graffiti
B. Creature from the Black Lagoon
C. Goldfinger
D. TBD
Great! Just one more, don’t cheat by looking on other people’s quiz papers!
Sorry, already did. :(
Fossil hunt, huh?
Great photo of a fossil though..
One of the raptors; just can’t put a name to it.
I hope that the raptor doesn’t go extinct just yet.
(1) Bristol Brabazon
(2) Moynet Jupiter
(3) An-14 ?
*
– Kle.
Yes
That mushroom (Amanita muscaria or Fly Agaric) might be what put the person six feet under in the first place. Though you’d have to eat a LOT of those to done get kilt, generally. Tripping or other weird neuroeffects are more likely. But its genus-mate A. phalloides is hepatotixic and kills people D.E.D. dead. The death-cap mushroom is indeed a dick.
—
Regarding Fly Agaric:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7977045/
RE: the alleged “republicans” for Kamala. The first rule of Deep State is, you don’t talk about Deep State. The second rule of Deep State is, you don’t care who’s the figurehead, because you don’t need to, because he ain’t in charge in the first place. Deep State knows no political party, except as those Potemkin divisions are vital to delude and distract the proles from how they’re getting screwt by Deep State and how their choice really doesn’t matter. Deep State knows it’s the collective Wizards behind the curtain that matter, not the dummy who rides Air Farce One, eats well and gets his picture taken a lot. This is nothing new, lookit the fambly franchise of #41 and #43, for examples. #42 had a better smile and line of BS, so Deep State forced #41 into retirement. But I digress.
.
Trump threw a massive monkey wrench into that dichotomy, so Deep State had to take him out and has to take him out, again, and by whatever means works. Anything, everything, all the time, there are no limits. If they have to issue live ammunition to Dick Cheney on Inaugration Day, they’ll do it. Dick or some other patsy (BTW, whenever was a politician so aptly named?). The threat won’t stop on January 20, either, no matter which way it goes, just you wait and see.
.
Too cynical? The analysis a little too simplistic, perhaps? Oh, HAIL yes. But close enough for Deep State purposes, I think.
Who (not WHO) funds “Deep State”?
Is it exo- or endo-thermic?
Should, G-d forbid, some mentally deranged a$$hole manage to take out The Donald during his coming term of office, would this become the Ft. Sumpter of the Twenty-First Century?
it won’t matter. they are going to pull the plug and burn it all down before that happens. and frankly, if kamelface “wins” it’ll crash all on its own. either way we’re hosed. the whole country will look like western north carolina soon.
The Deep State is not a unified body. It’s an amalgamation, and while Wall Street enjoys its hold on the White House, what other forces are at work? Just writing that almost makes me feel like I’m wearing an aluminum foil hat. At the same time, there is evidence of a tectonic shift in the world. As I mentioned in a blog that will be posted in a couple of days, the Trump Team is not conservative. One of my complaints about Vance in the past is that he’s a “government is the solution” guy. Read his book (not plagiarized). (I’m always a couple of blogs ahead of what you read because I do take days here and there when I don’t work on it) Pres. Trump, a populist, put his daughter-in-law as co-chair of the Republican Party, which means in part that it’s the Trump Party now. What does that mean to “The GOP,” and how does that impact the Deep State? Pres. Trump may wish to make systemic changes to government, but will the Deep State (in its entirety) object? These are all questions for which I don’t have a credible answer.
What I really fear is DJT over-coming the cheat and what the Dems will do while in office as lame ducks.
You nail it. Republicans are the well compensated loyal opposition.
Suzanne Sommers First role I remember was a topless full frontal in Magnum Force
😳
Fossil Hunting- No tactical wear…must be with the grand-kiddies on that trek. The Maui Jim’s are a nice look.
***
Jules is simply…cool beans. (aka. “neato”).
***
I want the “Resigned Thinker” lamp…love that semi-steampunk gear made from found stuff from the workbench and junk drawer (we all have one…or five).
Good try LL… fossil hunting.. ya right… you’re looking for the Lost Dutchman gold mine…
Yes, PaulM, there are different degrees of tactical clothing options.
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Al, I need to chip away at a quartz vein – I’ve found the mine…
Pulverized quartz is sand.
Many have found much gold among the sands along the saltwater shores of that dingle-dangle hanging off Georgia rather than expending the energy pulverizing hard rock.
Each to his own.
Texans keep searching on Padre Island looking for Jean Laffite’s gold. So far, no one has said they found it.
Silica is the second most common mineral on the planet…as common sand on the seashore. It’s a component of sedimentary formations as well- present in sandstone (obv) and to a lesser extent blended in limestone.
Funny, a lot of gold that has been found in sand in that dingle-dangle comes in the form of various coins, usually Spanish origin.
N’ I’m talkin’ about that huge multitude of dingle-dangles who come down to Florida to spend their declining years searching for Ponce de Leon’s Fabled Fountain and the sharks who feed off them.
I got all the movies! I did guess at the Black Lagoon but I remembered that Goldfinger scene from the drive-in movies in Kailua way back when…
Prospecting for fossils but I’ll bet you wouldn’t mind if you found some gold…
As they say, “gold is gold.” (from the film: The Kingdom of Heaven)
Questions concerning drones and USNS Big Horn
I don’t believe that the east coast drones are unidentified. Is there any chatter concerning DARPA’s advanced large drones and that this is testing our offensive and defensive capabilities?
A day or two after Big Horn’s difficulty, there was some extremely unverified chatter that it wasn’t a grounding but a mine of some sort and Big Horn dropped out of the news cycle and HMNZS Manawanui took the spotlight. Has anyone seen any updates on Big Horn?
Hunting for fossils isn’t hard anymore, just visit your local bar. Hiking anywhere in the west shows mining glory holes and prospectors activity from the 1800s. Oregon has a large number of sites to dig thunder eggs and other beauties. LL, I wish you well in digging quartz and anything associated with it.
USNS Big Horn made it into a local port, and no casualties or oil spills were reported. The captain of the Big Horn was black and I suspect that the blackout might have something to do with that. Usually when there is a POC involved in a disaster, it’s minimized.
Thanks!
Love the leading meme – very funny!
“Fifty years ago we put a man on the moon. Fifty years… If we’d have kept on going they’d all be there by now..” Boom Boom! Don’t look at me like that! Wasn’t me that said it, Guvnor.
That lamp looks way too sad. Just like your plug sockets in America.
Nothing like searching for a great ammonite! Did you find any? Or were you looking for something more sinister? Like, you can’t remember exactly where you buried them?
As for your thoughts on the mushroom, now that Halloween approaches it looks like something may be awakening soon and bursting from the ground. Could it be IT?
I’m going to go back and find the nearest grave and see what it says. I now have the fear. Thanks for that!
Ask not for whom the bell tolls, Jules.
LL really has a secret mine for Dilitihium Crystals!
Mars… Musk had said he plans to send more than one unmanned Starship to Mars in 2026 on the next good launch window, and will send at least one manned Starship in ’28. I don’t recall a single mention of NASA doing it, just SpaceX. It seems likely to me that the first man on Mars may arrive in 2029, which will be 60 years since Apollo 11. I vividly remember watching Apollo 11 as a 15 year old. I’m really hoping to see people on Mars as a 75 year old.
I think SpaceX is untethered from NASA. Its non-government-funded launches fuel its bottom line. Sure, the government contracts also pay the bills, but NASA is no longer the solution. The government will play catchup if it needs to play at all.
Right now revenues from Starlink are what is keeping SpaceX able to keep going and inventing. The Falcon 9 launches effectively pay for themselves, both non-Starlink and Starlink launches.
Musk definitely has a set on him. Starlink and his solar company have performed better than Tesla and SpaceX to date – however, the real question is whether the Optimus robot and the self-driving Tesla ($30K +/-) will perform as anticipated. There could be a serious upside with those units if he can pull it off – and unemployment for many millions of people they replace.