Prof. Sam LawlerIt's a Good Cloud Day. But the goats are very annoyed there was a teeny tiny bit of rain (they really do not like rain).
And now time for my morning radio interview. At least I had time for (most of) a cup of tea first.
hahaha oh no I forgot I was supposed to be on Google Meets for this interview not a phone call! Luckily my computer cooperated and the producer was very understanding. I just am wearing a ratty farm sweatshirt and didn't brush my hair and have a messy room in the background. Oops. Luckily I've got another interview for Saskatoon in 15 minutes so I can try to do better this time...
Interview 2 went much better (which is good, Saskatoon is where it's most likely that pieces would be found, if there are any pieces) and I remembered to say the email address I want people to send possible space junk finds to! AND I got a better camera setup and actually brushed my hair. But I'm somehow going to end up on CBC national news in my ratty farm sweatshirt AGAIN aren't I?
A scary quick calculation: there are 10,375 Starlink satellites in orbit https://planet4589.org/space/con/conlist.html, all coming down within 5 years.
That's an *average* of 5 or 6 a day for the next 5 years. And the v2's are bigger than the v1's. v2's are (conservatively) 1000kg and (conservatively) half aluminum. That's 2.5-3 tonnes of aluminum per day. 8 times the natural infall rate of aluminum (and there's lots of other scary things like lithium). What will that do to our atmosphere?
SpaceX is awful.
Perrin42Wasn't that the plot of Seveneves?
Ángela Stella MatutinaHad the idea it involved an ablation cascade aka Kessler syndrome.
MidgePhoto@Photo55 @Perrin42 @sundogplanets
Remembering now! yeah, I really must read the book.
@angelastella
It is really quite good.
Separately, one of the discussions I've seen in #SciFi is of the minimum size of society for prolonged survival in Space.
Large.
I remember a good discussion about that topic on Charles Stross' weblog. If the idea is having modern industry, it could run to millions.
@angelastella
That's the one.
Various scifi authors have introduced ideas - rather deus ex machina ones - to reduce the number of bodies required to hold thouse skills and functions.
I suppose now YouTube etc is a bit of a start ;)
That's the one.
Various scifi authors have introduced ideas - rather deus ex machina ones - to reduce the number of bodies required to hold thouse skills and functions.
I suppose now YouTube etc is a bit of a start ;)
Sharing practical knowledge is a must. And it's the kind of thing we already do, not like molecular nanotechnology enabling cornucopia machines, or either versatile robots, or something else.
@angelastella
#JohnBrunner with Eptification - with a bad result - and #JoeHaldeman with some sort of overlays in #WorldsApart and assorted authors with "memory tapes and of course #TheMatrix "now I do!"
And in a less friendly way #LarryNiven with #Corpsicles and #RichardMorgan with the #DigitallyStoredHumans and #DigitallyFreightedHumans and uploading into a sleeve.
And a bunch more.
Yes, shortcuts to make the most of limited bodies. But to keep a closed ecology plus the mechanical part of the habitat and some mining/manufacturing capability there's no easy substitute for those bodies, and I'm afraid the number needed is still higher than expected.