The new forums will be named Coin Return (based on the most recent
vote)! You can check on the status and timeline of the transition to the new forums
here.
The Guiding Principles and New Rules
document is now in effect.
Pluto Flyby July 14th (photos, gifs)
Posts
Our next probe better be a round-trip unit that includes a spoon.
Doc: That's right, twenty five years into the future. I've always dreamed on seeing the future, looking beyond my years, seeing the progress of mankind. I'll also be able to see who wins the next twenty-five world series.
It's a tart, now. Deal with it.
Per revised forum naming conventions developed after extensive observation, it has been decided that we will no longer classify this Pluto discussion as a "thread". Hence forth, it will be labeled an Intermittently Discussed Forum Object.
This IDFO will be closely monitored to see if it throws off mass in the form of a new GST, or perhaps crashes into or otherwise merges with the Science thread.
Pluto back-lit by the sun reveals 50 mile thick atmospheric haze. Evidence from New Horizons shows the atmosphere has recently lost over half it's mass over the past two years, possibly freezing out onto the surface as Pluto heads away from the sun on it's highly elliptical orbit.
Nitrogen ice flows spotted in Sputnik Planum (northwestern part of the heart shaped region). See the swirls where the ice meets the beach? That's flowing glacial ice on the surface of Pluto, except wheras on Earth that kind of thing is commonly seen with water ice, this is nitrogen.
Lots more info at Phil Plait's blog.
These aren't even the highest resolution images taken by New Horizons, we are still waiting on those goodies to be down-linked.
Tastes like Minmus!
Ummm... adding even this much mass to the current science thread will probably cause it to nova.
Two months later, it still gives me a funny feeling to think that kids today will have actual pictures of Pluto in their textbooks in school. I think I might shed a tear the first time I'll open an astronomy textbook and see Pluto's heart.
Also there's a tentative plan for the next phase of the mission, because why waste a space probe that's already gone the distance? If it goes through there will be a flyby of a 45 km (30 mi) kuiper belt object on January 1st, 2019.
3DS: 0473-8507-2652
Switch: SW-5185-4991-5118
PSN: AbEntropy
Yeah they really over-engineer their stuff. It's amazing to think useful data us still being received from the voyager probes, launched almost 40 years ago.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RF_resonant_cavity_thruster#EmDrive
http://www.sciencealert.com/independent-scientists-confirm-that-the-impossible-em-drive-produces-thrust
iwanttobelieve.jpg
Stupidly expensive way to test it out, but at least it would prove or disprove the EMDrive quickly. If it works, then fuck the naysayers, and if not, move on to the next idea.
Seriously. Can we not just go hard on this thing and finally prove or disprove it, rather than keep going "yeah, that's cool, but can it do two backflips?".
Apparently someone is working on a cubesat-scale version, but it's still unclear if they'll be able to get enough cash together to have it hitch a ride to orbit.
Because if it works, we need to get on investing more resources on the tech, pronto!
Is that small enough for NASA to put in the next ISS resupply so they can chuck it out the airlock?
3DS: 0473-8507-2652
Switch: SW-5185-4991-5118
PSN: AbEntropy
They turn it on, it winks off into infinity, snaps a picture from the other side of the galaxy, and returns.
"Yeah but we still don't know how it works so we have to conclude it's a fraud."
C'mon we're all thinking it.
That kinda reminds me of that Scifi novel where the secret to FTL travel is so fundamentally wrong according to Newtonian Physics/Relativity that most races slowed down or stop technological advancement when they discovered it... during their equivalent of the Industrial Revolution or earlier.
liberate tutemet ex inferis
Is that the one where Earth gets attacked by a bunch of alien races in wooden ships with muskets?
That sounds kinda incredible. Alien conquistadors?
Right now the effect--if it produces any effect at all--is so tiny we can't reasonably discern it from background noise.
It's not like it'd suddenly kick off at 0.5c by being in space.
That said,
fuck up once and you break your thumb / if you're happy at all then you're god damn dumb
that's right we're on a fucked up cruise / God is dead but at least we have booze
bad things happen, no one knows why / the sun burns out and everyone dies
Oh my god tell us the title of this novel please please please
BF3 Battlelog | Twitter | World of Warships | World of Tanks | Wishlist
Any particular reason why it couldn't be tested? Beyond funding, I see no limitation why a prototype couldn't be assembled, thrown to orbit, engaged and monitored for changes in velocity that differ from an unpowered object.
You don't need to understand the physics behind something to observe the effects of that something. Currently it seems that the discourse around the EM drive is concentrating on trying to explain how it might or might not produce thrust, before actually testing whether it produces thrust in the intended environment or not.
In any case, even minuscule thrust would add up in space, as there is no air resistance, and thus it would be observable.
As far as testing it in space, if there is any actual thrust, and it is so tiny, it could be overwhelmed by things like solar pressure, impacts from space dust, etc.
I wish I could, but for the life of me, I can't remember.
Maybe when I come back from work I can google it.
And here I was reading all the responses to make sure somebody else hadn't already posted it.
Because, if not, I was going to.
That was amusing. Much obliged!
where we're going, we don't need budgets
god damn ewoks, get off my lawn with your interstellar galleons
It's not inherently more observable in space than it is on the ground. And out in some random orbit is not a good place to test for minuscule effects. Okay so after you run your test the apoapsis is 10 feet higher. Maybe it was the EM drive. Maybe a piece of rock floated past the thing. Maybe it caught some height via solar wind.
fuck up once and you break your thumb / if you're happy at all then you're god damn dumb
that's right we're on a fucked up cruise / God is dead but at least we have booze
bad things happen, no one knows why / the sun burns out and everyone dies
So the closer we observe it the tinier and harder it gets to observe.
Quantum shenanigans if I've ever seen it.