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On Getting to Mars

Posted by mythusmage on 19 July 2010, 2:07 am

There are folks out there eager to get to Mars. I applaud their eagerness, but must disagree with their proposed method. You see, they want to get to Mars by boat.

No, not literally, but figuratively speaking that’s what it amounts to. You see, up to now we’ve been sending out men and women in boats. Canoes and kayaks in the case of the first space craft, a boat in the case of the shuttle. The ISS is itself a clumsy, clunky, slapped together raft, and that’s about it.

Now for our trips to the moon a canoe did the job tolerably well. But for all intents and purposes we were only crossing a small river. To get to Mars we’ll have to cross a sea, and for that we’ve going to need a ship.

That’s right, a space ship. A bonafide ship capable of holding a crew, and landing craft. Ships boats that is. The sort of craft needed to land on a planet.

But, our space ship will need to provide gravity for the crew, because a year long voyage in micro-gravity is too dang long. But how to provide artificial gravity?

Rotate the ship.

Small problem, in order for things to be comfortable for the crew the ship will have to have a sizable diameter. How to handle this? That’s simple, build it like the glorious space stations of 50s and 60s science fiction. That’s right, a great wheel in the sky. Place rockets in the hub and send it off on a great, slow circuit that would eventually end up at Mars.

Now here’s the big problem with my idea, inertia. A crewed ship with all the supplies needed is going to be massive. I’m thinking of only 200 men and women, but feeding, hydrating, providing air for, and handling the waste products of that number of people is going to require supplies in ton lots.

So there you have my Mars Expedition ship. It looks just like an old fashion great wheel space station, which rotates around a relatively stationary hub bearing the rockets that will send the craft to Mars. Just attaching wheel to hub is going to take some advances in technique and technology, because I don’t think we’re capable of it yet. Learning how to safely transit from wheel to hub is going to take practice.

But what about the struts connecting the hub to the wheel? Isn’t that the problem with the Enterprise in Star Trek.

Inertia would be the problem, and as long as the struts have the tensile strength to handle it inertia should be no problem. Remember, friction is not a problem for a vessel floating free in space.

So here’s my scenario. Our Mars expeditionary ship (the Bob Heinlein is my suggested name) is a great wheel type of vessel with a crew of 200. It consists of a wheel connected by four struts to a hub with contain the rockets that move the Bob Heinlein through space. The wheel and struts rotate around the hub, which must remain relatively stationary in order for the ship to move.

After constructing the Bob Heinlein and crewing her we start the journey to Mars by placing the ship into Solar orbit. Why Solar orbit? Cheaper in fuel and less stress on the ship. Over time the ship is accelerated until it achieves Mars’ orbit and can then rendezvous with the Red Planet. Once in Mars orbit a landing craft is sent down with a landing crew and history is made,

Obviously I’m thinking of a multi-year journey, which is why I’m thinking of a sizable crew. Why 200 people? So each member of the crew while have people they don’t know all that well. People they can contact when they need fresh faces.

You see, we’re not really suited to dealing with people we know real well for extended periods of time. We need to get out and see things that are new to us, and to meet people we don’t know. We need novelty. With 200 people — and the environs they dwell in — to engage ourselves with we can get all the novelty we need.

So there you have my disorganized thinking on our first expedition to Mars. Not borne on a boat, by carried by a ship. A ship designed to give us a workable artificial gravity and capable of carrying enough people to keep each other from going bug fuck during the long journey.

A boat with a crew of six just won’t do, it’s going to take a ship with a crew of 200 or so. What say we start working towards making it a reality.

By the way, if you must be formal, we could always call her the Robert Anson Heinlein, but he always did prefer being called Bob.

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A Disquieting Alphabet Book

Posted by mythusmage on 15 July 2010, 4:48 pm

The Big Idea: Alethea Kontis « Whatever.

In honor of the above I present the following.

A Disquieting Alphabet Book

A is for Apothecary, mixing salves and tinctures

B is for Basilisk, don’t stare in his eyes is the common stricture

C is for Catamite, a toothless fellow and simpering

D is for dofus, always and ever whimpering

E is for Ettin, a giant of habits foul

F is for Feces, a product of the bowels.

G is for Gremlin, what haunts folks unwary

H is for Harbinger, which many find most scary

I is for Imp, a most pestiferous fellow

J is for the Jenny Lind, which can scare a hero yellow

K is for Kellogg, the author of this piece

L is for the Ladies, who wish this soul would cease

M is for the Masses, asleep upon their seats

N is for Nutella, an Australian’s favorite treat

O is for the sneaky Orc, that most upsetting creature

P is for the Pomegranate, which has no redeeming features

Q is for the Quirt, which stings those it lands upon

R is for the Rakshasa, which fools those who gaze upon

S is for the Secret Lair, a place unseen by any

T is for the Tigershark, a beast that has scared many

U is for the Uvula, which everyone does have

V is for the Vulva, which only ladies can have

W is for Wanderjahr, which the reader is looking forward to

X is for Xanadu, which is the place that he is going to

Y is for the Yeti, a supposedly mythical beast

Z is for Zygote, which is hardly the end at least

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I Have Been Insulted

Posted by mythusmage on 13 July 2010, 7:49 pm

I Write Like Dan Brown.

Either that, or Dan Brown has been greatly complimented, since he writes like me. :)

I write like
Dan Brown

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

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Consequences

Posted by mythusmage on 13 July 2010, 3:54 pm

The post just prior to this presented my thinking on how the universe is put together. A fact which has implications for us. For instance, because of how mass is caused by the motion of folds and higher order objects through space-time, an object such as the graviton becomes unnecessary, and even impossible. In short, we don’t need gravitons to explain gravity, for gravity is adequately explained by the curvature of space time we call mass.

Because everything is space-time it means that objects must follow the curve of space-time and so cannot be sent on cosmic short cuts.

A fold is a higher energy state. This means that folds unfold as the universe becomes less compressed as it expands. Thus the universe is unfolding as it should. The more compressed the universe was the more folds there were. At the beginning the universe was a fold. A fold that expanded until it reached a point where flat space-time was possible. With the partial unfolding of the universe inflation came to an end and the universe as we know it came to be.

Finally, everything has mass. Not virtual mass, but actual mass. A fold can have no mass, but only if absolutely motionless. Because a fiber consists of at least two folds orbiting a common center of mass no fiber — and so no thread, string, etc. — can be massless. So yes, photons have mass. A photon moves at a velocity of 1C because the mass of a photon is such that 1C is the velocity a photon will travel at. Were photons to have a greater or lesser mass, then 1C would be a different speed.

Note that the speed of light is the speed a photon travels at in a hard vacuum. In any other medium a photon travels at a lower apparent speed. From the right point of view a photon travels at a constant speed regardless of the medium, it just has further to go for a given volume because that volume has a greater apparent density. In an absolute vacuum — any volume with absolutely no curving of space-time other than that caused by the photon — a photon would travel at a much higher velocity than the accepted 186,000 approximate miles per second. So 1C is an approximation based on a particular set of conditions and the actual speed is likely something something much greater.

So there you have my idea and some of the consequences there of.

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The Universe Enfolded

Posted by mythusmage on 13 July 2010, 3:06 pm

Classical Values :: The Quantum Mechanic.

Thanks to that post I discovered this book. Haven’t looked through it yet, but the impression I get as that the author, Johan F. Prins, disagrees with the physics community whereto how things work. I’m posting this to tell you about the book, and to post again on a topic I’ve posted on before.

I’m re-posting this information because my previous iteration is no longer available to me. Here I address a small problem I see with String Theory, namely, that strings vibrate. That don’t make sense to me, so I came up with the following. Below the fold

Continue reading ‘The Universe Enfolded’ »

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It’s So Unfair

Posted by mythusmage on 8 July 2010, 9:54 am

Marine layer again cloaks San Diego County – SignOnSanDiego.com.

Usually we’re in the July Fry, temperatures in the 80′s and 90′s with clear skies and a blazing sun. This year we’ve got temperatures in the 60′s and it’s kind of drizzly. Meanwhile out on the beast coast it’s been 100 or more in spots.

Global warming? Nope, just chaos in action. Every now and then the dice just fall strange. It’s like getting a run of 13s on a percentile, The odds are greatly against it, but just because you’ve got 1 chance in a trillion of getting 6 of them in a row don’t mean it’s impossible,

Things are expected to heat up here by the week-end. Out east things appear to be cooling down. Whatever happens be prepared, for you can never reliably predict what occurs.

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Just an Observation

Posted by mythusmage on 6 July 2010, 6:53 pm

Why do Medicaid recipients use the emergency room? Don’t know about the rest of the country, but in California it’s often because their regular doctor or clinic isn’t available in a timely fashion.

Why is that?

Because California does not pay the true cost of treatment. A cost the state also inflates by demanding lots of paperwork. Paperwork it costs the provider to fill out and which adds to the cost of providing care. Once I asked my pharmacist if it would be cheaper to fill prescriptions without all the paperwork he has to deal with. His response was, “Much cheaper.”

The end result of the whole thing is that many doctors will not see Medicaid (Medi-Cal in California) patients. That means those doctors who will see Medi-Cal patients are overworked and usually unavailable in urgent situations.

Since I have weight related diabetes on occasion I have trouble with my feet. Not a life threatening problem, but occasionaly an urgent one. Since my doctor is usually booked up for a few weeks, and seeing some other doctor can take a few days, it becomes necessary for me to go to emergency where I get to wait a few hours for treatment. Better that than waiting a few days as my feet get worse and the situation might actually become life threatening

I must ask, if Medi-Cal recipients were given the money spent on them on a  monthly basis for medical care in cash, how much money would California save? A straight cash transaction for medical care, with the state having no role other than to disburse the funds the recipient then becomes responsible for.

Would it be misused? By some, but I expect more people would be responsible than the bureaucrats expect.

So there you have the reason why Medi-Caid recipients go to emergency so often. Not because we want to, but because bureaucracy and unthinking regulation makes it necessary.

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I Can See Clearly Now

Posted by mythusmage on 5 July 2010, 6:17 pm

Medi-Cal: Reinstatement of Optometry Services.

The above is of interest to me because I am disabled (depression plus Aspergers) and have extreme myopia plus astigmatism. In short, I need glasses and I can’t pay for them.

For someone like me being able to see an optometrist doesn’t mean a damn thing, because I can’t follow whatever advice he gives. He tells me I need new glasses, I’ll have to thank him for the advice, and tell him I won’t be following it. It comes down to this, why go to an optometrist if it does you no good. This so called reinstatement of optometry coverage does me no good. Or any other Medi-Caid recipient with eye trouble.

It is, to be cruel, a fucking joke. My visit to the optometrist gets covered, but not the glasses he would prescribe. Glasses I need to function and can’t afford.

If you’re wondering why I’m not out looking for a job, I’m disabled. I maintain a fiction of normality thanks to Fluoxetine and Zyprexa, but I couldn’t pass for normal if you paid me. So what the state of California has done here is a fraud. I can learn how bad my vision is, but there is damn all the optometrist can do about it. What it comes down to is this, I’m being punished for being disabled. I’m not worth being concerned about because I have no political power to wield.

So here’s a recommendation… Until full coverage for optometry for Medi-Cal recipients is reinstated boycott the state of California. No vacations, no business trips, no conferences, conventions, or symposiums. Buy nothing from California, sell nothing to California.

Yes, I know this aint gonna go far, but at least I let you know what I think of the situation. Will I boycott the state?  I live here and I can’t afford to move, so I’m stuck giving CA my business. At least I can urge those who have a choice to refuse to give CA the business. So refrain  from dealing with California or any business in the state and put pressure on the state to put things right.

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Stray Thoughts on the Fourth

Posted by mythusmage on 4 July 2010, 2:26 pm

Maybe we should establish a minimum age for going to college. Say twenty or so to give the kids a few years in the real world where they’d have to make a go at making it on their own. In addition, how about making all college students get part time work as a condition of attending college? Maybe that way they’d learn the value of thrift because it would be their money they’d be spending.

We’ve been in the singularity since around 10,000 BC. About when we started getting serious about agriculture. We don’t live like hunter gatherers, most certainly not in small bands. For all we limit ourselves to a few hundred folks in our circles of concern, we’re still involving ourselves in the lives of others.

Apropos of which, I saw the Stossel special on how great America is. He makes a good case for the proposition. For instance, Americans by and large donate to numerous causes on a private basis. This, as far as I can see, because of a religion that would not have been possible in a hunter/gatherer society. This faith itself derived from an earlier religion espousing many of the same principles as the later one, but which could never have arisen in a hunter/gatherer culture. In short the adoption of agriculture has produced changes in us we seem to have missed, and be leading sometime in the future to changes we cannot yet see. The Singularity is not sometime that’s going to happen all at once, it is something that is going on right now, and has been happening for something like 12,000 years. Maybe 20,000 years from now our descendants will look back and see an event they will call The Singularity, but it won’t be what their ancestors thought it would be.

Am I a racist? If you wish to think of me as such, then that is your short-coming. Am I uncomfortable around people? That I can plead guilty to. I have Aspergers and it informs how I handle the world and the people and things in it.

I once met a black man who was drunk. I disapproved of his intoxication. He took the time to explain the why. I suspect he took the time because I was disapproving of him, and so treated him as a person. Can the PC crowd say the same of the minorities they now. Do the new bigots even see people of other races as being persons just like them. Think of it this way, A conservative bigot hates the race, but loves the people; a liberal bigot hates the people, but loves the race.

Just recently saw a video on a study on why people do the things they do. Don’t recall the video’s title, but I do recall one point it made (this is an Asperger’s trait in case you’re wondering), that people will do things just for the fun of it that benefits others for no expectation of reward. I mention this because I just downloaded the new version of a mod, as they’re called, for the strategy game Civilization III. I mention it so you’ll know why I’m ending this post here, I’m off to try the mod out and see what has changed since the previous version. Wish me luck.

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Here I Come a Blegging

Posted by mythusmage on 24 June 2010, 11:43 am

I need to get ready to have my apartment repainted and new carpet laid down. Which means I need to get ahold of boxes. If you happen to live in the San Diego area and you have boxes, you can contact me at mythusmage (at) g(extraneous crap)mail (dot) com. Or call me at (619) 234-9868 and leave a message on my answering machine.

I have a few books looking for a home, just ask and I’ll likely let you have one or two. This includes the bulk of my RPG collection. There are certain exceptions of course, most especially those tomes I haven’t read yet, and my DJ collection. I also have two old iMacs that really should go to a recycler, so if you can help there it would be much appreciated.

The deadline is July 8th, so get in touch if you can help before then.

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