nsf39k

The technology and infrastructure needed to reach Planet 9, build a mining outpost, then transport everything back at a profitable cost is likely decades if not centuries away. That’s not counting the fact that Planet 9 is so far away that getting there with current technology is a lengthy affair in itself (the New Horizons probe wouldn’t even be halfway to a theoretical Planet 9, and it’s been flying for over 15 years!)

Not saying I don’t want this to happen - I would love nothing more than to have humanity push out into the solar system, but recycling or scavenging is infinitely more of an realistic option.

I wonder whatever happened to the goal of humans on Mars by the mid-2030s.

Many college-educated Chinese join the CCP since it’s essentially a requirement to move to senior roles in many organizations there. Exceptions exist, but I doubt there’s a single Chinese venture firm/unicorn that doesn’t have LPs or angels who are CCP members or have backdoor deals with the CCP itself.

I’ve found actual loyalty to the CCP to be varying. The more urban (especially the coastal urbanites from Shanghai and Beijing) and educated they are, the more likely in my experience that they’re only paying lip service to the CCP. They’ll even enthusiastically criticize the regime behind closed doors if they trust you - but I’m certain there’s also plenty of true believers. Take that as you will.

Didn’t another scientist named O’Neill also propose using railguns to bring payloads into orbit from the moon?

Would be interesting to use the moon to test alternative means of reaching orbit since the low-G environment and lack of atmosphere would make it pretty forgiving for that task.

There’s this guy too (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lagâri_Hasan_Çelebi) who allegedly made a manned rocket flight in 1633 in front of the Ottoman sultan.

The British Interplanetary Society proposed using a modified V-2 called ‘Megaroc’ to perform a manned suborbital spaceflight before 1950. (https://www.bis-space.com/megaroc/)

They were pretty visionary when it came to space exploration and even made the first serious study into potential manned lunar mission in 1938 using a ‘step rocket’. (https://www.bis-space.com/the-bis-lunar-spaceship/)

Odoacer also recognized Julius Nepos as de jure Western Emperor (although Nepos only ruled over a small rump state in Dalmatia) until Nepos was assassinated in 480.

The Kingdom of Italy also maintained Roman institutions like the consuls and Roman senate, which continued to exist as an organization until the 7th century.

With Odoacer acknowledging Nepos as the nominal ruler, referring to himself with Roman honorifics (usually as a patrician), and Roman institutions being preserved, I bet the average Roman civilian wouldn’t have experienced too big of a difference between 474 and 478 even if the Western Roman Empire had already been ‘replaced’ by the Kingdom of Italy.

Maybe in another life. Aviation and space is my bigger interest, and I even dropped out of college last semester to pursue my own drone-tech startup full-time.

I guess it's the vast remoteness of the sea and space that appeals to me. Some of my best memories were made sailing through open waters with no land in sight.

The Dyer Midget is a pretty solid boat (about 8-ft long and costs $4k). I practiced sailing around on local lakes with it as a teen and love it.

If you’re aiming for low maintenance, go for something that’s small and storable in a garage since exposure to the elements and water will beat your boat to hell. It won’t be a yacht, but you can still sail around and drink some beer with a friend or two.

This shit is crazy.

I’m working with a user that’s doing stuff with aerial reconnaissance and the camera sensors they’re mounting on aircraft are usually only 120-150MP. Having a 200MP sensor on a phone really opens up the door to some insane possibilities.

I remember first hearing about the JWST in elementary school. Watching it get closer and closer to launch honestly feels like the end of an era.

I don’t enjoy distance running but I still push myself to do it. Fitness reasons and it helps vent some frustration after a bad day.

Writing short stories. Reading a short story by Clarke as a kid is what set me towards science and tech in the first place. I don’t like showing them to people I know and usually just prefer to put them up somewhere online completely anonymously.

Fishing’s great, if you can find somewhere to do it.

Day-sailing is the best. A sailing class and small dinghy isn’t that much iirc, but if you can get your hands on a larger vessel there’s nothing better than the feeling of being on open water. If I couldn’t do tech or anything aerospace I’d 100% be in a maritime profession.

Very much so - even if you’re partially immersed.

Grew up with immigrant parents where Mandarin was spoken in the household but lived in a area with no other Chinese-Americans. Even though I was exposed to the spoken language daily, I wound up forgetting how to read and write Mandarin by middle school.

Did my best to re-learn it but I rarely ever read/write in Mandarin so I would just regress after a bit - by this point I think I’ve re-learned how to read or write basic Mandarin at least three times and have regressed each successive time. Interesting note is that I seem to be significantly faster at re-learning things each time I go back to it, but that might just be constant repetition more than anything.