121–130 of 146 posts
Hi guys, I helped build the Cubesat. Any questions: Fire away!
A second question I has was: how similar is the sand you are using to real martian sand?
Do you have any images of the resulting potatoes? Would they be edible?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm onboard for metric - just not for temperature. Just because you manage to deal with C doesn't make it better. Do you see the parallels? You tell Americans all the benefits of metric, they don't care. You tell Europeans all the benefits of Fahrenheit, they don't care. People don't want to change. > It keeps the numbers smaller. No, it doesn't. You need 3 digits since you need the decimal (-20.5).
I can't think of a weather station that uses decimals, the forecasts and current temperature reports are almost always whole numbers. My Nest thermostat goes to the closest 0.5°C because I guess why not, but even that seems overkill. Most systems go to the nearest whole degree. Decimals are only for those who are making a fuss over nothing unless they're doing something that requires precision, like chemistry or in r…
I could get on board with kilometers, if I had to, because the conversion factor is simple enough to do in your head (roughly 3/5), but trying to figure out what anything is in Celsius is just a little too complicated.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Ah, you're right about calorie vs. Joule. That is a bit rough around the edges. > For temperature Fahrenheit is the better scale. Yeah, no. It's a stupid system. It's not even calibrated properly. 100° was supposed to be body temperature. They got it wrong. 0° was the lowest temperature they could measure at the time because that's when mercury froze. That's so useful! I really want to know if the mercury I carry aro…
> That is a bit rough around the edges. Correct. It would be one thing if Celsius is somehow tied into the rest of the SI units, but it is not, which means we can replace it. > It's not even calibrated properly. Who cares if they got the calibration of Fahrenheit wrong, at the end of the day it's more usable than Celsius for humans. 0 Fahrenheit is the temperature when it's really cold outside, 100 is when it's hot.…
I drink green tea a lot. You pour the water at 70-75 degrees C. It's a lot easier to do the math of how much water you need to add to instantly cool the water from the water boiler down to that range.
"""Labs and Ovens don't really care about which exact unit, so let them deal with the higher (or lower) numbers - the only time it matters is for ordinary humans checking the weather."""
What? I use temperature more when cooking/BBQing than when checking the weather.
"""With Celsius you need to deal with negative temperatures all the time"""
This is a feature, not a bug. Negative number -> below freezing.
"""0 Fahrenheit is the temperature when it's really cold outside, 100 is when it's hot. It doesn't get simpler than that. If you are outside those ranges you need to take special precautions."""
I also need to take special precautions within these ranges. Most notably switching between summer/winter tires.
From the article: "The box mimics the day-night patterns of Mars, as well as its temperature, air pressure and atmospheric composition." Wait, really? They're growing plants in what's practically a vacuum and at subzero temperatures? Really? That seems... stupendously unlikely... to me. Not that I wouldn't love to be wrong, mind. Anyone have a link to actual data? Everything linked to is just press fluff. Update: Act…
If anything can be grown on Martian soil--whether substantially nutritive or not--that can self-sustain and propagate on its own, I wonder if that is an avenue for terraformation.
Not so fast. Actual Martian soil has perchlorate and a pH of 8.3 .
From the article: "The box mimics the day-night patterns of Mars, as well as its temperature, air pressure and atmospheric composition." Wait, really? They're growing plants in what's practically a vacuum and at subzero temperatures? Really? That seems... stupendously unlikely... to me. Not that I wouldn't love to be wrong, mind. Anyone have a link to actual data? Everything linked to is just press fluff. Update: Act…
I ran a similar experiment at home, albeit with a fern rather than potatoes and without simulating martian light. My fern started to perish (and it was a well established plant). The biggest problem I'm facing at the moment is that Mars is extremely nitrogen deficient. https://reprage.com/post/marsarium-9 https://www.reddit.com/r/Colonizemars/comments/5vi52v/inspir...
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It seems that this short story was originally published in an old science fiction magazine (that my local library doesn't stock). Was wondering if it also made its way into a compilation of some sort. Google hasn't turned up anything for me yet.
Is this the story? http://www.young-adult-books.com/read/buy-jupiter-and-other-... (link says "buy", but looks like the entire story is on that page)
[1] WHICH I'M LINKING ON A FREAKING ENCYCLOPEDIA GALACTICA THAT CONTAINS IN EVERY LANGUAGE ALL OF THE GENERAL KNOWLEDGE OF THE WORLD (WIKIPEDIA).
From the article: "The box mimics the day-night patterns of Mars, as well as its temperature, air pressure and atmospheric composition." Wait, really? They're growing plants in what's practically a vacuum and at subzero temperatures? Really? That seems... stupendously unlikely... to me. Not that I wouldn't love to be wrong, mind. Anyone have a link to actual data? Everything linked to is just press fluff. Update: Act…
I ran a similar experiment at home, albeit with a fern rather than potatoes and without simulating martian light. My fern started to perish (and it was a well established plant). The biggest problem I'm facing at the moment is that Mars is extremely nitrogen deficient. https://reprage.com/post/marsarium-9 https://www.reddit.com/r/Colonizemars/comments/5vi52v/inspir...