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As last module docks, China completes its space station

nytimes.com

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Re: As last module docks, China completes its space station

#71

Post by stefan_ »

Victerius wrote: post #8

I hope mankind can move beyond building space stations as a handful of modular small cylinders, and start building space stations the way they appear in science fiction: dozens of rooms, cubical exteriors, hallways, human height doors that open and close, stairs, elevators, hangars, a nuclear reactor instead of solar panels, and modules that rotate around an axis to create artificial gravity. And a more diversified c…

Why, there is already barely anything useful to do with the current crop of space stations.

Re: As last module docks, China completes its space station

#72

Post by diskzero »

throwaway894345 wrote: post #59
diskzero wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Space stations and exploration can be a difficult proposition to justify to any economic system; democratic, socialist, communist, etc. For China to want to "beat" us, building bigger and better space stations would somehow have to align with the current and future five year plans. I would rather have China and the US pouring tons of money into space stations and exploration, but it is hard to figure out the rational…

The space race was motivated by competition with Russia, notably the imperative to establish a tactical nuclear advantage. We could conceivably see another space race between the US and China, but maybe not if "space" doesn't have the same tactical appeal?

I suppose it could lead to a race to build a new generation of heavy lift vehicles or other propulsion systems. Maybe a return to the NERVA[1] engine! That technology was an interesting story point in the "For All Mankind" series alternative timeline.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NERVA

Re: As last module docks, China completes its space station

#73

Post by CyanBird »

rvba wrote: post #46
fuoqi wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you implying that Chinese nationalism prevents the collaboration? Look into why China is not part of ISS, despite its desire to join. Spoiler: the US has blocked it. It's a small miracle that Russia is part of ISS, not in small part because the US wanted to get cheap access to the Soviet Mir-based technology and expertise.

Can you go to China and travel freely? Can you even own a business there as a foreigner? How many foreigners received a citizenship?

You are not entitled to rights or privileges in a country you are not part of. For example I wish the US and the UK would stop spying on me with their dragnet, but alas I am not a US citizen so I am not privileged to be protected by their own laws

Re: As last module docks, China completes its space station

#74

Post by counttheforks »

throwaway894345 wrote: post #59
diskzero wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Space stations and exploration can be a difficult proposition to justify to any economic system; democratic, socialist, communist, etc. For China to want to "beat" us, building bigger and better space stations would somehow have to align with the current and future five year plans. I would rather have China and the US pouring tons of money into space stations and exploration, but it is hard to figure out the rational…

The space race was motivated by competition with Russia, notably the imperative to establish a tactical nuclear advantage. We could conceivably see another space race between the US and China, but maybe not if "space" doesn't have the same tactical appeal?

What happened to the US space force? I expected the US to have nukesats in orbit by now. Or maybe they do?

Re: As last module docks, China completes its space station

#75

Post by peter303 »

jorgesborges wrote: post #4

Last week I stood outside my apartment and watched Tiangong fly across the sky[0]. What an incredible time to be alive. [0] https://james.darpinian.com/satellites/

Tiangoon flybys can reaches magnitude -2 now. Bright than most planets. Next bright evening flybys overUS in early December.

The ISS, which has five times more modules, reaches magnitude -4 sometimes. Third brightest thing in sky.

Re: As last module docks, China completes its space station

#76

Post by thedragonline »

jason-phillips wrote: post #64
jdbernard wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sure they'd be happy to give you a refund. :)

The point is not that one makes available one's site for free. The point is that the quality of the work is sloppy, price of said service notwithstanding. There are many other ways to approximate a client's geolocation so as to prevent displaying an embarrassing error where one did not first check whether the object's property was truthy or not. Justifying terrible UX by saying, "it's free," is a terrible strategy, t…

Uh, then don't use it? Problem solved methinks.

Re: As last module docks, China completes its space station

#77

Post by mbostleman »

jason-phillips wrote: post #64
jdbernard wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sure they'd be happy to give you a refund. :)

The point is not that one makes available one's site for free. The point is that the quality of the work is sloppy, price of said service notwithstanding. There are many other ways to approximate a client's geolocation so as to prevent displaying an embarrassing error where one did not first check whether the object's property was truthy or not. Justifying terrible UX by saying, "it's free," is a terrible strategy, t…

But, all moral posturing notwithstanding, is it not also true that if the OP just gets a browser or a browser version or a browser configuration that supports geolocation that they will be back in business?

Re: As last module docks, China completes its space station

#78

Post by gorkish »

agambrahma wrote: post #61
jorgesborges wrote: post #4

Last week I stood outside my apartment and watched Tiangong fly across the sky[0]. What an incredible time to be alive. [0] https://james.darpinian.com/satellites/

This is a fantastic website, thank you to whoever made it !!

I concur! The street view is brilliant.

Re: As last module docks, China completes its space station

#80

Post by shadowgovt »

jason-phillips wrote: post #64
jdbernard wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sure they'd be happy to give you a refund. :)

The point is not that one makes available one's site for free. The point is that the quality of the work is sloppy, price of said service notwithstanding. There are many other ways to approximate a client's geolocation so as to prevent displaying an embarrassing error where one did not first check whether the object's property was truthy or not. Justifying terrible UX by saying, "it's free," is a terrible strategy, t…

It's not just that the key isn't populated; it's that it's undefined. FWIW, my browser (Chrome) works on the site even if I choose not to share geolocation; I assume because the API is populated even if it then refrains from sharing.

Your point isn't quite wrong but it also isn't quite right; geolocation is supported by every browser listed on Mozilla's documentation (https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Navigator/g...) so if a browser isn't at least stubbing out that API these days, it's not w3c-compliant, and non-w3c-compliant browsers will sometimes just break on some pages.

It is, of course, still incumbent on the developer to go that extra mile if they want to catch that last 1% of users, but users of exotic browsers get an exotic experience also.

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