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Last Flight Out

brr.fyi

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Re: Last Flight Out

#161

Post by ripley12 »

fragmede wrote: post #108
zbaxrl wrote: post #56

Another blog, about the french-italian base Concordia. https://www.gdargaud.net/Antarctica/WinterDC1.html

In years past there was also ABigDeadPlace.com, which has since lapsed due to the author's unfortunate death. Thankfully it was published as a book, _Big Dead Place: Inside the Strange and Menacing World of Antarctica_ by Nicholas Johnson. If brr.fyi strikes your fancy, I bet that book would as well. https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/40919

100%. I would describe the subject matter as "dysfunctional office politics in Antarctica", which doesn't sound fascinating but it really is!

Re: Last Flight Out

#162

Post by faceloss »

dekhn wrote: post #138
ryandrake wrote: post #85

Whenever I read about how humans are about to colonize Mars, I think about how much logistics it takes to keep even a single base with a handful of people populated on the South Pole. It's like Mars, but with plentiful oxygen and atmospheric pressure, plentiful (albeit frozen) water, shielded from radiation, low-latency communication with civilization, and is reachable by air and ground vehicles. Given how difficult…

humans aren't about to colonize mars. At best we could put people on the surface for a week and return them home safely (with some non-zero probability of death). What's really crazy is what it would take to build sustainable non-earth infrastructure if earth wasn't available. I mean, sure, start with space robots that can extrude aluminum, but ... if you read the story of the western colonizers, it was brutal especi…

Robots people robots,

Why people run out of imaginations when thinking about robota is beyond me.

Free labour of everytype avalaible 24/7,

Re: Last Flight Out

#163

Post by tunesmith »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #88
ryandrake wrote: post #85

Whenever I read about how humans are about to colonize Mars, I think about how much logistics it takes to keep even a single base with a handful of people populated on the South Pole. It's like Mars, but with plentiful oxygen and atmospheric pressure, plentiful (albeit frozen) water, shielded from radiation, low-latency communication with civilization, and is reachable by air and ground vehicles. Given how difficult…

> how difficult and fraught it is to keep a few people alive down there, how does anyone expect to keep a few people alive on Mars, let alone build a colony there? Necessity is the mother of invention. It makes no sense to use precious Antarctic time and space growing all the food when it's cheaper to ship it in. Similar to how civilizations with a history of littoral shipbuilding figured out ocean-faring--if you're…

TIL "littoral"... I initially misread it as a misspelling of "literal".

Re: Last Flight Out

#164

Post by bizzyb »

stickfigure wrote: post #75
ta1243 wrote: post #40

The shower page was interesting, you get 4 minutes of shower time a week https://brr.fyi/posts/showering-at-the-south-pole I'm surprised they can't just melt snow water to run things like showers. Oddly no suggestions on the page about doubling up your shower with someone else to have longer or more frequent showers.

I'm more curious about what they do with the greywater. If you just dumped it you'd end up with a giant, evergrowing pile of dirty ice.

the rodwell where they melt the ice for their water makes a big cavern in the ice. the previous rodwell is used for all greywater/human waste, indeed making a giant shitcicle. when the current freshwater rodwell is done, they start a new one and that one becomes the new dumping one.

Re: Last Flight Out

#165

Post by dmckeon »

dahart wrote: post #61

Not sure why I’d never learned or noticed the altitude of the South Pole is so high, no wonder it’s extra chilly. I assume the screenshot is off by a bit maybe because it’s estimating altitude from barometric pressure or something?

Wikipedia gives the altitude for the South Pole station as:

> The station is located on the high plateau of Antarctica at 2,835 metres (9,301 ft) above sea level.

The screenshot shows air pressure, expressed as altitude and pressure. 685mb is mildly thin air for humans, but the top of Everest is about 250mb. Earth sea level is 1000mb, and the surface of Mars would be about 6mb. BYO oxygen and pressure.

Re: Last Flight Out

#166

Post by 2-718-281-828 »

4gotunameagain wrote: post #39
dpflan wrote: post #16

If you're interested in the people and personalities and activities at the South Pole, the Werner Herzog film Encounters at the End of the World is a revealing and interesting documentary. It includes a fascinating part about a deluded penguin choosing to leave its flock and begin a fatal journey towards the center of the island... - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encounters_at_the_End_of_the_W... - https://www.imdb.c…

The famous scene[0] from this film is a masterpiece. It never fails to sink me to my nadir, so I avoid watching it even if I love it so much. [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnTU_hJoByA

The top rated comment is spot on:

> Werner Herzog tells a joke:

> "Why did the penguin cross the road?"

> "To die. Alone. Insane and unnoticed."

Re: Last Flight Out

#167

Post by lisper »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #143
lisper wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Something I've never even seen mentioned , let along seriously discussed, is the protocol for deciding under what circumstances the first human will be born and raised off-earth. I predict that will turn out to be an intractable problem.

> the protocol for deciding under what circumstances the first human will be born and raised off-earth This one's easy. We won't have one when it happens. > predict that will turn out to be an intractable problem In what ways?

Goodness, where to even begin? Maybe here...

https://www.wired.com/2009/08/spacebabies/

We've never even successfully raised a mouse in space.

Re: Last Flight Out

#168

Post by kylehotchkiss »

gnatman wrote: post #126

I thought those fuel bladders were pretty cool! Never thought about transporting volatiles in anything other than a rigid tank. Also had to look up what AN-8 Fuel is: "AN8 is a special fuel blend unique to the Antarctic and Arctic. It has a lower flash point of 100 degrees Fahrenheit, which also lowers the gelling point when extreme cold temperatures can cause wax crystals to start forming in the fuel. AN8 will remai…

Now I wonder what the cost per gallon is!

Re: Last Flight Out

#169

Post by lisper »

dylan604 wrote: post #148
lisper wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Something I've never even seen mentioned , let along seriously discussed, is the protocol for deciding under what circumstances the first human will be born and raised off-earth. I predict that will turn out to be an intractable problem.

Have you not read Stranger In A Strange Land?

Yes. Why do you think that's relevant? You are aware that this was a work of fiction, yes?

Re: Last Flight Out

#170

Post by 2-718-281-828 »

sph wrote: post #80
4gotunameagain wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The famous scene[0] from this film is a masterpiece. It never fails to sink me to my nadir, so I avoid watching it even if I love it so much. [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnTU_hJoByA

Beautiful, thanks for sharing. That penguin walked to his certain death, while his mates swam and caught fish, to their certain death. Sadness for it and his supposed insanity only exists for a fleeting moment. In a long enough timespan, it lived and died like any other penguin has or ever will. Nihilism is not necessarily pessimistic. It presents our universe, and life itself, as a glass half full, but it's up to yo…

at least for most of us it is not pessimistic only as long as one can muse about it while sitting comfortably in a warm place with a full stomach.
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