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Last Flight Out

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Re: Last Flight Out

#281

Post by Maxion »

wkat4242 wrote: post #263
Maxion wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Black to save on heating? During a polar night it gets so dark that once you’re out of flashlight range it doesn’t matter. The issue is the wind blown snow reducing visibility.

Black would also radiate more energy out though. And there's a lot more energyv that can go out than in, in winter. I would imagine using silver colored would be best for insulation.

I wonder if material color was actually a design consideration? Or if material lifespan was more important?

Either way, very interseting project to get to work on, designing such a station.

Re: Last Flight Out

#282

Post by Maxion »

bizzyb wrote: post #255
kylehotchkiss wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Now I wonder what the cost per gallon is!

roughly $3 dollars per gallon purchase price for 5-6 million gallons. Plus tanker costs to McM at between $25k-$70k per day for roughly 90 days. Plus the cost of the ice breaker, between $3.5-$11 million per year. [0] That's just to get it to McM and doesn't include the labor costs of the fuelies based in McM. Then you gotta get it to Pole, which is a combination of the overland traverse and lc130 tanker missions. [0…

And then you find out you're 20 000 gallons short and you fly it in from Christchurch....

Re: Last Flight Out

#283

Post by nine_k »

bruce511 wrote: post #271
nine_k wrote: post #252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Martian equator has milder temperatures, more sunlight (no polar night), but has worse access to water, and none to breathable air. I'm certain that a self-contained habitation for a year is a solvable problem; nuclear submarines can be away in the ocean for a comparable time. A habitat self-sustained for potentially indefinite time (at least half century), while producing its own food and oxygen, is a much taller or…

I'm no nuclear engineer, but my anecdotal experience has been that nuclear plants need access to large amounts of water for cooling. I'm assuming a Martian reactor would need some other approach give the relative scarcity of water? Sure ambient temperatures are lower, but equally the atmosphere is not very dense. Thinking about it, burning diesel is also not attractive (lack of oxygen) and solar is weaker than earth.…

Mars does have water, mostly in form of ice. But it takes some digging.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_on_Mars

Re: Last Flight Out

#285

Post by Grimburger »

AceJohnny2 wrote: post #234

These stories about the logistics at Amundsen-Scott are a fascinating glimpse at the level of logistical complexity that'd be required for an off-planet (Moon, Mars...) base. Every time I see people get excited about Martian human habitation, I note a lack of discussion of the essential intermediate step: a fully self-sustaining base in the most inhospitable parts of Earth. Where are the Biosphere++ projects? And Amu…

> Where are the Biosphere++ projects?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MARS-500

Re: Last Flight Out

#286

Post by Schroedingersat »

AceJohnny2 wrote: post #234

These stories about the logistics at Amundsen-Scott are a fascinating glimpse at the level of logistical complexity that'd be required for an off-planet (Moon, Mars...) base. Every time I see people get excited about Martian human habitation, I note a lack of discussion of the essential intermediate step: a fully self-sustaining base in the most inhospitable parts of Earth. Where are the Biosphere++ projects? And Amu…

Annual DNI or GTI at the south pole is surprisingly high. About 5-6kWh/m^2 which is pretty close to somewhere like california or western Australia.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/334411420_Estimatio...

GHI is quite low (your array needs to be very spread out) and seasonality is 1/0, but if seasonal storage were available then a solar array in antarctica is fine.

Mars GHI is about 550W/m^2, but there are no clouds. An array there would perform about as well as france or spain.

Re: Last Flight Out

#287

Post by tecleandor »

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…

That has certain crossover with the mockumentary / sci-fi movie "The Wild Blue Yonder". I love that one. They use footage by one of the McMurdo station occupants of the film you mention, as if it were images from a remote planet.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wild_Blue_Yonder

Re: Last Flight Out

#288

Post by isoprophlex »

2-718-281-828 wrote: post #172
Aeolun wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or, instead of all that. You can spend your entire summer at the south pole playing a single game of Factorio.

the joke's lost on me? I know the game (never played it, though) but why "a single game"?

I played more hours than I care to admit during the pandemic and I think that was... 3, 4 games?

You can practically play it forever.

Re: Last Flight Out

#289

Post by rippercushions »

tomalpha wrote: post #218
2-718-281-828 wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

the joke's lost on me? I know the game (never played it, though) but why "a single game"?

A single game of Factorio can take a long time. Mine usually take around 100 hours. The craving to (tweak|move|refactor|grow) the base for certain personality types that are richly represented on HN can mean you can spend hundreds more on it too.

Try installing the Space Exploration mod, and you can easily add an extra zero to that figure.

Re: Last Flight Out

#290

Post by walrus01 »

gammarator wrote: post #133

My favorite writing about Antarctica is "Big Dead Place": https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-04-30/big-dead-place-the-wi... You can find the blog in the Internet Archive: https://web.archive.org/web/20120402141259/http://www.bigdea... or grab the book. Silver medal to Maciej for this one: https://idlewords.com/2016/05/shuffleboard_at_mcmurdo.htm

Very sadly, the author of that blog committed suicide back in 2012.

https://www.albedoimages.com/blog/2012/12/06/death-of-antarc...

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