Very Cool!!
If the Earth were 100 pixels wide
31–40 of 216 posts
Re: If the Earth were 100 pixels wide
#32It bothers me a little that they show the motion against a starfield like that -- the stars are so far away that they won't shift perceptibly even on a journey to mars.
I mean, I don't have any better ideas, but given that the whole point is to give an idea of scale I wish they'd come up with something else. :)
Re: If the Earth were 100 pixels wide
#33it says it is traveling at 1/10 th of light speed. it takes less than minute to get to Mars in pixels, but from other sources I know it takes 13 minutes for radio signal to get to mars. Something does not play here.
Re: If the Earth were 100 pixels wide
#34very cool - thank you.
Re: If the Earth were 100 pixels wide
#35One thing that's always gotten to me about this distance is what it means for communication latency. Mars is 20 light-minutes away. If we sent colonists, communication would be a 40-minute round trip. No phone calls home, no way to have a chat with friends or loved ones; at best they could send a message, and wait 40 minutes for a reply. That's far away.
Re: If the Earth were 100 pixels wide
#36please also mark the Lagrange Points
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lagrangian_point
plus Sun, that would be really cool!!
Re: If the Earth were 100 pixels wide
#37The few pixels to the low Earth orbit and ISS is gently depressing. When's the last time a human went further than that? 1972?
Re: If the Earth were 100 pixels wide
#38What's frustrating is how much better of a candidate Venus would be, if it weren't for its atmosphere. It's closer than Mars and larger too.
Kind of a silly thing to say though. If Mars had a "better" atmosphere too it'd be that much more superior as a colonization target.
It's an idle wish.
Re: If the Earth were 100 pixels wide
#39It's nice but his scale is wrong. He states that the Earth is 6371 km large, while in reality, it's twice that, as 6371 km is just the radius of the Earth, and what you really see is its diameter.
Re: If the Earth were 100 pixels wide
#40Earlier quoted context omitted.
I like to imagine if Mars and Venus were swapped would Venus then be habitable?
No. Simply put: the core is likely solidified just like Mars and its magnetic field is very weak, causing the weather to be influenced by only its rotation and solar winds. It would be far more difficult to terraform than Mars really. Also a Venusian day is something like 5,800 hours and its surface temperature is capable of melting lead.
I like to believe we could circumvent some of these problems technologically. After all, there is no particular reason to feel bad about macroscopic terraforming on a lifeless planet. Yes, it would be more work than Mars. But it's also bigger than Mars and further from the asteroid belt. No planet but Earth is going to be ideal.