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If the Earth were 100 pixels wide

distancetomars.com

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Re: If the Earth were 100 pixels wide

#141

Post by gridmaths »

marcosdumay wrote: post #122
austenallred wrote: post #6

This is the first time I've actually been able to comprehend the perspective of distances so big they don't mean much as a number. Thank you.

You can easily build an in 1:2e9 scale replica of the Solar System. You'll just need a 90cm sphere to use as the Sun, some 4-5 km of area do arrange things and a paquimeter for measuring the planets. At this scale, everything is just about as big/small as one can manipulate. Bu you won't be able to place the Voyager in there. For that you'll need a car and a road trip.

They did a nice job of this along the Melbourne waterfront boardwalk, here : http://lokenote.com/lokenote/OBWw7zwX

I think the scale is 1 to 1 billion

pics :] https://plus.google.com/photos/106795164119213709932/albums/...

Re: If the Earth were 100 pixels wide

#142

Post by ptaipale »

ajays wrote: post #138
marcosdumay wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can easily build an in 1:2e9 scale replica of the Solar System. You'll just need a 90cm sphere to use as the Sun, some 4-5 km of area do arrange things and a paquimeter for measuring the planets. At this scale, everything is just about as big/small as one can manipulate. Bu you won't be able to place the Voyager in there. For that you'll need a car and a road trip.

Isn't there such a thing in downtown Ithaca?

Apparently yes, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sagan_Planet_Walk

There are a multitude of others all around the world: http://www.waymarking.com/cat/details.aspx?f=1&guid=52fe...

The one close to me is in Helsinki-Espoo: http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WM8AJ4_Ursa_Model_of_the_... But this one's slightly bigger, scale is o to billion. You can still see the Sun from Neptune, if you have binoculars (4487 meters, the Sun is 140cm in diameter).

Re: If the Earth were 100 pixels wide

#144

Post by primitur »

jarek wrote: post #112
primitur wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm more bothered by the authoritative fact that 'the timeline for a manned mission to Mars is the 2030s'. Says who, NASA? They're not the only ones trying to get there.

Does anyone else have a realistic more aggressive timeline?

See the response above - there is a window in 2018/2020 that private entrepreneurs will shoot for. I wish them luck, personally .. I'd love it if someone other than NASA got there first. It would truly ignite the human race.

Re: If the Earth were 100 pixels wide

#146

Post by jarek »

primitur wrote: post #144
jarek wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does anyone else have a realistic more aggressive timeline?

See the response above - there is a window in 2018/2020 that private entrepreneurs will shoot for. I wish them luck, personally .. I'd love it if someone other than NASA got there first. It would truly ignite the human race.

The response above also suggests 2018-2020 is too soon. Are you aware of any private entrepreneurs realistically disagreeing?

Re: If the Earth were 100 pixels wide

#148

Post by grimborg »

primitur wrote: post #144
jarek wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does anyone else have a realistic more aggressive timeline?

See the response above - there is a window in 2018/2020 that private entrepreneurs will shoot for. I wish them luck, personally .. I'd love it if someone other than NASA got there first. It would truly ignite the human race.

Like the advent of nuclear energy!

Re: If the Earth were 100 pixels wide

#149

Post by jobigoud »

brownbat wrote: post #22

I'd really like to see a few more markers: 1) 3100 px: Farthest humans have been from Earth (Apollo 13, April '70: 400,171 km) 2) 10 px: Gemini 11, farthest from Earth on non-lunar mission (Sept '66: 1,374.1 km) 3) 3 px: Apogee of ISS (farthest a human has traveled for... a while: 424 km) (I'm probably forgetting something, can't find a good list of spaceflights by distance...) Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L…

"3) 3 px: Apogee of ISS (farthest a human has traveled for... a while: 424 km) (I'm probably forgetting something, can't find a good list of spaceflights by distance...)"

You're forgetting STS-125, the last Hubble Space Telescope Servicing Mission, March 2009, Apogee 578 Km.

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