There's also a 23.0 MB app (iOS only) that you can download and install — just to display a single number.
(It actually does a little more than that, but still, a perfect example of an app that should be just a mobile web page.)
How many people are in space right now
31–40 of 70 posts
Re: How many people are in space right now
#32spoiler: 6
Re: How many people are in space right now
#33Some nitpicking / philosophical thoughts: - This can only be a lower bound: There may be privately or secretly "launched" people (e.g.: Chinese military scientists, that missing SpaceX engineer, who knows what the NSA does, Mafia's posh new traitor treatment ...) - "People" needs a definition here (are dead people still people, what about aliens?)
> There may be privately or secretly "launched" people It's essentially impossible to covertly put or keep anything in space. Getting into space requires expending a rather obvious amount of energy, which there are fleets of satellites from many different nations continually watching out for. Staying in space requires being in full view of, well, nearly 8 billion people. It's not something that anyone is presently do…
You can't hide space launches but you can sure hide a person in of those classified satellites.
Re: How many people are in space right now
#34Earlier quoted context omitted.
Most likely. "Any civilization advanced enough to leave its own plant will be advanced enough to track accurately those leaving" -- Civilized Tracking Corollary (2017)
...until people start dying and babies start getting born in space.
Well, there may be some speed-of-light issues in getting the latest data. But this problem seems pretty solvable if you link to the right government databases, etc.
Re: How many people are in space right now
#35Earlier quoted context omitted.
> There may be privately or secretly "launched" people It's essentially impossible to covertly put or keep anything in space. Getting into space requires expending a rather obvious amount of energy, which there are fleets of satellites from many different nations continually watching out for. Staying in space requires being in full view of, well, nearly 8 billion people. It's not something that anyone is presently do…
You can't hide space launches but you can sure hide a person in of those classified satellites.
But resupply runs and crew return would be rather obvious.
Re: How many people are in space right now
#36Earlier quoted context omitted.
By then it may be quite easy to track accurately!
You have to take births and deaths into account, which is not straightforward. Assuming fast interstellar travel, "loss of simultaneity" causes the number of people in space to depend on your reference frame (your speed and location).
That is only if we still die which I hope we have moved past then. Perhaps we simply make new humans when we have the need.
Re: How many people are in space right now
#37DuckDuckGo does this as well:
Re: How many people are in space right now
#38Earlier quoted context omitted.
...until people start dying and babies start getting born in space.
Well, there may be some speed-of-light issues in getting the latest data. But this problem seems pretty solvable if you link to the right government databases, etc.
Just use MongoDB and shard it for every galaxy.
Problem solved.
Re: How many people are in space right now
#39Prior discussions
https://news.ycombinator.com/from?site=howmanypeopleareinspa...