Saturn's largest moon may be the only place beyond Earth where humans could live • Hacker News Board

Re: Saturn's largest moon may be the only place beyond Earth where humans could live

#391

Post by carapace » Sat, Mar 14, 2020, 2:20 PM UTC

carapace wrote: post #364

stevenwoo wrote: post #341

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The latest episode has people freezing solid after leaving through an airlock almost instantaneously- someone on earth survived a longer exposure to vacuum but at closer to room temperature in a suit failure.

(ノ°Д°）ノ︵ ┻━┻ Thanks for the heads up. (Space is cold but it's also empty. You'd boil first from the lack of pressure then freeze, eh?)

Oh gawd, it's even worse than that: they don't even leave the airlock, they lit. freeze solid the very instant the outer doors open (with no rush of air!?!) Damn it. I really really like Hugh Laurie (one of the great and simple pleasures in life is introducing someone who only knows him from "House, M.D." to his OG work like "Black Adder" or "Jeeves & Wooster") but it's hard to watch around the problems in this show.

Like it's fucking dark. The bad physics wasn't the worst part of that scene. The show is supposed to be a comedy but that was like a nightmare.

Re: Saturn's largest moon may be the only place beyond Earth where humans could live

#392

Post by kjs3 » Tue, Mar 24, 2020, 3:18 AM UTC

magduf wrote: post #385

btkramer9 wrote: post #384

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm advocating to go directly to Mars and skip trying to figure out everything on the Moon first. The Moon is more difficult and has a lot less upsides. Obviously 3 days is better than 6 months. A lot more can be done with a shorter window. I just don't think it justifies passing up all the upsides Mars has to offer

I completely disagree about the Moon being more difficult. We can get to the Moon in 3 days flat. We cannot do that with Mars; to go there, humans have to spend months in space being exposed to hard radiation. With the Moon, that isn't a problem because 3 days cosmic radiation exposure isn't a big deal, as proven by our many landings on the Moon in the 60s-70s. On top of that, the Moon has proven mineral resources wh…

Spot on...I have to assume btkramer9 is just a obsessed Zubrin fanboi or so scifi obsessed there's no objectivity. I get that Kerbal Space Program let's a new generation of armchair celestial mechanics say "Delta V!" as though that's all that matters, but handwaving the basic logistics (simple things, like fuel and water) between a Moon and a Mars mission and trying to make them equivalent undertakings...that's some seriously delusional thinking.

Re: Saturn's largest moon may be the only place beyond Earth where humans could live

#393

Post by kjs3 » Tue, Mar 24, 2020, 3:27 AM UTC

jbattle wrote: post #250

btkramer9 wrote: post #233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not so sure about that. It takes more delta-v to get to the moon than mars and both are still too far for immediate response to emergencies. Sure the moon has the advantage of emergency assistance of a few days (?) but I don't think that's more valuable than all of Mars's pros

> It takes more delta-v to get to the moon than mars Is that true? I can't see how that'd be true, unless maybe you are considering aerobraking to enter mars orbit and parachutes for landing on the surface (?)

It's hyperselective framing the argument: bork bork Delta-V bork...and let's just ignore the 6 months of travel time and logistics difference as though that doesn't exist. Then I get to be right!