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Post by colinr on Oct 4, 2005 4:19:05 GMT -4
As someone who always wondered what people meant when the phrase , "It isn't rocket Science" was used , well having seen the basics of rocket science in this thread , I'll just sit and watch in quiet amazment Especially since it took 3 goes to get a basic qualification in maths - most of it is a struggle to follow! - but I try! I still rember the feeling of dread when in my second year of my Business Studies degree I was introduced to differential equations for the first time ... eek that was the hardest year of my life academiclly - managed to work out how to solve them for the exam , and then promptly forgot all about them - not much call for them managing a PC network ...!
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Post by DaiHoss on Oct 10, 2005 8:05:31 GMT -4
Rob Moore worked on the secret part of the project, not any part. He and the few with him were allowed to mix with each other only so they don't leek information. Even his wife, she was from that group. They didn't want him to marry an "outsider". Rob said he should hang up and that he is not allowed to speak even to his family. Errrrrrr..... he's not allowed to speak to his family but he'd speak to you? And he is forced to marry from within the 'super-duper' project but he's not allowed to speak to his own wife about it? Also if "The Government" are so paranoid about this they did make him marry someone also involved, wouldn't they also have been so paranoid as to have tapped his phone lines? And now that they know that he's told someone else why haven't secret assasination squads taken him out?
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Post by Tanalia on Oct 19, 2005 22:22:50 GMT -4
That's in about the same zone as those strange decaying orbits of Star Trek ("We lost power. We'll hit the planet in thirty minutes!") For, of course, exactly the reverse reason... Of course that assumes a normal ballistic orbit. If it were a powered orbit, to maintain position over some spot not on the equator, or over the equator but not at geosynchronous altitude (for mapping, communication, transporter, targetting phasers... ;D), then losing power would move them to a ballistic path which could easily intersect the atmosphere and could be described as a decaying orbit. Some such paths would , of course, merely send them into less useful/interesting orbits, but that wouldn't be nearly as dangerous or dramatic
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Post by AstroSmurf on Nov 23, 2005 8:09:28 GMT -4
I was going to say "but that would only send them further out", but I was thinking of a forced orbit, not a powered orbit. Silly me.
Let's not go too deeply into SF here - I prefer to be an "Apollo trekkie" to a 'normal' one.
Btw, the author of the original tale says that one thing that would convince him was if it was possible to bounce a laser off the 'alleged' reflectors left behind (but discounts it due to some perceived difficulties based on misunderstandings). Seems like that might have been worthwhile - all it takes is some money to buy a powerful enough laser.
Or maybe not. To judge from the section about radiation, he must not believe in satellite TV.
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Post by PhantomWolf on Nov 23, 2005 8:38:59 GMT -4
Ummm, they -do- bounce lasers off of them, tht's what they are there for. There's at least one observatory in the US that does it once a week if not more.
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Post by AstroSmurf on Nov 23, 2005 8:43:02 GMT -4
Yeah, but to be an anal-retentive empircist you'd want to do it yourself, with your own equipment to 'prove' noone is trying to trick you. Preferably seeing the reflection with your Mk. I eyeball, but I suppose then the DoD would have a word with you about that big honkin laser you built in your backyard...
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Post by Tanalia on Nov 23, 2005 8:59:38 GMT -4
Yeah, but to be an anal-retentive empircist you'd want to do it yourself, with your own equipment to 'prove' noone is trying to trick you. Preferably seeing the reflection with your Mk. I eyeball, but I suppose then the DoD would have a word with you about that big honkin laser you built in your backyard... Ah, maybe that explains How do I make a seventy thousand watt visible light laser? over at BAUT
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Al Johnston
"Cheer up!" they said, "It could be worse!" So I did, and it was.
Posts: 1,453
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Post by Al Johnston on Nov 23, 2005 8:59:41 GMT -4
The FBI and FAA wouldn't be too keen either: you could blind anyone flying between you and the Moon at the time.
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Bob B.
Bob the Excel Guru?
Posts: 3,072
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Post by Bob B. on Nov 23, 2005 9:20:47 GMT -4
Ummm, they -do- bounce lasers off of them, tht's what they are there for. There's at least one observatory in the US that does it once a week if not more. You are probably thinking of McDonald Observatory in Texas. I've visited the observatory a couple times but never while they were shooting lasers at the Moon. According to this article, "Earth stations that beamed lasers to the LRRR included the McDonald Observatory, Fort Davis, Texas; Lick Observatory, Mount Hamilton, California; and the Catalina Station of the University of Arizona. Scientists in other countries also bounced laser beams off the LRRR."I'm pretty sure an observatory near Grasse, France is one of those that routinely bounces lasers off the LRRRs.
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Post by gwiz on Nov 23, 2005 11:23:02 GMT -4
I'm pretty sure an observatory near Grasse, France is one of those that routinely bounces lasers off the LRRRs. here's a link.
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Post by snakeriverrufus on Nov 23, 2005 16:27:46 GMT -4
You're just grasping at straws now matix. Yes, but they are his straws and he grasps them tightly. If only he grasped reality that tightly ;D
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