Falcon Heavy

[Wilson]

If you didn't see the SpaceX launch yesterday you should. It was one of
the most amazing things I’ve ever watched.

It was the first flight of the most powerful rocket in current operation
with 27 engines. As the test payload (remember, they didn't know for
sure if it would all actually work as planned) they used a test dummy in
a spacesuit (named Starman) seated in Elon Musk's personal Tesla
Roadster, with a sign that said “Don’t Panic” on the car’s dashboard,
blasting David Bowie’s "Space Oddity".

If he's nothing else, Musk is a marketing genius.

It will be in a permanent orbit around the Sun that will take it past
Mars. All that's required to put an actual lander into orbit around the
planet is another engine to slow it down.

The total cost was about $500 million. No government financing was
provided for its development. Cost per launch is estimated to be about
$90 million. That makes it about 1/10th the cost of other current
systems, and an approximate 95% reduction compared with the Shuttle.

Next up, a larger rocket and spaceship combination is being developed by
SpaceX, nicknamed BFR -- or as Musk calls it, the "Big Fucking Rocket".

Video starts at 13 seconds to launch:
https://youtu.be/wbSwFU6tY1c?t=29m13s

Make sure you stay with it until the end for the landing of the two
boosters and an iconic image of the Tesla deployment.

[ansaman]

I CRIED real tears. This is the start of something
I thought was dead and this and other Musk initiatives
are notably outside government.

I am not generally supportive of spending huge amounts
of money for manned missions to Mars UNLESS there
is life there.

Damn shame THIS GUY can't be President. His resume
is unbelievable and is perhaps now one of the most
admired people in the world.

I would gladly mop his floors and clean his toilets
to contribute.

[Ned]

ansaman <ans...@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Wednesday, February 7, 2018 at 10:47:35 AM UTC-5, Wilson wrote:
>> If you didn't see the SpaceX launch yesterday you should. It was one of
>> the most amazing things I ve ever watched.
>>
>> It was the first flight of the most powerful rocket in current operation
>> with 27 engines. As the test payload (remember, they didn't know for
>> sure if it would all actually work as planned) they used a test dummy in
>> a spacesuit (named Starman) seated in Elon Musk's personal Tesla
>> Roadster, with a sign that said Don t Panic on the car s dashboard,
>> blasting David Bowie s "Space Oddity".
>>
>> If he's nothing else, Musk is a marketing genius.
>>
>> It will be in a permanent orbit around the Sun that will take it past
>> Mars. All that's required to put an actual lander into orbit around the
>> planet is another engine to slow it down.
>>
>> The total cost was about $500 million. No government financing was
>> provided for its development. Cost per launch is estimated to be about
>> $90 million. That makes it about 1/10th the cost of other current
>> systems, and an approximate 95% reduction compared with the Shuttle.
>>
>> Next up, a larger rocket and spaceship combination is being developed by
>> SpaceX, nicknamed BFR -- or as Musk calls it, the "Big Fucking Rocket".
>>
>> Video starts at 13 seconds to launch:

>> https://youtu.be/wbSwFU6tY1c?t)m13s

>>
>> Make sure you stay with it until the end for the landing of the two
>> boosters and an iconic image of the Tesla deployment.
>
> I CRIED real tears. This is the start of something
> I thought was dead and this and other Musk initiatives
> are notably outside government.
>
> I am not generally supportive of spending huge amounts
> of money for manned missions to Mars UNLESS there
> is life there.
>
> Damn shame THIS GUY can't be President. His resume
> is unbelievable and is perhaps now one of the most
> admired people in the world.
>
> I would gladly mop his floors and clean his toilets
> to contribute.
>

Is it possible to get a picture of the car with the dummy in the space suit
from a telescope on earth? (Not a mock-up.)

Ned

(And we sure there is not a human body in the suit?)

[Wilson]

I know what you mean man, I got misty eyed too.

If there's not now, there will be life on Mars. It will be human. This
is going to happen.

I'm now officially a believer.

[ansaman]

From Bowie's Blackstar:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Tqv57rDWhvkF0-YyU9iXQNqrCvSvtFzU/view?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/17HgJqC-JA7otmkHsmwe_TWXYqe5hLNFR/view?usp=sharing

[ansaman]

On Wednesday, February 7, 2018 at 2:30:04 PM UTC-5, Ned wrote:

It could be David Bowie. Wouldn't THAT be the story of the century!

[Ned Ludd]

"ansaman" <ans...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:15bf2162-7d26-425c...@googlegroups.com...

>> (Are we sure there is not a human body in the suit?)

>
> It could be David Bowie. Wouldn't THAT be the story of the century!
>

That would be so great.

Of course there would immediately be a demand from the 1,500
billionaires (certified fact!) worldwide, to rent that new rocket and
blast themselves, in their cars, into orbit (either Earth or Sun) after
they died.

Auto gridlock in the earth's orbit, and the solar orbit... The ideal
legacy of man!

Ned

[Wilson]

Personally I'd sooner get blasted directly into the sun.

[daletx]

A much more complete circle than just "ashes to ashes, dust to dust".
"We are stardust, we are golden. We are billion-year-old carbon."

DT

[Ned Ludd]

"daletx" <dal...@gnusguy.com> wrote in message
news:p5hnn...@news2.newsguy.com...

Oh come on! We're a rusted out convertible with a dummy
for a driver, going around and around in endless circles.

Ned

[Ned Ludd]

"Ned Ludd" <ned...@ix.netcom.com> wrote in message
news:7JydnfWef70q7OHH...@earthlink.com...

> "daletx" <dal...@gnusguy.com> wrote in message
> news:p5hnn...@news2.newsguy.com...
>> On 2/8/2018 7:56 AM, Wilson wrote:
>>> On 02/07/18 11:55 PM, Ned Ludd wrote:

FYI, I had a free minute, so I calculated how many cars
it would take to create "auto gridlock" in orbit around earth.

Wiki defines "low Earth orbit" as an altitude of 1,200 miles
or less, with 99 miles being the lowest possible, before
atmospheric drag will cause rapid orbital decay and altitude
loss. Gemini 11 orbited at 854 miles. Satellites do not usually
orbit below 180 miles.

The International Space Station is at 250 mi. The Gravity
Field and Steady-State Ocean Circulation Explorer (GOCE)
is at 340 mi.

At 200 miles, the velocity required to maintain orbit is 7.79
km/s, or 16,826 miles per hour.

So let's take the altitude where the smart people (ie. the
corporations) put their satellites, which is at or above 180
miles, call it 200 miles. And let's define "auto gridlock" as
bumper-to-bumper traffic.

So, how many cars, bumper-to-bumper, would it take to
fill a circle, 200 miles above the earth's surface?

According to wiki, 'large family cars' are between 177
and 189 inches long (tending toward the latter, lately),
and 'small family cars' are between 169 and 175 inches.

Let's take the midpoint between the longest small car
(175 inches) and the smallest long car (177 inches), and
call it 176 inches, which is 14.67 feet.

Earth is 7,918 miles in diameter, or a radius of 3,959 mi.,
and 200 miles above earth would be a radius of 4,159 mi.
A circle with a radius of 4,159 would have a circumference
of 26,132 miles, which is 137,975,617 feet.

And if there were a car every 14.67 feet of that 137,975,617
foot circumference, that would be 9,405,291 cars.

All going at 16,826 miles per hour. Sounds like California!

AND, according to wiki, "as of 2010 there were 1.015 billion
motor vehicles in use in the world."

So we could do it! In fact, if we used all 1.015 billion cars,
we could create 108 rings of bumper-to-bumper traffic at
200 miles above earth. (All going 17 thousand mph.)

Ned

[daletx]

Well, you know what a nit-picker I am, so you probably saw this coming,
but...no. You can only create ONE ring of cars at 200 miles above the
earth. They won't orbit unless the planet is in the center, and if you
try to create a second orbit at a different angle, they're going to
cross somewhere.

Now, if you could arrange two rings of cars, at right angles, with
spaces between each car and each ring timed exactly right so they looked
like a marching band crossing, then you'd have something. ;-)

Of course, if you went with a geostationary orbit 22,236 miles up, you'd
have room for....um, carry the two...well, a *lot* more cars in your one
ring.

DT

[ansaman]

The modern equivalent of the Pyramids!

[ansaman]

I would rather be blasted into the daughter.

[ansaman]

He is a PROPHET!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6F_DRNCGjQM

[dagnabit]

"Wilson" wrote in message news:p5hkuq$c9t$1...@dont-email.me...

the entire human race has been blasted directly into the sun,
or better said, blasted directly into the mythologies of the sun;

http://www.factsbehindfaith.com/default.aspx?intContentID=33

[Ned Ludd]

"daletx" <dal...@gnusguy.com> wrote in message

news:p5iuj...@news1.newsguy.com...

That would have been a MUCH better intro to "2001: A Space Odyssey" -
the apes go into battle with each near the monolith, and one of the
winning apes tosses the bone he has used to kill his enemy high into
the sky - and it turns and turns, and turns into a huge ring of cars,
orbiting the earth at 200 miles altitude, gracefully intersecting another
ring, at right angles, with each car exactly spaced so that they never
touch, and keep orbiting forever.

Ned

[Love]

In article <p5f72m$uem$1...@dont-email.me>, absfg_...@yahoo.com says...

So what happened to the centre booster? The video cut out. Did it make
it onto the barge?

Elon Musk must have seen "Heavy Metal". https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=t_KXgFpguE0 (the opening scene with the convertible in space)

I liked the "Don't Panic" nod to "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy".

Watching the two side boosters land nearly simultaneously took my breath
away and lubricated my eyeballs.

He's more than a marketing genius IMO. He has an excellent feel for
technological possibilities and probably also an exceptional ability to
recognise genius and competence in others.


--
Love

[Love]

In article <c3aeb8fb-3125-4ebe...@googlegroups.com>,
ans...@gmail.com says...

There will be life there, if Musk has his way. And
I'm betting he will.


--
Love

[Wilson]

They say it ran out of fuel and crashed into the water just short of the
target.

>
> Elon Musk must have seen "Heavy Metal". https://www.youtube.com/watch?
> v=t_KXgFpguE0 (the opening scene with the convertible in space)
>
> I liked the "Don't Panic" nod to "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy".
>
> Watching the two side boosters land nearly simultaneously took my breath
> away and lubricated my eyeballs.
>
> He's more than a marketing genius IMO. He has an excellent feel for
> technological possibilities and probably also an exceptional ability to
> recognise genius and competence in others.

This launch thing has revised my estimation of the guy to a much higher
level. What he's doing and the cost he's doing it for completely
re-writes the possibilities of human space exploration. No doubt there
will be future failures but this is a game changer, if only in
perception of what can be done.

A lot has been written lately about the over valuation of Tesla stock.
It's been running close to GM and Ford in total market capitalization
while the number of cars they're selling amounts to a rounding error for
those two companies. They say that it's a lot harder to ramp up
production numbers for high volume vehicles than it is to build a few
luxury cars. I suspect that the naysayers will have less to say since,
after all, building cars isn't rocket science.

[Nobody in Particular]

On 2/9/2018 2:47 AM, Love wrote:
>
> He's more than a marketing genius IMO. He has an excellent feel for
> technological possibilities and probably also an exceptional ability to
> recognise genius and competence in others.

And also:
https://youtu.be/TvMLqar5wps?t=2m
I for one, take him seriously and literally on this.

[Ned Ludd]

"Nobody in Particular" <nob...@invalid.com> wrote in message
news:p5l52r$70m$1...@dont-email.me...

CASE 40 - Nan Ch'uan's It's like a Dream

As the officer Lu Hsuan was talking with Nan Ch'uan, he said,
"Master of the Teachings Chao said, 'Heaven, earth, and I have
the same root; myriad things and I are one body.' This is quite
marvelous." Nan Ch'uan pointed to a flower in the garden.
He called to the officer and said, "People these days see this
flower as a dream."

Ned

[ansaman]

Building cars can be harder than rocket science.
They are subject to unknown conditions and abuse.
The engineers are squeezed between human comfort
factors, mileage requirements which restrict weight,
safety requirements for crashes, handling, cost,
performance, durability, and style.

Think about it.

[ansaman]

I am not sure I have related this before,
but in the course of normal life I have
seen brief glimpses of what we would regard
as digital artifacts while completely conscious
and sober. Very fleeting.

As a child, in extreme emotional situations
such as a very stern lecture tinged with
regret and fear, the person speaking would
appear to be closer and farther away in
waves alternating at about 1/4 second.

[Nobody in Particular]

That's interesting. Any more examples?

I've had dreams (still do) which are *exactly* like this "waking state",
and others which are different, but feel like i'm fully awake. In both
these dreams and this waking state, i sometimes try to determine which
is which, but have not been able to come up with a reliable test. If i
can float, i know it's a dream. But often I can't float, things feel
solid, pinching myself hurts, etc.

If this is a simulation, it could very well re-load ones memory at will.
"Total Recall" comes to mind, even though that's a bit different.

[Julian]

I'm not surprised since he posited only 2 options.

[Wilson]

If this is a "simulation" how does that change anything?

My personal attitude currently is that the explanations of reality that
we see are based on how our world around is today. During the steam age
the popular metaphors for life were mechanical with pistons and pulleys,
forces and vectors. Today we're focused on software.

Someone once said that our world is like a single tiny bubble floating
in the foam on the crest of one wave on an infinite ocean.

[Nobody in Particular]

On 2/10/2018 7:46 AM, Wilson wrote:
>
> Someone once said that our world is like a single tiny bubble floating
> in the foam on the crest of one wave on an infinite ocean.

I've heard this expressed, albeit in different imagery, at a Vedanta
seminar.

[ansaman]

On a further note, I remember
sincerely thinking at times
during my youth that I was not
from here; that I was sent here
to observe and report. This
somehow explained why I would
sit and read the encyclopedia
(much as Elon Musk did)

[Tang Huyen]

A common feeling amongst Refuseniks.

<<"I have an idea that some men are born out of
their due place. Accident has cast them amid
certain surroundings, but they have always a
nostalgia for a home they know not. They are
strangers in their birthplace, and the leafy lanes
they have known from childhood or the populous
streets in which they have played, remain but a
place of passage. They may spend their whole
lives aliens among their kindred and remain
aloof among the only scenes they have ever
known. Perhaps it is this sense of strangeness
that sends men far and wide in the search for
something permanent, to which they may attach
themselves. Perhaps some deep-rooted atavism
urges the wanderer back to lands which his
ancestors left in the dim beginnings of history.”
― W. Somerset Maugham>>

Tang Huyen

[Love]

In article <84b241de-c990-4f41...@googlegroups.com>,
ans...@gmail.com says...

O-negative blood. If you have it, you are the descendant of aliens.
(And welcome to the club.)

--
Love

[Love]

In article <p5hkuq$c9t$1...@dont-email.me>, absfg_...@yahoo.com says...

Set the controls for the heart of the sun. (One of my favourite Pink Floyd
pieces.)

--
Love

[Love]

In article <BPKdnbo9sOSlgOPH...@earthlink.com>,
ned...@ix.netcom.com says...

"I am reality." --Staff Sergeant Bob Barnes


--
Love

[Love]

In article <p5m17u$7em$1...@dont-email.me>, nob...@invalid.com says...

The same problem as with arguments for a first mover come into play: infinite
recursion. So if we are in a simulation, how could we know that, and even if
we could how could we know that it isn't a simulation within a simulation.

The problem with infinite recursion is that it requires infinite resources to
pull off. I'm just going to go ahead and assume the world I'm in is not a
simulation, and that possibly it is just beyond me to account for existence
rationally.

--
Love

[Ned Ludd]

"Love" <n...@spam.invalid> wrote in message
news:20180211-0...@Love.news.eternal-september.org...

Great flick. All the good guys smoked dope, and all
the bad guys drank whiskey.

Ned

[Ned Ludd]

"ansaman" <ans...@gmail.com> wrote in message

news:43627795-3d3e-462d...@googlegroups.com...

> On Wednesday, February 7, 2018 at 11:55:33 PM UTC-5, Ned wrote:
>> "ansaman" <ans...@gmail.com> wrote in message
>> news:15bf2162-7d26-425c...@googlegroups.com...
>

https://tinyurl.com/MusksTesla

Ned

(I think this one's going on the wall.)

[ansaman]

On Sunday, February 11, 2018 at 4:48:35 AM UTC-5, Love wrote:

>
> The problem with infinite recursion is that it requires infinite resources to
> pull off. I'm just going to go ahead and assume the world I'm in is not a
> simulation, and that possibly it is just beyond me to account for existence
> rationally.

I hate to break it to you... we are
all here for Trump's amusement.
He owns the simulation. That is how
he became President.

[ansaman]

Sincere thanks for this quote.

[ansaman]

A positive... even the stuff I left
everywhere with the Bonfils content.

[Love]

In article <4fd22d48-3fe8-4c74...@googlegroups.com>,
ans...@gmail.com says...

Brrrr. Being in anything the orange potus owns is just too creepy for me to
consider.

--
Love

[Love]

In article <666ae11a-ab37-4834...@googlegroups.com>,
ans...@gmail.com says...

Look at the positive side. As a non-alien you are eligible to be abducted
then probed.

--
Love

[Wilson]

On 02/12/18 6:08 AM, Love wrote:
> In article <4fd22d48-3fe8-4c74...@googlegroups.com>,
> ans...@gmail.com says...
>>

>> I hate to break it to you... we are
>> all here for Trump's amusement.
>> He owns the simulation. That is how
>> he became President.
>
> Brrrr. Being in anything the orange potus owns is just too creepy for me to
> consider.

The Lord God Emperor will forgive you this trespass.

[ansaman]

More sex than I have had lately.
If I get a reach-around ... bring it on!