May 6Liked by Owen Lewis, Brandon Gorrell, Nick Russo
As a science writer who has written a lot about astronomy, I found this article to be fascinating and informative. I'm 65, so I don't know what I'll live to see. But even just a return to the moon will be great for me.
I love these deep dives (SPACE!!!) and general optimism!
Just be very wary of becoming corporate press release stenographers.
NuScale has a “certificate” from the NRC- not an approval. It is nice they are finally starting to make the parts, but they need to make sure they get another 5 billion of government subsidies before they will ever turn their project on... call me in 2029. This is not fast enough dammit.
Electrek is basically a Tesla fanboy page- I used to be all in on their reporting. Unfortunately they don’t seem to have given any thought about where all the materials will come from for all of these battery powered toys. (Battery powered passenger airplanes? Gimme a break, let’s do some energy density calculations first...)
Let’s just say I know “some stuff” about the Alzheimer’s drugs, so I will reserve comments there. It is nice to see the naysayers get a poke in the eye though!
May 6·edited May 6Liked by Owen Lewis, Brandon Gorrell
Re: hydrocarbons on Titan:
"the temperatures would be fairly easy to deal with given the abundance of raw material and energy in the form of hydrocarbons lying around on the surface"
Without atmospheric oxygen, all those hydrocarbons aren't going to be much of an energy source.
You could get oxygen by electrolyzing water. But water electrolysis plus methane combustion doesn't yield an energy source:
Electrolyzing oxygen from water takes 237 kJ/mol, and you'd need four moles of H20 input (4H2O → 4H2 + 2O2) to produce enough O2 to combust a mole of CH4 (CH4 + 2O2 → CO2 + 2H2O). But CH4 combustion gives you only 820 kJ/mol. Add in inefficiencies (e.g. in combustion heat → electricity) and the need to melt the water ice to access the water, and you're way off what you need to just break even.
Excellent overview of the challenges and prospects for human inhabitation of space. The missing element though is economics. Long-term colonization, as opposed to scientific outposts, requires the colonies to be economically viable - they have to produce something useful. That changes the calculus somewhat. Fit example, Mercury is the single best place to gather solar energy thanks to the square cube law and the ready availability of the mineral resources necessary to build solar collectors. Asteroids are by far the best source of mineral resources overall. The Moon has a solid use case as a gateway platform. It isn't obvious that Mars is particularly attractive from this perspective. It's certainly easier to live there than anywhere else, and I expect will be one of the first bodies to be settled for that reason - but this may be motivated by political reasons, e.g. colonists looking to escape the terrestrial political environment by getting as far from Earth as possible, much in the way the Pilgrims came to America.
It seems to me that China is quite enamored with the idea Han Chinese supremacy, I mean they are the largest and arguably most successful ethnicity on Earth. They also are currently carrying out a cultural genocide and trying to breed Uyghers to be more phenotypically similar. Their diaspora controls the economy of several other countries such as Maylasia.
Why would their attitude change in regards to space colonization? I could imagine, if China becomes the only country capable of space expansion (lets say the US technologically declines or doesnt care bc we’d rather spend the money on free McFlurrys for all) then why would they invite anybody else?? I could imagine Han supremacy going stellar, with exclusively Chinese colonies on Venus and Mars and whatever megastructure space stations are constructable, along with geopolitical dominance on Earth.
Does this sound like fear mongering, or is it realistic? Will China build an ISS and invite all the nations of Earth to space along with them if they dont have to? If they already rule Earth would they care about seeming friendly? Or are they an ethnosupremacist state? Thoughts??
The logistics to keep a city alive on an asteroid would be fascinating. An asteroid city would be moving rapidly through space, so the neighboring cities around it would change all the time.
Imagine if NY and LA were 2 hours apart one day, then were across the country again, then were on the other side of the globe. That is what it would be like to have cities in space. Imagine the coordination needed!
One year you’re close to Mars and can get all of your supplies there, the next year you’re out in free space. It’s all fascinating to imagine
It's good to see things we knew fifty years ago getting out in plain view. Sad to think about how many of our friends who worked on these technologies have passed away. Next year in lunar orbit. 😎🎇
I love the deep dive on space in the white pill so far, it remains humanity's great chance for a bright, exciting, hopeful future. More people need to be aware of the opportunities it provides rather than just assume it's for billionaire playboys as the leftist media would have them believe (seriously, go read a gizmodo article on anything SpaceX has done).
I would note, check the free press for a recent essay on Alzheimer's research. There are a growing minority of researchers convinced that amyloid is not casual and that money thrown down this hole is wasting time and effort. It's another example of group think prevailing in science. As a former academic, I can attest that getting grant funding is hard enough if you extend prevailing theories, when you are heterodox you had better be incredibly convincing, and without that funding, it's almost impossible in some fields
As a science writer who has written a lot about astronomy, I found this article to be fascinating and informative. I'm 65, so I don't know what I'll live to see. But even just a return to the moon will be great for me.
I love these deep dives (SPACE!!!) and general optimism!
Just be very wary of becoming corporate press release stenographers.
NuScale has a “certificate” from the NRC- not an approval. It is nice they are finally starting to make the parts, but they need to make sure they get another 5 billion of government subsidies before they will ever turn their project on... call me in 2029. This is not fast enough dammit.
Electrek is basically a Tesla fanboy page- I used to be all in on their reporting. Unfortunately they don’t seem to have given any thought about where all the materials will come from for all of these battery powered toys. (Battery powered passenger airplanes? Gimme a break, let’s do some energy density calculations first...)
Let’s just say I know “some stuff” about the Alzheimer’s drugs, so I will reserve comments there. It is nice to see the naysayers get a poke in the eye though!
Re: hydrocarbons on Titan:
"the temperatures would be fairly easy to deal with given the abundance of raw material and energy in the form of hydrocarbons lying around on the surface"
Without atmospheric oxygen, all those hydrocarbons aren't going to be much of an energy source.
You could get oxygen by electrolyzing water. But water electrolysis plus methane combustion doesn't yield an energy source:
Electrolyzing oxygen from water takes 237 kJ/mol, and you'd need four moles of H20 input (4H2O → 4H2 + 2O2) to produce enough O2 to combust a mole of CH4 (CH4 + 2O2 → CO2 + 2H2O). But CH4 combustion gives you only 820 kJ/mol. Add in inefficiencies (e.g. in combustion heat → electricity) and the need to melt the water ice to access the water, and you're way off what you need to just break even.
Excellent overview of the challenges and prospects for human inhabitation of space. The missing element though is economics. Long-term colonization, as opposed to scientific outposts, requires the colonies to be economically viable - they have to produce something useful. That changes the calculus somewhat. Fit example, Mercury is the single best place to gather solar energy thanks to the square cube law and the ready availability of the mineral resources necessary to build solar collectors. Asteroids are by far the best source of mineral resources overall. The Moon has a solid use case as a gateway platform. It isn't obvious that Mars is particularly attractive from this perspective. It's certainly easier to live there than anywhere else, and I expect will be one of the first bodies to be settled for that reason - but this may be motivated by political reasons, e.g. colonists looking to escape the terrestrial political environment by getting as far from Earth as possible, much in the way the Pilgrims came to America.
Wondering other peoples opinions:
It seems to me that China is quite enamored with the idea Han Chinese supremacy, I mean they are the largest and arguably most successful ethnicity on Earth. They also are currently carrying out a cultural genocide and trying to breed Uyghers to be more phenotypically similar. Their diaspora controls the economy of several other countries such as Maylasia.
Why would their attitude change in regards to space colonization? I could imagine, if China becomes the only country capable of space expansion (lets say the US technologically declines or doesnt care bc we’d rather spend the money on free McFlurrys for all) then why would they invite anybody else?? I could imagine Han supremacy going stellar, with exclusively Chinese colonies on Venus and Mars and whatever megastructure space stations are constructable, along with geopolitical dominance on Earth.
Does this sound like fear mongering, or is it realistic? Will China build an ISS and invite all the nations of Earth to space along with them if they dont have to? If they already rule Earth would they care about seeming friendly? Or are they an ethnosupremacist state? Thoughts??
For a grounded, contrarian perspective on space travel/migration, I recommend this: https://dothemath.ucsd.edu/2011/10/why-not-space/
The logistics to keep a city alive on an asteroid would be fascinating. An asteroid city would be moving rapidly through space, so the neighboring cities around it would change all the time.
Imagine if NY and LA were 2 hours apart one day, then were across the country again, then were on the other side of the globe. That is what it would be like to have cities in space. Imagine the coordination needed!
One year you’re close to Mars and can get all of your supplies there, the next year you’re out in free space. It’s all fascinating to imagine
It's good to see things we knew fifty years ago getting out in plain view. Sad to think about how many of our friends who worked on these technologies have passed away. Next year in lunar orbit. 😎🎇
I love the deep dive on space in the white pill so far, it remains humanity's great chance for a bright, exciting, hopeful future. More people need to be aware of the opportunities it provides rather than just assume it's for billionaire playboys as the leftist media would have them believe (seriously, go read a gizmodo article on anything SpaceX has done).
I would note, check the free press for a recent essay on Alzheimer's research. There are a growing minority of researchers convinced that amyloid is not casual and that money thrown down this hole is wasting time and effort. It's another example of group think prevailing in science. As a former academic, I can attest that getting grant funding is hard enough if you extend prevailing theories, when you are heterodox you had better be incredibly convincing, and without that funding, it's almost impossible in some fields
OYE BELTALOWDA!