Hey Guys,

So, I'm not sure what sort of Birthday shenanigans will be going with other people, but it would be awesome if you guys wanted to come out Friday night. I'm teaming up with Scotty, and we want to have people come to Scholars Pub around 9:00pm, and we'll probably stay there and just hang out all night. With the new smoking bylaws, it should be a great time because you wont smell like smoke when you come home.

So yeah, easy, breezy, japanesey, hope to you guys on Friday.

Oh, and is there anything going on Saturday like Tony was saying? If so, I'll probably come out then as well.

the middle one.

Studies done in the early 1970s envisioned structures of up to 15 miles long, larger than Manhattan Island, designed to send ten gigawatts of electrical power to Earth. Ten gigawatts would provide all the electrical power needed by the state of Connecticut or New York City.

While the idea of building such a huge structure in space might sound farfetched, there are no fundamental technical reasons why an SPS couldn't be built. The necessary contributing technologies are all well known. There are no "showstoppers," although the program would represent a mammoth development effort, comparable to the Apollo lunar-landing project of the 1960s.

yo Tay, i dunno about you but 15 miles seems pretty friggin' big. i don't know if that estimate is considerably smaller now, but even if it's 5 miles long, that's still pretty big (hell the SDF 1 was like 2 miles long and it destroyed a Zentradi armada) like what's the biggest thing we have orbiting in space right now? the author of the article premised the idea of constructing this satellite on the sucesses of the MIR. i guess that's all well and good, but construction of the MIR and the Space Station took a pretty long time - time that no one seems interested in investing in. i think people are much more interested in faster returns. that will most likely mean grownlevel technologies. and more over, getting Saudi Oil.

"dood, don't worry about it!"

UNFLAPPABLE

yes, it would be an asynchronous orbit that would leave it in direct sunlight 99% of the time.

You guys should've read that article I posted; it answers all of your questions.

Mainly, the funding question; Ben Bova suggests that funding for an SPS system could be accomplished not through the use of federal grants, but rather federal loans . This is how the hoover dam was funded, and it paid itself off entirely by selling the power it generated in 50 years. Furthermore, the operating cost of a dam as massive as that is quite high whereas once an SPS is built, maintenance is minimal in comparison. A single SPS could potentially power all of New York City... something as capable as that probably wouldn't take very long to pay for itself.

As for the accidental straying of laser beams and microwaves... the lasers and microwaves in question would be so diffuse that even if this happened, they would be harmless. Birds and planes would be able to fly right through the microwaves without harm. Cattle and crops can even be safely placed under the microwave recievers.

why don't you just can it: Canstruction's Can Sculptures

from

horkulated

one so this thursday is nrmls wlcm's 1 year anniversary party, yeah? Victory?
two after countless hours of serious nonsense, i'm up and running with cubase sx, logic express, reason, and ableton.
three yeah i be down to check out cadence's night- so long as it doesn't totally fuck up VINYL SOLUTION tuesdays at wunder. i'll let you know later.
four new animal collective in oct


1. did you see the words
2. grass
3. flesh canoe
4. the purple bottle
5. bees 
6. banshee beat
7. daffy duck
8. lock raven
9. turn into something

So has anything more been discussed about the birthday weekend coming up? Initially, I'd heard talk of mexican food, or even barbeque action. Here's my suggestion:

afternoon/early evening: birthday bbq, at somewhere like hawrelak or so
evening/night: off to the pub (E&C? O'Byrne's?) for some beerlarity

And we'll definitely have to get in on some of that Victory Lounge on Tuesdays action once it gets going.

It sounded to me like it would be in an asynchronous orbit so they could maximize the amount of sunlight it gets. In a geo-synchronous orbit it would only get 12 hours of sunlight a day... and some of those hours it wouldn't be much.

Well Alison I somehow have faith in humans to make the right choice. It'll definitly take time for a change, maybe time we don't have. But somehow I think we'll finally figure it out and save ourselves before we waste everything on this planet (maybe guys like me and enviromentalist need to get together?). I'll start by getting a small compact car with some actual good mileage. Hint, hint RSX (Pretty good mileage, 1000 Km on one tank. Tank size is 50 liters).

Satelites have either Geo-Synchronus orbits or asynchronus orbits.

Geosynchonus only orbits on one point above a planet. If it is over a certain point like say over your house, it'll be over your house night and day. Think of the physics like swinging a ball at a end of a rope. The rope is gravity and the forward force is the inital release speed of the satelite. The ball will go around that one point of rotation as long as you hold on. And in real life the satelite will orbit over your house as long as gravity and speed are constant. Let go of the rope and the ball goes flying. In real life this only happens if gravity somehow stops (not likely, well with realistic situations) or the speed of the satelite is changed. If the speed is increased it goes into what we call a asynchronus orbit. This is when the satelite rotates at its own speed around a planet. It won't orbit over your house anymore. It'll travel in a "track" across the earth. Your doomsday scenario of that laser tracking across the face of the earth is realised. To prevent this from happening you have to maintain the orbit by occasionaly firing thrusters on the satelite. Or literally give it a push, by going up in the space shuttle and doing it.

Last scenario is when the satelite goes slower then it should. It'll basically fall towards earth, and depending on its size could make a pretty nice hole somewhere. Nothing to worry about Alison. We have tons of satelites up there already.