I have an Italian copy of If the Sun Dies and enjoyed what I was able to read of it
― Whiney On The Moog (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 17 March 2018 13:50 (six years ago) link
Wow, that's cool - I gotta look for this
― Josefa, Saturday, 17 March 2018 13:56 (six years ago) link
Think you can still get an ebook like I did
― Whiney On The Moog (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 17 March 2018 14:01 (six years ago) link
It mentions The First Law of Robotics on the first page so there’s that
― Whiney On The Moog (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 17 March 2018 16:41 (six years ago) link
So I found a copy of If the Sun Dies and this thing is amazing. I've never read such revealing character studies of the astronauts. Plus a ton of fascinating speculation, both practical and philosophical, about the implications of space travel and technological progress. And on top of that, the endlessly interesting perceptions of mid-'60s America through the eyes of a youngish Italian woman. Am only halfway through the 400-page hardcover and can wholeheartedly recommend.
― Josefa, Friday, 13 April 2018 17:34 (six years ago) link
I so want that book
― Mince Pramthwart (James Morrison), Saturday, 14 April 2018 01:45 (six years ago) link
Coincidentally, I've been reading former NASA deputy admin Lori Garver's book Escaping Gravity for the past couple of days and it's not that I *want* Artemis to fail, but it should never have gotten this far. SLS = Senate Launch System.
― Elvis Telecom, Monday, 29 August 2022 03:33 (one year ago) link
Scrubbed. I find the entire idea of manned space missions absurd but SLS is a special kind of terrible.
― Allen (etaeoe), Monday, 29 August 2022 17:11 (one year ago) link
e.g., the annual budget for R01s is $2.2 billion. The cost _per launch_ of the SLS is $2.2 billion.
― Allen (etaeoe), Monday, 29 August 2022 17:13 (one year ago) link
NASA finally admits what everyone already knows: SLS is unaffordablehttps://arstechnica.com/space/2023/09/nasa-finally-admits-what-everyone-already-knows-sls-is-unaffordable/
One of the commenters:
As a very junior software engineer for a potential second-tier subcontractor, I was in the back of the room at the first preproposal meeting for the Shuttle. The NASA executive giving the briefing stated that all bids should be on a "Design for Success" basis, that is, your cost estimate should assume that every component you interface to will operate according to spec. Grumbles of discontent from the hardened aerospace systems engineers in the room was met by "Do you want the business or not?" from the NASA guy. It was all shenanigans from their forward.
― Elvis Telecom, Saturday, 9 September 2023 03:29 (nine months ago) link
Well, I guess I now know why I didn't get a second interview (everything was frozen). sigh - back to the coding saltmines.
― Elvis Telecom, Wednesday, 14 February 2024 04:51 (four months ago) link
Yeah saw that news the other day. Fucking ridiculous.
― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 14 February 2024 04:56 (four months ago) link