Colony ship to Alpha Centauri - The Motion Picture Concept b

[Jim Thompson]

On Mon, 3 Jan 2005 15:42:41 +0100, "Frithiof Andreas Jensen"
<frithiof.jensen@die_spammer_die.ericsson.com> wrote:

"Jim Thompson" <thegreatone@example.com> wrote in message
news:k9rgt0pn6abgccogl3pibuff0ccsa8c5nd@4ax.com...

IIRC, Tucson's Biosphere 2 Human Greenhouse was a flop.

No, It was an experiment; Lessons were learned - mainly that building a
running eco-system is harder than previously thought (and that living things
have their own agenda's)!

And the structure leaked. And the "experimenters" came and went,
against the rules, contaminating the green house contents.

It's now a tourist trap :-(

...Jim Thompson
--
| James E.Thompson, P.E. | mens |
| Analog Innovations, Inc. | et |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus |
| Phoenix, Arizona Voice480)460-2350 | |
| E-mail Address at Website Fax480)460-2142 | Brass Rat |
| http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 |

I love to cook with wine. Sometimes I even put it in the food.

 

[Paul F. Dietz]

Frithiof Andreas Jensen wrote:

No, I was an experiment; Lessons were learned - mainly that building a
running eco-system is harder than previously thought (and that living things
have their own agenda's)!

And that refusing to listen to experts who point out that
fresh concrete absorbs CO2 is probably a bad idea.

The failure of Biosphere 2 was predicted, and the reasons for
its failure were predicted. It was just a bad design.

Paul

 

[Spehro Pefhany]

On Mon, 3 Jan 2005 15:42:41 +0100, the renowned "Frithiof Andreas
Jensen" <frithiof.jensen@die_spammer_die.ericsson.com> wrote:

"Jim Thompson" <thegreatone@example.com> wrote in message
news:k9rgt0pn6abgccogl3pibuff0ccsa8c5nd@4ax.com...

IIRC, Tucson's Biosphere 2 Human Greenhouse was a flop.

No, I was an experiment; Lessons were learned - mainly that building a
running eco-system is harder than previously thought (and that living things
have their own agenda's)!

I think it was set up from the beginning to make money as a tourist
attraction. I recall lots of billboards along the freeway from Tucson
to Phoenix. Can you do serious science like that? Maybe.


Best regards,
Spehro Pefhany
--
"it's the network..." "The Journey is the reward"
speff@interlog.com Info for manufacturers: http://www.trexon.com
Embedded software/hardware/analog Info for designers: http://www.speff.com

 

[Dreamer]

Kryten wrote:

"Dreamer" <javidhussain@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:1104663271.364433.314240@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com...
"First Ark to Alpha Centauri" - [A motion picture screenplay by A.
Ahad]

Call me mister boring if you will, but if humanity did manage to make
such
an ark with 100% recycling and 45,000 years of fuel and life support,
then
do they really even need to launch it?

No, no. There's some comet and Oort cloud icy resource mining going on.
Read Chapter 6. Mining on an ice world by the illumination of pure
"star light"
The "tank" needs replenishing along the way. Also, its a _huge_ tank,
six miles in radius and nine miles in length, enough to have a
minitaure ecosystem and a small town inside with river, lakes and
forests. More on AA's FAQs:-

http://uk.geocities.com/aa_spaceagent/fiction/FAQ.html

I mean, you could just park it somewhere and get in it. That amount
of time
is long enough to sit out some naturally-occurring ice ages, which
are
massive climate swings compared with a greenhouse blip.
So you just sit inside, without worrying about meteorite impacts and
gravity
generation etc.

Ah, but even though all spaceflight in our solar system is exciting,
there is no life anywhere except on earth. All the NASA probe looking
on Mars, Cassini mission to Titan, future Europa probes, etc. to what
end? All lifeless chemical worlds. The nearest habitable place is "New
Earth" in the Alpha Cen system as in this story.

Ahad's spirit is already gone there.

Also, photosynthesis is very inefficient (c. 0.02%?) so they'd have
to be
replaced by a more efficient CO2 to O2 processor.

There is recycling drivers with vents and purification of air to fill
the gap in the natural process.

 

[Earl]

"Dreamer" <javidhussain@hotmail.com> wrote in
news:1104767710.113105.102830@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com:

Kryten wrote:
"Dreamer" <javidhussain@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:1104663271.364433.314240@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com..
.
"First Ark to Alpha Centauri" - [A motion picture
screenplay by A. Ahad]

Call me mister boring if you will, but if humanity did
manage to make such an ark with 100% recycling and 45,000
years of fuel and life support, then do they really even
need to launch it?

No, no. There's some comet and Oort cloud icy resource
mining going on. Read Chapter 6. Mining on an ice world by
the illumination of pure "star light"
The "tank" needs replenishing along the way. Also, its a
_huge_ tank, six miles in radius and nine miles in length,
enough to have a minitaure ecosystem and a small town inside
with river, lakes and forests. More on AA's FAQs:-

http://uk.geocities.com/aa_spaceagent/fiction/FAQ.html

So after accelerating to a decent velocity they divert to the
Oort Cloud, slow down to add more reaction mass?

Definitely sounds like an academ who skipped freshman physics.

 

[John H]

"John Woodgate" <jmw@jmwa.demon.contraspam.yuk> wrote in message
news:BtvFNIBzVP2BFwdG@jmwa.demon.co.uk...

I read in sci.electronics.design that J. F. Cornwall <JCornwall@cox.net
wrote (in <HG1Cd.32258$F25.20907@okepread07&gt about 'Colony ship to
Alpha Centauri - The Motion Picture Concept by A. Ahad', on Sun, 2 Jan
2005:

Nah, it was a successful experiment that pointed out a lot of
technologies that did not work as intended. Negative results are as
important as positive ones.

Even more. Positive results are just confirmation. Negative results are
doorways to new knowledge.

Indeed. It sure would suck to be out of range of Earth to find out your
compost heap is using up more oxygen than expected.

John

 

[Dreamer]

Earl wrote:

"Dreamer" <javidhussain@hotmail.com> wrote in
news:1104767710.113105.102830@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com:



So after accelerating to a decent velocity they divert to the
Oort Cloud, slow down to add more reaction mass?

The Oort cloud is circling in a belt all the way round the sun, you
encounter it when travelling out in all directions from our solar
system.

 

[Dreamer]

If you manage to get up the massive speeds, you can't just slow down
for a
bit of mining like you were a truck.

"Wouldn't it cost an enormous amount of fuel to slow right down to
rendezvous with comets/planetoids?

Remember, comparatively speaking, this is a very "slow" mode of
interstellar travel and the ship never attains speeds much greater than
those of the Voyager spacecraft presently leaving our solar system (at
less than 40,000 km/hour). The mining is going to be very infrequently
needed, and in most cases the comets are going to be disintegrated in
front of the ship and their icy fragments scooped up by funnels
extended around the ship's outer bodywork in-flight. This is
demonstrated in Chapter 5 in the story.

Above all, as *factual* as it all may sound, people should remember
this is still only a "fantasy" concept, as we just do not know how much
material is likely to be found in the Oort cloud circling all the way
around our Sun at those enormous distances, impenetrable by even the
most sensitive telescopes of our present era. In the real world, it is
likely that many high speed robotic missions will have been launched
for reconnaisance well before a human mission is launched. "-

From the FAQ page

Humans can't seem to go one lifetime without having at least one major

conflict over.
Most wars are over limited resources, and they're going to be pretty
damn
limited there.

Anyone causing trouble will be thrown out, as simple as that!

"How are law and order enforced on this ship?

The MMC has a small force of police officers who patrol the streets of
Utopia, and law and order are legislated the same way as in a small
state here on Earth. There is a court building in Utopia with a couple
of MMC appointed judges, who exercise judicial duties in conformance to
the starship's statute books. "

and

"What happens when there are cultural/religious conflicts?

"You don't make enemies on a small boat!". This line is more true here
than anywhere else. People go through life knowing their
vulnerabilitities if they rock the boat in the middle of nowhere...
thousands of years and trillions of miles from the nearest planetary
shores. From an early age through school, college and university
children are brought up in a culture of understanding and mutual
respect for one another and the community is very cohesive as a result
of their complete isolation. There are strict surveillance and
monitoring methods in place along with robust security systems enforced
by the MMC throughout the ship."

The ship computer and central nervous system is wired up to monitor
every square inch of its biosphere with CCTV and such like. You don't
mess about on Ahad's starship!

 

[Rich Grise]

On Mon, 03 Jan 2005 19:27:49 +0000, Kryten wrote:

"Dreamer" <javidhussain@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:1104767710.113105.102830@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com...
No, no. There's some comet and Oort cloud icy resource mining going on.
Read Chapter 6. Mining on an ice world by the illumination of pure
"star light"
The "tank" needs replenishing along the way. Also, its a _huge_ tank,
six miles in radius and nine miles in length, enough to have a
minitaure ecosystem and a small town inside with river, lakes and
forests. More on AA's FAQs:-

This Ahad guy is just jerking off, IMHO.

Even for a sci fi movie it is pretty lame.

If you manage to get up the massive speeds, you can't just slow down for a
bit of mining like you were a truck.

And what about human nature?

Humans can't seem to go one lifetime without having at least one major
conflict over.
Most wars are over limited resources, and they're going to be pretty damn
limited there.

Not to mention inbreeding.
Better take a big fridge of sperm and egg samples,
or start playing those banjos now...


Ah, but even though all spaceflight in our solar system is exciting,
there is no life anywhere except on earth. All the NASA probe looking
on Mars, Cassini mission to Titan, future Europa probes, etc. to what
end? All lifeless chemical worlds.


That's only looking at one system though.
If the colonists head somewhere that might suit them,
chances are it already suits beings who won't be fobbed off
with a few beads and a dose of smallpox.


The nearest habitable place is "New Earth"
in the Alpha Cen system as in this story.

Erm, what makes you think that?

We strain to detect massive gas giants around relatively near stars.

Earth masses are tiny in comparison.

Ahad's spirit is already gone there.

Along with his common sense?

It's just Sci-Fi, as opposed to actual Science Fiction. They used to call
it "Space Opera." I think maybe in Ahad's country they've just now got
around to translating '50's pulps.

And don't forget such classics as "Lost in Space" and "Space 1949^H^H99".
;-)

Cheers!
Rich

 

[Mark Fergerson]

JeffM wrote:

an ark with 100% recycling
and 45,000 years of fuel and life support,
then do they really even need to launch it?
Kryten

IIRC, Tucson's Biosphere 2 Human Greenhouse was a flop.
Jim Thompson


They underestimated how much land and biomass it took to support a
human.
The residents were soon on partial rations.
Heh. If it wasn't for water imports,
the L.A. Basin would be nothing more than a few scattered villages.
http://www.google.com/search?&q=los-angeles-basin+could-naturally-support-*-people

I kept trying to point that out to RSW but he just won't
accept it.

photosynthesis is very inefficient (c. 0.02%?)
so they'd have to be replaced by a more efficient CO2 to O2 processor.

Biosphere II pointed out their lousy calculations on that too
--they had to "open the windows".
Cornwall is right; failed experiments can be important too.

If the planners had said "We expect to fail", would they
have gotten funding?

Mark L. Fergerson

 

[Earl]

"Dreamer" <javidhussain@hotmail.com> wrote in
news:1104789840.581265.197870@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com:

Earl wrote:
"Dreamer" <javidhussain@hotmail.com> wrote in
news:1104767710.113105.102830@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com:



So after accelerating to a decent velocity they divert to
the Oort Cloud, slow down to add more reaction mass?

The Oort cloud is circling in a belt all the way round the
sun, you encounter it when travelling out in all directions
from our solar system.

Right, you encounter it as you pass through it.

To mine an object in the Oort Cloud you have to kill all the
velocity you worked so hard to acquire, then match course with
the rock.

So basicly you are building up to 1000+ kps, them decelerate to
around 10 kps and load up the ice. Then accelerate back up to
1000 kps.

The best way to describe this is; DUMB!!!

To say nothing about the density of objects. Asteroids are about
250,000 miles apart. In the Oort and Kuyper Belts you are
working at multi millions of miles between objects.

 

[Kryten]

"Dreamer" <javidhussain@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:1104790242.158886.230240@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com...

Remember, comparatively speaking, this is a very "slow" mode of
interstellar travel and the ship never attains speeds much greater than
those of the Voyager spacecraft presently leaving our solar system (at
less than 40,000 km/hour). The mining is going to be very infrequently
needed, and in most cases the comets are going to be disintegrated in
front of the ship and their icy fragments scooped up by funnels
extended around the ship's outer bodywork in-flight. This is
demonstrated in Chapter 5 in the story.

You are still travelling many times faster than a rifle bullet.


Do the math: Kinetic energy = half the mass times the square of the
velocity.

40x10^3 km/hr = 11,111 m/s

therefore each kilo of mass hitting your funnels releases

61,728,395 J of energy

which would be the equivalent of

14.75 kilos of TNT (4.184 MJ/kg)!

That's a decent size bomb!


What are you going to make the funnels out of?!

Anyone causing trouble will be thrown out, as simple as that!

Violence is seldom that simple.
Threat of lethal force isn't working in today's conflicts is it?

The MMC has a small force of police officers who patrol the streets of
Utopia, and law and order are legislated the same way as in a small
state here on Earth. There is a court building in Utopia with a couple
of MMC appointed judges, who exercise judicial duties in conformance to
the starship's statute books. "

We have legal systems here too. They cope with small numbers, not with civil
warfare.

"You don't make enemies on a small boat!".

They shouldn't, but they will.

I find the smaller the boat, the sooner people get on each other's tits.

I bet the day people get on, there will be a fight over who gets a window
seat.

From an early age through school, college and university
children are brought up in a culture of understanding and mutual
respect for one another and the community is very cohesive as a result
of their complete isolation.

ROTFLMAO. Have you met any real humans?

There are strict surveillance and
monitoring methods in place along with robust security systems enforced
by the MMC throughout the ship."

A police state?

The ship computer and central nervous system is wired up to monitor
every square inch of its biosphere with CCTV and such like. You don't
mess about on Ahad's starship!

Are you by any chance Ahad under a fake name?

 

[Rich Grise]

On Mon, 03 Jan 2005 15:26:05 -0700, Mark Fergerson wrote:

JeffM wrote:
if humanity did [make] an ark with 100% recycling
and 45,000 years of fuel and life support,
then do they really even need to launch it?
Kryten

IIRC, Tucson's Biosphere 2 Human Greenhouse was a flop.
Jim Thompson


They underestimated how much land and biomass it took to support a
human.
The residents were soon on partial rations.
Heh. If it wasn't for water imports,
the L.A. Basin would be nothing more than a few scattered villages.
http://www.google.com/search?&q=los-angeles-basin+could-naturally-support-*-people

I kept trying to point that out to RSW but he just won't
accept it.

photosynthesis is very inefficient (c. 0.02%?)
so they'd have to be replaced by a more efficient CO2 to O2 processor.

Biosphere II pointed out their lousy calculations on that too
--they had to "open the windows".
Cornwall is right; failed experiments can be important too.

If the planners had said "We expect to fail", would they
have gotten funding?

Yeah, well, I think that's the point of the discussion - define "fail".

Cheers!
Rich

 

[Mark Fergerson]

Rich Grise wrote:

On Mon, 03 Jan 2005 15:26:05 -0700, Mark Fergerson wrote:

JeffM wrote:

<snip>

Biosphere II pointed out their lousy calculations on that too
--they had to "open the windows".
Cornwall is right; failed experiments can be important too.

If the planners had said "We expect to fail", would they
have gotten funding?

Yeah, well, I think that's the point of the discussion - define "fail".

In your usual scientific experiment, error bars are
pre-defined in terms of the precision of the hardware and
methodology used to test the theory, and the data examined
afterward to see if it fits within the predicted error bars.
If so, the theory is presumed to have passed, but some
refining is indicated if frinst the data is within the error
bars but all to one side of them. If not, the theory is
shown to have failed (barring equipment screwups etc).

Either case is a "failure", but they're not the same
_kind_ of failure, and it's important to know which
occurred; the theory may be completely wrong, or it may just
need some tweaking. But how to know without predicting its
range of utility?

Personally I think it was a failure of the second kind;
they were basically building a terrarium big enough for
people to live in and assuming that it'd be stable over
short and long terms. Now your average terrarium is a World
In Miniature; a minimalized steady-state self-sustaining
ecology (with adequate energy input) that models essential
aspects of the entire planetary ecology of the Earth. But
the Earth is _not_ a steady-state ecology; frinst it
experiences long-term swings in energy input that drive
climatic changes that change the depth and breadth of plant
and animal niches, subsequently driving the appearance and
extinction of entire species without human "help". FTM it's
not short-term stable either due to vulcanism, weather
quirks, and direct biological interactions that produce
population explosions and like that again without human
"help", but some people don't want to hear that. ISTM the
"essential aspects" weren't well-defined, guaranteeing failure.

Were _any_ error bars defined for either Bio(must...
resist... temptation... to type "Dome") project, or was it
simply assumed that because it was based on "Green"
philosophical premises it _must_ work thus predicting error
bars at all would be tantamount to dissing the premises?

If the latter, somebody needs to look a little closer at
how actual ecologies work instead of requiring Nature to
follow their particular naive philosophy.

I'm guessing that the funders had a "Green" agenda which
had to be appealed to (that didn't allow for either kind of
failure mentioned above), so nobody mentioned the possible
failure modes.

To wander back to the topic, I wonder what aspects Ahad
considers "essential".

Mark L. Fergerson

 

[Ben Bradley]

In a crosspost to the newsgroups:
sci.electronics.equipment,
sci.electronics.design and
rec.arts.sf.science,
on 3 Jan 2005 14:10:42 -0800, "Dreamer" <javidhussain@hotmail.com>
wrote:

Humans can't seem to go one lifetime without having at least one major

conflict over.
Most wars are over limited resources, and they're going to be pretty
damn
limited there.

Anyone causing trouble will be thrown out, as simple as that!

"Open the pod bay door, Hal."

"How are law and order enforced on this ship?

The MMC has a small force of police officers who patrol the streets of
Utopia, and law and order are legislated the same way as in a small
state here on Earth. There is a court building in Utopia with a couple
of MMC appointed judges, who exercise judicial duties in conformance to
the starship's statute books. "

and

"What happens when there are cultural/religious conflicts?

"You don't make enemies on a small boat!". This line is more true here

...

The ship computer and central nervous system is wired up to monitor
every square inch of its biosphere with CCTV and such like. You don't
mess about on Ahad's starship!

"OPEN THE POD BAY DOOR, HAL."


-----
http://mindspring.com/~benbradley

 

[Kryten]

"Dreamer" <javidhussain@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:1104921194.970470.315630@c13g2000cwb.googlegroups.com...

I have
done a 6 page biography on the boy here--
http://www.geocities.com/javid_hssn/science/astronomy/ahad.html

It looks very overblown and immodest IMHO.

It looks the kind of text a parent or relative would write, wanting everyone
to think they've produced some kind of prodigy.

The claims are rather nebulous to say the least.

"He sent the names of his entire family across 300 million miles of
interplanetary space to Mars
in a NASA DVD carried onboard one of the 2003 Mars Exploration Rovers"

BFD. NASA sent the thing. All he did was log onto the NASA website that
collected names and hands back an electronic certificate. Even I've got one.
Took me less than a minute. The site doesn't even bother to verify names, so
even Mickey Mouse and various other joke names are on that DVD too.

"He travelled to Kennedy Space Center in Florida"

BFD. As a tourist on vacation, along with millions of other tourists.

"His famous words"

He ain't famous.

"Abdul Ahad's website and scientific works has attracted visitors from the
highest ranking"

BFD. NASA etc probably use Google to look for stuff just like the rest of
us. Just because they looked at that

You refer to him as "the boy".
Since he is 36 and married, he hardly counts as a boy.
Is he your son/nephew/relative or something?

Or are you hoping for a cut of the production budget?

ingeniously designed starship of the future...!"

All he has done is say it is a huge hollow rotating cylinder with people and
plants in it.
BFD. That ain't design, that's just a rough description.

Design is where you sit down and do the maths and work out how the thing
should work.

Arthur C Clarke's story "Rendezvous with Rama" also had a huge cylindrical
spaceship.

BTW, about scooping up ice having the braking force of 14.75 times its own
mass of TNT, how is that working out for you?

His FAQ page has all the detail---
http://uk.geocities.com/aa_spaceagent/fiction/FAQ.html

Oh yeah, inbreeding will be prevented by taking frozen sperm and eggs.
I can't see women being too keen on some computer telling them when they
should have a baby that isn't the product of their own egg or the sperm of
the guy they are in love with.

Certainly women in less egalitarian societies are regularly told who to
marry. Arranged marriages are common in Muslim and Hindu society for
example. But the only country rich enough to afford that kind of space
project is America. A country that is very wary about Muslims at the moment.
Many people equate Islam with religious extremism and terrorism. I'd expect
to be thoroughly searched getting on a plane if I turned up in traditional
dress, so what makes you think they'd let me on that spaceship?

Any woman smart enough to be chosen for the mission is going to say
"Buddy, you can shove that sperm popsicle up your own orifice!".

Or are you going to tell them they have to stay behind and face certain
death if they don't agree to those terms?

How will The Sex Police (hmm, now that's a good movie or band name!) stop
loads of bored randy teenagers nipping off for quickies? Mass medicated
contraception? It's quickly turning into a police state eh?

I have heard a more ridiculous movie plot though ("The Core") so maybe some
studio would be daft enough to buy Ahad's.

 

[Rich Grise]

On Wed, 05 Jan 2005 07:39:31 +0000, John Woodgate wrote:

I read in sci.electronics.design that Ben Bradley <ben_nospam_bradley@mi
ndspring.com> wrote (in <esrmt05jm26gh3vnpvp35rjn586mdcvv1q@4ax.com&gt
about 'Colony ship to Alpha Centauri - The Motion Picture Concept by A.
Ahad', on Wed, 5 Jan 2005:

"OPEN THE POD BAY DOOR, HAL."

"Say 'please'!"

Or get blown out into vacuum, and hold your breath. Yah, right. Ever
ascend from 30 feet with scuba? If you try to hold your breath with a
differential pressure of a whole atmosphere, in the first place you
couldn't hold it, and if you could, you'd get pneumothorax. I think if I
was going into vacuum, I'd first hyperventilate until I got woozy, then
expel my breath as hard as I could, so my lungs don't explode. Of course,
you'd have to keep your eyes shut real tight.

Cheers!
Rich

 

[Dirk Bruere at Neopax]

Rich Grise wrote:

On Wed, 05 Jan 2005 07:39:31 +0000, John Woodgate wrote:


I read in sci.electronics.design that Ben Bradley <ben_nospam_bradley@mi
ndspring.com> wrote (in <esrmt05jm26gh3vnpvp35rjn586mdcvv1q@4ax.com&gt
about 'Colony ship to Alpha Centauri - The Motion Picture Concept by A.
Ahad', on Wed, 5 Jan 2005:


"OPEN THE POD BAY DOOR, HAL."

"Say 'please'!"


Or get blown out into vacuum, and hold your breath. Yah, right. Ever
ascend from 30 feet with scuba? If you try to hold your breath with a
differential pressure of a whole atmosphere, in the first place you
couldn't hold it, and if you could, you'd get pneumothorax. I think if I
was going into vacuum, I'd first hyperventilate until I got woozy, then
expel my breath as hard as I could, so my lungs don't explode. Of course,
you'd have to keep your eyes shut real tight.

IIRC you get around 15sec of consciousness in vacuum. Which is quite a long time
if all you have to do is open a door.

--
Dirk

The Consensus:-
The political party for the new millenium
http://www.theconsensus.org

 

[Rich Grise]

On Wed, 05 Jan 2005 15:41:11 +0000, Kryten wrote:

Or are you going to tell them they have to stay behind and face certain
death if they don't agree to those terms?

Probably.

How will The Sex Police (hmm, now that's a good movie or band name!) stop
loads of bored randy teenagers nipping off for quickies? Mass medicated
contraception? It's quickly turning into a police state eh?

It's a ship. Any ship has to be an absolute dictatorship. The captain has
the power of life and death over anyone on "his" ship. Unless he has to
report to somebody. ("That doesn't alter the fact that keelhauling's
illegal!")

I have heard a more ridiculous movie plot though ("The Core") so maybe
some studio would be daft enough to buy Ahad's.

Huh? Ridiculous?
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0314979/
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120738/
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0052077/
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0052655/
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0100666/

IOW, there's a LOT of stupid movies.

Well, "Spaced Invaders" was quite clever - it was the invaders who were
stupid. ;-)

Cheers!
Rich

 

[Kryten]

"Rich Grise" <richgrise@example.net> wrote in message
newsan.2005.01.06.06.30.13.992685@example.net...

On Wed, 05 Jan 2005 19:22:07 +0000, Dirk Bruere at Neopax wrote:

Rich Grise wrote:

expel my breath as hard as I could, so my lungs don't explode. Of
course,
you'd have to keep your eyes shut real tight.

IIRC you get around 15sec of consciousness in vacuum. Which is quite a
long time
if all you have to do is open a door.

And close it behind you, and turn the "AIR NOW!" valve, and so on. ;-)

I wonder what it would feel like on your eyes, if you, like, peeked?

Dunno, but I'm pretty sure your eyes are under no pressure to pop out of
your head on stalks (as shown on Total Recall) or your head pop like a messy
balloon (as in Outland). Unless of course your head is full of compressed
air.

It is true that blood contains dissolved gases, but a decrease of 1
atmosphere is only about the same as ascending 407 inches (10.3 metres) in
water. I don't think you get the bends unless you have been down a fair bit
deeper or longer.