Picture taken from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter showing the relative sizes (and distance apart) of the Earth and Luna:
Thatās not at apogee though, right?
Would be more like:
From the photo description:
The combined view retains the correct positions and sizes of the two bodies relative to each other. The distance between Earth and the moon is about 30 times the diameter of Earth. Earth and the moon appear closer than they actually are in this image because the observation was planned for a time at which the moon was almost directly behind Earth, from Marsā point of view, to see the Earth-facing side of the moon.
I think this can go hereā¦
As excited as I am for manned exploration, human to Mars for the next 20 years is truly a massive misappropriation of funds. Robots should be doing all the exploration and the #1 priority for space exploration should be developing and sending 4 robots as soon as possible: Europa, Enceladus, Titan, and Ceres. Maybe, maybe Ganymede too if more evidence of an excellent, liquid saline ocean are substantiated deep underneathe.
The greatest chance for active life are those 4 or 5 places. Another thought is developing cancer part of the way ātoā Mars would be horrible. Or any other of multitude of illnesses. Because then they will still have to continue on their trip and go all the way to Mars before able to head back home. Thereās no way to carry enough fuel along the way once youāve hit speed to come back home without the aid of Mars. Astronauts are heroes in my mind and the chances of something like this happening are not immutable. Watching someone wither away and die on the way over and back is unthinkable. Thereās no way to take enough precautionary medicine for too many things with our current technology.
Exploration has always been a task with great risk, though.
From a purely science standpoint youāre right, Jeff. But for the safety of the human species, crewed exploration and colonization needs to be a priority. Robots can get the knowledge, but they canāt create an offsite backup of humanity.
When I have to check Twitter every morning now to make sure the POTUS hasnāt said something to push us to DEFCON 2, getting people established somewhere off this planet seems more a priority than ever.
I know, it is such a sad state. And it didnāt need to be this way. Nothing like having interlace, hate, anti-facts, anti-science ruling.
Not technically in space yet, but theyāre testing :)
Pressure sensitive paint! It changes in brightness depending on the forces imparted upon it. So many cool uses for something like that!
Global Hypercolour Shirts Mk II!
This is stretching āhappening in spaceā to the breaking point, but I certainly found it interesting. Apparently way back in 1939, Winston Churchill was thinking about alien life.
Yes, the Winston Churchill, right before WWII, was writing about life on other planets. He talks about the need for liquid water, the Goldilocks zone, and the possibility of planets around other stars.
I never learned much about Churchill beyond his statesman role, but it seems he had some wide-ranging interests. He wrote all sorts of things professionally, including quite a bit of speculation based on his eraās cutting-edge science. If heād written in story form, we might know him as one of the early science fiction masters.
Itās pretty wild that all of these planets would basically be visible moons in each otherās sky.
Hereās an even wilder one: this is a correct representation of the angular size of the Andromeda galaxy. Itās just the core is the only part bright enough to see unaided.
Thatās a lot of crafting materials.
With seven planets each of the original seven factions in Alpha Centauri can get their own world to colonize and develop in peace until Chairman Yang or Sister Godwinson decides that the solar system just isnāt big enough for everyone else.
Yes I read that the entire system is not much bigger than Jupiter and itās moons. That puts it into perspective.
Oh thank god. I needed some Thamium9 to refuel my hyperdrive. I look forward to visiting the system now that someone else found it and seeing the planets LOLTURDFERGUSON 1-7.