News and Commentary on Space
…maybe the right solution to the Ares nomenclature goofiness is to simply kill the CLV and come up with something else (like, say, an EELV variant).
The CLV tail is clearly wagging the CEV dog. The sad thing is, at some point NASA is probably going to realize the “stick” is a stupid idea, but by then it will be too late to change, or at least too late to put back into the CEV the capabilities that were lost in trying to shrink it down to fit CLV.
I don’t think it’s quite what Dr. Bob intended, nor do I believe it was done because of him, but the “Shuttle-derived” launchers to be used for Constellation will be named “Ares I” and “Ares V”.
They’re okay names. I think the appended numbering as an “homage” to the Saturn launchers is kinda goofy, though. The Saturn nomenclature had its origin in a long design evolution, from the Nova concepts, to the Saturn “letter” configurations, to the final “number” configurations. Giving the Ares launchers similar numbers seems like cheating somehow…it would have been better to have given them simple sequential numbers, or different names entirely.
Given that this confirms the launch vehicle name portion of the nomenclature circulating in the rumor mill several months back, I wonder if it’s any indication as to the accuracy of the spacecraft names portion of the rumor — will CEV shortly become “Altair”, and LSAM “Artemis”? It’s going to take a while to get used to calling a manned spacecraft by the same name as a kit-built ur-PC…
Can you hear me now? Not on Mars:
She said a sound’s lower pitch is the result of the differences in the speed of sound. This is because of the Red Planet’s atmospheric makeup — mostly carbon dioxide, with small percentages of nitrogen and argon with trace amounts of water vapor and oxygen.“When you breathe in a helium balloon and speak, your voice is a high pitch,” Hanford explained. “Assuming you could breathe in carbon dioxide (which is very toxic), your voice would be a lower pitch.”
Someday, someone is going to actually experience this for themselves, and no doubt remark in a deep yet faint voice, “By golly, their simulations were right!”…before promptly dropping dead from asphyxiation.
The distance sound can travel is also greatly affected by the Martian atmosphere.
“The lower pressure makes it so sound doesn’t travel far,” she said. According to the paper, sound generated by a human scream on Earth can travel a little over a kilometer before being absorbed by the atmosphere. On Mars, the sound from that same scream would only move about 16 yards at best.
Even if propagation is weak, I would expect surface suits to have an external audio pickup. Holding a conversation through the air would have little utility given the availability of radio links, but surface ambient sound would still be useful for nonverbal purposes — for instance, the auditory cues one uses to determine whether a power tool is functioning properly or is being over-worked, or a warning that a rover (or a fellow astronaut with cabin fever and a claw hammer) is approaching from behind. Beyond the functional utility, there may also be psychological benefits from being able to hear the surface, offsetting the sense of isolation or alienation from the Martian environment that comes from only ever experiencing it through protective gear.
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A young girl sets out to prove herself by resolving a long-forgotten mystery. But when she gets close to the truth, what she thought was a harmless adventure becomes a threat to the future of the independent commercial settlements on Mars.
