tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7704583061723470804.post171142516485371314..comments2024-03-10T07:42:17.071-04:00Comments on The Film Doctor: "Let's do the math": six dreams of Ridley Scott's The MartianThe Film Doctor http://www.blogger.com/profile/03073505923746994988noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7704583061723470804.post-37081767326171006512015-10-11T13:48:56.939-04:002015-10-11T13:48:56.939-04:00DeadSpiderEye,
Thanks for your info about NASA. I...DeadSpiderEye,<br /><br />Thanks for your info about NASA. It makes cynical sense that "diverting resources from the military towards scientific endeavour" would comprise much of the history of the agency. NASA still looks so sweet and well-funded in <i>The Martian</i>.The Film Doctor https://www.blogger.com/profile/03073505923746994988noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7704583061723470804.post-68477207557293895602015-10-08T07:09:13.013-04:002015-10-08T07:09:13.013-04:00NASA it's an interesting body, in it's ear...NASA it's an interesting body, in it's earlier incarnation as NACA, an oddly unique and altruistic institution, it probably accelerated the development of flight by an exponent. Then as it became NASA it was tasked with fulfilling the agenda set by one man, who was also oddly unique, in that he was tainted with the legacy of war crimes an yet spent his latter career diverting resources from the military towards scientific endeavour. It's the dichotomy intrinsic to the space race, the development of weapons technology set against the advances of human achievement,that might explain the Shuttle, utterly useless for sending nukes over oceans. Unfortunately it turned out to just mostly useless, except for a certain utility for servicing spy satellites.<br /><br />Will they go to Mars? Unlikely, unless they find something there, and that <i>something</i> would be in the specific sense, Uranium. We're back to weapons again because there isn't enough of that element here to make the ambitions for its civilian utility to be feasible. Not unless you've got a plan to filter sea water, try shucking peas while throwing the spent shucks in with the unopened ones, to get an insight into how impossible that is: the law of diminishing returns. Since the likely hood of running across Uranium on Mars is slim (according to one hypothesis, it was there but was largely expended through spontaneous fission x billion years ago) it's the black stuff you dig out of the ground that still counts. Oh and hasn't that dependence and its finite scope, provided such rich insight into the primitive mode nascent within the bounds an ostensibly civilized and technically advanced culture.DeadSpiderEyehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07687178085803686186noreply@blogger.com