Science that makes you cringe

[Tim Hall]

Agree that throwing the pistol is likely to be more useful as a means of propulsion.  For optimal specific impulse you'd remove the propellant from the cartridges and install it in an appropriately designed solid fuel rocket engine.  (Was a lathe and assortment of high-temperature alloy stock amongst the ship's manifest?  Every astronaut should have them.)  It's all about optimising the velocity of those exhaust gases.

As well as checking for of a lathe etc, make sure the passenger list includes This Old Tony or Stefan Gotteswinter
Another item listed was a self inflating life raft. The official answer was this may be useful as the CO2 cartridges to inflate it could be used to help leap chasms inna jet propulsion stylee. Again, we didn't think there would be enough gas to do so.

[Kim]

If you're inna spaceship that's crashed on the moon, I'm not sure why you'd want to do all this bouncing around anyway.  Surely the best approach is to either fix the spaceship, or if that's not viable, sit tight and stay alive until somebody with a working spaceship or lunar rover can come and rescue you.

If your spaceship is equipped with a device for converting CO2 to oxygen using copious amounts of electricity, it might come in useful there.

Or spread the raft out to increase your crash site's visibility from space...

[Tim Hall]

Ah, sorry. The mission, should you choose to accept it, is to trek 200 miles across the lunar surface to the mothership.  Whether this is the same mothership that our Tidy Haired Thought Leader works in wasn't mentioned.

[Kim]

Oh, so they really are doing The Martian^[1]...

Hmm, speed of an unladen Apollo astronaut was about 2.2km/h, so that's about 146 hours of moonwalking.  Potentially in a suit with consumables rated for 8 hours.  I think you'd need to science the shit out of that, especially if your plan hinged on continued availability of sunlight...


_{[1] Mostly the non-potato stuff that barely made it to the film.}

[T42]

Work of a moment to build a trolley to personhaul extra consumables. Next problem is your, er, waste pouches filling up. Science the shit out of that.

[Tim Hall]

Oh, so they really are doing The Martian^[1]...

Hmm, speed of an unladen Apollo astronaut was about 2.2km/h, so that's about 146 hours of moonwalking.  Potentially in a suit with consumables rated for 8 hours.  I think you'd need to science the shit out of that, especially if your plan hinged on continued availability of sunlight...


_{[1] Mostly the non-potato stuff that barely made it to the film.}

I set the Scouts a question most week, the product of my fevered brain. The purpose is to get them to remember a simple message and to get them to work out where to look stuff up.  A couple of weeks ago I asked them to work out which film I'd watched as I flew to Australia, the only clue being it referred to a "steely eyed missile man".  The answer on the card is Apollo 13, but one gave the answer The Martian. Damn Ridley Scott and his hat tipping.

[Kim]

Was it in Apollo 13?  I probably need to re-watch that.

It was originally a reference to John Aaron saving the Apollo 12 mission by being a *massive* nerd.  The whole CO2 scrubber thing was over-egged in the Apollo 13 film, because "You know that thing we worked out on a simulation several missions ago?  How did we do it again?" doesn't make for very good drama.

But that's okay, because if it hadn't been for that scene, I doubt Andy Weir would have written The Martian.

Ob-xkcd:

[drossall]

Also, on the moon or in space, would it be possible to fire a pistol without first removing your space gloves? In which case, the escaping oxygen would probably move you further than firing the gun would have done anyway. Although with unfortunate side-effects.

[ElyDave]

Also, on the moon or in space, would it be possible to fire a pistol without first removing your space gloves? In which case, the escaping oxygen would probably move you further than firing the gun would have done anyway. Although with unfortunate side-effects.

Thinsulate gloves, they'll do the trick

[drossall]

You'd need to be careful where you pointed the gun, anyway. There's nothing much to slow a bullet down in space. You might kill someone on Alpha Centauri in about 1.3 million years' time. For that matter, of course, the gun you threw might hit them on the head, if the universe were to stay around for long enough.

[T42]

Douglas Adams would have made something of that.

Anyway, I'm perplexed that none of NASA's efforts have included wire coat-hangers in the cargo manifest. I'm convinced that if the wire coat-hanger were to be eliminated civilization would collapse.

[Tim Hall]

You'd need to be careful where you pointed the gun, anyway. There's nothing much to slow a bullet down in space. You might kill someone on Alpha Centauri in about 1.3 million years' time. For that matter, of course, the gun you threw might hit them on the head, if the universe were to stay around for long enough.

Rather pleasingly, one of the scouts suggested you might shoot yourself in the back.

[drossall]

 

I'm not sure now whether to try this on my Scouts, or whether it's all got just too complicated

[Kim]

Rather pleasingly, one of the scouts suggested you might shoot yourself in the back.

 

AIUI the lunar gravity is too lumpy to make really low orbits like that possible, which I reckon is proof that the universe has no sense of humour.

*googles*

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_16#Particles_and_Fields_Subsatellite_PFS-2

Perigee of 6 miles!

[Ashaman42]

Periapsis or perilune no?

[T42]

AIUI the lunar gravity is too lumpy to make really low orbits like that possible, which I reckon is proof that the universe has no sense of humour.

Oh, I dunno: a gravitational field you can't rely on is quite a good joke, really.

[Morat]

A quick google shows the recoil energy of a .45 pistol to be 1200 ft/lbs or 1600 Joules.

Sounds like a lot to me, but of course it's a momentary impulse rather than sustained thrust.

Over to the rocket scientists

[citoyen]

Working on a feature about hydration, and a couple of 'experts' are quoted, talking about 'gel water'. This is what they have to say:
'Gel water is a newly identified, different kind of water that doesn’t go right through you like regular water – your body can absorb it better. It’s found in all fruits and veggies and all living cells. By eating more fruits and vegetables we are consuming more gel water and gaining better hydration.'

This set a few alarm bells ringing, so I thought I'd better look into it. Top of the search results? A piece from Goop. Hmmmmm...

'Gel water, also called structured, ordered, liquid crystalline, or living water, is a newly identified phase of water that’s not quite liquid, vapor, or ice. Gel water is identified by an extra hydrogen and oxygen atom, so the molecular structure is H302. It’s a highly conductive molecular structure, as the extra hydrogen atoms are constantly moving back and forth between molecules, generating electricity.'
https://goop.com/wellness/health/structured-water-youve-been-doing-it-wrong-why-youre-still-dehydrated/

 

[ian]

That Goop page is extreme brilliance.

Gel water, also called structured, ordered, liquid crystalline, or living water, is a newly identified phase of water that’s not quite liquid, vapor, or ice. Gel water is identified by an extra hydrogen and oxygen atom, so the molecular structure is H302. It’s a highly conductive molecular structure, as the extra hydrogen atoms are constantly moving back and forth between molecules, generating electricity. In this phase, water crystals overlap and interlink like lace or crocheted netting, the way snowflakes do. But unlike snowflakes, which are stationary, gel water creates this structure while remaining in a fluid state. It is not temperature that defines gel water, so much as its shifting molecular structure.

Many people ask if gel water is in a plasma state. While gel water is conceptually similar to plasma, it is highly organized (crystalline-like)—unlike plasma, which has no distinct structure. Gel water can be as thin as liquid, just slightly more silky, or it can develop to be as thick as jello. You know the gel-like substance that forms around chia seeds when you soak them in water? That’s water in the gel phase.

The 'gel-like' substance around chia seeds is the very definition of a gel (hydrated mucins and pectins, not some special new phase of water).

[citoyen]

The 'gel-like' substance around chia seeds is the very definition of a gel (hydrated mucins and pectins, not some special new phase of water).

I don't know why people feel the need to invent spurious new pseudoscientific explanations for things like this... Oh, hang on, of course I know why they do it - it's because they have products to sell to the gullible.

I've reworked the copy to say 'eat lots of fruit and veg because they contain water, so are good for hydration'. Because, like duh.

I love my job.

[ian]

It's the way they do grab a little bit of science (water is truly amazing stuff) then totally misunderstand it yet don't let this stop them. Off they go.

Honestly, it is not temperature that defines gel water, so much as its shifting molecular structure...

Take that, thermodynamics.

[citoyen]

This from another source is a doozy:

“A go-to hydration tip is to drink at least half your bodyweight in ounces of water,” says Wickham.

I feel like there's some information missing here. I mean, drinking 40+ litres of water a day would certainly help me stay hydrated, but I don't know why expressing that as 1400oz would make any difference.

[spesh]

Having read the above, all I can say - apart from "What the actual ever-loving bleeding blue fuck is this?" - is that candles scented with la Paltrow's... essence... are now officially no longer the wierdest thing on Goop.

[ian]

Also, the entire '8-glasses-a-day' is a Totally Made Up Thing.

Humans don't need constant hydration, especially when they're doing nothing more strenuous than sitting at a desk and clicking a mouse.

[citoyen]

Also, the entire '8-glasses-a-day' is a Totally Made Up Thing.

To be fair to the experts, they do actually say this in the feature.

But then they go and spoil it with the stuff about magic water.

And they won't stop banging on about bloody chia seeds.