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Time killers..., What do we do until things start happening..? |
 May 25 2008, 10:15 AM
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 The Poet Dude  Group: Moderator Posts: 5551 Joined: 15-March 04 From: Kendal, Cumbria, UK Member No.: 60  |
Okay. So we have half a day to go. All our bookmarks are saved, our peanuts are ready to open, but the clock is ticking slower and slower... what do we do until things start happening? How are we going to kill these last remaining hours..?
I know Doug will be watching the Grand Prix, and Rui will be mourning Portugal's failure to win Eurovision last night (good effort Rui, but the Latvian pirates were better!  ) but what about the rest of us?Well, if you've any ideas for vid clips your fellow UMSFers might like to watch, articles they might like to read, sites they might like to visit, go ahead and share them here. I'll start. Go watch this YouTube video. It's a work of genius, but probably only if you're a Star Wars fan. Hey, it's a start...!  -------------------- |
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May 25 2008, 10:24 AM
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#2
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The Poet Dude Group: Moderator Posts: 5551 Joined: 15-March 04 From: Kendal, Cumbria, UK Member No.: 60 |
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May 25 2008, 10:38 AM
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 Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 3652 Joined: 1-October 05 From: Croatia Member No.: 523 |
There's also the excellent documentary, The Pathfinders (split into 4 parts on Youtube) if you're into reminiscing mood.
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| Guest_Zvezdichko_* |
May 25 2008, 10:38 AM
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#4
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Guests |
I'll be playing OpenArena, but anyway, time is ticking painfully slow.
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May 25 2008, 10:58 AM
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#5
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 1870 Joined: 20-February 05 Member No.: 174 |
.....finish off another roll of Tums.....
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May 25 2008, 11:43 AM
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#6
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 Member Group: Members Posts: 646 Joined: 23-December 05 From: Forest of Dean Member No.: 617 |
Watching the clock! Speaking of which --
> Phoenix is: 11 hours, 56:37 from EDL interface (spacecraft event time) Less than 12h to go before EDL interface, s/c time.... Less thrillingly... we had, and passed, our ISO audit at work at last. Great! Now I can make a start on the backlog of work that built up over the last month whilst I was reviewing five million biz-babble-jargon-speak documents. Or... hmmm, perhaps I could just add one more little feature to the script... -------------------- --
Viva software libre! |
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May 25 2008, 11:59 AM
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#7
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 Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2924 Joined: 14-February 06 From: Very close to the Pyrιnιes Mountains (France) Member No.: 682 |
Well, as I said before, I've switched my sleeping time so I'm going to bed rigth now and will be up in another 8 hours.
Keep the show runing guys... -------------------- |
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May 25 2008, 04:01 PM
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#8
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Member Group: Members Posts: 530 Joined: 21-March 06 From: Canada Member No.: 721 |
I was hoping to spend the day brewing a commemorative Phoenix Pilsner. The yeast would be pitched at the official Mars landing time (giving me time to setup in front of the TV and computer with my peanuts to await the signal's arrival), and it would ferment and lager through the primary mission period, to be enjoyed upon the successful completion of that mission phase. Alas, I had too many other things to get done yesterday and ran out of time to prepare for brew day.
I wonder if that means anything beyond the fact that I am a poor planner.  Brian |
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May 25 2008, 04:09 PM
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#9
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 Junior Member Group: Members Posts: 45 Joined: 11-March 05 From: Canada Member No.: 188 |
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May 25 2008, 04:24 PM
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#10
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The Poet Dude Group: Moderator Posts: 5551 Joined: 15-March 04 From: Kendal, Cumbria, UK Member No.: 60 |
Quick reminder for any UK UMSFers: while you're waiting for Phoenix to land, remember to step outside at 00.15 and look to the west to catch the International Space Station rising... at its brightest, around 00.20, it will be over 45 deg high and around mag -2.2, VERY bright.
(non-UK members, go to this website to get your own ISS visibility predictions...) -------------------- |
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May 25 2008, 05:09 PM
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#11
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 Member Group: Members Posts: 370 Joined: 12-September 05 From: France Member No.: 495 |
For me, -2.4 at 22:34, alt 80°... but the weather is cloudy.
Not a good time killer. 
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May 25 2008, 05:14 PM
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#12
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 Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 3419 Joined: 9-February 04 From: Minneapolis, MN, USA Member No.: 15 |
I'll be killing time waiting for this evening by, among other things, participating in a great American Memorial Day tradition and watching the Indianapolis 500 motorcar race.
Which just started. -the other Doug -------------------- The trouble ain't that there is too many fools, but that the lightning ain't distributed right. -Mark Twain
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May 25 2008, 05:16 PM
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#13
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 Member Group: Members Posts: 813 Joined: 8-February 04 From: Arabia Terra Member No.: 12 |
QUOTE (The Singing Badger @ May 25 2008, 05:09 PM)  Not me. Too played out. I recommend Achewood though. Reading through the archives should eat up some time. |
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May 25 2008, 05:21 PM
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#14
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 Forum Contributor Group: Members Posts: 1374 Joined: 8-February 04 From: North East Florida, USA. Member No.: 11 |
I am housecleaning, lol.
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May 25 2008, 05:21 PM
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 Senior Member Group: Moderator Posts: 3431 Joined: 11-August 04 From: USA Member No.: 98 |
It's true, not everyone loves LOLcats. I do, though.
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May 25 2008, 05:23 PM
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#16
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 Merciless Robot Group: Admin Posts: 8791 Joined: 8-December 05 From: Los Angeles Member No.: 602 |
Speaking of archives, I became hopelessly addicted to this comic strip ever since (I think) Tglotch turned me on to it:
http://www.phdcomics.com/comics.php Have fun! -------------------- A few will take this knowledge and use this power of a dream realized as a force for change, an impetus for further discovery to make less ancient dreams real.
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May 25 2008, 05:47 PM
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#17
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 Senior Member Group: Admin Posts: 4763 Joined: 15-March 05 From: Glendale, AZ Member No.: 197 |
QUOTE (Stu @ May 25 2008, 02:15 AM) I'll start. Go watch this YouTube video. It's a work of genius, but probably only if you're a Star Wars fan. Hey, it's a start...! This has always been one of my favorites http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luVjkTEIoJc -------------------- If Occam had heard my theory, things would be very different now.
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May 25 2008, 05:51 PM
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#18
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 Senior Member Group: Moderator Posts: 2785 Joined: 10-November 06 From: Pasadena, CA Member No.: 1345 |
Well, we can start getting ready for the surface soil science activities by asking the question: Will it blend?
:http://www.willitblend.com/ Will hard rocks blend? -------------------- Some higher resolution images available at my photostream: http://www.flickr.com/photos/31678681@N07/
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May 25 2008, 06:03 PM
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#19
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Member Group: Members Posts: 122 Joined: 26-June 04 From: Austria Member No.: 89 |
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May 25 2008, 06:06 PM
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#20
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Merciless Robot Group: Admin Posts: 8791 Joined: 8-December 05 From: Los Angeles Member No.: 602 |
...Mike, that was wrong more than anything has been wrong before!!! Now I'll have to ask The Question when considering ANY material object for the rest of my life...
-------------------- A few will take this knowledge and use this power of a dream realized as a force for change, an impetus for further discovery to make less ancient dreams real.
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May 25 2008, 06:10 PM
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#21
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 Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 1621 Joined: 12-February 06 From: Bergerac - FR Member No.: 678 |
There is also this game
 http://wickedpissahgames.com/?page_id=3 Actually, it's a good approach to understood how gravity probes are influence (good word?). -------------------- |
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May 25 2008, 06:13 PM
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#22
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Member Group: Members Posts: 646 Joined: 23-December 05 From: Forest of Dean Member No.: 617 |
Not for those of a sensitive disposition:
http://www.redmeat.com/redmeat/2008-05-20/index.html And let's not forget the essential xkcd -- after all: QUOTE Before starting xkcd, I worked on robots at NASA's Langley Research Center in Virginia. -------------------- --
Viva software libre! |
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May 25 2008, 06:26 PM
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#23
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Member Group: Members Posts: 166 Joined: 20-September 05 From: North Texas Member No.: 503 |
I have spent the morning waiting, and digging weeds out of my lawn. While sweating in the Texas heat, I was contemplating the upcoming landing. And I started thinking about how impressive the engineers and space scientists of the 60's and 70's were.
With very low resolution landing imagery, much poorer materials science and engineering, and with incredibly limited (by our standards) computing power, they not only landed manned and unmanned probes and rovers on the moon, they also created the incredible successes of the Viking landers on Mars, and the Venera landers on Venus. To this day we haven't duplicated a Venusian landing. And attempts at powered rocket descent landings on Mars have failed (although the novel bouncing airbag approach has been an unmitigated success). Let's hope that Phoenix can follow in Viking's footsteps. They really did have the "right stuff" back then. Not just at NASA but in the Soviet Union, too. |
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May 25 2008, 06:31 PM
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#24
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Member Group: Members Posts: 646 Joined: 23-December 05 From: Forest of Dean Member No.: 617 |
The Selsey crew are live now at: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/mars-live
all via dodgy DSL and a little glitchy... -------------------- --
Viva software libre! |
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May 25 2008, 06:41 PM
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#25
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 3419 Joined: 9-February 04 From: Minneapolis, MN, USA Member No.: 15 |
And as for my fave YouTube offering:
Red Rover from which comes the line we definitely do NOT want to hear today: "How many feet in a kilometer? HOW MANY FEET IN A KILOMETER???!!!"  -the other Doug -------------------- The trouble ain't that there is too many fools, but that the lightning ain't distributed right. -Mark Twain
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May 25 2008, 07:04 PM
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#26
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Member Group: Members Posts: 813 Joined: 8-February 04 From: Arabia Terra Member No.: 12 |
If only someone had made a *good* film about
 , that would eat up some time. Hopefully James Cameron will get round to it one day.
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May 25 2008, 10:18 PM
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#27
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Senior Member Group: Admin Posts: 4763 Joined: 15-March 05 From: Glendale, AZ Member No.: 197 |
The EDL discussion is now open, let's all go over there.
http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.php?showtopic=5157 -------------------- If Occam had heard my theory, things would be very different now.
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