NationStates

Xah wrote:

Grenartia wrote:Fine by me, as long as they get to be called Helm instead.

I'm sure that can done, although it's less actual piloting the ship, and more just entering in commands for the ship to do all the moving itself. Not as exciting as using a joystick and thrust lever I'm afraid

Sure, but its the closest thing. Also, I'm sure there's a joystick and thrust lever for emergencies, or am I wrong?

Xah wrote:

Grenartia wrote:Fine by me, as long as they get to be called Helm instead.

I'm sure that can done, although it's less actual piloting the ship, and more just entering in commands for the ship to do all the moving itself. Not as exciting as using a joystick and thrust lever I'm afraid

Joystick and thrust level might be the emergency controls? Or maybe in an asteroid saturated zone? Not that C.C. will ever be at the the helm.

Grenartia wrote:Sure, but its the closest thing. Also, I'm sure there's a joystick and thrust lever for emergencies, or am I wrong?

If it's got to the stage where a joystick and thrust lever are being used, then I'm afraid things are seriously bad. It'd be almost impossible for someone to accurately pilot something as large as the Saxifrage manually. Not only can you not see all of it without cameras, gauging its position and speed couldn't be done; you'd need cameras and sensors, all of which are tied into the computer-controlled navigation controls. For close-in work, like docking with stations and other larger ships, smaller 'tug' craft are used; little more than an engine and a cockpit (sometimes without that and drone-like). The Saxifrtage doesn't carry such craft as standard, but it has the capability to.

I'm sure there will be opportunities to pilot smaller craft, should your urge to zip around prove too much

Xah wrote:

Grenartia wrote:Sure, but its the closest thing. Also, I'm sure there's a joystick and thrust lever for emergencies, or am I wrong?

If it's got to the stage where a joystick and thrust lever are being used, then I'm afraid things are seriously bad. It'd be almost impossible for someone to accurately pilot something as large as the Saxifrage manually. Not only can you not see all of it without cameras, gauging its position and speed couldn't be done; you'd need cameras and sensors, all of which are tied into the computer-controlled navigation controls. For close-in work, like docking with stations and other larger ships, smaller 'tug' craft are used; little more than an engine and a cockpit (sometimes without that and drone-like). The Saxifrtage doesn't carry such craft as standard, but it has the capability to.

I'm sure there will be opportunities to pilot smaller craft, should your urge to zip around prove too much

Pre-cataclysm society must have been really fucking confident that nothing bad would ever happen. Is there even an astrogation dome?

Question: What, if anything, exists of pre-cataclysm media in the present?

Grenartia wrote:Question: What, if anything, exists of pre-cataclysm media in the present?

WHY?!! DO YOU WANT MEMES OR SOMETHING. Memes are stupid, if funny.

Grenartia wrote:Pre-cataclysm society must have been really fucking confident that nothing bad would ever happen. Is there even an astrogation dome?

Nope, but there's lots of redundancies. If your ship breaks down mid-journey, you're screwed tbh. This ain't Apollo 13.

Question: What, if anything, exists of pre-cataclysm media in the present?

Very little. Some archival stuff exists, but most of the 'internet', as it could be described, was lost; the servers destroyed, infected, whatever happened. A major theory for the cataclysm is that it was computer related; dependency was so great that with its loss, society collapsed. Books and hard copies exist, but are hoarded by governments and research institutions. The Saxifrage's isolation protected it from whatever happened, hence its still functioning advanced computer core, it was, however, largely empty of anything other than ship's system operation procedures.

Coalition of North American States wrote:

Grenartia wrote:Question: What, if anything, exists of pre-cataclysm media in the present?

WHY?!! DO YOU WANT MEMES OR SOMETHING. Memes are stupid, if funny.

I was just wondering what could be gotten from the internet of pre-cataclysm society's tv/movies/videos, songs, literature, etc.

Xah wrote:

Grenartia wrote:Pre-cataclysm society must have been really fucking confident that nothing bad would ever happen. Is there even an astrogation dome?

Nope, but there's lots of redundancies. If your ship breaks down mid-journey, you're screwed tbh. This ain't Apollo 13.

Question: What, if anything, exists of pre-cataclysm media in the present?

Very little. Some archival stuff exists, but most of the 'internet', as it could be described, was lost; the servers destroyed, infected, whatever happened. A major theory for the cataclysm is that it was computer related; dependency was so great that with its loss, society collapsed. Books and hard copies exist, but are hoarded by governments and research institutions. The Saxifrage's isolation protected it from whatever happened, hence its still functioning advanced computer core, it was, however, largely empty of anything other than ship's system operation procedures.

I figured as much on that last bit. As for the rest, what you're saying, though, is that shit like Tom Sawyer, or the Star Wars movies, or the Alice in Chains discography, aren't freely avaliable for download?

I hope Shakespeare survived.

There's been an illness in my family. Will try to post again in the next few days.

Grenartia wrote:I figured as much on that last bit. As for the rest, what you're saying, though, is that shit like Tom Sawyer, or the Star Wars movies, or the Alice in Chains discography, aren't freely avaliable for download?

Good question. It's probably still available on Earth and Mars, especially in places that have recovered well. Depends how you want to define 'freely available' and also depends where its hosted. There's probably hard copies hanging around, copies of copies of copies, especially if its culturally significant. Downloading is a complicated affair when the servers can be a million kilometres apart. A station like Ceres probably has the important and popular stuff available, and isolated platforms with a long-term work crew will have a decent selection of culturally appropriate entertainment (the Saxifrage certainly does) but if you want something that isn't on the local servers, it could take a long time and use a lot of bandwidth to get it uploaded from Earth or Mars. There's no system-wide YouTube or Netflix.

Interplanetary communications are complicated enough without constant download requests for the 'Best of Chuck Berry' or 'The Silmarillion' using up the limited amount of reliable data streams. Most media would have been transported physically (yes, on electronic data, but still). Think of the American colonies in the later 1600's and early 1700's. If you're educated, you're probably well aware of Shakespeare and Chaucer and own a few pieces yourself, the local library might even have some well thumbed copies of more obscure works if you're in a big town, but most people make do with locally produced entertainment; a mix of original stuff and covers and remakes of popular stories and songs).

Potential spoof:
Space Wars/Space Balls

Apologies for the delay in this, work has caught up with me this week and might extend into next. My boss is leaving and I've got 2 weeks to learn everything there is to know about mass spectrometry.

I'll have something up soon, I promise

Ok. What's mass spectronomy? I haven't heard of it.

Coalition of North American States wrote:What's mass spectronomy? I haven't heard of it.

Basically it puts dissolved samples through a plasma flame, then the ions that are made from that are fired down a tube with magnets around it; the magnets deflect anything away but the specific mass/charge ratio that you tell it to look for.

It's fun, if you like that kind of thing

Xah wrote:

Coalition of North American States wrote:What's mass spectronomy? I haven't heard of it.

Basically it puts dissolved samples through a plasma flame, then the ions that are made from that are fired down a tube with magnets around it; the magnets deflect anything away but the specific mass/charge ratio that you tell it to look for.

It's fun, if you like that kind of thing

Science!

Xah wrote:Apologies for the delay in this, work has caught up with me this week and might extend into next. My boss is leaving and I've got 2 weeks to learn everything there is to know about mass spectrometry.

I'll have something up soon, I promise

I've found myself in a similar situation. Except its my professor, and an Optics exam.

Xah wrote:

Coalition of North American States wrote:What's mass spectronomy? I haven't heard of it.

Basically it puts dissolved samples through a plasma flame, then the ions that are made from that are fired down a tube with magnets around it; the magnets deflect anything away but the specific mass/charge ratio that you tell it to look for.

It's fun, if you like that kind of thing

Thats a real thing?! Cool! That could lead to plasma cannons! That is actually seriously cool.

Hey guys, I won't be available for a couple days.

Alright. Test is done, working on IC post now

Can there be some minor skirmishes on Mars? I mean, with Kasei and some other nation, for the post I'm working on.

I'm just waiting for someone to respond to my IC post.

Mufasana wrote:Can there be some minor skirmishes on Mars? I mean, with Kasei and some other nation, for the post I'm working on.

There would be nothing 'official', but minor unofficial skirmishes, often blamed on unknown third parties probably occur between the Martian nations. Mars isn't very densely populated, so conflict over remote resources are almost inevitable.

Question: Should I kill myself, my sanity and my free time and join this thread too?

I'll have a post up by this time tomorrow.

Many apologies for the absence, things are settling back down now, so on we go!