#geosynchronous orbit

[putting-gummigoo-in-places]

Put him in geosynchronous orbit

[firstoccupier]

xAI’s Supercomputer Sparks Environmental Concerns in Memphis

In South Memphis, Tennessee, xAI’s Colossus supercomputer, built to push AI innovation, is causing a stir in the Boxtown community. This predominantly Black neighborhood, already burdened by industrial pollution, is grappling with new environmental and health challenges from the massive data center’s operations. The main concern is xAI’s use of up to 35 methane gas turbines to power Colossus,…

[dcdreamblog]

The recent question about the Justice League Detroit era sparked a memory and sent me back to my scrapbooks. What many of your readers might not know is that the local kids who signed up with the League weren't the first superheroes from Detroit. Some years before, there'd been a fellow named the Crusader who was trying to be to his city as Batman to Gotham.

He was controversial at the time, with some saying his methods were too violent, while others claimed "the nights were brighter then." Sadly. he tragically died in a fall while in costume.

Any thoughts on short-career superheroes of note?

(OOC: Aquaman #56 (1971); no one brings up Aquaman's earlier visit to Detroit during the JL's stay there. Watsonian: Everyone was being diplomatic about what would be a sore spot. Doylist: The writers of JL didn't remember that earlier story. Heck, I only remembered it because I still had my copy.)

Gotta be honest, folks, I had to LOOK INTO this one. I had never heard of the Crusader before. At least not that one. The name Crusader has been used by at least 4 different people at different points in time. Anyway. I WAS able to dig up a news image of him.

(Taken from the Detroit Free Press)

From what I can tell he was NOT well liked in the general superhero community. A bid for Justice League membership was formally rejected on the grounds of his violent and single minded methods. He was putting people in the hospital with SERIOUS injuries for really minor crimes especially when he seemed to get his heart set on a car theft ring that had been targeting the city's poorer neighborhoods. Generally you don't send people to the ICU for carjacking.

Honestly I have to agree, the news reports I read speak of a man who was more focused on meting out violence than he was in protecting the innocent, a sentiment shared by Aquaman who became embroiled in the man's actions near the end of his life. Eventually having something to do with launching a mysterious satellite into orbit in a geosynchronous orbit over Chicago that had near disastrous effects on the local living standards and ecosystem.

As for the broader question of "short career superheroes" well, all superheroes save lives by nature of doing what they do. Whether they have decades of experience beneath their belts or not. It doesn't really matter how many bona fides your hero has when he's diving out of the night save your from a mugging or a house fire.

Some heroes hang up their masks because their vigilantism was inspired by a specific animating principle. Perhaps a local crime syndicate or evidence of government corruption that, once uncovered and laid to rest also lays to rest their reasons for crime fighting.

Some heroes unfortunately die young in the profession and are remembered with the bitter question of who they might have become if not called before their time to commit the ultimate sacrifice. The example that comes to mind here is the 4th Starman who is still deeply mourned in his native Arizona after laying down his life to help defeat the malicious Eclipso.

Every hero does what they do for their own reasons, reasons many of us would never be able to imagine. Whether their careers are short because they accomplished their goal and have hung up their capes to ride off into the sunset. Or because they were called to the next great adventure before their time it makes no real difference, they were here, they saved lives and we should always be a little thankful for it.

[maximumpiratecreation]

Jaune gave a sigh of relief as he returned to his ship, the Queen of Swords, after a week long recon mission on a garden world to document the fauna. He stepped through the airlock and onto the bridge before removing his helmet allowing himself to breathe in the clean air. "XO if anyone needs me I'll be in my cabin." Little did the captain know that he had been covered in a pheromone from the planet that was now free to roam and affect the remaining female crew of the ship.

"Roger that Captain... did we find what the Concordat was looking for on the planet?" Samus called out to the retreating back of the captain. His cabin door sealed himself inside while the blonde executive officer shrugged. Tapping in commands to keep the ship in geosynchronous orbit.

Further back in the ship, Liara received notification that a planetary sample has been deposited in the science lab. Without hesitating, she made her way and barged into the Captain's quarters. Catching Captain Jaune half naked as he was getting out of his suit.

"Captain, i wish to discuss about the data you have collected from the planet" She asked not caring that the captain is bare chested at the moment

[zeldaseyebrows]

WIP Ask Game

Thank you @sparklyhyperbole and @raurusthirdeye for tagging me! I have too many WIPs, so I'll do the ones I'm actively working right now:

Sacrilege and Sororities Chapter 16: Oh Balls (New Year, New Me)

Link meets their eyes, one by one. "I need to know that you are all who you say you are. Tell me something only you would know."  Sir Xavier answers with a straight face, “Your security answer to the question 'What is your favorite food to eat?' has always been 'p***y.'” Link breathes in through his nose.

2. Ganondorf's (Rude) Awakening- The Roommate AU. Modern!AU Link and Ganon are forced to be roommates. It doesn't end well.

“I just happened to notice that there’s been a lot of hair in the shower drain recently,” Ganondorf said, spinning his lunch salad in the spinner with perhaps more violence than usual. “Hm.” Link shrugged and popped another pizza roll into his mouth. “Maybe I’m shedding.” “I’m not sure it’s all yours. Has your friend been taking showers here?” “You mean Zelda? I’m sure it’s not her.” Ganondorf’s fingers tightened and clenched on the spinner handle. In front of him, the salad appeared ready to fly away and take off into geosynchronous orbit. “The extra hair is blonde. And long,” Ganondorf gritted out. Link raised an eyebrow and gestured to his own hair.

Also wanted to give everyone an update that I am working very hard to have the next chapter of Sacrilege and Sororities done asap!! It has not been forgotten or abandoned. I've just been disgustingly busy and I don't write linearly. And this is the writer type that I am, so take that as you will about my ridiculous method of writing long form content haha (thank you @linksthoughtbrambles and @bahbahhh for tagging me!)

And if anyone would like to do this meme, please consider yourself tagged! I'd love to read about your WIPS!

[yesterdays-xkcd]

Interestingly, on a true vertical log plot, I think the Eiffel Tower's sides would really be straight lines.

Height [Explained]

Transcript

Caption: Top of observable universe.

[Black Hat is standing on top, throwing a black kitty down.] Black Cat: Mrowl!

[Map of the universe from observable universe to Earth. Each area of item is labeled. Labels left to right, up to down:]

(46 billion light years up) Hubble Deep Field Objects One billion light years: Great Attractor. Antennae Galaxies (colliding). Andromeda.

Holy crap lots of space.

One million light years: Magellanic Clouds. Edge of galaxy. Galactic center. Crab Nebula. Orion Nebula. Horsehead Nebula. Romulan neutral zone. The Pleiades, duh!. Rigel. Betelgeuse. Ford Prefect.

[Three arrows are pointing up above three lines labelled “expanding shell of radio transmissions”.] Edge of federation sector 0-0-1.

Pollux. Arcturus. Missing WMDs. Sirius. Barnard's Star. Alpha Centauri.

One parsec:

One light year: Oort Cloud (?). Bupkis. Comet which will destroy Earth in late 2063. Pioneer 10. Voyager I. Eris (All hail Discordia!). Pluto. (Not a planet. Neener neener.) Neptune. Uranus. Saturn. [Two arrows labelled “life” point to two moons, one next to Saturn and the other Jupiter.] Jupiter. Asteroids. Mars. Venus. Sun. Mercury. Spaceship Planet Express: Hey, a heaping bowl of salt! Spaceship Discovery One: Open the fridge door, Hal. Moon. Human altitude record (Apollo 13). 2nd place: Snoop Dogg. Space elevator - One of these days, promise! Geosynchronous Orbit. GPS satellites. Lunar lander: In retrospect, they shouldn't have sent a poet. I have no idea how to land. International Space Station. Space junk.

Official edge of space (100 km): Meteors.

1/10 ATM: High altitude balloons. Airliners. Shuttle Columbia lost.

1/2 ATM: Cory Doctrow [In an hot air balloon]. Everest. Helicopters (6000 m). Cueball: Woo Python!

[A vertical scale is drawn along the right side of the picture, starting at 1 km and getting progressively smaller and smaller.]

1 km. 800 m: Burj Dubai (~800 m). 500. 400. Eiffel Tower (325 m). 200. Kites. Great Pyramid (140 m). Pop fly. Redwood (115 m).

100m. Oak (20 m). A person in the oak: Hey squirrels! Tallest stilts. Brachiosaur (13 m). Giraffe (8 m).

[Megan and Cueball holding the kite are labeled:] Folks.

Title: The observable universe, from top to bottom: on a log scale.

Caption: Sizes are not to scale, but heights above the Earth's surface are accurate on a log scale. (That is, each step up is double the height.)

[xenodile]

so from the various bits and pieces of backstory we've got, the whole predicament that is the Ark has slowly come together.

The Rapture Invasion started when Raptures began flooding out from the Lift, a massive space elevator connected to a satellite in geosynchronous orbit, humanity's greatest technological achievement. Raptures are too resilient and powerful for conventional human warfare to be effective, thus necessitating the development of Nikkes and weaponry catered to superhuman soldiers.

The Rapture Queen, presumably the source of the seemingly infinite Raptures, is built into the satellite connected to the lift, and Cinderella severing the Lift prevents new Raptures from coming to Earth.

Red Hood meets D.E.E.P. and learns about the Super Massive Core, a gigantic Rapture core that powered the Lift, and that it is linked to an identical Core that serves as the power source for the Ark.

So the Lift was built with Rapture technology, and the Queen was effectively hidden IN the Lift itself before the Rapture invasion. And the Ultra Massive Cores being linked means that the Ark was under construction well before the Rapture invasion ever began. We also know there are several failed Arks in various places, as in gameplay we can explore these as Lost Sectors and recover the Harmony Cubes that were part of their construction.

And in Marian's personal story, her check up reveals that the Goddessium alloy that constitutes a Nikke's body and the synthetic tissue created by Rapture nanomachines are in fact two parts of a single whole.

So my theory that VTC found and vivisected some kind of extra dimensional entity like an alien or an angel in order to create both Nikkes and Raptures is tracking, but it's also becoming more and more likely that the entire Rapture invasion was started intentionally. I am beginning to suspect that the whole purpose behind the Ark and the Central Government is to "preserve" humanity like an ant colony. Trap the human race is a forever war, housed within a controlled idyllic environment, and convert the brightest and best examples of them into machines to preserve their knowledge.

[avengersmansion-official]

Hello, i'm not american so i don't know a lot about american heroes like the avengers.

Like, i know they exist and i do see them once in a while in tv but the rotating roster really doesn't help so...

Could you go into the basics? Like, founding members or the regular members.

Certainly! So the Avengers have a long and storied history, going back to the dawn of the modern age of superheroes.

Shortly after the debut of the Fantastic Four, several other costumed crime-fighters began to make their appearances known, largely here in New York City.

These included:

Thor Odinson, prince of Asgard, cast down from the Golden Realm to learn humility by his father Odin.

Iron Man, armored bodyguard of Stark Industries CEO Tony Stark - later revealed to be Stark himself.

Ant-Man, alias Giant-Man, alias Dr. Henry Pym, who had developed a way to alter his size and a way to communicate with insects.

Janet van Dyne, the Wasp, Dr. Pym's partner and socialite daughter of scientist Vernon van Dyne.

Meanwhile, in the deserts of New Mexico, Dr. Robert Bruce Banner had begun to transform into the Hulk at sundown every evening, having been exposed to a near-lethal dose of gamma radiation in the process of saving the life of teenager Rick Jones.

Jones was the leader of an amateur radio group called the "Teen Brigade". When the Hulk went on a rampage - spurred on by a trick by Thor's stepbrother Loki, God of Mischief - Jones and the Teen Brigade attempted to hail the Fantastic Four to get them to subdue the Hulk.

However, the Four were otherwise occupied - but Thor, Iron Man, Ant-Man, and the Wasp responded to their distress call. The four of them teamed up to find the Hulk, and then all five of them join forces to defeat Loki.

(an image of a statue of the founding Avengers, plus Captain America, who was granted retroactive founder status soon afterwards)

The Hulk soon left the group, not exactly being a team player at the time, and the Avengers find Captain America frozen in a block of ice at the bottom of the North Sea, who effectively replaces the Hulk on the team - and who, for legal purposes, is recognized as the fifth founder of the Avengers.

As for the current roster, here's a quick rundown of both officially sanctioned Avengers teams in current operation.

(a publicity photo of the current Avengers roster)

The current "primary" team of Avengers consists of Carol Danvers (Captain Marvel, center), as well as (clockwise from top right) the Vision, Captain America (Sam Wilson), Black Panther (King T'Challa of Wakanda), Storm (Ororo Munroe, former Regent of Sol), and the Scarlet Witch (Wanda Maximoff). They operate from the team's newest member, The Impossible City, a sentient city in geosynchronous orbit above the Earth.

(a publicity photo of the Avengers Emergency Response Squad)

The other currently active team of Avengers is the Avengers Emergency Response Squad, operating out of right here in Avengers Mansion. This team, hand-picked by Steve Rogers, is designed with the express purpose of swiftly responding and reacting to crises across the globe.

Their current roster consists of:

Captain America (Steve Rogers)

Lightspeed (Julie Power)

Shang-Chi

Hawkeye (Clint Barton)

Photon (Monica Rambeau)

Hercules

She-Hulk (Jennifer Walters)

Wonder Man (Simon Williams - yes, that Simon Williams)

Wasp (Janet van Dyne)

Lightning (Miguel Santos)

Night Thrasher (civilian identity is a secret)

With other operatives brought in on an as-needed basis.

Now, I could go on about all the other Avengers splinter teams and sub-groups there have been throughout the years - but I hope this gives you a good enough overview to start off!

[dr-futbol-blog]

Allies, Pt. 2

The hive has finally reached Atlantis and everyone is on edge. They seem to be in continuous radio contact with both the Daedalus and the Orion, both of whom are hearing everything that is spoken on the Control Platform of Atlantis, as we hear the Canadian technician give Caldwell a status report when he asks for one. Essentially Caldwell and Sheppard ask for the same thing, Caldwell just manages to sound more official about it than Sheppard who seems to be calming his own nerves more than everything else by inserting some levity to the situation, making fun of how anxious he himself is to hear what is going on out there. Sheppard very obviously hates being on the sideline unable to do anything, having to wait to hear from where the action is.

Caldwell: Atlantis, report? Chuck: It's going into geosynchronous orbit. Hasn't armed any of its weapons. Weir: If they do, I want you to switch from cloak to shield as quickly as possible. Don't wait for my order. Chuck: Yes, ma'am. Sheppard: You could be a little more chatty, Elizabeth. Weir: I'm sorry, we're just waiting for them to make the next move. Chuck: Transmitting a signal, audio only. Weir: Put it on speaker.

Because we have both Caldwell and Sheppard wanting to hear from them, this scene seems to call back to the tense moment in the beginning of The Siege (S02E01) at the start of the season when Sheppard had been on the bridge of the Daedalus together with Caldwell, waiting to hear back from Atlantis after they had just watched the wraith bombard the city with darts, unsure whether McKay had been able to get the shield up in time. Sheppard had been very aware of the fact that everything was hinging on McKay being able to shield them. It had been a question of seconds and because of interference caused by the exploding darts, they were unable to hear from Atlantis, they were getting only static in response -- just as Sheppard had been getting only static in response from McKay in the previous episode.

In contrast to now, Sheppard had been hailing Atlantis instead of Weir or Elizabeth, and I had discussed at the time how many mainstream viewers interpret his worry as motivated by Weir while the fact that he had chosen to hail Atlantis (knowing better than to try hailing McKay directly when everything was hinging on him making the shield work in time) betrayed the fact that his concern had been above all for the man that he loves, and we have seldom seen him as afraid as he was then. Sheppard did not want to know whether Elizabeth had survived, he wanted to know if Atlantis was still standing. We are reminded of this by how Caldwell is the one hailing Atlantis now and Sheppard hails Elizabeth, sounding much more relaxed than he had been then, even though they are essentially in the same situation, because he knows McKay is not in danger. Not hearing back from Atlantis, Sheppard does not know what had happened. For all he knows, the wraith might have destroyed them outright. But because McKay is with him, we do not see Sheppard despair not getting an immediate answer from Atlantis like he had done at the start of the season. Sheppard cares about Atlantis and he cares about Weir, but he does not care about them the same way he cares about McKay.

That moment had also been one where Caldwell had likely clocked that Sheppard had some personal reason to be both as afraid and as relieved as he was when they finally learn that Atlantis had survived. What is real curious, and makes the end of the season rhyme with the beginning, is that Sheppard sharing the bridge with Caldwell had also been when they had first made a reference to allies. The two of them had the following exchange:

Sheppard: The Asgard gave you hyperdrives and shields. How come no offensive weapons? Caldwell: They don't like providing other races with anything that could potentially be used against them. Sheppard: I thought we were allies. Caldwell: Without the beaming technology, you wouldn't be here, Major.

As already indicated, this episode is not so much about Sheppard and McKay as it is about how they are perceived by others, what impact they and their relationship have had on the people around them. Like the Asgard, Sheppard and McKay do not like to provide the people around them with anything that could potentially be used against them. And like Sheppard was then, some of the people around them seem to be hurt by their perceived distrust, Weir chief among them. Sheppard has very good reasons to want to keep what they have under wraps, and McKay has agreed to keep his confidence whether they are together or not.

It is not a coincidence that it was Caldwell who delivered him the message that without their allies Sheppard would not even be alive any more, let alone rekindling his relationship with the love of his life. And throughout the course of this episode, we see character after character reveal in small ways that they are allies, that Sheppard can trust them. Sheppard and McKay have saved everyone so many times that all of the people on their orbit owe them a debt of gratitude. And while in Coup d'État (S02E17) we had heard Sheppard call her Doctor Weir and her call him Colonel, their use of the intimate address here speaks of this deep friendship that has formed between them and Weir's sincere desire to be an ally to him, which may have been one of the reasons she seems to have facilitated Sheppard, the person responsible for the security of Atlantis, spending the weeks leading up to the attack of the wraith away on his honeymoon on the Orion. As mentioned previously, but I want to underscore it, Sheppard's presence on the Orion is not necessary. They need the ship, yes. McKay and his team could easily have delivered them the ship, and Sheppard spending weeks sitting in the captain's chair, as lampshaded by McKay, was not crucial to the operation, and his skills as a strategists might have come in much more handy on Atlantis. And yet Weir had given him leave to join McKay.

Michael: We know you are there. We mean you no harm. Please respond. Weir: John, are you hearing this? Chuck: It's repeating again. Michael: We mean you no harm. There is no point in hiding, Doctor Weir. We know you are there. We mean you no harm. Please respond. Sheppard: Is that who I think it is? Weir: He's addressing me by name. I think we can assume it's Michael.

They are all shaken by the voice that they hear on the intercom, the prodigal son returning to remind them all of their mistakes. What is interesting is how what Michael is saying is overlaid with the reaction shots because there seem to be two layers here, the wraith being used as a metaphor for gay people but also for the allies in this episode. Michael's message might just as well be the same as would be sent to Sheppard and McKay by everyone who love them. We mean you no harm. There is no point in hiding. We know you are there, forced in the closet by the institution you serve. It is Sheppard that now gets the message "We mean you no harm" overlaid on him, and McKay gets the message "There is no point in hiding, Doctor," and it is not a coincidence that the word "Doctor" is spoken when we see him exchange a look with Sheppard. The whole message is further lampshaded by Weir asking Sheppard if he is hearing this, if he in particular is receiving this message.

What is interesting is that while through the character of Michael they are revisiting the question of Sheppard's sexual orientation, in this episode the onus is actually on the people around him, on how other people around them perceive Sheppard and his relationship, how entirely without his input and without him even noticing, there is a network of people who support them that seem to have formed around them. We see several examples of people being allies in the episode, which is clearly a new and unfamiliar experience to him. What we had learned in Michael (S02E18) about his past explained why Sheppard may have felt like he needed to bury his feelings deep and never let anyone see them -- but what he has found in and with McKay has just been too big for him to keep concealed, to keep it hidden away and not let anything show. They are obvious to anyone who sees them together even if they think they are being careful and clandestine. It is also fitting that they would have Michael deliver the words as who ever "Mike" had been in Sheppard's past, he seems to have been a false ally, seems to have been trying to get into his confidence under false pretenses and possibly at the behest of his father.

Caldwell: You don't actually intend to respond? Weir: Why not? Caldwell: Where do you want me to start? Weir: I think we can safely say our cover is blown. Caldwell: I wouldn't jump to that conclusion. Weir: The message is from Michael, Colonel. Dex: They know we're here. Caldwell: But they don't know exactly where we are. Sheppard: He's right. Answer them and we guarantee the first shot won't miss. Weir: Teyla? Teyla: Any attempt on my part to connect with Michael will confirm our location as surely as if you answer by radio.

The vocabulary they use here has a double meaning that is carried over the entire conversation, and it is no accident that it is Caldwell as the representative of the military that is advising against disclosure. Weir's mention of their cover being blown and there being no point in hiding is interesting in the context of this particular episode because this is one where we get a heavy textualization of the subtext later -- again in the context of someone being an ally. Another thing that we are reminded of here is the psychic connection that exists between Teyla and the wraith, and Teyla and Michael in particular, her being "exceptionally open" to him. It seems as though Michael has the ability to locate Teyla as accurately as they if were in radio contact, which again opens the question of the nature of the connection between Sheppard and McKay that may be hinted at the end of the episode.

It is also remarkable how relaxed Sheppard sounds now that he has assurance that McKay is not in any danger, when he is able to look right at McKay when he is talking about the destruction of Atlantis. He fixes his eyes on McKay as he says the words "the first shot won't miss," advising Weir against a course of action that might lead to the destruction of Atlantis. And yet he does not sound anywhere near as terrified as we have seen and heard him previously, unsure of the fate of the city. There are many people in the city he cares about, it is their home. And yet it is not an existential question to him like the thought of losing McKay is. Everything else he can survive but not that. Everything else is negotiable but not that. Even later on in this episode we can appreciate the difference.

McKay: I recommend you open a secure channel to the hive via the Daedalus. That way they won't be able to pinpoint Atlantis' position. Weir: And we can always turn the shield on. Sheppard: I believe we have enough combined firepower to take out a single hive if we need to. Weir: Have you ever heard of a Wraith behaving this way? Dex: No. Teyla: Nor have I. Weir: Right. Let's hear what they have to say.

McKay suddenly pipes up with a recommendation, seeming to bridge the two prevailing views: caution and making contact. What is notable is that McKay is standing behind the weapons' officer, a cute blonde woman that he has paid absolutely no attention to, whose station he was standing behind when we had first joined them on the bridge -- because fixing Sheppard up with the drones that he needs seems to be a priority for McKay. He has minions working on other fixes but he is being personally responsible for getting the weapons to work because that is what Sheppard had wanted from him. And given the way they had behaved in the previous episode, it is notable that in this episode neither McKay nor Sheppard seem to pay any attention to any blonde women whatsoever -- and we later see one make quite an obvious pass at Sheppard to which he remains oblivious. Sheppard seems to only have eyes for McKay, looking at him intensely as he speaks. And note that when Sheppard says the word "we," he once more glances at McKay. While he is obviously talking about all of them, Atlantis, the Orion and the Daedalus, he means the two of them as well. His "we" is always Sheppard and McKay first. In order to be able to shoot his load Sheppard needs McKay to roll up his sleeves, spit in his hands and get to work -- and not for the first time.

Continued in Pt. 3

[cappuccinoandglitter]

Last Line Tag Game

Thanks for the tag, @dark-alice-lilith!

"So the anomaly is in geosynchronous orbit," Karen explained. "It has stayed in the same place on the Grovantian sky while remaining outside of its atmosphere." "That is correct," the Primate said. "Do you have the ability to do a data transfer of all the information collected since the anomaly first appeared?" "You mean, can we send you an email?" "I'm sorry," Karen said. "An email?"

[bookoftheironfist]

Danny: “How do you kick somebody’s head off in zero gravity conditions? Start with the weapon-- use the inertia to spin around and-- then shove off the wall and bring it to him-- Even shattered, the stub of the whip-sword still looks nasty-- then take it-- and him-- out. And then...Stellar Astro-Fist. Um...Kick of the Geosynchronous Thunderbird. Something. Doesn’t matter. I made it up. What’s got two thumbs and didn’t boot in front of millions of people while inventing zero-g kung fu?” Defenders (2011) #1 by Matt Fraction, Terry Dodson, Rachel Dodson, Sonia Oback, and Clayton Cowles

In which Danny fends off assassins in low orbit.

For the record, this is not actually his first time fighting while weightless. All the way back in Marvel Premiere #22, he and one of his early antagonists were thrust into an abstract pocket dimension created by Master Khan, which had the fun feature of no gravity.

"The odds here are against you. For you were never trained to use your kung fu skills...where gravity does not exist! You float helplessly as the razor-sharp shuriken shrieks past your head. Each movement sends you drifting even more helplessly. Each succeeding shuriken passes even more closely to your person." Marvel Premiere #22 by Tony Isabella, Arvell Jones, George Roussos, Aubrey Bradford, and Karen Mantlo

Fortunately, Danny was trained to adapt quickly to new environments, even very odd ones, and just as he does in the above scene from Defenders, he manages to find his space legs in time to fight back.

[mindblowingscience]

NASA is demonstrating laser communications on multiple missions—showcasing the benefits infrared light can have for science and exploration missions transmitting terabytes of important data. The International Space Station is getting a "flashy" technology demonstration this November. The ILLUMA-T (Integrated Laser Communications Relay Demonstration Low Earth Orbit User Modem and Amplifier Terminal) payload is launching to the International Space Station to demonstrate how missions in low Earth orbit can benefit from laser communications. Laser communications uses invisible infrared light to send and receive information at higher data rates, providing spacecraft with the capability to send more data back to Earth in a single transmission and expediting discoveries for researchers. Managed by NASA's Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) program, ILLUMA-T is completing NASA's first bi-directional, end-to-end laser communications relay by working with the agency's LCRD (Laser Communications Relay Demonstration). LCRD launched in December 2021 and is currently demonstrating the benefits of laser communications from geosynchronous orbit by transmitting data between two ground stations on Earth in a series of experiments.

Continue Reading

[bestworstcase]

fandom treating "just because something bad happened to you once upon a time? no one gets a fairytale ending!" like some sort of harsh truth sick burn is so funny to me bc

1. while the emotion behind it is genuine, yang is not dunking on salem to "call her out," she is being deliberately as caustic and belittling as possible to redirect salem's fury away from oscar onto herself while tied to the floor and that is indescribably more courageous, smart, and badass of her than the generic "you suck" speech yang's fans make it out to be

2. salem's actual reaction is like

"……ok?"

because salem does not even like fairytales and is also predominantly concerned with the part where a god who hates her wants to kill the entire world to punish her again, for the second time, and is also having the awkward realization that this is. her general's daughter. for something to be a sick burn there needs to actually be a burn

3. "hm. her again? :)" is salem throwing a brick into geosynchronous orbit, how likely is it this exchange will get reprised when the brick finally lands?

[lonestarflight]

“FUTURE SPACE STATION CONCEPT---In the summer of 1982 NASA sponsored industry studies to examine mission requirements for a possible U.S. space station. The studies analyzed future missions in space to determine what attributes a space station would have to have to fulfill these missions. While the studies focused on mission requirements and appropriate space station 'architecture,' several renderings were produced to enable a possible station configuration to be envisioned. This picture, an artist’s concept, portrays one possible space station, as conceived by Rockwell International’s North American Space Operations Division.

The picture shows a mature space station configuration, which includes two solar panels to provide power; several modules for command, habitation and experimental activity; a Shuttle-sized unpressurized rack for storage of payloads; advanced remote manipulator systems for the assembly of large structures and servicing/storage of satellites and instruments; and a locking/utility hub that might serve in addition as a 'safe haven' in case of emergency.

Attached to the station in this picture is a Shuttle orbiter. The Space Shuttle would periodically visit the space station, delivering new crews, supplies, and payloads as required.

Also shown in this picture is an Orbital Transfer Vehicle (OTV) delivering an advanced communications satellite to geosynchronous orbit. Such a vehicle could be space-based at the station, providing a significant gain in economy and capability.”

Flying The Space Shuttles, Don Dwiggins, Dodd, Mead & Co., 1985

Photo posted on Flickr by Numbers Station: link

Information from Mike Acs

NASA ID: S84-25873

Mike Acs's Collection: link

[whirligig-girl]

Some of the history of Zwo-nmu System Exploration by Mellanoid Slime Worm Space Programs.

A reminder of the Zwo-nmu Planetary System. The Sun, also called The Zwo-nmu (literally The Day Light) is a G8V main sequence star with many giant planets. Mellanus, called Gymnome by some of its inhabitants, is the homeworld of the Mellanoid Slime Worms--Eaurp Guz's people. Mellanus is a coorbital of Omen in a horseshoe orbit. Every 15 or so earth years, Mellanus approaches Omen, which moves it into a higher or lower orbit around the Sun.

This graphic is in a rotating reference frame following Omen. green circle is Omen's orbit in a non-rotating reference frame. Yellow circle is Mellanus' inner/short/summer/hot orbit. Purple circle is Mellanus' outer/long/winter/cold orbit. Blue and gray circles are the orbits of Cold Ember and Rabbit. Times are given in Earth days and distances in Earth-Sun-distances (astronomical units)

Omen is named, of course, as it represents drastic climate change--orbital seasons affecting both hemispheres for many years at a time.

With that reminder out of the way...

Zwo-nmu (the star)

extensive telescopic study from low mellanus orbit. The first solar telescope to enter orbit discovered the corona but was not set up to observe it properly, so follow-up missions had to be undertaken.

studied by the Cold Ember probes and by at least one dedicated "sun-scraper"

Cold Ember (the hot super-earth/sub-neptunian)

Of the five probes sent to Cold Ember at various times, only two have made it.

The second one to make it is an orbiter. It relies on stationkeeping propellant so its elliptical orbit always keeps its apoapsis on the night side of the planet, such that it can spend time in the shadow to keep cool. Within a few days of it running out of stationkeeping fuel it will begin to overheat. There are proposals to send a Rescue Shuttle up to resupply and repair the probe, but the strict rules about use of alien spacecrafts in the mellanoid space program make that difficult.

Rabbit

Visited by 2 robotic probes--a flyby and a short-lived orbiter. A lander/rover is planned, but doesn't have the same priority as the Omen Development Program and the Ice Giants Exploration Program.

Mellanus Orbit

At its peak, Mellanus had thousands of satellites and dozens of space stations, but a near-miss with ablation cascade (see: the movie Gravity (2013)) that was only averted thanks to the recently installed phaser network has lead to many restrictions being put in place on the number and function of satellites. Early in the history of mellanoid space exploration, there was not much automation available. Satellites had to be crewed, and so there were many space stations, and when automation happened, those space stations grew into constellations of satellites. Telecommunications constellations were the real culprit, with several competing agencies, companies, and nations setting up their own independent constellations ranging from 10s to 1000s of satellites each. But now, subspace technology has rendered low-orbit communications satellites obsolete, and there are just a few dozen geosynchronous communications satellites, a GPS network, and the number of Mellanus observation satellites has been coralled.

One of the United Mellanus Space Program's current duties is the cleanup of low orbit, which is operated both by phaser blasts in an emergency and by crewed spacecrafts. Most of the space stations in mellanus orbit are specifically infrastructure intended to refuel these spacecrafts, since they need to be able to access a wide range of inclinations, and inclination changes are difficult to accomplish.

Other space stations include the constellation of orbital drydocks, which are all orbiting about a hundred kilometers apart from one another, and the Starbase, a very large rotating artificial gravity space station which was built between the 2340s and the 2360s, and serves as the space end of the interstellar spaceport.

Mellanus natural satellites

Mellanus has one permanent satellite, Ubbi, a 340 meter wide rubble pile which is thought to have once been another asteroid's moon, millions of years ago. It is just barely bright enough to be seen by a mellanoid who has expanded their eye to the greatest practical width, but it wasn't noticed to be a moving star until after the invention of the astronomical telescope and the popularization of sun-centrism. It was thought at first to be an asteroid, since it was discovered while Mellanus was passing through Omen's trojan cloud, but careful observations determined that it was a satellite in a stable circular orbit, and a careful observation of photographic plates and star charts indicate it's been orbiting Mellanus for at least hundreds of years. It's named after its discoverer.

Many early mellanoid space activities have used Ubbi as a target. There are dozens of probes. Sadly Ubbi is very resource poor, being poor in both volatiles that could be used for propellant and metals that could make it valuable. It's not even a useful science target, since one of the earliest missions to visit it was an impactor which essentially exploded Ubbi. It reformed again, but completely resurfaced, burying clues to its origin as a satellite. Ubbi is currently orbited by one derelict spacecraft and

There have been three temporary natural satellites of Mellanus to be visited by spacecrafts. All but one have entered Mellanus orbit only for a few months and were only visited by robotic probes. The largest one, Temma was three kilometers across and in an eccentric orbit that remained stable all the way up until two Omen conjunctions later, so it lasted for about 30-35 years. However, as a carbonaceous asteroid, it was rich in volatiles, and it was explored and settled extensively by all major space programs. The first crewed international interplanetary trips to Omen used fuel refined from Temma and brought down to low orbit.

The Omen Coorbitals (Trojans, Greeks, and Other Horseshoes)

Outside of Ubbi and Temma, the Coorbitals are the next step out into space. Mellanus occasionally has close encounters with coorbitals. Over time Mellanus and Omen together have corralled the coorbitals into very specific lanes. There are far fewer coorbitals around Omen than Glerbuh, or, say, Jupiter, because coorbital or not, Mellanus is still a planet. Most of the coorbitals are trojans, with the apsides neatly tucked in between the outer edge of Mellanus' sphere of influence in the low orbit, and the inner edge of Mellanus' sphere of influence in the high orbit. The Greeks--the trojans on the leading edge of Omen's orbit--are especially depleted. It's thought that Mellanus was once the only large object in the greek camp, but was perturbed onto its current horseshoe orbit billions of years ago. As a result, the greek camp is a hodge-podge of scattered objects from elsewhere in the system, whereas the trojan camp is comprised of more objects original to this part of the circumstellar disk. Each camp can answer different questions about the evolution of the Zwo-nmu system, and Mellanus' relation to it in particular. Ironically, even though the greek camp is Mellanus' original home, it's the trojan camp that is more relevant to studying Mellanus itself.

It is possible on any given year to send a spacecraft to visit Omen, Trojans, Greeks, or any other coorbital. However, the trajectories which take a minimum of fuel are only accessible 1-6 months or so before the closest approach with either object, and for crewed missions, less efficient but faster trajectories lasting only a month right around the close approach are preferred.

Outside of the Omen apparitions, the most active times for interplanetary spaceflight have historically been around the passing through the trojan clouds, which happens about 6 years before and after each Omen apparition. Starting from the low summer orbit, Mellanus passes the Trojan Camp. 6 years later, it reaches Omen and moves to the high winter orbit. 6 years after that, it passes the Trojan camp again. Then 15 years later, it passes the Greek Camp. 6 more years later, Omen appears large and Mellanus shifts to the summer orbit. 6 years later, it passes the Greek camp again. 15 years pass, and then we restart the cycle.

other horseshoe-coorbitals can be encountered at any time of year, but there's only a few of these known to exist.

Crewed missions to the other coorbitals have served as test flights for Omen missions, while also contributing meaningfully to planetary science as a whole. While asteroid exploration may not be exciting or glamorous, the use of trojan missions as testbeds has allowed a lot of groundbreaking work that otherwise might not have had any support to be performed.

Humans currently, in the real world 2020s, posses the propulsion technology and even, in principle, the industrial capacity to send humans to Mars. What we lack is a good idea of how to support humans on interplanetary spaceflight for many months or years at a time. A typical stay on the International Space Station is not even comparable to a Mars mission. That research is still underway. But we can go to the Moon. What's crucial is the relatively short turnaround time. A Moon mission may take only a week or two. The Artemis lunar missions will last longer, but not as long as a Mars mission would have to.

Absent a permanent moon of any substance, the Mellanoids are able to get their relatively short turnaround missions done thanks to the coorbitals. If Mellanus were still a trojan, it'd have emptied out the Greek Camp. Omen would never get particularly close, and it'd take over a year to make a round trip to it. It'd be just as hard to reach as Mars or the Main Asteroid Belt. But since Mellanus is in a horseshoe orbit, for about a year at a time every 6-15 years it is within spitting distance of some celestial body or another. Every 18-19 years that celestial body is the magnificent planet Omen with its own system of moons. When it's not Omen, it's the coorbital asteroids.

Propulsion wise it is not that much easier to reach the Omen coorbitals than it is for humans to go to Mars. You still have to escape Mellanus and keep accelerating on top of that.

But instead of bringing all of the comforts and necessities involved in the long-term habitation of space with you to a distant planet, you can get away with using capsules that are not much more advanced than what we were using in the Apollo era. The long term habitation problem is solved, leaving the only major problem left that of propulsion, of vehicle design. And since Mellanus is relatively small and they aren't shy about using nuclear rockets, the propulsion problem isn't that big of a deal. in a way, Omen and the coorbitals are a crutch. By the 2340s Mellanoid space programs still had not undertaken crewed interplanetary missions beyond the coorbitals. But, at least in Star Trek, human spaceflights to Europa & Jupiter were being undertaken in the 2020s. These missions would have had to take years! that said, there is a reason Omen has been such a focus--and it's not just because it is so culturally important.

The Omen System

Since the dawn of the Mellanoid space age, there have been six Omen apparitions.

Years given are Earth Years

1) 2300: Two nations launched robotic flyby attempts this year. One succeeded, but it was little more than a spinning photopolarimeter which could take a grainy image of Omen and a magnetometer which produced useful magnetic field readings. 2) 2315: Two failed atmosphere probes for Oldsky, one successful robotic lander on Rival, one successful robotic lander on Spark, and successful orbit insertion of a robotic Omen orbiter which continued to send back photos of Omen and its moons right through to the next conjunction. During the lifetime of this orbiter, Oldsky was conclusively shown to have complex life. 3) 2329: First crewed missions. There is a crewed landing on Rival, a crewed orbiter mission for Oldsky. It had originally intended to operate out of a small space station placed into Oldsky orbit a year in advance, but this station was covertly destroyed by Zaldans, and the orbiter mission was repurposed as a mere flyby, which fails, leading to first contact with Zaldans. 4) 2344: The most important year yet--the beginning of space archaeology. It's also the year asteroid Temma departs Mellanus and makes its own flyby of Omen. 5) 2358: International grand tour involving orbiters and landers on every planet including Oldsky. Leads to formation of United Mellanus Space Program. 6) 2373: Fission-impulse rockets have made regular interplanetary travel between Mellanus and Omen possible on any year. 7) 2387: Oldsky is now a colony of Mellanus.

Mellanus is on the border of the Zaldan sphere of influence, and with the increasing expansionism of the Cardassians and the tragedy of what they had begun to do to the Bajorans, the Zaldans desired military bases on the stars near their industrial colonies and their homeworld. These bases had to provide deuterium, so they needed to be located in a system with a gas giant, and also function as repair stations. The stars surrounding Mellanus were poor candidates--there are no M-class habitable planets around the nearby stars, and the only other gas giants were hot Jupiters or brown dwarfs which would make deuterium extraction difficult.

The Zaldans respected the non-interference directive, but not if it meant a gaping hole in their security. They would set up a military base on Omen's M-class moon Oldsky. There was an orbiting space station and a surface base, connected by cargo transporters and shuttlecrafts, staffed by military officers and a few civilian personnel, not unlike Deep Space Nine, but considerably more of a frontier for all involved. There was also a space station built in very low orbit of Omen, designed to scrape the atmosphere for deuterium to fuel freighters. These ships would be undetectable to the mellanoids as long as ships entering the system avoided activity during close encounters and all ships entering and leaving the system hid their photon wakes behind the Sun, resulting in fairly complex routing.

During the 2329 Omen apparition, a spacecraft that had been intended to fly by Omen had a severe failure, akin to Apollo 13. Still over a month from home, with no prospect but a horrible death, they were famously rescued by Commander Halen's ship, EZM-407, marking official first contact with the Zaldans. They were returned to Mellanus and the Zaldans finally landed, showing the world that not only were Mellanoids not alone in the universe, they weren't even alone in their own solar system.

Several ships visited Mellanus over the next few years on primarily diplomatic missions, but the Zaldans still kept hands-off, sharing only a minimum of information with the Mellanoids. Not many Zaldans had Halen's affinity for the slimes, and they saw mellanoids as lowly uncivilized savages--and their flowery polite diplomatic language only confirmed this to them. It wasn't before someone really stood up to them--a space program engineer who had gotten tired of standing in the sidelines while his people were being insulted--that the Zaldans finally found a glimmer of respect for the mellanoids.

There had been plans to fly a Mellanoid astronaut to Oldsky in exchange for allowing Zaldan researchers to visit Mellanus, and even early talks of embassies and sharing of the Omen infrastructure, when the Zaldans just… disappeared. Completely cut contact.

If sharing their solar system with rude bullies (who, yes, could have wiped them out a dozen times over yet decided not to so at least there's that) wasn't scary enough, those rude bullies disappearing without a trace was even scarier. On a scale greater than even the Apollo program, nations rushed to assemble their missions to visit Omen and Oldsky to figure out what happened to the Zaldan Military Base. Their robotic probes launched on off-years didn't return any answers--crewed exploration and actually landing mellanoids on Oldsky would be the only answer.

There was also the fact that recovering technology from Oldsky could potentially be transformative--the right technology in the wrong hands could destroy the world. This is spaceflight at its most competitive. This was no longer a game--recovering the alien technology was potentially life or death.

After the first contact with the Federation and the series of revolutions and reforms that lead to the current political situation, one of the main unifying rallying cries for mellanoids was the notion that they deserved the right to sovereign exploration of their own solar system. Outsiders--whether Zaldan, or Federation, or Dominion--would not develop any part of the system!

Ok, the Federation can provide some baseline infrastructure to protect Mellanus from invasion, but space exploration is OUR COMMON HERITAGE!

The current age of Mellanoid Space Exploration is characterized by extensive permanent infrastructure development. Since the 2360s, Mellanoids have been building research stations on Oldsky, Lake, and Rival. Setting up an industrial capability on another planet from scratch is hard to do, but Oldsky has a stable climate year-round and a breathable atmosphere. Much of Oldsky is a desert, and even the "humid" regions are quite dry, but it's still more habitable than literally any other planet in the solar system except for Mellanus, which makes it practical to build using traditional methods.

As of 2380, more people are living and working on Oldsky at any given moment than are doing so in Low Mellanus Orbit. Oldsky station visitors includes geologists, biologists, space archaeologists still studying what remains of Zaldan activity on Oldsky, civil engineers, aerospace engineers, construction workers, miners, marine biologists, submarine helmcrew, aircraft pilots, spacecraft pilots, rover drivers, doctors, astronomers, and even a few tourists selected by raffle.

Propellant infrastructure has been established to keep the fast interplanetary rockets zipping along. At this point, it is possible to stay on Oldsky permanently, but so far, all visitors to Oldsky are temporary, and on years when Omen is inaccessible even with nuclear-fission-impulse rockets (i.e, when the Sun is between it and Mellanus), only a skeleton crew remains to maintain the stations.

Oldsky will probably not have its own self sufficient industry and capacity for its own space program any time soon, but it does have a spaceport serviced by reusable launch vehicles.

Phaser-thermal rockets are used for heavy lift launches from Mellanus these days, but conventional chemical rockets are still used on Oldsky, fueled by hydrogen and oxygen split by electrolysis. There is an oil refinery on Oldsky, so kerosene/oxygen rockets are possible too. things remain somewhat low-tech on Oldsky. Imported vehicles can be powered by batteries, but there aren't let any lithium mines on Oldsky--good deposits have yet to be discovered--so internal combustion engines powered by oil are sadly being used. The Oldsky Planetary Protection Office on Mellanus intends to phase out fossil fuel engines as soon as the planet is capable of producing its own high-energy-density batteries… whenever that is… also, between you and me, they really ought to get more aquatics flying on these missions. what an aquatic astronaut could find on Oldsky might be quite shocking.

Anyway outside of the Omen system and Oldsky Glerbuh has had its fair share of robotic exploration and crewed expeditions. Two of the four ice giants have also been visited by robotic flyby probes, and Glarpi (the innermost ice giant) has had a robotic orbiter. The big crewed grand tour expedition to explore all four ice giants and there moons was one of the major science goals of the 2380s outside of exploring and developing Oldsky. However, it had to be modified to turn into a rescue mission for a mellanoid starfleet officer who was stranded on a planet orbiting a nearby star called TE-92. It's a whole thing. If they manage to rescue them maybe they'll write a novel about it.

[apod]

2023 August 3

The Falcon and the Redstone Image Credit & Copyright: Matt Haskell

Explanation: In a photo from the early hours of July 29 (UTC), a Redstone rocket and Mercury capsule are on display at Cape Canaveral Launch Complex 5. Beyond the Redstone, the 8 minute long exposure has captured the arcing launch streak of a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket. The Falcon's heavy communications satellite payload, at a record setting 9 metric tons, is bound for geosynchronous orbit some 22,000 miles above planet Earth. The historic launch of a Redstone rocket carried astronaut Alan Shepard on a suborbital spaceflight in May 1961 to an altitude of about 116 miles. Near the top of the frame, this Falcon rocket's two reusable side boosters separate and execute brief entry burns. They returned to land side by side at Canaveral's Landing Zone 1 and 2 in the distance.

∞ Source: apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap230803.html