nudge

I love the beach but hate sunbathing. So when I'm there, it's either swimming or drinking beer/cocktails in the shade for me. A beach BBQ with fresh seafood at night is also great.

The Soviets landed numerous probes in Venus that not only survived the landing but also transmitted data and even took photos for over 2 hours in the 60s and 70s. It's challenging, but it's definitely feasible. With the advancement of technology (we already have the technology needed for heat and pressure resistant electronics and materials), there have been quite a few concepts for a Venus lander (including both "simple" probes as well as rovers) that have been proposed; at least two of them were even proposed as potential targets for the next upcoming New Frontiers mission, but were unfortunately not chosen... That's why I'm a bit frustrated with another orbiter (for the mission in over 10 years, nonetheless!) while we do have the means but are seemingly not willing to push ourselves further. What do you mean by saying that we can't go to Challenger Deep? We've been there before twice and are about to go there again with the Five Deeps Expedition! It's baffling considering how little media coverage that mission gets. The team already managed to go down to two of the five deepest points (in Atlantic and Southern oceans), are currently preparing to do the next one in the Indian ocean, the descent to the Challenger Deep is planned for May 19th and they will then finish the mission by going down to the deepest spot in the Arctic ocean in September. Can't wait until all that is made into a documentary. So in both cases (Venus landing and deepest ocean trenches), I'd say it’s not the technology which hampers the scientists, it’s the funding.

It's a bit underwhelming that all proposals only consider yet another orbiter... It would be really exciting to finally get a lander again; preferably one that could survive Venus' deadly surface for longer than just hours. I understand that the incredibly harsh environment brings a lot of challenges and I also realise that budget limitation play a big role here but it's still somewhat disappointing...

Enjoy your existential crisis.

That's one thing on my bucket list... Would love to see that.

Absolutely! I'm enjoying this latest "moon race" as it has a great potential to speed up the progress of further space exploration. India is set to launch Chandrayaan-2 (a lander and a rover) in April; they missed the launch window in January. Germany-based private group of rocket scientists and engineers are aiming to land two Audi-branded robotic rovers on the moon by the end of the year )beginning of 2020 looks more likely) and it will be the first mission ever to revisit the original Apollo landing site. Japan is going to launch a tiny impactor in December followed by a smart lander early next year. At least a few other countries are launching orbiters this year as well (Brazil; South Korea). And then of course we have Chang'e 5, the next step in China's moon mission that will bring the lunar samples back to Earth!

Latest update: The spacecraft has entered the lunar orbit!

Was it also tasty or just beautiful?...

Fucking hell. Fortunately they were able to rescue all the kids on time.

One of my favourite movies ever...

Is anyone else watching BBC's new travel series Race Across the World? Pairs of travellers have to travel from London to Singapore without flying, smartphones and with limited funds. One episode in and I find it very interesting.

Today I read about a very interesting new fuel-free propulsion concept called "The Halo Drive", which could make it possible to accelerate a spacecraft up to a substantial percentage of lightspeed using gravity assist of binary black holes.

The image it took of those particle plumes is incredible...

It's been getting hotter and hotter here as the hot season kicks in. Temperatures are expected to rise up to +43 in April

Yeah, I'm also into book polygamy haha, usually have one or more nonfiction and one fiction going at any given time plus an audiobook on top of that when I'm working... I like to mix it up a bit although if I find a certain book extremely captivating then I obviously focus on it.

Yeah I love the technical side of F1 so this is just right up my alley as well. Magazines such as Racecar Engineering or Race Tech are great in that aspect but their articles can be a bit tedious and too "dry" sometimes for someone who's not working in the field or has extensive knowledge of it. Hope they keep the quality high and go more indepth with their analysis! Considering that the secret aerodynamicist is skeptical about Ferrari style front wing, it surely must be someone who uses Mercedes or RB front wing concept So we can rule out Ferrari, Sauber, Toro Rosso, Williams () already

Has anyone read the new "Secret Aerodynamicist" column on BBC? Pretty informative. https://www.bbc.com/sport/formula1/47527705

Their own safety analysis acknowledged a potential MCAS failure as "hazardous" yet Boeing and FAA still approved it without any additional training for pilots and even failed to provide details of MCAS and additional procedures to airlines it sold the planes to. They were still denying potential issues of 737 Max and kept on insisting it's completely safe even after the first crash + numerous incidents and complaints last year, and still are after the second crash. So it doesn't look like an unfortunate design flaw that went unnoticed. It's more like a corrupt huge for-profit corporation with a history of shady practices & a complicit regulator (who somehow allowed the aforementioned corporation to essentially self certify their own aircraft for whatever reason) cutting corners to make more profit and outcompete their rivals by completely disregarding safety concerns and potential consequences that may (and that have, as we know it now) result in huge loss of life.

Spa in heavy rain would be my dream. But it would probably be red-flagged anyway. The last race I've seen that had extreme rain was Daytona 24 hours earlier this year (non F1 obviously); it got red-flagged at some point but they were out for hours and it was way too much; water standing on track, pretty much no visibility and the cars aquaplaning on every corner...

I think this is a good example of how different people can see things

Just a personal preference; I always found their cars extremely ugly and they also used to lack reliability badly (not sure how it is now as I haven't had anything to do with their cars in the last 10 years haha) so I just developed a distaste for it. Cyril comes across as a self-righteous annoying arrogant wanker most of the time to me and on top of that he and his body language is also awkward af hence the Mr. Bean comparison

I really dislike Renault as a brand, their engine has been very problematic in recent years and Cyrill is like a French caricature of Mr. Bean to me so I'm definitely taking sides here but I thought it was a blow below the belt there haha

To be fair Russia has been making moves for involvement in Africa recently so that's still kind of relevant!

That was extremely awkward; both obviously felt uncomfortable Cyrill's remark ala "now you need an engine and a driver" was a bit cuntish though...

"Last updated Mar 21, 2018"