Clarkesworld Podcast July 2010: Beach Blanket Spaceship(Sandra McDonald)

[james_davis_nicoll]

Beach Blanket Spaceship(Sandra McDonald)

An astronaut takes a holiday in a simulation of a 1950s beach film. It doesn't go exactly according to plan.

So, I was talking about ideas SF could lose now? I should have mentioned things like "Voyager 20", where some old probe program name is used with an implausibly large number tacked on. The final Voyager launch was almost 40 years ago. I am pretty sure the US isn't going to suddenly say "Hey, let's launch at least 18 more space probes named after ones from the Carter Administration."

(Not that another 18 Voyager class probes with modern space rated tech would be a bad idea)

Comments

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

That's not an implausible naming convention, just an obsolete one. The US had Mariner, Pioneer, etc. series that went on forever.

[chrysostom476.livejournal.com]

I think James is saying as of NOW, don't use Voyager as a name. NASA could start up a similar series of probes, but would probably not be using the Voyager name for them.

[beamjockey.livejournal.com]

(Not that another 18 Voyager class probes with modern space rated tech would be a bad idea)

Viewed in this light, New Horizons is Voyager 3, sort of. We could use seventeen more spacecraft more or less like this.

I've been thinking that I would like to be in Pasadena in July of 2015. Neptune was a lot of fun.

[selidor]

Send one to Uranus, send one to Neptune, send one to Enceladus, send one to Makemake, send one to a Centaur...

(It's a JHU APL/SwRI mission, so I don't think you have to go to Pasadena. Probably just APL.)

[neowolf2.livejournal.com]

And one to Chiron Beta Prime!

(Where we're working in a mine...)

New Horizons' Somewhat Grandish Tour

[beamjockey.livejournal.com]

I have long been curious about the process of selecting a target for New Horizons to visit AFTER it passes Pluto. At launch, they were planning to fly by a Kuiper Belt object that hadn't yet been discovered. Isn't it getting kind of late to get started?

But I see they've already been looking for a couple of years. Also, I'd been thinking that the burn to put NH on course to its final destination would need to be made before the Pluto encounter. Having thought about it, it now seems to me that the trajectory is overconstrained by all the stuff NH needs to do in the Pluto-Charon-Littleguys system, so it makes sense to delay the course correction until months later.

Page 118 of this (PDF abstracts of the recent Pluto System Conference) is relevant. So is page 11. So is page 154.

Three objects that would pass within 0.2 AU, and would be about 15th magnitude, have been identified. They're still hoping to find a better target.

They're planning for a burn late in 2015. The available delta-V can put NH anywhere inside a narrow cone whose apex is near Pluto. Gotta find a suitable KBO within or very near that cone, if possible. I'm trusting your colleagues to accomplish this.

About APL, good point. I've never been to APL.

[neowolf2.livejournal.com]

The military has tended to stick with numbering schemes longer (fighters, bombers, X planes, nuclear warheads). Ship names have also been reused, although you don't see two ships in the same navy with the same name at any given time.

[errolwi.livejournal.com]

I do wonder if anyone on a Five Powers Defence Arrangements exercise has tried to get refueled from RSS Endeavour (as opposed to HMNZS Endeavour).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_of_Singapore_Navy#Amphibious_transport_docks

[scott-sanford.livejournal.com]

Would there be friction between the Endeavour and the Endeavor?

I understand some snarky messages were passed when the HMS Antelope and HMS Penelope finally met.

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

That's not an implausible naming convention, just am obsolete one. The US had Mariner, Pioneer, etc. series that went on forever.

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

You know you posted this already?

I have a suspicion long series of related probes went out when they stopped losing the majority of them.

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

Damn, the website was hiccuping for me, but there was only one copy of that the last time I checked.

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

Wow, today is lack luster spam day.