We're still transmitting messages to Earth, and watching videos.
Ignoring politics doesn't mean politics will ignore you.
-Pericles paraphrased in <100 characters
Touche, dark!
Schrodinger's cat walks into a bar and doesn't.
Everybody but MovieMan... he's doodling on his paper.
The pumps don't work 'cause the Vandals stole the handles
Bob Dylan
And:
- Stare at a lit magnifier, with a half dozen huge
- Everyone else, leave all monitors on, always
- Later, monitors on so they can all say No Signal
- Hallways are pretty well lit
- Rooms are well lit. Need to be a lot dimmer
- Exterior lights! Lots of them. On, when no one is outside. In a dust storm.
Took forever before they talked about heat. I suspect that like spacecraft, most power is for heat, not light. Then, a weird solution, making it all cold (glad they brought scarves!). Instead, stop being all spread out, let half (3/4?) of the station go cold. Just keep warm enough equipment isn't damaged. May get a bonus from air handling efficiencies.
Same for many other systems. LIghting is pretty efficient, so what does cause consumption? Blowers, water pumps, whatever they use to make air and water? I'll bet lighting is 10% of their power at most, anyway. They could have frozen the plants from cutting heast, and it would have been just as tension filled, and more educational as they explain the issues of power consumption on Mars.
The horrible dark time wasn't nearly as horrifying as it could be, because they made a few bits dimmer and said it was bad, but didn't show much.
They could have frozen the plants from cutting heast, and it would have been just as tension filled, and more educational as they explain the issues of power consumption on Mars.
Good point. Now I know why I was annoyed by him sitting there misting each plant lovingly. Aside from the creepy guy thing: More robots! I think the drones are lame and an unworkable design for the atmospheric pressure, but more robots would be likely and useful. Farm robots would seem to really help out with the food needs for minimal space and power, so we reserve humans for the difficult bits.
shareI like doodling, tek. I'm also fascinated by small shiny objects, and balls of twine.
Schrodinger's cat walks into a bar and doesn't.
In an actual space ship, cooling is more essential than heating. Electrical/mechanical systems generate waste heat, human bodies radiate heat, and in a closed system (because in the vacuum of space, there's no conduction or convection of heat away from the craft, so it accumulates. If your space ship's cooling system fails, you'll cook.
Once on Mars, however, you're on the ground which can conduct heat away, and there's atmosphere (albeit thin) that can convect it away, so then keeping the temperature up becomes relevant, yeah. But there's a distinction in the temperature regulation challenges between space and planetside.
I'm an island- peopled by bards, scientists, judges, soldiers, artists, scholars & warrior-poets.
Do tell more. I don't design spaceships for a living, but went to aero school for a while. I swear I'd gotten that while thermal management is critical, in net you will loose heat. E.g. the Apollo 13 guys were rotating just fine but the place cooled like hell. I wonder if radiators on the Shuttle are partly due to equipment radiating heat, so a low-power state would result in a cold ship? As I said, tell more, I am interested.
So, I didn't say thermal management for the Mars outpost, because it's on the ground, in a hole in the ground (not much sun!) and Mars specifically is cold as hell so I'd think heat would be a big deal. Think they'd even just use electric heaters or something cleverer? Is there enough geologic activity for geothermal to work, for example?