Activity for King-Ink
| Type | On... | Excerpt | Status | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Question | — |
Does all life have to use Proteins? I understand that Carbon, Hydrogen, Oxygen, and Nitrogen are the source of a lot of great cheap chemistry and I understand why aliens could be made out of those elements. I don't understand though why they would use amino acid polymers, it seems to be an obtuse and awkward way of getting things done.... (more) |
— | almost 9 years ago |
| Question | — |
Astronomy on a maximally spinning Earth Let there be an earth-sized planet with a rotational period of just over 3 hours and 38 minutes described by David Hammen here . On this oblate spheroid, with nights lasting for an hour and 49ish minutes, would the observational skills of an alien Galileo be diminished or enhanced? What advantages or... (more) |
— | almost 9 years ago |
| Question | — |
Is stealth re-entry possible? Let's say I happen to find myself outside of earth's atmosphere [right at the Kármán line 100km up] one night and don't wish to cause a fuss as I descend to my home. I am stationary in regards to the dirt beneath me. Could I inflate a transparent non-reflective balloon of sufficient size say 1 mill... (more) |
— | almost 9 years ago |
| Question | — |
Can there be a society where competition is impossible? Let there be an Intelligent alien species of heavily armored but lightly armed folks. Think of sentient crabs without claws. The are physically incapable of fighting each other. They are filter feeders but because of the complexity of their ecosystem, this means a lot of thinking and moving around to... (more) |
— | almost 9 years ago |
| Question | — |
Who should mine the Asteroids? Humans or Robots? Discounting the actually quite good idea of having the asteroids be the site of colonization would it be better to use human miners or automated ones? Both would probably deliver the goods by unmanned rockets. Phosphate to the farms on Venus and Mars. Transition metals to everyone. I think simple as... (more) |
— | almost 9 years ago |
| Question | — |
Why terraform at all? We Earthlings like to live in gravity wells but also have a taste for the exotic and are a bit lazy. Why not make colonies that take advantage of local conditions? Cloud cities over Venus, much less fun ones on Titan, an Atlantis under the ice on Europa, Domed potato farms on Mars etc. It seems to ... (more) |
— | almost 9 years ago |
| Question | — |
Feasibility of Capturing Hydrogen from the Solar wind Solar wind density is very low even at Venus it is only 10 or so H+ ions per cm$^3$ but it is moving at a brisk clip of 400 km/s for the slow wind and 750 or so for the fast wind. So (feel free to check my math here) if one collected all the H+ ions passing thru a 1 cm$^2$ square in a second you woul... (more) |
— | almost 9 years ago |