Icosahedron
SOC-14 1K
Actually, guys, this was a serious question - can somebody who knows how the suits work enlighten me? Do they have tubes, or something? How are they refilled?
Cheers.
NASA Moon Survival Test
- Thread starter Spinward Scout
- Start date
Actually, guys, this was a serious question - can somebody who knows how the suits work enlighten me? Do they have tubes, or something? How are they refilled?
Cheers.
Let's just say that the food isn't going to be any more useful than the matches. In fact, the idea of walking and climbing 200 miles in spacesuit seems quite impractical. The best plan would probably be to shoot yourself with one of the .45s, so as to get it over quickly.
I wonder what the hell pistols and matches are doing on a space journey. Can this really be a NASA quiz?
far-trader
SOC-14 10K
I wondered the same thing. And the continuing questions and reasoning here makes it seem less and less so. Many good points being raised about "issues" that one would think NASA would know.
As for the contents of the survival kit, I pictured it as being for terrestrial survival in case of a bad reentry...
...which blows some of my ideas about the suitable usefulness of some items.
Like the food and water. I imagined it was Astronaut versions so while it might freeze or overheat it would still be consumable via suit tubes in vacuum once the right temperature was reached. If it's terrestrial rations then you eat a good meal before leaving and put a bag of water inside your suit with a straw I guess.
As for the 200 miles, that didn't seem insurmountable to me, depending on terrain. Remember the gravity is 1/6 so you should be able to make good time bounding along over flat terrain as long as you don't trip or have to carry too much. At one point I had thought as little as 1/5 the usual time under ideal conditions which would mean about 24 hours (8 hours hiking, 8 hours sleeping, 8 hours hiking).
Really, without knowing what kind of terrain you will encounter (which you should know, and hey, why no moon map of the area, or was it destroyed) and how far you can travel in a day the question of what to take is flawed.
But it was still fun.
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The terrain is a nightmare. Even if it weren't, the walk would take a couple of days, and you don't have enough oxygen.
It's just like having your car break down in the Australian desert. You can't possibly walk out: if you aren't found by someone with a vehicle you will die. And you are much more likely to be found if you stay with your vehicle and conserve consumables.
Peter Newman
SOC-12
The list of of objects that NASA said survived does not include a space suit!
Without a space-suit you can't walk the 200 miles. Therefore you have to look at the list and figure out what you can use to make your own space suit out of. None of you did so. Therefore the self inflating life raft (for material) and the matches (to melt the rubber pieces together) are pretty important, right up there with the oxygen tanks. Thus NASA's whole list is invalid.
Without a space-suit you can't walk the 200 miles. Therefore you have to look at the list and figure out what you can use to make your own space suit out of. None of you did so. Therefore the self inflating life raft (for material) and the matches (to melt the rubber pieces together) are pretty important, right up there with the oxygen tanks. Thus NASA's whole list is invalid.
Fritz_Brown
Super Moderator
We had a guy just like you in pilot training: always took forever to complete the weekly test, read way too much into every question, then argued with the instructors about the ones he got "wrong".
We so wanted to beat that guy to a pulp on Friday afternoons when the O-club was waiting for us........ :nonono: :toast:
We so wanted to beat that guy to a pulp on Friday afternoons when the O-club was waiting for us........ :nonono: :toast:
Peter Newman
SOC-12
I completed the test fairly rapidly. The test says what the test says, no more and no less. Therefore it is not possible to ever read too much into any question, unless perhaps the test was written wrong in the first place. The premise clearly states that these are the only objects that survived. A spacesuit is not among them, therefore you do not have a space suit. There is _no_ other correct way to read the test. Of course you'd want to argue with the instructors about questions you get 'wrong' because other peoples interpretations, to the extent that they differ from mine, are wrong.
Why would it be only on Friday afternoons that you'd want to beat him to a pulp? I'd like to beat people to a pulp every day....
Moderator hat on: Watch the Tone, gentlemen.
Moderator hat off
Though, in retrospect, yes, the test fails to mention a suit, but, by the same token, it mentions lunar reentry, too. No atmosphere to reenter. But NASA reentry protocols include being IN a suit already.
Moderator hat off
Though, in retrospect, yes, the test fails to mention a suit, but, by the same token, it mentions lunar reentry, too. No atmosphere to reenter. But NASA reentry protocols include being IN a suit already.
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Nope, the guns will work fine in vacuum, at least as far as firing goes. The shells contain their own oxidizer. The only worries are potential vacuum freezing of moving parts, contamination by dust electrostatically attracted into the weapon, or one of hard freezing causing the metal to become brittle. And it's not clear those are likely concerns or not. But they will fire fine in vacuum, It's an old Traveller debate
Same for the flares I think, an oxidizer is included in the chemical in at least some I've had experience with. Maybe not magnesium flares though, and I'm not too sure what was in the ones I had at the time or if my attempt to extinguish by cutting off air was sufficient to prove they had their own oxidizer
Interesting. I didn't know that. Too much interest in medieval muskets, I guess.
Ha! You should drive in Chicago rush hour traffic. Makes you want to run people over...
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No, the real homicide inducer is the trooper pulling you over for doing 55 in a 55 zone, since the 6 vehicles behind him are honking because they want to get around. And yes, in Alaska, you can get a ticket for delaying 5 or more drivers, even if you are at the maximum posted speed. (But only if you pass a pullout.) One of those wonky little rules due to 100+ mile stretches of 2 lane highway (yes, one each way) without passing zones.... Of course, the trooper DID block the highway... and called ahead the plates for the trooper down the road.
Fritz_Brown
Super Moderator
That was the only day we did the main weekly tests....
And, if just about the entire rest of the class (~15 students) hadn't gotten every one of the disputed questions right, it might not have been so bad. (We actually did agree with him twice in the course of a year about a question. 
)And, I apologize if my joking tone was not taken as such. I blame the emoticons.
It's even worse in multi-lane traffic and the policeman is in the left hand (passing) lane blocking passers, and wants to pull you over for passing on the right.
Black powder also contains its own oxidiser: the saltpetre. It doesn't require air to explode either.
Fritz_Brown
Super Moderator
It requires oxygen for the match, though, right? Unless you're talking those newfangled flintlocks and such!
Unless you're talking those newfangled flintlocks and such!It requires oxygen for the match, though, right?
I'm not sure. Match cord consisted of some sort of combustible twine impregnated with saltpetre, which is an oxidiser. It ought to burn in vacuum, or at least you ought to be able to make a version that did.
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