Especially simultaneous landings
Posted on 08/30/2021 9:59:13 AM PDT by BenLurkin
The delivery — due to arrive Monday — is the company's 23rd for NASA in just under a decade.
A recycled Falcon rocket blasted into the predawn sky from NASA's Kennedy Space Center. After hoisting the Dragon capsule, the first-stage booster landed upright on SpaceX's newest ocean platform, named "A Shortfall of Gravitas." SpaceX founder Elon Musk continued his tradition of naming the booster-recovery vessels in tribute to the late science fiction writer Iain Banks and his Culture series.
The Dragon is carrying more than 4,800 pounds (2,170 kilograms) of supplies and experiments, and fresh food including avocados, lemons and even ice cream for the space station's seven astronauts...sending up ants, brine shrimp and plants as test subjects, while University of Wisconsin-Madison scientists are flying up seeds from mouse-ear cress, a small flowering weed used in genetic research. Samples of concrete, solar cells and other materials also will be subjected to weightlessness.
(Excerpt) Read more at ksl.com ...
What’s for dinner?
Ants will carry avocado pieces inside the robot and build nests.....
Holy guacamole!................................
Californian or Mexican avacados?
I wish I’d known this. I have some ants I need to get rid of. Blasting them into space sounds fun.
I bet ol’ senor Bezos is just itching to sue some more.
Paging Kent Brockman
I look forward to the shipment that accidentally brings cockroaches to the station. They will never be rid of them.
Especially simultaneous landings
/arc-anglerfish-arc2-prod-dmn.s3.amazonaws.com/public/DIJZ3S4AAER2NWP7GXQKTZLDU4.jpg)
They’ll be eaten by the armadillos...
I think the Ants will take control of the robot, and use the robot to steal the avocados.
If only they’d sent Jeb Bush up there to make the guacamole.
Perfect.
A Shortfall of Gravitas
—
Misnamed
Is actually a General Contact Unit (no Class mentioned) in “Look to Windward” and “Matter” called ‘Experiencing A Significant Gravitas Shortfall’. GCUs often visit Earth when Special Circumstance personnel need a vacation, or to exchange goods with the Space Force’s X-37B.
(GCUs) are around 20km in size, are fast, independent, general-purpose vessels which the Culture’s Contact group uses for diplomacy, espionage, subversion and sabotage. The Culture has no policy of non-interference and, often tries to change the course of civilizations of whose behavior it disapproves or which it considers in need of advancement ; typically have a crew of Contact members, numbering around 300.
GCUs’ Minds are sometimes somewhat eccentric ; in the early stages of a conflict, GCUs are able to act as warships until GOU (General Offensive Units) and ROU (Rapid Offensive Unit) types become available. Because the Culture is more advanced than most other spacefaring civilizations, GCUs are usually very effective in combat.
As for Iain, despite his brilliance in reporting on conditions in this corner of our Galaxy from 1331 AD to near Present, was an ardent believer in some sort of idealized communism which is reflected in the society of the Culture. Nothing like what we know as communism. He died several years ago of complications due to AIDS.
Just wait until the BFR and the Starship landings are perfected ...
That reminds me that we haven’t heard from the flat earthers since SpaceX sent manned missions to the ISS.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.