Honored Member
The problem is that contemporary space travel is akin to a marching band, with little flutes and piccolos at the head being pushed by the big Sousaphones at the rear. Until someone comes up with a fundamentally new arrangement (e.g., how about some STRINGS?) we will be stuck with too much PAH and not enough OOMPH.
Order of Kilopi
I used to hear it compared a lot to deep-sea diving, but really, down is the natural way you fall. A few weights at your belt and suddenly you can go as far down as you care to-- or more, if you're not careful. Loose analogy to ballooning, yes, but not true spaceflight. Plus there's life at every level of the sea, and pressure steadily rising with depth to in places over a thousand atmospheres. In space, as someone once said, you have "anywhere between zero and one".
STARGAZING: All I see are the lights of a billion places I'll never go. --Howard Tayler, Schlock Mercenary
Established Member
Its like traveling by rubber band. The first snap propels you forward. Then you must carefully catch the edge of your rubber band on the edge of something to slow yourself down. You must always have a spare rubber band with you.
Administrator
"You'd better be prepared for the jump into hyperspace. It's unpleasantly like being drunk."
"What's so unpleasant about being drunk?"
"Ever ask a glass of water?"
Administrator
I think space travel needs more cowbell.Originally Posted by mike alexander
Order of Kilopi
Funding a manned mission to Mars is like getting your local no-hope, talentless football* team to Wembley**. It's physically possible for the team to score goals; in order for them to win, it is merely necessary for all the opposing teams to make no effort whatsoever.
*Soccer in the US.
**The stadium that hosts the prestigious FA Cup Final
Honored Member
The problem is this analogy oversimplifies the problem to a frictionless, rolling sphere, albeit with some residual ball-sward interaction. It also completely ignores the rowdies for Manchester United in the stands.
Order of Kilopi
In 1901, H.G. Wells' novel, The First Men in the Moon, was published. It featured a sphere which travelled to the moon powered by the fictional anti-gravity substance Cavourite.
Prior to the publication of the novel, the use of the word "rowdy" as a noun fell out of use.
Honored Member
Well, this is the problem, isn't it? Cavorite is not an anti-gravity material, it merely blocks gravity. And the word "rowdy" was in common use in the second half of the nineteenth century in the American West, referring to how a cowboy with piles felt after a day of hard riding.
Order of Kilopi
The worst analogy to space travel is eating cake. They have nothing in common.
STARGAZING: All I see are the lights of a billion places I'll never go. --Howard Tayler, Schlock Mercenary
Order of Kilopi
You always have to have cake. When you are half way done, you still need to eat the other half. Now that there is no more cake, you can't have any more.
Sounds like all of the fuel problem to me.
Solfe
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'That was tops! Who's not good at math? I was all, "Four!"' - Finn, Adventure Time.
Honored Member
Now this is just silly. The kinetic force cake drive expels bits of cake at high speeds to provide thrust. The high density of fruitcake provides the highest specific impulse. The engine can also be miniaturized, enhancing its overall usefulness. After all, everybody needs a little KFC.
Administrator
That explains why there is so little interest in space travel in the US; nobody likes fruitcake.
Order of Kilopi
The difference between, say, Star Trek and the actual space programme is a bit like the difference between The Heaven 17 and Heaven 17.
Heaven 17 were an 80s band that released several rather catchy singles including "Temptation" and "Come Live With Me" whereas The Heaven 17 were a fictitious band mentioned in passing in Anthony Burgess's novel A Clockwork Orange, which was later filmed by Stanley Kubrick, who also did 2001: A Space Odyssey, and later, alas, AI and Eyes Wide Shut...
Hmm, I thought I was going somewhere with this. No, you're right, space travel is like a cake.
Honored Member
No, you're right, space travel is like a cake.
Can't let that go unchallenged. Space travel is like a pie. Specifically, a shepherd's pie. Quo peregrinatur grex.
Order of Kilopi
I knew you'd say "that"!
Honored Member
I find it suspicious that no one has offered a worst analogy for time travel.
On the gripping hand, no one has mentioned Forrest Gump.
Order of Kilopi
What is the wurst analogy to space travel; brat-, knack-, liver-?
STARGAZING: All I see are the lights of a billion places I'll never go. --Howard Tayler, Schlock Mercenary
Moderator
The worst analogy? It's like kissing your sister/brother. See? It's not at all.
Order of Kilopi
Space travel is currently like wearing your socks for gloves to keep your hands warm, it does the job but clumsily, and smells a bit of cheese. We don't have the technology to make gloves yet, but we should at least aim for a pair of nicely crafted mittens.
Order of Kilopi
Space travel is like a current account - everyone wants it, but no one wants to pay for it.
I wish I knew all those years ago that simply joining this board and proclaiming myself to be rational would magically transform my uninformed opinions into science; it would have saved me a lot of time and effort.
Established Member
When you drop a rubber ball from 10 miles up, does it bounce or does it disintegrate? Lets find out.
Order of Kilopi
Space travel is like tomorrow - it's always in the future.
I wish I knew all those years ago that simply joining this board and proclaiming myself to be rational would magically transform my uninformed opinions into science; it would have saved me a lot of time and effort.
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