20160920 Magellan Space City Designer Planet Simulation

Re: 20160920 Magellan Space City Designer Planet Simulation

Postby tahanson43206 » Thu Dec 22, 2016 9:59 pm

Re: 20160920 Magellan Space City Designer Planet Simulation
20161220 An unpleasant piece of business occurred on this day, in 1519:

Per Reference #1, Page lx:
Begin Quotation:
20 December 1519: Trial, conviction, and execution of Antonio Salamone, master of the Victoria, ...
End Quotation.

The fleet departed Rio de Janeiro on 26 December.

Per Google Earth: Rio de Janeiro is located at 22 degrees 54 minutes 24.65 seconds South, 43 degrees, 10 minutes, 22.43 minutes West.

22°54'24.65" S 43°10'22.43" W

***

Reference: A Brief History of Brazil, Second Edition.
Teresa A. Meade
Copyright 2010, 2004
Checkmark Books

Per the reference above, on Page 13, the first contact between Europeans and the population of what would become known as Brazil occurred just 19 years before the Magellan expedition stopped at Rio de Janeiro

Begin Quotation:
The fleet of 13 Portuguese ships that reached Brazil on April 22, 1500, under the command of Pedro Alvares Cabral, was supposedly headed for India.
End Quotation.

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Re: 20160920 Magellan Space City Designer Planet Simulation

Postby tahanson43206 » Mon Dec 26, 2016 8:51 pm

Per Reference #1, Page lx:
Begin Quotation:
26 December 1519: The fleet departs Rio de Janeiro
End Quotation.

Per Google Earth: Rio de Janeiro is located at 22 degrees 54 minutes 24.65 seconds South, 43 degrees, 10 minutes, 22.43 minutes West.

22°54'24.65" S 43°10'22.43" W
***

The purpose of this thread is to explore one or more alternative futures over the time period of Magellan's Expedition around the world of 1519-1522.

A Google search for "commentary on movie passengers" produced 641,000 results.

I am glad to see so many reviews of the movie, but my purpose here is not to consider the psychology of the characters or the story line.

The following review covers some of the science attempted in the movie, and it also admits departures from scientific rigor which occurred at least once.

http://www.geekwire.com/2016/jon-spaiht ... ers-movie/

The review's final paragraph offers a link to a review by an astrophysicist which readers are advised will provide a "harsh critique".

That said, I personally appreciated the lavish attention to detail invested by the creative staff. To my eye, the design of the ship was aesthetically pleasing in many respects.

The scenario created for theatrical reasons serves as a guide for things NOT to do when sending a ship of the size of the Avalon for a 120 year journey.

It seems to me that it is sensible to insure that deep sleep can be initiated during flight, instead of the scenario posited for the movie. Accordingly, if deep sleep is the mode of travel for the passengers from launch to docking, it need not by the case for the crew. It seems to me that rotation of a small live crew to monitor and maintain the ship during flight would make perfect sense.

At the very least, the crew or at least an emergency team of crew members should have been awakened when unexpected failures occurred.

I am personally in favor of slow migration of large communities of habitats away from Earth, and am thus more interested in the digital economy that would (presumably) develop between Earth and the slowly moving communities over time. Fast ships may well come into existence, but a well designed infrastructure of slow moving communities on the order of 1,000,000 people each would increase the chances of human survival and provide destinations for fast ships to visit on their way to more distant sites.

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Last edited by tahanson43206 on Tue Jan 03, 2017 4:09 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: 20160920 Magellan Space City Designer Planet Simulation

Postby tahanson43206 » Mon Jan 02, 2017 8:15 pm

Per Reference #1, Page lx:

02 January 1520: The fleet is en route from Rio de Janeiro to Rio de la Plata

Per Google Earth: Rio de Janeiro is located at 22 degrees 54 minutes 24.65 seconds South, 43 degrees, 10 minutes, 22.43 minutes West.

22°54'24.65" S 43°10'22.43" W
***

Per Google Earth: Reio del la Plata is located at: 35 degrees 11 minutes 40.04 seconds South, 56 degrees, 44 minutes 28.34 seconds West
***
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Re: 20160920 Magellan Space City Designer Planet Simulation

Postby tahanson43206 » Thu Jan 05, 2017 4:35 pm

2017/01/04 Reference #5
Space Resources and Space Settlements

Page iii Preface

In the concluding two paragraphs of the Preface, Dr. O'Neill describes the manner in which the five task groups worked independently and cooperatively so that:

Begin Quotation:
the entire effort evolved in a coherent fashion and was directed toward common goals.
End Quotation.

Dr. O'Neill concluded with words of appreciation for the success of the study.

Inasmuch as the purpose of the present series of messages is to explore and to document as much as possible the ways in which human expansion away from Earth might unfold, this NASA study is likely to provide hard science upon which to build extrapolations.

Writers such as Kim Stanley Robinson and Edward M. Lerner will provide fictional visions based upon greater or lesser degrees of scientific foundation, but this NASA study is likely to provide solid grounding against which fictional visions may be compared.

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Re: 20160920 Magellan Space City Designer Planet Simulation

Postby tahanson43206 » Mon Jan 09, 2017 5:36 pm

Per Reference #1, Page lx:

09 January 1520: The fleet is en route from Rio de Janeiro to Rio de la Plata

Per Google Earth: Rio de Janeiro is located at 22 degrees 54 minutes 24.65 seconds South, 43 degrees, 10 minutes, 22.43 minutes West.

22°54'24.65" S 43°10'22.43" W
***

Per Google Earth: Reio del la Plata is located at: 35 degrees 11 minutes 40.04 seconds South, 56 degrees, 44 minutes 28.34 seconds West
***
Begin Quotation from Reference #1:
11-12 January 1520: The fleet reaches Rio de la Plata (98), which Magellan calls Rio de Solis after the explorer killed by natives there in 1516.
End Quotation

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Re: 20160920 Magellan Space City Designer Planet Simulation

Postby tahanson43206 » Tue Jan 10, 2017 6:54 pm

20170110 Reference #6
G. Harry Stine

G. Harry Stine was an engineer. He was an author of both both science based books, and science fiction books (and stories) with a strong scientific foundation.

There are 16 chapters in the present book, and my intention is to explore them in detail. However, for this occasion, I'd like to call attention to the 16th chapter:
"Envoi--The Giant Leap for Mankind".

In this chapter Mr. Stine speaks to me most strongly of his vision for a future of human expansion away from Earth.

On page 259, Mr. Stine quotes Will Durant and then provides a summary of the space going activity that I read as having universal application.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Will_Durant

The paragraph at the top of page 260 refers to the Durant quote and reads:
Begin Quotation:
What you're doing in space is exactly that--providing for yourself and others in the economic area through your work and what you produce of value to others, organizing and operating the necessary institutions for political and cultural growth, and pursuing knowledge and the arts in scientific research or in technology because the full scope of the arts now includes these two elements.
End Quotation.

In recent days, I've been thinking about the challenge of building a full scale model of a city on Mars. The proposed model city would have about 1,000,000 residents, because I am guessing that that number of citizens might be able to sustain a reasonable level of civilization, reflecting the best of such civilization as we may be said to have available on Earth in 2016.

Mr. Stine's words appear to me to apply just as well to future life in space as they do to life on Earth right now. On Earth, as I look out at not only the United States, but regions around the globe, I see dysfunction of human society in every level. Most of the dysfunction that I see appears (to me) to have been observed for the thousands of years for which we have records.

Design of "utopia" seems pointless to me, because there have been so many attempts, and to the best of my understanding, every last one of them has failed.

Designers of a new community such as a model city on Mars might as well plan for dysfunction, and try to buttress the design to withstand it.

The United States in January of 2017 is about to find out if the structure created by the Founders in 1789, and augmented over the decades since, is strong enough to withstand severe stress.

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Re: 20160920 Magellan Space City Designer Planet Simulation

Postby tahanson43206 » Thu Jan 12, 2017 7:13 pm

20170112 Reference #7 Starship Century

It is going to be challenging to deal with this book, in the context of the present thread, which at present is focused upon a vision of a community of 1,000,000 people on Earth, testing a variety of concepts for living as they might live if they were located on Mars, the Moon, or in any other habitat away from Earth.

"Starship Century" is a collection of papers of considerable breadth, including outright fiction and philosophical ruminations, as well as reasonably practical engineering and science.

Since all the contributors are persons highly regarded on Earth in the present time, I am inclined to imagine their words will all be worth examining closely over the course of the Magellan Voyage we are tracing in this thread, and quite possibly beyond.

The Table of Contents begins with a paper by James and Gregory Benford, who co-edited the collection: "Starships: Reaching for the Highest Bar"

My own interest is in a concept explored decades ago by several science fiction writers, of city sized habitats moving slowly away from Earth, and it is primarily with that vision in mind that I am contemplating an Earth based simulation exercise of 1,000,000 or so people.

It is not coincidental that my vision for an Earth based simulation includes an investigation to see if 1,000,000 people can capture the essential knowledge and skill sets that characterize the civilization we have on Earth today, such as it is.

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Re: 20160920 Magellan Space City Designer Planet Simulation

Postby tahanson43206 » Sun Jan 15, 2017 8:52 pm

2017/01/15 Reference #8 The Millennial Project

This book by Marshall T. Savage contributed to my recent interest in human expansion away from Earth, although I have been interested in space exploration since Sputnik, and probably much before. I listened to “X Minus 1” on a crystal radio.

Per Wikipedia:
Begin Quotation:
X Minus One was a half-hour science fiction radio drama series broadcast from April 24, 1955 to January 9, 1958 in various timeslots on NBC.
End Quotation.

Sputnik was famously launched October 4, 1957.

“The Millennial Project” itself was copyrighted 1992 and 1994.

While the book itself is long out of print, Amazon.com is showing 8 listings.

The first listing shows 78 used copies are available.

More Buying Choices shows 91 used and new.

My intention is to approach this book incrementally, as part of the overall scope of the Magellan Expedition theme for this thread.

Since there are several versions of the book on offer, I'll describe the cover of the one I have, which is marked to indicate it came my way on 2010/07/10.

The upper right corner of the front cover is notable for the green shaded spiral galaxy image it carries. The galaxy is seen from above where the rotation is clockwise.

The title and subtitle are given in bold red.

A curious diamond shape green logo with a yellow border appears just above the author's name, in the bottom right of the cover.

In the upper left, in bold black font, there is a quotation from the Introduction by Arthur C. Clarke. That introduction is remarkable for its generosity.

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Re: 20160920 Magellan Space City Designer Planet Simulation

Postby tahanson43206 » Mon Jan 16, 2017 3:06 pm

2017/01/16 Reference #1 Page lx

This past week, in 1520, the fleet reached Rio de la Plata.

Begin Quotation:
11-12 January 1520: The fleet reaches Rio de la Plata (98), which Magellan calls Rio de Solis after the explorer killed by natives there in 1516.
End Quotation.

As a reminder, Europeans had first arrived at Brazil in 1500. There was a substantial population of native peoples of various tribes. The population was subsequently reduced by 2/3rds (or so) due to negative interactions with the Europeans.

However, on this day in 1520, all that dismal future was far from the minds of the explorers.

Google Earth shows “River Plate” (Rio de la Plata) at:
35 degrees 1 minutes 40.04 seconds South
56 degrees 44 minutes 28.35 seconds West

The expedition has made substantial progress down the East coast of South America during the part of the voyage just ended.

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Re: 20160920 Magellan Space City Designer Planet Simulation

Postby tahanson43206 » Sat Jan 21, 2017 8:11 pm

2017/01/21 K3+ Post

Reference #9 (Book taken as a whole)

Edward M. Lerner first came to my attention as one of the contributors to “Analog Science Fiction and Fact”.

http://www.analogsf.com/

The first of several stories collected in Reference #9 appeared in Analog in November of 2000, and the book itself is Copyright © 2010.

Mr. Lerner's writing for Analog certainly adheres to the culture of Analog, which emphasizes real or plausible science as the framework for fiction.

Having first read several the stories that became the input to Reference #9 in the magazine, I recalled that Mr. Lerner had set out to imagine what a network of civilizations separated by light years might look like. While my purpose in ordering the book was to look for clues about how such a radio network might develop in practice, as human communities move away from Earth, I admit that I enjoyed reading Werner's imaginative account of surprises of various kinds which ultimately resolve to a satisfying conclusion that feeds into the next book in the series.

Begin Quotation from Afterword on Page 280:
InterstellarNet began in musings about a far-future, star-spanning human civilization. I presumed the pesky constraints of relativity: no FTL travel.
End Quotation.

The specific hard science elements for which I was searching are certainly present, but they are relatively few in number. The benefit of Mr. Lerner's treatment of these elements is that the reader is provided substantial tapestry upon which to build imaginings of the reader's own, knowing that Mr. Lerner has invested his academic training and real world experience in building his imaginary future upon a solid foundation. Alas, the failings of human beings are appropriately explored in the work.

The conclusion I have drawn from my careful reading of Reference #9, is that communication from the Solar System to remote locations will most reasonably require construction of a communications hub (and eventually several for redundancy) which are in orbit around the Sun, to minimize as much as possible the complexity of attempting communication from the surface of a planet such as Earth.

Such a communications hub could be one of the million person communities I am contemplating in the Magellan Thread, in this forum.

The next book in Mr. Werner's series will consider interstellar travel under the constraints of Relativity.

Begin Quotation from Afterword, Page 283:
The starships are slower than light, of course – I'm not about to make InterstellarNet obsolete.
End Quotation.

I am not persuaded by those who imagine a future with faster than light travel, or even travel at any significant fraction of the speed of light. My vision is aligned with writers of past decades, who imagined slow movement of entire communities of humans away from Earth. If technology provides faster travel, I am confident energy requirements will be enforced by Nature, so that use of any such technology will be limited. In my opinion, the vast majority of humans living in the centuries ahead will live more modestly than a few jet-setters of those ages.

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