12 hours ago, goates said:

The problem with common sense is that it assumes there is a common baseline, and when it comes to reading maps and navigating, there are very different baselines. Someone can be great at reading the simplified local bus and subway route maps because they use those all day, but are terrible at reading a proper road map as they rarely ever do

Common sense is sadly lacking in other areas too. LIke the group of town dwellers who decided they would have a trip into the Peak District here in England. This is a hilly area around 1500ft above sea level but with our climate the weather can change rapidly and of course the higher altitude means it's colder and windier.

They used an app on their mobile phones to 'navigate' but the problem was the battery ran low and the app stopped working. They were dressed in their normal clothing and that is useless for that environment. They had to ring the emergency services to be rescued. The weather was filthy and they were lucky they were found. The complete lack of common sense was compounded by utter stupidity. These incidents are not one-offs. I'm sure a lot of countries have daft people.

In regard to the original topic... there's a big row at the moment between Musk and Bezos. SpaceX got approval to lower the orbit of their satalites so they are easier to de-orbit once out of commission. Bezos isn't happy because this brings the Starlink  satalites closer to Amazon's. Thus increasing the chance of interference and collisions, according to Bezos.

17 hours ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

You don’t need to have served in the Armed Forces to be able to read a map. Anyone over 50 probably can as satnav is a fairly recent invention. I would write my route on paper and tape it to the dash so it’s easily readable.

Do you remember when you went on holiday (and were a member), the AA or RAC would send you all the maps and routes you needed?

1 hour ago, IanHarrison said:

Do you remember when you went on holiday (and were a member), the AA or RAC would send you all the maps and routes you needed?

Afraid not Ian. I'm partly resposible for this discussion drifting away from space debris so I won't be posting any more about maps.

Well one good thing about increasing the amount of satellites in orbit is that the Earth will soon have its very own Dyson Sphere and no I don't mean anything to do with the vacuum cleaner guy.

Now a Dyson Sphere would usually be constructed to encompass a star at its centre. Once we completely encircle the Earth (shutting out the Sun) then at least we won't have to worry about global warming! 

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

Hmm.. thinking about it, maybe James Dyson (the vacuum cleaner guy) should investigate designing a massive spacefareing vacuum cleaner to suck up all the useless space debris? 🍻

5 hours ago, HighBypass said:

Hmm.. thinking about it, maybe James Dyson (the vacuum cleaner guy) should investigate designing a massive spacefareing vacuum cleaner to suck up all the useless space debris? 🍻

Spaceballs already covered this.

https://youtu.be/O7aeWQCF1jM

 

On 1/27/2021 at 12:25 PM, Ray Proudfoot said:

Noel, much of it is common sense rather than an acquired skill.

Aye, there's the rub...   I remember when "common sense" was common.

  Noel, I use the male route at the mall.

 LOL

 Sue

As for the Dyson Sphere-

 

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1366540/Dyson_Sphere_Program/

3 hours ago, Penzoil3 said:

Noel, I use the male route at the mall.

Exactly what I would expect from a master mechanic Sue.

Noel

Edited January 30, 20215 yr by birdguy

There was a time when I used to actively search for satellites in the night sky. This was started in 1997 when I saw the Mir Space Station from a Lake District hill top when observing Comet Hale-Bopp. I used a nice example of satellite tracking software called Micro Orbiter 3.0 (installed from several 3.5" floppy disks), and I managed to identify around 650 satellites and spent boosters during that time. Those boosters were quite often tumbling in orbit, and flashing erratically. Other interesting observations included the entire Iridium constellation in orbit at the time (all 88 of them; these would occasionally outshine the planet Venus for a few seconds when sunlight reflected off the solar panels), the US Department of Defense NOSS satellites that moved in triplets (giving a rather sinister "triangular UFO" effect), and the early assembly phase of the International Space Station. I also managed to see the Space Shuttle Atlantis in orbit once (not long after it had separated from the Mir Space Station after a visit), and quite a few of the NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric) satellites that probably helped pave the way for those fancy "real weather simulation" packages that many of you use in your flight simulators.

Edited February 1, 20215 yr by Christopher Low