Train 🌟

Basically, there's an alternate universe in which Kathy's selection was blocked, and Blue Origin ended up being the primary contractor, with maybe SpaceX being a secondary contractor for later heavy cargo missions.

It's genuinely possible that Starship HLS might not be ready before Blue Moon MK 2 is.

For All Mankind rewatch

Danielle Poole in 2x09 "Triage"

Pathfinder (OV-201) launching from its Lockheed C-5 carrier and accelerating to the moon during her maiden voyage, September 1983.

Clips from Episode 9, Season 2 Triage "For all Mankind"

The Size of the Sun As Seen From Each Planet

by ltg.art

cigarette wife meets crowbar husband

The Moon says:

"Drink yes from a cup of no."

Pathfinder maiden flight, For All Mankind “Triage”

I feel like the world could benefit from a realistic visual sci-fi that heavily focuses on characters and moods. Space as it really is has a huge potential for moods. The way in which space exposes humans to all number of dangers, physical and psychological, is something that has not really been explored enough.

I doubt that every space habitat will have spin gee. If we understand our current political system, we can assume that a freefall, non-rotating habitat would be cheaper to live in. People who decide to move to space for whatever reason will use their life savings to find a cramped, tiny cupboard in some space station.

Your bones get thinner. Your eyesight gets worse. Your blood pressure goes down. You don't feel as hungry. Your muscles shrink. Your skin loses all its tan from hiding in the dark. The tops of your feet get calicoes from hooking onto things.

You get depressed. Isolated. Claustrophobic. Tired of seeing the same room every day. Irritable. Irrational. Anxious. After a long time, atheists would turn superstitious.

These things have been explored a bit from what I've seen, but they seem to be background elements of some greater story. Maybe it's just not possible to make this topic the focus of a movie. The closest I've seen is Ad Astra, which is an okay movie.

We will eventually spend years in space. Someday, people will be born there. We will be sickly and depressed, even with spin gee. This would have signified the ultimate migration of human living from the natural to the mechanical. From death by biology to death by astrodynamics. Where you have to be a technical genius to not die if something malfunctions.

Space is not luxurious. People won't actively choose to move there en masse without a good reason. Migration into space will take hundreds of years.

Don't get me wrong, The Expanse is one of my favourite shows, but I don't watch it for the combat and politics.

Probably one of the coolest photographs ever taken. Can't wait for Artemis 2 to best it.