Re: superhero space navigation

On Tue, 15 Apr 2008 17:04:34 GMT, Bryan Derksen
<bryan.derksen@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:

>IsaacKuo wrote:
>> On Apr 15, 2:22 am, Leonard Erickson <sha...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>>> No, but you can pressurize it and come back in a week and see what the
>>> pressure is.
>> 
>> Okay.  And to no one's surprise, you find out that the
>> pressure is lower.  Now what?  You can't just find the
>> leaks by looking for them around the outside.
>
>How much lower? Some leakage is inevitable, perhaps even desirable as a 
>way to flush out contaminants that would otherwise build up over time.
>
>If it's more than is desirable, spray another layer of sealant on the 
>interior. Sealant is cheap.
>
>> You talk about steel gratings and window screen mesh
>> and such.  For the large areas involved, the only way I
>> can imagine that being acquired for cheap would be
>> landfill diving.
>
>Or theft, or perhaps salvage from recently-abandoned structures if you 
>don't want to get too illegal.

>> Ah, that just sounds silly.  No, if I wanted a secret
>> hideout for cheap, I'd just find some secluded place on
>> Earth.  There are plenty of mountainside caves which
>> are largely inaccessable.  There are plenty of
>> random islands which are rarely if ever visited.
>
>I considered suggesting that too, but I assumed the Moon had been 
>selected for plot purposes. Plus, a Moonbase is _cool_. Lots of kids 
>have secret clubhouses in the woods, this one would beat them all. :)

Also, after that scene where the miltary(?) almost catches them,
they're gonna want a spot that even the miltary would have trouble
getting to.

>> The demo satellite can be a simple aluminum cookie
>> sheet.  Just set it spinning so anyone can see it blink
>> like a lighthouse.
>
>It'll be hard to convince people that's not just a bit of space debris, 
>especially since you can't specify the orbit exactly.
>
>Sputnik 1 was really simple - a pressurized sphere the size of a 
>basketball, some radio antennae, a battery, a 1-watt transmitter going 
>"beep", and an internal fan that turned on whenever the temperature 
>exceeded 36 degrees. Maybe something like that? Have it transmit an 
>advertisement instead of just going "beep", that should be easy enough 
>to rig up.
>
>Oh, way back near the beginning of this thread I believe it was 
>suggested that one might get funding by selling Moon probes. I still 
>think that's likely to draw too much attention, assuming the 
>authenticity is believed at all, but perhaps if you're negotiating with 
>a satellite company you could prove your mettle by handing them one of 
>their own old, defunct satellites? Returning a satellite to Earth is 
>harder than launching them, and they'd be ideally suited to confirming 
>the craft's authenticity. The only problem is somehow _finding_ the 
>satellite. Getting a GPS unit that works in LEO would be very useful
here.
>
>On an unrelated note, perhaps exploring ****pwrecks for loot would be 
>another good way to get a little funding. There are some whose locations 
>are known but that are too deep and inaccessible to have been worked 
>over before.

I'd just thought of that myself.

Plus, being invulnerable, there's alway the old standby.  Go to
convenient large city (doesn't have to be at all nearby). Find drug
dealer or the like. Haul to someplace like tall building, cliff,
whatever.  Politely ask for money. 

If he refuses, start to leave.

Illegal, immoral, rather unethical, but not evil.

Won't get much at a time unless you get really lucky. If you become
enough of a nuisance, you might even get an offer of regular payments
just to leave them alone from higher ups.

Just don't be enough of a nuisance for them to invest in try to huire
someone to take you out.