Feeling much better now after a lot of rest last night – had to get caught up from the Attack of The Clones adventure.
Getting ready to officially announce Trajectory to the world (pre-beta announcement – pretty common these days) But – I’m probably gonna end up making some more changes to the UI concept (it’s still ugly to start with!), but all and all things are starting to come together. I’ve also got some artwork that I need to do, and the server side options aren’t setup yet (‘Growing’ ammo or random awards, how fast, etc.) The game still has a way to go. Deciding to split my time between two separate projects (Gremlin Panic! and Trajectory) means it’s not making headway nearly as fast, but, I’m also reducing my burn-out factor for doing one project at a time.
Right now I’m at 26 weapons for the game – however, two of them don’t work at all (pull the trigger… and nothing happens) and three of them aren’t working properly. More tweaking to do still.
Was talkin’ with Heabo last night – there’s currently a bill in congress called the Space Exploration Act of 2002. I don’t think it will ever pass, but, it’s being discussed. The fact that the Chinese (The US govornment’s current super-power rival. US citizens really could care less 😉 have just ramped up thier space program COULD cause it to pass.
However, Heabo and I have the same question – why hasn’t the Moon been colonized yet? So much in raw goods is just laying there, nearby to pick off. And yet they avoid it. Go fig.
I’ve got a lot of projects that I do as ‘mental exersize’, some of them more practical than others. One of them is a space exploration program, and of course the first step is a colony on the moon. This one actually is practical – I figured out how to do it, sort of.
Rocket Science is over rated – the physics behind it is pretty intuitive in a lot of ways. I can get a 5-7 Lb. package landed on the moon safely for $10k, one way trip. I can also optimize the rocket it’s self so that part of the components are re-used. I even can visualize the rover / construction vehicle. Unluckly, after that point, things start to fall apart.
The problem is a lack of materials knowladge, and chemistry. Simply put, I need to figure out how to easily separate components found in the regolith (mook rocks) into usuable raw alloys and materials. For instance, the regolith has a high silicate content – PERFECT, because I’d need to build a clear dome made of glass, two feet thick, with a second dome over it made of two feet thick glass. (Ok, you probably are asking the question, why? Radiation protection. The glass is semi-meteor proof for small strikes (large strikes are a problem no matter what), but the real problem is radiation. The solution? Four or five feet of water contained between the two domes will act to stop most of the radiation, acting as an atmosphere.)) I even know how to make the glass – one of the things that would be going up is a magnetron – a microwave. While mostly it excites water molecules, it can also be used to heat metals. A small lead content in the silica is enough to cause it to be heated up and form glass.
Anyway – the overall plan would be to send up small construction rovers, at a very small cost to build a base. Actually, they don’t even build the base – instead, they build the machines that build the base. Heavy construction equiptment, etc. But without the fundamental knowladge of extraction techniques, I keep ending up dead in the water on the plan.
There are some authors that say that we’ve only got a couple generations left before shit hits the fan, and it’s game over for us. Personally, I’m not completely sure I buy it. Humans could easily cause catastrophic events – and while it would be the end of the world as we know it, a complete devistation of the race is damned near impossible without outside influence (super nova, etc.) There will always be survivors. Heck, even a gamma ray burst would probably leave surivors – we are just too crafty and adaptable, and the ability to modify our environment is too powerful. But I do agree with the basic premise that many of them have state – it’s time to start taking some eggs out of the basket, and plant them in other areas, ‘Just In Case’.