cozy-airlessness

Latest Posts by cozy-airlessness

There's this sort of anthropomorphizing that inherently happens in language that really gets me sometimes. I'm still not over the terminology of "gravity assist," the technique where we launch satellites into the orbit of other planets so that we can build momentum via the astounding and literally astronomical strength of their gravitational forces, to "slingshot" them into the direction we need with a speed that we could never, ever, ever create ourselves. I mean, some of these slingshots easily get probes hurtling through space at tens of thousands of miles per hour. Wikipedia has a handy diagram of the Voyager 1 satellite doing such a thing.

"Gravity assist." "Slingshot." Of course, on a very basic and objective level, yes, we are taking advantage of forces generated by outside objects to specifically help in our goals. We're getting help from objects in the same way a river can power a mill. And of course we call it a "slingshot," because the motion is very similar (mentally at least; I can't be sure about the exact physics).

Plus, especially compared to the other sciences, the terminology for astrophysics is like, really straightforward. "Black hole?" Damn yeah it sure is. "Big bang?" It sure was. "Galactic cluster?" Buddy you're never gonna guess what this is. I think it's an effect of the fact that language is generally developed for life on earth and all the strange variances that happen on its surface, that applying it to something as alien and vast as space, general terms tend to suffice very well in a lot more places than, like... idk, botany.

But, like. "Gravity assist." I still can't get the notion out of my head that such language implies us receiving active help from our celestial neighbors. They come to our aid. We are working together. We are assisted. Jupiter and the other planets saw our little messengers coming from its pale blue molecular cousin, and we set up the physics just right, so that they could help us send them out to far stranger places than this, to tell us all about what they find out there.

We are assisted.

And there is no better way to illustrate my feelings on the matter than to just show you guys one of my favorite paintings, this 1973 NASA art by Rick Guidice to show the Pioneer probe doing this exact thing:

"... You, sent out beyond your recall, go to the limits of your longing. Embody me. ..."

Gravity assist.

Being autistic and also a Hyperpop/breakcore/ect enjoyer is really funny bc the sounds of being outside in the real world are often so tiring to me but if I wanna unwind and have a good time I will listen to the the most unnatural noises conjured up by evil computers and specifically designed to make your head explode. awesome

Spectrum of overwhelm, now in triangle form due to popular demand

[Image description: A triangle chart titled, ‘Spectrum of Overwhelm.’ The three points are ‘404 Error,’ showing a person with an empty thought bubble; ‘wet beast,’ showing a person sweating and sobbing; and ‘rage beast’ showing a person clenching their fists in an outline of orange fire. The peak is the ‘404 error’ vertex, and the inside of the triangle here is coloured beige and labelled, ‘shutdown.’ The lower half is labelled ‘meltdown’ and is red on the rage beast side and blue on the wet beast side. \End description]

Imagine doing full-body stims in weightlessness in outer space

Signalis is such a good game. It's so melancholy and dreamlike. It's like one of those really sad dreams that makes you cry when you wake up 😭

Map of the Solar System from Signalis

ariane yeong

wach auf

cigarette wife meets crowbar husband

still a wip

mourning

Commission for @czesui on twitter

5/12 tragedy day!!

i've had them for 2 days but i would do anything for them

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"

For All Mankind (1.03 "Nixon's Women") Sonya Walger as Molly Cobb

JODI BALFOUR as ELLEN WAVERLY For All Mankind, Season 1 (2019-present)

MOLLY COBB in For All Mankind (2019– )

Full Thrust "Goldilocks"

May 8, 1989 - Atlantis on final approach into Edwards AFB, Ca after a four day mission (STS-30)

Artist's concept of the missile-mounted Space Shuttle Orbiter during launch.

Date: November 23, 1981

NARA: 6364453

Posted by Numbers Station on Flickr: link, link, link, link, link

Space Shuttle launch, NASA concept art

Orbiter Columbia OV-102 had a unique external feature the “SILTS” pod (Shuttle Infrared Leeside Temperature Sensing), it was located on the top of her vertical stabilizer. It was installed after STS-9 (1984) to acquire infrared and other thermal data on the vehicle’s environment. The instruments were removed after several missions but the pod remained.

"T-Plus 30" by Aviation Artist Mark Waki

The Space Shuttle Discovery completes its roll to heading and begins its pitchover maneuver about 30 seconds after liftoff from Pad B of Kennedy Space Center's Launch Complex 39.

Artists Note: It's actually T-Plus 23, but T-Plus 30 was decided on for the painting's title. Discovery is about 5,000 feet AGL, has completed 179 degrees of roll to heading and is pitched over about 20 degrees. The vehicle is gaining altitude at 500 feet per second while accelerating at 1.8g

Concept art of the Space Shuttle returning from Space.

Artwork by G. Harry Stine

Date: 1978

Posted on Flickr by Numbers Station: link, link

Space is one of the most hazardous environments for a human being to exist in. That's what makes it so damned enticing.

Space is so essentially deadly. It differs from any location on Earth in that way. You can't 'tame' space. You can't make a vacuum hospitable. Space is a desolate, dry, sterile, irradiated expanse, which is home to extreme temperatures and occasional overspeeding projectiles, and to which full-body exposure is almost instantly lethal. Space must command your respect.

I wish some people would realise that the obstacle to colonising Mars isn't just a lack of funding. It's crazy that there's people in the world who think that billionaires are just going to build extraterrestrial cities like it's so easy. ‘Oh, we'll just build thousands of giant rockets, and oh we'll just stuff 100 people inside each, and oh we'll just travel in an armada through deep-space, and oh we'll just land thousands of giant rockets on Mars, and oh we'll just build a city with millions of inhabitants on a freezing rocky desert with no breathable atmosphere, almost no running water, toxic soil, literally nothing to eat, and no economic incentive. Why hasn't anyone done this already? Total no-brainer!’

I say this because I used to be the kind of person who had actually thought that Mars colonisation were possible and could happen in my lifetime.

Did you know Orion spacecraft has an incredible 11 parachutes?

by @ChutesNL