Europes Conquest of Titan ?

[venerable bede]

As some of you may know, the European craft Huygens is due to land on Titan on Friday morning GMT.

[Valleysboy1978]

I think the French are in for a beating here

[wossname]

When it touches down it will land in a garbage can outside a branch of Starbucks, where it will perform spectrographic analysis on a used Coke can.

[visualAd]

When it touches down it will land in a garbage can outside a branch of Starbucks, where it will perform spectrographic analysis on a used Coke can.

[BodwadUK]

It will spend so long arguing with the orbiter it will forget what its there for and crash

[wossname]

...then the Master Chief and the Arbiter will come storming over the horizon and blow the robot to tiny bits in a hail of Dual-Wielded SMG gunfire.

[MartinLiss]

NASA is part of the group who sent up the probe so all US calculations will have been done in inches and feet, etc., while the rest will have been done in Metric so the crater should be quite large.

BTW, (seriously) Metric is one scale, but what the heck is the inches/feet scale called?

[Valleysboy1978]

imperial

[MartinLiss]

imperial

Thanks.

[NoteMe]

imperial

I can't understand why people is still using it...SI SI SI SI SI SI

[NotLKH]

Silicon?

[NoteMe]

?????????????????

[NotLKH]

SI SI SI SI SI SI SI SI ....

[plenderj]

SI - Systeme Internationale - SI Units - i.e. mks = metres, kilos, seconds

[MartinLiss]

It ain't "Internationale" until we use it buddy!

[plenderj]

With the 'e' on the end I beg to differ

[NoteMe]

It ain't "Internationale" until we use it buddy!

Why don't you Americans want to dance with the resto of the world......I bet you guys made the time system too. Why....why....24 hours? Why not 100, and why 60 seconds...why not 100...why why why...

[NotLKH]

And exactly who determined what direction "clockwise" was?
Just because wheels turn that direction if you are watching them move on a vehicle that is going forward from your left to your right?

[NotLKH]

Why don't you Americans want to dance with the resto of the world......I bet you guys made the time system too. Why....why....24 hours? Why not 100, and why 60 seconds...why not 100...why why why...

I think somebody was going to name each hour after each month in a year, so 2:30 would have been half past february, AM or PM...

Then he went to make his first clock, and ran out of room.
So, he just numbered them.

[wossname]

Think about this then...

If you were in charge of the Mars Terraforming Consortium, you would have to define literally hundreds of thousands of global (the globe of Mars obviously) standards.

Things like the direction and pitch of screw threads, the diameters of standard pipes, standard concrete mixtures, rubber composites, gas saturations, glass refractivities. As well as the normal standards such as time periods (seconds) distances (metres / meters depending on what you like), weight (KGs).

Even numerical notations...it might be a great opportunity to get a new generation of Humans used to (and indeed reliant upon) Hexadecimal instead of the non-binary-compatible Decimal we all know and love.

You would have to impose strict and harsh fines for those contractors that decide to use inches instead of millimetres!

If these standards are adhered to throughout (and beyond) the terraforming process, then anything that humanity designs and builds will have futureproofing and compatibility BUILT IN!

Standardising is the way forward. No longer will companies be allowed to just invent file formats (are you listening MS?) without having them approved. This might sound draconian, but for a new planet things have to be right first time. For a few decades the planet will be entirely populated by scientists and nymphomaniacs anyway so this will be less of a problem.

I have thought about this long and hard and I think I need a beer.

[BodwadUK]

Live free and love Andrea

I dont care as long as I am payed to do my job and get to drink cider

[Valleysboy1978]

Why don't you Americans want to dance with the resto of the world......I bet you guys made the time system too. Why....why....24 hours? Why not 100, and why 60 seconds...why not 100...why why why...

Nope, think about it, time was defined far before America was discovered.
As for "Systeme Internationale", it is actually referred to as Metric(Kilometres, Metres....), and the other is referred to as Imperial (Feet & Inches)

[NoteMe]

And exactly who determined what direction "clockwise" was?
Just because wheels turn that direction if you are watching them move on a vehicle that is going forward from your left to your right?

It moves the same way as we normal people read....left->right Top->bottom....

[NoteMe]

I think somebody was going to name each hour after each month in a year, so 2:30 would have been half past february, AM or PM...

Then he went to make his first clock, and ran out of room.
So, he just numbered them.

Bhahahahahaa....well, so he was american then......just kidding..

[NoteMe]

Nope, think about it, time was defined far before America was discovered.
As for "Systeme Internationale", it is actually referred to as Metric(Kilometres, Metres....), and the other is referred to as Imperial (Feet & Inches)

Metric is just a PART of the SI system...the SI system nvolves a lot more then that even more or less Newton...


Well if America wasn't discovered, it must have been the same families that ran from Europe and killed Indians that now are called Americans, that made the klock as we know it today.......englishmen I guess..

[mendhak]

We could just switch over:

http://www.timeanddate.com/time/internettime.html

[NoteMe]

Hehe...I actualy made a graphical app in VB3 once, that calculated Ticks from our day time. But the problem was that I didn't have internet back then, so I couldn't use it for any purpose...I never met anyone to share it with before now...and now I don't have it anymore...:cries a bit....

[wossname]

Hehe...I actualy made a graphical app in VB3 once, that calculated Ticks from our day time. But the problem was that I didn't have internet back then, so I couldn't use it for any purpose...I never met anyone to share it with before now...and now I don't have it anymore...:cries a bit....

A real loss to humanity no doubt.

[Valleysboy1978]

englishmen I guess..

Indeed, flippin' English!!
One day Wales will achieve independance from the masachistic English

[mendhak]

A real loss to humanity no doubt.

BWAHAHAHHAH!!!!

[NoteMe]

Laugh as much as you want....I am on my way to make this realy cool snake game with a buildt in tick/beat timer....gone be awsome..(

[NotLKH]

Indeed, flippin' English!!
One day Wales will achieve independance from the masachistic English

REVOLT FROM ALL FOOD CHEWERS!!!

[mudfish]

It was partially designed by the Italians so it will fail miserably but look great, when the French components, being afraid will promptly retreat causing malfunction

[visualAd]

This is a very exciting day. I cannot wait to see the pictures.

[Cander]

They are receiving data now from Cassini.

[SteveCRM]

www.cnn.com

[timeshifter]

I win.

[wossname]

Indeed, flippin' English!!
One day Wales will achieve independance from the masachistic English

Bloody Welsh! Buy a vowel!!!

Tips for speaking welsh:
1. Contract a serious chest infection.

The End

[wossname]

Achtung all space fans:

BBC2 (UK) is showing a 'live' broadcast from the German Mission Control at 12:30 Saturday MORNING. I'm staying up to watch it with a jam sandwich and a cup of cocoa.

[mendhak]

Sounds from Titan

http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEM85Q71Y3E_index_0.html