Video clip 01: Two Kinds of People

I got together with a friend and a green screen recently to shoot for a promo video. I can be chatty, so we ended up with more footage than I need, much of it quite good. I’ll throw some clips against the wall here over the next couple weeks and see what sticks.

background: Illustration for Scratching the Surface by Luis Peres.

Hibernation

Hibernation during space travel is a common sci-fi trope, but I wasn’t aware anyone was actively working on it. What I find particularly compelling here is that hibernation could have positive effects on bone density change as well as helping mitigate the effects of radiation exposure.

Another thought occurs to me, though it is not mentioned here. Keeping the travelers contained in a small area opens up options for radiation shielding that might otherwise be prohibitive. What about sleeving the hibernation quarters in water, for instance? If that water could be mined from the Moon, the cost of lifting it for use in the craft could be acceptable.

Curiosity picture book

This looks like a nice book about Curiosity for kids. I like that, in the interview, the author/illustrator notes that he has no technical qualifications for writing this book, just an abundance of inspiration and a willingness to do the research. That’s the key, really.

Hopping on an asteroid

Japan’s Hayabusa2 probe is currently in orbit around the asteroid Ryugu. It has successfully deployed two rovers, MINERVA-II1a and MINERVA-II1b, designed to literally hop around on the surface of the asteroid. The pics sent back so far are rather trippy. In particular, check out the video of the sun moving across the asteroid’s sky.