Project Icarus: The Gas Mines of Uranus

Discovery News ^ | 05/31/11 | Adam Crowl

[tumblindice]

`The Buttnoidal Asstro-methane Miners’

There’s an explosive band name in that somewhere.

[Verginius Rufus]

Bush’s fault, for sure.

[Lancey Howard]

The Gas Mines of Uranus

LOL, this guy has no idea!

[Verginius Rufus]

Not necessary - just pronounce it "URINE-us".

Or ooh-rah-NOSS as in Greek (since the Roman name is simply a latinization of the Greek Ouranos).

[Vaquero]

well we can go with the current accepted pronunciation...for all the good it will do.

Urine-us.

[FW190]

"the gas mines of uranus"

Bawney Fwank is volunteering to probe this. He'd like to appropriate Congressman Weiner's equipment for a low level mission.

[Vaquero]

Project Icarus: The Gas Mines of Uranus

it seems Zer0bama agrees with the drilling of Uranus

[from occupied ga]

Bush’s fault, for sure.

That's what it says on the can.

Now that we've all had our fun with it, this is really science fiction. Controlled fusion is not a reality. it took the Saturn probe seven years to get to Saturn, and Uranus is over twice as far away. There is no unallocated Pu238 available to power any outer solar system probes, and although the author contends that Uranus's gravity is less than 1 at the at some level in the atmosphere (which I'm to lazy to check) The gravitational gradient to escape is much deeper than earth's, etc. So science fiction, but not very entertaining science fiction.

[blueunicorn6]

From the article - “That the planet which is the butt of so many jokes”. They want to send a probe to Uranus. I guess to probe Uranus. Isn’t starfleet supposed to be in San Francisco?

[JRios1968]

it took the Saturn probe seven years to get to Saturn, and Uranus is over twice as far away

Did you take into account the changes in orbital positions?

(giggle)

[from occupied ga]

Did you take into account the changes in orbital positions?

Nope, but as I understand it Saturn was at an optimal distance when the Saturn probe was sent. Saturn is 9+ AU from the sun. Uranus is 19+ AU. Since we're 1AU, then when we're at the maximum distance from either we add one AU to the distance, and when we're at the closest you subtract 1 AU form the distance, I don't see any changes in orbital positions significantly affecting what I said.

[The Cajun]

You do know the writer was giggling to himself when he came up with the title.

[Verginius Rufus]

According to The World Almanac 2011, Saturn's distance from the earth varies from 743 million miles to 1,031 million miles, while Uranus' distance from the earth varies from 1,605 million to 1,962 million miles. So generally Uranus is about twice as distant, but at times it could be only 1.6 times as distant.

In astronomical units, Saturn's mean distance from the sun is 9.582 while Uranus' is 19.201.

[Hot Tabasco]

From now on it’s Myanus.

Sorry but there's a big difference between Uranus and Myanus.........

[from occupied ga]

So generally Uranus is about twice as distant, but at times it could be only 1.6 times as distant.

Yep every 84 years it could be that "close." I reiterate what I said about orbital positioning not making any significant difference. It's all science fiction.

[JRios1968]

Well, given changes in orbital positions, the distance between Saturn and Uranus could be more than twice what it was before. I'm just saying.

(giggle)

[Verginius Rufus]

William Herschel, the discoverer, wanted to name it Georgium Sidus after King George III, and others proposed naming it Herschel.

If they had gone with the name Herschel, would the NFL player have been named Uranus Walker?

[The Cajun]

If they had gone with the name Herschel, would the NFL player have been named Uranus Walker?

Your logic is flawless :^)

[BenLurkin]

Rectum? Damn near killed him.

[La Enchiladita]

Surely you understand what would happen with a title like this....???