Dynamics of an Earth Ring

In sci.space.policy AA Institute wrote:
Tim Auton wrote in message . ..
(AA Institute) wrote:

Before anybody gives me that look...

Too late

I wouldn't want to be on an orbital space station with some loon
blowing up asteroids around the same planet.

Fair comment, I wouldn't want to either!

So what do *you* think would make a nice, comfy orbital colony?

I don't think we presently know for sure.


I mean we've tried the Salyut, Skylab, Mir, ISS... and god knows
whatever else is coming next, with frankly very little in the way of
establishing a permanent presence in space. Granted, these were highly

Well, they did create a permanent presence in space to an extent.

*essential*, interim experience and confidence building steps. I doubt
very much I would have had the confidence to put forward starship
designs with biospheres and orbital engineering projects with asteroid
hollowing, had it not been for these early successful steps.

No. It doesn't really give much additional assurances.


So, do we need a scaled up version of another ISS style station in a
higher orbit around the Earth or would it be more beneficial to grab
an asteroid and try a fresh approach? If the asteroid is carefully
selected using prior robotic surveying, it may offer us a wealth of
mineral resources as a bonus. And part of its excavation toward
building a habitat would come from the mineral mining.

We need something desigend for teh resarch of the interesting problems,
something scaled up ISS wouldn't really be.


I hear a lot of noise about "mining the sky", and how asteroid mining
could become HOT property in the future. But how many of those
noise-makers have the vision to say let's grab an asteroid around the
Earth, where it would be infinitely easier to mine?

One first needs proof of it being economic.


The AA Institute is the *FIRST* science authority on this planet with
the exceptional foresight, courage and boldness to put forward such
confident and robust proposals!!!

Bull****.


AAI

--
Sander

+++ Out of cheese error +++

Herb Schaltegger wrote:
In article ,
(AA Institute) wrote:

Especially when one of the objects is massive
enough to cause tides on the other object from 225,000 miles away, as
well as influence menstrual

You don't think the woman's cycle could be a coincidence?

Um, not really. The lunar cycle affects a great deal of human behavior.

See, e.g.,
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/q...PubMed&dbFrom=
PubMed&from_uid=14664724

This is just nonsense. There is no phase relationship
between the lunar cycle and menstruation. If there were
any causal relationship it would follow some pattern rather
than being completely non-correlated. Also, the period of
a women's menstrual cycle is not even remotely the same as
that of the lunar cycle. The average is off by at least a
day (for either synodic or sidereal period), not to mention
the fact that the menstrual cycle can vary by several days.
Additionally, there is much wider variation in menstrual
cycles across different species, if something like the
moon were effecting the process there wouldn't be such high
variation.

I can't believe I'm even responding to something so inane.

Ian Stirling wrote in message news:41601991$0$17957

Google "how the moon was formed".

Thanks Ian. The first hit gives me this link, which is very
interesting:-

http://csep10.phys.utk.edu/astr161/l...formation.html

Here they list 5 possible ways the Moon could have formed:-

1. The Fission Theory: The Moon was once part of the Earth and somehow
separated from the Earth early in the history of the Solar System. The
present Pacific Ocean basin is the most popular site for the part of
the Earth from which the Moon came.

2. The Capture Theory: The Moon was formed somewhere else, and was
later captured by the gravitational field of the Earth.

3. The Condensation Theory: The Moon and the Earth condensed together
from the original nebula that formed the Solar System.

4. The Colliding Planetesimals Theory: The interaction of
earth-orbiting and Sun-orbiting planetesimals (very large chunks of
rocks like asteroids) early in the history of the Solar System led to
their breakup. The Moon condensed from this debris.

5. The Ejected Ring Theory: A planetesimal the size of Mars struck the
earth, ejecting large volumes of matter. A disk of orbiting material
was formed, and this matter eventually condensed to form the Moon in
orbit around the Earth.

Apparently, in that web article, the fifth hypo (Ejected Ring Theory)
is the *most* favoured. On a first thought, I personally find that to
be the LEAST likely. It just does not 'fit', somehow... Anyone have
any other preferences?

Abdul

In article ,
"Christopher M. Jones" wrote:

Herb Schaltegger wrote:

See, e.g.,
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/q...PubMed&dbFrom=
PubMed&from_uid=14664724

This is just nonsense. There is no phase relationship
between the lunar cycle and menstruation. If there were
any causal relationship it would follow some pattern rather
than being completely non-correlated. Also, the period of
a women's menstrual cycle is not even remotely the same as
that of the lunar cycle. The average is off by at least a
day (for either synodic or sidereal period), not to mention
the fact that the menstrual cycle can vary by several days.
Additionally, there is much wider variation in menstrual
cycles across different species, if something like the
moon were effecting the process there wouldn't be such high
variation.


Actually, there is a statistical correlation - it just isn't perfect.
Read the article abstracts if not the articles themselves. There is
about a 30% correlation between lunar phase and menstruation, much
higher than can be explained by other factors.

And it's not just menstruation. Ask anyone who works in a crisis
monitoring center, an ER or a birthing center at a decent-sized hospital
how the phases of the moon affect their work.

I can't believe I'm even responding to something so inane.

The obsolete term for acting irrationally is "lunacy' after all. Just
because you don't believe in something proven statistically doesn't make
it inane. It might, however, make you closed-minded.

--
Herb Schaltegger, B.S., J.D.
"Never underestimate the power of human stupidity."
~ Robert A. Heinlein
http://www.angryherb.net

"Herb Schaltegger" wrote in message
...

And it's not just menstruation. Ask anyone who works in a crisis
monitoring center, an ER or a birthing center at a decent-sized hospital
how the phases of the moon affect their work.

And look at the second article listed there which showed zero correlation
between lunar cycles and crisis call centers.

As for women's menstrual cycles, why only humans and not all mammals?

And why 28 days when millions of years ago the moon's period was different?



I can't believe I'm even responding to something so inane.

The obsolete term for acting irrationally is "lunacy' after all. Just
because you don't believe in something proven statistically doesn't make
it inane. It might, however, make you closed-minded.

--
Herb Schaltegger, B.S., J.D.
"Never underestimate the power of human stupidity."
~ Robert A. Heinlein
http://www.angryherb.net

"Herb Schaltegger" wrote in message
news:herb.schaltegger-

And it's not just menstruation. Ask anyone who works in a crisis
monitoring center, an ER or a birthing center at a decent-sized
hospital how the phases of the moon affect their work.

I have heard that in tight social groupings, menstruations fall into
phase with the alpha female, do not ask me how that works. Though it
might promote monogamy and encourage all the men to go off hunting once
a month. Hunting, fishing, etc., is effected by the moon... Also, in
the old days, a full moon enabled a degree of nocturnal behaviour.
Conceivably, all sorts of weird moon related evolutionary mechanisms
might occur, it beats me.

Pete.

Greg D. Moore (Strider) wrote:
"Herb Schaltegger" wrote in message
...

And it's not just menstruation. Ask anyone who works in a crisis
monitoring center, an ER or a birthing center at a decent-sized hospital
how the phases of the moon affect their work.


And look at the second article listed there which showed zero correlation
between lunar cycles and crisis call centers.



See also: http://skepdic.com/fullmoon.html

Paul

On Tue, 5 Oct 2004 01:53:01 +1300, in a place far, far away, "Pete
Lynn" made the phosphor on my monitor glow
in such a way as to indicate that:

"Herb Schaltegger" wrote in message
news:herb.schaltegger-

And it's not just menstruation. Ask anyone who works in a crisis
monitoring center, an ER or a birthing center at a decent-sized
hospital how the phases of the moon affect their work.

I have heard that in tight social groupings, menstruations fall into
phase with the alpha female, do not ask me how that works.

Almost certainly via pheremones (though I'm not sure that they follow
any particular female--they just all tend to synch together).

In article ,
"Pete Lynn" wrote:

I have heard that in tight social groupings, menstruations fall into
phase with the alpha female, do not ask me how that works.

Demonstrated during the 80's or early 90's to be the result of
pheromones - I saw a cite recently (probably when I did the National
Institutes of Health Medline query I quoted above) but I can't remember
specifics.

Though it
might promote monogamy and encourage all the men to go off hunting once
a month. Hunting, fishing, etc., is effected by the moon... Also, in
the old days, a full moon enabled a degree of nocturnal behaviour.
Conceivably, all sorts of weird moon related evolutionary mechanisms
might occur, it beats me.

One of the more interesting (and obscure) effects is how lunar cycles
affect the spawning of coral polyps - on a given reef, they all spawn at
the same time in phase-lock with the moon, despite many being too deep
for the moon's light to penetrate much at all, despite at least half
being shaded from the moon completely, despite local cloud cover, etc.

--
Herb Schaltegger, B.S., J.D.
"Never underestimate the power of human stupidity."
~ Robert A. Heinlein
http://www.angryherb.net

In article ,
"Greg D. Moore \(Strider\)" wrote:

"Herb Schaltegger" wrote in message
...

And it's not just menstruation. Ask anyone who works in a crisis
monitoring center, an ER or a birthing center at a decent-sized hospital
how the phases of the moon affect their work.

And look at the second article listed there which showed zero correlation
between lunar cycles and crisis call centers.

And look at the many others where there is a correlation/

As for women's menstrual cycles, why only humans and not all mammals?

Good question; however, many mammals don't menstruate at all; many
reabsorb the endometrium rather than shed it making it difficult to
measure the effects (if any). More interesting to me is that studies
showing a correlation indicate about 30% of women menstruate within
about +/- a day of the lunar cycle; I wonder why 30% rather than 4% (as
you might expect); if 30%, why not 60% or 90%? Those are the more
interesting questions.

And why 28 days when millions of years ago the moon's period was different?

Menstruation (absent hormonal contraceptives) is rarely 28 days; that's
a mean not an absolute. Two generations-plus of women with relatively
easy access to oral contraceptives have conditioned people to just
accept that "a woman's cycle is 28 days." It isn't, necessarily. In
fact, it's usually a little longer absent external hormonal influences
to synchronize it. For a real skewer in the stats, look at women who
get contraceptive injections or who have hormone-laced IUD's implanted
(my wife has one of those) - after a month or so, they don't have
periods at all, or if they do they're so slight as to be nearly
unnoticeable.

Neither is the lunar cycle exactly 28 days. The moon's orbital period is
27.3 days, yet because of the Earth's own orbit around the sun, the
moon's synodic period is about 29.5 days. The phases of the moon
therefore aren't 28 days either.

So, a more specific answer to your exact question is: how do we know
millions of years ago that women's periods weren't different? We
already know they are affected by pheromones from other women in close
proximity, hormones from contraceptives, stress hormones (e.g.,
reactions of the body from emotional and physical duress), nutrition,
exercise levels (ask a 16 year old gymnast with 2% body fat and see if
she's ever had a period in her life), and so forth. Why should
gravitational tides be any different?

--
Herb Schaltegger, B.S., J.D.
"Never underestimate the power of human stupidity."
~ Robert A. Heinlein
http://www.angryherb.net