On Thu, 8 Dec 2022 11:06:34 -0800, a425couple <a425couple@hotmail.com>
wrote:

>from
>https://aeon.co/essays/what-dangers-must-we-overcome-before-we-can-live-on-mars
>
>(Best to go to the above citation to see the pictures and videos.)
>
>Thriving on Mars
>Dust storms, long distances and freezing temperatures make living on
>Mars magnificently challenging. How will we do it?

Thanks for the link - it was an interesting read.

However the story is factually correct in saying Nixon had a speech
for Apollo 11 failure in his desk - he actually had TWO speeches
prepared.

#1 was for an in flight accident or a crash on the Moon.

#2 was for a descent where landing was made at too high a speed to
allow for a sucessful take off from the Moon to return home, thereby
fatallying stranding Armstrong and Aldrin - the idea being that
politically Nixon couldn't turn off the video but at the same time
America would go nuts seeing two astronauts die from asphyxiation (or
other cause) on national TV.

https://www.archives.gov/files/presidential-libraries/events/centennials/nixon/images/exhibit/rn100-6-1-2.pdf

https://www.space.com/26604-apollo-11-failure-nixon-speech.html

As you can see - related but different. And bear in mind this was in
the Nixon era BEFORE Watergate when the presidency had a lot more
credibility than subsequently.

It's not really surprising - Eisenhower had an alternative text for
his D-Day speech where the troops failed to gain a foothold and were
withdrawn.

>
>Simon Mordenhas degrees in geology and planetary geophysics, and is the
>author of 14 science fiction and fantasy novels. He was awarded the
>Philip K Dick award in 2011 for the Petrovitch trilogy. His first
>nonfiction book is The Red Planet: A Natural History of Mars (2022). He
>lives in England.
>
>Edited byNigel Warburton
>3,000 words
>
>Can humans live on Mars? The answer is startlingly simple. Can humans
>live in Antarctica, where the temperatures regularly fall below -50ºC
>(-60ºF) and it’s dark for six months of the year? Can humans live below
>the ocean, where pressure rapidly increases with depth to crushing
>levels? Can humans live in space, where there’s no air at all?
>
>As the limits of our ingenuity, our materials science and our chemistry
>have grown, we’ve gone from being able to tolerate only a narrow band of
>conditions to expanding our presence to almost every part of the globe,
>and now beyond it. Even the most hostile environment we’ve ever faced –
>the vacuum of space – has had a continuous human population for more
>than two decades.
>
>So why not Mars? If we can live in Antarctica, if we can live in space,
>then surely it’s simply a question of logistics. If we can put enough
>materiel on the surface of the Red Planet, then perhaps we can survive –
>and even thrive – there.

On Thu, 29 Dec 2022 19:21:34 -0800, The Horny Goat <lcraver@home.ca>
wrote:

>On Thu, 8 Dec 2022 11:06:34 -0800, a425couple <a425couple@hotmail.com>
>wrote:
>
>>from
>>https://aeon.co/essays/what-dangers-must-we-overcome-before-we-can-live-on-mars
>>
>>(Best to go to the above citation to see the pictures and videos.)
>>
>>Thriving on Mars
>>Dust storms, long distances and freezing temperatures make living on
>>Mars magnificently challenging. How will we do it?
>
>Thanks for the link - it was an interesting read.
>
>However the story is factually correct in saying Nixon had a speech
>for Apollo 11 failure in his desk - he actually had TWO speeches
>prepared.
>
>#1 was for an in flight accident or a crash on the Moon.
>
>#2 was for a descent where landing was made at too high a speed to
>allow for a sucessful take off from the Moon to return home, thereby
>fatallying stranding Armstrong and Aldrin - the idea being that
>politically Nixon couldn't turn off the video but at the same time
>America would go nuts seeing two astronauts die from asphyxiation (or
>other cause) on national TV.
>
>https://www.archives.gov/files/presidential-libraries/events/centennials/nixon/images/exhibit/rn100-6-1-2.pdf
>
>https://www.space.com/26604-apollo-11-failure-nixon-speech.html
>
>As you can see - related but different. And bear in mind this was in
>the Nixon era BEFORE Watergate when the presidency had a lot more
>credibility than subsequently.

I once saw /Moonwalkers/ [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2718440], a
film about a CIA agent sent to England to bribe (hire) Stanley Kubrik
to provide a live fake Moon landing in case something went wrong.

It was very funny.

Oh, and Rupert Grint is in it.

>It's not really surprising - Eisenhower had an alternative text for
>his D-Day speech where the troops failed to gain a foothold and were
>withdrawn.

This is fairly common among politicians. And, which Ike was in the
Army at the time, his job was /very/ political.

Most /sane/ candidates probably have two speeches to choose from after
the election -- one for victory and one for defeat.
--
"In this connexion, unquestionably the most significant
development was the disintegration, under Christian
influence, of classical conceptions of the family and
of family right."

The Horny Goat <lcraver@home.ca> schrieb:
> On Thu, 8 Dec 2022 11:06:34 -0800, a425couple <a425couple@hotmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>>from
>>https://aeon.co/essays/what-dangers-must-we-overcome-before-we-can-live-on-mars
>>
>>(Best to go to the above citation to see the pictures and videos.)
>>
>>Thriving on Mars
>>Dust storms, long distances and freezing temperatures make living on
>>Mars magnificently challenging. How will we do it?
>
> Thanks for the link - it was an interesting read.
>
> However the story is factually correct in saying Nixon had a speech
> for Apollo 11 failure in his desk - he actually had TWO speeches
> prepared.

Plus a few more, as revealed by xkcd:

https://xkcd.com/1484/