Commander Hadfield has spoken - wear a mask!

Well, more accurately, his eyebrow has, but I think his position is clear.

- Sid

Virtual Dreams IV: IRL VR.

 

If you own an Oculus Quest 2 VR Headset, buy the Elite Head Strap upgrade.  Now.  

Right now. 

Are you still reading this? NOW.

No, seriously, the Oculus Elite head strap upgrade was worth every cent of the sixty-seven dollars that it costs on Amazon™.  It was a bit disconcerting to install - it's easy to imagine breaking a little plastic clip by accident and rendering the whole thing useless - but once in place, it's a huge improvement over the stock strap in terms of comfort and, more importantly, stability.  The elastic strap that shipped with the headset never really did a great job, but the ratcheted hard plastic Elite strap provides a much better fit and a better seal around the eyepiece to prevent light leaks, without being uncomfortable.  

For committed players, there's also a version with a secondary battery to extend usage time, but if you're that committed, you should probably look at catheter pricing as well, just in case.

- Sid

 

Surviving Mars.

It's been a Mars-intensive period of time, what with rover landings and scientific conferences and so on, so when I noticed that Epic Games was offering a free download of a game called Surviving Mars, I decided it was a timely opportunity to give it a try.

Surviving Mars is a colony building game in the same vein as the venerable SimCity franchise.  As with SimCity, the purpose of the exercise is to build a self-sustaining community that meets the needs of its inhabitants.  The difference is that in Surviving Mars, making a mistake doesn't reduce your tax income or get you voted out as mayor - if you miss something, everyone dies. 

I've played a lot of strategy games - Starcraft, Warhammer 40K, Star Wars: Galactic Battleground, and so on - where resource collection and management was part of the game, but primarily as a function that supported the ability to enlarge my base and create military units, rather than as an end to itself.  I seem to recall trying SimCity at some point in its evolution, and finding it a bit too intensive in terms of micromanagement, but the idea of creating a Martian colony is intriguing.

And free, it's hard to argue with free.

So I installed the game, made a cup of tea, and settled down to colonize Mars.

After finishing the comprehensive tutorials, I'm ready to launch my first expedition.  The default settings are friendly to newbies, with an Easy setting for the mission, and bonuses such as an extra rocket.  I leave the cargo defaults in place, choose a landing site, and launch the rocket.

The tutorials were useful, but ultimately I just use logic when the ship makes its landing and the drones go to work.  My colony needs power, oxygen, food and water, all of which require factories, extractors, generators, solar cells, pipes, power lines and storage locations.  When they arrive, colonists will require homes, hospitals, playgrounds, and all the other elements that make up a complete community support structure.  They won't be self-sufficient immediately, but with two rockets and the ability to fuel them for return trips to Earth, the nascent colony should be able to import the missing requirements to keep things going until it becomes self-sustaining. 

As an example, I discover at some point that I need polymers from Earth to fix a disabled power generator, and use that as a guide to equip my second rocket with a suitable cargo of manufactured materials and prefabricated factories that will let me make repairs and hopefully fill similar gaps in the supply chain. I launch the rocket, lean back in my chair, and suddenly realize that I've been playing for over an hour and my forgotten and now cold tea is still sitting on the kitchen counter - a strong indicator of how absorbed I am in the game.

There are parts of the process that I don't have a firm grip on - the Research ladder system remains a bit of a mystery, and I'm not sure how to expand from my plateau location to the resource-rich plains, but I feel that I at least have the basics under control. 

By this point, I've constructed a modest but well-equipped little base which is almost ready for the final test: actual colonists. I want to add another dome, and increase the oxygen supply and storage options, but overall I've put together what seems to be a reasonable place for my colonists to make their start on Mars. In fact, some of the buildings aren't functional without people, which helps to keep the focus on the purpose of the mission.

The first ship is almost refueled, and when it is, I'll send it back to Earth to pick up my first load of would-be Martians.  We'll start with the maximum 12 passengers, and if they make it through the first ten days on Mars, I'll be able to send the ship back to Earth and double my population.

Wish us luck!

- Sid

UPDATE:  The first specialist-heavy group of colonists successfully survived the ten day trial period, which clears me to bring in more people!  More domes to come! And a playground for the park, that sounds like an investment in the future, given that there's no indication that any of the colonists have children - yet.

And who doesn't like bigger fins?

I was reading an article earlier today about Elon Musk's plan for a "whole new architecture" of space craft, and I saw a photo of his prototype for the Space-X Starship reusable launch vehicle intended for eventual Mars missions, seen here beside an existing Falcon-1 booster.

I was instantly reminded of the eponymous spaceship from the early 1960s classic Rocketship XL5 Supermarionation series.   All you need are bigger fins, Elon, a touch of colour, and you're there!

- Sid

Red Mars.

I opened my eyes upon a strange and weird landscape. I knew that I was on Mars; not once did I question either my sanity or my wakefulness. I was not asleep, no need for pinching here; my inner consciousness told me as plainly that I was upon Mars as your conscious mind tells you that you are upon Earth. You do not question the fact; neither did I.

Edgar Rice Burroughs, A Princess of Mars

When I first purchased my VR headset, I viewed it as primarily an advanced gaming system.  Now that I'm using it on a regular basis, it's obvious that it's really more of an alternative computing platform that's capable of delivering a wide range of services and experiences*.  

As an example, there's an extensive selection of virtual reality experiences in the Oculus download library: an immersive tour of the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone; a 3D view of Shibuya Crossing, Tokyo's busiest intersection; visits to the world's great cities; and trips to the Arctic, the Pyramids, the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, and a myriad of other opportunities.  Most recently, they've added a VR view of Mars from the perspective of the Perseverance rover - and it's breathtaking.

Assembled by CreatorUp video services founder Hugh Hou from 142 HD pictures taken by the probe's Z-Mast camera, the virtual view of the Martian surface is incredible in its realism. 

Screen grabs really don't do justice to the experience, it was startling to have that strong an impression of standing on the surface of another planet  - or, more accurately, on Perseverance's chassis, probably someplace quite close to the chip with Karli and my names on it. I thought I was joking, but it turns out that we actually do have seats with a good view.

- Sid

 

* But, to be honest, not necessarily better than a standard desktop setup.  For example, it's a lot easier to find your cup of tea for a drink when you're not wearing a headmount to browse the Internet.

"Out there... thataway."

A few years ago, I signed up for a membership with the Heritage Auctions web site - not because I wanted to start bidding on things, but because their site was an excellent source of high resolution scans of comic book covers and artwork, book and pulp magazine covers, and movie posters and memorabilia.  

However, over time I've started casually following their auctions - they do dedicated comic book and movie sessions every week, and I've always thought that it would be nice to own original comic book art.  Admittedly, anything I've ever been interested in has been far out of my price range - yes, this is the auction house that auctioned off a Frank Frazetta cover painting for 5.4 million dollars in 2019   and the first comic book appearance of the Batman for 1.3 million at the start of this year - but it's a harmless dream to enjoy while I browse.

However, there are more modestly priced lots available, and every now and then I place a bid, just for fun.  Recently, this resulted in the successful purchase of a set of eight lobby cards from Star Trek: The Motion Picture, which debuted in December of 1979.  

It's generally agreed that the first attempt at transferring the original crew to the big screen was not a great success, but it's still a significant moment in Star Trek history, and I like the idea of lobby cards - they don't seem to attract the same amount of bidding as the posters, and and at 11x14 inches they're a convenient size to frame, whereas a 28x40 inch movie poster almost requires you to design the room around it.  (Although, gosh, if I had the wall space and the money...).

To my surprise, I won the items with what I considered to be a relatively low bid of $38 USD.* This bid marked my first successful purchase in this area - I had tentatively placed a bid on lobby cards from the 1956 science fiction classic Forbidden Planet at some point last year, but it quickly got too rich for my blood (I strongly feel that the secret to managing auction participation is to not fall prey to bidding fever).

My purchases arrived today, and now that I'm able to examine them in person, I'm definitely pleased.  Oh, there's a slightly compressed corner here and there, and a hint of yellowing on one or two of the cards, but overall they're in excellent shape for printed items that are over 42 years old.

Now that I think about it, I'm not sure I've watched this movie since I saw it in commercial release in '79.  Hmmm...it must be streaming somewhere, right?

- Sid

 

* Okay, this is a lie, as you can see if you compare that with the screen grab at the beginning of this post  $38 is just the auction price.  On top of that I paid a $19 Buyer's Premium, and about as much as those two combined for shipping.  Price of doing business, I suppose - and the original bid was still lower than I expected.

 

International Women's Day: The Right Stuff.

In recognition of International Women's Day, here's NASA astronaut Peggy A. Whitson:  Phd. in Biochemistry, two-time ISS commander, US record holder of the most time in space with a total of 665 days in space*, 10 space walks successfully completed, with a list of achievements, awards, medals and honours as long as my arm.   

Oddly, her NASA bio doesn't give her full name, but I assume that the A stands for Achievement.

- Sid

 

* Surprisingly, this only puts her in 8th place overall - numbers 1 through 7 are all Russian cosmonauts, with Gennady Padalka in first place with a total of 879 days in space.

Actually, waiting 28 weeks seems about right.

Hmmm....I don't know, the bidding price is at a reasonable level right now but it just feels like the wrong time for this.

- Sid