gian

Yes, I was thinking of it but wrote down wrong.

FreeCAD aside, if you want to go somewhat commercial there is “Moment Of Invention”. I tried the free 90 trial and it was really powerfull and somewhat simpler than FreeCAD.

Additionally, no subscription, no cloud, just the software.

He can do both.
He can sell the STL to someone willing to print the thing himself and there are people who prefer to let someone else print the thing. One thing do not exclude the other

Probably without a 3d scanner, using paper and scissor you will only get a (hopefully) better and better approximation of the real surface.

Anyway, without a 3d scanner, to have some precise measurement you could just use some modeling clay to recreate the correct form and then set some reference point and take measurements from there, it should be precise enough to create a model in Fusion360 that account also for every asymmetry that could be present.

Voyager I and Voyager II begs to differ.

We are able to build things that last decades, we just don’t want to do it.
I am not saying it is simple nor that we have all the tech yet, but we demonstrated it could be done.

Moreover, I think that people make a basic error when talking about generational ships: everyone think that it would be something like Star Trek or any other SciFi movie, but in reality it should be build to be maintenable without any external support so it must be simple, don’t require high tech to function and redundant. So forget modern processors, the computer, like everything else, should be reparaible without any external assistance (and I agree that mayba a processor don’t last anywhere near 400 years even if not used).

You could, if you really wanted. Stop electing assholes and maybe…

Seen from outside US, NASA decline has begun way earlier than Elon Musk appearance, it begun when NASA was used as a piggy bank by US politicians.

Maybe a larger volume is not important for you, but to others maybe it is.

But his point is what you are basically saying that a bike is more expensive than a bicycle looking only at the price tag.

I made 3 part because I need some details on what will be the top of the piece, little seams to show the separation of each hex, as well as the thinner walls on the bottom. I did try 2 part molds before, but getting it off the mold was near impossible most of the time. Like this, I can just push the piece off.

Got it. I did’t consider the extraction.

Currently, only the presser has holes for the water, should I add it to the bottom piece, too?

Not if it work well.

The thick walls are to endure the pressure and reduce warping, though maybe they could be thinner? I tested adding some gypsum to the mixture, waiting for one piece to dry further and already figured that I have to remove from the mold before it hardens too much, otherwise it’ll end up stuck (that or I have to properly sand/fill the pieces like bluewing said above)

If they endure the pressure they are ok. I would have done them thicker but just to be sure.

For the gypsym it seems strange, every time that I did something with it I had no problem to remove from the mold, expecially if it was made with some sort of plastic. Probably more than the pieces you need to sand the mold to have smooth surfaces, so that the gypsum does not adhere to it.

Two options in my opinion.

First one is to redesign the mold to have only 2 parts that are 2 semi shells, the way you desing it currently need to have a very strict tolerance in the parts which I don’t think are doable with a 3d printer (also, the wall seems too little thick). With a 2 part mold, you do some holes for the water on what will be the back side of your tile and you should be good.

Another option is to use something different, like white wall gypsum and maybe adding some acrylic color it needed, and somewhat copy the way the real tile are done.

If what you are doing is for model and/or some game, white gypsum is great, I did some nice diorama for aircraft with them. And it is more durable in my opinion.

No, we don’t.

A robot can only do what it is programmed to and the current AIs are well beyond what we would need.

I still think that’s trying to fit a square peg in a round hole. For biological humans to be able to explore the solar system, we need to advance in space-based manufacturing and AI control of those systems. Then there’s no more need for cramped spaces, for one.

You are somewhat right but you forgot that we are already able to build and use cramped spaces for months, think about a military ships, submarines or the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station.

Having to launch every single piece of material from out of the gravity well of earth is just not scalable or realistic.

That’s the real point, not the cramped space.

For us to be more than just tourists in our solar system, and especially before we get to other stars, I really think we need to sort out how to digitize human minds.

Nah, we just need to start to think to use the same approach of a naval fleet: send more then one big ship. This way also a generational ship could be easier to build and run.

If there was justice then Elon would get spacex yanked away from him or shutdown.

If there were justice, Boeing would be bankrupt.

The plan was always for spacex to rescue them, but for some reason it couldn’t be done until early this year. Something about the launch schedule.

Yep, because sending a ship to the ISS is like calling an Uber to get you home, right…
Of course the plan was always for SpaceX to rescue them, they are the only ones that have the capability and a working ship. But that does not means that they can cram another unscheduled launch with such short notice on top of the schedule they already have.

Now for him to claim that the astronauts were abandoned by the previous administration while saying they can’t be rescued yet says either maliciousness or incompetence.

To be honest, that is what I was reading from the start of this story basically everywere, it is not that Musk said something no one ever said.

So, I get the you dislike Musk, but accusing him for not readily solve a problem created by the incompetence of others (Boeing) does not seems that fair.

I get the hate for Musk, but honestly the SLS program should have been already terminated. It has not yet delivered anything, it is overbudget of orders of magnitude, and even if it will deliver something, it will be orders of magnitude more expensive.

Wait a moment, maybe I understand wrong (English is not my first language) but I understand that you said that the Great Filter is the reason why we don’t see them and point out 3 possible points.

I dispute your first point to be not really an explanation or an option since saying “never feasible for any civ, no matter how advanced” just seems to be a too harsh limit on what a civ could do, which looking at our past history seems an unreasonable limit.

My friend, that’s exactly my point. That is, they’ve had enough time to show up but they are nowhere to be seen.

Your point seems to be that since there is the Great Filter (btw, to be proven) then there is no one else out there.
You exclude way simpler possibillities like the option that a civ just a couple centuries ahead of use could already be colonizating the nearby stars, they just are 1000 LY away so we cannot yet see them (assuming we even know what to look for).

1. interstellar travel is never feasible for any civ, no matter how advanced,

I like the idea behind the concept of the Great Filter, but that point does not seems logic as it would imply that irregardless of how advanced a civ is, they would not be able to build anything that can even make just a one way travel to a star just a few year light far away. Right, it is not simple, but a civ even just a couple centuries head of us should be able to do it.

Also, probably nobody capable of traveling the stars wants to settle a planet. Once you figure out how to make huge spaceships (which you’ll need to travel interstellar space) you’ve essentially learned how to make cities in space.

I don’t think it is a valid point. Yeah, if we can build a ship that take us to Alpha Centauri it would lool like a small city, but that does not mean that it can last forever and the traveller would never need to settle on a planet. And looking what the humans did in the past, it seems logic that while a part would want to continue to explore, another part would want to settle on a planet.

Our solar system would support a lot of people if we just used the resources available for space habitats, and by “lot” I mean in the quadrillions. And it turns out that all you need to support that population is a star to provide energy, and some planets to source materials from.

So with that in mind, why bother finding another habitable planet?

Because it is habitable and can be used as a transit point, advanced outpost, refuelling base or any other use you can do of an habitable planet where to do things you have not to fight even with the environment (tourism for example).

I had a Samsung SL-C430W (a laser color printer) and it still work really well after 7 years, but admitedly I don’t print that much and only a really few time a photos. On the other hand I printed on a variety of types of paper, from the standard one to the decals paper to paper to print shirts and lastly to paper to print on wood and it never disappointed.

Cheap toners (from Amazon) and really robust. But I think it is no sold.

Yep, that one. Not checked the name 😬

If you are willing to pay the price, you can try Moment Of Invention. It has also a fully functional time limited demo. I worked with the demo and, while for now I use Freecad, I must admit that it is pretty good