28-01-2017, 10:39 AM
Valve Bloke.
Although your Cassini/Huygens may be travelling at tens of thousands of miles an hour, when they dump their driverless vehicles on the "other planet" they (the driverless vehicles) are NOT travelling at tens of thousands of miles an hour. They are probabaly trundling along at walking pace!
Ageing population
What most experts cannot grasp, is that all 100-year-olds were born in 1917 or before, long before just about everything from the seas, the air, the land, the food, the medicines were polluted my noxious chemicals. They just had smoke to contend with. We are already seeing a decrease in life expectancy in younger folk. Don't believe me? then just do a bit of research. I believe that life expectany will soon drop dramatically in a manner that simply cannot be denied.
They say that a driveless car costs about $75,000 at the moment! The maintenance and repair costs will be enormous, and probably the insurance will be enormous as well!
Some years ago, a modern satellite communications sytem came under my care. I was told that if it broke down, I was under no circumstances to try and repair it myself other than identying the defective PCB. A new one would be supplied for a "nominal" cost. When I asked what that "nominal" cost was, it was about £1,200! With the conventional short wave transmitters and receivers, if they broke down, I repaired them myself, for the cost of components only.
When I was required to send out a distress message on Satcoms, far off the trade routes on a passenger liner, I could not do so, because the fluctuating power upset the gyro compass that was then unable to keep the dish on the satellite! Even the main transmitter was useless when the emrgency generator choked on the smoke, and stopped. I summoned help with a two-valve battery transmitter using morse code. The responding ship arrived within two hours, but it was certainly not due to the "finest communications system in the world i.e. Satcoms!"
With complex technology, if anything can go wrong, you can be sure it will!
Still, its nice to hear other people's views!
Bob
Although your Cassini/Huygens may be travelling at tens of thousands of miles an hour, when they dump their driverless vehicles on the "other planet" they (the driverless vehicles) are NOT travelling at tens of thousands of miles an hour. They are probabaly trundling along at walking pace!
Ageing population
What most experts cannot grasp, is that all 100-year-olds were born in 1917 or before, long before just about everything from the seas, the air, the land, the food, the medicines were polluted my noxious chemicals. They just had smoke to contend with. We are already seeing a decrease in life expectancy in younger folk. Don't believe me? then just do a bit of research. I believe that life expectany will soon drop dramatically in a manner that simply cannot be denied.
They say that a driveless car costs about $75,000 at the moment! The maintenance and repair costs will be enormous, and probably the insurance will be enormous as well!
Some years ago, a modern satellite communications sytem came under my care. I was told that if it broke down, I was under no circumstances to try and repair it myself other than identying the defective PCB. A new one would be supplied for a "nominal" cost. When I asked what that "nominal" cost was, it was about £1,200! With the conventional short wave transmitters and receivers, if they broke down, I repaired them myself, for the cost of components only.
When I was required to send out a distress message on Satcoms, far off the trade routes on a passenger liner, I could not do so, because the fluctuating power upset the gyro compass that was then unable to keep the dish on the satellite! Even the main transmitter was useless when the emrgency generator choked on the smoke, and stopped. I summoned help with a two-valve battery transmitter using morse code. The responding ship arrived within two hours, but it was certainly not due to the "finest communications system in the world i.e. Satcoms!"
With complex technology, if anything can go wrong, you can be sure it will!
Still, its nice to hear other people's views!
Bob
