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Space Station Hannerdad!

3 (1.8%)

Uh, were we supposed to pass it?

1 (0.6%)

Just one more orbit, I promise.

1 (0.6%)

BAD Spaceship!

14 (8.5%)

Docking completed...

2 (1.2%)

We just have to go up to the hub bridge...

0 (0%)

Race you there!

1 (0.6%)

Marten, no! You still have all your -

2 (1.2%)

- mass. BERF

15 (9.1%)

Hello, Station!

1 (0.6%)

Aren't there any, um, PEOPLE?

0 (0%)

128 researchers, security, and support personnel on board

0 (0%)

Station, Spaceship... notice a pattern

0 (0%)

Hannelore went through a descriptivist phase...

3 (1.8%)

I called my dad "Sceince Daddy" until I was 17.

12 (7.3%)

Notorious Marten Reed (ugh I hate MC Hammer)

3 (1.8%)

Lieutenant Potter.

5 (3%)

US Military takes their duties more seriously than they ought.

1 (0.6%)

Station, I'm just trying to do my job.

0 (0%)

Fine, fine... Okay... what?

0 (0%)

USAF Academy Graduation Party!

32 (19.5%)

Lots of solar interference all of a sudden.

3 (1.8%)

That was awful, Station!

0 (0%)

Don't apologize to me, go apologize to Lt. Potter. AND MEAN IT!

5 (3%)

And give Marigold a holo-pony!

38 (23.2%)

oh my god

22 (13.4%)

Total Members Voted: 59

[Skewbrow]

Free fall is a way of experiencing zero G's.

I give up...

I didn't get this. I may be just dense, but do you feel that something essential has been left out? Like the fact that acceleration is always relative to some frame of reference? In fact we have...

Principle of equivalence: All effects of a uniform gravitational field are identical to the effects of a uniform acceleration of the coordinate system.

... that basically says that an observer confined to a small region (like the interior of a spaceship without windows) has no way of telling the difference between being in a gravitational field or being inside an accelerating rocket. Or (in the absence of such effects) lack of gravity is indistinguishable from free fall unless you can peek out of a window and make long range observations.

[A. Smith]

It never occurred to me until I read this update to consider the implications of zero gravity. Martin is completely weightless. Weight as a variable has been completely removed from the equation. His momentum is now due to his mass. This establishes mass and weight to be two separate variable when calculating momentum. Information that's relevant when designing any form of projectile. By nature of having set foot outside of our planets gravitational field we're now able to launch things with more precision. It probably also effected the development of things like aircrafts.

Not like I wasn't aware of the individual facts. I've just never connected them to eachother like that. I don't think I ever really realized how these things relate to eachother before.

Actually, not really. Weight is always irrelevant (and mass always the determining factor) when calculating momentum (and everything else, really), and we've known that since Isaac Newton back in the 17th century. Weight is entirely derivative of mass, as it is a function of mass and gravitational pull, and thus is involved directly in no physical equations - it's always the mass that matters.

Actually going into orbit didn't help us understand any new fundamental facts about physics that helped us make better aircraft or calculate better launch trajectories - although the billions/trillions spent in R&D to get there probably did.

Also, getting into orbit is not getting outside of earth's gravitational field. Even the moon isn't - otherwise it would just float away. Granted, on the moon, you're going to be more affected by the moon's own gravitational field, but Earth's is still there - and the moon is 1000 time further away from Earth then the ISS.

[Method of Madness]

Today's title makes me very happy

[Is it cold in here?]

A staff of 128! There must be more than one shuttle for resupply.

Were there fewer people on the station when Hannelore was a kid? She acts a lot like someone who grew up in isolation, not like someone who grew up in a village.

[Carl-E]

I don't get Marigold's MC Hammer reference, but I only know one song by MC Hammer...

Also, 128 researchers, security and support staff who get wrapped up in their uties are not likely to be equipped to raise a child...

[pwhodges]

Station has the same mannerisms as Spaceship; presumably they are running the same kernel.

[iduguphergrave]

Station is slightly more organized enough to appear with pants on the first try.

[akronnick]

I don't get Marigold's MC Hammer reference, but I only know one song by MC Hammer...

Marten is rearranging a rap song by a different artist (the late Biggie Smalls).

Marigold knows as much about rap as you do, and only slightly less than me.

[Carl-E]

Ah.  A joke.  I see...


So cute that daddy let li'l Hanners name the AI's...

[Skewbrow]

Surely all the AIs treat Hannelore as their "Little Miss". ripping off Asimov's Bicentennial Man

[Soulsynger]

Station is slightly more organized enough to appear with pants on the first try.

Spaceship could've just told Station via wireless. (I am all for the name-versions of those nouns with capital first letters, btw.)

Or Station has much more regular contact with humans that expect it him to follow protocol about how not to unwillingly present your holodong. (This has potential to be a meme, btw.)

[Akima]

I didn't get this. I may be just dense, but do you feel that something essential has been left out?

I was giving up on people misdescribing the environment in Earth orbit as "zero g". The International Space Station's orbit ranges from roughly 320-400km above ground level, for example, and gravity up there is still about 90% of that on the Earth's surface. Earth's gravity holds the Moon in its orbit; you certainly don't escape it in measly LEO. Edit: Apologies to A.Smith. I didn't notice he'd made the same point earlier.

Station has the same mannerisms as Spaceship; presumably they are running the same kernel.

There are subtle differences. I suspect Station has known Hanners since early childhood, and is on first-name terms with her like an old family retainer. Spaceship, by contrast, called her Miss. Ellicott-Chatham like an employee. I also notice that Station's avatar does not wear the same "badge" on his "shirt" as Spaceship, so it was presumably pilot's wings. Pilots will always be pilots, even AI ones.  

Also, 128 researchers, security and support staff who get wrapped up in their duties are not likely to be equipped to raise a child...

Especially if they're spread over 3 or 4 shifts and working in places you wouldn't want a child wandering about.

[J]

she's what, 22 now i think? which would make her descriptive phase about 13 years ago. i could see station being in orbit that long easily, but i don't know if i'd want to go to orbit & back in a 13 year old spaceship.

[akronnick]

The Space Shuttles were all around 20 years old when they were retired.

Discovery was 27, Atlantis was 26 and Endeavor was the baby of the fleet at 19.


Most jet airliners have a service life of 15-20 years, otherwise they wouldn't be economical to build.

[Welu]

A staff of 128! There must be more than one shuttle for resupply.

Were there fewer people on the station when Hannelore was a kid? She acts a lot like someone who grew up in isolation, not like someone who grew up in a village.

Here's what Hanners says about her upbringing. Just because people are around doesn't mean they all have time for you, especially in such an environment. When she was with her mother, she was pawned off to nannies so there it depends how many there were, how they treated Hanners and if he mother didn't regularly fire them so Hanners could actually develop a bond with any one of them.

[Soulsynger]

Hah! That last panel reminds me! ... where is dem presentations and 3D models?  

And also, they forgot to bring a male okapi (or Elliot).

[Loki]

128, huh? *jumps to conclusions* Wonder if Hannerdad has some kind of OCD regarding binary numbers.

[MandyPandy]

Signed up cuz I wanted to post about today's comic.

That rap is by Biggie(rip) not MC Hammer lol

[Earin]

If Martin hit his face, what happens when you get a nose bleed in zero gravity?? Does it just shoot out every heartbeat? Does it matter if you tilt your head back? or forward?

Since there's no gravity to move it downwards, and the blood still starts out in contact with your nose, your nose probably just slowly fills up with blood. Until your exhalation blows little globules of it around, anyway.

[jwhouk]

I don't get Marigold's MC Hammer reference, but I only know one song by MC Hammer...

Also, 128 researchers, security and support staff who get wrapped up in their uties are not likely to be equipped to raise a child...

She got the wrapper wrong (she thinks Marten's singing MC Hammer, when he's really singing Notorious B.I.G.)

[ecstaticjoy]

I don't get Marigold's MC Hammer reference, but I only know one song by MC Hammer...

Also, 128 researchers, security and support staff who get wrapped up in their uties are not likely to be equipped to raise a child...

She got the wrapper wrong (she thinks Marten's singing MC Hammer, when he's really singing Notorious B.I.G.)

I totally thought, "That's not MC Hammer! That's the Notorious B.I.G.!" for a split second before I realized Jeph did that to me on purpose. Good one, lol.

[Method of Madness]

get wrapped up in their

She got the wrapper wrong

[DSL]

I got the wrapper wrong once. Thought I was buying unsalted butter when the wrapper clearly said it was salted. Blurgh. I believe the technical psychological term for this is "brain fart."

[sitnspin]

"Science Daddy" is a lot better than "Neglectful Father." My parents had Hannermom's philosophy on child rearing.

[Is it cold in here?]

Even nerdy people do recreation, and a cute little girl would trigger nurturing instincts. She'd wind up pretty strange, but not with social phobia.

Sitnspin, Eep. Something tells me you didn't get the best nannies a billionaire could buy.

[J]

i wish my dad was a scientist so i could call him 'science daddy'

[ByronOrpheus]

Station was named during Hannelore's Descriptivist phase? How disappointing. I figured that she was a big fan of Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey.

[Kugai]

Hmmmmm

I wonder if Hannerdad looks like Peter Cullen?

[jwhouk]

get wrapped up in their

She got the wrapper wrong

Truth: it was a typo.

Also, a confession: I have red text turned off.

[Redball]

I got the wrapper wrong once. Thought I was buying unsalted butter when the wrapper clearly said it was salted. Blurgh. I believe the technical psychological term for this is "brain fart."

"Cerebral flatulence" works for me.

[Method of Madness]

Also, a confession: I have red text turned off.

I honestly can't imagine why one would want to do that.

[DSL]

The station AI avatar looks kinda like a cheerful, better-fed Marten. Wonder if Hanners ever sent photos. Or, y'know, samples.

[FunkyTuba]

The Space Shuttles were all around 20 years old when they were retired.
Discovery was 27, Atlantis was 26 and Endeavor was the baby of the fleet at 19.
Most jet airliners have a service life of 15-20 years, otherwise they wouldn't be economical to build.

Plus, it's probably more about the number of takeoff/compression/decompression/reentry/landing cycles than how actually old the ship is... Hannerdad can probably afford ridiculously meticulous maintenance, and there's an onboard AI to tell them which parts to look at.

[jwhouk]

Also, a confession: I have red text turned off.

I honestly can't imagine why one would want to do that.

One word: Annoying.

[Method of Madness]

I don't know, I kind of like how it takes away the risk of being ninja'd.

[sitnspin]

Sitnspin, Eep. Something tells me you didn't get the best nannies a billionaire could buy.

They did well enough, I suppose. After a certain point, increased money can't do much better as far as non-parental care givers go.  I was mostly just left to my own devices. I went through a pretty rough patch in my teens and early 20s, but I didn't turn into a social cripple, like Hanners, at least. Just your usual abandonment and emotional intimacy issues. Plus some other neurochemical disorders and a spattering of PTSD not directly related to their parenting styles.

My gf, on the other hand, got "Science Daddy" and she turned out awesome.

[Is it cold in here?]

The AIs in the station and the ship may be older than their respective hardware incarnations.

[pwhodges]

The asymmetry of Lt. Potter's collar is presumably deliberate, but irritates me every time I notice it.

[gopher]

The asymmetry of Lt. Potter's collar is presumably deliberate, but irritates me every time I notice it.

I suspect if she pulled the zip up fully it would look better.

[Akima]

What's worse than Facebook? Facebook with AI and a sense of humour.

[iduguphergrave]

The asymmetry of Lt. Potter's collar is presumably deliberate, but irritates me every time I notice it.

I suspect if she pulled the zip up fully it would look better.

She presumably ran a ways to get to the group; shes a bit disheveled.

[Soulsynger]

Man, if I were Marigold or Marten, I'd be IMMENSELY freaked out by an A.I. casually slipping into conversation the fact that it SCANNED me DOWN to the MOLECULAR LEVEL... holy mother of something thats like the epitome of psi~ing!
(Personal space invading)

Also, so far I like that this has been one of the most skin-happy - not to say "erotic" - story-arcs as of yet. (second only of course to the "happy-Padma-week").
We got to see holodong and Lieutenant Uninhibited in underwear. What next? °o
This is frightening.

The asymmetry of Lt. Potter's collar is presumably deliberate, but irritates me every time I notice it.

I can't stand uneven collars. Or when they stand up in the back. Eugh. I obsissevly straighten those. (On occasion its actualy a nice ice-breaking device.)


...
Warning - while you were typing 2 other guys were typing faster than you. HURRY THE FUCK UP, SLOWPOKE!

[J]

wow, station/s a bit of a dick

[DSL]

wow, station/s a bit of a dick

Pretty much. Don't envy the Lt. at all. (Actually, I don't envy any lieutenant.) Has to enforce a rule she acknowledges makes no sense and gets to be the one out-bullied for it.
Got a TSA screener in the family; she was "federalized" from her private-security company screening job after 9-11. And no, she doesn't particularly want to touch, see or think about your junk.

[TinPenguin]

Okay, so I watched Starship Troopers the other day, and now the moment I saw Lieutenant Potter I expected to see giant arachnids come out of somewhere.

[Blackjoker]

I feel great sympathy for the lieutenant, though I had initially thought the grad party photo was meant to be from some cheesecake calendar she posed for while in school. On a side note the plush winslow is adorable.

[Border Reiver]

The asymmetry of Lt. Potter's collar is presumably deliberate, but irritates me every time I notice it.

Presumably the WO has already spoken to her about her dress and deportment - and will speak to the Maj if she hasn't corrected the problem next time they meet.

And as to the photo - looks like a lot of course "smokers" and university parties I remember.

But yeah, she's drawn a real interesting posting location, but a really redundant position.

[Sorflakne]

So...is Lt Potter single?  Just curious...

[ChaosWolf]

Hmmmmm

I wonder if Hannerdad looks like Peter Cullen?

Dunno about Hanners', but mine does.

Got a TSA screener in the family; she was "federalized" from her private-security company screening job after 9-11. And no, she doesn't particularly want to touch, see or think about your junk.

Are you sure? Because I've been told my junk is amazing.

[jwhouk]

So...is Lt Potter single?  Just curious...

NO SHIPPING.

(ahem)

Sorry, wanted to nip it in the bud.

Anyways...

I suspect that (given we actually get to see his face) we've already seen Dr./Mr. JEC. It's been noted that Spaceship and Station look somewhat alike... and who, of course, would not be too vainglorious to put his own likeness on that of holographic images he created for AI's?