Date: Wed, 22 Jun 2005 06:09:56 -0400
To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>
From: "Mike B." <omni at omniphile.com>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: pinwheel in space

At 10:42 PM 6/21/05 -0400, Keith F. Lynch wrote:
>"Mike B." <omni at omniphile.com> wrote:
>> Madeleine Yeh wrote:
>>> What do you mean by mean time?  Should some of us
>
>> Probably the usual meaning.  Since there's no evidence that the
>> universe had a beginning or will have an end, every time is the
>> median time of existence.
>
>Median isn't the same as mean.  And there is strong evidence that the
>universe had a beginning, 13.7 billion years ago.

Median (mid-point) and mean (average) are the same in this case.  We are
talking about infinite time after all, so there will always be an infinite
amount of future and past at any point, making the present the median at
all times, as well as the average (infinity over infinity).

The Big Bang doesn't necessarily mark the beginning of the universe, even
if the theory is right (and I'm not at all sure it is).  It simply marks
the event that seems to have resulted in the matter and energy in the
universe being distributed as we see it today.  The universe may have
existed for infinite time before that event, either empty, or in prior
cycles of big bangs, or in some other form that we have no way of learning
about now.

>Getting back to the subject line, no signal has been received from the
>solar sail spacecraft.  It's too soon to give up all hope, but it's
>not looking good.

No, it's not.  I wonder where the problem is?  Design?  Construction?
Launch?  Deployment?

>Has nobody but me noticed that the name "Cosmos-1" for a satellite
>had already been used?  (Google on "65S3".)

That was Kosmos-1...and it wasn't the spacecraft name, that's the name of
the launch vehicle.  Launch vehicle names and spacecraft names should be in
separate nomenclatures IMO.  I don't think that the Apollo program has
removed the ability for us to send 5 missions to Saturn for instance.

-- Mike B.
--
Heisenberg may have slept here.