h a l f b a k e r y"My only concern is that it wouldn't work, which I see as a problem."
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Construct a satellite with a rocket on it designed to keep it going
fast
enough to maintain ELEO (extremely low Earth orbit) and a saddle.
The idea is to have some foolhardy space jockey try to ride it while
skimming along the edge of the atmosphere without getting bucked
off or blown to pieces.
The
saddle-ite should have an aerodynamic
design that allows it to skim smoothly along the edge of the
atmosphere if balanced perfectly, but is deliberately designed to be
very difficult (but not impossible) to keep balanced with the keel in
the
atmosphere. The keel itself has several motorized vanes on it
which twitch randomly to simulate the bucking of a bull.
Athletes compete for longest distance. Would also make a pretty
badass racing circuit.
[link]
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Sounds like you need a space ladder...hmm. |
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In space, no one can hear your sales pitch. |
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//In space, no one can hear your sales pitch
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// why isn't there a sport: rodeo category? //
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Because rodeo isn't a sport, it's culturally accepted cruelty.
There's no sport in jacking a bull up on amphetamines and
zapping him in the ass with a stun gun, nor is there in
running down a terrified sheep and binding all four of its
feet together, nor in half-strangling a calf and dragging it
to the ground. Awarding the cruelest cowboy with a belt
buckle the size of his home state does not make rodeo a
sport any more than giving the ears and tail to a matador
makes bullfighting a sport. At least in
latin countries they kill the poor beast after they're done
torturing it; here in the civilized world it's considered much
more humane to stick it into a trailer and drag it to
another dusty fairground where it has the opportunity to
be drugged and terrorized all over again.
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That said, [+] for the idea on its own merit and for any
form of rodeo that leaves animals alone. |
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There's no "edge" to the atmosphere; certainly not at ELEO altitudes. The atmosphere finally peters out about half way to the moon, where the sun's radiation pressure overpowers the earth's gravity. The greatest change in atmospheric density with height occurs at sea level. Your keel, in other words, will have to be hundreds or thousands of kilometres long. |
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I agree with all of that, Alterother. |
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I never suspected otherwise. I was a little high last night,
and rodeos disgust me. Cannabis Sativa + touchy subject +
[The
Alterother] = wordy rant.
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// Your keel, in other words, will have to be hundreds or
thousands of kilometres long. //
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Think of the advertising decals. Body panel coverage will
be leased by the acre. |
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