Space.com posts a story I saw references to last night, that Sierra Space has a contract to produce a trash compactor for the International Space Station.
An International Space Station (ISS) resupply mission in 2026 will send up the Sierra Space trash compactor for testing, company officials stated in a press release on Wednesday (Oct. 16). Like many other space station testbeds, this trash compactor will assess how to deal with the problem of garbage on eventual crewed moon or Mars missions, where disposal will be even more of an issue.
All well and good - but then they added:
and some media outlets say the machine looks like Wall-E.
No. I never saw the movie but I know what Wall-E looked like and I see no resemblance whatsoever. Here's the two, side by side:
Unsurprisingly, a bunch of artists in a movie company that specializes (or did
back then) in animation could produce a much more anthropogenic robot with
much a more expressive "face" than a hardware company that's, well, producing
what used to be called a trash masher.
Not that there's anything wrong with a trash masher (compactor), or what
Sierra Space is doing here. It just doesn't look like the movie star robot.
To me it looks more like any other piece of space-rated hardware. Or possibly an old computer with the 8" drives. Totally unlike Wall-E.
ReplyDeleteBut, well, reporters. Something about reporters, even at Space.com, makes them want to say stupid stuff regarding comparisons.
I don't know how many times I've heard things mentioned as 'large as a whale.' Which whale, minki or sperm or right or bowhead or beluga or blue? Same with 'weighs as much as a whale.'
It's a joke in the video machinist world. "X is the size of a banana." And, of course, there will be a cast or machined banana-shaped chunk of metal there in the picture.
Looks like Wall-E... What, the paper shredder looking thingy that has no treads, no manipulator arms, no rotating and elevating bifocal optical scanning mount.
Come on, space.com, how about 'half the size of the typical exo-suit backpack'?
That part where they go "and some media outlets say the machine looks like Wall-E" falls into something I concluded in the '70s.
DeleteIf they give a name who said something, that's pretty likely to be true, due to defamation laws. If they say "sources who wish to remain anonymous" that drops to maybe 50% chance it's true depending on how much they want to hurt whoever or whatever they're talking about.
When they something more vague than that, it means, "the guy at the next desk and I" or maybe just that reporter all by themself.
Well it probably DOES look like Wall-E would look after it had gone THROUGH a trash compacter!
ReplyDelete"...and other components would remove contaminants for human safety."
ReplyDeleteI'm sure they are proud of this, but sheesh, they've been working on it since 2019 and the disinfecting function is still hypothetical. And it won't be launching until 2026. Just another boondoggle. A money compactor. They are not serious about any of this.
Some people can see a "face" in just about anything. Doesn't mean it's there.
ReplyDeleteI thought for a minute that they were talking about compacting the ISS, seeing's how it's life is almost over...
ReplyDeleteBrain fart. Right?