Night lights
A MISSION to the far side of the moon, set to launch later this year, isn鈥檛 the only ambitious lunar project being planned in China. According to the People鈥檚 Daily news site, the (deep breath) Chengdu Aerospace Science and Technology Microelectronics System Research Institute wants to launch an artificial moon to illuminate the city of Chengdu at night.
Chairman Wu Chunfeng reportedly made the claim at an innovation and entrepreneurship event, saying the fake moon would be eight times as bright as the real moon (whether this would be enough to pierce Chengdu鈥檚 notorious smog remains to be seen).
Lighting up the night sky is something of a trend in the private space industry: cosmic mirrorball Humanity Star was lobbed into orbit by New Zealand-based aerospace firm Rocket Lab earlier this year (much to the chagrin of astronomers), and artist Trevor Paglen is crowdfunding a similar satellite, the Orbital Reflector.
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If nobody puts a stop to this craze, before long the sky will be sequinned with so many glittering vanity projects that it will outshine Times Square.
Feedback is starting its own crowdfunding project: help us launch a set of curtains into space, to shut out these bothersome baubles.
The price of ice
TEAR up your physics textbooks, it seems that the latent heat required to melt ice is directly related to the price one pays for it. So discovered Brian Darvell when browsing an article in the UK鈥檚 , which warns of the dangers posed by balloon-shaped gin glasses (to wit: cold hands, warm gin).
And that鈥檚 not all. 鈥淭he current problem with these glasses,鈥� says mixologist Daniel Warren, 鈥渋s when the drink is made with cheap ice that melts quickly, it waters down both the drink and the flavour of the gin.鈥�
鈥淚t looks like we really do have to spend a lot of money to save Antarctica and the Greenland ice sheets,鈥� says Brian.
Snack attack
COSMIC kernels: Robert Scopes spies a unit for extreme energy big enough to satisfy the largest of appetites. Melbourne newspaper The Age tells him that fast radio bursts from space contain so much energy that, if our own dear sun were to issue them, 鈥渋t would be enough to instantaneously microwave enough popcorn to fill out to the far-flung planet Neptune鈥�.
Feedback wonders if there is enough matter in the region to season this planetary cornucopia. How would you measure its size? In cornsecs? We鈥檙e sure you can do better.
Weighing the cost
OUR recent story about the $100,000 doorstop from space (20 October) reminded Manek Dubash of a shop in Lewes, 鈥渋n the habit of selling doorstops for around 拢70. They consisted of thick string coiled around something heavy 鈥� I presume some sort of rock.鈥� Manek says: 鈥淚 ridiculed them at the time as overpriced gew-gaws, but maybe there was something valuable inside and I missed a trick.鈥�
Getting the chills
AS IF freezing temperatures, six months of darkness and unmatched isolation weren鈥檛 enough, Antarctic residents must also deal with the knowledge that the Ross ice shelf is emitting a spooky moan.
Geophysicist Julien Chaput buried seismic sensors in the ice shelf in an attempt to learn about seasonal changes to its mass. But when he looked at the recordings, he realised he had also captured the vibrations created by wind blowing across the snow dunes on the ice.
When the frequency of the sound is adjusted into our hearing range, it becomes a series of eerie hums and ghastly groans that wouldn鈥檛 be out of place in a horror film. Could it be that the doomed ice shelf is crying for help 鈥� or wailing in anguish that it isn鈥檛 melting into a premium quality gin?
Out on a lim
PREVIOUSLY Feedback reported on the roadside assistance offered by British and German spiritualists, who say supernatural beings are causing traffic collisions (22 September).
鈥淭his reminded me of a similar story from my time in Brunei,鈥� says Ronald Watts. 鈥淭here was a roundabout near the airport in Bandar Seri Begawan where accidents were frequent, and the theory that carried weight with authorities was that evil spirits would hide in the surrounding trees and leap out at night to distract drivers.鈥�
Local opinion held that the real cause of the accidents was spirits of a different nature, says Ronald. But given the sale of alcohol is illegal in Brunei, such an explanation was inconceivable, and local authorities took the necessary steps of chopping down all the trees. Strangely enough, the accidents continued.
Taste of the future
PLANNING well ahead, Carl Zetie, notes that a box of sugar in his pantry is marked 鈥淏est Before July 2nd 2387鈥�. 鈥淭his raises important and profound questions,鈥� says Carl. 鈥淔or example: How do they know?鈥� And what happens on 3 June 2387, Feedback wonders. 鈥淥n the plus side,鈥� says Carl, 鈥渋t鈥檚 reassuring to know that after civilisation collapses due to water wars or climate change, at least we鈥檒l have something to sweeten the pill.鈥�
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