GasBandit
Staff member
That picture, while pretty, drives me up the wall.
First of all, why would a ready-to-launch shuttle just be left on the launch gantry? I can't even imagine a nuclear attack on orlando would precipitate "Welp, let's just leave this here and forget about it!" It would... really stretching my brain and my credulity here, but it would literally need a zombie outbreak that began with the seven astronauts on board and spread unchecked from the shuttle in every direction and never got stopped, which seems silly for as much security as there is at Cape Canaveral.
Second of all, Morbo engage: SEDIMENTATION DOES NOT WORK THAT WAY GOOD NIGHT! Dirt and rock doesn't just find the nearest tall structure to climb! In order for dirt to be "clinging" to the launch vehicle in that matter (and look, there are clumps all the way to the tip of the fuel tank), the shuttle would to have to have been completely buried for a long time, and then have the mountain it became be eroded away by.. what, wind? This entire process would take SO LONG that before the shuttle even got halfway buried the metal parts would corrode and rot away - or at least have several parts fall off.
So basically what we have here is a scenario, where an astronaut turns zombie when the shuttle is about to launch, manages to somehow get out of his restraints and savage the other crew members, and mission control's decision on how to handle this is "Welp, gotta bury it. Bring ALL the dirt! " /alliebrosh
Then, a few dozen thousand years later, this.
First of all, why would a ready-to-launch shuttle just be left on the launch gantry? I can't even imagine a nuclear attack on orlando would precipitate "Welp, let's just leave this here and forget about it!" It would... really stretching my brain and my credulity here, but it would literally need a zombie outbreak that began with the seven astronauts on board and spread unchecked from the shuttle in every direction and never got stopped, which seems silly for as much security as there is at Cape Canaveral.
Second of all, Morbo engage: SEDIMENTATION DOES NOT WORK THAT WAY GOOD NIGHT! Dirt and rock doesn't just find the nearest tall structure to climb! In order for dirt to be "clinging" to the launch vehicle in that matter (and look, there are clumps all the way to the tip of the fuel tank), the shuttle would to have to have been completely buried for a long time, and then have the mountain it became be eroded away by.. what, wind? This entire process would take SO LONG that before the shuttle even got halfway buried the metal parts would corrode and rot away - or at least have several parts fall off.
So basically what we have here is a scenario, where an astronaut turns zombie when the shuttle is about to launch, manages to somehow get out of his restraints and savage the other crew members, and mission control's decision on how to handle this is "Welp, gotta bury it. Bring ALL the dirt! " /alliebrosh
Then, a few dozen thousand years later, this.
fade
Staff member
Hey, if we're rolling up sleeves, I can point out, as a professional geologist, how that could happen. The simplest way is to drop it in a basin, which isn't so strange in the land of sinkholes. Then you'd need some uplift, which the artist seems to have actually anticipated, given the surprisingly well drawn tilted sedimentary layers. The only thing that really requires strong suspension of disbelief is that the shuttle is somehow more resistant to weathering and erosion than the rock layers.
GasBandit
Staff member
What are the chances of a sinkhole that big (and the subsequent uplift) keeping the gantry perfectly upright and NOT dumping the LV over on its side at any point in the process?
figmentPez
Staff member
A wizard did it. No one said this was a science fiction drawing. It could be urban fantasy. Dimensional rift opens up and merges the shuttle with a small mountain.
GasBandit
Staff member
That's not the gantry. That's the crawler for moving the assembled vehicle *to* the gantry.
GasBandit
Staff member
Yes, but really that thing only has two places they park it, and clearly it's not at the Assembly building. Unless we're meant to believe it broke down halfway between the launch pad and the VAB and there wasn't time to fix it? It's believable the support structure would also fall apart after weathering.
I would like to say that my belief-suspending dampers were automatically triggered upon viewing the picture, so I was saved from falling too far into Dwightitude.
...until you folks started picking it apart afterwards.
I guess all I'm saying is that I wouldn't have drawn it.
--Patrick
Not nearly as evocative that way.
Maybe instead if rock have it encased in trees and vines or so.
That house was later found completely abandoned, the occupant's location still unknown.
I feel this could have been handled better.
Taped to the wrong door...
If any of your coworkers are gay, you may not get the reaction you're expecting. Less "....holy sh*!" And more "Ew! Someone peed on this and left it on my desk!"
"@stienman, your wife left you a message again."
Ok this is not a picture, but a news story. I don't want it to have its own thread. I think this is the most appropriate place for it.
Doctors Remove Potato From Woman's Vagina
Doctors Remove Potato From Woman's Vagina
So I guess that means she was pretty fertile...
I think someone suggested she sow her wild oats, but she misunderstood and she sowed a potato instead.
figmentPez
Staff member
If it weren't for the people, it could almost be an electron microscope image.
Looks like a screenshot from Diablo.
