December 16
I got up a little bit early and wrote in my journal some—I hated to leave bed but Aquamarine and Cayenne were both sleeping together so they probably wouldn't miss me too much and I knew that if I didn't write in my journal some today I'd get way behind and maybe never catch up and I didn't want that to happen.
And then the three of us took a shower together and groomed and then went downstairs to meet our helpers.
There wasn’t breakfast at the hotel unless we wanted to order room service, but that was okay because Mister Salvatore said that we were going to stop on the way for breakfast. And so we drove out of the center of town and took a little detour to get to a Waffle House. It turned out that Aquamarine had never eaten at one so me and Cayenne and Mister Salvatore all told her what was good there, and she got covered hash browns and Cayenne got hers peppered and I had a waffle and eggs because I didn't like hash browns all that much.
Then we went back to the road we’d been on yesterday and this time when we got to the Kennedy Space Center we turned into their parking lot and went right by the big rocket that was in front, which were the booster rockets for the Space Shuttle, which was a special airplane that could fly in space.
The first place that we went was to the Heroes and Legends wall, which was outside and was a memorial to the pioneering American Astronauts who had first orbited Earth in their little capsules and then gone all the way to the moon. I'd seen one of them at the Air and Space museum and I thought I'd go crazy if I had to be stuck inside it for days at a time, but they'd done it.
And they also had what they called a rocket garden, and it had all the different rockets which America had used to get into space, from the Juno which was the first rocket to put an American satellite in space, and the Mercury rockets which carried astronauts up into space. And there was also a Saturn IB, which was even huger than the others—it was so big it had to be on its side 'cause if it was standing up it would be too tall, and the sign by that one said that it had been set aside in case it was needed for a rescue mission on Skylab, which was a space station before the International Space Station.
There was a room called the White Room which was where astronauts got ready to go into space and we could go in that, and then walk along the gangplank that had carried them into their spaceships. There were pictures of it being used and it was actually supposed to be way above the ground, on a tower but now it was set down low where we could get to it. And it also had a mission trainer that let us try and fly the Apollo which wasn't very easy at all, and I was glad that it didn't matter when we crashed. I think if we had had a training pilot with us, we could have done it, because I'd figured out how to fly airplane simulators and this was kinda the same.
Then we went to see the little space capsules, which were used for Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo. They weren't real, so you were allowed to get into them and they were really crowded for us. Everything was covered in buttons and switches and gauges and controls so that they could pilot their rocket and then navigate to the moon. I guess you'd just have to sleep in your seat, 'cause there weren't any beds, and you'd have to be really careful not to reach out and touch something that you weren't supposed to.
We went to the astronaut hall of fame next, which had a replica of the Space Shuttle outside of it. And its wings looked like they were too stubby to fly, but Mister Salvatore said that it went so fast that the stubby wings were all that it needed, and he explained how it had to set up for its landing when it was half a world away and then it glided all the way in. And it had special tiles on the bottom that absorbed the heat and one time they had gotten damaged and the space shuttle Columbia had burned up in the atmosphere because it got too hot.
Inside, they had reliefs of the most famous astronauts, and it said what they were famous for, and I read all of them before I went to look at anything else. Maybe they couldn't fly on their own like I could, but they were brave enough to take tiny little rockets into space just to explore.
They had space suits on display, which looked kind of like diving suits but instead of holding pressure out they had to hold it in because there was no pressure in space. And they also had to keep the astronaut cool, because even though it got colder and colder when you flew higher, once you got to space it got hot again because there was nothing stopping the sunlight.
There was also a big moon rock, but it was fake, because the real one was too precious to put out in the open. And I said that there was also a moon rock at the Smithsonian but I hadn't been able to touch it, 'cause my hoof wouldn't fit in the display.
So when we were done looking around in there, we went to the Space Shuttle building which had a real space shuttle on display, and there were lots of other displays that explained how they had been designed and built and pictures of it riding on the back of a normal airplane which was really neat. It couldn't fly very well on Earth, because it couldn't go fast enough on its own, so it had to be carried around by a Boeing 747.
And they had a memorial to the two crews who had been lost with their shuttles, which was sad. Going to space was dangerous, and humans were really bold to try it.
They had a hooves-on simulator where you could try and fly the space shuttle and it was a lot more like a real airplane but faster, and so we all took turns and I was the best at it. You could dock with the International Space Station and land on Earth, and it was very helpful and told you what you needed to do. The controls weren't very hoof-friendly, though, and we needed a little bit of help from Mister Barrow. I thought with some practice I could probably fly the real thing, as long as there was someone telling me what I needed to do.
Then we went to a big display about the Hubble Space Telescope and I knew a bunch about that from my astronomy class. They had a model of it, too, and I hadn't expected it to be so big. I guess it made sense, though: I knew that the bigger the telescope, the further you could see with it.
And there was a short movie just about how astronauts had fixed it when it was up in space and they'd found out that it was broken, 'cause the mirror had been made wrong.
After that, we went to see the International Space Station, which let you go inside to see what it was like. And it was kind of crowded, too, and I don't think that I'd want to spend too much time inside of it, but humans were living there for months at a time until a spaceship came to take them back to Earth, and they were doing important experiments up there in space.
So I told Aquamarine and Cayenne how I'd seen it going by, 'cause Sean had showed me where it was. And there was a computer where you could look up when it was going to pass overhead and it looked like we might be able to see it on the 17th, although it would be before the sun set so it might be really hard to see. But Sean had told me that if you knew where to look you could see it during the day, so I was hopeful that we might get a chance.
Then we got to go on board the Space Shuttle Launch Simulator and got a mission briefing from an astronaut called Charles Bolden. And the seats weren't too comfortable and it was kind of bumpy inside and it was so loud when it took off that we all pinned our ears and I accidentally hit Cayenne with my wing.
And then something went wrong and red lights started flashing and for a moment I forgot that it was all fake and almost flew out of my seat to safety, and then the roof opened and we could see the Earth below us.
We ate lunch at the Rocket Garden Cafe, and I had mahi mahi tacos, which were really good. I offered to share them, ‘cause I got two, but neither Aquamarine or Cayenne wanted to try one.
After lunch, were supposed to go and see the launch from the Saturn V center, but Mister Salvatore told us that the launch had been scrubbed and they were going to have to reschedule it, which was really disappointing. But he said we could still go to the Saturn V center if we wanted to, or we could spend some more time here first.
Since we hadn’t seen everything here, I wanted to stay where we were. So we went and got to watch a movie about how NASA wanted to send people to visit Mars. They weren’t sure yet how they were going to do it because it was going to be a very long trip, and when they got to Mars there might not be any water or air—there was supposed to be some water maybe but they hadn’t found it yet, even though lots of robots were crawling around Mars looking for it. And they had a bunch of pictures from the surfaces of Mars, ‘cause the robots had cameras so you could see what they saw.
There were a lot of theories on how it could be done, but nobody was really sure if it would work. It wasn’t like Star Wars or Star Trek, where people could sail through space pretty easily.
Cayenne said that she’d seen a movie called The Martian which was about a man who was stuck on Mars and so she really paid attention to everything that they said in the museum, ‘cause we both knew that movies weren’t really real. But she said that a lot of stuff in the movie was pretty close to being real.
When we were done looking at everything that they had at the Kennedy Space Center, we went outside and waited for a bus to take us to the next part of the museum, ‘cause it was so big that they needed a bus to get from one place in it to another. And when we were outside we found a big globe that had all the constellations on it and it was floating on a little cushion of water so you could turn it easily even though it was really heavy. I guess it was supposed to be for kids to play with but it was fun for us, too. I was kinda curious who could turn it the fastest, but both Aquamarine and Cayenne were wearing shoes and thought that they might damage it by mistake, so we didn’t try.
The whole complex was pretty open, ‘cause rockets needed a lot of space. Mister Salvatore said that sometimes they exploded on the launch pad, too, so you didn’t want to have anything too close to where they took off.
When we got over there we went right inside and the building had a Saturn V rocket inside, which was what they had used to get to the moon, and it was immense. It wasn’t as big as a skyscratcher or the Mackinac Bridge, but those things didn’t move and the rocket did, and it not only moved but it flew all the way into space. And most of it fell off before it got there, ‘cause it was built in sections and when each section ran out of fuel it would fall off to make the rocket lighter which was actually really clever the more I thought about it. It was like how a diver could drop her weights when she wanted to go back up.
And they had a command module, which I had seen before, and also a lunar module which was the part of the spaceship that landed on the moon. It looked kind of like an insect, and there were pictures showing how it worked, and how part of it could fly back off of the moon and go back to the command module to return the astronauts to Earth. It was a little strange to think about how the astronauts had their big Saturn V rocket when they left Earth and when they came back they just had a little capsule. It would be like if a sailing ship left for Prance and all that came back was one dory.
Then we went and watched a movie that was about the Apollo mission to the moon, and it showed us what the command center was like. I told everyone that I’d gotten to see a space command center in Colorado, ‘cause Peggy’s mom had taken me there. That hadn’t been quite as exciting as the one in the movie, because just putting satellites in space and keeping them from crashing into each other was fairly routine for humans, but going to the moon wasn’t, especially since they were racing the Communists there.
And since they won, America got to put a flag on the moon and then nobody else could.
Then we got to look at another sliver of moon rock and this one was real and it was inside a little glass cover that let humans touch it but not ponies which was really unfair. Even when Aquamarine stuck her muzzle right up to the edge she couldn’t quite get to it and Cayenne said that maybe she could take the top cover off with her magic but Mister Barrow told her that she shouldn’t do that because we’d get kicked out of the museum. And I did get my wingtip on it but I couldn’t really feel it properly with just feathers. So we were all feeling a little bit sad about that until Miss Cherilyn reminded us that I could fly and Cayenne could use magic and Aquamarine could bring plants forth and nohuman could do any of those things, and that made us feel a lot better.
It had been really fun seeing everything and I wished that we could stay longer, but we had other plans for the evening and the museum was closing pretty soon anyway. So we went back outside and waited for the bus to take us back to the Space Center.
We had a little bit of time to look through the gift shop and they had lots of things that I liked there but I couldn’t afford to buy everything that caught my eye and even if I could I couldn’t take it all back to Equestria with me (and where would I put it when I got there?). So I got a book that was about space exploration and had lots of beautiful pictures and also some astronaut ice cream, ‘cause Mister Salvatore said that I’d probably be able to take that through the portal and my friends would like how weird it was. And maybe if I was feeling like pulling their tails, I could tell them that all human ice cream was like that.
Then we got back in the Suburban and Mister Salvatore drove us back to Orlando, and I had to decide what I wanted to do tonight.
Aquamarine was going to go see a basketball game—the Orlando Magic was playing the Brooklyn Nets in the stadium that was right by our hotel. And Cayenne had decided that instead of watching the basketball game she wanted to go to Hamburger Mary’s. That was a bar that had drag queens, who were men that dressed up to look like women, and that sounded pretty interesting, too. I couldn’t be both places at once, so I had to choose and I didn’t know which would be better.
I didn’t know much about basketball, but it was probably a lot like football, and it was really fun to be with a big group of people all cheering on the team, so that was a good reason to go with Aquamarine; on another hoof, there was still a lot I didn’t understand about human fashion and so I might learn something new if I went with Cayenne, and I also hadn’t spent a whole lot of time with her which was kinda unfriendly of me.
I wasn’t sure if she’d had as much fun on our vacation as me and Aquamarine, except for yesterday at the beach, ‘cause she was really social and playing in swamps and visiting rocket gardens wasn’t all that social.
Making a choice is really hard sometimes. Humans like to toss coins when they can’t choose things, and I suppose I could have asked one of our helpers for a coin—I could have even had them toss it for me—but I thought I’d just use the traditional pegasus method and so I closed my eyes and waited a minute and then started watching out the window to see what kind of bird I’d spot next. And it wasn’t too long before I saw a blue-grey bird soaring around and I didn’t know exactly what it was called but it looked hawky, so that meant I was going to go to Hamburger Mary’s with Cayenne.
We didn’t stop for dinner on the way back to Orlando, ‘cause me and Cayenne could get food at the bar, and Aquamarine was gonna get food at the basketball game.
The stadium and the bar were really close to each other, and to the hotel, too, so we drove back to the hotel and parked the Suburban and then we all walked to the stadium first. We had to go under the highway and across railroad tracks to get there, and it was really strange to see it while on hoof. I kind of wanted to fly up and stick my head above the barriers just for the fun of it but Mister Salvatore said I shouldn’t because I’d probably cause another traffic accident if I did.
Mister Salvatore and Mister Barrow went with Aquamarine to the basketball game and us ponies all nuzzled before she went inside, and I had a moment to change my mind, if I'd wanted to and I kind of did, 'cause it looked like it would be fun, but I'd made my choice and I was gonna stick with it.
So we walked a block back to Hamburger Mary's, and they had a sign with a mermaid (which is a human seapony) on it, and it was right by the railroad tracks which was probably really convenient for people, 'cause there was a train stop right by it.
There were lots of people in there and we had to look around a bit before we found a table where we could sit, and I laughed when Miss Parker and Miss Cherilyn got out a quarter and tossed it to decide who the designated drinker was. And Miss Parker won, so when our waitress came around she ordered a Long Island Iced Tea, and Miss Cherilyn got a Coke.
Cayenne got a whiskey sour and I ordered a white russian, and then the waitress asked us if we wanted to order any appetizers but we hadn’t decided on what we wanted to eat yet, ‘cause we were still looking at the menu.
When the waitress came back with our drinks we still hadn’t decided on food yet. Cayenne ordered a second whiskey sour even though she hadn’t even started on her first, but as soon as the waitress had left she drank the whole thing at once instead of sipping at it like a sensible pony. And Miss Cherilyn took a deep breath and looked longingly at Miss Parker’s Long Island Iced Tea.
When she came back with Cayenne’s second drink, we’d figured out what we wanted for an appetizer. I got a quesadilla and Cayenne wanted to order Mary’s Hot Legs, which were spicy chicken wings. And it kind of bothered me that she wanted to eat chicken wings, more than when people ate them, because it didn’t seem right for a pony to. Cayenne insisted that it was proper bar food though, and I guess if that was what she liked it was okay. She never got mad when I ate fish, so I guess I shouldn’t be upset if she wanted wings.
Our waitress was expecting us to know what we wanted as our main course, but we hadn’t figured that out yet, so she went off to tell the chefs what to cook for us.
By the time we got our food, the bar was getting pretty packed. And then three people came up on the little stage that they had and started singing, and they were all men dressed like women but they could have fooled me. I think maybe if I’d been close enough to sniff them I might have been able to tell, but from back where we were sitting they looked exactly like women. And the three of them started singing and they all had beautiful voices. They were called Ginger Minj, The Minx, and Aysia Black. She He was really pretty and looked a lot like Tina who had lived downstairs from me, except that he had slightly darker skin.
By the time they’d finished their first set of songs, I’d had three drinks and was ready for some more food, and I don’t know how many Cayenne had had. The waitress kept coming over and bringing her more. And then a man (I think) wearing a big feathered cape went up and joined them on stage and they all sang a song called It’s Raining Men.
It was getting louder, ‘cause everyone was really getting into the performance, and even Miss Parker was clapping and singing along as the four of them sang, and then when the song was over Ginger Minj pointed to us and said how good it was to see ponies in the crowd and Cayenne got up and wiggled her rump and then she got invited up to the stage to sing with them.
She was a really good singer, even after she’d had a lot to drink, and I guess that she knew a lot of human songs, ‘cause she sang one called Don’t Let the Sun go Down on Me with them. That was a song that I’d never heard, and it was really beautiful.
Our main course came while she was still up on stage singing, and our helpers were both looking up there watching her, and even though I probably shouldn’t have I was curious and maybe had had a bit too much to drink already, so I took a little nibble out of the corner of her buffalo chicken sandwich and it was a bit spicier than I liked but the chicken was pretty tasty. It tasted kinda like tuna, but less fishy.
And then I felt really bad for eating a bird, even though it was okay to do that on Earth. And I also felt bad for eating her food, although when she came back she didn’t notice that the corner of her sandwich had been bitten off.
Later on, when we’d finished our meal and had more to eat she got me to come up to the stage too, and we sang Renegades and I had to hum for some of the song ‘cause I couldn’t remember the words. It’s strange how you can have a song in your head but when you go to sing it you can’t remember quite what it’s like. And then we sang Razzle Dazzle, which The Minx also knew, and he sang along with us, and there were a couple of people in the audience who did, too, even though it was in Equestrian. It was really weird to be singing that and hearing people singing along and I had tears in my eyes when it was over. And there was so much applause after we’d finished, even though none of us were as good as Countess Coloratura.
And before we left stage we got big hugs from all the drag queens and the man in the feather cape, and then on the way back to our table we got more hugs and hoofbumps and then there were new drinks waiting cause someone had bought them for us which was really nice of them.
We didn’t leave until it was pretty late and we staggered back to our hotel singing The Magic Inside, and I was glad that the hotel was really close ‘cause I was having trouble walking and I think I would have flown except that I was following Miss Cherilyn who was the only one who remembered where we were going. Cayenne had gotten a cigarette from someone and was smoking that as we walked—she’d used her magic to light it, and I thought she looked really human because of it. She was a lot drunker than I was, and could barely walk straight and I finally decided to carry her but she was heavier than she looked and I was struggling to walk with her draped over my back. I was glad that Miss Cherilyn knew where to go, ‘cause we would have gotten completely lost otherwise and maybe been wandering around Orlando until we sobered back up.
Aquamarine wasn’t back yet when we got to our room, and it took both of us to get our door open, ‘cause neither of us could remember how the plastic card was supposed to work. And then we both collapsed in bed together and I sort of wanted to stay awake until Aquamarine got back but I was too tired.
Silver Glow is such a sweet pony. She always feels bad when she does something somewhat wrong. I am sure Cayenne would've mind to share her food.
critation needed ?
Silvers first morning as Cayenne is going to be pretty funny i guess. And she has another hangover incoming hahaha
A pity.. Silver spent all that happy time looking round all the human achievements and exhibits, then did her best to immediately erase it all from her memory.
Hopefully she can try again tomorrow. this time with a launch.
Don't let anyone tell Silver the real reason behind the space race, I don't think it would make her happy.
Oh, YEAH. Let's just say you're probably lucky you went in there with an armed escort.
I'm not old enough to remember Sputnik (just a kid) but I'm old enough to remember the Space Race. Original Star Trek, Ensign Chekov being Russian was controversial. The Russians got so far ahead of us because Eisenhower wouldn't back space exploration. Ground Control & other stuff is in Texas because Johnson was Senate Majority Leader at the time & that was his price.
The part about planting flags, under international law you get there first you can claim it. Since the USA didn't, theoretically no one can claim it & it is the common property of humanity.
7957045
Well, isn't that what the journal is for?
Whatever you do, Silver, don't tell Princess Twilight about it!
I hope there's a few chapters from when she goes back to Equestria and goes through her reverse culture shock before the journal ends.
IIRC, it was actually body heat that wasn't radiated away because of the vacuum.
Well, the combined "tacos talking" would've killed everyone. x.x
Sometimes they also "rapidly disassembled" just over the Launchpad and the Launchpad crew had to evacuate.
I'll bet Mister Mustang Man Salvatore told her that.
Technically, anyone could. As long as they can send their own flag over. With their own spacecraft. No, they can't borrow the Saturn V.
The part hawky-bird in you shouldn't feel bad, Silver Glow.
... And still no DIDNEY WORL?
Johnson Space Center here in Houston has a Saturn V. That thing is the size of a football field.
7957329
That was just a whole bunch of d'aww.
How very meta.
I'm rather surprised that Silver managed to get into the mock capsule given how bad her claustrophobia normally is, maybe she subconsciously feels better where there are other ponies around her.
Wow Cayenne really is a party mare isn't she, and possible edging towards being an alcoholic how quickly she was going through her drinks.
It's interesting that some Equestrian song's have made their may over onto Earth and in the original language as well. I wonder where they were recorded, in Equestria? or did Coloratura do a tour of Earth?
Where were were
Where we were maybe?
If Miss Silver Glow believes that a Saturn ⅠB is large, wait until she will see a Saturn Ⅴ.
¿What did I write?
The Outer Space Treaty clearly states that nations and individuals cannot claim as territory or property astronomical objects. Anyone can put a flag on anything.
One can stake claims and exploit the claim, but the claims are valid only as long as one exploits them; abandoned claims can be claim-jumped. In one wants, one one can put down a picket-fence and build an house on the Moon and one would own the land inside the picket-fence, but only as long as one resides in the house. The house is one's property, as are the pickets in the fence, but if one abandons the house, the others could stake a claim to the land.
Objects one launches or builds in space are one's property; others may not steal, damage, or destroy them. One is responsible for damages one's property causes. As 2 examples, the Soviet Union had to pay Canada damages when a nuclear satellite crashed in Canada and the United States of America had to pay the Commonwealth of Australia damages when Skylab crashed. into Australia. The Outer Space Treaty says so.
The Outer Space Treaty also bans weapons of mass destruction in space.
7957329
¡Correct! Solar burden does not help either, but the big o of the problem that that the only way to rid of heat isradiation. The way spacesuits take care of the problem is using the phasechange of water, which sprinklers spray over the radiatorpanels* which evaporates into space, taking the heat with it.
* ⸘When will people get it through their thick skulls that those things on TIE-Fighters are Radiatorplanels —— not Solar Panels‽
7958328
When the authors stop calling them solar panels. Although some authors (Traviss I think) did imply they do both.
Also the space suits are also hot even in atmosphere, the design is very well insulated (although I believe it's mostly just a side effect.)
(When are they going to be getting their new suits? I remember seeing some designs a few years back that were much less cumbersome)
If the display was designed to be touched, I'd guess the museum staff could likely be talked into opening it for the VIP space alien ponies and their federal agent guides...
7958452
It is the necessity of multiple layers.
One problem we had with Apollo is that the in the J-Class-Missions, with multiple spacewalks, as regolith built up in the white fabric of the spacesuit, the spacesuits would absorb more sunlight, thus exacerbating the cooling problem. If we would not have cancelled Apollo and would have built a MoonBase and landed humans on Mars, we would have switched to hard-shelled spacesuits instead of having an outer-layer of cloth, which could not have gritty regolith ground into its surface. Also, bringing regolith into the living environment is not healthy as the sharp corners of particle in regolith damages lungs and may have toxic components.
Sad ponies! Code Omega! Alright Agent Cherilyn, this is what you've trained for!
....
Crisis averted! Good job! Stand down!
s24.postimg.org/m2me4ugzp/O1da9r7.png
What's the system? Raptor vs songbird?
7957001
She is a sweetie, isn't she?
7957018
static3.businessinsider.com/image/4f3cec5669bedd3c5e00003d-480/american-flag-moon.jpg
Poor Silver Glow doesn't always know her limits.
7957045
7957138
She might understand it, though, since the three tribes weren't always seeing eye-to-eye. If they'd been more advanced, maybe they would have had a space race instead of fighting each other and driving all of themselves to the brink of extinction.
7957204
It can't be all that bad, can it? It's just a drag bar.
Not that long ago I read an article about that, in fact, and of course I can't find it now.
Maybe Silver Glow should fly up there and plant an Equestrian flag, to claim it for all of equinity.
7957206
"Oh, so that's what I did yesterday. Interesting."
7957279
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7957310
There are, indeed.
7957329
I'm not sure how it all works. Thermal physics in space are well outside my knowledge.
Quite possibly, they would.
Dynamic disassembly . . . always a problem.
Who else would?
This is why ponies need to build spacecraft.
That's true. And Earth chickens probably aren't smarter than fish.
7957332
Those things are amazingly huge. It's hard to believe that they can actually fly.
I've never seen one in person, although I'd love to.
7957353
7957574
Getting into a machine is different for her than getting underground. It's more the weight of the Earth pushing down that scares her.
Yeah, there's a risk of that for Cayenne for sure. She likes to party a little too much.
Probably at the very beginning, there was a huge desire to get Equestrian things (and vice versa), and Coloratura was one of the ponies who took advantage of that.
7957696
Correction made; thank you!
7958301
Myself and a few others had this argument in philosophy class, and it came down to 'if you were to farm the moon, you'd own it.'
Interesting--do they spray it externally (so it's lost) or keep it contained, like an AC system on a car?
7958452
I think that any suit that you're designing for protection from heat or cold is gonna have to be insulated.
I have no idea. I haven't heard anything about them, but then I'm not exactly on top of things when it comes to what NASA's doing.
7959642
The helpers are almost certainly trained in making sad ponies feel better. Mister Salvatore might have even gotten nuzzle training.
7960099
Neil DeGrasse Tyson is a total badass.
7974972
Hawky birds, ducky birds, and chirpy (or tweety) birds.
8033053
And Fly Luna to the Moon~
8033092
Yes, but not the whole Moon, only the part you farm, and only as long as you farm it.
An undefined area is salvage:
The Outerspace Treaty states that objects in space belong to those who put them there in perpetuity. We would want to allow salvage, but every time it comes negotiate, we have those fearing that anything left alone for 5 minutes being claimed as salvage versus those complaining that they should not have to wait forever to salvage clearly abandoned material.
The water sublimates to space. Here is an article:
Primary Life-Support System
8033018
The Outerspace Treaty says that people and nations cannot seize possession of astronomical objects. Besides, if planting flags means ownership, then the USSR-Pendants Luna 2 scattered onto the Moon in 1959 would mean that the Soviet Union owns the Moon:
The USSR-Pendants of Luna 2
upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/16/Kansas_Cosmosphere_Luna_2_Pennant_2013.JPG
8034128
We figured that out about farming the moon--it would only count if you were actively farming it.
Salvage . . . that's interesting. I know marine law is very complicated when it comes to salvage, although that of course is a different situation. And I get the 'in perpetuity' clause; we wouldn't want someone to 'salvage' the reflector that we left on the moon, for example.
8033252
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8041812
Even after we workout rules for salvage, the retroreflectors would not count because they are not abandoned; we still use them. Indeed, they are a public good because anyone can use them. This brings up another issue:
¿How should we protect sites of of cultural significance?
According to the OuterSpace Treaty, only the Government of the United States of American can remove things from the site of Apollo 11, but anyone can trample over the site. After we workout salvagelaw, ¿how do we exclude Snoopy?*
* A real ApolloFan catches the reference.
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Although 'use' is potentially open to debate, since they're just a convenient spot to bounce
spellslasers off the moon. Nobody touches them or maintains them. One could argue that they're like an abandoned lighthouse--people may still use it for navigation, but it's not maintained any more, and the government can't guarantee that it will remain (in much the same way that a meteor might wipe out the reflectors). I'm not saying that that's the right argument, just that it's a potential argument.That's a good question. It's something that we struggle with on Earth, so I can only imagine how complicated it might be on the moon. The good news is that for now, people can't easily get there, so the sites will likely stay protected from human agency for the foreseeable future.
beaverbeacon.com/lighthouse-quest/lighthouse-quest-panorama-waugoshance-point-light.jpg
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About salvage, the SpaceReview, just wrote about the legal problems with SpaceSalvage and how we might deal with them:
The SpaceReview: Taking salvage in outer space from fiction to fact
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Huh. I did know about maritime law, and I was actually going to suggest that they adopt a similar strategy. So, hypothetically, if the moon rover were in peril (say, there's an asteroid heading for it), someone could theoretically salvage it, and basically get a lien on the property as as result of his efforts [ignoring the warship clause]; however, just taking it to bring it back to Earth is basically piracy. Arguably, even piracy on the high seas.
Huh. The drag queen scene gave me the mental image of a pegasus stallion hopping up there in princess regalia with a cardboard horn stuck on his head and a starry wig singing The Moon Rises.
Maybe that cider I had with dinner was a lil off...
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Pinkie could totally pull off the fake alicorn look.
images.gr-assets.com/books/1427044600l/25195892.jpg
I do think a cross-dressing stallion would be pretty awesome, though. Heck, maybe Big Mac would do it--he's cross-dressed before and he dreams of being a princess. . . .
Not any more, ma chere.
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Are you referring to how Trump wants to have a mars mission by the end of his first term? That would be an impressive project, although there's about zero chance of it actually happening, and that's even if the administration starts funneling boatloads of money to NASA.
Wait. What does he mean by "another"?
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Correction made; thank you!
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She mentions in passing on one of her flights between Battle Creek and Kalamazoo, a couple cars below her on the highway crash into each other. I can't remember which chapter that was.
I read this as:
(Damn filly, those were some good hash browns!)
Oh well.
Also, how did Silver not get a front row seat to Cayenne in action. I was certain she'd want to sample some local drag queen flavor. Did the handlers finally manage to get to her?! Quick! Cayenne needs 150 CCs of action, stat! (Even sneaking off for a quickie didn't happen!)
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Probably picking a food fight with the earth pony would be a bad idea. Aquamarine's got a fearsome kick, after all.
Cayenne was probably too drunk for a quickie, poor girl. Although if they'd gone to Hamburger Mary's a second time, she might have tried to pick up one of the drag queen.
Aw... I think I melted a little when I read that part.
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I remember reading in Reader's Digest Personal Glimpses that one time Kissinger went out & completely forgot what hotel he was staying at but the cab driver knew because he'd seen it in the newspapers
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Kissinger seems like the kind of guy who would forget what hotel he was staying at. Probably the world would have been better off if the cab driver had just dropped him off the edge of a pier or something like that.
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Somewhere behind AK Yearling, who managed to be sitting in a chair across from a very surprised book publisher exec about three seconds after any sort of diplomatic relations started, to talk about a book deal. No one questions how she got to Earth and into the office without anyone noticing.
D'awwww cute pony pile, would hate to leave it too, but can't be sleeping all day, and two ponies snuggling together means they aren't alone.
Dutiful journaling pone is dutiful, and mayhaps channeling the author a bit.
Once again, you are your hash brown hatred.
Well, she's not wrong about the shuttle being a space aircraft.
Yeah, space capsules not good places for pegasi.
Some movie has to exist where some old, special rocket set aside for a rescue mission in space proves the key to saving the world somehow.
Yeah, important thing NASA has learned, don't let ponies just hope into your space craft and start trying to pilot them. Maybe start them out with some Kerbal Space Program.
That has got to impress pegasi, the thing flies so fast, it need to aim for it's runway from half a planet away because it won't have time to fix an error.
And flying pone has mad respect for those insane humans that can't fly on their own, yet don't let that stop them from trying to reach the stars.
Well, true the sunlight can heat things up, the bigger issue is there simply isn't a good way to shed heat in space.
Humans need to fix that stupid moon rock touching hole for ponies,
And cue the chain of logic story about how one of the factors that went into determining the design of the space shuttles, was the width of two horses asses.
Of course the pony with actual flight sim experience is the one who crashes the least badly.
Red lights start flashing, and the pegasus just flies out the nearest exit leaving the rest to simulate crashing and burning.
She finally finds out about fish tacos. Took her long enough. That's like, her version of Reese's Peanut Butter cups.
Bad NASA, running a little ponies hopes of seeing big metal tube go flying. She can take care of the weather for you.
Yeah, The Martian is pretty damn real, went out of their way to make everything in it actually work.
Well, lots of overlap between kids and ponies when it comes to having fun.
Yeah, big thing that moves is more impressive then even bigger thing that doens't.
Smart pone understands the purpose of electable rocket stages.
Some certain agent has taught her well. "We got there first, it's our flag, it's ours."
Watching pony trying to lick the moon rock, so cute, and so... ick at the same time.
Unicorns, breaking security experts minds since first contact.
Yes, very good at making ponies feel better, no let ponies be upset, plus, hey, you've got a Princess who CONTROLS the moon, that's way better.
Pony wants ALL the cool space things but doens't have the space!
Now she's planning how she can troll other ponies about things on Earth. She's been taught too well.
Meh, basketball games just... meh... but of course party pone wants to hit up the famous bar to see humans being even odder then usual.
Pony dilemma, what friend to go spend time with.
Pony cars about even her silly friend who isn't into all the clearly awesome cool stuff having a good time.
The birds decide all!
That would be one hell of a reaction from anyone on the road, a pony just hovers up from the side of the road to stare at them.
Of course the dudes went to the sports ball game.
Mermaid=Human seapony. Well, she's not wrong.
One of them needs to stay sober enough to try and avoid the need to bail the rest out of jail, and they've both heard enough stories about Cayenne to know neither of them wants to be that one.
And she starts right in on the drunk pony gettin drunk fun. Yeah, someone is regretting having to be all responsible and sober.
Now even the non-birdy pones are getting into things, see, flesh craving is real!
Well, yeah hot wings are bar food, and good on Silver being all "You do you" even if it freaks her the hell out.
"You humans look all alike when clothed, how can I mares and stallions apart?" Well, without being close enough for pony sniffer to reveal all secrets.
Just damn girl... I'm not sure if Equestria has liver transpplants, might want to go easy there.
All love ponies, and having ponies around!
And by now, hopping up and waving your ass a any human that shows the least bit of interest is just instinctive habit for her, isn't it?
I bet she's had lots of practice and karaoke.
Don't blame the drinks, pony is curious about how forbidden flesh tastes.
So, for pegasi, they use 'taste like tuna' as the baseline for any meat that they don't know how else to call it?
Silly guilty pone, always feels bad about the littlest things.
Drunk pony singing time!
D'awwww, pony pop music FTW, of course humans would be all over trying to get as much culture from the first non-humans we've met. Especially when it's that damn catchy.
And just...just D'awwwww so much pony love! So awesome!
Even free drinks, just, treat those ponies right!
And why you need at least one person sober enough to get the drunks back to the room. It's why every liberty group going ashore in a foreign port had to have a declared non-drinker among them. Don't need a repeat of the idiot crewman in Greece who got drunk off his ass, wandered off into town with no idea where he was, found a house he thought looked like his or something, went in, and crawled into bed with grandma.