Project M Could Send Every Scientist To the Moon, By Proxy

An anonymous reader writes with this interesting bit of speculation: "NASA can put humanoids on the Moon in just 1000 days. They would be controlled by scientists on Earth using motion capture suits, giving them the feeling of being on the lunar surface. If they can achieve this for real, the results for science research of our satellite could be amazing."

Re:The speed of light is a bit of a problem

[colonelquesadilla]

You can't get instant feedback from the moon. There's a slight delay. So, it doesn't really feel like you are holding something in your hands unless you're standing still. It mostly feels like you're drunk when you operate a waldo with a delay. People are going to have to get trained to deal with that.

We train for that in grad school.

Not imitating art...

[fahrbot-bot]

Title of TFA:

NASA Project M Puts Scientists' Avatars On the Moon

Call me when they are 3m tall, blue, w/tail.

Science?

[piemcfly]

Science?! Screw science! You mean sports!

Become Lunar Boxing Heavy Weight Champion by punching an opponent into orbit!

Epic!

Re:Not imitating art...

[pcolaman]

Call me when they are 3m tall, blue, w/tits.

There, fixed it for ya

Re:Wikipedia + google calculator

[derGoldstein]

Depends. Suppose you saw another robot before he noticed you. You could take several shots at him before knowing whether the first shot hit, just to be on the safe side. It's a matter of knowing how to handle lag.

Re:The speed of light is a bit of a problem

[ultranova]

They also can't beam things to or from the ship when their shields are up, but there are a few times when they are able to calibrate the transporter to beam through enemy shields. If they can do that, can't they calibrate the transporters to work through their own shields?

No, because the laws of physics in Trek universe aren't stable, but change unpredictably from time to time. The locals have adapted to that and update their thinking without even noticing; those of us outside the continuum perceive changes as discontinuity.

It's amazing how widespread that phenomena is. This universe seems to be the only one with stable and self-consistent enough set of physics that you can apply them to problems logically. Here, if you can bypass enemy shields, you can bypass your own; in Trekverse, that phenomenom only works on enemy shields, and even then inconsistently, and the locals have evolved in such a way as to see nothing strange in that. It is truly a testament to the power of evolution that sentient beings can function - even build an interstellar empire - in such a chaotic mess of a world.

Re:Obvious Hoax

[ascari]

Lunacy if you ask me...