Video Aspiring Astronaut Gideon Gidori Invents a New Holiday: Star Day (Video) 46
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Gideon wants to be an astronaut. You could even describe him as "space-obsessed." He wants to be the first astronaut from Tanzania. The only African to make it into space so far is Mark Shuttleworth, who is from South Africa. Can Gideon talk Elon Musk into launching from Tanzania, which is directly on the equator? How about bringing in other space buffs and entrepreneurs? Don't think this is a silly idea. Gideon is only 14, but he's a straight-A student at the Florida Air Academy, and before that was one of the top students at Shepherds Junior School in Arusha, which Mama Lucy Kamptoni originally financed by raising and selling chickens. Gideon's scholarships to Shepherds and later to Florida Air Academy have been financed in part by EpicChange.org, which is also helping him spread the word about Star Day (tomorrow; June 7), the holiday Gideon created, which is being celebrated all over the world even in this, its first year of existence. You can celebrate it, too. All you have to do, weather permitting, is sleep outdoors under the stars, and maybe make a wish or two. After all, wishing (and a lot of studying and hard work) have helped Gideon get to where he is today, and may yet help him become Tanzania's first astronaut.
Nope. (Score:3, Insightful)
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Mosquito netting.
sure....why not? (Score:1)
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Then one doesn't do much thinking at all. As a caucasian African I find your comment (or rather the attitude it represents) highly offensive.
Re: When one thinks of an African (Score:1)
Many, many years ago, my Egyptian co-worker chastised me for lamenting the lack of "African-Americans" (I was young and foolish*) at my office. He rather pointedly noted that Egypt is located in Africa, and that as a Copt his ancestors had been Africans for a very long time.
*Now married to a lovely Jamaican lady who rightly points out that she does not identify as "African-American" despite being Black. Apparently that's a Caribbean thing.
-1 Insensitive Clod (Score:1)
Once per earth year? You earthlings think your star and planet are superior to everyone else's....
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Once per earth year? You earthlings think your star and planet are superior to everyone else's....
Yeah. Let's go to Kashyyyk and celebrate Life Day.
Same thing, really. But without Boba Fett.
So... (Score:2)
SpaceX launch site in Tanzania? (Score:2)
Probably isn't going to happen. I won't say never, but the only time I could ever see SpaceX constructing a launch site that's outside of US territory is if they've both saturated the launch capacity of their American launch sites, and are also unable to secure the rights to any additional ones in the US with affordable deals.
Yes, I'm aware that SpaceX has a defunct launch pad in the Republic of the Marshall Islands on Omelek Island, but that's leased by the US military, so it's effectively US territory.
Apologies to Peter Quill (Score:2)
"You might know me by another name... Star Day"
Never mind...
Did roblimo actually look at a map... (Score:2)
before making such a silly suggestion?
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You mean a launch position on the Equator with a large ocean to the East? In a low-cost country with good port facilities and airports? That *is* kind of silly
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with a large ocean to the East?
Yes, it is silly.
Why? The US (where SpaceX "lives") is in the... West. On the other side of Africa.
Tanzania (better yet, Kenya, and even better: Northern Australia -- Darwin, for example) would be a good place for an eastern hemisphere country -- China or Japan -- to launch their rockets.
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I think the problem is less with Tanzania's latitude than ISS's inclination. ISS's inclination had to be accessible with launches from the US and Russia. Sadly, that inclination made it very useless as a jumping off point to anyplace in the solar system, including our Moon.
However, launching from the equator is energetically favorable if you are trying to send something to someplace beyond low earth orbit, to a geostationary orbit for example. The earth's rotation gives you an eastward velocity of about 100
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Of course, launching from the equator at the proper inclination may get you more payload en route than a direct eastward launch from the latitude of the ecliptic.
I wish he succeeds... (Score:1)
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Why does he deserve it? Just because he's "good"?
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Why does he deserve it? Just because he's "good"?
Good point.
A person without a dream is a tragedy unfolding.
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A person without a dream is a tragedy unfolding.
If that's what you think a tragedy is, then you've lived a waaaaaay too sheltered life.
A person without a dream is mundane.
But hell, maybe mundane people just have mundane dreams. If a guy is feeding his family and keeping a roof over their heads, then I see nothing wrong with his highest dream being to buy a little old house in an older suburb.
Re: Africans can't build a spaceship... (Score:2)
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That's a joke, right?
bigoted horn tooting
Seeing as how my ancestors are mostly Spanish, Norwegian, French & Scots-Irish, there's not actually much bigoted horn tooting.
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If you go back enough, your ancestors are African
Re: Africans can't build a spaceship... (Score:1)
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What -- specifically -- "WASP" idea am I spreading?
Directly on the equator (Score:2)
That would make Tanzania a good place to build a skyhook/orbital tower
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And they have Mt. Kilimanjaro, too.
Jebediah Kerman (Score:2)
Equator? Am I missing something? (Score:1)
At what point exactly does the equator run through Tanzania?
Last time i was in East Africa it ran through Nanyuki, Kenya - many miles north of TZ.