Author Topic: Webcomic-The Meridian Way  (Read 56296 times)

Offline lamontagne

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Re: Webcomic-The Meridian Way
« Reply #20 on: 04/02/2022 12:38 am »
Page 3 coming up!

Offline lamontagne

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Re: Webcomic-The Meridian Way
« Reply #21 on: 04/03/2022 03:13 pm »
Page 4.  Would particularly appreciate opinions on the technology displayed.  The spherical drones are something of a classic, the phone may have reached it's optimum form factor and still be in use in the future, baring the generalization of direct interfaces?  A dosimeter patch is in a fact one of three or four that Lucy wears as a matter of course. 

The page structure is inspired mainly by a similar arrangement used many years ago by Gotlib in one of the Dingodossiers, or possibly the latter Rah Lovely compendiums.  It also goes back to Haddock's morning routine in The Calculus affair.

Offline SpeakertoAnimals

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Re: Webcomic-The Meridian Way
« Reply #22 on: 04/03/2022 04:01 pm »
Page 4.  Would particularly appreciate opinions on the technology displayed.  The spherical drones are something of a classic, the phone may have reached it's optimum form factor and still be in use in the future, baring the generalization of direct interfaces?  A dosimeter patch is in a fact one of three or four that Lucy wears as a matter of course. 

The page structure is inspired mainly by a similar arrangement used many years ago by Gotlib in one of the Dingodossiers, or possibly the latter Rah Lovely compendiums.  It also goes back to Haddock's morning routine in The Calculus affair.
I think the dosimeter patch could be a much more comprehensive device, monitoring external environment, atmosphere (gas mixtures, temperature, etc.), all radiation including UV, and the like, along with internals, i.e. acting as a medical monitor. Would the phone and earbuds have evolved into a headset with heads up display? Would both plug into the power pack?

Offline lamontagne

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Re: Webcomic-The Meridian Way
« Reply #23 on: 04/03/2022 04:10 pm »
Page 4.  Would particularly appreciate opinions on the technology displayed.  The spherical drones are something of a classic, the phone may have reached it's optimum form factor and still be in use in the future, baring the generalization of direct interfaces?  A dosimeter patch is in a fact one of three or four that Lucy wears as a matter of course. 

The page structure is inspired mainly by a similar arrangement used many years ago by Gotlib in one of the Dingodossiers, or possibly the latter Rah Lovely compendiums.  It also goes back to Haddock's morning routine in The Calculus affair.
I think the dosimeter patch could be a much more comprehensive device, monitoring external environment, atmosphere (gas mixtures, temperature, etc.), all radiation including UV, and the like, along with internals, i.e. acting as a medical monitor. Would the phone and earbuds have evolved into a headset with heads up display? Would both plug into the power pack?
Yes, seems likely the dosimeter does more than one thing, may come in useful later in the story! The contacts include a heads up display, but that is not obvious from the illustration, perhaps i'll add something on that, in articular if I use them later in the story.  Everything plugs into the power pack, but I thought of it mainly as a power source for the drones.  Could these use some form of focused microwave power supply, or is that too intense for public use?


Offline lamontagne

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Re: Webcomic-The Meridian Way
« Reply #24 on: 04/03/2022 08:57 pm »
I may or may not use this image, but I expect we will see the spaceport at least a little bit.

I'll have to add some cloudy exhaust though :-)
« Last Edit: 04/03/2022 08:58 pm by lamontagne »

Offline lamontagne

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Re: Webcomic-The Meridian Way
« Reply #25 on: 04/05/2022 02:10 am »
Future bar scene coming up.  Another thing that may not change much in the future...

Offline SpeakertoAnimals

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Re: Webcomic-The Meridian Way
« Reply #26 on: 04/05/2022 02:26 am »
I may or may not use this image, but I expect we will see the spaceport at least a little bit.

I'll have to add some cloudy exhaust though :-)
Interesting, what would rocket exhaust look like in that atmosphere? Also, with that thin air, how close would the city build up next to the port. Noise and vibration would be attenuated.

Offline SpeakertoAnimals

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Re: Webcomic-The Meridian Way
« Reply #27 on: 04/05/2022 02:28 am »
Future bar scene coming up.  Another thing that may not change much in the future...
Agree, a bar is a bar.
"An Arkadian and a Suryan walk into a bar. The Suryan says 'I won't have what he's having'. The Earth grubber at the bar says 'I don't get it'."
« Last Edit: 04/05/2022 02:48 am by SpeakertoAnimals »

Offline SpeakertoAnimals

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Re: Webcomic-The Meridian Way
« Reply #28 on: 04/05/2022 02:33 am »
Page 4.  Would particularly appreciate opinions on the technology displayed.  The spherical drones are something of a classic, the phone may have reached it's optimum form factor and still be in use in the future, baring the generalization of direct interfaces?  A dosimeter patch is in a fact one of three or four that Lucy wears as a matter of course. 

The page structure is inspired mainly by a similar arrangement used many years ago by Gotlib in one of the Dingodossiers, or possibly the latter Rah Lovely compendiums.  It also goes back to Haddock's morning routine in The Calculus affair.
I think the dosimeter patch could be a much more comprehensive device, monitoring external environment, atmosphere (gas mixtures, temperature, etc.), all radiation including UV, and the like, along with internals, i.e. acting as a medical monitor. Would the phone and earbuds have evolved into a headset with heads up display? Would both plug into the power pack?
Yes, seems likely the dosimeter does more than one thing, may come in useful later in the story! The contacts include a heads up display, but that is not obvious from the illustration, perhaps i'll add something on that, in articular if I use them later in the story.  Everything plugs into the power pack, but I thought of it mainly as a power source for the drones.  Could these use some form of focused microwave power supply, or is that too intense for public use?
You might get away with some sort of microwave beaming outside, possibly vehicle mounted. Inside seems less workable, but it might be fun to play with.

Offline lamontagne

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Re: Webcomic-The Meridian Way
« Reply #29 on: 04/05/2022 02:55 pm »
I may or may not use this image, but I expect we will see the spaceport at least a little bit.

I'll have to add some cloudy exhaust though :-)
Interesting, what would rocket exhaust look like in that atmosphere? Also, with that thin air, how close would the city build up next to the port. Noise and vibration would be attenuated.
Don't know about the exhaust, perhaps someone else could help out?
The vehicle illustrated has very wide nozzles, but the very low pressure might lead to significant overexpansion of the exhaust?  As a heavily used spaceport, the launch pads are expected to be provided with water cooled steel walls, so no evaporation.  So the major volumes of water vapor wee see on an Earth launch may be absent?
The water in the exhaust should condense, but I have no idea how fast.
If we look at the Apollo moon module lift off, we basically don't see anything.  So that might be the answer as well.

Offline lamontagne

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Re: Webcomic-The Meridian Way
« Reply #30 on: 04/08/2022 08:15 pm »
Page 5, we move from the apartment to the city center.
« Last Edit: 04/08/2022 08:20 pm by lamontagne »

Offline SpeakertoAnimals

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Re: Webcomic-The Meridian Way
« Reply #31 on: 04/08/2022 08:29 pm »
Page 5, we move from the apartment to the city center.
I'm guessing the tunnels between pressure vessels have doors for pressure/gas mixture/fire/covid emergencies?
Edit: "stopped" is misspelled in panel 4. Also, page 3, apartment misspelled.
« Last Edit: 04/08/2022 08:38 pm by SpeakertoAnimals »

Offline lamontagne

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Re: Webcomic-The Meridian Way
« Reply #32 on: 04/08/2022 09:17 pm »
Page 5, we move from the apartment to the city center.
I'm guessing the tunnels between pressure vessels have doors for pressure/gas mixture/fire/covid emergencies?
Edit: "stopped" is misspelled in panel 4. Also, page 3, apartment misspelled.
Spelling is a real weak point for me and my image editor has no spell checker, so my poor spelling abilities really show up ;-)  Thanks for the check.

Yes, the corridors serve as natural fire and pressure breaks with slow self closing doors.  I would expect to find some pressure mask hook-ups there as well.  The firefighter/pressure event teams would probably have some kind of portable airlock to match into the fire doors and prevent all that drama that usually happens with these doors in so many movies!

Expect a 'Self closing fire door' notice on the wall somewhere :-).

The habitats also have pressure refuges built into the basements, that can hold the population until rescue arrives.  And as most of the buildings have really massive walls and roofs for radiation protection, fire rating is not much of a problem.  A logical application would be to have fire rated doors to go into the basement levels.




Offline SpeakertoAnimals

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Re: Webcomic-The Meridian Way
« Reply #33 on: 04/08/2022 10:04 pm »
Page 5, we move from the apartment to the city center.
I'm guessing the tunnels between pressure vessels have doors for pressure/gas mixture/fire/covid emergencies?
Edit: "stopped" is misspelled in panel 4. Also, page 3, apartment misspelled.
Spelling is a real weak point for me and my image editor has no spell checker, so my poor spelling abilities really show up ;-)  Thanks for the check.
 

Yes, the corridors serve as natural fire and pressure breaks with slow self closing doors.  I would expect to find some pressure mask hook-ups there as well.  The firefighter/pressure event teams would probably have some kind of portable airlock to match into the fire doors and prevent all that drama that usually happens with these doors in so many movies!

Expect a 'Self closing fire door' notice on the wall somewhere :-).

The habitats also have pressure refuges built into the basements, that can hold the population until rescue arrives.  And as most of the buildings have really massive walls and roofs for radiation protection, fire rating is not much of a problem.  A logical application would be to have fire rated doors to go into the basement levels.
Looks like each habitat would have a door so that is an airlock already. That would cover airlocks unless both tunnels are breached. I suppose there could be a mention of the urban legend that a 50 foot sandworm once prevented a pair of pressure doors from closing.
Edit: I suppose that could be a story told in the bar to a tourist from earth (they need some sort of lightly pejorative name, like maybe "Greenies?).
« Last Edit: 04/08/2022 10:08 pm by SpeakertoAnimals »

Offline lamontagne

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Re: Webcomic-The Meridian Way
« Reply #34 on: 04/08/2022 11:45 pm »
Page 5, we move from the apartment to the city center.
I'm guessing the tunnels between pressure vessels have doors for pressure/gas mixture/fire/covid emergencies?
Edit: "stopped" is misspelled in panel 4. Also, page 3, apartment misspelled.
Spelling is a real weak point for me and my image editor has no spell checker, so my poor spelling abilities really show up ;-)  Thanks for the check.
 

Yes, the corridors serve as natural fire and pressure breaks with slow self closing doors.  I would expect to find some pressure mask hook-ups there as well.  The firefighter/pressure event teams would probably have some kind of portable airlock to match into the fire doors and prevent all that drama that usually happens with these doors in so many movies!

Expect a 'Self closing fire door' notice on the wall somewhere :-).

The habitats also have pressure refuges built into the basements, that can hold the population until rescue arrives.  And as most of the buildings have really massive walls and roofs for radiation protection, fire rating is not much of a problem.  A logical application would be to have fire rated doors to go into the basement levels.
Looks like each habitat would have a door so that is an airlock already. That would cover airlocks unless both tunnels are breached. I suppose there could be a mention of the urban legend that a 50 foot sandworm once prevented a pair of pressure doors from closing.
Edit: I suppose that could be a story told in the bar to a tourist from earth (they need some sort of lightly pejorative name, like maybe "Greenies?).
Yes the tunnels can be airlocks, but the pump out time would be much shorter for a small human sized airlock.  On the other hand large airlocks can hold hundreds and might in fact be faster as an evacuation tool.  Hum, maybe next story :-)
Or latter in another context....

Might be fun to extend the bar scene (soon to come!) with a Mars Bar joke.

Offline lamontagne

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Re: Webcomic-The Meridian Way
« Reply #35 on: 04/08/2022 11:48 pm »
The are tunnels at floor levels and more tunnels at 'car' level, one bellow.  So quite a few airlocks.

Hum, sandworm jokes...

Offline lamontagne

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Re: Webcomic-The Meridian Way
« Reply #36 on: 04/12/2022 02:36 pm »
Page 6.  A sad and dark Martian city   ;)


Offline lamontagne

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Re: Webcomic-The Meridian Way
« Reply #37 on: 04/16/2022 11:35 pm »
Direct democracy in action.

Offline SpeakertoAnimals

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Re: Webcomic-The Meridian Way
« Reply #38 on: 04/16/2022 11:53 pm »
Direct democracy in action.
What are the white vehicles? And why 2 wheels? If they are delivery drones, balance would be an issue because of off center loading. The arms made me think of maintenance but they would also be unstable and have no place for tools or parts.
Edit: The drones look to be bigger than I thought. I was picturing baseball size but they look to be closer to 2 feet across. Can they be partially supported by helium?
« Last Edit: 04/16/2022 11:58 pm by SpeakertoAnimals »

Offline lamontagne

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Re: Webcomic-The Meridian Way
« Reply #39 on: 04/17/2022 12:32 am »
Direct democracy in action.
What are the white vehicles? And why 2 wheels? If they are delivery drones, balance would be an issue because of off center loading. The arms made me think of maintenance but they would also be unstable and have no place for tools or parts.
Edit: The drones look to be bigger than I thought. I was picturing baseball size but they look to be closer to 2 feet across. Can they be partially supported by helium?
They are Segway based robots.  So balance is not a problem as they have a flexible back to adjust their centers of thrust and gravity.  They are really industrial robots from another of my project :-) to be used as general purpose robots.  There is a movable platform and they can attach tools and such to various parts of their 'bodies.  And of course switch their hands to specialized tools.
The size od the drones is an illusion due to perspective.  They are indeed baseball sized.  Perhaps I will need to reduce distortion in the image.  The Chinese settlement journalist lady may also be a little large :-).

 

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