Suggestion: Orion's Arm Subreddit

[Centauri5921]

Not sure if people want to continue with this or not, but the sub is up and ready, and i am ready to transfer ownership over to any willing member of staff. Reddit is a very active community, and it has a worldbuilding subreddit which is aware of us, so I really think we could benefit from a Reddit presence

Link: https://m.reddit.com/r/OrionsArm/

[Drashner1]

Thanks for setting this up, James

Having seen some of the discussion about worldbuilding and OA on Reddit in the course of my occasional travels around the internets, I think it will be fine for us to have this. I suspect there are people who might like to discuss OA and what we're doing without actually being a part of OA (so to speak). So they might not want to join the forum, but might want to join the subreddit.

Regarding ownership of it - I have a number of other irons in the fire, so would prefer that other mods handle this, if possible (plus, my knowledge of Reddit barely extends beyond how to spell it). That said, if no one else is able to do it, or I need to step up so we can meet our 'Rule of Three', then I will certainly do so (in which case, I will also ask to get some time with you to go over how Reddit works and what I would need to do to both moderate it and make it work).

Thanks again and here's hoping this really takes off

Todd

[Centauri5921]

I'm, er, really sorry to be a pain in the ass, although we already have a few people subscribed to the sub, and even one post - are people that interested in this, or should I close it down?

[Rynn]

Might as well hold onto it, no harm in a placeholder.

[Drashner1]

I am currently up to my eyebrows in alligators at work and will continue in that mode for most of this month. After that, I will hopefully be coming up for air and have more time for OA and related things.

Looking back at the thread, you had indicated that the main operational part of this would primarily be posting a new article from the EG on a semi-regular basis and answering questions. I suppose there would also be a certain amount of monitoring any discussions to make sure they stay civil and such.

Is there anything more than that involved with this? For example, leading discussions or the like?

I may be able to help out with this in about a month, but just don't have time right now.

In the immediate term, what do you need from us to keep things moving along?

Thanks!

Todd

[stevebowers]

We can post updates there- I'll have a batch ready next week - or should we post every time a new article is finished?

[Drashner1]

I think doing it at the same time a batch is loaded out to the What's New portion of the website is best. That way we keep things consistent across the project.

That said, I'm not sure how much more work that is vs now. What are your thoughts on this, Steve?

That (that) said, perhaps we could coordinate things so that myself or another mod could post to the Reddit when you post things to the site.

Basically just wanting to divvy up the work here so it isn't all on your shoulders.

Todd

[stevebowers]

The post about Mars is interesting; here are some mission profiles - the longest transit is a bit over 200 days

I'll alter the article to reflect this. Having said that I doubt that a Mars mission would be ready by 2024 - that's only 8 years away.


Looking at competitive low energy missions the best one would launch in August 2037 and land in March 2038; we can change it to that.
http://www.enu.kz/repository/2009/AIAA-2009-6470.pdf

I've changed it to a launch in August 2037, a landing in March 2038, return launch July 2039 and return to Earth May 2040.

[Drashner1]

Seems reasonable - do you plan to post a reply to this poster once the change is made (or before)?

It might be good for folks to know we're listening

As far as our being pessimistic - we should be so lucky:p - More seriously, I think we tend to lean toward being conservative on these kinds of things because it's more fun to update the timeline to fix being too pessimistic vs being too optimistic. Also, when it comes to spaceflight, there is more of a history supporting pessimism or conservative assumptions than there is optimism. In fact, we've had several people tell us they thought our treatment of spaceflight was too optimistic. So, to some degree it's a process of finding a balance - and bearing in mind that the primary focus of the setting is the far future.

I can also post something to this effect, but didn't want to step on your toes.

Todd

[stevebowers]

Feel free. I'll probably start posting there next week as well.

I'd be very happy if the Mars mission happened earlier than 2037, but somehow I suspect we are being optimistic. As far as Lunar explotation goes, I think that is likely to happen before serious Martian exploitation- not only is the Moon a lot closer and easier to get to, but the light-speed delay means teleoperated devices work a lot better there.