I picked up on that too.
For All Mankind Trailer - Apple TV- SPOILER
- Thread starter Mysterion
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You can still be fired now for being LGBTQ in the US. There was a Supreme Court decision in 2020 that this wasn't legal, but it still happens. Generally they just say it was for something else or in certain states there doesn't even need to be a reason, they just fire you because they wanted to. There are various federal and state regulations, but only cover specific situations and don't do enough as if by design.
So she could be fired immediately if they found out and even after she was treated as the best person for the job and getting praise from the President.
Back when I worked in a job that required an Extensive Background Investigation (EBI) it was considered a security risk to be LGBTQ. It was circular logic. The security risk is that you had to give secrets to avoid being "outed" because you could be fired if you were "outed." If your employer didn't consider being LGBTQ a firing offense then it wouldn't be a security risk.
Bigotry tends to be pretty nonsensical.
Something about the whole "shooting guns in space" thing has been bothering me all week, though I couldn't articulate why exactly until it literally just came to me while thinking about something else (entirely unrelated). and that is put simply: thermal build-up. Yeah, they mentioned that the reason they painted them white is to reflect as much IR from the sun as possible, but what about the heat generated simply by firing a round? One assumes the heat dissipation on an M-16 was designed with air cooling in mind, not hard vacuum, so I doubt the existing heatsink wouldn't be able to keep up with the thermal load for very long. That means that at best the guns will overheat and jam after just a few rounds (honestly I'd be shocked if they even get through a whole magazine), at worst, not only will it jam, but the rounds will start to cook off in the chamber and explode, likely killing the operator and anyone unlucky enough to be standing next to them. They'd need to rig up a much more robust heatsink, maybe even a waterloop with a large sink installed on the backpack for maximum dispersion and less bulk on the weapon itself.
As if their shock at the cosmonauts burning wasn't evidence enough (I mean come on guys; flamible material + pure oxygen mix + extreme heat = space barbeque), it's clear nobody at the DoD really put any serious thought into this.
I think they'd have been better off rigging up some kind of flechette gun, preferably one that doesn't need explosives to work; less mass, less energy, less of a danger of ricochets, less chance it'll breach a hab's shell.
With the low gravity and zero air resistance, the range on even a small normal firearm would be WAY beyond an operator's ability to aim reliably, so most of that explosive energy is not only dangerous, it's overkill.
It may be counter-intuitive, but for small arms combat on the moon, something a lot closer to a crossbow might be the smarter choice.
As if their shock at the cosmonauts burning wasn't evidence enough (I mean come on guys; flamible material + pure oxygen mix + extreme heat = space barbeque), it's clear nobody at the DoD really put any serious thought into this.
I think they'd have been better off rigging up some kind of flechette gun, preferably one that doesn't need explosives to work; less mass, less energy, less of a danger of ricochets, less chance it'll breach a hab's shell.
With the low gravity and zero air resistance, the range on even a small normal firearm would be WAY beyond an operator's ability to aim reliably, so most of that explosive energy is not only dangerous, it's overkill.
It may be counter-intuitive, but for small arms combat on the moon, something a lot closer to a crossbow might be the smarter choice.
These are reasonable engineers thoughts, the decision was political and as always once it gets political reason goes out the window.
I'm sure that if this heats up and there are actual battles in space the US and the Soviets will develop dedicated space weapons instead of taking a factory standard assault rifle and paint it white.
Which is another thing Reagan clearly didn't really think through: escalation.
What was the plan if the Soviets fought back? Or had already armed themselves? As we saw, even without actual hostilities an incident like this was inevitable once violence is on the table. If I'm Moscow, right now I'm having contingency plans drawn up and implemented for ground to air (for lack of a better term) emplacements, an armed orbital Luna defence platform. After that's in place it'll be a satellite network to protect the other mining sites, the main base, monitor enemy activity, and if need be to take out the US ground stations, landers and effectively blockage against incoming shuttles...which I'm guessing is where an armed Pathfinder comes in.
This is a repeating pattern of US foreign policy from Vietnam to Afghanistan & Iraq; The idea of the cavalry riding in to save the day (shock and awe!) is so ingrained in the national identity that they repeatedly fail to consider what happens next, because that's always the hard part. What if the other side calls your bluff? What if it turns out they're better at this than you are? What exactly is the end goal here?
I agree about the crossbow. In fact you could get a repeating crossbow, it would be easier to fire. all you need to do is put a hole in a space suit to take someone out of the fight.
They could probably do even better than that with a limbless repeating crossbow. That way you could entirely enclose and seal the mechanism so you don't risk regolith gumming up the whole thing. Heat dissipation (exo and endo) would still be a thing, but nowhere near as much of a problem as a firearm. You could even use magnets to align projectiles correctly in the absence of aero dynamics. Hell, even the latch could be an electro-magnet, so why even go with pointed flechettes; cutting discs could be easier and more effective.
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To be fair, the Soviets are clearly operating from a similarly myopic standpoint. They had to realize something would happen after they had their Cosmonauts just walk over to the American mine while the Astronauts were back at their base and move in, never mind the stuff they’d been doing leading up to that, all the way back to letting themselves in to the original Jamestown ice-mine and base to plant recording devices.
Sure, but what they did was non-violent. They walked in and moved some equipment, presumably (at the political level at least) with the intent to just see how the Americans would respond. No overt posturing, no threats or ultimatums, just claim the site and see what happens. They've both been up there a while now and there must be an increasing amount of pressure within the Kremlin to do *something* that makes them look like the wronged party to the rest of the world; they were first to the moon after all, and it's the Americans that are swaggering around like they own the joint.
Given that the Cosmonaut crew fled the second the yanks showed up, it's a fair assessment that Moscow either told them not to resist any attempt to retake the site, or didn't tell them anything.
On the flip side of this, from the Soviet POV the whole Apollo-Soyuz "handshake in space" thing is equally underhanded and manipulative, designed to make them look bad, either as petty uncooperative belligerents if they refuse, or as the inferior party if they accept.
It was obviously bait, and the US swallowed it whole and asked for seconds.
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They were shot when going for their translation cards. They didn't speak or understand English and they had their Russian to English cards in with the box of equipment and not on the sleeve of their environment suits. The Marines started speaking Russian then switched to English only. That is why I felt they should have someone who knows both English and Russian in Mission Control able to patch into with the Marines while they are on the Russian channel and be a translator. There would be a one second delay both ways but it might have prevented this outcome.
I'm guessing they were going to go with "Hello." "Nice to meet you." "This is Russian claim," if they were ever able to get to the card.
A better idea would have been to send at least one marine that doesn't need a translator. Having a translator in MC should already have been policy given the proximity and likelihood of an encounter (benign or otherwise.)
That said the delay would have been considerably more than just one second. Light lag to and from Luna adds up to about two and a half seconds, add to that the time it would take to recite the translation to the marines, for them (or MC) to say what they want to reply with, translating that into Russian (add another light lag delay) and for the marines to repeat it back and hope the pronunciation is at least intelligible.
You're looking at at least 10-20 seconds just for a simple exchange. That's an eternity when guns are being waved around, tensions are high and any wrong move could look aggressive.
The second they brought weapons into the situation a shooting like this was inevitable.
They should at least have a translator at the Lunar base camp that could get on the radio and pass messages back and forth. If you have one of the base crew, say a scientist, that speaks and understands both English and Russian, then it wouldn't have to be a member of Marine Detachment in the "field."
I’m just wondering if we’ll lose a main character, they seem to be setting up the board for it.
Hm, yes our timeline is looking pretty good right about now.So that happened.
I’m glad to hear that the Shuttle is refueled in orbit before it flies to the moon, that had been bothering me since the first episode this season.
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Well. Fuck.
I had a lot to say about this episode and then that final scene happened. Not only a direct hit on the command center of Jamestown (and I thought the Soviets would stop at that), but a full-on invasion force. Jamestown is not prepared for that and I don't see how any of that can be deescalated at this point.
For a moment there, I thought the entirety of Jamestown would depressurized quickly and the only survivors would be Tracy and Gordo who just happened to be looked up in the airlock for their romantic cigarette tryst. But of course, like any Navy ship, there are multiple quick-acting airtight doors to section off the base for such an event (although intended for accidents not combat). That said, I'm surprised the CO's door acted as a seal. It looked more like a regular door without such capabilities (and it was extra weird that he tried to open it during the depressurization).
Suffice to say, Soyuz mission or not, things are about to get a whole lot worse. But hey, at least we got an inspiring Star Trek quote out of it! Not that it'll do any good at this point...
That overshadows everything else in the episode, most of all the relationship strifes of three couples (one understandable, one I knew was going to end, one I'm completely sick of). The only thing I really have to say about all of that is the disgusting nature of the Reagan political goon going to Larry to propose Ellen's potential congressional aide. Fuck. Off.
I had a lot to say about this episode and then that final scene happened. Not only a direct hit on the command center of Jamestown (and I thought the Soviets would stop at that), but a full-on invasion force. Jamestown is not prepared for that and I don't see how any of that can be deescalated at this point.
For a moment there, I thought the entirety of Jamestown would depressurized quickly and the only survivors would be Tracy and Gordo who just happened to be looked up in the airlock for their romantic cigarette tryst. But of course, like any Navy ship, there are multiple quick-acting airtight doors to section off the base for such an event (although intended for accidents not combat). That said, I'm surprised the CO's door acted as a seal. It looked more like a regular door without such capabilities (and it was extra weird that he tried to open it during the depressurization).
Suffice to say, Soyuz mission or not, things are about to get a whole lot worse. But hey, at least we got an inspiring Star Trek quote out of it! Not that it'll do any good at this point...
That overshadows everything else in the episode, most of all the relationship strifes of three couples (one understandable, one I knew was going to end, one I'm completely sick of). The only thing I really have to say about all of that is the disgusting nature of the Reagan political goon going to Larry to propose Ellen's potential congressional aide. Fuck. Off.
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