No, you won't see the Tesla Roadster

February 9, 2018 9:04 AM

ORBIT - A Journey Around Earth in Real Time [SLYT]
posted by gwint (5 comments total)

(Spoiler: There are a few cuts, but not many.)
posted by gwint at 9:05 AM on February 9, 2018 [1 favorite]

This is pretty cool.

Could be slower.

Wobbler had written an actual computer game like this once. It was called "Journey to Alpha Centauri". It was a screen with some dots on it. Because, he said, it happened in real time, which no-one had ever heard of until computers. He'd seen on TV that it took three thousand years to get to Alpha Centauri. He had written it so that if anyone kept their computer on for three thousand years, they'd be rewarded by a little dot appearing in the middle of the screen, and then a message saying, "Welcome to Alpha Centauri. Now go home." (Terry Pratchett, Only You Can Save Mankind)

posted by BungaDunga at 9:36 AM on February 9, 2018 [1 favorite]

Nice to see this here. Seán Doran is one of my favourite YouTube follows. He doesn't post much, but what he posts is usually gorgeous.
posted by rhamphorhynchus at 9:37 AM on February 9, 2018

This is awesome.
posted by ActingTheGoat at 8:22 PM on February 9, 2018

I would be a terrible astronaut, because I'd clearly just spend all of my time looking out viewports at this.
"sysinfo, it's time to rotate the algae experiments." Yeah, in a minute - I think that's the Suez canal!
"sysinfo, we need to fix the actuator on the Canadarm." Geez, I'm busy tracing the contours of Chile!
"sysinfo, life support has failed and we need to evac in the Soyuz!" Dude, can it wait? I've never seen a storm cell like this!
posted by sysinfo at 9:25 PM on February 9, 2018 [3 favorites]