The Martian

(Norsk)

So, many of you have probably already seen the movie The Martian, featuring Matt Damon as Mark Watney, and even Norwegian Aksel Henie as a German astronaut. The movie is based upon the book by the same name by Andy Weir.

As should be fairly clear from the trailer, and without spoiling too much of the story, Mark Watney is believed dead during an emergency evacuation from Mars due to extreme weather, and subsequently abandoned.

Once the weather has passed, he finds that he is completely alone on the red planet and all communication with Earth is dead. The equipment he is living in is basically only designed to last for their original 30 day mission. He needs to survive until the next mission arrives in a few years, and he has to somehow make his way to the next mission's landing zone. So to quote Watney: "Let's science the shit out of this." And what follows is a story that surpasses even MacGuyver's ingenuity and greatness!

As usual the book is much better than the movie. With that said, I think the movie is great, even though I am no huge Matt Damon fan. The main reason that the book is much better than the movie is that, of course, the movie has had to do compromises and due to play length restrictions and keeping up the narrative they have had to drop cool stuff and alter other cool stuff somewhat in order to make it all fit in a feature length movie. That being said, what they have managed to squeeze into this almost two and a half hour long movie is impressive.

Still, if you see the movie and like it, or have already seen it and liked it, you really, REALLY, should consider reading the book or listening through the audiobook. I did the audiobook myself, before seeing the movie, and heartily recommend both! I will also probably buy the book in the near future, just to get to read it myself, and then keeping it in my sagging bookshelves as another cherished work.

If you have not seen the movie yet, rent or buy it from somewhere like Google Play Movies and enjoy. If you have not read or listened to the book yet, then as usual I recommend your local library, or buy it from somewhere like Amazon/Audible, and enjoy it too.

Next week I am going to write about yet another book, this one also about Mars, more specifically the Curiosity rover, written by its Chief Engineer.

What is the curious connection between Motörhead and Matt Damon?

(Norsk)

Maybe this is a bit of a stretch, but I felt like doing an homage to the man, Ian "Lemmy" Kilmister, who died this past 28th of December. The stretchy bit is the connection to Matt Damon, but bear with me. In the Motörhead song Orgasmatron, Lemmy sings the following:

If you did not catch it in the lyric video, the lyrics are below too:

"I am the one, Orgasmatron, the outstretched grasping hand

My image is of agony, my servants rape the land

Obsequious and arrogant, clandestine and vain

Two thousand years of misery, of torture in my name

Hypocrisy made paramount, paranoia the law

My name is called religion, sadistic, sacred whore.

I twist the truth, I rule the world, my crown is called deceit

I am the emperor of lies, you grovel at my feet

I rob you and I slaughter you, your downfall is my gain

And still you play the sycophant and revel in you pain

And all my promises are lies, all my love is hate

I am the politician, and I decide your fate

I march before a martyred world, an army for the fight

I speak of great heroic days, of victory and might

I hold a banner drenched in blood, I urge you to be brave

I lead you to your destiny, I lead you to your grave

Your bones will build my palaces, your eyes will stud my crown

For I am MARS, the god of war, and I will cut you down."

Yup, Lemmy is Mars, the god of war. And what was the title of one of Matt Damon's newest movies?

Ah, yes, The Martian, where he is a stranded astronaut on Mars, the planet named after Mars, the god of war. And next week I will write a bit about the movie starring Matt Damon, and the book by Andy Weir that it is based on.

Oh, and by the way, why is the connection between Motörhead and Matt Damon curious?

Because NASA has a certain rover on a certain red planet that is named Curiosity! And in a about two weeks time I intend to write a bit about the cute rover too. In other words, I will continue my space-oriented posts for a few weeks more, I started off with SpaceX and Elon Musk, I'll continue with The Martian and the Curiosity rover.

Mechanical Design 05.02.16

(Norsk)

This lecture we talked about weld strength versus fatigue from dynamic loads, and drew a Smith diagram. We calculated an example, and then moved on to the next chapter, looking at threaded connections with a short introduction to threads and thread types.

• The lecture notes can be found here.
• The recommended problems can be found here.
• The suggested solutions for last lecture's recommended problems can be found here.

Mechanical Design 01.02.16

(Norsk)
This lecture we talked about welds subjected to torsion and calculated a few examples.

• The lecture notes can be found here.
• The recommended problems can be found here.
• The suggestions for solving last lectures recommended problems can be found here.

Mechanical Design 29.01.16

(Norsk)
This lecture we talked about welds subjected to bending and did the calculations for one example.

• Lecture notes can be found here.
• Recommended problems can be found here.