Uchuu Kyoudai

Oh, no... oh, no... no no no no no no no no.....

Nooo! leave our Sharon alone, damn you author! Don't you dare!

 

...or maybe Sharon is just a red herring and it'll end up being Apo.

Maybe the red herring is in the wording: Amanti said someone will get seriously ill. She did not say they are going to die. However, the sad bitterness she described is more common in the bereaved than in those that are still expectant for a positive outcome.

The only person other than Aunt Sharon who could leave both Mutta and Hibito bitter is Azuma (although he is not that close to Mutta yet, he could become so before illness strikes). Well, there is Hoshika, too, but he is more like a distant supporter than a close friend.

Sigh… I could try and read the raws, but it is cumbersome for a beginner like me.

Nooo! leave our Sharon alone, damn you author! Don't you dare!

...or maybe Sharon is just a red herring and it'll end up being Apo.

I really love this series, but the author is prone to emotional manipulation sometimes.

By emotional manipulation I mean when an author stops the smooth progression of the story, makes a detour and shows us something designed to change the mood, telling us: "Here you are supposed to feel (insert emotion)".

More often than not, the detours serve little purpose relative to the development of the main characters.

The most recent example was the childhood story of Pico and Vince. What was the point of it? I think Pico was emotionally dense enough in a way that was perfectly tied with the story - his enormous stress over the parachute affair - and there was little need to design a glaring rip-off of the October sky movie (minus the death). And Mutta never learned of the story, so it was clearly told to impress the readers rather than to develop characters emotionally.

Now this thing with Aunt Sharon (if it is not a red herring). Need things be so tragic just to counterbalance the general light mood of the story? Why must a slice of life manga necessarily include tragic loss? It is perfectly reasonable to tell an exciting story without this kind of device. Space Brothers has been doing precisely that till now. We have had plenty of authentic, genuinely strong emotion without resorting to tragic death out of the blue (the key words are out of the blue: Serika-san's father's death motivated her and, although tragic, helped build her character and supply her with motivation). The rock-paper-scissors decision in the end of the third selection far surpasses, in my opinion, any contrived character death.

I will enjoy this thoroughly until the very end, I'm sure, but I'm a bit stung that such a wonderful storyteller as Chuuya Koyama falls prey, every now and then, to the easy temptation this kind of emotional plot contraption.

seems like someone will go to the stars first before her telescope.

Just when things were going hunky dory, why did you have to pull the death flag so soon =(, especially on a lovely character as Sharon

yeah, my exact thoughts were: "oh shit,  stay home sharon! there are some weird flags being raised!"

My bet is Sharon.

"Death Flag" triggered. Incoming feels in approximately: 3...2....1..

My bet is Sharon.

I don't know what to be more excited about: Hibito's return, or old man Nanba's "Pig? No Pug" shirt.

WELCOME BACK HIBITO!!!!!!

Damn, can't wait for this episode in the anime. So many damn feels, ahh~ <3

I have the biggest grin on my face now. So great.

I just read a reddit IAMA session with the actual NASA chief technologist Mason Peck. Its a great reading and i suggest everyone to give it a look. 

 

I'd like to point out a specific answer. Do you remember that in this manga they send two different rockets, one for materials and one for flesh and bones, in order to make the moon base, and then they shield it with regolith to avoid cosmic radiation contamination? Well, apaprently there could be  a smarter way to do it:

 

http://it.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1epdv7/i_am_mason_peck_nasas_chief_technologist_ask_me/ca2g427

Have an upvote!

@maffa : Thank you for the link, that was interesting.

This manga is really... what's the word? Ah, forget it. I can't wait to yell out "WELCOME HOME HIBITO!!!" once he gets back. ^^ 

http://vatoto.com/read/_/171629/uchuu-kyoudai_v12_ch113_by_imangascans/18

Poppa Nanba's response in the center panel is classic.

I just read a reddit IAMA session with the actual NASA chief technologist Mason Peck. Its a great reading and i suggest everyone to give it a look. 

I'd like to point out a specific answer. Do you remember that in this manga they send two different rockets, one for materials and one for flesh and bones, in order to make the moon base, and then they shield it with regolith to avoid cosmic radiation contamination? Well, apaprently there could be  a smarter way to do it:

http://it.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1epdv7/i_am_mason_peck_nasas_chief_technologist_ask_me/ca2g427

I would have tried to make the sponge hydrophobic, perhaps coating it in some oil of some sort. Not sure exactly how well that would work, though.

Oil and mud is a very bad combo since clay and certain loams are notorious for bonding with one another.  It's a good idea if it's a sand desert (silica based) though.  Anything "temporary" would be useless consider the revolutions the wheel have to go thru (distance to goal divide by the circumference of the expanded sponge wheel) would eat thru the coating unless it's some hi-tech polymer or the likes (primarily half-life based instead of exposure based).

The sealant is a good idea for "on-the-spot" solution, if they had more time, I would've recommended a new set of wheels with a disposable ~5mm outer layer that "peels" off when there's too much moisture build up (the stuff they use when your bath ceiling is crumbling and you can't have tile on the top to prevent steam build up, when it peels a few years down the road, you just have to scrap off the old stuff and reapply it).  It'd only shrink the diamater of the wheels by 1 cm in the end when everything peels off.  The "rim" of the wheel would be the sponge, but with thin slits cut into it to jam some coconut husk into to promote a water wick effect toward the center of the wheels and minor reduction of weight.  The center of the wheel would have an evaporation point (etched thin gold plate/leaf sheet painted black at regular intervals with a chemical that produce moderate amount of heat when in contact with water). But it's completely against the spirit of the "Space Development - Abridged" though, since it's single use and it target a specific obstacle (water) that isn't normally a concern in space.

Great, now I want a T-shirt that says Uchunchu.

I would have tried to make the sponge hydrophobic, perhaps coating it in some oil of some sort. Not sure exactly how well that would work, though.

I think I had that exact same lego astronaut as a kid.

Bad luck is bad...