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Of course, there are plenty of other uses for robots besides war machines and bar disarmament.

We've learned with near certainty that there were large amounts of liquid water on Mars in the past. This shows that Mars was almost certainly more like Earth in its past, may still maintain some suitability for human life, and brightens hopes of finding extra-solar, earth-like planets.

We've studied the geological history of Mars in detail that was utterly impossible via any other means short of landing actual people there. This hints at the similarities and differences between Mars and Earth and may help us better understand how our own planet evolved and operates.

We've studied the Martian atmosphere in reasonable detail and gathered more information on its climate. If we ever find it beneficial to try living there (or decide to do so regardless of benefit), this information will be vital.

We've developed and tested a new set of scientific tools, robotic components, autonomous navigation techniques, etc. Several of these were new to the mission.

We've produced thousands of stunning images of an alien surface. That alone is certainly worth as much as public art. Nothing inherently makes the Statue of Liberty, for example, more valuable than Mars Rovers...or, at the risk of sparking the public-vs-private money debate, those big screen TV's everyone has to have.

And we've helped inspire further generations of youth to study science and math.

NASA actually is quite forthcoming with information about their discoveries, but the general public often cares little for more than the most basic details, and thus the private news media usually only give passing mention to NASA press releases. If you're genuinely curious to learn more about the rovers' work, browse through old press releases on the website:
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.html

Listen to it here: http://science.nasa.gov/audio/meteor/navspasur.m3u This link is audio detected with an ICOM R-8500 receiver tuned to 217.927 MHz SSB. The antenna is a 13 element 220 MHz. beam pointed upward and to the east. The CW signal is from a Space Radar facility in Lake Kickapoo, TX, formally called NAVSPASUR. It is now operated by the USAF.

This is from the page hyperlinked by the previous poster's link. (See: colorusage.arc.nasa.gov/blue_2.php)

Carey

http://colorusage.arc.nasa.gov/guidelines_lum_cont.php

Under the heading Pure blue should not be used for fine detail or background.

Some guidelines I wrote (for an assignment for an HCI course I just took) for color selection are:

1. Do use dark backgrounds, and light text.
2. Don't use adjacent colors of similar lightness.
3. Don't use Blue as a background or for fine detail.
4. Do use shades of Purple, Violet, Red for background. AND Do use shades of Green, Yellow, Orange for foregrounds
5. Do make sure black-and-white and monochrome versions are legible.
6. Don't rely on color alone.
7. Do give high-priority data high contrast.
8. Do use tools to check your contrast.
9. Do check colorblind compatibility

Some resources to look into from my bibliography:

"Luminance Contrast Color Guidelines." Arend, L. Logan, A. Havin, G. Color Usage Research Lab. Nasa Ames Research Centre. 7 Oct 2007 http://colorusage.arc.nasa.gov/guidelines_lum_cont.php
"Color & Contrast: Web Checkpoint 12" IBM Human Ability and Accessibility Centre. 1 Jun 2007. IBM. 7 Oct 2007. http://www-03.ibm.com/able/guidelines/web/webcolor.html
"Effective Color Contrast" Dr. Artidi, A. Lighthouse International. 2007. Lighthouse International. 7 Oct 2007. http://www.lighthouse.org/accessibility/effective-color-contrast/
"Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0." World Wide Web Consortium. 5 May 1999. W3C. 7 Oct 2007 http://www.w3.org/TR/WAI-WEBCONTENT

http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/?IDNumber=PIA07745

Big, Detailed, Beautiful.

Perfect for dual-monitor setups.

This file contains a portion of the actual or raw responses collected in Section A of the air carrier surveys to show the breadth and scope of the pilot community surveyed and the types of aircraft flown.

This file contains a portion of the actual or raw responses collected in Section A of the air carrier surveys to show the breadth and scope of the pilot community surveyed and the types of aircraft flown.

While NASA's comet orbit model http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?sstr=2007+WD5&orb=1 is inaccurate after a few decades, flash forward to September 26th, 2084 when Earth gets fairly cozy, in cosmic terms, with 2007 WD5 by about 7 million kilometers. If the comet does not hit Mars in January, the orbit of the comet will probably change slightly; maybe I get to see some comet on Earth action shortly after my 106th birthday.

The good news is that Earth-based telescopes would have a better view of incoming at us then they do of things incoming towards Mars (which is anywhere from 0.5 to 2.5 AU's away, depending on their relative orbital positions [1]) and would be making more accurate estimates.

The bad news is that it's not clear whether having more time would help, if something big actually was on a possible collision trajectory with Earth.

[1]: Y'all can see the orbital paths yourself here (link needs Java enabled):

http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?sstr=2007+WD5&orb=1

But no FRESH ones.

That's not really true. The orbital cameras around Mars have detected new craters from impacts that occurred in just the last few years. Here's just one example.

If the asteroid is indeed on a collision course, it would hit Mars with a velocity of about 13.5 km/s (8.4 miles per second), and would produce an explosion equivalent to about 3 MT of TNT. We can only speculate as to the effects of such an impact, but it would be reasonable to expect a crater nearly a kilometer across and a significant amount of dust lifted into the atmosphere.

NASA World Wind is open source and is uses by the DoD and other governmental groups.

Planetary scientists continue to perpetuate misunderstanding when they call the "Tiger Stripes" of Enceladus "cracks" that allow water to reach the surface. The channels are, in fact, precise analogs of those seen on Europa. Their frequent parallelism, their ridges or levees, and their ability to cut across all other channels in their paths stand as a definitive contradiction of the "fracturing" hypothesis. The pictures suggest something akin to a "claw" or router bit dragged across the surface in disregard for prior surface relief. That is a unique signature of an electric arc. In contrast, fracturing is invariably affected by a pre-existing surface channel or groove, as anyone who has ever worked with a glasscutter knows very well.

The puzzle of the "Tiger Stripes" parallelism can be simply explained by the phase-locked rotation of Enceladus about Saturn (it keeps the same face toward the gas giant), working in combination with the symmetrical, axially aligned magnetic field of Saturn. This unique alignment will naturally cause the magnetic field lines and their associated discharge currents to move in parallel to each other near the pole of Enceladus as it orbits Saturn. (Further constraints on the pattern may be due to a remnant intrinsic magnetic field in the south polar region).

As for the anomalous temperature readings in the region of jet activity, Thornhill suggests that the readings are way below what project scientists will find if they will measure the temperature at the focal point of a surface jet. Electric discharges become focused and hottest where they touch down on a surface. We are reminded that it was Thornhill who alone predicted that the plumes of the icy moon Io would be much hotter than NASA had ever contemplated. When the Galileo probe took a close look, the radiation overloaded the camera. NASA had not prepared for the surprise.

For background information on how anomalously high temperatures of electrical arcs were handled in the Io mission, check out http://www.thunderbolts.info/tpod/2004/arch/041217io-series-4.htm.

What I find peculiar about the situation though is that there is even so much controversy over the idea that these could be electrical arcs on Io and Enceladus. NASA already accepts that a burst of radio waves is associated with the material coming from Enceladus ...

"We have linked the pulsing radio signal to a rotating magnetic signal. Once each rotation of Saturn's magnetic field, an asymmetry in the field triggers a burst of radio waves," said Dr. David Southwood, co-author, Imperial College London, and director of science at the European Space Agency. "We have then linked both signals to material that has come from Enceladus." http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/news/press-release-details.cfm?newsID=733

That you guys and NASA continue to act as if Thornhill "owns" the idea of electrical terra-forming is a waste of everybody's time. If you see a burst of radio waves coming from Enceladus, material being thrown off of it, carved channels across the surface and very hot point sources that move across the surface associated with the rilles, are mathematical quantifications really necessary for a plasma arc to be considered as a possible explanation? I mean, NASA's image of Enceladus' atmosphere clearly depicts "Holt Plasma Flow" heading from Saturn to Enceladus, and the website attributes the magnetic field bend to "electric currents generated by the interaction of atmospheric particles and the magnetosphere of Saturn". But they just can't make the short leap from electric

Planetary scientists continue to perpetuate misunderstanding when they call the "Tiger Stripes" of Enceladus "cracks" that allow water to reach the surface. The channels are, in fact, precise analogs of those seen on Europa. Their frequent parallelism, their ridges or levees, and their ability to cut across all other channels in their paths stand as a definitive contradiction of the "fracturing" hypothesis. The pictures suggest something akin to a "claw" or router bit dragged across the surface in disregard for prior surface relief. That is a unique signature of an electric arc. In contrast, fracturing is invariably affected by a pre-existing surface channel or groove, as anyone who has ever worked with a glasscutter knows very well.

The puzzle of the "Tiger Stripes" parallelism can be simply explained by the phase-locked rotation of Enceladus about Saturn (it keeps the same face toward the gas giant), working in combination with the symmetrical, axially aligned magnetic field of Saturn. This unique alignment will naturally cause the magnetic field lines and their associated discharge currents to move in parallel to each other near the pole of Enceladus as it orbits Saturn. (Further constraints on the pattern may be due to a remnant intrinsic magnetic field in the south polar region).

As for the anomalous temperature readings in the region of jet activity, Thornhill suggests that the readings are way below what project scientists will find if they will measure the temperature at the focal point of a surface jet. Electric discharges become focused and hottest where they touch down on a surface. We are reminded that it was Thornhill who alone predicted that the plumes of the icy moon Io would be much hotter than NASA had ever contemplated. When the Galileo probe took a close look, the radiation overloaded the camera. NASA had not prepared for the surprise.

For background information on how anomalously high temperatures of electrical arcs were handled in the Io mission, check out http://www.thunderbolts.info/tpod/2004/arch/041217io-series-4.htm.

What I find peculiar about the situation though is that there is even so much controversy over the idea that these could be electrical arcs on Io and Enceladus. NASA already accepts that a burst of radio waves is associated with the material coming from Enceladus ...

"We have linked the pulsing radio signal to a rotating magnetic signal. Once each rotation of Saturn's magnetic field, an asymmetry in the field triggers a burst of radio waves," said Dr. David Southwood, co-author, Imperial College London, and director of science at the European Space Agency. "We have then linked both signals to material that has come from Enceladus." http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/news/press-release-details.cfm?newsID=733

That you guys and NASA continue to act as if Thornhill "owns" the idea of electrical terra-forming is a waste of everybody's time. If you see a burst of radio waves coming from Enceladus, material being thrown off of it, carved channels across the surface and very hot point sources that move across the surface associated with the rilles, are mathematical quantifications really necessary for a plasma arc to be considered as a possible explanation? I mean, NASA's image of Enceladus' atmosphere clearly depicts "Holt Plasma Flow" heading from Saturn to Enceladus, and the website attributes the magnetic field bend to "electric currents generated by the interaction of atmospheric particles and the magnetosphere of Saturn". But they just can't make the short leap from electric

The Voyager's data is stored on a gold record album. There's pictures on the craft to explain mathematically how to decode the data.

http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/spacecraft/goldenrec1.html

They did. But after centuries of politicizing the project they ran out of bugdet and instead of 42 it came out as number 37. The other super advanced civilization had a competing project, but after their religious fundamantalists came to power they decided it should send a deeply spritual message - voila: a coathanger.

They did. But after centuries of politicizing the project they ran out of bugdet and instead of 42 it came out as number 37. The other super advanced civilization had a competing project, but after their religious fundamantalists came to power they decided it should send a deeply spritual message - voila: a coathanger.

This material has been around since 1999 - 2000.
http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=955561&id=10&qs=No%3D10%26Ntt%3Dmfc%26Ntk%3Dall%26Ntx%3Dmode%2520matchall%26Ns%3DArchiveName%7C0%26N%3D0

http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=924195&id=8&qs=No%3D10%26Ntt%3Dmfc%26Ntk%3Dall%26Ntx%3Dmode%2520matchall%26Ns%3DArchiveName%7C0%26N%3D0

2004:
http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=572569&id=3&qs=No%3D0%26Ntt%3Dmfc%26Ntk%3Dall%26Ntx%3Dmode%2520matchall%26N%3D0%26Ns%3DArchiveName%7C0

Aparently they're 'merely' integrating it into materials and structures in new ways of late, but they were putting it on F-16 tailfin mockups 8 years ago.

This material has been around since 1999 - 2000.
http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=955561&id=10&qs=No%3D10%26Ntt%3Dmfc%26Ntk%3Dall%26Ntx%3Dmode%2520matchall%26Ns%3DArchiveName%7C0%26N%3D0

http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=924195&id=8&qs=No%3D10%26Ntt%3Dmfc%26Ntk%3Dall%26Ntx%3Dmode%2520matchall%26Ns%3DArchiveName%7C0%26N%3D0

2004:
http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=572569&id=3&qs=No%3D0%26Ntt%3Dmfc%26Ntk%3Dall%26Ntx%3Dmode%2520matchall%26N%3D0%26Ns%3DArchiveName%7C0

Aparently they're 'merely' integrating it into materials and structures in new ways of late, but they were putting it on F-16 tailfin mockups 8 years ago.

This material has been around since 1999 - 2000.
http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=955561&id=10&qs=No%3D10%26Ntt%3Dmfc%26Ntk%3Dall%26Ntx%3Dmode%2520matchall%26Ns%3DArchiveName%7C0%26N%3D0

http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=924195&id=8&qs=No%3D10%26Ntt%3Dmfc%26Ntk%3Dall%26Ntx%3Dmode%2520matchall%26Ns%3DArchiveName%7C0%26N%3D0

2004:
http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=572569&id=3&qs=No%3D0%26Ntt%3Dmfc%26Ntk%3Dall%26Ntx%3Dmode%2520matchall%26N%3D0%26Ns%3DArchiveName%7C0

Aparently they're 'merely' integrating it into materials and structures in new ways of late, but they were putting it on F-16 tailfin mockups 8 years ago.

It's currently a 24th magnitude object which means it's extremely faint and can only be viewed from earth by very large scopes on dark nights. The moon's illumination makes observation that much harder.

The Nasa neo page for this object has more info about the asteroid.

Despite all that, our transportation sector still relies too heavily on imported oil. Till we find a solution to that, we will be sending billions of dollars to marginally stable dictatorial nations for our oil.

We can reduce oil imports by 30% if we capture the methane from farm waste, reduce odor pollution, and get organic fertilizer too. Plug in hybrids can relieve another 30% of the load on oil imports.

But the oil producers cut the oil price and make the investors bail out and then raise the oil prices again. We need dedicated investors who will stay in wait for a real long time in the oil-replacement technologies.

Though stories of breakthrough in solar cell technology is running almost like a cron job in slashdot, this time it is slightly better because this time it is shipping already. It is not a story about what a technology that is 5, 10 or 20 years from the market.

Err, what about the satellites NASA and ESA has in orbit around Mars?

Mars Express
  http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Mars_Express

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
  http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/mro/

Both are kinda closer than we are so may get a better picture.

The Phoenix lander is already headed to Mars. It wasn't designed to study an impact site, but we can be sure the mission group will be making interesting decisions if an impact takes place.

Orbit viewer for 2007 WD5: http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?sstr=2007%20WD5;orb=1;cov=0;log=0#orb

Loos like the asteroid could come close to Earth's orbit in 2011. Hope it hits Mars before that!

A little googling and some luck turned up this EPOXI Trajectory on NASA's web site. As far as I can tell, the craft will be traveling at right angles to the comet. Probe's final orbit in the image heads from top to bottom; the comet comes in from the right, loops around clockwise, and heads back out to the right.

Hope that helps!

Just an interesting read - a few pilot reports about lasers:

http://asrs.arc.nasa.gov/publications/callback/cb_332.htm

NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory observed G11.2-0.3 at two epochs, the first (Sequence Number 50076) on 2000 August 6, and the second (Sequence Number 50077) on 2000 October 15. The exposure for the first epoch was 20 ks. The second epoch consisted of two exposures, one of 10 ks and the other of 5 ks. In all observations, the remnant was positioned on the back-illuminated CCD chip S3 of the ACIS instrument in standard exposure mode. In this mode, the time resolution (3.2 s) is too coarse to resolve the pulsations from the pulsar.

The data were analyzed using the CIAO 2.02 and MIRIAD software packages. Following the energy binning scheme of Hughes et al. (2000), we added together the individual count maps from the three different observing epochs in the 0.6-1.65 keV, 1.65-2.25 keV, and 2.25-7.5 keV energy bands. Spectrally weighted exposure maps were created for each observation and energy band, and were summed over the three observations, creating a total count map and exposure map for each energy band. The count maps were divided by the exposure maps, and the result convolved with a 5" FWHM Gaussian to enhance the nebular structure given the low count rate. The three individual maps were then combined into a 3-color image, with red, green, and blue assigned to the low, medium, and high energy bands respectively.

And the radio image (source http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0202262):

Radio observations of G11.2-0.3 were made with the VLA at 20 and 6 cm (L- and C-bands, respectively), between 1984 April and 1985 May. Details of these observations are summarized in Table 1.

Data reduction and analysis were performed using standard procedures within the miriad package (Sault & Killeen 1999). The data were flux-density and anten

NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory observed G11.2-0.3 at two epochs, the first (Sequence Number 50076) on 2000 August 6, and the second (Sequence Number 50077) on 2000 October 15. The exposure for the first epoch was 20 ks. The second epoch consisted of two exposures, one of 10 ks and the other of 5 ks. In all observations, the remnant was positioned on the back-illuminated CCD chip S3 of the ACIS instrument in standard exposure mode. In this mode, the time resolution (3.2 s) is too coarse to resolve the pulsations from the pulsar.

The data were analyzed using the CIAO 2.02 and MIRIAD software packages. Following the energy binning scheme of Hughes et al. (2000), we added together the individual count maps from the three different observing epochs in the 0.6-1.65 keV, 1.65-2.25 keV, and 2.25-7.5 keV energy bands. Spectrally weighted exposure maps were created for each observation and energy band, and were summed over the three observations, creating a total count map and exposure map for each energy band. The count maps were divided by the exposure maps, and the result convolved with a 5" FWHM Gaussian to enhance the nebular structure given the low count rate. The three individual maps were then combined into a 3-color image, with red, green, and blue assigned to the low, medium, and high energy bands respectively.

And the radio image (source http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0202262):

Radio observations of G11.2-0.3 were made with the VLA at 20 and 6 cm (L- and C-bands, respectively), between 1984 April and 1985 May. Details of these observations are summarized in Table 1.

Data reduction and analysis were performed using standard procedures within the miriad package (Sault & Killeen 1999). The data were flux-density and anten

NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory observed G11.2-0.3 at two epochs, the first (Sequence Number 50076) on 2000 August 6, and the second (Sequence Number 50077) on 2000 October 15. The exposure for the first epoch was 20 ks. The second epoch consisted of two exposures, one of 10 ks and the other of 5 ks. In all observations, the remnant was positioned on the back-illuminated CCD chip S3 of the ACIS instrument in standard exposure mode. In this mode, the time resolution (3.2 s) is too coarse to resolve the pulsations from the pulsar.

The data were analyzed using the CIAO 2.02 and MIRIAD software packages. Following the energy binning scheme of Hughes et al. (2000), we added together the individual count maps from the three different observing epochs in the 0.6-1.65 keV, 1.65-2.25 keV, and 2.25-7.5 keV energy bands. Spectrally weighted exposure maps were created for each observation and energy band, and were summed over the three observations, creating a total count map and exposure map for each energy band. The count maps were divided by the exposure maps, and the result convolved with a 5" FWHM Gaussian to enhance the nebular structure given the low count rate. The three individual maps were then combined into a 3-color image, with red, green, and blue assigned to the low, medium, and high energy bands respectively.

And the radio image (source http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0202262):

Radio observations of G11.2-0.3 were made with the VLA at 20 and 6 cm (L- and C-bands, respectively), between 1984 April and 1985 May. Details of these observations are summarized in Table 1.

Data reduction and analysis were performed using standard procedures within the miriad package (Sault & Killeen 1999). The data were flux-density and anten

NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory observed G11.2-0.3 at two epochs, the first (Sequence Number 50076) on 2000 August 6, and the second (Sequence Number 50077) on 2000 October 15. The exposure for the first epoch was 20 ks. The second epoch consisted of two exposures, one of 10 ks and the other of 5 ks. In all observations, the remnant was positioned on the back-illuminated CCD chip S3 of the ACIS instrument in standard exposure mode. In this mode, the time resolution (3.2 s) is too coarse to resolve the pulsations from the pulsar.

The data were analyzed using the CIAO 2.02 and MIRIAD software packages. Following the energy binning scheme of Hughes et al. (2000), we added together the individual count maps from the three different observing epochs in the 0.6-1.65 keV, 1.65-2.25 keV, and 2.25-7.5 keV energy bands. Spectrally weighted exposure maps were created for each observation and energy band, and were summed over the three observations, creating a total count map and exposure map for each energy band. The count maps were divided by the exposure maps, and the result convolved with a 5" FWHM Gaussian to enhance the nebular structure given the low count rate. The three individual maps were then combined into a 3-color image, with red, green, and blue assigned to the low, medium, and high energy bands respectively.

And the radio image (source http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0202262):

Radio observations of G11.2-0.3 were made with the VLA at 20 and 6 cm (L- and C-bands, respectively), between 1984 April and 1985 May. Details of these observations are summarized in Table 1.

Data reduction and analysis were performed using standard procedures within the miriad package (Sault & Killeen 1999). The data were flux-density and anten

A couple of years ago:

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/image/0504/WaterOnMars2_gcc_big.jpg

More info and photos on the Martian rock-ice glaciers of Deuteronilus Mensae.

Now that we've got glaciers and lava tubes, I'm packing up my crampons and caving gear for a Martian vacation!

Do you really think there will be much code that is worthy of The Daily WTF? NASA and its contractors go to great lengths to try to produce properly engineered code. Sure, it's still not perfect, but I seriously doubt we'll see the kind of "what were they thinking?!" things that are typically featured on The Daily WTF.

Thismay be a good place to start reading... I cannot guess what their funding is, but I'd say it's "not too bad" (guessing)

http://www1.nasa.gov/missions/research/x43_gwr.html
This site seems to suggest the official record is mach 6.8316 and has a picture of the guiness book of records certificate to confirm it. I remember watching videos on this stuff years ago and they were talking about reaching just over mach 6 so it irked me a bit when they said the official record was 3.3 :(

"properly designed, it doesn't slow down much in this process, and thus doesn't induce as much drag as it would if it hit the nose of the plane."

Properly designed, huh? I think you're assuming a lot. The airflow MUST slow down in the process, because it needs to be compressed in order to burn.

Look, the calculations are a bit beyond the scope of what I'm gonna post on /. (html equation editing==pita). The intake throat diameter is going to be much, much smaller than the frontal area of the hypersonic craft. eg: http://www.nasa.gov/missions/research/x43-main.html

If you can design a scramjet engine with a frontal area/thrust ratio similar to a rocket, you are going to make a very large amount of money. That is beyond the current state of the art. Consider the stoichiometry of combustion: How much O2 are you going to need to burn your fuel? Lots. How high up is this thing going to operate? High. The whole front of the aircraft is going to be a ramp which, along with the oblique bow shock wave, is going to start compressing air for combustion. You'll have another oblique shock wave system inside the engine throat, which will have to be VERY carefully managed. An engine unstart at hypersonic speeds would be a very, very, very bad thing. Unstart is what would happen if the nice supersonic airflow through the engine throat is disturbed in such a way that the oblique shock waves turn into normal shocks (perpendicular to the airflow). Air crossing a normal shock wave slows to sub-sonic speed, instantly reducing the amount of airflow through the engine and dramatically increasing drag. By "dramatically", I mean "Wow, the aircraft just disintegrated. That sucks!"

(fun fact: The difference between a ramjet and a scramjet is that normal shock wave. Ramjets have them, scramjets do not. Which is also why you need to be traveling faster than Mach 1 to light a ramjet.)

There's a reason that we don't have sustainable supersonic combustion ramjets. This stuff is really, really difficult.

Fuels that explode spontaneously when in contact with air are pretty darn dangerous to handle. There are projects to evaluate how to auto-ignite fuel, but none of this stuff is easy when you're talking about trying to get useful fuel mixing somewhere close to the aircraft in a high-speed flow.

You're referring to NASA's Shaped Sonic Boom Demonstrator (SSBD) http://www.dfrc.nasa.gov/gallery/Photo/SSBD/index.html

The shape of the nose can determine the severity of the sonic boom heard on the ground. But damn it looks ugly.

So let's figure out the energy density: There's .5mv^2 kinetic energy in the flow--the energy that turns windmill blades, by analogy. That comes out to 6.7e-11 J/m^3. There's kinetic energy in the temperature of the plasma (1.5nkT, depending on the definition of temperature used)--about 1.4e-18 J/m^3. Then the magnetic field carries 4.9e-12 J/m^3 and electric field, 4.4e-18 J/m^3.

Hmmm. Already the bulk flow far dominates the electromagnetic energy. And that's generally how we describe energetics in the magnetosphere: the solar wind acts as a dynamo, generating electric and magnetic fields in interaction with Earth's field. So if we multiply those energy densities times the rate at which they flow past (400km/s), and the size of the magnetosphere's cross-section (roughly, a circle with twenty times the radius of the Earth), the total energy inputs are 1.4e12W, 2.9e4W, 1.0e11W, and 9.2e4W for bulk flow, thermal, magnetic, and electric energies. Total energy input to the Earth from sunlight? 1.7e17W--one hundred thousand times all these other effects. (Yes, the Earth reflects back 2/3 of that, but the magnetosphere also doesn't tap 100% of the available solar wind energy...not even close.)

It's possible that there are climate implications to the Sun-Earth connection, and people are working on it. But if there are, they're relatively subtle processes (which may have large effects, of course) resulting from, say, alteration of global circulation patterns--not the raw energy input.

Great points. For those interested here are some links dealing with the many issues surrounding "global warming". http://links.veronicachapman.com/OriginsOfOil.htm http://www.iceagenow.com/Growing_Glaciers.htm http://epw.senate.gov/public/index.c...9-68c808e8809e http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4520665474899458831 http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/...n2871211.shtml http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/New...s/Aerosols.pdf http://nasadaacs.eos.nasa.gov/articl...6_highlow.html http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17997788/site/newsweek/?ic http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,269886,00.html http://www.21stcenturysciencetech.com/Articles%202007/20_1-2_CO2_Scandal.pdf http://www.thunderbolts.info/forum/phpBB/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=438 http://www.thunderbolts.info/tpod/2007/arch07/070507martianwarming.htm http://www.holoscience.com/news.php?article=8gfbewe7&keywords=global%20warming#dest http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/12/071211101623.htm

Great points. For those interested here are some links dealing with the many issues surrounding "global warming". http://links.veronicachapman.com/OriginsOfOil.htm http://www.iceagenow.com/Growing_Glaciers.htm http://epw.senate.gov/public/index.c...9-68c808e8809e http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4520665474899458831 http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/...n2871211.shtml http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/New...s/Aerosols.pdf http://nasadaacs.eos.nasa.gov/articl...6_highlow.html http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17997788/site/newsweek/?ic http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,269886,00.html http://www.21stcenturysciencetech.com/Articles%202007/20_1-2_CO2_Scandal.pdf http://www.thunderbolts.info/forum/phpBB/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=438 http://www.thunderbolts.info/tpod/2007/arch07/070507martianwarming.htm http://www.holoscience.com/news.php?article=8gfbewe7&keywords=global%20warming#dest http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/12/071211101623.htm

"So to sum up your entire post for those that come after me, you are saying "electric universe rules"." -Kagura

No, I think that what he's saying is something to the effect that this shouldn't be news to anybody, but the fact that it is happens to be disheartening.

Specifically, Kristian Birkeland predicted this in his book Norwegian Aurora Polaris Expedition (section 2, I believe).

Specifically, if one references the images contained in the book, things become clear quite quickly:
Chapter VI: On Possible Electric Phenomena in Solar Systems and Nebulae

Take, for instance, an extreme case of his terella in operation:
Figure 259

How do you like them "flux ropes?"

This image hows the terella operating in a mode that exposes the electrical currents for what they are. In this shot, the currents are in "arc mode" (akin to sparks or lightning). Whereas the auroras around Earth are akin to a "glow mode" discharge. Birkeland currents in interplanetary space are a "dark mode" discharge (IE, not glowing, but still slowly transferring electric charges in a "dark" current, much like an electrical wire, but in this case a plasma filament). Look it up. Standard plasma physics.

In essence, the solar system can be likened to a virtual "plasma globe." In the "plasma globe" model of the solar system, the sun is the central electrode. The planets are akin to people pressing their fingers to the outer glass because it's cool to watch the filaments connect to the spot you touch. The "magnetic flux ropes" are akin to the plasma filaments connecting the central electrode to the outer glass where fingers touch. The "magnetic flux ropes" are a byproduct of the electrical current (flow of charged particles) connecting the sun to the Earth.

Here's a colorized version of a plasma globe I made for reference:
Plasma globe "sun"

So, yeah, it's something like that.

I really wish it would let me put images in this thing. Ohh well, I said it better over on BAUT anyway (assuming they don't immediately MOD it out of existence, for being presumptuous enough to mention astronomers' apparent blindspot regarding electricity in space).

Did I forget to mention NASA's own rather candid admission that there's an electrical link between the sun and the Earth? "Flux rope" pumps 650,000 Amp current into the arctic! (30 kV battery in space) (Noted on this page: Multimedia for the Press Event for THEMIS.)

In all, what Pln2bz says is quite sage, and I suggest that we listen to him... Rather carefully. He may not be quite as "insane" as some think. It's quite necessary to review the argument based on its merits, and see where it leads. Might just turn science on its ear.

After all, we've just re-learned that Birkeland currents power the magnetosphere. This was confirmed in t he 60s / 70s when we started shooting satellites into space, and it was predicted in the 1900s (appx 1902-1903 was when Birkeland went north; 1908 was when he published Norewgian Aurora Polaris Expedition, to great acclaim pretty much everywhere, except England and America, where an electrically neutral/sterile cosmology had already taken hold, unfortunately, setting us back a

"THEMIS encountered its first magnetic rope on May 20, 2007," says Sibeck. "It was very large, about as wide as Earth, and located approximately 40,000 miles above Earth's surface in a region called the magnetopause." The magnetopause is where the solar wind and Earth's magnetic field meet and push against one another like sumo wrestlers locked in combat. There, the rope formed and unraveled in just a few minutes, providing a brief but significant conduit for solar wind energy. Other ropes quickly followed: "They seem to occur all the time," says Sibeck.

"THEMIS also has observed a number of small explosions in Earth's magnetic bow shock. "The bow shock is like the bow wave in front of a boat," explained Sibeck. "It is where the solar wind first feels the effects of Earth's magnetic field. Sometimes a burst of electrical current within the solar wind will hit the bow shock and--Bang! We get an explosion."

X-15 Hypersonic Research Program (from http://www.nasa.gov/centers/dryden/news/FactSheets/FS-052-DFRC.html)

In the joint X-15 hypersonic research program that NASA conducted with the Air Force, the Navy, and North American Aviation, Inc., the aircraft flew over a period of nearly 10 years and set the world's unofficial speed and altitude records of 4,520 mph (Mach 6.7--on Oct. 3, 1967, with Air Force pilot Pete Knight at the controls) and 354,200 feet (on Aug. 22, 1963, with NASA pilot Joseph Walker in the cockpit) in a program to investigate all aspects of piloted hypersonic flight.

Early flights of the aircraft initially flew with two XLR-11 engines, producing a thrust of 16,380 lb. Once the XLR-99 was installed, the thrust became 57,000 lb.

The US has not "nixed bankrolling" for manned Mars missions. Projects for this are still in progress. For instance http://www.nasa.gov/topics/moonmars/features/troutman-architecture.html

Read NASA's site and NASA watch for the real news.

THEMIS also has observed a number of small explosions in Earth's magnetic bow shock. "The bow shock is like the bow wave in front of a boat," explained Sibeck. "It is where the solar wind first feels the effects of Earth's magnetic field. Sometimes a burst of electrical current within the solar wind will hit the bow shock and--Bang! We get an explosion."

"THEMIS encountered its first magnetic rope on May 20, 2007," says Sibeck. "It was very large, about as wide as Earth, and located approximately 40,000 miles above Earth's surface in a region called the magnetopause." The magnetopause is where the solar wind and Earth's magnetic field meet and push against one another like sumo wrestlers locked in combat. There, the rope formed and unraveled in just a few minutes, providing a brief but significant conduit for solar wind energy. Other ropes quickly followed: "They seem to occur all the time," says Sibeck.

THEMIS also has observed a number of small explosions in Earth's magnetic bow shock. "The bow shock is like the bow wave in front of a boat," explained Sibeck. "It is where the solar wind first feels the effects of Earth's magnetic field. Sometimes a burst of electrical current within the solar wind will hit the bow shock and--Bang! We get an explosion."