The laptop wouldn't be used to actually fly the spacecraft. Probably more just to run appropriate map software. But as far as using a laptop in a spacecraft... wasn't it just last week I read about the laptop being used on the space shuttle?
Fuel... methane, propane, and liquid oxygen, from the ThriftySpace.com web site. The first two are commercially available (natural gas & the stuff you use for bbq's). LOX is a little trickier to handle, but not much worse than any other cryogenic liquid. You may even remember the guy who used to light a bbq with liquid oxygen.
You can read more detailed information about the Kitten over on Jim Hill's business site at ThriftySpace.com. Cerulean Freight is scrounging for financial backing at the moment, but once they get over this relatively minor hump, I expect they should be able to prove out Kitten pretty quickly.
But, as you will be able too see over on ThriftySpace.com, the Kitten (which isn't even designed to reach Low Earth Orbit) is just Cerulean Freight's prototype. They expect to produce a working vehicle next called Calico,that would be capable of reaching orbit with a payload of almost two tons. Like the Kitten, it would be able to make quick turnarounds.
Actually, the composition of meteoric materials is pretty well known. If falls into two primary classes: cometary and asteroidal. The first is primarily ice and dust. The later is of stony material, or of metallic origin. The composition does indeed affect how the meterior will fare once it enters our atmosphere. So does the speed of the entering meteor. The faster the meteor is travelling, the higher the air resistance in the upper atmosphere. Once the air pressure of the reentry exceeds the physical strength of the meteor, it is crushed. Cometary meteors seldom make it to the ground, since they are generally moving at higher velocities, and are made of more fragile materials. Metallic meteors are from the asteroids (generally NEAs), which are moving slower. These often make it to the ground, since their strenth if pretty high.
For reference, I offer the book "Rain of Iron and Ice: The Very Real Threat of Comet and Asteroid Bombardment" by John S. Lewis, Addison Wesley Longman, Inc., January 1995. Lewis gives a very good historic and factual overview of meteor impacts on Earth and elsewhere, and presents some interesting speculation about the actual danger to Earth from falling asteroids and comets.
Fact: meteors do hit Earth. About 1/2 are of asteroidal origin. The remainder are cometary debris. MOST break up in the atmosphere. But those are the small ones. Anything larger than a certain size will reach the ground.
Fact: Based on SpaceWatch observations, there are probably about 2000 objects larger than 1 kilometer in diameter in Near Earth Orbits. These are the civilization killers. NEO bodies larger than 0.1 km in diameter probably number over half a million. These would cause widespread devistation. (Meteor Crater, AZ was formed by an asteroidal piece about 30 meters in diameter!)
The 0.1 Km strikes occure (on average) every 100,000 years. The larger asteroids strike Earth (on average) every 100,000,000 years (with the last one suspected as being 65 million years ago). No, they don't happen very often, but they do happen. We will soon be in a position to do something about it. I, for one, would like to be able to. The first step is knowing about potential threats.
Ok, lets say that all the obsticles of structral materials, orbital harmonics, etc. etc. can be overcome, and we build this thing. Now, as I understand it, the bottom end is attached to something at this end... in this case, a 50 Km tall building. This is, of necessity, located on Earth's equater. But don't we have plate tectonics? Will it STAY on the equater? Or will we have to relocate the anchor point ever few hundred years?
The subject of this article is the binary star that Hubble saw in the process of leaving the main sequence as its hydrogen runs out. But when this happens to a star, it is not the end of its life.
A star with the mass of the Sun blows off a lot of its material as it goes nova, but eventually the remenants (certainly less than 1/2 the original mass) turn into a white dwarf star. While this type of star isn't undergoing a lot of fusion at its core any more, it takes quite a while for the remaining energy to radiate into space. But eventually, the white dwarf will cool off. You might call the result a black dwarf... but its still there.
This month's (October 2000) Astronomy Magazine (http://www.astronomy.com/) has an article speculating about this very thing: what happens to stars (actually, what happens to the ENTIRE UNIVERSE) after the nuclear fuel runs out. What I got out of this article is that all those burned out stars are going to be around for a very, VERY long time... on the order of 10^40 (10,000 trillion trillion trillion) years. That is how much time it is estimated it will take before proton decay will eventually evaporate everything (except perhaps some black holes).
So all those who were worried that the sun was only good for another 5 billion years, take heart! Except for the fact that none of us will live through its transformation, we would have plenty of time to enjoy our planet's primary.
I'm sure we've all seen some neat things contained on web pages that we've decided that we just had to incorporate into our own. I know I do all the time. But it is one thing to swipe a javascript or menu layout that we like, and another two download and use an entire web site in its entirety. C'mon guy! How about some originality?
Yes, Microsoft has done some things that shouldn't have been done, and yes, they should be held responsible for them. But really! Who is going to benefit from one or more class action lawsuits against the PC software giant? Hint: It won't be the consumers. You can bet that the lawyers will pocket billions before you or I ever see a dollar.
Bill Gates may be despicable in some eyes, but he is a saint compaired to a lot of the folks working in the legal system.
How can this affect the "big companies"? You know the ones I mean... the ones who have local subsidiaries in the other nations... IE, does a transaction between Company XYZ's computer in New York and Company XYZ's Euro office count as an international transaction??? The big companies are expert at hiding profits in this venue. Hey, this kind of accounting gives the US IRS fits!
Also, how will DE apply the royalty to international companies doing business totally outside the US? Does Mr. Poole expect royalties there too? I sure hope not, since he won't see any.
If it becomes illegal to link to copyrighted material... Isn't the MPAA's web site copyrighted? Let's all file a class action lawsuit against all sites containing a link to the MPAA! We'd be doing them a favor!
As those of who work with computers know, memory is only part of a computer. Yes, an important part, but only a part. As the article points out, getting these molecular switches to work is only part of memory for that matter. Before we can will be seeing NanoRam (NRAM)TM on the store shelves, they have to figure out how to wire lots of these little beasties together. But it would be nice to have Tera-bytes of power in a quarter sized computer.
Another problem I see with this early version of memory is that the individual cells can be switched "hundreds of times". Better than once, yes, but a realistic memory cell needs to switch billions, if not trillions of times during its expected life. We have a way to go here.
The music industry will continue to sue prominant software/internet firms/individuals, and will probably win a lot of the cases in the American Court System, as it now exists.
The availability of pirated music works has exceeded the industry's ability to control.
Some of you may remember one of the rumors going around prior the release of Episode VI: a lot of us really thought that VI would be called Revenge of the Jedi. Don't know if this was leaked by Lucas or not, but I don't remember him deneying it. Always remember, GL has his own agenda.
Enforcing Copyrights on Abandonware is done for one reason only: control. Why would a company want to keep users from having access to old versions of software? So the users have to buy the new versions!
As a rule, new versions of software are more feature rich (read: fatter) and may or may not be more useful. But it is certain that the company that produces the new software can get a lot more money from it that they would if they kept selling the sold software.. Rather than sell and support both, they would just as well force you to upgrade.
Of course, that makes it hard to keep using those old Win3.x machines with currently available programs.
The biggest problem I see with even the best of such games is the lack of alternatives. Yes, Myst and Riven and others are great alternatives to the Quake style shoot-em-ups, but invariably the player has to solve ALL of the puzzles more or less sequentially to complete the game.
What I would like to see is a game where there were multiple, mutually exclusive paths that might be taken to successfully to a conclusion. And if there was a certain randomness in the game that would make one path or another easier to find each time the game is played, so much the better.
will involve shooting politicians into space sans spacesuit, to see how well they stand up to the vacuum and solar radiation. Theorists propose that this form of life came to Earth from outer space, possibly on meteorites.
I must be doing something right. I ran searches on each of the mentioned directory searches, and NONE of them had a listing for me in any of the locations I have lived in for the last three plus years. And I haven't tried living anonymously.
I doubt that NASA has cleared the use of a helecopter in Titan's airspace with the Titan Aviation Administration. Flying an unauthorized, not to mention unidentified, flying craft without agency saction could result in a diplomatic incident, and possibly an interplanetary war. Haven't these guys read any of the popular fiction?
I'm drooling already, even though I won't be able to afford such a thing for at least a year. But in the way of everything electronic, today $10,000, next year $4000, year after $1000, and in three years, they're giving them away ('cause the things are obsolete).
Slashdot Mirror
In addition to the private ventures mentioned, here are some others:
CFFC
JP Aerospace
Microcosm
Pioneer Rocketplane
The laptop wouldn't be used to actually fly the spacecraft. Probably more just to run appropriate map software. But as far as using a laptop in a spacecraft... wasn't it just last week I read about the laptop being used on the space shuttle?
Fuel... methane, propane, and liquid oxygen, from the ThriftySpace.com web site. The first two are commercially available (natural gas & the stuff you use for bbq's). LOX is a little trickier to handle, but not much worse than any other cryogenic liquid. You may even remember the guy who used to light a bbq with liquid oxygen.
You can read more detailed information about the Kitten over on Jim Hill's business site at ThriftySpace.com. Cerulean Freight is scrounging for financial backing at the moment, but once they get over this relatively minor hump, I expect they should be able to prove out Kitten pretty quickly.
But, as you will be able too see over on ThriftySpace.com, the Kitten (which isn't even designed to reach Low Earth Orbit) is just Cerulean Freight's prototype. They expect to produce a working vehicle next called Calico,that would be capable of reaching orbit with a payload of almost two tons. Like the Kitten, it would be able to make quick turnarounds.
-Mikehttp://meckardt.net
http://orbitalhabitat.com
Oh! Arrggg! My eyes! I can't see! Awwwww...
Actually, the composition of meteoric materials is pretty well known. If falls into two primary classes: cometary and asteroidal. The first is primarily ice and dust. The later is of stony material, or of metallic origin. The composition does indeed affect how the meterior will fare once it enters our atmosphere. So does the speed of the entering meteor. The faster the meteor is travelling, the higher the air resistance in the upper atmosphere. Once the air pressure of the reentry exceeds the physical strength of the meteor, it is crushed. Cometary meteors seldom make it to the ground, since they are generally moving at higher velocities, and are made of more fragile materials. Metallic meteors are from the asteroids (generally NEAs), which are moving slower. These often make it to the ground, since their strenth if pretty high.
That would have to be one big asteroid! Say... about the size of the moon.
although probably not especially urgent.
For reference, I offer the book "Rain of Iron and Ice: The Very Real Threat of Comet and Asteroid Bombardment" by John S. Lewis, Addison Wesley Longman, Inc., January 1995. Lewis gives a very good historic and factual overview of meteor impacts on Earth and elsewhere, and presents some interesting speculation about the actual danger to Earth from falling asteroids and comets.
Fact: meteors do hit Earth. About 1/2 are of asteroidal origin. The remainder are cometary debris. MOST break up in the atmosphere. But those are the small ones. Anything larger than a certain size will reach the ground.
Fact: Based on SpaceWatch observations, there are probably about 2000 objects larger than 1 kilometer in diameter in Near Earth Orbits. These are the civilization killers. NEO bodies larger than 0.1 km in diameter probably number over half a million. These would cause widespread devistation. (Meteor Crater, AZ was formed by an asteroidal piece about 30 meters in diameter!)
The 0.1 Km strikes occure (on average) every 100,000 years. The larger asteroids strike Earth (on average) every 100,000,000 years (with the last one suspected as being 65 million years ago). No, they don't happen very often, but they do happen. We will soon be in a position to do something about it. I, for one, would like to be able to. The first step is knowing about potential threats.
Ok, lets say that all the obsticles of structral materials, orbital harmonics, etc. etc. can be overcome, and we build this thing. Now, as I understand it, the bottom end is attached to something at this end... in this case, a 50 Km tall building. This is, of necessity, located on Earth's equater. But don't we have plate tectonics? Will it STAY on the equater? Or will we have to relocate the anchor point ever few hundred years?
The subject of this article is the binary star that Hubble saw in the process of leaving the main sequence as its hydrogen runs out. But when this happens to a star, it is not the end of its life.
A star with the mass of the Sun blows off a lot of its material as it goes nova, but eventually the remenants (certainly less than 1/2 the original mass) turn into a white dwarf star. While this type of star isn't undergoing a lot of fusion at its core any more, it takes quite a while for the remaining energy to radiate into space. But eventually, the white dwarf will cool off. You might call the result a black dwarf... but its still there.
This month's (October 2000) Astronomy Magazine (http://www.astronomy.com/) has an article speculating about this very thing: what happens to stars (actually, what happens to the ENTIRE UNIVERSE) after the nuclear fuel runs out. What I got out of this article is that all those burned out stars are going to be around for a very, VERY long time... on the order of 10^40 (10,000 trillion trillion trillion) years. That is how much time it is estimated it will take before proton decay will eventually evaporate everything (except perhaps some black holes).
So all those who were worried that the sun was only good for another 5 billion years, take heart! Except for the fact that none of us will live through its transformation, we would have plenty of time to enjoy our planet's primary.
Does it run Seti-At-Home?
Gonzo
I'm sure we've all seen some neat things contained on web pages that we've decided that we just had to incorporate into our own. I know I do all the time. But it is one thing to swipe a javascript or menu layout that we like, and another two download and use an entire web site in its entirety. C'mon guy! How about some originality?
Gonzo
Done! I've added a protest page that DOES NOT contain links to anything having to do with DeCSS. But just check out the page source...
Gonzo
Yes, Microsoft has done some things that shouldn't have been done, and yes, they should be held responsible for them. But really! Who is going to benefit from one or more class action lawsuits against the PC software giant? Hint: It won't be the consumers. You can bet that the lawyers will pocket billions before you or I ever see a dollar.
Bill Gates may be despicable in some eyes, but he is a saint compaired to a lot of the folks working in the legal system.
Gonzo
How can this affect the "big companies"? You know the ones I mean... the ones who have local subsidiaries in the other nations... IE, does a transaction between Company XYZ's computer in New York and Company XYZ's Euro office count as an international transaction??? The big companies are expert at hiding profits in this venue. Hey, this kind of accounting gives the US IRS fits!
Also, how will DE apply the royalty to international companies doing business totally outside the US? Does Mr. Poole expect royalties there too? I sure hope not, since he won't see any.
Gonzo
If it becomes illegal to link to copyrighted material... Isn't the MPAA's web site copyrighted? Let's all file a class action lawsuit against all sites containing a link to the MPAA! We'd be doing them a favor!
Gonzo
As those of who work with computers know, memory is only part of a computer. Yes, an important part, but only a part. As the article points out, getting these molecular switches to work is only part of memory for that matter. Before we can will be seeing NanoRam (NRAM)TM on the store shelves, they have to figure out how to wire lots of these little beasties together. But it would be nice to have Tera-bytes of power in a quarter sized computer.
Another problem I see with this early version of memory is that the individual cells can be switched "hundreds of times". Better than once, yes, but a realistic memory cell needs to switch billions, if not trillions of times during its expected life. We have a way to go here.
Gonzo
Gonzo
Some of you may remember one of the rumors going around prior the release of Episode VI: a lot of us really thought that VI would be called Revenge of the Jedi. Don't know if this was leaked by Lucas or not, but I don't remember him deneying it. Always remember, GL has his own agenda.
Gonzo
Enforcing Copyrights on Abandonware is done for one reason only: control. Why would a company want to keep users from having access to old versions of software? So the users have to buy the new versions!
As a rule, new versions of software are more feature rich (read: fatter) and may or may not be more useful. But it is certain that the company that produces the new software can get a lot more money from it that they would if they kept selling the sold software.. Rather than sell and support both, they would just as well force you to upgrade.
Of course, that makes it hard to keep using those old Win3.x machines with currently available programs.
Gonzo
The biggest problem I see with even the best of such games is the lack of alternatives. Yes, Myst and Riven and others are great alternatives to the Quake style shoot-em-ups, but invariably the player has to solve ALL of the puzzles more or less sequentially to complete the game.
What I would like to see is a game where there were multiple, mutually exclusive paths that might be taken to successfully to a conclusion. And if there was a certain randomness in the game that would make one path or another easier to find each time the game is played, so much the better.
Gonzo
will involve shooting politicians into space sans spacesuit, to see how well they stand up to the vacuum and solar radiation. Theorists propose that this form of life came to Earth from outer space, possibly on meteorites.
Gonzo
I must be doing something right. I ran searches on each of the mentioned directory searches, and NONE of them had a listing for me in any of the locations I have lived in for the last three plus years. And I haven't tried living anonymously.
Gonzo
I doubt that NASA has cleared the use of a helecopter in Titan's airspace with the Titan Aviation Administration. Flying an unauthorized, not to mention unidentified, flying craft without agency saction could result in a diplomatic incident, and possibly an interplanetary war. Haven't these guys read any of the popular fiction?
Gonzo
I'm drooling already, even though I won't be able to afford such a thing for at least a year. But in the way of everything electronic, today $10,000, next year $4000, year after $1000, and in three years, they're giving them away ('cause the things are obsolete).
Gonzo
Better make that target audience include some 40 year olds! I remember reading X-men back when I was in Jr HS.
Gonzo