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User: ubergeek2009

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  1. Re:Great on Boeing Readies For First Ever Conjoined Satellite Launch · · Score: 2

    That was a different company all together. Orbital Sciences had a launch failure shortly after it left the pad. This launch is going to performed by Boeing.

  2. Re:So, ion drive or something??? on Boeing Readies For First Ever Conjoined Satellite Launch · · Score: 4, Informative

    According to wikipedia the 702SP uses xenon.

  3. Re:Pre chaos theory on HBO Developing Asimov's Foundation Series As TV Show · · Score: 1

    I don't want to spoil too much for you but they reveal that they can't predict stuff as good as they led you to believe later on in the series.

  4. Re:so how did they form? on Most Planets In the Universe Are Homeless · · Score: 2

    They could have formed inside of solar systems and then ejected into interplanetary space by encounters with other planets.

  5. Re:What a load of nonsense on Pentagon Reportedly Hushed Up Chemical Weapons Finds In Iraq · · Score: 1

    There's a reason that even if they were serviceable that they were never used. Chemical weapons are terrible. Both strategically and from a human standpoint as well. Chemical weapons don't care whether the soldier being paralyzed is yours or the enemy's and the group being terrorized by the weaponry will change as the wind changes.

  6. Re:Why go to another gravity well? on NRC Human Spaceflight Report Says NASA Strategy Can't Get Humans To Mars · · Score: 1

    I"m not suggesting that we stay Earthbound. I'm suggesting that we don't land on another planet. The asteroids will have most, if not all of the available resources on planets with the added benefit of not sitting at the bottom of a gravity well. Getting out of and returning to the gravity well is the most costly and most dangerous part of any space mission. If we can get out to the asteroid belt then travel to and from nearby asteroids will be cheap if we use ion drives or VASMIR engines. Additionally sending raw materials to anywhere in the solar system would be cheap with the great giant Jupiter sitting nearby to give us gravity assists. The only problems left are health related. We'll need radiation shielding which would be available either by digging into an asteroid or layering materials on the exterior of stations. Then comes the issue of needing a downward force to prevent atrophy. We can spin up an asteroid or a space station to solve that problem.

  7. Why go to another gravity well? on NRC Human Spaceflight Report Says NASA Strategy Can't Get Humans To Mars · · Score: 4, Insightful

    There's no reason to go to the bottom of another gravity well. We should be travelling to, learn from, and eventually exploit the asteroids. It makes more sense for the long term viability of the human race.

  8. Re:Linux soon? on Netflix Ditches Silverlight For HTML5 On Macs · · Score: 1

    If I'm remembering correctly netflix will stream actual HD (720 or 1080 I can't recall) to the app, but not to the browser.

  9. Re:Linux soon? on Netflix Ditches Silverlight For HTML5 On Macs · · Score: 1

    They also have an app for Windows 8, albeit it's a metro app.

  10. Re:EMP Bait on Did the Ignition Key Just Die? · · Score: 1

    If your vehicle has electronic fuel injection, like most modern gasoline powered cars do, then your car wouldn't work anyway if an EMP goes off.

  11. Re:A switch is a switch on Did the Ignition Key Just Die? · · Score: 1

    You don't even need the original key in order to get a copy made. Just show up with the VIN number, which can be read through the windshield,and they can do if for you.

  12. Re:I don't like the control it takes away from you on Did the Ignition Key Just Die? · · Score: 1

    What if the battery is completely dead and you want to roll start it? I'm for keyless cars; I'm just playing devils advocate.

  13. Re:Help! Help! on Did the Ignition Key Just Die? · · Score: 1

    Mechanical linkages fail as well. I once started a car in the cold (disclaimer: I was 16 and going to be late for school and the temperature outside was -20 F) and when I was backing out of the driveway the throttle stuck open. I had ice buildup on the spring used to provide resistance to the gas pedal, so my throttle never released from the bit of gas it took to break the ice under the tires. Thankfully I was going slow enough I had time to react and so I shut the car off so I could stop without damaging the transmission.

  14. Re:Help! Help! on Did the Ignition Key Just Die? · · Score: 1

    If you have an automatic transmission you don't need a clutch. It operates by stopping sets of gears in a planetary gear type system. I say planetary gear type because most transmissions are more complicated than that.

    Source: Engineering Student

  15. Re:for all of this... on Researchers See a Post-Snowden Chilling Effect In Our Search Data · · Score: 1

    Agreed. I remember an article on slashdot before outlining the process of parallel construction and how it was used against U.S. residents/civilians. They may be mining the data for an investigation and then not using it in court which is illegal, and if it isn't it should be.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P...

  16. Re:If you're just beaming it down to earth anyways on How Japan Plans To Build Orbital Solar Power Stations · · Score: 4, Informative

    The power will be transmitted as microwaves, which aren't scattered by the atmosphere as easily as visible light.

  17. Re:What if we overcorrect? on Climate Scientist: Climate Engineering Might Be the Answer To Warming · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Exactly. The only problem is we only have access to one habitable planet to toy with. I think it makes more sense to just adapt to the changes that will happen rather than try to manipulate a system we don't understand and can't afford to completely destroy.

  18. Re:Maybe if Clinton... on Climate Scientist: Climate Engineering Might Be the Answer To Warming · · Score: 1

    I agree that nuclear is part of the solution to our current problems, but we have to get over the social issue first. Nuclear is safe the public just associates everything to do with radiation and nukes with death.

    I personally think that nuclear fission plants should be used until we can get fusion working for energy production or we can make space based solar reasonably effective.

  19. Re:Climate engineering? on Climate Scientist: Climate Engineering Might Be the Answer To Warming · · Score: 1

    The climate and global weather systems aren't some homogenous entity. Local climate and weather is not only coupled to transient effects from the sun and random fluctuations, but also geography. Some places will get hotter, some colder. Others will have more precipitation and others less.

    Also, FYI warm air can carry more moisture. So a warmer upper atmosphere == more possible snowfall.

  20. What if we overcorrect? on Climate Scientist: Climate Engineering Might Be the Answer To Warming · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I'd be leary of either overcorrecting for climate change or having massive unpredicted effects. I'm all for trying to fix the problem. I just don't think our climate modelling is yet good enough.

  21. Re:The feds can have the data from my last flight. on In-Flight Wi-Fi Provider Going Above and Beyond To Help Feds Spy · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Agreed. I'm an engineering student and I'm the head of one of my student competitions which happens to involve building a high powered rocket. I had to travel on the day of an important meeting for the competition and was forced to leave the task to a rather junior member of the team. I couldn't check in on one of team members when I was in either airport because I was afraid of being labeled as a terrorist and end up in an interrogation room because I was discussing basic rocketry with a team member.

  22. Re:Random toys on A Bid To Take 3D Printing Mainstream · · Score: 1

    3D modelling is way easier than producing good technical drawings, and you don't need the drawings for 3D printed components. The only time you would need them is if you had to submit them to another company or for checking the part for tolerances.

  23. Re:Phones yeah on Nanodot-Based Smartphone Battery Recharges In 30 Seconds · · Score: 1

    Kind of. I'm saying still have the battery. Just use the small engine for range extension on long trips exactly how the volt does it. Locomotives do it because the losses from transmission from mechanical->electricity->mechanical is a lot less than the losses for the insane gearing system that would be needed otherwise and you get max power at a stop all the way through max speed on the rails.

  24. Re:Already going mainstream on A Bid To Take 3D Printing Mainstream · · Score: 1

    Are you at University of Washington or University of Wisconsin?

  25. Re:no... on A Bid To Take 3D Printing Mainstream · · Score: 1

    I've worked quite a bit with 3D printers and 3D printed components. You can put together a RepRap for $500 (Makerbot has issues, mainly with belts) and the filament is overpriced, but not terribly expensive. I don't believe that these devices belong in the kitchen or living room, but most definitely in the hobbyist's home shop, or in the garage next to the table saw and drill press.