Electric cars don't look odd just to annoy you, they look the way they do because engineers are trying to compensate for limited energy in today's batteries with reduced weight and lower coefficient of drag. If your electric car were to look more like a Chevy Corvette and less like a Tesla model S, then you wouldn't be passing many pumps, or charging stations, as a Corvette Cd is probably better in reverse, and a Tesla Model S has an excellent Cd, as did the Chevy EV1.
Emissions tests are required in many areas to keep poorly maintained & polluting vehicles off the road. Maybe someday a progressive tax will be applied based on the overall, including aerodynamic efficiency, of the vehicle. People who commute by foot or bicycle get free healthcare. The general idea of what 'looks cool' might evolve a bit.
Don't worry - the western culture of excessive consumption will breed newer and better batteries and power sources to charge them. Eventually you'll be able to cruise around in your muscle-car shaped flying vehicle powered by a Mr. Fusion, which will probably be better for everyone involved than burning the fossil fuels of today.
This puts growing health issues in perspective with GMO foods, industrialized food/grain processing, and the use of Monsanto's herbicide 'Roundup', now known to cause cancer.
The first stage ignited and flew to deploy the second stage. The first stage was not a failure.
The second stage ignited, but failed to reach the intended altitude.
The electric pumps functioned well enough for the 2nd stage to reach space.
The 3D printed components did not fail catastrophically, nor did the electrical system, or the electric fuel pumps.
While the overall mission was not a success, a vast majority of the individual systems worked as intended. Many milestones were crossed. In the long run the electric pumps might not pan out, but if you don't try you'll never know. Also, this alternate method of pumping fuel into the engine might lead to more capability and flexibility in controlling thrust, which could make landing and re-use even easier.
I hear very clearly your frustration over what many perceive to be an out of control and out of touch government bureaucracy in the FAA. Pilots feel the same way, although probably for different reasons. Also, aviation is not supposed to be an old boys club, open only to a privileged few. There are many ways to fly. The sky is big, the more the merrier! As drone technology increases, it will benefit all aviation.
The intent of FAA regulations is to ensure safe operation and interaction of all aircraft. Sometimes, maybe even frequently, the FAA misses it's mark. Perhaps they even pander too much to big corporations and airlines.
As a pilot, I can assure you that I do not want to keep drones on the ground, commercial or non-commercial. However, I do want all aircraft, including drones and their pilots, to be able to interact with the National Airspace System in a safe and predictable way.
Aviation is not the wild west. Transponders can be small and inexpensive, and they go a long way to providing safe separation of aircraft. Please be open to the continuously evolving technology and regulations involving any flying activities in the US. After all, it's a privilege, not a right, to fly something anywhere in US airspace. Driving a car is the same - a privilege, not a right.
As for the intent of the wording "engine driven electrical system" - that wording was written when it was inconceivable that a battery-electric aircraft could haul humans, much less interact with the National Airspace System - it was not written to deliberately exclude drones. That wording was written when an electrical system in an aircraft was still something of a novelty, and aircraft radios still had vacuum tubes. I know this because I've flown these airplanes. Sometimes the vacuum tube radios even worked.
And as for your assertion that mylar balloons and overly dramatic primadonna pilots are responsible for drone reports: yes, sometimes that's true, but not always. Acutally, always true that commercial pilots are primadonna crybabies, but that's another matter. Drones have flown over major airports, right through busy controlled airspace, far more often that most people realize. It is a problem, and we can't let it get worse. I've been asked by air traffic control to deviate in a flight to 'put eyes' on something flying around that didn't have a transponder and wasn't talking on a radio. Safe separation and coordinated behavior in the National Airspace System really is important - kind of like buckling your seatbelt, turning headlights on at night, obeying the speed limit, and having insurance.
Hello Pedant. Or Sophist. Or perhaps both, a pedaphist, or maybe a sophipedant. You know very well that most drones have an electrical system, and you know the intent of the regulations. As I pointed out, wording and regulations are evolving along with new technology.
Your drone has an electrical system, and the day requiring your drone to have a transponder is coming:
ADS-B for Drones
I am not incorrect, and you've omitted a very significant qualifier for the exemptions you've listed: an electrical system. From the AOPA link you provided:
Exemptions
Aircraft not originally certificated with an engine-driven electrical system or subsequently have not been certified with such a system installed, balloons, or gliders may conduct operations:
In the airspace within 30 nautical miles of the listed airports as long as operations are conducted:
Outside of Class A, B, and C airspace.
Below the altitude of the ceiling of a Class B or Class C airspace area designated for an airport, or 10,000 feet msl, whichever is lower.
Above 10,000 feet msl (excluding airspace above the lateral limits of Class B and C airspace).
Thus, transponders are also required for aircraft with an electrical system. The list of aircraft that are legally operating without an electrical system is very small, and are generally antique aircraft.
Imprecise, perhaps. Incorrect, no.
Kites are tethered to the ground, thus they don't move much. Also, in order to get very high off the ground, kites tend to be fairly large, thus they are easy to see.
Here's a question back at you: What do you think will happen to you if you try to fly a kite a few hundred feet in the air a few miles from a busy airport?
Having a child in the US results in a birth certificate and a social security number. This child will be taxed and regulated. Please vaccinate and care for this child.
Having a dog in or near city is potentially a health hazard. Get it licensed, vaccinated, and commit to giving it a home for it's entire life, please.
Flying a drone or UAV outdoors is interacting with an air space system that includes humans flying in manned aircraft. Learn to be part of that system and act according to well established and evolving rules and requirements.
Just because you don't _intend_ to fly above the height of trees doesn't make you or your drone exempt from responsibility in interacting with aircraft. If a drone is capable of flying into airspace occupied by manned aircraft, then you've just accepted a huge chunk of responsibility and liability.
DJI says: " No other technology is subject to mandatory industry-wide tracking and recording of its use, and we strongly urge against making UAS the first such technology."
This is complete and utter bullshit by DJI. Every manned aircraft operated in the United States (except for a very small number of antique airplanes made around 1946 and earlier, balloons, and some gliders) are currently required to broadcast a signal used to track it. It's called a transponder. Older transponders only report altitude and a unique number assigned by air traffic control, or set to 1200 if not a controlled flight, or 1202 if an uncontrolled glider flight. Newer transponders that are required at the end of 2019 will broadcast WAAS GPS data that adds aircraft registration data, accurate position, direction, and velocity. These broadcasts are tracked and located by radar systems. Check out flightradar24 and flightaware and you can see how flights with even simple transponders are accurately tracked.
Humans fly in airplanes that operate in a complex engineered air space system - even if those aircraft are in uncontrolled space - it's all part of an engineered system. If you want to operate a drone in _any_ US airspace, then you _must_ act as part of that engineered airspace system. Period. Or face the wrath of the law and the estates of those who you kill with your non-compliant drones.
The summary mentions Russia Today and Fox News, but not CNN? Perhaps we should tag submissions from Anonymous Cowards, and ' BeauHD' as equally unreliable and biased...
Lithium is the 2nd most abundant alkali metal on the planet, right next to sodium. It's easy to recycle, as long as we choose to do so. Same goes for lead acid batteries, which have been in widespread use for a few generations now.
Coal power plants have issues with cadmium, mercury, and other heavy metals.
Fortunately, emissions at a power plant aren't driving around, heating up, cooling down and idling at stop lights, and are amenable to all sorts of interesting, and in developed countries, mandated emissions scrubbing technology, which works quite a bit better than your car's catalytic converter.
The coal & gas industry and auto industry would really prefer to keep taking profits from existing technology _forever_ - that's the way the short-sighted American corporate machine works - invest minimally, extract maximum profits. Silicon Valley was founded on slightly different principles in that 'profit' was once defined as the creation and ownership of new technology and unique capability stemming from teams of competent specialists. It's good to see the latter ideal still has some influence.
My advice to you: let it go. The disruptive technology is already here. It's not going away, no matter how many paid trolls try to cling to the past.
Fiction, especially science fiction, is a form of literature. Literature explores and expands the human condition. Carrie Fisher's acting & the science fiction she helped bring to life inspired the dreams of millions, maybe billions. She embraced that role her entire life.
Some of those dreams translated to a reusable rocket actually landing on a floating barge at sea. Maybe someday even your myopic ass will have a chance to holiday in orbit, the moon, or on Mars. But you'll probably just bitch about the toilette and packaged food.
Science without dreams is pretty damn boring. Carrie Fisher may have done more for the dreams that fuel science than you, Mr. Anonymous Coward, could ever hope for.
Prions & protein folding diseases are no laughing matter.
In all seriousness, for anyone interested in a possible prevention or cure, you might enjoy reading The Storied Man, about Paul Alan Cox, an ethnobotanist who has been chasing protein folding diseases around the world.
I also highly recommend flying on Southwest Airlines.
Your continued use of a known defective product constitutes a public health hazard. I imagine Samsung is perfectly happy to be sued by you, an individual property owner, rather than accept the ongoing risk of being sued by an airline, movie theater, etc. By the way, your lawsuit against Samsung would fail, for the following reason:
This is analogous to restricting free speech by declaring it illegal to yell 'Fire!' in a crowded movie theater. Yes, you are free say anything you want, but not when your free speech jeopardizes the well-being of those around you. Should your phone burst into flames in a movie theater, you place everyone at risk. Samsung & Verizon are doing the right thing.
My bet is that the EM drive is operating on the same fundamentals as the Woodward Effect:
Dr. Woodward has continued the discourse started started long ago between Ernst Mach and Albert Einstein on trying come up with a better understanding of inertia. This work has been ongoing for many years, including peer reviewed publications and reproducible experiments.
Dr. Fearn at Fullerton has been doing a lot of work on the Mach Effect Thrusters. It's interesting stuff, well worth investigating.
Your assertion that Moore's Law is dead is akin to a similar assertion over 100 years ago that "everything that can be invented has been invented", and that the patent offices should be closed.
Go download Google's open source Tensorflow (an AI Machine Learning library), and try some real machine learning on real-time sensors and data streams. You'll quickly realize the highest end workstations can't keep up.
Now delve into a bit of devices physics. The easy gains in speed for silicon transistors have been made. There are still advances to be made, but different device physics that allow switching into the terahertz might just reset the clock on Moore's Law, which is just what's needed in all sorts of fields, such as AI.
Tesla does not have a good record of repeat customers, either. People who buy a new car every year are not buying a second Tesla.
I call bullshit. While standing in line to reserve a model 3 in Denver, I was surrounded by Model S owners or extended family of an S owner, and a few Leaf owners. I saw a Roadster drive by, presumably looking for a parking space. From that experience, my wag is 10%, maybe 15%, were repeat customers.
"...Bush signs bill which grants the Volt a $7,500 tax credit...The entire 10-year tax package for plug-in electric/hybrid vehicles is worth $1 billion. " Back in 2008 I believe...
GM lost the will, culture, and now the competency to innovate. Keep holding on to the past though. You'll look great driving around in your Chevy Dolt.
Personally, I think a Trump presidency would be "Huge" for SpaceX, as he'll likely stop the pork-barrel spending on the "Senate Launch System".
Elon, Jeff, Boeing, LockMart, and Aerojet Rocketdyne are perfectly capable of competing to produce the commercial capability that you so desire to flee the planet from the horrible terror of Trump.
Bruce, instead of fleeing this country because it might be led by someone you don't like, why not use that somewhat clever mind of yours, and your still somewhat relevant technical skillset, to host and teach foreign exchange students from less wealthy countries, like Honduras, Nicaragua, or Mexico? Send them home with newfound coding (and English) abilities. Give them an advantage in life by giving them something of yourself. I know you've got it in you.
But please, for the children's sake, teach them Python:)
Mars lacks any kind of hospitable environment for complex life. Want to pile up tailings, toxic waste and refuse from large scale industrial manufacture?? Do it on Mars. You won't be polluting anyone's back yard, the environmental & liability risks are near zero, and your biggest customers are all downhill.
Slashdot Mirror
Electric cars don't look odd just to annoy you, they look the way they do because engineers are trying to compensate for limited energy in today's batteries with reduced weight and lower coefficient of drag. If your electric car were to look more like a Chevy Corvette and less like a Tesla model S, then you wouldn't be passing many pumps, or charging stations, as a Corvette Cd is probably better in reverse, and a Tesla Model S has an excellent Cd, as did the Chevy EV1.
This aerodynamic car from 1934 shows that this is nothing new
Emissions tests are required in many areas to keep poorly maintained & polluting vehicles off the road. Maybe someday a progressive tax will be applied based on the overall, including aerodynamic efficiency, of the vehicle. People who commute by foot or bicycle get free healthcare. The general idea of what 'looks cool' might evolve a bit.
Don't worry - the western culture of excessive consumption will breed newer and better batteries and power sources to charge them. Eventually you'll be able to cruise around in your muscle-car shaped flying vehicle powered by a Mr. Fusion, which will probably be better for everyone involved than burning the fossil fuels of today.
This utopian future might be stymied by all the people displaced by the rising sea levels, who will start walking inland in some sort of environmental catastrophe version of a zombie apocalypse. Growing evidence suggests that sea levels have risen so rapidly in the past that civilizations couldn't keep up.
This puts growing health issues in perspective with GMO foods, industrialized food/grain processing, and the use of Monsanto's herbicide 'Roundup', now known to cause cancer.
The second stage ignited, but failed to reach the intended altitude.
The electric pumps functioned well enough for the 2nd stage to reach space.
The 3D printed components did not fail catastrophically, nor did the electrical system, or the electric fuel pumps.
While the overall mission was not a success, a vast majority of the individual systems worked as intended. Many milestones were crossed. In the long run the electric pumps might not pan out, but if you don't try you'll never know. Also, this alternate method of pumping fuel into the engine might lead to more capability and flexibility in controlling thrust, which could make landing and re-use even easier.
The intent of FAA regulations is to ensure safe operation and interaction of all aircraft. Sometimes, maybe even frequently, the FAA misses it's mark. Perhaps they even pander too much to big corporations and airlines.
As a pilot, I can assure you that I do not want to keep drones on the ground, commercial or non-commercial. However, I do want all aircraft, including drones and their pilots, to be able to interact with the National Airspace System in a safe and predictable way.
Aviation is not the wild west. Transponders can be small and inexpensive, and they go a long way to providing safe separation of aircraft. Please be open to the continuously evolving technology and regulations involving any flying activities in the US. After all, it's a privilege, not a right, to fly something anywhere in US airspace. Driving a car is the same - a privilege, not a right.
As for the intent of the wording "engine driven electrical system" - that wording was written when it was inconceivable that a battery-electric aircraft could haul humans, much less interact with the National Airspace System - it was not written to deliberately exclude drones. That wording was written when an electrical system in an aircraft was still something of a novelty, and aircraft radios still had vacuum tubes. I know this because I've flown these airplanes. Sometimes the vacuum tube radios even worked.
And as for your assertion that mylar balloons and overly dramatic primadonna pilots are responsible for drone reports: yes, sometimes that's true, but not always. Acutally, always true that commercial pilots are primadonna crybabies, but that's another matter. Drones have flown over major airports, right through busy controlled airspace, far more often that most people realize. It is a problem, and we can't let it get worse. I've been asked by air traffic control to deviate in a flight to 'put eyes' on something flying around that didn't have a transponder and wasn't talking on a radio. Safe separation and coordinated behavior in the National Airspace System really is important - kind of like buckling your seatbelt, turning headlights on at night, obeying the speed limit, and having insurance.
Powered parachutes and gyroplanes in rapidly diminishing class G airspace are just a technicality. For now.
Hello Pedant. Or Sophist. Or perhaps both, a pedaphist, or maybe a sophipedant. You know very well that most drones have an electrical system, and you know the intent of the regulations. As I pointed out, wording and regulations are evolving along with new technology.
Your drone has an electrical system, and the day requiring your drone to have a transponder is coming:
ADS-B for Drones
Thus, transponders are also required for aircraft with an electrical system. The list of aircraft that are legally operating without an electrical system is very small, and are generally antique aircraft. Imprecise, perhaps. Incorrect, no.
Kites are tethered to the ground, thus they don't move much. Also, in order to get very high off the ground, kites tend to be fairly large, thus they are easy to see.
Here's a question back at you: What do you think will happen to you if you try to fly a kite a few hundred feet in the air a few miles from a busy airport?
Having a child in the US results in a birth certificate and a social security number. This child will be taxed and regulated. Please vaccinate and care for this child.
Having a dog in or near city is potentially a health hazard. Get it licensed, vaccinated, and commit to giving it a home for it's entire life, please.
Flying a drone or UAV outdoors is interacting with an air space system that includes humans flying in manned aircraft. Learn to be part of that system and act according to well established and evolving rules and requirements.
Just because you don't _intend_ to fly above the height of trees doesn't make you or your drone exempt from responsibility in interacting with aircraft. If a drone is capable of flying into airspace occupied by manned aircraft, then you've just accepted a huge chunk of responsibility and liability.
Hopefully this logic does not escape you.
DJI says: " No other technology is subject to mandatory industry-wide tracking and recording of its use, and we strongly urge against making UAS the first such technology."
This is complete and utter bullshit by DJI. Every manned aircraft operated in the United States (except for a very small number of antique airplanes made around 1946 and earlier, balloons, and some gliders) are currently required to broadcast a signal used to track it. It's called a transponder. Older transponders only report altitude and a unique number assigned by air traffic control, or set to 1200 if not a controlled flight, or 1202 if an uncontrolled glider flight. Newer transponders that are required at the end of 2019 will broadcast WAAS GPS data that adds aircraft registration data, accurate position, direction, and velocity. These broadcasts are tracked and located by radar systems. Check out flightradar24 and flightaware and you can see how flights with even simple transponders are accurately tracked.
Humans fly in airplanes that operate in a complex engineered air space system - even if those aircraft are in uncontrolled space - it's all part of an engineered system. If you want to operate a drone in _any_ US airspace, then you _must_ act as part of that engineered airspace system. Period. Or face the wrath of the law and the estates of those who you kill with your non-compliant drones.
The summary mentions Russia Today and Fox News, but not CNN? Perhaps we should tag submissions from Anonymous Cowards, and ' BeauHD' as equally unreliable and biased ...
damn sticky mouse, negating an inadvertent mod
Lithium is the 2nd most abundant alkali metal on the planet, right next to sodium. It's easy to recycle, as long as we choose to do so. Same goes for lead acid batteries, which have been in widespread use for a few generations now.
Coal power plants have issues with cadmium, mercury, and other heavy metals.
Fortunately, emissions at a power plant aren't driving around, heating up, cooling down and idling at stop lights, and are amenable to all sorts of interesting, and in developed countries, mandated emissions scrubbing technology, which works quite a bit better than your car's catalytic converter.
The coal & gas industry and auto industry would really prefer to keep taking profits from existing technology _forever_ - that's the way the short-sighted American corporate machine works - invest minimally, extract maximum profits. Silicon Valley was founded on slightly different principles in that 'profit' was once defined as the creation and ownership of new technology and unique capability stemming from teams of competent specialists. It's good to see the latter ideal still has some influence.
My advice to you: let it go. The disruptive technology is already here. It's not going away, no matter how many paid trolls try to cling to the past.
Fiction, especially science fiction, is a form of literature. Literature explores and expands the human condition. Carrie Fisher's acting & the science fiction she helped bring to life inspired the dreams of millions, maybe billions. She embraced that role her entire life.
Some of those dreams translated to a reusable rocket actually landing on a floating barge at sea. Maybe someday even your myopic ass will have a chance to holiday in orbit, the moon, or on Mars. But you'll probably just bitch about the toilette and packaged food.
Science without dreams is pretty damn boring. Carrie Fisher may have done more for the dreams that fuel science than you, Mr. Anonymous Coward, could ever hope for.
Prions & protein folding diseases are no laughing matter.
In all seriousness, for anyone interested in a possible prevention or cure, you might enjoy reading The Storied Man, about Paul Alan Cox, an ethnobotanist who has been chasing protein folding diseases around the world.
I also highly recommend flying on Southwest Airlines.
Your continued use of a known defective product constitutes a public health hazard. I imagine Samsung is perfectly happy to be sued by you, an individual property owner, rather than accept the ongoing risk of being sued by an airline, movie theater, etc. By the way, your lawsuit against Samsung would fail, for the following reason:
This is analogous to restricting free speech by declaring it illegal to yell 'Fire!' in a crowded movie theater. Yes, you are free say anything you want, but not when your free speech jeopardizes the well-being of those around you. Should your phone burst into flames in a movie theater, you place everyone at risk. Samsung & Verizon are doing the right thing.
My bet is that the EM drive is operating on the same fundamentals as the Woodward Effect:
Dr. Woodward has continued the discourse started started long ago between Ernst Mach and Albert Einstein on trying come up with a better understanding of inertia. This work has been ongoing for many years, including peer reviewed publications and reproducible experiments.
Dr. Fearn at Fullerton has been doing a lot of work on the Mach Effect Thrusters. It's interesting stuff, well worth investigating.
Your assertion that Moore's Law is dead is akin to a similar assertion over 100 years ago that "everything that can be invented has been invented", and that the patent offices should be closed.
Go download Google's open source Tensorflow (an AI Machine Learning library), and try some real machine learning on real-time sensors and data streams. You'll quickly realize the highest end workstations can't keep up.
Now delve into a bit of devices physics. The easy gains in speed for silicon transistors have been made. There are still advances to be made, but different device physics that allow switching into the terahertz might just reset the clock on Moore's Law, which is just what's needed in all sorts of fields, such as AI.
Tesla does not have a good record of repeat customers, either. People who buy a new car every year are not buying a second Tesla.
I call bullshit. While standing in line to reserve a model 3 in Denver, I was surrounded by Model S owners or extended family of an S owner, and a few Leaf owners. I saw a Roadster drive by, presumably looking for a parking space. From that experience, my wag is 10%, maybe 15%, were repeat customers.
aww, sour grapes much?
"...Bush signs bill which grants the Volt a $7,500 tax credit...The entire 10-year tax package for plug-in electric/hybrid vehicles is worth $1 billion. " Back in 2008 I believe...
GM lost the will, culture, and now the competency to innovate. Keep holding on to the past though. You'll look great driving around in your Chevy Dolt.
Personally, I think a Trump presidency would be "Huge" for SpaceX, as he'll likely stop the pork-barrel spending on the "Senate Launch System".
Elon, Jeff, Boeing, LockMart, and Aerojet Rocketdyne are perfectly capable of competing to produce the commercial capability that you so desire to flee the planet from the horrible terror of Trump.
Bruce, instead of fleeing this country because it might be led by someone you don't like, why not use that somewhat clever mind of yours, and your still somewhat relevant technical skillset, to host and teach foreign exchange students from less wealthy countries, like Honduras, Nicaragua, or Mexico? Send them home with newfound coding (and English) abilities. Give them an advantage in life by giving them something of yourself. I know you've got it in you.
But please, for the children's sake, teach them Python :)
R. Daneel Olivaw for President!
Archimeded in the first century AD may have built upon Babylonian and Egyptian mathto create true calculus.
Mars lacks any kind of hospitable environment for complex life. Want to pile up tailings, toxic waste and refuse from large scale industrial manufacture?? Do it on Mars. You won't be polluting anyone's back yard, the environmental & liability risks are near zero, and your biggest customers are all downhill.
I get that people that live on their phones may be fond of their apps and the app store(s) and the environment they are used to, but please consider:
The Raspberry Pi 2 (under $40), running Raspbian, is a very usable Debian Linux based desktop environment, unencumbered by the limitations of Android.
'sudo apt-cache search ' will yield all sorts of interesting things worth investigating, and maybe even a few worth 'sudo apt-get install '
Android for anything other than a phone is rather pointless.