I think even the simplest Stirling engines beat this thing out for efficiency, I think 30% is easily attainable and better engineered systems I believe can top 45%. The only issue with them is there is some maintenance (though NASA is working on eliminating that). I think the next generation of Radioisotope thermoelectric generators are supposed to use Stirling generators.
They cost more to Develop and to build per unit, but (again, done right) over their lifetime would be much cheaper. The major failing of the shuttle program was not so much the direction of the program, though there were of course areas that needed improvement. It was all of the "hands in the till", the massive number of contractors, staff and facilities spread across the US that were deemed "necessary" for the program. The actual costs for the shuttle specifically (parts, labor, fuel) was quite small, and considering it was built in much fewer numbers than originally intended, almost competitive with expendable launch systems. With today's tech we could pretty easily develop a "stage and a half"/"two stage" craft that could fly at least a dozen times before requiring minor overhauls, and probably 50 flights between major overhauls. But to really bring down the costs they would need to be built on a modern airliner scale (hundreds or +1,000 of them) & politics would need to be kept to a minimum (no shipping fabrication of certain parts to Vermont to keep their Senator happy when a plant is ready to produce them cheaply in Missouri). A SSTO craft would not be out of reach, but would probably require much high development cost. Either case though is a "chicken and the egg" problem, for it to be economically reasonable there would need to be the drive to flight thousands of flights a year, a market for thousands of flights a year will only come into being when the flight costs come down massively.
" blowing up tons of very expensive fuel every launch."
From what I understand the fuel is the cheapest part of the endeavor in most spaceflight. The expensive parts are the spacecraft, ground control facilities & thousands of site personnel. Reusable spacecraft (SSTO or even Stage and a Half) craft would bring down the costs MASSIVELY, if done right (aircraft like operations, mostly off the shelf tech, no Cost+ schemes). But the drive to develop such a craft just hasn't been there. Unfortunately it will probably take something like a new space race with China, Russia, India, etc to stick a cattle prod in our "leaders" butts to do so.
Problem with that is there was no way to do it without breaking the law. Its not against the law to say generically "I want a complaint form", but it is illegal to begin the process of filling out a police report as it is legally considered a form of perjury (this of course only applies to activists and reporters). The best way to handle a complaint against an officer unfortunately, is to get a lawyer, write up a complaint in legalese, and send it notarized by way of certified mail making sure to retain a copy. And NEVER, EVER talk to the police without your lawyer present. That way is the least likely for you to end up in a jail cell on some fabricated charges, but its not something your average person would go through due to the cost and risk of getting on the wrong side of the local PD. It isn't the way things should be, but it sadly is the way things are.
Live Free or Die Hard, while probably not the worse ever, is the worst I recall at the moment. I felt like attempting to drive my head through a brick wall at points.
Correct me if I'm wrong but from what I understand Aerogel isn't filled with "Air" (Nitrogen, Oxygen, CO2 mix) Its filled with whatever gas is used to replace the liquid that holds up the structure during "drying". I think in the most common process its pure CO2
Thankfully it seems the days of the "infallible police officer" in at least traffic court are coming to an end. With GPS & "Black Boxes" drivers now have evidence disproving the accusations of faulty equipment or incompetent/lying officers. While I am sure that a good number of cases of false accusations are just a technical/operator snafu, I've heard that there are more than a few officers who have boasted that they've gotten a radar reading off of one speeding car and waited for someone who they wanted to "check out" and used the previous reading as a justification for the pull over. And that's if radar/laser gun has any logging/output capability.
The police always laud their catching of X number of "drunk drivers" but I wonder how many innocent people are subjected to (temporary) detention and invasive searches (aptitude tests, breathalyzers, urine/blood tests) to catch how many "drunk drivers". I would guess that the overall numbers are quite high (50 innocents/1 DD). Would it be acceptable to trash 10 innocent peoples homes (I've heard more than a few horror stories from people who come home to their home ripped apart and find out that the police served the search warrant on the wrong address) to catch one robber? Why do we allow such an invasive and blatantly unconstitutional acts when there is so little to gain? Drunk drivers deserve punishment but not at the cost of all of our rights.
Its a little thing called the fourth amendment. Its supposed to be illegal for the government to intrude upon our persons (bodies, property, documents, etc) without probable cause. And before someone starts spouting the "driving is a privilege" crap we also have a constitutional RIGHT to travel, and cars are the means of travel these days. It disturbs me how easily some people will abandon their rights for little to no improvement in safety/security.
It seems to me that they are either really over thinking this problem or trying specifically to use it (in lieu of an actual fix) to justify a controversial action that they want to take anyway (net neutrality). Simply throttle the users! Why go all the way down the application layer when you can just say "hey, these users are using an unusually excessive amount of network traffic, we'll just slow their u/d speeds a bit. And if their network can't handle some simple excessive polling from a chat program (formatted text!) how in the world can they handle youtube traffic?
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I think even the simplest Stirling engines beat this thing out for efficiency, I think 30% is easily attainable and better engineered systems I believe can top 45%. The only issue with them is there is some maintenance (though NASA is working on eliminating that). I think the next generation of Radioisotope thermoelectric generators are supposed to use Stirling generators.
They cost more to Develop and to build per unit, but (again, done right) over their lifetime would be much cheaper. The major failing of the shuttle program was not so much the direction of the program, though there were of course areas that needed improvement. It was all of the "hands in the till", the massive number of contractors, staff and facilities spread across the US that were deemed "necessary" for the program. The actual costs for the shuttle specifically (parts, labor, fuel) was quite small, and considering it was built in much fewer numbers than originally intended, almost competitive with expendable launch systems. With today's tech we could pretty easily develop a "stage and a half"/"two stage" craft that could fly at least a dozen times before requiring minor overhauls, and probably 50 flights between major overhauls. But to really bring down the costs they would need to be built on a modern airliner scale (hundreds or +1,000 of them) & politics would need to be kept to a minimum (no shipping fabrication of certain parts to Vermont to keep their Senator happy when a plant is ready to produce them cheaply in Missouri). A SSTO craft would not be out of reach, but would probably require much high development cost. Either case though is a "chicken and the egg" problem, for it to be economically reasonable there would need to be the drive to flight thousands of flights a year, a market for thousands of flights a year will only come into being when the flight costs come down massively.
" blowing up tons of very expensive fuel every launch." From what I understand the fuel is the cheapest part of the endeavor in most spaceflight. The expensive parts are the spacecraft, ground control facilities & thousands of site personnel. Reusable spacecraft (SSTO or even Stage and a Half) craft would bring down the costs MASSIVELY, if done right (aircraft like operations, mostly off the shelf tech, no Cost+ schemes). But the drive to develop such a craft just hasn't been there. Unfortunately it will probably take something like a new space race with China, Russia, India, etc to stick a cattle prod in our "leaders" butts to do so.
Problem with that is there was no way to do it without breaking the law. Its not against the law to say generically "I want a complaint form", but it is illegal to begin the process of filling out a police report as it is legally considered a form of perjury (this of course only applies to activists and reporters). The best way to handle a complaint against an officer unfortunately, is to get a lawyer, write up a complaint in legalese, and send it notarized by way of certified mail making sure to retain a copy. And NEVER, EVER talk to the police without your lawyer present. That way is the least likely for you to end up in a jail cell on some fabricated charges, but its not something your average person would go through due to the cost and risk of getting on the wrong side of the local PD. It isn't the way things should be, but it sadly is the way things are.
Live Free or Die Hard, while probably not the worse ever, is the worst I recall at the moment. I felt like attempting to drive my head through a brick wall at points.
Correct me if I'm wrong but from what I understand Aerogel isn't filled with "Air" (Nitrogen, Oxygen, CO2 mix) Its filled with whatever gas is used to replace the liquid that holds up the structure during "drying". I think in the most common process its pure CO2
Don't forget to factor in the increased insurance from the license points and speeding ticket.
Thankfully it seems the days of the "infallible police officer" in at least traffic court are coming to an end. With GPS & "Black Boxes" drivers now have evidence disproving the accusations of faulty equipment or incompetent/lying officers. While I am sure that a good number of cases of false accusations are just a technical/operator snafu, I've heard that there are more than a few officers who have boasted that they've gotten a radar reading off of one speeding car and waited for someone who they wanted to "check out" and used the previous reading as a justification for the pull over. And that's if radar/laser gun has any logging/output capability.
The police always laud their catching of X number of "drunk drivers" but I wonder how many innocent people are subjected to (temporary) detention and invasive searches (aptitude tests, breathalyzers, urine/blood tests) to catch how many "drunk drivers". I would guess that the overall numbers are quite high (50 innocents/1 DD). Would it be acceptable to trash 10 innocent peoples homes (I've heard more than a few horror stories from people who come home to their home ripped apart and find out that the police served the search warrant on the wrong address) to catch one robber? Why do we allow such an invasive and blatantly unconstitutional acts when there is so little to gain? Drunk drivers deserve punishment but not at the cost of all of our rights.
Its a little thing called the fourth amendment. Its supposed to be illegal for the government to intrude upon our persons (bodies, property, documents, etc) without probable cause. And before someone starts spouting the "driving is a privilege" crap we also have a constitutional RIGHT to travel, and cars are the means of travel these days. It disturbs me how easily some people will abandon their rights for little to no improvement in safety/security.
It seems to me that they are either really over thinking this problem or trying specifically to use it (in lieu of an actual fix) to justify a controversial action that they want to take anyway (net neutrality). Simply throttle the users! Why go all the way down the application layer when you can just say "hey, these users are using an unusually excessive amount of network traffic, we'll just slow their u/d speeds a bit. And if their network can't handle some simple excessive polling from a chat program (formatted text!) how in the world can they handle youtube traffic?