As others have said, Bloodhound already uses airbrakes for higher speeds. The disk brakes are used when the airbrakes become ineffective at lower speeds. NASCAR is 200 mph, not 300 (and 1/4 the weight). And NASCAR brakes don't have to survive rotating at 1600 km/h. At that speed, the centrifugal force is more than most materials can handle. Bloodhound's wheels are some of the biggest engineering challenges in the project, they have to withstand something like 50,000 G. The brakes are a bit easier because they're smaller, but still a major problem.
Brakes on ordinary cars are typically several times more powerful than the car's engine, so we're talking about several hundred kW of available braking power for an ordinary saloon. On one hand, Bloodhound is a 6-ton machine going 250 km/h when the brakes are applied which would suggest the figure needs to be higher than that. On the other hand, it'll have far less grip than rubber tires on tarmac can generate so it's not the maximum power dissipation that counts.
It'd be interesting to see how they plan to do this. The main obstacle to mass production using CFRP (or any fiber-reinforced plastics) is that it takes much longer to put fibers in a mould, impregnate them and have the mixture dry to the point where it can be removed from the mould, than it would to stamp a sheet of aluminium into shape.
I tried something similar with some audio cassettes a few years ago, and found that I was too late: the tape had begun to stick together, and required more power than my high-end Denon tape deck could muster to play back. Rewinding didn't work either, as there's a tape tension sensor that shuts down the motor if it gets overloaded.
A long time ago, I used to volunteer for a local radio station. They had a couple of Studer PR-99 open-reel tape recorders. These were used pretty hard, all day long. We used them so much that the recording and playback heads developed visible grooves from all the tape that spooled past them. They were incredibly overbuilt. Weighed a ton, they had 3 electric motors that looked like they could start a car. All the circuit boards were slotted in for easy maintenance. They never failed, despite the abuse they went through.
If engineers were left to design a parking app, they'd make it work for all forms of paid parking in at least one country. Instead, we're saddled with a fragmented market.
Taking homeopathy to its logical conclusion: plain ordinary tap water contains homeopathic concentrations of every substance known to man. Ergo: water should cure everything!
Yes, this would make things simpler. The French have done this (PDF link), using one standard reactor design wherever possible. IIRC the American method was to use some standard components, but allow the architect responsible for the plant to make lots of changes (e.g. the piping between the standard components is different at each plant).
Left foot braking was pioneered by Walter Rohl driving the turbocharged Audi rally cars. It's pointless in non-turbocharged cars, and completely pointless in an electric car.
In a front-wheel-drive car, left-foot braking can help stabilize the rear: you get a net braking force on the rear axle, and some drive to the front.
It's entirely possible the plane wasn't tracked the entire time, but the crash was heard by a US submarine operating in the area. Loud noises would have made it clear that survivors weren't likely. I can see why they decided not to reveal sensitive information in those circumstances.
The big-ticket item is probably communications They need one of the DSN antennas: huge dishes that there are never enough of. Ending the Curiosity mission makes room for a new mission without having to build a new 34-meter dish antenna.
What's missing is a filter in the receiver circuits. You've got a transmitter and a receiver connected to the same antenna. When you're using the (powerful) transmitter, you need to make sure its signals don't end up in the (very sensitive) receiver and fry it. This filter has to provide something like 150 dB of isolation.
The Russians would have had to launch 3 or 4 (if an unmanned Soyuz launch is impossible) Soyuz within 30 days. This assumes they had 3-4 Soyuz rockets lying around at the launch site, finished and ready-to-launch. Using a Proton wouldn't be feasible; it's never been used to launch Soyuz capsules so they'd have to manufacture a payload adapter. The Soyuz could only be launched unmanned if its software were able to do automated rendezvous and stationkeeping, AND if its airlock were able to be opened from the outside. The same constraints apply that TFA talked about: preparing 1-3 missions at a hugely compressed time schedule. You also have the additional problem of having 4-5 spaceships flying in close formation, each in a slightly different orbit. That's a bad enough problem with 2 ships, but with 4-5 you need all of them to be manned to avoid collisions and blasting EVA crew with rocket exhaust.
It's an ESA project, for political reasons this will use an ESA launcher. They added a Soyuz launchpad to the Kourou spaceport a few years ago to expand their launcher portfolio on the low end.
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Yup, it's time for the Moron Decree.
Large engine diameters only became available two decades later (high-bypass engines like the RB.211). DH used what was available at the time.
As others have said, Bloodhound already uses airbrakes for higher speeds. The disk brakes are used when the airbrakes become ineffective at lower speeds.
NASCAR is 200 mph, not 300 (and 1/4 the weight). And NASCAR brakes don't have to survive rotating at 1600 km/h. At that speed, the centrifugal force is more than most materials can handle. Bloodhound's wheels are some of the biggest engineering challenges in the project, they have to withstand something like 50,000 G. The brakes are a bit easier because they're smaller, but still a major problem.
Brakes on ordinary cars are typically several times more powerful than the car's engine, so we're talking about several hundred kW of available braking power for an ordinary saloon. On one hand, Bloodhound is a 6-ton machine going 250 km/h when the brakes are applied which would suggest the figure needs to be higher than that. On the other hand, it'll have far less grip than rubber tires on tarmac can generate so it's not the maximum power dissipation that counts.
in the release notes of new software:
Plasma Next keeps existing workflows intact...
(Are you listening, Mozilla?)
[AustralisSucks]
It'd be interesting to see how they plan to do this. The main obstacle to mass production using CFRP (or any fiber-reinforced plastics) is that it takes much longer to put fibers in a mould, impregnate them and have the mixture dry to the point where it can be removed from the mould, than it would to stamp a sheet of aluminium into shape.
"This month, we set up a new system for department X that helps them accomplish task Y in 50% less time"
I tried something similar with some audio cassettes a few years ago, and found that I was too late: the tape had begun to stick together, and required more power than my high-end Denon tape deck could muster to play back. Rewinding didn't work either, as there's a tape tension sensor that shuts down the motor if it gets overloaded.
The battery in my Casio lasts 5 years.
I'd say that needing regular adjustments (every other month at least) falls under "doesn't function all that well".
Look up Philips Wake-up Light. The same idea, but with gradually brightening light instead of instant sunshine.
A long time ago, I used to volunteer for a local radio station. They had a couple of Studer PR-99 open-reel tape recorders. These were used pretty hard, all day long. We used them so much that the recording and playback heads developed visible grooves from all the tape that spooled past them.
They were incredibly overbuilt. Weighed a ton, they had 3 electric motors that looked like they could start a car. All the circuit boards were slotted in for easy maintenance. They never failed, despite the abuse they went through.
Using seawater in the secondary cooling loop makes maintaining the cooling system a nightmare because seawater's rather corrosive.
Use a penlite instead with much more capacity for 1/20 the price.
If engineers were left to design a parking app, they'd make it work for all forms of paid parking in at least one country. Instead, we're saddled with a fragmented market.
Taking homeopathy to its logical conclusion: plain ordinary tap water contains homeopathic concentrations of every substance known to man. Ergo: water should cure everything!
Yes, this would make things simpler. The French have done this (PDF link), using one standard reactor design wherever possible. IIRC the American method was to use some standard components, but allow the architect responsible for the plant to make lots of changes (e.g. the piping between the standard components is different at each plant).
Left foot braking was pioneered by Walter Rohl driving the turbocharged Audi rally cars. It's pointless in non-turbocharged cars, and completely pointless in an electric car.
In a front-wheel-drive car, left-foot braking can help stabilize the rear: you get a net braking force on the rear axle, and some drive to the front.
It's entirely possible the plane wasn't tracked the entire time, but the crash was heard by a US submarine operating in the area. Loud noises would have made it clear that survivors weren't likely. I can see why they decided not to reveal sensitive information in those circumstances.
The big-ticket item is probably communications They need one of the DSN antennas: huge dishes that there are never enough of. Ending the Curiosity mission makes room for a new mission without having to build a new 34-meter dish antenna.
What's missing is a filter in the receiver circuits.
You've got a transmitter and a receiver connected to the same antenna. When you're using the (powerful) transmitter, you need to make sure its signals don't end up in the (very sensitive) receiver and fry it.
This filter has to provide something like 150 dB of isolation.
The Russians would have had to launch 3 or 4 (if an unmanned Soyuz launch is impossible) Soyuz within 30 days. This assumes they had 3-4 Soyuz rockets lying around at the launch site, finished and ready-to-launch.
Using a Proton wouldn't be feasible; it's never been used to launch Soyuz capsules so they'd have to manufacture a payload adapter.
The Soyuz could only be launched unmanned if its software were able to do automated rendezvous and stationkeeping, AND if its airlock were able to be opened from the outside.
The same constraints apply that TFA talked about: preparing 1-3 missions at a hugely compressed time schedule.
You also have the additional problem of having 4-5 spaceships flying in close formation, each in a slightly different orbit. That's a bad enough problem with 2 ships, but with 4-5 you need all of them to be manned to avoid collisions and blasting EVA crew with rocket exhaust.
there would have been a loud 'kaboom'
Almost, grasshopper. There would have been an earthshattering kaboom.
It's an ESA project, for political reasons this will use an ESA launcher. They added a Soyuz launchpad to the Kourou spaceport a few years ago to expand their launcher portfolio on the low end.
Still, congratulations. It's amazing that we've gone from stars visible only as a single pixel to being able to detect surface features.