ya, but look at the energy/area of the reflector on the laser and then look at the contact patch on the target, that laser is probably being focused into a couple of square centemeters area....think magnifying glass, sunny day, and ants......
I hadn't heard of any tracking devices on the previous targets, but it is a simple matter to add a gunnery computer and tracking system like every conventional anti-aircraft gun system out there has.....aquisition and targeting is the same, and the actual firing solutions will be simpler than a gun like the CIWS point defense on ships that actually track the outgoing projectiles and guide the stream (picture water hose) of fire onto the target.....
Because of the Lagrange point physics, the relative velocity of those objects (compared to whatever you are building there) will be very small. It should not be an issue to set up a solar array to power laser micro-meteorite defenses (not to blow the the debris out of the sky, just to push it out of the way), possibly use a COIL laser untill the solar power is up. The next step might be to set up a very large solar-powered laser for planetary asteroid defense.
I have DISH in southern montana, and it is great. The picture quality and sound are great, and the only time the signal drops is when you have a few inches of heavy wet snow on the dish or there is a moose standing in front of it. I put my dish on a post in the ground almost under a big spruce tree, which shields it from the snow, but leaves you vulnerable to moose interference.
You should have done a bit of research on this one before you went off, everything I have ever seen stated the cab as being the safest place for the tank in a pickup, but they were moved because of the convenience of that cargo space behind the seat. Think about it for a second, the tank is protected by the body of the cab itself, and by the frame on the underside. If something catastrophic were to happen to the truck to cause a rupture and a fire, since you are sitting in the same cab, I don't think it is going to matter very much...an accident that compromises that fuel tank is surely going to be lethal to the passengers.
The only potential issue with it is gas vapors from a loose fill hose or sending unit, which is a common problem with a lot of passenger cars, including some Hondas that have an access opening to get at the fuel pump under the back seat, late 80's accords are that way.
My family, being poor and all, has never owned a pickup that didn't have a cab tank....and in all that time, over at least a million miles driven between 5 trucks made by ford and chevy in my lifetime (30 years), there has never been a fire, no one gassed by vapors, and only one leak that I know of, and that was caused by a kid (me) climbing up onto the roof of the truck using the gas filler as a step....
What needs to be done, no matter where the gas tanks are located on the car, is there needs to be a standard requiring that they use a fuel cell (like race cars use) in new production vehicles....the Crown Vics should have had that included as part of the police package.....
What I really recommend that you do is fill out the FAFSA paperwork (http://www.fafsa.ed.gov/) asap...that is the free app. for federal student aid, then sit down and work out a worst-reasonible-case budget, school expenses, travel, food, rent....everything you can think about. Take a hard look at what is available to you for financial aid from the school and your local community. Write those essays and go for those obscure scholarships, but whatever you do be very careful about student loans....DO NOT put your self in debt for more than you can reasonably expect to make for a yearly low-range starting salary (example:$35,000 starting salary, do not go over $35,000 debt by graduation). Stay away from private and non-subsidized student loans also.
Another fine option is to get an entry level job in the field you are interested in, and work a few years to save money. If you do it right you set yourself up financially, you might get a company to back you for your degree, and even better, when you have that piece of paper you already have experience. Personally, based on my experiences getting an engineering degree, I really regret not finding a decent job right out of high school to save money for college before I was in debt up to my eyeballs...The military is a good choice also for financial aid if you can stomach being government property for a few years....either way, I think the best course is to take a break from school for a while, work a day to day job to give you an appreciation of real life and then go to school when you are a bit older, a bit more mature (not intended to be insulting, just reality), and better set up financially.
You do realize that coal-fired powerplants put more nasty radio-nucleides into the atmosphere in the 20th century than all nuclear-power mishaps and surface weapon testing combined don't you?
anyway, just simply because of the containment structure the reactor core would require, the reactor would likely survive in one piece for easy cleanup (assuming it didn't land under a couple miles of saltwater, in which case you just leave it where it is) after an aborted launch, or failed re-entry....the biggest issue would be the storage/containment of the reactor core after it was all said and done.....
It had everything to do with the engine system, it is all about power-to-weight ratio, if you have more throw-weight into orbit, you can use a more mechanically robust (read: heavier) insulation for the cryogenic systems.
You can thank the NIMBY's and the treehuggers for the Columbia accident....If the fission-hydrogen rockets had been allowed it would not have been an issue (more thrust, therefore more weight, and a REAL reuseable rocket and we might actually be on Mars by now.....
About time Wallyworld stepped in with a download service, I have been afraid of dowloading something that could turn me into a child-murdering satan-worshipper that knows how to cuss!
One Store to rule them all, One Store to find them, One Store to bring them all and in the darkness bind them In the Land of Walmart where the Shadows lie.
I do understand that there are 3 versions (basically 3 different planes sharing common parts, and the cost of 3 different flight test and tweak programs while trying to keep those common parts common) that are intended for the different roles. I think the marine version will be a great replacement for the Harrier. The Navy version will be a handy stealth penetration platform, but isn't it going to be doing basically the same job as the F18 super hornets we are building now? Why spend money on both while our F14's are running up more and more airframe hours with no replacement in sight for their fleet air defense role...still nothing in the world that I know of that compares to the F14 and phoenix missiles.
It is the air force version that I really have an issue with....the F16's supposedly were going to replace the A10's years ago and look where we are today...In Vienam, obsolete A1 Skyraiders were brought in for the ground attack role because the high speed jets did a very poor job. The marines have been pissed for years about losing the navy A1's and A4's because of their close support excellence. A-10's are a flying tank, they were specifically designed to take ground fire, and be devastating against ground targets. Dropping JDAMS from high altitude is all good and well, but when the guys on the ground are getting torn up and you need to put accurate cannon fire on the battle field, while taking ground fire, the JSF's are going to be an expensive target. Right now A10's are pretty vulnerable to the shoulder-fired sams...and part of that is because of how we are using them to suppress ground targets before our ground forces roll in. Aren't they basically just a flying tank? Hasn't modern tank warfare evolved into infantry supporting armor and vice versa? Why not extend that into the third demension, and use our fast movers and jdams on forward targets and keep the A10's close to our armor and ground pounders? With all the world spooked about shoulder-fired missiles right now, I imagine there will be a serious advance in countermeasure tech in the near future....
My basic point is that when you want to eat soup you don't grab a fork, and that I think the F-35 is an overblown flying spork that is going to cost a whole lot more in the long term than we can even guess right now.
Well anyway, this is all way off-topic from the original post...The Boeing chopper-planes are nifty, a lot more elegant solution to a helicopter requiring a whole lot less brute force!
"Look at what we do with the air superiority we have now... bomb this shit out of people who can't defend themselves."
Hmmmm, seems to me that is the point of calling it air superiority!
I agree on the JSF tho, it is a swiss-army plane, like a swiss-army knife, and it will be expected to do multiple jobs, by replacing dedicated platforms that were designed specifically for certain combat roles. Despite it's versatility, I really doubt it will be as good at any single job as the planes it is replacing were. I imagine it will be a good replacement for the Harriers (seeing as how they are pretty much first-generation VTOL planes) but there is no way it is going to replace a A-10 for the close air support role.
Gun powder in this case is Black Powder, Potasium Nitrate + Sulfur + Charcoal, Smokeless gun powder is nitrocellulose, only certain types of smokeless have nitroglycerine, and are designated as such by being called double or triple-base powder, single-base powder being just nitrocellulose and inert ingredients.
C4's explosive ingredient is RDX, and C4 CANNOT be detonated by passing a electric current through it, it must be initiated with a blasting cap (or similar high explosive initiator like primacord, which itself must be intitiated by a blasting cap), which can be electrical or conventional. The military still uses a cap crimped onto plain old fashoned safety fuse for most demolition applications.
buy a used 48 series off of ebay, just make sure that you are getting one from singapore, the china-branded ones are very poor quality.....
I have 3 right now (two 48G's, and a GX), and they have all been been used hard, all made in singapore, and have been trouble free, and the GX I know for sure is 10 years old.
also, here are some links for instructions on taking them apart to repair them:
What needs to be done is for someone to start a mmorpg that parellels out real life economy and society.....give it out for free, get everyone that has internet access of any sort involved in it, then use it as a model/simulation over the course of several years to fix our damn society/economy!
Big deal they have ore samples for sale....if you wanted to go on a road trip with a geiger counter you could get as much as you could carry....eastern utah, western colorado, Grants NM, eastern wyoming and the pryor mountains in Montana all have uranium for the taking.....then figure that only 1% of the uranium metal is left after processing and enrichment for power plant fuel, and that still isn't even close to being "bomb-grade" and you can understand why ore samples aren't a threat.....a nice yellow-glazed Fiesta Ware dish is likely hotter.....
as for the radiation dosage....you'd get more from cosmic radiation messing around outdoors than having a chunk of ore in your rock collection....
From what I have been hearing, the quality has steadily been declining since the manufacturing for the 48 series was sent to China....Their old products last forever (which doesn't help sales any, my 48gx will be 10 years old next fall), the 49G wasn't popular (I wonder how much of that was because it wasn't RPN by default and turned away former HP people) and TI has been giving a ton of competition....
I am glad to see that there are emulators for the PalmOS...I might think of getting one now, since my 48G is what I currently use for a pda....
I returned monitors for 3 years on the old p100 I bought from gateway years ago, finally gave up, then I got a notice that the warranty was extended a year because of a lawsuit, returned the 15" one last time, and got a great 17" in exchange that I am still using today.....
I bought a 19" Princeton down in AZ a couple of years ago, and hooked it onto one of their display computers before I would take it out of the store....
A fieldable caseless ammunition for small arms is likely farther off engineering-wise than the laser is. It is extremely hard to seal of 60,000psi of gas pressure, which is the primary function of the cartridge case. The very early breechloading rifles were caseless, with the first model of sharps as an example, you pushed the bullet into the front of the chamber, poured powder in behind it, and then used a percussion cap to fire. In order for caseless ammunition to be mechanically successful, you have to provide for gas containment, cartridge handling (it can't fall apart in the action or when it gets wet) and you have to be able to extract a dud round from the chamber in case of a misfire. The H&K G11 was a good attempt, and was a great prototype, but was not good enough to pass any trials for a issue military rifle. Aluminum or steel are viable options for a cartridge case, and possible even a plastic/metal composite case. As for the weight reduction issue, there are much easier ways to reduce weight for the infantry soldier, compare the packs the infantry use to any of the higher-end civillian internal frame backpacks. The military should take lessons from backpackers, many of whom are almost psychotic about weight savings (cutting the handle in half on their toothbrushes to save a half an ounce is a great example).
There is likely to be a change in military doctrine and equipment in the next few years following experience from Somalia and Afghanistan (and Iraq) fighting irregular forces. The military theory of wounding instead of killing doesn't work against these people, and the.223 has proven to not be enough gun for the job when you have fanatics overruning your position. Add to that the proliferation of modern body armour for soldiers and we are facing a caliber change. A.223 is not enough rifle for the job, and we have soldiers dying because of it. Go back to a.30 caliber and use sabots and a tungsten sub-projectiles at 4000+ feet/sec.
The laser rifle is also a great idea, but it would be easily defeated by anti-laser aresols and similar techniques (this is classic military sci-fi here).
Forget the Bradley and it's popgun 25mm...sell them to somebody we might shoot at in the future, and buy Swedish!
http://www.wendel.se/rswa/strf90.htm
40mm Bofors(300 rounds a minute) vs 25mm Bushmaster(200 rounds a minute)....very low profile for better survivability, and it drove itself to the trials in Norway when the Bradley and the British Warrior got stuck on the same road and had to be towed! Add to that a dedicated anti-aircraft version and you have much better vehicle than the Bradley.
http://www.wendel.se/rswa/lvkv90.htm
(the fourth pic is a great action shot, and for reference those empty cases in the air are a foot long and 2" in diameter, makes the bushmaster look puny)
Slashdot Mirror
ya, but look at the energy/area of the reflector on the laser and then look at the contact patch on the target, that laser is probably being focused into a couple of square centemeters area....think magnifying glass, sunny day, and ants......
I hadn't heard of any tracking devices on the previous targets, but it is a simple matter to add a gunnery computer and tracking system like every conventional anti-aircraft gun system out there has.....aquisition and targeting is the same, and the actual firing solutions will be simpler than a gun like the CIWS point defense on ships that actually track the outgoing projectiles and guide the stream (picture water hose) of fire onto the target.....
Because of the Lagrange point physics, the relative velocity of those objects (compared to whatever you are building there) will be very small. It should not be an issue to set up a solar array to power laser micro-meteorite defenses (not to blow the the debris out of the sky, just to push it out of the way), possibly use a COIL laser untill the solar power is up. The next step might be to set up a very large solar-powered laser for planetary asteroid defense.
, 12 543,473579,00.html
http://www.popsci.com/popsci/aviation/article/0
Printing crap like that is likely to irritate someone like the MyDoom writers into coding another one that attacks the BBC instead of SCO.....
I have DISH in southern montana, and it is great. The picture quality and sound are great, and the only time the signal drops is when you have a few inches of heavy wet snow on the dish or there is a moose standing in front of it. I put my dish on a post in the ground almost under a big spruce tree, which shields it from the snow, but leaves you vulnerable to moose interference.
You should have done a bit of research on this one before you went off, everything I have ever seen stated the cab as being the safest place for the tank in a pickup, but they were moved because of the convenience of that cargo space behind the seat. Think about it for a second, the tank is protected by the body of the cab itself, and by the frame on the underside. If something catastrophic were to happen to the truck to cause a rupture and a fire, since you are sitting in the same cab, I don't think it is going to matter very much...an accident that compromises that fuel tank is surely going to be lethal to the passengers.
The only potential issue with it is gas vapors from a loose fill hose or sending unit, which is a common problem with a lot of passenger cars, including some Hondas that have an access opening to get at the fuel pump under the back seat, late 80's accords are that way.
My family, being poor and all, has never owned a pickup that didn't have a cab tank....and in all that time, over at least a million miles driven between 5 trucks made by ford and chevy in my lifetime (30 years), there has never been a fire, no one gassed by vapors, and only one leak that I know of, and that was caused by a kid (me) climbing up onto the roof of the truck using the gas filler as a step....
What needs to be done, no matter where the gas tanks are located on the car, is there needs to be a standard requiring that they use a fuel cell (like race cars use) in new production vehicles....the Crown Vics should have had that included as part of the police package.....
What is up with that, it isn't the American way!
Bleh. Need I say more?
Haha, I remember those days.....
What I really recommend that you do is fill out the FAFSA paperwork (http://www.fafsa.ed.gov/) asap...that is the free app. for federal student aid, then sit down and work out a worst-reasonible-case budget, school expenses, travel, food, rent....everything you can think about. Take a hard look at what is available to you for financial aid from the school and your local community. Write those essays and go for those obscure scholarships, but whatever you do be very careful about student loans....DO NOT put your self in debt for more than you can reasonably expect to make for a yearly low-range starting salary (example:$35,000 starting salary, do not go over $35,000 debt by graduation). Stay away from private and non-subsidized student loans also.
Another fine option is to get an entry level job in the field you are interested in, and work a few years to save money. If you do it right you set yourself up financially, you might get a company to back you for your degree, and even better, when you have that piece of paper you already have experience. Personally, based on my experiences getting an engineering degree, I really regret not finding a decent job right out of high school to save money for college before I was in debt up to my eyeballs...The military is a good choice also for financial aid if you can stomach being government property for a few years....either way, I think the best course is to take a break from school for a while, work a day to day job to give you an appreciation of real life and then go to school when you are a bit older, a bit more mature (not intended to be insulting, just reality), and better set up financially.
Gotta wonder if there is a market for aluminium-foil faraday-cage skull-caps these days!
You do realize that coal-fired powerplants put more nasty radio-nucleides into the atmosphere in the 20th century than all nuclear-power mishaps and surface weapon testing combined don't you?
anyway, just simply because of the containment structure the reactor core would require, the reactor would likely survive in one piece for easy cleanup (assuming it didn't land under a couple miles of saltwater, in which case you just leave it where it is) after an aborted launch, or failed re-entry....the biggest issue would be the storage/containment of the reactor core after it was all said and done.....
and that comes back to the nimby's...........
It had everything to do with the engine system, it is all about power-to-weight ratio, if you have more throw-weight into orbit, you can use a more mechanically robust (read: heavier) insulation for the cryogenic systems.
You can thank the NIMBY's and the treehuggers for the Columbia accident....If the fission-hydrogen rockets had been allowed it would not have been an issue (more thrust, therefore more weight, and a REAL reuseable rocket and we might actually be on Mars by now.....
http://www.lascruces.com/~mrpbar/rocket.html
blah
About time Wallyworld stepped in with a download service, I have been afraid of dowloading something that could turn me into a child-murdering satan-worshipper that knows how to cuss!
One Store to rule them all, One Store to find them, One Store to bring them all and in the darkness bind them In the Land of Walmart where the Shadows lie.
I do understand that there are 3 versions (basically 3 different planes sharing common parts, and the cost of 3 different flight test and tweak programs while trying to keep those common parts common) that are intended for the different roles. I think the marine version will be a great replacement for the Harrier. The Navy version will be a handy stealth penetration platform, but isn't it going to be doing basically the same job as the F18 super hornets we are building now? Why spend money on both while our F14's are running up more and more airframe hours with no replacement in sight for their fleet air defense role...still nothing in the world that I know of that compares to the F14 and phoenix missiles.
It is the air force version that I really have an issue with....the F16's supposedly were going to replace the A10's years ago and look where we are today...In Vienam, obsolete A1 Skyraiders were brought in for the ground attack role because the high speed jets did a very poor job. The marines have been pissed for years about losing the navy A1's and A4's because of their close support excellence. A-10's are a flying tank, they were specifically designed to take ground fire, and be devastating against ground targets. Dropping JDAMS from high altitude is all good and well, but when the guys on the ground are getting torn up and you need to put accurate cannon fire on the battle field, while taking ground fire, the JSF's are going to be an expensive target. Right now A10's are pretty vulnerable to the shoulder-fired sams...and part of that is because of how we are using them to suppress ground targets before our ground forces roll in. Aren't they basically just a flying tank? Hasn't modern tank warfare evolved into infantry supporting armor and vice versa? Why not extend that into the third demension, and use our fast movers and jdams on forward targets and keep the A10's close to our armor and ground pounders? With all the world spooked about shoulder-fired missiles right now, I imagine there will be a serious advance in countermeasure tech in the near future....
My basic point is that when you want to eat soup you don't grab a fork, and that I think the F-35 is an overblown flying spork that is going to cost a whole lot more in the long term than we can even guess right now.
Well anyway, this is all way off-topic from the original post...The Boeing chopper-planes are nifty, a lot more elegant solution to a helicopter requiring a whole lot less brute force!
"Look at what we do with the air superiority we have now... bomb this shit out of people who can't defend themselves."
Hmmmm, seems to me that is the point of calling it air superiority!
I agree on the JSF tho, it is a swiss-army plane, like a swiss-army knife, and it will be expected to do multiple jobs, by replacing dedicated platforms that were designed specifically for certain combat roles. Despite it's versatility, I really doubt it will be as good at any single job as the planes it is replacing were. I imagine it will be a good replacement for the Harriers (seeing as how they are pretty much first-generation VTOL planes) but there is no way it is going to replace a A-10 for the close air support role.
Gun powder in this case is Black Powder, Potasium Nitrate + Sulfur + Charcoal, Smokeless gun powder is nitrocellulose, only certain types of smokeless have nitroglycerine, and are designated as such by being called double or triple-base powder, single-base powder being just nitrocellulose and inert ingredients.
C4's explosive ingredient is RDX, and C4 CANNOT be detonated by passing a electric current through it, it must be initiated with a blasting cap (or similar high explosive initiator like primacord, which itself must be intitiated by a blasting cap), which can be electrical or conventional. The military still uses a cap crimped onto plain old fashoned safety fuse for most demolition applications.
buy a used 48 series off of ebay, just make sure that you are getting one from singapore, the china-branded ones are very poor quality.....
m /a rticles.cgi?read=125m u.edu/~drury/newhp/con tents.html
I have 3 right now (two 48G's, and a GX), and they have all been been used hard, all made in singapore, and have been trouble free, and the GX I know for sure is 10 years old.
also, here are some links for instructions on taking them apart to repair them:
http://www.hpmuseum.org/cgi-sys/cgiwrap/hpmuseu
http://www.contrib.andrew.c
Big deal they have ore samples for sale....if you wanted to go on a road trip with a geiger counter you could get as much as you could carry....eastern utah, western colorado, Grants NM, eastern wyoming and the pryor mountains in Montana all have uranium for the taking.....then figure that only 1% of the uranium metal is left after processing and enrichment for power plant fuel, and that still isn't even close to being "bomb-grade" and you can understand why ore samples aren't a threat.....a nice yellow-glazed Fiesta Ware dish is likely hotter.....
as for the radiation dosage....you'd get more from cosmic radiation messing around outdoors than having a chunk of ore in your rock collection....
From what I have been hearing, the quality has steadily been declining since the manufacturing for the 48 series was sent to China....Their old products last forever (which doesn't help sales any, my 48gx will be 10 years old next fall), the 49G wasn't popular (I wonder how much of that was because it wasn't RPN by default and turned away former HP people) and TI has been giving a ton of competition....
I am glad to see that there are emulators for the PalmOS...I might think of getting one now, since my 48G is what I currently use for a pda....
I returned monitors for 3 years on the old p100 I bought from gateway years ago, finally gave up, then I got a notice that the warranty was extended a year because of a lawsuit, returned the 15" one last time, and got a great 17" in exchange that I am still using today.....
I bought a 19" Princeton down in AZ a couple of years ago, and hooked it onto one of their display computers before I would take it out of the store....
A fieldable caseless ammunition for small arms is likely farther off engineering-wise than the laser is. It is extremely hard to seal of 60,000psi of gas pressure, which is the primary function of the cartridge case. The very early breechloading rifles were caseless, with the first model of sharps as an example, you pushed the bullet into the front of the chamber, poured powder in behind it, and then used a percussion cap to fire. In order for caseless ammunition to be mechanically successful, you have to provide for gas containment, cartridge handling (it can't fall apart in the action or when it gets wet) and you have to be able to extract a dud round from the chamber in case of a misfire. The H&K G11 was a good attempt, and was a great prototype, but was not good enough to pass any trials for a issue military rifle. Aluminum or steel are viable options for a cartridge case, and possible even a plastic/metal composite case. As for the weight reduction issue, there are much easier ways to reduce weight for the infantry soldier, compare the packs the infantry use to any of the higher-end civillian internal frame backpacks. The military should take lessons from backpackers, many of whom are almost psychotic about weight savings (cutting the handle in half on their toothbrushes to save a half an ounce is a great example).
.223 has proven to not be enough gun for the job when you have fanatics overruning your position. Add to that the proliferation of modern body armour for soldiers and we are facing a caliber change. A .223 is not enough rifle for the job, and we have soldiers dying because of it. Go back to a .30 caliber and use sabots and a tungsten sub-projectiles at 4000+ feet/sec.
There is likely to be a change in military doctrine and equipment in the next few years following experience from Somalia and Afghanistan (and Iraq) fighting irregular forces. The military theory of wounding instead of killing doesn't work against these people, and the
The laser rifle is also a great idea, but it would be easily defeated by anti-laser aresols and similar techniques (this is classic military sci-fi here).
Forget the Bradley and it's popgun 25mm...sell them to somebody we might shoot at in the future, and buy Swedish!
http://www.wendel.se/rswa/strf90.htm
40mm Bofors(300 rounds a minute) vs 25mm Bushmaster(200 rounds a minute)....very low profile for better survivability, and it drove itself to the trials in Norway when the Bradley and the British Warrior got stuck on the same road and had to be towed! Add to that a dedicated anti-aircraft version and you have much better vehicle than the Bradley.
http://www.wendel.se/rswa/lvkv90.htm
(the fourth pic is a great action shot, and for reference those empty cases in the air are a foot long and 2" in diameter, makes the bushmaster look puny)
We were told by our prof. in Geo 101 my first year of college that "VW bug-sized" is a common and appropriate geo. term......