The Discovery? A communications failure? I've seen the movie and know what happens next....I would highly recommend NOT going out to repair the antenna...there might be a problem with the pod bay doors....
OK, I was about to comment that it's about time someone caught this misspelling. Then I read TFA and saw that the original wording is 'sheer-thickening'. It's a rather sad commentary when a "science & technology" writer for BusinessWeek doesn't take the time to learn the terminology associated with non-Newtonian fluids even though he/she is writing an article about them!
Imagine if all science was done the way ID proponents want it done. We'd see a phenomenon, like, say, gravity. Then we'd say, "Hmm. It's really hard to see how this could be. So God or Elvis or some alien makes it go." Then it would be settled. Great.
Actually, I seem to recall reading in Av Week that some of the EU folks were rather miffed because it looked like Russia was just recycling an earlier French design from the 80s (i.e., Hermes). In a previous life, I talked to folks from Aerospatiale about 15-20 years ago regarding materials for their Hermes project, which looks remarkably similar to Kliper (or vice-versa).
See http://www.astronautix.com/craft/hermes.htm
Yep, and in a few years we'll all be seeing Official Nasa Photos of a mysterious disk falling through the sky and crashing into the desert, thus "proving" the existence of aliens.
There are a number of ways to make relatively cheap, low purity (~98-99.5%) nitrogen. Pressure swing adsorption (PSA) units compress & dry the air, then force it through a molecular sieve that preferentially adsorbs most of the oxygen.
Put a couple of units in parallel to allow one to be "cleaned" of the adsorbed O2 while the other is producing nitrogen, and you have a continuous flow of (relatively) cheap nitrogen.
For those of us who can't GET anything more than dial-up, Freesco is a great solution for an always-on connection. I've got it running on an old 486 tucked under a desk...only need to reboot it once a year or so (and then just to clean the cat hair out of it). It's always on, and 56K shared amongst 3 or 4 PCs isn't that bad, considering 90% of the usage is for IM or email.
They might be closer to that than you think. From Scaled's web site (describing unpowered test flight on 11 March):
The twelfth flight of SpaceShipOne. Objectives included: pilot proficiency, reaction control system functionality check and stability and control and performance of the vehicle with the airframe thermal protection system installed. This was an unpowered glide test. Results:
Launch conditions were 48,500 feet and 125 knots. All systems performed as expected and the vehicle landed successfully while demonstrating the maximum cross wind landing capability.
Well, yes and no. There's probably lots of helium 3 on the moon, and it can probably be extracted from lunar soil. He-3 makes a great fuel for fusion reactors.
One minor sticking point: There are no fusion reactors at the moment.
Personally the 'always on' aspect is more important to me than speed (which is fortunate, as I have no broadband options). I rely on the internet connection constantly for news, weather, yellow pages, recipes, etc. My solution is an old 486 running Freesco that keeps my dialup link live 24/7.
Aside from the periodic nasty email from my ISP ("Your dialup connection is not meant to be an always on...blah, blah"), it works fine for me.
Yes, just as it happened with the moon shot (i.e., the one proposed by Pres. Bush I). Our government of late has a good track record of late of promises that will be met by the next administration.
The space station was a very exciting & challenging idea when the president (Reagan, for those who don't remember) proposeda permanent manned station 'within the decade'. 20 years later and counting, and look what we have.
I have come around to the opinion that the current shuttle configuration doesn't make sense for a couple of reasons. One was the aforementioned fact that it was woefully underfunded in the early stages of development. Second is the paridigm that if it's reusable, it's got to have wings & a stick that someone can control. There have been some good discussions (e.g., at http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0307/23osp/) around just using a reusable Apollo type CM with a refurbishable heat shield as an RV. No, it doesn't get you to a true RLV, but it's a short path to a cheap RV (as in reentry vehicle).
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"Tonight, I am directing NASA to develop a permanently manned space station and to do it within a decade." -President Ronald Reagan, 25 January 1984.
The Discovery? A communications failure? I've seen the movie and know what happens next....I would highly recommend NOT going out to repair the antenna...there might be a problem with the pod bay doors....
But this is more secretive. Maybe.
Hey, you got iridium in my K-2251 (22675)!
No, you got K-2251 (22675) in my iridium!
Time for a new tasty treat....
OK, I was about to comment that it's about time someone caught this misspelling. Then I read TFA and saw that the original wording is 'sheer-thickening'. It's a rather sad commentary when a "science & technology" writer for BusinessWeek doesn't take the time to learn the terminology associated with non-Newtonian fluids even though he/she is writing an article about them!
Shear stupidity.
Imagine if all science was done the way ID proponents want it done. We'd see a phenomenon, like, say, gravity. Then we'd say, "Hmm. It's really hard to see how this could be. So God or Elvis or some alien makes it go." Then it would be settled. Great.
Already been done. http://www.theonion.com/content/node/39512
This sounds like pretty mild news compared to their other announcements http://www.theonion.com/content/node/40076.
Actually, I seem to recall reading in Av Week that some of the EU folks were rather miffed because it looked like Russia was just recycling an earlier French design from the 80s (i.e., Hermes). In a previous life, I talked to folks from Aerospatiale about 15-20 years ago regarding materials for their Hermes project, which looks remarkably similar to Kliper (or vice-versa). See http://www.astronautix.com/craft/hermes.htm
See http://www.transformspace.com/.
Yep, and in a few years we'll all be seeing Official Nasa Photos of a mysterious disk falling through the sky and crashing into the desert, thus "proving" the existence of aliens.
There are a number of ways to make relatively cheap, low purity (~98-99.5%) nitrogen. Pressure swing adsorption (PSA) units compress & dry the air, then force it through a molecular sieve that preferentially adsorbs most of the oxygen.
Put a couple of units in parallel to allow one to be "cleaned" of the adsorbed O2 while the other is producing nitrogen, and you have a continuous flow of (relatively) cheap nitrogen.
For those of us who can't GET anything more than dial-up, Freesco is a great solution for an always-on connection. I've got it running on an old 486 tucked under a desk...only need to reboot it once a year or so (and then just to clean the cat hair out of it). It's always on, and 56K shared amongst 3 or 4 PCs isn't that bad, considering 90% of the usage is for IM or email.
They might be closer to that than you think. From Scaled's web site (describing unpowered test flight on 11 March):
The twelfth flight of SpaceShipOne. Objectives included: pilot proficiency, reaction control system functionality check and stability and control and performance of the vehicle with the airframe thermal protection system installed. This was an unpowered glide test.
Results:
Launch conditions were 48,500 feet and 125 knots. All systems performed as expected and the vehicle landed successfully while demonstrating the maximum cross wind landing capability.
Well, yes and no. There's probably lots of helium 3 on the moon, and it can probably be extracted from lunar soil. He-3 makes a great fuel for fusion reactors.
One minor sticking point: There are no fusion reactors at the moment.
Personally the 'always on' aspect is more important to me than speed (which is fortunate, as I have no broadband options). I rely on the internet connection constantly for news, weather, yellow pages, recipes, etc. My solution is an old 486 running Freesco that keeps my dialup link live 24/7.
Aside from the periodic nasty email from my ISP ("Your dialup connection is not meant to be an always on...blah, blah"), it works fine for me.
Yes, just as it happened with the moon shot (i.e., the one proposed by Pres. Bush I). Our government of late has a good track record of late of promises that will be met by the next administration.
The space station was a very exciting & challenging idea when the president (Reagan, for those who don't remember) proposed a permanent manned station 'within the decade'. 20 years later and counting, and look what we have.
I have come around to the opinion that the current shuttle configuration doesn't make sense for a couple of reasons. One was the aforementioned fact that it was woefully underfunded in the early stages of development. Second is the paridigm that if it's reusable, it's got to have wings & a stick that someone can control. There have been some good discussions (e.g., at http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0307/23osp/) around just using a reusable Apollo type CM with a refurbishable heat shield as an RV. No, it doesn't get you to a true RLV, but it's a short path to a cheap RV (as in reentry vehicle).