Magnetorquers need an ambient magnetic field. The terrestrial one is close and reliable. The solar varies between a zero-crossing with polarity reversal and a maximum on an 11-year cycle (a complete two-reversal cycle every 22 years). I haven't found a figure for its RMS power at earth orbit but I guess the inverse square law applies.
Crookes believed that his radiometer was turned by light pressure, but he was wrong! It's actually a phenomenon of low-pressure gas moving around a temperature differential. If you pump your radiometer down to a really good vaccumm, it stops working! The light pressure is not sufficient to conquer the bearing friction.
If you can't trust our elected officials to do the right thing when it comes to the essential job of the government, then it's Game Over.
Well, it's game over then, by your rules.
I have considered running for office, and may consider it again. However, I'm not terribly electable. Not Christian, for one thing. If you look at who is in office, it's clear that this is a Christian nation.
Nobody elected him. And I don't have the information necessary to represent his ethical position. However, in general a democracy only really works when the people have visibility regarding the activities of its leaders and military. So, I can guess that he believes he has an ethical position. Can we trust him? No. But we can do our best to verify the data. Can we trust our own leaders? Same answer, unfortunately. This much is clear from history.
Next, is our country better off or not for this release? If there really is some care being taken regarding names and the age of data, it may well be better off for the people to have another look at the war.
Eventually, someone will be found guilty of treason and executed.
Well, maybe put in prison. One person has been charged with Treason since 1952, and he's a fugitive. People are charged with espionage or sedition more often, but I am not at all clear that either of those apply to this case.
The magic time we had when we could possibly have gotten patent reform is past. 10 years ago, this would have been something being done for a non-profit community. Today it would be a grant to Billion-dollar Red Hat and multi-Millionare Mark Shuttleworth, at the expense of inventors. It's going to be really hard to get that to fly politically.
The problem is that Open Source distributions can't license the patents and remain Open Source. So, this is going to be a real killer for Open Source if we let it happen.
The fact is, anyone can install a plugin to play any format they like, and most browser users will, so this is not a matter of whether Open Source browsers support it or not. But browser developers and Open Source projects should continue to lobby for Open codecs, simply to protect themselves from being written out of the market by IP restrictions.
I paid $500 for a Nokia n900 and get about $20 off my monthly t-mobile payment vs. what I would have paid with a subsidized phone. It evens out in the length of the two-year contract for a subsidized phone. And meanwhile I can plug in foreign SIMs when I go overseas, so I don't have to carry a separate unlocked phone. And could I really have resisted a phone that can run a full Debian distribution in a chroot while it also runs its own, mostly Open Source, non-Java, platform?
Holland really does have appreciable farmland below sea level. They built dikes around their marshes centuries ago, pumped them out with windmills, pumped out their fresh water aquifers, and as the land dries up it shrinks and settles. Today it can be tens of feet below sea level. California is also experiencing this in the Sacramento River delta, and no doubt it is common elsewhere.
Re-entry heat shields are useless in space too, just as landing gear are useless for flying!
:-)
I think you want them for the same reason that we don't all parachute to our destination when our plane gets there. Although I can't say I haven't been tempted.
Yes, but the article you cited says it's now based on the HL-20. So, I would like to know how much of this actually came from either federal program. It sounds like the body shape, and that's it.
Well, ISS is more part of the problem than it is a program we need to support until some future date. What's it for? Not research, that is done better by other programs. It and the shuttle seem to have been designed to justify each other. And unlike interplanetary research, we actually do have free enterprise building near-earth capability.
Uh-huh. I had a nice grant from ARPA at Pixar to work on movie-making software. Why, because they wanted to make 3D technology in the states economically viable. That way, they'd have it if they needed it for war. Unfortunately, not even I could keep SGI afloat with my one little grant.
So, that was my military mission. I don't really mind more like that happening.
ARPA did a better job. If we have the will to define and stick to a mission, we can structure independence into it. If we don't have the will, maybe it's best left to non-government entities.
A bill that kills NASA entirely would be a better direction for space research and the United States. Unfortunately the department is too big a political pork football between various state representatives for it to ever be effective. Until we can structure a space organization that won't be a political football - and that's going to take a really radical change - we're only shooting ourselves in the foot.
Yes, the EVA suits and vehicle environments rebreathe, so it would be expected as a weight-saving measure if nothing else. You need 7 lbs of oxygen per hour in a rebreather. But there's more: the suit has to remove carbon dioxide to avoid a toxic atmosphere. So, you need the chemical load to leach 7 lbs of C02 out of air per hour. If you recycle your CO2 leach chemical, you need energy to heat and cool it. And then, you need temperature management.
When you're finished, it looks like a Mercury capsule:-)
Slashdot Mirror
And focus it.
I think that's from A Mote in God's Eye or The Gripping Hand.
Magnetorquers need an ambient magnetic field. The terrestrial one is close and reliable. The solar varies between a zero-crossing with polarity reversal and a maximum on an 11-year cycle (a complete two-reversal cycle every 22 years). I haven't found a figure for its RMS power at earth orbit but I guess the inverse square law applies.
Crookes believed that his radiometer was turned by light pressure, but he was wrong! It's actually a phenomenon of low-pressure gas moving around a temperature differential. If you pump your radiometer down to a really good vaccumm, it stops working! The light pressure is not sufficient to conquer the bearing friction.
There's a good explanation in Wikipedia.
Well, it's game over then, by your rules.
I have considered running for office, and may consider it again. However, I'm not terribly electable. Not Christian, for one thing. If you look at who is in office, it's clear that this is a Christian nation.
Nobody elected him. And I don't have the information necessary to represent his ethical position. However, in general a democracy only really works when the people have visibility regarding the activities of its leaders and military. So, I can guess that he believes he has an ethical position. Can we trust him? No. But we can do our best to verify the data. Can we trust our own leaders? Same answer, unfortunately. This much is clear from history.
Next, is our country better off or not for this release? If there really is some care being taken regarding names and the age of data, it may well be better off for the people to have another look at the war.
Well, maybe put in prison. One person has been charged with Treason since 1952, and he's a fugitive. People are charged with espionage or sedition more often, but I am not at all clear that either of those apply to this case.
The magic time we had when we could possibly have gotten patent reform is past. 10 years ago, this would have been something being done for a non-profit community. Today it would be a grant to Billion-dollar Red Hat and multi-Millionare Mark Shuttleworth, at the expense of inventors. It's going to be really hard to get that to fly politically.
The problem is that Open Source distributions can't license the patents and remain Open Source. So, this is going to be a real killer for Open Source if we let it happen.
The fact is, anyone can install a plugin to play any format they like, and most browser users will, so this is not a matter of whether Open Source browsers support it or not. But browser developers and Open Source projects should continue to lobby for Open codecs, simply to protect themselves from being written out of the market by IP restrictions.
I paid $500 for a Nokia n900 and get about $20 off my monthly t-mobile payment vs. what I would have paid with a subsidized phone. It evens out in the length of the two-year contract for a subsidized phone. And meanwhile I can plug in foreign SIMs when I go overseas, so I don't have to carry a separate unlocked phone. And could I really have resisted a phone that can run a full Debian distribution in a chroot while it also runs its own, mostly Open Source, non-Java, platform?
But I'm not the normal consumer, am I?
Holland really does have appreciable farmland below sea level. They built dikes around their marshes centuries ago, pumped them out with windmills, pumped out their fresh water aquifers, and as the land dries up it shrinks and settles. Today it can be tens of feet below sea level. California is also experiencing this in the Sacramento River delta, and no doubt it is common elsewhere.
This means they have a most precise frequency standard behind their doppler measurements.
Re-entry heat shields are useless in space too, just as landing gear are useless for flying!
I think you want them for the same reason that we don't all parachute to our destination when our plane gets there. Although I can't say I haven't been tempted.
I saw Gary Hudson present a similar proposal at a members-only conference some years before Rotary Rocket.
Yes, but the article you cited says it's now based on the HL-20. So, I would like to know how much of this actually came from either federal program. It sounds like the body shape, and that's it.
Yes, but all the reports I hear are that MBAs running the show is indeed happening. And folks with less qualification than MBAs in congress.
It needs to be run by scientists, and with independence.
No. They subcontract that.
Well, X-37B and X-38 seem to share a lot other than size, and the program's been in development all of that time.
What is really wild is that this discussion goes on while X-37B is over our heads. Why not declassify it and leave it in the hands of DOD?
Heavy lifters might be safer for people on the ground than space elevators. Think about what happens if the belt breaks.
Well, today NASA to a great extent relies on Caltech to do the pure science programs for them. Mars Science Lab, etc. Why not cut out the middleman?
Caltech does just fine building MSL, without all that much help from NASA other than signing checks. You don't need NASA to give Caltech a grant.
Well, ISS is more part of the problem than it is a program we need to support until some future date. What's it for? Not research, that is done better by other programs. It and the shuttle seem to have been designed to justify each other. And unlike interplanetary research, we actually do have free enterprise building near-earth capability.
Uh-huh. I had a nice grant from ARPA at Pixar to work on movie-making software. Why, because they wanted to make 3D technology in the states economically viable. That way, they'd have it if they needed it for war. Unfortunately, not even I could keep SGI afloat with my one little grant.
So, that was my military mission. I don't really mind more like that happening.
ARPA did a better job. If we have the will to define and stick to a mission, we can structure independence into it. If we don't have the will, maybe it's best left to non-government entities.
A bill that kills NASA entirely would be a better direction for space research and the United States. Unfortunately the department is too big a political pork football between various state representatives for it to ever be effective. Until we can structure a space organization that won't be a political football - and that's going to take a really radical change - we're only shooting ourselves in the foot.
Yes, the EVA suits and vehicle environments rebreathe, so it would be expected as a weight-saving measure if nothing else. You need 7 lbs of oxygen per hour in a rebreather. But there's more: the suit has to remove carbon dioxide to avoid a toxic atmosphere. So, you need the chemical load to leach 7 lbs of C02 out of air per hour. If you recycle your CO2 leach chemical, you need energy to heat and cool it. And then, you need temperature management.
When you're finished, it looks like a Mercury capsule :-)