Well, another neo-cons has spoken, but has ignored the fact that it was the neo-cons reagan and W that ran up the bulk of the debt, created our nightmare economy that we now have, destroyed our manufacturing base, and put us into 2 wars while totally FUBARing them to a level that ALL military strategy books will use these as what NOT to do. And just like reagan and W, you have a yellow spine and hate to take responsibility for your own damn actions.
Right now, this is nothing more than a GD neo-con job's bill that will waste another 10-20 billion, 10 years to get a rocket that will launch 70 tonnes to LEO at $1-3 Billion per launch.
Instead, a far better solution is to create a COTS-SHLV for 2 Super heavy launch vehicles that are in the range of 150 +- 20 tonnes to LEO. Two American companies would get 5 billion each over 5 years total to design, build and test the rockets which have to have no less than 85% American construction/parts. Upon the successful completion of these, another contest would be held for 2 companies to win a contract of 2 launches a year for 4 years. In addition, who ever is the cheapest would then get a 3rd launch, at the same price as the other 2. The max can only be.5B/launch.
With this approach, we could have multiple launch systems that can then be used to back each other up, but also can be used to launch private industry as well as military. And once there are 2 launch systems with cheap prices, and can do 150 tonnes to LEO, you can bet on it that we will see a major build-up of private space.
OTOH, the SLS is PROHIBITED by law from doing private launches. It can only by used by NASA and the DOD. And from the DOD's POV, they would rather have much cheaper prices then 1-3 billion/launch. However, if private space can do a.5B and under launcher, then we will no doubt see many many launches, space stations and most importantly, stations on the moon and mars.
The reason why I pushed for GE PRISM, as well as Thorium reactors, is that they are impossible to fail unless all of the laws of physics changed. In fact, with both, you can pull the cooling and it will be just fine. Likewise, by building them in a factory, they are watched closely by regulators. So, all that becomes an issue would be the containment and that is easy enough to check
We should not have first gen ANYTHING after 40 years, let alone 80.
What is needed is to get 2 types of reactors going:
1) the GE PRISM which is an IFR.
2) A thorium reactor such as designed by General Atomics or FLIBE
3) small reactors under 50 MW (thorium or uranium, though thorium is more likely) that have high thermal temps.
The GE PRISM is an Integrated Fast Reactor. What this brings to the table is that you load it up with a small amount of regular uranium AND a large amount of nuke 'waste'. It will then burn the waste and leave a fraction of the waste remaining. In addition, the waste that is left lasts about 200 years, vs. the 20K years from our current 'waste'. These reactors are less than 300 MW in size. That means that it can be built in factories SAFELY and drives the prices way down. More importantly, these can be placed on the sites of these OLD reactors and then burn up the waste. Now, that may not sound interesting to some, but, the fact is, that all of these plants have transmission lines in place, generators, cooling, isolation from local community, etc. IOW, these are ideal sites to locate these new prism. Most importantly, they already have the FUEL sitting there. That fuel is the waste from the old plants. Now, these PRISMS can be loaded and burned for another 50-100 years.
So, for this ohio plant, it currently has about 900 MW capability. In addition, it has been running since 1978, with license expiration in 2017. 40 years worth of 'waste' is sitting there waiting to be shipped to WIPP. However, by installing 4-5 of these reactors on site, it will give them 1.2-1.5 GW. IOW, 33-66% more. In addition, as these new reactors are placed on-line, they will be re-fueled with the 'waste'. So, there will be no new fuel after the initial load. While these are running, the old reactors are torn down and shipped out. However, the fuel is not. As such, there is little chance of accidents. Right now, there is ~1000 tonnes of nuclear waste sitting on site. If this is shipped out via train, it will take many loads. The reason is that this waste MUST be kept in moderators and shielding. which take up a lot of room and weight. And if by truck, well, MUCH longer.
However, once the PRISM is done with it, about 1/20 of the waste will remain. IOW, about 50 tonnes. Of that, more than half will be gone over 5 years (short half-lives). So that leaves 25 tonnes. And what remains then, is relatively safe. You can send this on one short train without any issues.
First, it IS the legal system being out of control that prevents outside companies from wanting to set up here. Foxconn is a good example of that. they have said that they are fine with our regs. In fact, they LIKE THEM. It protects them as much as workers. OTOH, our legal system encourages and rewards ppl that sue. INSANE.
And it is NOT cheap Asian labor that is the problem. The real problem is that most of the Asian nations are manipulating their money relative to the western money, esp. the US Dollar. China is obviously the worse (being 40-80% undervalued), but India, South Korea, Vietnam, and oddly, even Japan all do it.
Finally, we deserve a lot of our own blame. The law that prohibits execs from owning company stock was a good one. It actively encourage execs. to make long term plans. When reagan/neo-cons dropped this law, he really encouraged executives to look at THEIR OWN POCKET with short-term value. That is insane. Likewise, W/neo-cons passed tax cuts that actually rewards companies for offshoring. We are the ONLY nation with such an insane tax policy. Basically, the neo-cons are disasters to America.
We have an archos 101. Not bad, but slow and resolution really is not that good. However, the nexus 7 is done the right way: quad core gives you speed. The resolution is just under what the ipad has. Any camera on the back makes ZERO sense for a tablet. All that is needed is front facing one, which they do. etc. etc. etc. Many of the choices that Google made with this, was right on the money. My wife wants one to carry in purse, an e-reader at night for the kids and a game player for the kids. About the only thing that I would do is add an ethernet to it, but that is not going to happen.
A 10" would be nice, but at 250, this is a decent buy.
First off, Alaska was bought from Russia.
Secondly, to claim that any part of USA was part of Mexico is a joke. Mexico was fighting against the NATIVES here. Mexico had less than 7K ppl over the ENTIRE area. NONE of this land belonged to Mexico. It belonged to the Native Americans. They are the ONLY ones that have a legitimate grip.
Nuts, when texas broke off from Mexico in 1836 (almost 200 years ago), Mexico had it for only 15 years. In addition, the population of Mexicans and Americans was a TOTAL of less than 3K of which 2K were Americans. The ones who owned Texas was Commanche Indians. And the rest of the west was even LESS populated. Even the west coast had NO Mexican control. It was controlled by Spain and Indians. But spain was far more interested in converted the Indians to Catholicism.
As to China and India, they are constantly at war. Even now, China denied for 10 years that they had any intention of doing anything with water resources, until India showed them about 3 years ago with sat photos that showed China building a number of dams on the rivers that feeds India. Now, China admits it, but says that it is for flood control.
There is a real reason why every nation in Asia, EXCEPT for China who fought it, invited the USA to join them on ASEAN
In addition, our geothermal use has absolutely no impact on our NG prices. They are drilled in different areas, and in different layers of rocks. So, no issue there. The fact is, that we have drilled so many wells that we have an oversupply of NG. That is why Texas wants to export it to Europe. Interestingly, it makes far more sense to put in a pipeline to say portland, NH, or even New Jersey and load there, then it does down in Texas.
Regardless, even if we switch 100% of our coal plants to NG (which is happening quickly), it will make little impact on NG demand. We have that much.
Look up Great Point Energy. They are able to convert coal into Methane (core of NG). Likewise, here in Colorado, we have multiple companies that are designed to convert coal into methane in-situ. The amount of coal being converted into methane would last slightly over 200 years IF we used nothing but that for 100% of our energy. That is how much coal we have in the US.
Right, but here in America, we have an issue that SUVs dominate the road. Sadly, many of these are ppl that do not care about the damage to society or to their checkbooks. HOWEVER, if you make it CHEAP ENOUGH to them, and make it better than what they have, they will switch. How do you do that? Give them equal or more torque to the wheels. Electric motors give you the power to have QUICK 0-60's. We see that in the tesla. In addition, by moving the engine/gen to Natural Gas, you make it so that cheap electricity and Cheap natural gas, make the conversion likely PROFITABLE (or at least economically doable).
Think about this. Is it worth seeing this project succeed if it accomplishes:
1) With all of the suburbans (and other large SUVs) here in America, if we could change it from 10-15 mpg average, to over 40 or possibly 60 mpg.
2) And if we can do it so that it is CHEAPER than us importing oil so that Europes costs go down a bit
3) witching from a CO2 emitting gas engine to partially electric, and partially NG (which is MUCH cleaner than gas or diesel to burn) mean lowering America's CO2
From where I sit, that is useful. It would also encourage car companies to make car electric and perhaps down your path, while moving large passenger vehicles to serial hybrids using clean NG. I like that idea.
Lastly, don't you think that the west needs to get out of being dependent on oil from places like Iran, Syria, Venezuela, etc? Hopefully, that would keep us from going to war so often.
Why? Well, first off, diesel in America is dirty. The truth is, that we do not clean it up like Europe.
But second, and even more important, in America, is that diesel is actually more EXPENSIVE than gasoline. I have seen it be more than $1/gal more expensive than gas. Worse, it will go back up. Just 4 months, we were paying 3.80/gal for gas and 4.20/gal for diesel. (right now the difference is diesel is only.1/gal more). However, that will change. Right now, Saudi Arabia is punishing Iran and Russia for their actions and hoping to stop America from producing more oil/NG. Iran and Russia need about 90/bl to balance their budgets. When it dips below that, they run deficits. SA is upset with Russia about their support for Al-Assad. Likewise, SA knows that Iran is building nuke bombs and wants to starve them both (there is a plus for the west; venezuela has so much overhead, that 90/bl is required for them as well; in 6 months time, venezuela will be in trouble). Once Syria and Iran are dealt with, brent oil prices will go over 100/bl to pay for this. At that time, diesel and gas will go up in price to over 4/gal.
Now, NG in America is at 2.20 gal of gas equivalence (GGE). It will remain well below gas/diesel prices for the next decade. If you get this built and can create a conversion kit approach, then not only does the user save by having a hybrid, but, they are using low costs electric (all over the lower 48, electricity is below 1/GGE), and low cost NG. THis helps to pay for the conversion kit.
Finally, by doing NG serial hybrid, you make it possible to yank out the NG engine/gen and replace it with say Wave Disc, or even fuel cells.
I would go one step further and suggest that you do not put in one large engine/gen set, but instead, use paralleism. Put in 2 small engine/gens. Ideally, make these as say 20-30 KWH DROP-INS. These can be made into small easy to manage integrated systems. By doing 2 like this, then you make it easy to assemble, but the small system can then be used in small cars. Also, by having 2 in a large car, then if you lose one, you can still get to say a repair station. And rather than look over the engine and do all this work, they simply pull out the broken system (which could be as light as say 150 lbs), and put another one in. Finally, if somebody wants to go outback, then this system provides them with the ability to lose one of these, and still be able to make it out.
This person is focused not on hypermiling, but on addressing the core vehicle that many ppl around the world regard as THE vehicle to own. Anywhere in the world, SUVs are regarded as high-end vehicles that many want. The problem is, that they get less than 20 mpg. That is insane. Here in America, the biggest drivers of the suburbans are not men, but women. Women that want to transport kids (not just their own, but others) around. Yet, about 20-30% of the time it is just 2 ppl in there (the mom and 2 kids). How far do they drive at a time? Typically, less than 10 miles. A serial hybrid that can also plug-in would change all of that. In particular, this person could actually turn this into a business.
I think where he is making a BIG mistake is in using Diesel. The big user of diesel is EU. They have clean diesel, so for them, it somewhat makes sense. However, around the world, NG is the up and coming thing. By moving to an NG seriel hybrid, this non-profit could make the argument and SALES PITCH in AMerica, that this a converted suburban has great mileage (above 40 if done right), but can also be charged at home. In addition, if the pitch is good enough, they could even argue that the NG could be fueled at home (that really works on farms where suburbans are owned by many men).
Regardless, hypermiling cars are being done in Academia. This person could address a whole other issue.
Seriously, the smart move is to not do diesel. We have plenty of NG in the states, so it makes far more sense. The ONLY advantage that you have with diesel right now, is that the same tank for gas can work for diesel. However, you would still need to change the tank opening.
OTOH, there are plenty of small engines that work with NG. So, what you do is put in a SMALL engine/generator. One that can drive the car at a cruising speed of say 70 mph. Then put on a small set of batteries.
As to both the generator and motor, please see UQM If you go after a LARGE POPULAR SUV, like say the suburban, with this, then you could actually create a company whose sole purpose is to switch SUVs over to NG serial hybrids. UQM would stand to profit from that, if you work with them on this.
Yes, I was refering to that. However, there is a real reason why 'Nam and other nations asked USA to help. China is pushing their weight around. More importantly, all of the Chinese neighbors KNOW that it will not only continue, but increase. As I pointed out, they are increasing aggression towards ALL of their neighbors.
And what does a mongolian have to do with the today's Communist China?
More importantly, they are focused on the economy, the way that USA was. Sadly, they cheat at everything, which we did not, however, they are still winning.
Nope. Thorium needs just a fraction of the shielding that U does. My guess though is that long term, electric planes will become the norm. Perhaps via lasers providing electricity.
Yeah, one thing I like about Musk, is he makes things happen. Hopefully, he will cause this insane attitude about twin rails to be re-examined.
It is cheaper to put water into LEO from here, then it is from the moon.
There is U on the moon which can be bred into Pu. This can then be used for a number of devices in space. Not just for mankind, but rovers and sats.
Other minerals can be denied access to.
And has been pointed out by brilliant ppl the world over (hawking comes to mind), our staying on earth is simply putting all of our eggs in one basket. Life goes extinct every so often. Normally, it is about 27 million years, but we never know when else it will come. OTOH, by having mankind on Mars, it helps to isolate us from ELEs.
Probably the stupiest idea that I have heard on-line is that we should leave space and instead flow all the money into exploring the ocean. We can do both (and are).
You are absolutely right that launch rate is what is IMPORTANT. It is the fixed costs (launch pad, ground crew, etc) that chew up your money.
The the smart thing is to get a 50 tonne FH going, multiple human launchers and most importantly, multiple destinations. Even now, I view sending up a BA-sundancer or so to the ISS as being the most important thing that NASA can do. The reason is that by helping BA get moving, then they will put up multiple EO systems. That gives a reason to have large launch rates. Then start the push to have several 150 tonne launch vehicles via COTS. These are used fro going to the moon, mars, and asteroids.
Actually, I am hoping that if O is re-elected, that he will kill of the SLS, and then use just 10B (instead of 20B for a single 70 tonne) to get TWO SHLVs with 150 tonnes or so via a COTS approach. The other 10B should then be used to restore NERVA as well as a COTS for various tug engines and designs. At the same time, use some of help private space get to the moon so that we can re-establish ourselves there, while NASA is focused on Asteroids and Mars.
water.
Plutonium.
Other minerals.
HE3
Ability to live off-world.
Ability to put up a decent scope that allows us to view deep, real deep, into the universe.
False.
It makes sense to get man off this planet. In fact, it is insane NOT to get us off here. We are the first species on this planet that has this capability to save itself by being on multiple other planets.
The other issue is that many wars have been fought over resources. Minerals are needed. Less than 6 months ago, we saw that China invaded American waters to grab fish. Now, they were caught in Russian waters doing the same thing. Then you add the fact that China cut a deal with Philippines just a couple of months ago to withdraw their boats, and even before the ink is dry, they now have a number of their naval ships about 60 miles off the Philippines coast, with one of their mapping cutters grounded on the shoals. Now, why would they be mapping the waters off their when they had no BUSINESS being there.
Then you have their agree with USA and WTO. It required them to free their money, quit subsidizing/dumping and then drop most of their 90 tariffs/barriers. Now, they have over 400 tariffs and loads of barriers.
Basically, China can NOT be counted on to keep their word. If the west wants to avoid a war, then the best way is not to allow China to get any upper hand. Once they think that they have it, then they will attack (ask India about that).
By putting a base on the moon and mars as well as robotic exploration of asteroids, then we can have easy access to minerals. That helps guarantee that nations do not go to war over resources.
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Well, another neo-cons has spoken, but has ignored the fact that it was the neo-cons reagan and W that ran up the bulk of the debt, created our nightmare economy that we now have, destroyed our manufacturing base, and put us into 2 wars while totally FUBARing them to a level that ALL military strategy books will use these as what NOT to do. And just like reagan and W, you have a yellow spine and hate to take responsibility for your own damn actions.
Right now, this is nothing more than a GD neo-con job's bill that will waste another 10-20 billion, 10 years to get a rocket that will launch 70 tonnes to LEO at $1-3 Billion per launch.
.5B/launch.
.5B and under launcher, then we will no doubt see many many launches, space stations and most importantly, stations on the moon and mars.
Instead, a far better solution is to create a COTS-SHLV for 2 Super heavy launch vehicles that are in the range of 150 +- 20 tonnes to LEO. Two American companies would get 5 billion each over 5 years total to design, build and test the rockets which have to have no less than 85% American construction/parts. Upon the successful completion of these, another contest would be held for 2 companies to win a contract of 2 launches a year for 4 years. In addition, who ever is the cheapest would then get a 3rd launch, at the same price as the other 2. The max can only be
With this approach, we could have multiple launch systems that can then be used to back each other up, but also can be used to launch private industry as well as military. And once there are 2 launch systems with cheap prices, and can do 150 tonnes to LEO, you can bet on it that we will see a major build-up of private space.
OTOH, the SLS is PROHIBITED by law from doing private launches. It can only by used by NASA and the DOD. And from the DOD's POV, they would rather have much cheaper prices then 1-3 billion/launch. However, if private space can do a
The reason why I pushed for GE PRISM, as well as Thorium reactors, is that they are impossible to fail unless all of the laws of physics changed. In fact, with both, you can pull the cooling and it will be just fine. Likewise, by building them in a factory, they are watched closely by regulators. So, all that becomes an issue would be the containment and that is easy enough to check
We should not have first gen ANYTHING after 40 years, let alone 80.
What is needed is to get 2 types of reactors going:
1) the GE PRISM which is an IFR.
2) A thorium reactor such as designed by General Atomics or FLIBE
3) small reactors under 50 MW (thorium or uranium, though thorium is more likely) that have high thermal temps.
The GE PRISM is an Integrated Fast Reactor. What this brings to the table is that you load it up with a small amount of regular uranium AND a large amount of nuke 'waste'. It will then burn the waste and leave a fraction of the waste remaining. In addition, the waste that is left lasts about 200 years, vs. the 20K years from our current 'waste'. These reactors are less than 300 MW in size. That means that it can be built in factories SAFELY and drives the prices way down. More importantly, these can be placed on the sites of these OLD reactors and then burn up the waste. Now, that may not sound interesting to some, but, the fact is, that all of these plants have transmission lines in place, generators, cooling, isolation from local community, etc. IOW, these are ideal sites to locate these new prism. Most importantly, they already have the FUEL sitting there. That fuel is the waste from the old plants. Now, these PRISMS can be loaded and burned for another 50-100 years.
So, for this ohio plant, it currently has about 900 MW capability. In addition, it has been running since 1978, with license expiration in 2017. 40 years worth of 'waste' is sitting there waiting to be shipped to WIPP. However, by installing 4-5 of these reactors on site, it will give them 1.2-1.5 GW. IOW, 33-66% more. In addition, as these new reactors are placed on-line, they will be re-fueled with the 'waste'. So, there will be no new fuel after the initial load. While these are running, the old reactors are torn down and shipped out. However, the fuel is not. As such, there is little chance of accidents. Right now, there is ~1000 tonnes of nuclear waste sitting on site. If this is shipped out via train, it will take many loads. The reason is that this waste MUST be kept in moderators and shielding. which take up a lot of room and weight. And if by truck, well, MUCH longer.
However, once the PRISM is done with it, about 1/20 of the waste will remain. IOW, about 50 tonnes. Of that, more than half will be gone over 5 years (short half-lives). So that leaves 25 tonnes. And what remains then, is relatively safe. You can send this on one short train without any issues.
First, it IS the legal system being out of control that prevents outside companies from wanting to set up here. Foxconn is a good example of that. they have said that they are fine with our regs. In fact, they LIKE THEM. It protects them as much as workers. OTOH, our legal system encourages and rewards ppl that sue. INSANE.
And it is NOT cheap Asian labor that is the problem. The real problem is that most of the Asian nations are manipulating their money relative to the western money, esp. the US Dollar. China is obviously the worse (being 40-80% undervalued), but India, South Korea, Vietnam, and oddly, even Japan all do it.
Finally, we deserve a lot of our own blame. The law that prohibits execs from owning company stock was a good one. It actively encourage execs. to make long term plans. When reagan/neo-cons dropped this law, he really encouraged executives to look at THEIR OWN POCKET with short-term value. That is insane. Likewise, W/neo-cons passed tax cuts that actually rewards companies for offshoring. We are the ONLY nation with such an insane tax policy. Basically, the neo-cons are disasters to America.
We have an archos 101. Not bad, but slow and resolution really is not that good. However, the nexus 7 is done the right way: quad core gives you speed. The resolution is just under what the ipad has. Any camera on the back makes ZERO sense for a tablet. All that is needed is front facing one, which they do. etc. etc. etc. Many of the choices that Google made with this, was right on the money. My wife wants one to carry in purse, an e-reader at night for the kids and a game player for the kids. About the only thing that I would do is add an ethernet to it, but that is not going to happen.
A 10" would be nice, but at 250, this is a decent buy.
I think you meant: "... does it blend?"
Yes, it does. Exactly one time: the first time that it crashes.
First off, Alaska was bought from Russia.
Secondly, to claim that any part of USA was part of Mexico is a joke. Mexico was fighting against the NATIVES here. Mexico had less than 7K ppl over the ENTIRE area. NONE of this land belonged to Mexico. It belonged to the Native Americans. They are the ONLY ones that have a legitimate grip.
Nuts, when texas broke off from Mexico in 1836 (almost 200 years ago), Mexico had it for only 15 years. In addition, the population of Mexicans and Americans was a TOTAL of less than 3K of which 2K were Americans. The ones who owned Texas was Commanche Indians. And the rest of the west was even LESS populated. Even the west coast had NO Mexican control. It was controlled by Spain and Indians. But spain was far more interested in converted the Indians to Catholicism.
As to China and India, they are constantly at war. Even now, China denied for 10 years that they had any intention of doing anything with water resources, until India showed them about 3 years ago with sat photos that showed China building a number of dams on the rivers that feeds India. Now, China admits it, but says that it is for flood control.
There is a real reason why every nation in Asia, EXCEPT for China who fought it, invited the USA to join them on ASEAN
In addition, our geothermal use has absolutely no impact on our NG prices. They are drilled in different areas, and in different layers of rocks. So, no issue there. The fact is, that we have drilled so many wells that we have an oversupply of NG. That is why Texas wants to export it to Europe. Interestingly, it makes far more sense to put in a pipeline to say portland, NH, or even New Jersey and load there, then it does down in Texas.
Regardless, even if we switch 100% of our coal plants to NG (which is happening quickly), it will make little impact on NG demand. We have that much.
Look up Great Point Energy. They are able to convert coal into Methane (core of NG). Likewise, here in Colorado, we have multiple companies that are designed to convert coal into methane in-situ. The amount of coal being converted into methane would last slightly over 200 years IF we used nothing but that for 100% of our energy. That is how much coal we have in the US.
Right, but here in America, we have an issue that SUVs dominate the road. Sadly, many of these are ppl that do not care about the damage to society or to their checkbooks. HOWEVER, if you make it CHEAP ENOUGH to them, and make it better than what they have, they will switch. How do you do that? Give them equal or more torque to the wheels. Electric motors give you the power to have QUICK 0-60's. We see that in the tesla. In addition, by moving the engine/gen to Natural Gas, you make it so that cheap electricity and Cheap natural gas, make the conversion likely PROFITABLE (or at least economically doable).
Think about this. Is it worth seeing this project succeed if it accomplishes:
1) With all of the suburbans (and other large SUVs) here in America, if we could change it from 10-15 mpg average, to over 40 or possibly 60 mpg.
2) And if we can do it so that it is CHEAPER than us importing oil so that Europes costs go down a bit
3) witching from a CO2 emitting gas engine to partially electric, and partially NG (which is MUCH cleaner than gas or diesel to burn) mean lowering America's CO2
From where I sit, that is useful. It would also encourage car companies to make car electric and perhaps down your path, while moving large passenger vehicles to serial hybrids using clean NG. I like that idea.
Lastly, don't you think that the west needs to get out of being dependent on oil from places like Iran, Syria, Venezuela, etc? Hopefully, that would keep us from going to war so often.
Yup, it is horrible. You have idiots out there like Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Paul Allen, etc who tried and failed.
Why? Well, first off, diesel in America is dirty. The truth is, that we do not clean it up like Europe. .1/gal more). However, that will change. Right now, Saudi Arabia is punishing Iran and Russia for their actions and hoping to stop America from producing more oil/NG. Iran and Russia need about 90/bl to balance their budgets. When it dips below that, they run deficits. SA is upset with Russia about their support for Al-Assad. Likewise, SA knows that Iran is building nuke bombs and wants to starve them both (there is a plus for the west; venezuela has so much overhead, that 90/bl is required for them as well; in 6 months time, venezuela will be in trouble). Once Syria and Iran are dealt with, brent oil prices will go over 100/bl to pay for this. At that time, diesel and gas will go up in price to over 4/gal.
But second, and even more important, in America, is that diesel is actually more EXPENSIVE than gasoline. I have seen it be more than $1/gal more expensive than gas. Worse, it will go back up. Just 4 months, we were paying 3.80/gal for gas and 4.20/gal for diesel. (right now the difference is diesel is only
Now, NG in America is at 2.20 gal of gas equivalence (GGE). It will remain well below gas/diesel prices for the next decade. If you get this built and can create a conversion kit approach, then not only does the user save by having a hybrid, but, they are using low costs electric (all over the lower 48, electricity is below 1/GGE), and low cost NG. THis helps to pay for the conversion kit.
Finally, by doing NG serial hybrid, you make it possible to yank out the NG engine/gen and replace it with say Wave Disc, or even fuel cells.
I would go one step further and suggest that you do not put in one large engine/gen set, but instead, use paralleism. Put in 2 small engine/gens. Ideally, make these as say 20-30 KWH DROP-INS. These can be made into small easy to manage integrated systems. By doing 2 like this, then you make it easy to assemble, but the small system can then be used in small cars. Also, by having 2 in a large car, then if you lose one, you can still get to say a repair station. And rather than look over the engine and do all this work, they simply pull out the broken system (which could be as light as say 150 lbs), and put another one in. Finally, if somebody wants to go outback, then this system provides them with the ability to lose one of these, and still be able to make it out.
This person is focused not on hypermiling, but on addressing the core vehicle that many ppl around the world regard as THE vehicle to own. Anywhere in the world, SUVs are regarded as high-end vehicles that many want. The problem is, that they get less than 20 mpg. That is insane. Here in America, the biggest drivers of the suburbans are not men, but women. Women that want to transport kids (not just their own, but others) around. Yet, about 20-30% of the time it is just 2 ppl in there (the mom and 2 kids). How far do they drive at a time? Typically, less than 10 miles. A serial hybrid that can also plug-in would change all of that. In particular, this person could actually turn this into a business.
I think where he is making a BIG mistake is in using Diesel. The big user of diesel is EU. They have clean diesel, so for them, it somewhat makes sense. However, around the world, NG is the up and coming thing. By moving to an NG seriel hybrid, this non-profit could make the argument and SALES PITCH in AMerica, that this a converted suburban has great mileage (above 40 if done right), but can also be charged at home. In addition, if the pitch is good enough, they could even argue that the NG could be fueled at home (that really works on farms where suburbans are owned by many men).
Regardless, hypermiling cars are being done in Academia. This person could address a whole other issue.
Seriously, the smart move is to not do diesel. We have plenty of NG in the states, so it makes far more sense. The ONLY advantage that you have with diesel right now, is that the same tank for gas can work for diesel. However, you would still need to change the tank opening.
OTOH, there are plenty of small engines that work with NG. So, what you do is put in a SMALL engine/generator. One that can drive the car at a cruising speed of say 70 mph. Then put on a small set of batteries.
As to both the generator and motor, please see UQM If you go after a LARGE POPULAR SUV, like say the suburban, with this, then you could actually create a company whose sole purpose is to switch SUVs over to NG serial hybrids. UQM would stand to profit from that, if you work with them on this.
Yes, I was refering to that. However, there is a real reason why 'Nam and other nations asked USA to help. China is pushing their weight around. More importantly, all of the Chinese neighbors KNOW that it will not only continue, but increase. As I pointed out, they are increasing aggression towards ALL of their neighbors.
And what does a mongolian have to do with the today's Communist China?
More importantly, they are focused on the economy, the way that USA was. Sadly, they cheat at everything, which we did not, however, they are still winning.
Nope. Thorium needs just a fraction of the shielding that U does. My guess though is that long term, electric planes will become the norm. Perhaps via lasers providing electricity.
Yeah, one thing I like about Musk, is he makes things happen. Hopefully, he will cause this insane attitude about twin rails to be re-examined.
No, I have some troll following me around. My guess is that is that he was actually writing about himself.
It is cheaper to put water into LEO from here, then it is from the moon.
There is U on the moon which can be bred into Pu. This can then be used for a number of devices in space. Not just for mankind, but rovers and sats.
Other minerals can be denied access to.
And has been pointed out by brilliant ppl the world over (hawking comes to mind), our staying on earth is simply putting all of our eggs in one basket. Life goes extinct every so often. Normally, it is about 27 million years, but we never know when else it will come. OTOH, by having mankind on Mars, it helps to isolate us from ELEs.
Probably the stupiest idea that I have heard on-line is that we should leave space and instead flow all the money into exploring the ocean. We can do both (and are).
Well, I hate to point it out your logic flaw, but when we went to the moon the first time, nobody had done any of that either.
You are absolutely right that launch rate is what is IMPORTANT. It is the fixed costs (launch pad, ground crew, etc) that chew up your money.
The the smart thing is to get a 50 tonne FH going, multiple human launchers and most importantly, multiple destinations. Even now, I view sending up a BA-sundancer or so to the ISS as being the most important thing that NASA can do. The reason is that by helping BA get moving, then they will put up multiple EO systems. That gives a reason to have large launch rates. Then start the push to have several 150 tonne launch vehicles via COTS. These are used fro going to the moon, mars, and asteroids.
Actually, I am hoping that if O is re-elected, that he will kill of the SLS, and then use just 10B (instead of 20B for a single 70 tonne) to get TWO SHLVs with 150 tonnes or so via a COTS approach. The other 10B should then be used to restore NERVA as well as a COTS for various tug engines and designs. At the same time, use some of help private space get to the moon so that we can re-establish ourselves there, while NASA is focused on Asteroids and Mars.
water.
Plutonium.
Other minerals.
HE3
Ability to live off-world.
Ability to put up a decent scope that allows us to view deep, real deep, into the universe.
And that is just for starters.
False.
It makes sense to get man off this planet. In fact, it is insane NOT to get us off here. We are the first species on this planet that has this capability to save itself by being on multiple other planets.
The other issue is that many wars have been fought over resources. Minerals are needed. Less than 6 months ago, we saw that China invaded American waters to grab fish. Now, they were caught in Russian waters doing the same thing. Then you add the fact that China cut a deal with Philippines just a couple of months ago to withdraw their boats, and even before the ink is dry, they now have a number of their naval ships about 60 miles off the Philippines coast, with one of their mapping cutters grounded on the shoals. Now, why would they be mapping the waters off their when they had no BUSINESS being there.
Then you have their agree with USA and WTO. It required them to free their money, quit subsidizing/dumping and then drop most of their 90 tariffs/barriers. Now, they have over 400 tariffs and loads of barriers.
Basically, China can NOT be counted on to keep their word. If the west wants to avoid a war, then the best way is not to allow China to get any upper hand. Once they think that they have it, then they will attack (ask India about that).
By putting a base on the moon and mars as well as robotic exploration of asteroids, then we can have easy access to minerals. That helps guarantee that nations do not go to war over resources.