They are the most expensive non-Human animals right? Other than perhaps extinct animals that people want to bring back like the Saber-tooth tiger, the wooly mammoth and the Dodo (not). What about truffle finding pigs?
Actually maybe certain transgenic animals that have had their DNA altered to express useful drugs (like goats with insulin laced milk) might be more expensive.
Anyway, is it illegal race a cloned racehorse? Will they be requiring genetic tests on all winning racehorses? What about race horses that have already died (Seabiscuit?).
Ok, I'm obviously missing something but if they have an interface from his (brain) neurons to some electronics why can't they put in an interface from the electronics to his (lower body) neurons!
Essentially use the electronics to bridge the place where (I assume) the neurons are broken.
Of course there would need to be protections against hacking or this would bring a whole new set of connotations to the term "Zombies" both in popular culture and as referred to with computers that have been taken over.
I'm sure(?) that the people at NASA are looking at this and thinking:
"What would this be like if this happened in deep space, with no possibility of rescue or even airdropped (space dropped?) supplies?"
Is there an age restriction on astronauts (to reduce the likelihood of diseases which become more prevalent with age?). Are there any policies about pushing people out of the airlock if they can't be helped (now that would be something interesting to see on wikileaks).
This looks like a bad situation for everyone involved.
While I'm sure that a lot of us have heard of prodigy horror/early burnout stories, it doesn't always end up that way.
My best friend entered Harvard at the age of 15 as a Sophomore. He took some of the hardest courses available; Math 55, Physics 55, Organic Chem (by the way, I believe Bill Gates took Math 55 which is one reason why I don't think he's a dummy) and did extremely well on them. He had a great girlfriend and was an excellent foosball player. (I didn't have a girlfriend, barely got through Math 21C and couldn't play foosball to save my life).
I think in his post-grad research he worked with a Nobel Laureate. (Sorry, don't know the details, not my field). Now he's a fully tenured professor in Chemistry doing work in Nano-Tech (I introduced him to Eric Drexler's "Engines of Creation").
So give Gabriel the opportunity to do great things and he just might.
Geez, I hope the poor guy doesn't get kidnapped by the Iranians! (Or the Palestinians).
I wonder if he'll be allowed to leave the country (I know someone who works for the NSA who needs to give the State Dept. 3 months prior notice before leaving the U.S. Not sure if this includes Canada). Ok, maybe this rocket isn't state of the art rocketry. And not sure how guided it was. Still 112,000 ft.!
So, is this basically the design of a "Katushka?". Or even earlier the rockets launched by the Soviets in the launchers called "Stalin's Organ"?
Has he tried staging? Is it legal for a private American citizen to put something in orbit? (I guess I'm just kidding, while 112k is a good height, orbit requires a very high horizontal velocity of 5 miles a sec.)
What about launching FROM a balloon? (Although it might be more fun to launch AT a balloon).
Ok, these comments are kinda non-sensical, I just woke up from a nap.
Here's something that is barely relevant about standards. At least some of it isn't made up!;)
Why are (most) automobile axles as long as they are?
Because they were the same length as the then railcar axles (I think railroads were originally narrow Gage).
Why were railcars axles as long as they were?
Because that was the Gage (duh) of the railway.
Why was the Gage of the railway set to be that width?
Because it matched the width of the wagons and carriages used on roads at the time.
Why was the axles of the wagons and carriages standardized on that length? (they were made before mass production so many varying lengths would be more probable).
Because they were made to match the ruts formed in the often muddy roads.
Why were the ruts in the road formed at that particular width?
Because one width was used by one kind of common vehicle (the roman chariot).
Why was that width particularly useful?
Because it was the width of two horses.
(Sort of) Moral: nothing is new and our primary transportation technology is based on horses assess!
Ok, I didn't RTFA because I want to whip this off before I go out the door but...
Instead of the "security theater" that passes for inspections at American airports, shouldn't we be emulating the much less intrusive Israeli model? From what I understand (I admit I'm an amateur), instead of passing people through body scanners and whatnot, the Israelis use well trained people to basically talk to people entering the "sterile" zone and WATCH THEIR REACTION. I guess it almost impossible to teach someone not to show outward signs of nervousness especially if they're going to end their life by blowing themselves up (or carrying illegal drugs I suppose). The results speak for themselves, when was the last time you've heard of an Israeli airport or airplane being blown up? Don't tell me it's from lack of fanatical enemies!
Of course, DHS' attempt to use technology instead of well trained PEOPLE could be a fatal flaw but the essential idea, of pre-screening people based on their autonomous reflexes, is not to be dismissed outright.
I (briefly) took a look at the link to the cooking utensils link and am still not quite sure why quasicrystals are useful for that application.
Is it because since the patterns NEVER repeat so it is impossible (or extremely unlikely) for two surfaces to "lock" together? Like when you have some nested plastic cups, if each one had different patterns from one another they would always be easy to separate. So does this make cooking utensils "non-stick?".
In that case wouldn't quasicrystals be useful for a number of friction reducing applications? Like the afore-mentioned application, if you had some plastic cups with extruded quasicrystal PATTERNS, the cups would never stick! On a smaller scale, if paper had a very subtle quasicrystal "grain" embossed or watermarked on it, you would have jam free printer paper! Or if printed on currency, money that wouldn't stick together (that's a real problem here in Vietnam with its sticky polymer based notes).
I'm sure you can think of lots of additional applications! (How about plastic wrap that doesn't stick to itself?). It's the anti-Velcro!
Likewise an (equally brief) reading of the other links reveals that the random "periodicity" (I know this is the wrong way to describe it) of quasicrystals extends down to one dimension (not just two and three). Well how about "up" to the fourth dimension (Time)? Are there any applications that could take advantage of a quasicrystal-esque time sampling? Would measurements of various phenomenon be improved by getting rid of time periodicity? I wonder what movies would look like if frames were shot at a quasi periodic frame rate, still high enough to give the illusion of movement, but perhaps getting rid of various motion artifacts.
Not only are the galaxies going to fly apart but our solar system, the planets, our bodies, our cells and ultimately even our atoms (and subatomic particles!). I think only photons or other massless particles will be spared.:(
I know the Nobel committee said the Universe will end in Ice not Fire but it seems more like a great empty VOID.
So... is there a way to harness this "dark energy"? Like attaching a rope between two objects (planets?) and let the universe try to pull it apart? Or would the rope have to be massless? Or maybe there is a more direct way of harnessing this energy? (anti-gravity?)
Look, the first stage doesn't just go up, it goes (presumably) eastwards to take advantage of the earth's rotation. So, if they launch from Florida the nearest land is, Africa. That means a foreign country and transport back by sea, not good for cost savings. If they launch from say California then you have all the hazards of a launch over land (isn't Vandenberg used primarily for westward ICBM testing and polar launches for this reason?).
Also, the second stage, even though it looks like it might go all the way to orbit doesn't appear to have much cross-range capability (no aerodynamic surfaces). So its choice of landing sites might be severely restricted. Finally, just to nitpick, the system isn't "completely" reusable, the service module looks like it is abandoned in orbit.
By the way, I think Elon Musk should henceforth be given the mantle of "Rocketman"! NOTHING (other than the heat shields) is used to slow down the stages AND CAPSULE other than ROCKETS; not parachutes or lifting bodies or airbags! He's got a LOT of faith that they will function in absolutely split second critical situations. WOW.
Still I say, go for it! If he can make the rockets work, maybe they can launch from that spaceport in New Mexico. (Maybe he'll have to give the FAA a destruct switch on a MANNED spacecraft in order to launch over populated areas). Has engineering gone so far as to really make these things that reliable?
Thank you very much, that was a MUCH more informative link.
I especially like the "station keeping" applications, over the poles or at pseudo-lagrangian points. Someday, they could perhaps use this technology for station keeping directly over the SUN!
Alas, I'm afraid that thanks to the debacle of the space shuttle and ISS, space exploration may have been sent back by a generation (maybe longer if you consider the loss of "momentum" in political will). What I had hoped to see in my lifetime will now only be possible in my children's. By then maybe they'll be so self-involved with "social media" that they'll have no time for something as un-instantaneously gratifying as exploring the Universe. Then again, who am I to blame? I'm the one spending my time making posts to Slashdot!:(
Ok I know I RTFA. But just 409 sq. ft.? (and no I don't think they meant 409 ft. square, they also said 38 sq. meters). I'm really hoping that's a journalistic error because 409 sq. ft. is just 20x20 feet! I think the sun shield used on the hopefully-not-to-cancelled JWST is bigger than that. And there are 5 layers!
In terms of size there are lots of things solar sail-ish that are bigger than that. Like the solar arrays on the ISS. Or how about Echo 1, a giant slivered balloon that was put into orbit to reflect radio waves (before there were reliable transponders I guess), it was over 100 feet in diameter. Of course the real key is not just size but the ratio of area to mass, perhaps that's what makes this special. Also perhaps maybe they've figured out a good way to control large flimsy objects (spinning? Inflatable spars?). Still they need (eventually) to be thinking about KILOMETERS (I mean miles!).
Their idea as using it to capture space junk won't work except for the very lightest of space junk, everything else will just riddle it with holes. I've suggested before that AEROGELS would be an ideal material for capturing (or slowing down) hypervelocity fragments just like the Stardust and Genesis probes did. But that presumes an efficient way of making it IN ORBIT that recycles (or doesn't need) the solvents needed.
By the way, in my brief scan of TFA, I don't recall seeing what the mission profile was. Is it intended for LEO? In which case controlling it as it goes through a sun-earth cycle every 90 minutes is going to be difficult. Hopefully they'll put it in a high orbit or even an escape trajectory so that it'll have some "running" room. (I think there was a little Japanese solar sail that got that). I'm really hoping there's an error in the article, a properly designed (even with today's technology) large sail launched on the correct trajectory could accelerate up and out of the inner solar system. It would be great if it could give the New Horizons probe, even with its 5(?) year head start, a race to Pluto!
Ah, just thinking about this has me remembering the Arthur C. Clarke short story about the solar sail race to the moon.
So I'm wondering if 900 lbs. would be enough for a tiny capsule, with minimal life support, to get a single person into orbit.
Of course this would probably preclude the use of any sort of re-entry shield or system and would make this a one way trip. Still this might have a few (desperate) applications, like sending up some rescue personnel to an orbiting spacecraft or the ISS. Or maybe there would be some more clandestine James Bond-esque application like the hijacking of an orbital vehicle.
On the other hand, what is the lightest possible re-entry shielding for a single human being? I once saw a proposal that a large FOAM dish could be used with a space suited individual. Because the combination of foam and spacesuit would be comparatively much less dense than a compact and heavy capsule, the re-entry would be much gentler, skimming the atmosphere over a long period of time and the heat load per unit area much less. Anyone know if that idea (or other unusual ideas) would work? How about the "paper" airplane the Japanese astronaut threw out of the ISS? Did anyone find it?
But perhaps the G-Forces on launch of this refurbished military launcher would be too great for a manned vehicle.
Not to knock Google and the Israeli Museum because the more information the better but wasn't the content (the text) already released some time ago? The scholars who were hoarding the Dead Sea Scrolls for the better part of a CENTURY had been releasing short fragments to the public from time to time a part of their work (gotta keep those research grants flowing). I heard someone wrote a program that took all these fragments together and, using the overlapping words, pieced together a "complete" version.
Sort of like shotgun gene sequencing where you blow apart the DNA with enzymes, sequence the short fragments and then use a computer to put it all together. Except this time the DNA is cultural (shotgun meme sequencing?).
What does that mean? Do the wings bend (in the vertical axis I suppose) more than normal? Or are they curved along the front or trailing edge?
I once read somewhere that commercial jetliner wings are unbelievably strong, they can be bent almost till they touch at the top before breaking. I recall that they are tested this way, and that on occasion they are tested until failure (in a heavily shielded test facility I hope!).
Oh well, I'm hoping that the next generation of aircraft have transparent hulls like some forecasts I think some european group made. Then airlines could market their flights as entertainment like theme park rides.
Ok, I know that the original design required making it out of brass and steel and whatnot making it big and expensive. But if I had one of those new (cheap) 3D printers, could I make a (smaller?) scale version out of whatever plastics or resins those printers use? Or are the tolerances too demanding? Would the job be made a lot easier if I "cheated" by using electric motors judiciously placed instead of the (possibly) steam powered original?
Now THAT would be one heck of a weekend project!
(Failing that, I heard they were going to make a computer simulation of it first to "test" it. It would be great if they could use some commonly used engineering program like Pro-E or Solid Works and build the model in that. Then we could all play with it!*)
*assuming you have a license for one of these programs lying around.
P.S. Then again I guess a mathematical translation of the Analytical Engine to a Turing Machine would also be sufficient.
P.P.S. I guess some day some nano-technologist will make this thing out with each individual component being just a few ATOMS.
I mean did you know many people have laptops that can take a 12.5mm tall HDD? But most people only buy a 9mm drive?
So it would be nice if OCZ (or another manufacturer) could make a very thin (3mm) card that would piggyback on top of the HDD. It would also have to a SATA drive connector to attach it to the motherboard and then a loop through cable to attach to the drive. In this way the end user could add a SSD cache to their existing laptop!
On a whim I submitted this story (as you can see I'm the submittor) with the URL and a ONE WORD summary:
"Unbelievable"
The Slashdot editors either have a sense of humor and/or they don't mind doing some background research. They produced the paragraph long summary you see above and they went to the original article to clip out sone text and pictures.
As a former "booster" of the space shuttle myself (way WAY back when I believed the promises being made about it), it was ridiculously expensive for the capabilities it brought. If they had kept the Satun Vs rolling off the production line, we would probably have had a HUGE space infrastructure by now with a colony on the moon and an outpost on Mars!
Reminds me (sadly) of the Arthur C. Clarke short story "Superiority" which describes a country at war that keeps developing ever more astonishing weapons in fewer and fewer quantities eventually leading to its defeat by its technically inferior enemy. (Probably was written before WWII where huge technological leaps clearly affected the war's outcome: A-bomb, radar, enigma).
You know, having lived here for awhile, I can strongly recommend some excellent hospitals in Thailand. They are accredited by some American hospital organizations and I've personally used them for the some semi-serious conditions (knee-surgery) as well as very frequent monitoring of some chronic ailments (I'm a hypochondriac!).
It's actually somewhat amazing as to the quality you get for the price. I stayed in a state-of-the-art brand new private hospital suite (with comfortable sitting area for guests, kitchenette, private bath, big screen television, remote controlled curtains, etc.) for less than the cost of one of the five star hotels. The surgery (from what I can tell state-of-the-art laproscopy) was not that cheap (still less than $5K for everything) included everything including recovery and physical therapy. Also, the cute Thai nurses were very pleasant to be around!
Can't say all S.E. Asian countries are like this (there are some I'd stay far away from) but it's a great value for the money (they've got a great executive checkup that includes just about everything; blood tests, stress tests, chest X-rays, ECG, ultrasound, eye and ear tests, meeting with dietitian, etc.) for $250!. I wish that Medicare would pay for some of this stuff, it would save American taxpayers a ton of money (saving much more than transportation costs) while bringing down prices at home.
By the way, the geeks amongst us might enjoy the fact that EVERYTHING is digital at these hospitals and for a small fee (about $8) every report, image, x-ray, ultrasound, endoscopy, MRI, ECG, EKG, video from every visit you've ever had is put onto a CD-ROM for you. I've got quite a collection on my iPad!
Slashdot Mirror
Does the non-repeating nature of quasicrystals help (or hurt) data storage?
Any Nobel Laureates care to reply?
They are the most expensive non-Human animals right? Other than perhaps extinct animals that people want to bring back like the Saber-tooth tiger, the wooly mammoth and the Dodo (not). What about truffle finding pigs?
Actually maybe certain transgenic animals that have had their DNA altered to express useful drugs (like goats with insulin laced milk) might be more expensive.
Anyway, is it illegal race a cloned racehorse? Will they be requiring genetic tests on all winning racehorses? What about race horses that have already died (Seabiscuit?).
Ok, I'm obviously missing something but if they have an interface from his (brain) neurons to some electronics why can't they put in an interface from the electronics to his (lower body) neurons!
Essentially use the electronics to bridge the place where (I assume) the neurons are broken.
Of course there would need to be protections against hacking or this would bring a whole new set of connotations to the term "Zombies" both in popular culture and as referred to with computers that have been taken over.
I'm sure(?) that the people at NASA are looking at this and thinking:
"What would this be like if this happened in deep space, with no possibility of rescue or even airdropped (space dropped?) supplies?"
Is there an age restriction on astronauts (to reduce the likelihood of diseases which become more prevalent with age?). Are there any policies about pushing people out of the airlock if they can't be helped (now that would be something interesting to see on wikileaks).
This looks like a bad situation for everyone involved.
How long will it be until someone hacks into the interface and controls the arm remotely (ending up like Dr. Stangelove's Nazi-Arm).
Would it be admissible as a defense against a crime? "Your Honor, I didn't do it, my (robotically controlled) arm did!"
While I'm sure that a lot of us have heard of prodigy horror/early burnout stories, it doesn't always end up that way.
My best friend entered Harvard at the age of 15 as a Sophomore. He took some of the hardest courses available; Math 55, Physics 55, Organic Chem (by the way, I believe Bill Gates took Math 55 which is one reason why I don't think he's a dummy) and did extremely well on them. He had a great girlfriend and was an excellent foosball player. (I didn't have a girlfriend, barely got through Math 21C and couldn't play foosball to save my life).
I think in his post-grad research he worked with a Nobel Laureate. (Sorry, don't know the details, not my field). Now he's a fully tenured professor in Chemistry doing work in Nano-Tech (I introduced him to Eric Drexler's "Engines of Creation").
So give Gabriel the opportunity to do great things and he just might.
Geez, I hope the poor guy doesn't get kidnapped by the Iranians! (Or the Palestinians).
I wonder if he'll be allowed to leave the country (I know someone who works for the NSA who needs to give the State Dept. 3 months prior notice before leaving the U.S. Not sure if this includes Canada). Ok, maybe this rocket isn't state of the art rocketry. And not sure how guided it was. Still 112,000 ft.!
So, is this basically the design of a "Katushka?". Or even earlier the rockets launched by the Soviets in the launchers called "Stalin's Organ"?
Has he tried staging? Is it legal for a private American citizen to put something in orbit? (I guess I'm just kidding, while 112k is a good height, orbit requires a very high horizontal velocity of 5 miles a sec.)
What about launching FROM a balloon? (Although it might be more fun to launch AT a balloon).
Ok, these comments are kinda non-sensical, I just woke up from a nap.
Here's something that is barely relevant about standards. At least some of it isn't made up! ;)
Why are (most) automobile axles as long as they are?
Because they were the same length as the then railcar axles (I think railroads were originally narrow Gage).
Why were railcars axles as long as they were?
Because that was the Gage (duh) of the railway.
Why was the Gage of the railway set to be that width?
Because it matched the width of the wagons and carriages used on roads at the time.
Why was the axles of the wagons and carriages standardized on that length? (they were made before mass production so many varying lengths would be more probable).
Because they were made to match the ruts formed in the often muddy roads.
Why were the ruts in the road formed at that particular width?
Because one width was used by one kind of common vehicle (the roman chariot).
Why was that width particularly useful?
Because it was the width of two horses.
(Sort of) Moral: nothing is new and our primary transportation technology is based on horses assess!
that I'm an Apple Fanboi and was wondering if this was available or going to be available for iOS.
If not, is it true that someone came up with something that'll let you run Android apps on iOS? Will this it work with this App?
Finally, what do people think that the "4S" in the iPhone 4S stands for "For (4) Steve"? Probably not but I guess it is a nice tribute.
Ok, I didn't RTFA because I want to whip this off before I go out the door but...
Instead of the "security theater" that passes for inspections at American airports, shouldn't we be emulating the much less intrusive Israeli model? From what I understand (I admit I'm an amateur), instead of passing people through body scanners and whatnot, the Israelis use well trained people to basically talk to people entering the "sterile" zone and WATCH THEIR REACTION. I guess it almost impossible to teach someone not to show outward signs of nervousness especially if they're going to end their life by blowing themselves up (or carrying illegal drugs I suppose). The results speak for themselves, when was the last time you've heard of an Israeli airport or airplane being blown up? Don't tell me it's from lack of fanatical enemies!
Of course, DHS' attempt to use technology instead of well trained PEOPLE could be a fatal flaw but the essential idea, of pre-screening people based on their autonomous reflexes, is not to be dismissed outright.
I (briefly) took a look at the link to the cooking utensils link and am still not quite sure why quasicrystals are useful for that application.
Is it because since the patterns NEVER repeat so it is impossible (or extremely unlikely) for two surfaces to "lock" together? Like when you have some nested plastic cups, if each one had different patterns from one another they would always be easy to separate. So does this make cooking utensils "non-stick?".
In that case wouldn't quasicrystals be useful for a number of friction reducing applications? Like the afore-mentioned application, if you had some plastic cups with extruded quasicrystal PATTERNS, the cups would never stick! On a smaller scale, if paper had a very subtle quasicrystal "grain" embossed or watermarked on it, you would have jam free printer paper! Or if printed on currency, money that wouldn't stick together (that's a real problem here in Vietnam with its sticky polymer based notes).
I'm sure you can think of lots of additional applications! (How about plastic wrap that doesn't stick to itself?). It's the anti-Velcro!
Likewise an (equally brief) reading of the other links reveals that the random "periodicity" (I know this is the wrong way to describe it) of quasicrystals extends down to one dimension (not just two and three). Well how about "up" to the fourth dimension (Time)? Are there any applications that could take advantage of a quasicrystal-esque time sampling? Would measurements of various phenomenon be improved by getting rid of time periodicity? I wonder what movies would look like if frames were shot at a quasi periodic frame rate, still high enough to give the illusion of movement, but perhaps getting rid of various motion artifacts.
Anyway, good to see Life imitating Math!
Not only are the galaxies going to fly apart but our solar system, the planets, our bodies, our cells and ultimately even our atoms (and subatomic particles!). I think only photons or other massless particles will be spared. :(
I know the Nobel committee said the Universe will end in Ice not Fire but it seems more like a great empty VOID.
So... is there a way to harness this "dark energy"? Like attaching a rope between two objects (planets?) and let the universe try to pull it apart? Or would the rope have to be massless? Or maybe there is a more direct way of harnessing this energy? (anti-gravity?)
IAVONAP (I am very obviously not a physicist).
Look, the first stage doesn't just go up, it goes (presumably) eastwards to take advantage of the earth's rotation. So, if they launch from Florida the nearest land is, Africa. That means a foreign country and transport back by sea, not good for cost savings. If they launch from say California then you have all the hazards of a launch over land (isn't Vandenberg used primarily for westward ICBM testing and polar launches for this reason?).
Also, the second stage, even though it looks like it might go all the way to orbit doesn't appear to have much cross-range capability (no aerodynamic surfaces). So its choice of landing sites might be severely restricted. Finally, just to nitpick, the system isn't "completely" reusable, the service module looks like it is abandoned in orbit.
By the way, I think Elon Musk should henceforth be given the mantle of "Rocketman"! NOTHING (other than the heat shields) is used to slow down the stages AND CAPSULE other than ROCKETS; not parachutes or lifting bodies or airbags! He's got a LOT of faith that they will function in absolutely split second critical situations. WOW.
Still I say, go for it! If he can make the rockets work, maybe they can launch from that spaceport in New Mexico. (Maybe he'll have to give the FAA a destruct switch on a MANNED spacecraft in order to launch over populated areas). Has engineering gone so far as to really make these things that reliable?
Thank you very much, that was a MUCH more informative link.
I especially like the "station keeping" applications, over the poles or at pseudo-lagrangian points. Someday, they could perhaps use this technology for station keeping directly over the SUN!
Alas, I'm afraid that thanks to the debacle of the space shuttle and ISS, space exploration may have been sent back by a generation (maybe longer if you consider the loss of "momentum" in political will). What I had hoped to see in my lifetime will now only be possible in my children's. By then maybe they'll be so self-involved with "social media" that they'll have no time for something as un-instantaneously gratifying as exploring the Universe. Then again, who am I to blame? I'm the one spending my time making posts to Slashdot! :(
Oh, by the way, the name of the story was "The Wind from the Sun".
Ok I know I RTFA. But just 409 sq. ft.? (and no I don't think they meant 409 ft. square, they also said 38 sq. meters). I'm really hoping that's a journalistic error because 409 sq. ft. is just 20x20 feet! I think the sun shield used on the hopefully-not-to-cancelled JWST is bigger than that. And there are 5 layers!
In terms of size there are lots of things solar sail-ish that are bigger than that. Like the solar arrays on the ISS. Or how about Echo 1, a giant slivered balloon that was put into orbit to reflect radio waves (before there were reliable transponders I guess), it was over 100 feet in diameter. Of course the real key is not just size but the ratio of area to mass, perhaps that's what makes this special. Also perhaps maybe they've figured out a good way to control large flimsy objects (spinning? Inflatable spars?). Still they need (eventually) to be thinking about KILOMETERS (I mean miles!).
Their idea as using it to capture space junk won't work except for the very lightest of space junk, everything else will just riddle it with holes. I've suggested before that AEROGELS would be an ideal material for capturing (or slowing down) hypervelocity fragments just like the Stardust and Genesis probes did. But that presumes an efficient way of making it IN ORBIT that recycles (or doesn't need) the solvents needed.
By the way, in my brief scan of TFA, I don't recall seeing what the mission profile was. Is it intended for LEO? In which case controlling it as it goes through a sun-earth cycle every 90 minutes is going to be difficult. Hopefully they'll put it in a high orbit or even an escape trajectory so that it'll have some "running" room. (I think there was a little Japanese solar sail that got that). I'm really hoping there's an error in the article, a properly designed (even with today's technology) large sail launched on the correct trajectory could accelerate up and out of the inner solar system. It would be great if it could give the New Horizons probe, even with its 5(?) year head start, a race to Pluto!
Ah, just thinking about this has me remembering the Arthur C. Clarke short story about the solar sail race to the moon.
So I'm wondering if 900 lbs. would be enough for a tiny capsule, with minimal life support, to get a single person into orbit.
Of course this would probably preclude the use of any sort of re-entry shield or system and would make this a one way trip. Still this might have a few (desperate) applications, like sending up some rescue personnel to an orbiting spacecraft or the ISS. Or maybe there would be some more clandestine James Bond-esque application like the hijacking of an orbital vehicle.
On the other hand, what is the lightest possible re-entry shielding for a single human being? I once saw a proposal that a large FOAM dish could be used with a space suited individual. Because the combination of foam and spacesuit would be comparatively much less dense than a compact and heavy capsule, the re-entry would be much gentler, skimming the atmosphere over a long period of time and the heat load per unit area much less. Anyone know if that idea (or other unusual ideas) would work? How about the "paper" airplane the Japanese astronaut threw out of the ISS? Did anyone find it?
But perhaps the G-Forces on launch of this refurbished military launcher would be too great for a manned vehicle.
Not to knock Google and the Israeli Museum because the more information the better but wasn't the content (the text) already released some time ago? The scholars who were hoarding the Dead Sea Scrolls for the better part of a CENTURY had been releasing short fragments to the public from time to time a part of their work (gotta keep those research grants flowing). I heard someone wrote a program that took all these fragments together and, using the overlapping words, pieced together a "complete" version.
Sort of like shotgun gene sequencing where you blow apart the DNA with enzymes, sequence the short fragments and then use a computer to put it all together. Except this time the DNA is cultural (shotgun meme sequencing?).
What does that mean? Do the wings bend (in the vertical axis I suppose) more than normal? Or are they curved along the front or trailing edge?
I once read somewhere that commercial jetliner wings are unbelievably strong, they can be bent almost till they touch at the top before breaking. I recall that they are tested this way, and that on occasion they are tested until failure (in a heavily shielded test facility I hope!).
Oh well, I'm hoping that the next generation of aircraft have transparent hulls like some forecasts I think some european group made. Then airlines could market their flights as entertainment like theme park rides.
Ok, I know that the original design required making it out of brass and steel and whatnot making it big and expensive. But if I had one of those new (cheap) 3D printers, could I make a (smaller?) scale version out of whatever plastics or resins those printers use? Or are the tolerances too demanding? Would the job be made a lot easier if I "cheated" by using electric motors judiciously placed instead of the (possibly) steam powered original?
Now THAT would be one heck of a weekend project!
(Failing that, I heard they were going to make a computer simulation of it first to "test" it. It would be great if they could use some commonly used engineering program like Pro-E or Solid Works and build the model in that. Then we could all play with it!*)
*assuming you have a license for one of these programs lying around.
P.S. Then again I guess a mathematical translation of the Analytical Engine to a Turing Machine would also be sufficient.
P.P.S. I guess some day some nano-technologist will make this thing out with each individual component being just a few ATOMS.
I mean did you know many people have laptops that can take a 12.5mm tall HDD? But most people only buy a 9mm drive?
So it would be nice if OCZ (or another manufacturer) could make a very thin (3mm) card that would piggyback on top of the HDD. It would also have to a SATA drive connector to attach it to the motherboard and then a loop through cable to attach to the drive. In this way the end user could add a SSD cache to their existing laptop!
Is this feasible or am I missing something?
On a whim I submitted this story (as you can see I'm the submittor) with the URL and a ONE WORD summary:
"Unbelievable"
The Slashdot editors either have a sense of humor and/or they don't mind doing some background research. They produced the paragraph long summary you see above and they went to the original article to clip out sone text and pictures.
So thanks! Do you get paid? :)
As a former "booster" of the space shuttle myself (way WAY back when I believed the promises being made about it), it was ridiculously expensive for the capabilities it brought. If they had kept the Satun Vs rolling off the production line, we would probably have had a HUGE space infrastructure by now with a colony on the moon and an outpost on Mars!
Reminds me (sadly) of the Arthur C. Clarke short story "Superiority" which describes a country at war that keeps developing ever more astonishing weapons in fewer and fewer quantities eventually leading to its defeat by its technically inferior enemy. (Probably was written before WWII where huge technological leaps clearly affected the war's outcome: A-bomb, radar, enigma).
You know, having lived here for awhile, I can strongly recommend some excellent hospitals in Thailand. They are accredited by some American hospital organizations and I've personally used them for the some semi-serious conditions (knee-surgery) as well as very frequent monitoring of some chronic ailments (I'm a hypochondriac!).
It's actually somewhat amazing as to the quality you get for the price. I stayed in a state-of-the-art brand new private hospital suite (with comfortable sitting area for guests, kitchenette, private bath, big screen television, remote controlled curtains, etc.) for less than the cost of one of the five star hotels. The surgery (from what I can tell state-of-the-art laproscopy) was not that cheap (still less than $5K for everything) included everything including recovery and physical therapy. Also, the cute Thai nurses were very pleasant to be around!
Can't say all S.E. Asian countries are like this (there are some I'd stay far away from) but it's a great value for the money (they've got a great executive checkup that includes just about everything; blood tests, stress tests, chest X-rays, ECG, ultrasound, eye and ear tests, meeting with dietitian, etc.) for $250!. I wish that Medicare would pay for some of this stuff, it would save American taxpayers a ton of money (saving much more than transportation costs) while bringing down prices at home.
By the way, the geeks amongst us might enjoy the fact that EVERYTHING is digital at these hospitals and for a small fee (about $8) every report, image, x-ray, ultrasound, endoscopy, MRI, ECG, EKG, video from every visit you've ever had is put onto a CD-ROM for you. I've got quite a collection on my iPad!
For some reason it didn't show up in My Account so I thought "someone" (the CIA?) was preventing me from posting my crazy conspiratory theory! ;)