User: chamcham

Competition

On: Don't Worry, We're Not From The Government

Americans selling out other Americans, but will private sector Big Brother become big business (if it isn't already)?

Good job genius.

On: Shared Source vs. Open Source

Great, now they know what questions to expect. Billiant!

Mitsubishi robots in space

On: Where Should Space Exploration Go From Here?

put those mitsubishi robots in space, then if the oxygen supply runs out it won't matter.

Carbon fuel tanks

On: Where Should Space Exploration Go From Here?

I agree, the X-33 was our best hope for a shuttle replacement in the near future. Advanced composites like carbon fiber offer incredible strength-to-weight ratios. The only problem with thermoplastic carbon fiber is that it would very expensive to create a manufacturing process for such large tanks.

Another approach could possibly be making a number of smaller fuel tanks that can fit tightly together. The smaller tanks will not require the same wall thickness as the large tanks, but would still be a reall pain in the butt to mold with a resin treated carbon or aramid fiber.

I'm no where near an expert on materials processing, but thats my $0.02 :)

Open Engineering Group?

On: Where Should Space Exploration Go From Here?

Any ideas for a not-for-profit space exploration engineering group?

Funding and donations would go into protecting the research and making it publicly available. I'm sure there are a number of difficulties in making something like this work.

What do you think?