If the Navy can make this practical, they can also do plenty with [active noise suppression] or [noise cancellation] (google these phrases for a start). And they probably are, as a stealth measure.
Have a friend whose dad did ASDIC in WWII. The old man told him the ocean is now roaring with screw noise where in his time it was spookily silent and you could hear for tens of miles.
In future we'll be stealthing all kinds of craft with hull-mounted near-field stereos. Marine ecology can only benefit.
If low-mainenance Stirlings are in the offing, it's worth taking another look at solar ponds. Pioneered in Israel, and I believe RMIT in Melbourne is still looking at them.
Basically a swimming pool filled with dense brine with two or three different salts, which settle into layers. A greenhouse effect traps heat in the bottom layer, and the Stirling works off the temperature differential between bottom and top.
Drawbacks are corrosion, algae, transparent covering, control of the layers, scalability.
Advantage is storage: heat can be retained through the night, though at the expense of the temperature gradient, I suppose.
RFIDs are a robot sense. They tell robots where and what things are, where
to look for them, and what to do when they find them. if find(rfid)
and ! if find(rfid) are very convenient directors of robot
behaviour.
Not, of course, that robots can run around wholly unsupervised; but with
automation to hand for filtering and first-level logistics, all sorts of
responsible people like cops, nurses and safety staff can shrug off their
robotic chores and get on with making decisions.
We all ought to be playing with this stuff; but the app I really want to
see is, nuclear power plants and fuel recycling plants, with every fuel and
waste element and every component accounted for. This is one area with
universal support for absolute security. We've held off development of
civilian breeders for fear of terrorists getting access at some stage of the
fuel processing cycle, among other reasons. But turning, say, a 99% safe
cycle with 20 critical inspection points into a 99.9% safe cycle with 200
points, 180 automated, is surely not beyond out current means.
You start with a beam projector station already in orbit. You launch the cargo vessel vertically for a maximum altitude a bit above the projector's orbit. The cargo vessel switches on its magnet; the projector switches on its beam. The beam pushes the cargo vessel up to orbital speed.
Naturally the projector is slowed by reaction. Its momentum needs replenishing, most easily by firing the beam in the reverse direction. Alternatively it could use an electrodynamic tether boost.
That is the obvious possibility to consider for cheap access to space. It may turn out to be impossible in principle, this deep in Earth's magnetosphere. Otherwise, it could still be economically impractical; but an initial investigation is certainly warranted.
I've been waiting for magsail-plus-particle-beam for years.
You're probably thinking of Lenslet's optical digital signal processor, performing a variety of vector-matrix and fast fourier transform operations. 256 optical digital inputs, 256 o.d. outputs, and electronic selection of the operation.
Now if there is a cheap clean way to do serial-to-parallel conversion on a gigabit/s optical digital datastream, Intel has created a neat device for feeding the Lenslet beast.
It's a fair question. Supposing there turned out to be industrial applications, as with superconductors. We might have to post more signs saying, WARNING: Strong magnetic fields, cryogenic gases stored here. But that would be about it. The energy involved in the fermionic matter itself is ridiculously low.
However, industrial (let alone consumer) applications are not the enticing prospect here. What will be lighting up physicists' eyes is a new case of macroscopic bodies of matter being orchestrated by a single quantum wavefunction; and in consequence the most sensitive, precise and totally noise-free measuring instruments, ever.
Existing example: superconducting quantum interference devices, as used in medicine and elsewhere to make exquisitely precise magnetic field measurements.
Existing example: the Mossbauer effect, where a fraction of iron nuclei are quantum-coupled to a crystal, so that when they emit gamma photons the recoil is taken up by the whole crystal. That allows measurements of the redshift due to the Earth's gravity: lab-bench general relativity.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mossbauer_effect
Longshot possibility example: A theoretical case has been made by Raymond Chiao, that in the same way a superconductor excludes a magnetic field, it should also exclude a similar component of gravitational curvature. So superconductors might act as detectors, or even generators, of gravitational radiation. The detection aspect alone would put a powerful tool in the hands of astronomers - e.g. for seeing even further back than the cosmic microwave background.
Chiao's paper, if you want a taste:
http://xxx.lanl.gov/abs/gr-qc/0208024
There's no immediate profit in this except knowledge; but it may very well be a critical turn in the knowledge game.
Consider whether, in the coming era, breakthrough technologies may owe less to the mechanical engineering paradigm, like towering steel cylinders with a million pounds of thrust, and more to haute couture. Gossamer tethers, smart flexible structures; the technology of nylon hose and artful two-strap suspension.
I would love to see consciously astro-chic designs carrying off future Tether X-Prizes. Actually, Rutan's elegant Space Ship One is getting there. But I wish we could have had more explicit encouragement in the President's statement for stuff like the Hoytether design.
We come in peace, for all mankind
on
The Future of NASA
·
· Score: 4, Insightful
Don't forget that bit.
I would have been very sorry to see America turn its back on preeminence in space. It accomplished great things and probably will again.
But here's the thing. Apollo may have begun as a techno-military tour de force, and sure it was intertwined with nuclear delivery systems, and phalloidal to boot. But it changed. As the project neared the goal it dawned on people everywhere, as well as the ones actually doing it, that this was really happening, and it was a step up, and the human condition had changed.
By the time Armstrong stuttered out the historic words and set the plaque down, it was too great a matter to be only America's possession: it was America's gift. There was just no other way it could be.
I've been saying to friends lately, Look, for some time to come, space is going to be owned by the USAF. But that doesn't mean I've forgotten the gift. And you shouldn't either, because it's your inheritance and one day you'll be proud to pass it on.
It seems to be the pumping efficiency that's the advance.
Good. Scale this up or just replicate it a couple of thousand times, and there's our launch base, capable of pipelining a 25-50 kg package into orbit once per 10 minutes.
For extra points, the article might have included some physical measurements and a power comparison with gas lasers, which I believe are around 10 megawatts.
A taste of the discussion from a few years back, which did mention that diode-pumped solid-state lasers were coming on:
Slashdot Mirror
And not just for spacesuits, but robotics, tether reels, beanstalk climbers and more. If this works, it will be invaluable.
If the Navy can make this practical, they can also do plenty with [active noise suppression] or [noise cancellation] (google these phrases for a start). And they probably are, as a stealth measure.
Have a friend whose dad did ASDIC in WWII. The old man told him the ocean is now roaring with screw noise where in his time it was spookily silent and you could hear for tens of miles.
In future we'll be stealthing all kinds of craft with hull-mounted near-field stereos. Marine ecology can only benefit.
no capes!
If low-mainenance Stirlings are in the offing, it's worth taking another look at solar ponds. Pioneered in Israel, and I believe RMIT in Melbourne is still looking at them.
Basically a swimming pool filled with dense brine with two or three different salts, which settle into layers. A greenhouse effect traps heat in the bottom layer, and the Stirling works off the temperature differential between bottom and top.
Drawbacks are corrosion, algae, transparent covering, control of the layers, scalability.
Advantage is storage: heat can be retained through the night, though at the expense of the temperature gradient, I suppose.
India
Israel
Texas
RFIDs are a robot sense. They tell robots where and what things are, where to look for them, and what to do when they find them. if find(rfid) and ! if find(rfid) are very convenient directors of robot behaviour.
Not, of course, that robots can run around wholly unsupervised; but with automation to hand for filtering and first-level logistics, all sorts of responsible people like cops, nurses and safety staff can shrug off their robotic chores and get on with making decisions.
We all ought to be playing with this stuff; but the app I really want to see is, nuclear power plants and fuel recycling plants, with every fuel and waste element and every component accounted for. This is one area with universal support for absolute security. We've held off development of civilian breeders for fear of terrorists getting access at some stage of the fuel processing cycle, among other reasons. But turning, say, a 99% safe cycle with 20 critical inspection points into a 99.9% safe cycle with 200 points, 180 automated, is surely not beyond out current means.
You start with a beam projector station already in orbit. You launch the cargo vessel vertically for a maximum altitude a bit above the projector's orbit. The cargo vessel switches on its magnet; the projector switches on its beam. The beam pushes the cargo vessel up to orbital speed.
Naturally the projector is slowed by reaction. Its momentum needs replenishing, most easily by firing the beam in the reverse direction. Alternatively it could use an electrodynamic tether boost.
That is the obvious possibility to consider for cheap access to space. It may turn out to be impossible in principle, this deep in Earth's magnetosphere. Otherwise, it could still be economically impractical; but an initial investigation is certainly warranted.
I've been waiting for magsail-plus-particle-beam for years.
You're probably thinking of Lenslet's optical digital signal processor, performing a variety of vector-matrix and fast fourier transform operations. 256 optical digital inputs, 256 o.d. outputs, and electronic selection of the operation.
White paper here
Now if there is a cheap clean way to do serial-to-parallel conversion on a gigabit/s optical digital datastream, Intel has created a neat device for feeding the Lenslet beast.
It's a fair question. Supposing there turned out to be industrial applications, as with superconductors. We might have to post more signs saying, WARNING: Strong magnetic fields, cryogenic gases stored here. But that would be about it. The energy involved in the fermionic matter itself is ridiculously low.
However, industrial (let alone consumer) applications are not the enticing prospect here. What will be lighting up physicists' eyes is a new case of macroscopic bodies of matter being orchestrated by a single quantum wavefunction; and in consequence the most sensitive, precise and totally noise-free measuring instruments, ever.
Existing example: superconducting quantum interference devices, as used in medicine and elsewhere to make exquisitely precise magnetic field measurements.
Existing example: the Mossbauer effect, where a fraction of iron nuclei are quantum-coupled to a crystal, so that when they emit gamma photons the recoil is taken up by the whole crystal. That allows measurements of the redshift due to the Earth's gravity: lab-bench general relativity.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mossbauer_effect
Longshot possibility example: A theoretical case has been made by Raymond Chiao, that in the same way a superconductor excludes a magnetic field, it should also exclude a similar component of gravitational curvature. So superconductors might act as detectors, or even generators, of gravitational radiation. The detection aspect alone would put a powerful tool in the hands of astronomers - e.g. for seeing even further back than the cosmic microwave background.
Chiao's paper, if you want a taste:
http://xxx.lanl.gov/abs/gr-qc/0208024
There's no immediate profit in this except knowledge; but it may very well be a critical turn in the knowledge game.
Was joke, tovarich. But after all...
Consider whether, in the coming era, breakthrough technologies may owe less to the mechanical engineering paradigm, like towering steel cylinders with a million pounds of thrust, and more to haute couture. Gossamer tethers, smart flexible structures; the technology of nylon hose and artful two-strap suspension.
I would love to see consciously astro-chic designs carrying off future Tether X-Prizes. Actually, Rutan's elegant Space Ship One is getting there. But I wish we could have had more explicit encouragement in the President's statement for stuff like the Hoytether design.
Don't forget that bit.
I would have been very sorry to see America turn its back on preeminence in space. It accomplished great things and probably will again.
But here's the thing. Apollo may have begun as a techno-military tour de force, and sure it was intertwined with nuclear delivery systems, and phalloidal to boot. But it changed. As the project neared the goal it dawned on people everywhere, as well as the ones actually doing it, that this was really happening, and it was a step up, and the human condition had changed.
By the time Armstrong stuttered out the historic words and set the plaque down, it was too great a matter to be only America's possession: it was America's gift. There was just no other way it could be.
I've been saying to friends lately, Look, for some time to come, space is going to be owned by the USAF. But that doesn't mean I've forgotten the gift. And you shouldn't either, because it's your inheritance and one day you'll be proud to pass it on.
It seems to be the pumping efficiency that's the advance.
Good. Scale this up or just replicate it a couple of thousand times, and there's our launch base, capable of pipelining a 25-50 kg package into orbit once per 10 minutes.
For extra points, the article might have included some physical measurements and a power comparison with gas lasers, which I believe are around 10 megawatts.
A taste of the discussion from a few years back, which did mention that diode-pumped solid-state lasers were coming on:
Here
Goodwill