Thing is, UAVs can be used offensively against low technology targets. For example dropping missiles on Taleban targets in the middle of the night. You can't use it against Israel because they know how to use radar, and a UAV will be easy to shoot down.
What Iran needs is a terrain hugging cruise missile. It needs to be fast enough to get ahead of observations phoned ahead along the ground track. Ballistic missiles are less effective now that ballistic defense is more mature.
Going OT here. This came up on BB last night with english translations of swedish news reports. This was a quote from one of the women who went to the police:
Anklagelserna mot Assange är förstås inte iscensatta av varken Pentagon eller någon annan. Ansvaret för det som hänt mig och den andra tjejen ligger hos en man med skev kvinnosyn och problem att ta ett nej.
Which means:
The accusations against Assange are not staged by either the Pentagon or anybody else. The responsibility for what has happened to me and the other woman lies with a man with a distorted view of women and a problem with the word "no".
I am leaning towards the view that Assange needs to learn that he is not James Bond, and he doesn't have a license to do what ever he wants.
Well, swedish law classifies a lot of things as "rape" that wouldn't be rape in other countries (this can be seen by looking at swedish rape statistics before and after the relevant changes to the law).
So are you pulling a Whoopi Goldberg and saying that this isn't "rape rape"?
It'd be okay if a 13 year old girl was the victim.
I honestly don't believe they would leave so much to chance. I can believe that they would arrest him, possibly under questionable circumstances. I can also believe they would cause him to "disappear".
To me, this sounds like he slipped up. I wonder if other allegations will come out of the woodwork?
Partial aerobrake with retro-rockets for the final touchdown are possible, but then you don't save anything.
Thats what I mean. What you save is the mass of a heavy launch escape system. The Apollo LES was huge because it had to lift the CM high enough for the parachutes to work. If you build in thrusters which can land the vehicle then they function as an LES as well as a landing system. It gives you more control over your landing site too.
I take your point, but engineering businesses like SpaceX need to make the right technical decisions to be a commercial success. The best way to land a capsule on Earth may actually be a fully powered descent. You can save a lot of mass in the escape system by doing that.
They should try a Rogallo wing. You can flare it close to the ground and get a (fairly) soft landing. A wing similar to modern parasails would give similar results.
I don't think we get the senate vote tonight unfortunately. I actually stuffed up voting below the line. I reached the end minus 1 (saving the last for Conroy) at 57, and found that I had voted 10 and 11 twice. 10 is easy to turn into 58, 11 becomes 59.
I am actually just a few K outside the seat of Melbourne. There is no hope, unfortunately, of Wills going to the greens.
It seems designed to hit feet first, a bit like gemini, rather than slapping directly into the water with the heat shield completely level. With the parachutes attached on the side of the hatch, heads would presumably be towards the hatch.
You mean radioisotope thermoelectric generators. Sure they are used but nuclear rockets generally mean something like the NERVA which is essentially a lightweight reactor with an open cooling circuit, which gives you rocket thrust. RTGs are stable technology. Very easy to handle. Just like the pile of caesium sources in the physics lab at college. NERVA engines give people nightmares. They are impossible to test properly on the ground, and dangerous for the crew.
My suggestion is to use a fairly stock standard fission reactor, similar to the ones the Russians used on satellites, then use it to power an ion drive.
The reactors could be similar to those use on submarines, so the technology would be mostly COTS.
Umm, no. Submarine reactors depend on having an ocean around them to cool the secondary system (the part that generates electricity). Not many oceans between here and Saturn.
Yes you would need a cooling circuit with big radiator fins. Gets better as you move away from the sun.
Well yeah but this is not like cruising around on Earth. If you want to get to Titan you won't find any asteroids going that way. So you have to kill your velocity. Mine reaction mass, then use the reaction mass to get going again. You might wind up with a net zero gain. Heading to Titan slowly with empty tanks.
Beyond the translated Spanish article I can't find anything else about this idea of an alerting system being infected with malware. Typically such systems are simple, embedded and not interfaced in ways which could cause them to run software they are not meant to.
This bit from wikipedia is interesting:
The MD-80 Advanced was to incorporate the advanced flight deck of the MD-88, including a choice of reference systems, with an inertial reference system as standard fitting and optional attitude-heading equipment. It was to be equipped with an electronic flight instrument system (EFIS), an optional second flight management system (FMS), light emitting diode (LED) dot matrix electronic engine and system displays. A Honeywell windshear computer and provision for an optional traffic-alert and collision avoidance system (TCAS) were also to be included. A new interior would have a 12% increase in overhead baggage space and stowage compartment lights that come on when the door opens, as well as new video system featuring drop-down LCD monitors above.[4]
Interstellar light sails won't be much use to us until we can build infrastructure to boost them out of the solar system. Inside the orbit of (say) Mars, however they could be quite useful once we get our act together. Maybe Mercury will be our first serious outpost away from Earth.
Doing the hard stuff was easier when NASA had a blank cheque to spend. Now they don't. They need to take baby steps and make every bit of research count.
Slashdot Mirror
Thing is, UAVs can be used offensively against low technology targets. For example dropping missiles on Taleban targets in the middle of the night. You can't use it against Israel because they know how to use radar, and a UAV will be easy to shoot down.
What Iran needs is a terrain hugging cruise missile. It needs to be fast enough to get ahead of observations phoned ahead along the ground track. Ballistic missiles are less effective now that ballistic defense is more mature.
Going OT here. This came up on BB last night with english translations of swedish news reports. This was a quote from one of the women who went to the police:
Anklagelserna mot Assange är förstås inte iscensatta av varken Pentagon eller någon annan. Ansvaret för det som hänt mig och den andra tjejen ligger hos en man med skev kvinnosyn och problem att ta ett nej.
Which means:
The accusations against Assange are not staged by either the Pentagon or anybody else. The responsibility for what has happened to me and the other woman lies with a man with a distorted view of women and a problem with the word "no".
I am leaning towards the view that Assange needs to learn that he is not James Bond, and he doesn't have a license to do what ever he wants.
4. The girls are blowing the situation out of proportion (either intentionally or unintentionally).
5. Assange is a creep and is guilty as charged.
Occam's Razor, anyone?
4.5 Assange gets up to some dodgy stuff which leads to people putting 2+2 together and going slightly off target,
Lets hops some body leaks the plans to that fantastic spaceship the USA have been working on. Hillary Clinton is obviously Servalan.
Or suppose these two women are just trying to get some hush money from a publicly known figure?
D'oh! First demand hush money, then go to the cops.
Well, swedish law classifies a lot of things as "rape" that wouldn't be rape in other countries (this can be seen by looking at swedish rape statistics before and after the relevant changes to the law).
So are you pulling a Whoopi Goldberg and saying that this isn't "rape rape"?
It'd be okay if a 13 year old girl was the victim.
he does look kind of like a rapist.
Which is evidence that he is not a rapist. QED.
I honestly don't believe they would leave so much to chance. I can believe that they would arrest him, possibly under questionable circumstances. I can also believe they would cause him to "disappear".
To me, this sounds like he slipped up. I wonder if other allegations will come out of the woodwork?
Partial aerobrake with retro-rockets for the final touchdown are possible, but then you don't save anything.
Thats what I mean. What you save is the mass of a heavy launch escape system. The Apollo LES was huge because it had to lift the CM high enough for the parachutes to work. If you build in thrusters which can land the vehicle then they function as an LES as well as a landing system. It gives you more control over your landing site too.
I take your point, but engineering businesses like SpaceX need to make the right technical decisions to be a commercial success. The best way to land a capsule on Earth may actually be a fully powered descent. You can save a lot of mass in the escape system by doing that.
They should try a Rogallo wing. You can flare it close to the ground and get a (fairly) soft landing. A wing similar to modern parasails would give similar results.
I voted [60] Stephen Conroy.
As did I. Here's hoping a few more did!
I don't think we get the senate vote tonight unfortunately. I actually stuffed up voting below the line. I reached the end minus 1 (saving the last for Conroy) at 57, and found that I had voted 10 and 11 twice. 10 is easy to turn into 58, 11 becomes 59.
I am actually just a few K outside the seat of Melbourne. There is no hope, unfortunately, of Wills going to the greens.
Whoooosh!
Thanks!
(its my first one this week).
"The chute was a pretty shade of rogue, and it slowed down like a sports car hitting the breaks!"
I prefer my nice reliable Toyota van. It has brakes.
You wouldn't prefer a Nissan Rogue?
No I prefer my cars to be either white or black.
It seems designed to hit feet first, a bit like gemini, rather than slapping directly into the water with the heat shield completely level. With the parachutes attached on the side of the hatch, heads would presumably be towards the hatch.
like a sports car hitting the breaks!
I prefer my nice reliable Toyota van. It has brakes.
Sure but you have to stop to pick the reaction mass up and that wastes energy, time, and reaction mass.
You mean radioisotope thermoelectric generators. Sure they are used but nuclear rockets generally mean something like the NERVA which is essentially a lightweight reactor with an open cooling circuit, which gives you rocket thrust. RTGs are stable technology. Very easy to handle. Just like the pile of caesium sources in the physics lab at college. NERVA engines give people nightmares. They are impossible to test properly on the ground, and dangerous for the crew.
My suggestion is to use a fairly stock standard fission reactor, similar to the ones the Russians used on satellites, then use it to power an ion drive.
Unless we need one to deal with an alien invasion, of course....
Thats why those plans are tucked away...
Umm, no. Submarine reactors depend on having an ocean around them to cool the secondary system (the part that generates electricity). Not many oceans between here and Saturn.
Yes you would need a cooling circuit with big radiator fins. Gets better as you move away from the sun.
Well yeah but this is not like cruising around on Earth. If you want to get to Titan you won't find any asteroids going that way. So you have to kill your velocity. Mine reaction mass, then use the reaction mass to get going again. You might wind up with a net zero gain. Heading to Titan slowly with empty tanks.
wiki link
Beyond the translated Spanish article I can't find anything else about this idea of an alerting system being infected with malware. Typically such systems are simple, embedded and not interfaced in ways which could cause them to run software they are not meant to.
This bit from wikipedia is interesting:
The MD-80 Advanced was to incorporate the advanced flight deck of the MD-88, including a choice of reference systems, with an inertial reference system as standard fitting and optional attitude-heading equipment. It was to be equipped with an electronic flight instrument system (EFIS), an optional second flight management system (FMS), light emitting diode (LED) dot matrix electronic engine and system displays. A Honeywell windshear computer and provision for an optional traffic-alert and collision avoidance system (TCAS) were also to be included. A new interior would have a 12% increase in overhead baggage space and stowage compartment lights that come on when the door opens, as well as new video system featuring drop-down LCD monitors above.[4]
link
Apparently this upgrade got dropped in 1991, so the system still in use must be pretty low tech.
Interstellar light sails won't be much use to us until we can build infrastructure to boost them out of the solar system. Inside the orbit of (say) Mars, however they could be quite useful once we get our act together. Maybe Mercury will be our first serious outpost away from Earth.
Doing the hard stuff was easier when NASA had a blank cheque to spend. Now they don't. They need to take baby steps and make every bit of research count.
I believe the USSR got some into operation.
Yep
NASA have already sent five probes out of the solar system. Both pioneers, both voyagers and New Horizons. Thats a pretty good record IMHO.
And before you use a solar sail in deep space it makes sense to test one in low earth orbit. Its cheaper that way.