That's a pretty minor distinction. I was an industry advisor for what might have been the first 3-high cubesat. The only important restriction is that it fit in the ejection canister.
The basic single 4.5" cubical satellite is *very limited* in capability due to lack of any viable attitude control and very low power available. It's tough to do anything useful even in low Earth orbit. That would be crippling for an interplanetary mission.
I expect someone may have worked out the numbers, but for a Mars relay you have more-or-less no attitude control and need a fair bit of power for at least several hours. It's going to take a pretty big battery+an decent array to run rad-hard electronics for any length of time. None of this "guts of a FRS radio" telemetry stuff, that will fry very quickly beyond the Van Allen belts. Also, no or inconsequential albedo heating, so it will need big heaters to keep going for any length of time.
And there's math behind it, too. To raise the volts, you have to lower the amps. It'll work until it can't provide enough current for the device that it's powering.
If it holds a constant 1.5V output the current draw from the device will also remain constant. What *will* happens is that as the battery terminal voltage (input to the boost converter) drops, the current drawn from the battery will go up, not down. It effectively turns the load into a constant power device.
I am skeptical about the life-saving claims. Alkaline battery-power devices are typically expected to operate down to about 1V terminal voltage. Since the primary effect of discharging is ion depletion, the internal resistance of the battery is what is changing, meaning by the time you get to doubling the current at low states of charge, you will be depleting it much faster. So the time of use will fall off a cliff very abruptly at the end.
It has long been proven that the drag of accumulating the hydrogen greatly exceeds the possible thrust. It's more like a parachute than it is an engine.
You can do what used to be a simple project for an 8-year-old, take it to a "makerfaire" or some other such nonsense, and be hailed a modern genius among the nitwits thus gathered!
I had a similar idea about Zeppelins. Hydrogen is dangerous, Helium is expensive, so why not just pull a vacuum in the lift cells? Empty space is much lighter than helium, just think of the buoyancy! Everybody is an idiot, except for me.
"man" pages as an example of good documentation? Dear God Almighty, man, it was going to be my example of the WORST documentation ever created. In fact just about everything associated with UNIX or *nix documentation is absolutely the shits.
The best documentation of that type is VAX/VMS "help..." The best written manuals of that type were for VAX/VMS, too. Everyone should have to read "VAX/VMS FORTRAN Programmers Reference guide" and go through every single command in > help...
Other good examples are the manuals and post-flight evaluations for the Apollo program. If nothing else, it will tell you what the standard should be for illustrations.
That's absolute genius! 6000 mile long superconducting transmission lines from the North pole. Of course, it only needs to be about a 24 gauge wire, since there is no resistance.
Still, I think my "unicorn treadmill" idea is more practical.
It doesn't mean that - it means that the status of the constitutionality is still open to question. This ruling takes no position on that, just that Congress did not authorize it. Congress could pass a law tomorrow authorizing it, THEN it could be challenged on grounds of constitutionality.
Slashdot Mirror
In the spring, we made meat helmets.
That's a pretty minor distinction. I was an industry advisor for what might have been the first 3-high cubesat. The only important restriction is that it fit in the ejection canister.
The basic single 4.5" cubical satellite is *very limited* in capability due to lack of any viable attitude control and very low power available. It's tough to do anything useful even in low Earth orbit. That would be crippling for an interplanetary mission.
I expect someone may have worked out the numbers, but for a Mars relay you have more-or-less no attitude control and need a fair bit of power for at least several hours. It's going to take a pretty big battery+an decent array to run rad-hard electronics for any length of time. None of this "guts of a FRS radio" telemetry stuff, that will fry very quickly beyond the Van Allen belts. Also, no or inconsequential albedo heating, so it will need big heaters to keep going for any length of time.
The luck part was that something wasn't broken due to thermal stress far beyond the levels it was qualified for.
If it holds a constant 1.5V output the current draw from the device will also remain constant. What *will* happens is that as the battery terminal voltage (input to the boost converter) drops, the current drawn from the battery will go up, not down. It effectively turns the load into a constant power device.
I am skeptical about the life-saving claims. Alkaline battery-power devices are typically expected to operate down to about 1V terminal voltage. Since the primary effect of discharging is ion depletion, the internal resistance of the battery is what is changing, meaning by the time you get to doubling the current at low states of charge, you will be depleting it much faster. So the time of use will fall off a cliff very abruptly at the end.
It has long been proven that the drag of accumulating the hydrogen greatly exceeds the possible thrust. It's more like a parachute than it is an engine.
http://www.amazon.com/A-Boy-Ba...
You can do what used to be a simple project for an 8-year-old, take it to a "makerfaire" or some other such nonsense, and be hailed a modern genius among the nitwits thus gathered!
Like the OP?
And of course, only the "right kind" of politics.
Well, if you want a summer of kids rioting in the streets, this is a great plan. They certainly won't be impeded by having to go to work.
I had a similar idea about Zeppelins. Hydrogen is dangerous, Helium is expensive, so why not just pull a vacuum in the lift cells? Empty space is much lighter than helium, just think of the buoyancy! Everybody is an idiot, except for me.
ATT had the same idea. In about 1945.
You realize that NASA has absolutely nothing to do with this mission, right?
"man" pages as an example of good documentation? Dear God Almighty, man, it was going to be my example of the WORST documentation ever created. In fact just about everything associated with UNIX or *nix documentation is absolutely the shits.
The best documentation of that type is VAX/VMS "help ..." The best written manuals of that type were for VAX/VMS, too. Everyone should have to read "VAX/VMS FORTRAN Programmers Reference guide" and go through every single command in > help ...
Other good examples are the manuals and post-flight evaluations for the Apollo program. If nothing else, it will tell you what the standard should be for illustrations.
Most newspaper reports don't set out with the premise of providing a "How To ..." guide
Slashdot is now sanctioning crimes and giving instructions on how to commit them?
Someone might have a point about the wisdom of copyright law but there's no doubt that it *is* against the law.
So replace one joke/scam with a yet bigger joke/scam?
"Did everyone take their anti-pressure pils?"
"YES! Stop Asking!"
That's absolute genius! 6000 mile long superconducting transmission lines from the North pole. Of course, it only needs to be about a 24 gauge wire, since there is no resistance.
Still, I think my "unicorn treadmill" idea is more practical.
You make a good point. Most of what I see here now is indistinguishable from a cult, and any contrary opinions are rapidly shouted, er, modded down.
It doesn't mean that - it means that the status of the constitutionality is still open to question. This ruling takes no position on that, just that Congress did not authorize it. Congress could pass a law tomorrow authorizing it, THEN it could be challenged on grounds of constitutionality.
On the other hand, we find that various mooks make spurious brutality claims, the vast majority of which are complete bullshit.
You're making Mr. Flibble very cross!
Rain would be a far bigger story.
He was being ironic before irony was cool.
It's about time someone defunded this utterly ridiculous and transparent scam.