MarsBlog - Part 14

Falcon Test Launch (No, The Other Falcon)

DARPA will be launching a test flight of the Falcon HTV-2 hypersonic vehicle:

If all goes to plan, engineers will launch the Falcon HTV-2 to the edge of space, before detaching the plane and guiding it on a hypersonic flight that will reach speeds of 13,000mph (about 20 times the speed of sound) on its return to Earth.

Those who think that the long-overdue termination of the Space Shuttle and NASA/Congress’ lack of clear vision on what should replace it indicate the U.S. no longer has what it takes to innovate in aerospace ought look at this (and the X-37b) before shedding additional tears or rending further garments. DARPA and USAF certainly seem to be cutting new edges — and that’s on top of the New Space companies who are recapitulating and improving upon prior efforts with new technology of their own.

PPC at the Western Conservative Summit

Okay, it’s not space-related (and it’s not technically PPC, since he’s there on National Review’s nickel), but my People’s Press Collective co-conspirator Michael Sandoval is on the scene at the Western Conservative Summit in Denver. Rick Santorum and Rick Perry spoke this evening. Santorum focused (utterly predictably) on gay marriage, using the issue as an (utterly predictable) cudgel against Perry, while Perry’s keynote focused on the 10th Amendment and the importance of voting ‘liberals’ out of office in 2012.

If Rick Santorum thinks that gay marriage is the defining issue for 2012, he will (and will deserve to) go down in flames rather quickly once the primary season starts. He reminds me of the candidate forum I attended in early 2010, when all three Libertarian Party candidates asserted that the most important issue facing Colorado and the nation was the legalization of marijuana. Sometimes there just isn’t a cluebat big enough.

What I Did On My (Last) Summer Vacation

After about eleven months of problems with my DSL connection at home, I’ve finally finished uploading the HD video I shot while in Iceland at this time last year. The playlist is here, but this is probably the most relevant video for MarsBlog in the sense that aside from the prominence of water, it best captures the Martian-like feel of the place:

Random Zombie Thought

I think the reason you don’t see zombie birds is that, while the zombie virus might be able to reanimate the dead in ways that blissfully mock the laws of thermodynamics, it’s too much to then expect the avian undead to also violate aerodynamic principles by flying about in an equivalent slow and halting manner as they search for brains to peck out.

It’s one thing to suspend disbelief regarding corpses rising from the grave and shuffling about in quest of cannibalistic munchies, but dead birds with the ability to sluggishly levitate would be something of a stretch. Especially if they were missing part or all of a wing or their tail due to decomposition.

On the other hand, it would be farcically amusing to see.

Hands-On Engineering

It seems the more little engineering projects I do to support my photography habit, the more I find I want to do.

Last year, it was the double-header, and the time-lapse rig for the Iceland roadtrip. But after looking at some of this guy’s work and the toys he created to do it, I got hooked on the idea of a motion-control dolly. I figured, I’m a mechanical engineer, right? How hard can it be?

Well, following his example seems to be a lot more difficult in the U.S. than in Germany. Finding the exact motors he used and an equivalent Igus slide were trivially easy, but finding gears and a gear rack to match have been frustratingly difficult — so much so that I’m giving in and ordering them from the same company he used, and hoping that the shipping and whatever import duties this entails balance out against the higher prices and half-assed selection offered by McMaster-Carr and other similar retail gear suppliers here.

The Igus slide arrived yesterday, and I was disappointed to discover that my mental impression of a meter corresponds more closely with four feet than three. But other than that, it’s a slick and simple piece of engineering:

The most fun part of all of this, however, came from digging into the motion control aspects. Ben’s setup used a simple voltage regulator to control the speed, but I quickly discovered there are better ways — specifically, using Arduino microcontroller components. It would appear that if you have anything that moves or needs to be monitored (or both), there are Arduino boards which can be adapted for the purpose — right up to navigating autopilots for DIY drones. And it’s all dirt-cheap.

I think this is going to be a fun little project, with lots of learning transferable to related follow-on projects (why stop at one axis of motion?).

How I Celebrated Earth Day

Praze Gaia! I’m finally rid of my televisions completely, thanks to LM’s annual electronics recycling event. (Which, they pointedly remind employees, is not to be used for company-owned equipment.)

I’ve only had television service for about a year and a half of the past twelve years, and all three were SD models which could no longer receive broadcast signals, were the signals even capable of reaching my house. Good riddance – I now have a corner of my living room and a sizable chunk of closet space back.

So, I can say with all honesty that Earth Day isn’t a completely dumb idea. This year it actually accomplished something positive.

2011 Denver Tax Day Tea Party Live Webcast

It’s that time of year again, and PPC is doing another live webcast of the Tea Party rally from the steps of the Colorado capitol building in downtown Denver.

Coverage is scheduled to go live at 10am MT, with the event running from 11am to roughly 1:30pm.

Collision Avoidance

Glenn Reynolds posts a bit about 2005 YU55, a 1300ft asteroid scheduled to pass within the orbital radius of the Moon this coming November. Observes Reynolds in response to a reader comment about “doing something”:

Yes, “Spacewatch” is about noticing this kind of thing. Doing something about it is someone else’s problem, alas. Maybe once the Falcon Heavy is flying . . .

Hmm… Falcon Heavy…with a LEO payload of 120,000lbs, and a core diameter of 3.66m and a fairing diameter of 5.2m.

I can think of a potentially useful payload in the 60,000lb range with a diameter of a mere 2.1m…

Driving Lessons

This is the same video the rental agency in Iceland made us watch before they would hand over the keys.

If driver’s education here were as graphic as the segment on seatbelts at 4:38, I’m guessing we’d have a lot fewer traffic deaths.

Falcon Heavy Announced

It’s pretty amazing what you can do (and how rapidly you can do it) when you’re not bogged down by ever-shifting customer desirements, stifling “best practices”, departmental fiefdoms, and rocket scientist Senators:

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