A sample text widget
Etiam pulvinar consectetur dolor sed malesuada. Ut convallis
euismod dolor nec pretium. Nunc ut tristique massa.
Nam sodales mi vitae dolor ullamcorper et vulputate enim accumsan.
Morbi orci magna, tincidunt vitae molestie nec, molestie at mi. Nulla nulla lorem,
suscipit in posuere in, interdum non magna.
|
“Foam killed NASA athletes”
Well, there go NASA’s gold medal chances.
Seriously, though, this bit seems odd:
Gaps, or voids, were often left, and tests done since the Columbia accident have shown liquid hydrogen could seep into those voids.
“Liquid hydrogen”? If liquid hydrogen was seeping into a void beneath the bipod ramp, I’d think the foam void itself would be the lesser concern. I suspect that should have been “liquified air”.
One wonders how things might have turned out differently had this worked as intended from the beginning. Or, even having been blinded by the SRB separation motors as it was, it continued to be used on subsequent flights…it certainly would have shown the leading-edge damage blamed for the Columbia accident.
I know a few readers will disagree, but I’ve come to the conclusion that Pro/Engineer (along with its various unholy spawn) is just about the worst piece of major commercial software available, at least in the engineering software market. Every time I use it, I discover breathtaking new depths of its shoddy programming and user interface design.
As an (admittedly long-winded) example, today I needed to add a simple label to a diagram. The label consisted of a numerical identifier, with an arrow pointing at a certain item. I had expected that, like the other items around it, there was hidden somewhere an automatically-generated and associative note for the item, and that I only needed to fish it out and tweak the aesthetics. Nope. For whatever reason, this not-especially-unique item did not have an auto-generated identifier like the dozens of similar items around it.
Continue reading There Are Worse Things Than Microsoft Products
PhysOrg: Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter – a Quantum Leap in Spacecraft and Instrument Capabilities at Mars
The spacecraft’s six science instruments are in the final stages of assembly, testing and calibration at several locations for delivery in coming weeks. The payload also includes a relay telecommunications package called Electra and two technology demonstrations to support planning of future Mars missions. “Electra was integrated with the spacecraft and tested in July,” Graf said. “The next payload elements to be integrated will be the Mars climate sounder and the compact reconnaissance imaging spectrometer for Mars.” The climate sounder, from JPL, will quantify the martian atmosphere’s vertical variations in water vapor, dust and temperature; the imaging spectrometer, from Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory of Laurel, Md., will scan the surface to look for water-related minerals at unprecedented scales, extending discoveries made by NASA’s Mars Exploration Rovers.
The largest telescopic camera ever sent into orbit around another planet, called the high resolution imaging science experiment, will reveal Mars surface features as small as a kitchen table. Ball Aerospace, Boulder, Colo., is building it for the University of Arizona, Tucson. The orbiter will also carry three other cameras. Two come from Malin Space Sciences, San Diego: the context camera for wide-swath, high-resolution pictures, and the Mars multi-color imager with its fish-eye lens for tracking changes in weather and variations in atmospheric ozone. An optical navigation camera from JPL will use positions of Mars’ two moons to demonstrate precision navigation for future missions.
The Italian Space Agency is providing the orbiter’s shallow radar sounding instrument, designed to probe below the surface to discover evidence of underground layers of ice, rock and, perhaps, melted water.
Another technology demonstration from JPL will allow comparison of a higher-frequency, more-efficient radio band with the band commonly used for interplanetary communications. This may allow future missions to return more data with the same expended power.
Just think what they’ll be able to do with a nuclear-powered orbiter.
The Mars Society of Australia is testing a new analog suit design — a simulated mechanical counterpressure suit.
Andrew Case at Transterrestrial Musings links to a rather thin article in the CSM on space law and property rights, and observes:
It’s important for the long term future that we work out a method of assigning ownership and jurisdiction for extraterrestrial bodies that is widely accepted as fair. The alternative is to plant the seeds of future conflicts like the range wars which marred Americas westward expansion.
He expresses valid concerns that either the “common heritage of mankind” worldview will continue, or (at the other extreme) a dystopian corporate oligopoly will emerge, neither of which will maximize the potential of space settlment and development.
So, what sorts of broad provisions could be established to better ensure something more palatable and useful?
Continue reading Thinking About Space Property Rights
The Captain cautions against placing too much faith in “grand engineering projects”:
Care for another engineering aphorism? Don’t start vast projects based on half-vast ideas.
I happen to think the “Freedom Ship” project is a scam, but such projects can be evaluated without reference to the motivation of those who propose them. It often doesn’t matter all that much whether they are crooks or deluded fools, or just unwise.
I can’t say I’ve heard of either the “Palm Project” or the “Hydropolis Project”, and I don’t really have the inclination to delve into them deeply. Based on a quick look at the home page, the Palm Project seems large and very ambitious but there’s nothing inherently silly or misguided about it. That kind of thing is not unprecedented, though. (Consider, for instance, the Kansai airport.)
The Hydropolis project is a lot more speculative, but I don’t see any fundamental problems with the concept. I’m not at all certain that it’s wise, however. Such an underwater hotel, open to the public, would be particularly vulnerable to terrorist attacks. It would not take much initial damage caused by gunfire or small bombs to initiate a cascading failure which would destroy the entire place and kill everyone in it.
As to the idea of “great men”, a lot of things can be done if the backers are willing to lose vast amounts of money, or if they aren’t even thinking in terms of “making/losing money”.
I don’t write about “grand engineering projects in general” because they can’t be discussed in general. Some grand engineering projects are boondoggles which will never be finished; some are technically feasible but make no commercial sense. Some are completely reasonable commercially. Some could be reasonable but fail anyway because those in charge make stupid decisions.
Not to mention that some lose focus on their goals by the time they do get built, and end up as white elephants.
You may experience some discomfort while MarsBlog is moved to its own domain — www.marsblog.net — and the MT configuration undergoes certain modifications.
Perceived Mars favortism rankles space entrepreneurs
It is apparent that there are forces within NASA solely fixated on Mars. And there’s a huge fear in the Mars community, Mendell said, that once on the Moon…game over, with humankind never progressing to Mars and beyond.
“Let’s at least get over it and try to get off the planet,” Mendell said. “The Moon has a place in making sure we know how to do the management processes, the technical processes, the design processes, the operational processes…in order to conduct a Mars mission.”
For the agency’s back to the Moon kickoff project ? the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter ? NASA gave that job to one of its own, the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
There are companies ready and willing to offer up a commercially-supplied alternative to a government funded, government operated, government owned lunar orbiter, Gump suggested. “So the first step has not been terribly auspicious in terms of involvement of the private sector,” he added.
The LRO project is a disappointment — I noted back in February that it would have the perfect opening for the sort of opportunities whose lack Gump is now lamenting.
Gump said that NASA has learned little over the years in dealing with the private sector and alternative space companies during the space shuttle and space station programs. He likened NASA to Agent Orange ? the herbicide employed by the U.S. military during the Viet Nam War to destroy plants by interfering with their normal metabolism.
“Any seed of commercial activity that lands on it…immediately dies,” Gump pointed out.
Ouch.
The Mars Challenge: Making Space Chow
Scientists here presented prototypes of some of the first attempts at food preparation equipment for long-duration space missions.
R. Paul Singh, food engineering professor at University of California at Davis, showed the prototype for a fruit and vegetable processing system for advanced life support. It?s designed to process tomatoes?slicing, dicing, crushing, and juicing them for soup, sauce, and paste.
Ladies and gentlemen — the Space Blender!
Sudhir K. Sastry, a professor of food engineering at Ohio State University, presented another prototype gadget for reheating and sterilization. The intriguing device is a food package equipped with electrodes that heat the packaged food. After an astronaut eats the food prepared in this container, the same package is used to sterilize bodily waste and store it until it can be jettisoned.
Kids: don’t try this with the TupperWare.
In time, Pershonok expects NASA will send astronauts to an isolation facility in a place such as Antarctica and test the psychological impact of different food systems?basically, comparing and contrasting a dull diet against one that includes comfort food like fresh bread and pasta.
Hmm…I think I know where they could find a set of guinea pigs lab rats test subjects.
Of course, if it’s comfort food they want, why not just make a quick trip to Wal-Mars?
|
|