2
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Aaron says Signal Conditioning Electronics.
Posted by: RickC at Fri Nov 14 18:59:03 2014 (0a7VZ)
3
Grrr. Messed up the link. Signal Conditioning Electronics is apparently what it stands for. (Brickmuppet, please remove the other comment if you don't like bare links.)
Posted by: RickC at Fri Nov 14 18:59:57 2014 (0a7VZ)
3
Had eighteen, if I remember correctly, school science experiments on board for the ISS. Family friend was the teacher for one of the chosen experiments. Whole class of 8th graders watched this live.
Not the Challenger by any means, but it was still a kick in the gut.
Posted by: Ben at Wed Oct 29 09:13:48 2014 (S4UJw)
How far have we come as a nation since that triumph 45 years ago?
Well, for one thing, here is big chunk from the sidebar of the YouTube page linked above.
A dark age does not come about because a society simply can't do something they did before. That can happen because of a setback, changing conditions or hard times. Rather, a dark age is when the members of a society no longer believe that the society's great accomplishments could have possibly been achieved by mortals.
1
I'm too young to remember the sixties, but I'm told by reliable sources that there was no shortage of idiots; they just didn't have internet access.
As a wise man once said, the stupid you will always have with you.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Sun Jul 20 15:37:45 2014 (2yngH)
2
Have you heard that Dark Ages were much better than Roman Empire for a common European? The caloric intake went up, for one. The lovers of the powerful state shed the tears for the fall of Rome, naturally, and they weaved all sorts of myth about the awful Dark Ages, but I'm not sure which one was actually darker. Rome was an awful society.
Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at Sun Jul 20 17:21:03 2014 (RqRa5)
3
That sidebar is a wonderful source of names to write down in This Book
Posted by: Mauser at Sun Jul 20 22:40:55 2014 (TJ7ih)
A few individual apes seem to have originally developed a rudimentary technique of rather poor efficiency, but the group gradually improved it through experimentation and observation over the last few months. They are now able to create and maintain a fire, which they have been using mostly to scare off predators and cook some of their food. Some individuals in particular among the group, seem to have rapidly grown a taste for cooked foodstuffs, especially flying squirrels.
That's really COOL!
On the other hand....yeah.....we're doomed.
UPDATE: Doomed I say.
Even Updatier:
In the comments Edward M makes some claims that seem to revolve around the indefensible theory that nicking a story from Ace'ssidebar before rushing off to work with none of the regular second source checking is somehow not a blogging best practice.
As"evidence" for this unsupported and scientifically dubious notion, he calls into question the veracity of other news stories on the site linked above.
Given the obvious presence of the word NEWS in the url this means that Edward M is arguing against authority...worse, given that out of a focus group of two blogs, the story has been treated credulously by 100% of the sample, HE'S ARGUING AGAINST CONSENSUS which as we all know is a form of denialism (not to be confused with Denaliism,...the worship of Mount McKinley...which this blog does not have an official position on)
1
"Get your hands off me you damned d... hey, is that fried squirrel?"
Posted by: Mauser at Tue Jul 1 05:36:59 2014 (TJ7ih)
2
This will open a whole new chapter in the ongoing Fire Good/Fire Bad debates.
Posted by: Peter the Not-so-Great at Tue Jul 1 09:55:07 2014 (2eP1J)
3
IIRC they were actually bonobos, not chimps. Which means hippie love-ins around the resulting fires instead of the cannibalistic cookouts that chimps would probably use fire for, if they had it.
Posted by: Mitch H. at Tue Jul 1 09:55:19 2014 (jwKxK)
4
Hate to say this, but I've looked at some of the other stories on that site, and it may not be a totally reliable source of news.
Posted by: EdwardM at Tue Jul 1 22:55:42 2014 (SlugR)
Two of the Brickmuppet's Crack Team of Science Babes report that Huntsville Alabama is home to the first F-1 test and quals since 1969 and the first F-1 ever since 1973!
Wait....
"Science Babes Moonlighting as Race Queens" is not the actual title of this piece by Tan-Tan.
If Formula One hasn't existed since 1973 what's this guy going on about?
"What?..."
"Oh!..."
The Science Babes are at their other job in Les Mans, which caused my confusion as they're actually talking about...
The huge engines that powered the first stage of the Saturn 5 rocket which put 12 men on the moon and Skylab into orbit hasn't been built in 44 years. Contrary to popular belief the plans for these beast DO still exist, but they are in obsolete computer formats and of limited use.
You see, the Apollo program was so rushed that a lot of the little 'tweaks' that were found necessary to keep the rocket from failing. This was not fully appreciated until the '80s when NASA and USAF engineers noted that there were holes drilled and pieces added to some of the F-1s in museums...holes and fiddly bits that weren't on the plans. The engines were exploding during tests and the production crew did some trial and error modifications until the "splodies" stopped. Additional tweaks were added at the plant to facilitate production, so the F-1 plans are actually plans for an inefficient kerosene/LOX bomb.
Well, engineers in Huntsville have taken apart and are restoring some of these engines, which were discovered to be in remarkably good shape. This time making a note of Every.Single.Part. And. Hole. The plan is to do a computer model of the engine that is accurate, but they need to ensure that they are building it from a working engine...so.....
That's just a test of the engines gas generator from last year...
This project is the brainchild of Marshall Spaceflight center engineers who felt that they ought to DO something with the dozen or so F-1s lying around the research center. They've been calling in other rocketry companies to observe and consult. In addition they've been bringing in the few surviving Apollo engineers to work on this interesting side project...which has resulted in a tentative design and proposal for the F-1B
This is not as silly as it sounds. One of the things about the F-1 that was discovered back in the 60's was that, due to its very conservative design it was actually pretty re-useable and it was felt it could be made completely so with a few tweaks. F-1s were considered for several early space shuttle designs propelling reusable flyback boosters.
The mighty F-1 may yet again spew pillars of fire for the chariots of explorers.
1
One of the best scenes in Stratos 4 was when they did a full-power full duration test of the engine from the Stratos, mounted on a test stand, with a huge crowd watching.
2
Of course letting Aerojet to develop AJ-500 would be much too efficient and market oriented, and do nothing to make something to do for the Marshall Center in service of the government unnecessary launcher, which only exists because it's mandated by U.S. Senate.
Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at Tue Feb 25 11:10:31 2014 (RqRa5)
3
Keeping ones design staff occupied with actually designing and reverse engineering things is pretty important. Refurbishing engines that were laying about and tweaking them seems to be a decent idea....especially since they are bringing in private contractors to observe and learn. The rocketdyne poatents have probably expired by now so this could serve to provide the industry with a "public domain" heavy lift engine. I'm not convinced such a big rocket is needed, but some people like Zubrin are convinced it is a necessity for a manned Mars program. I'd rather not have them re-invent the wheel.
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Tue Feb 25 13:22:01 2014 (DnAJl)
4
Zubrin has already re-calculated Mars Direct with FH. Note that super-heavy rockets are in fact necessary for crazy programs like Elon Musk's Mars colonization. Unfortunately, SLS does absolutely nothing for that. It's 100 times too expensive than required.
I'm all for keeping engineers current, especially since people at Marshall haven't done anything flying in decades -- enough for a generational turnover to wipe any expertise. Even Mike Griffin admitted that Ares I was basically a rocket with training wheels for them before designing Ares V (now SLS). The problem, however, is how all they build in the end is useless. If we just fire all of them and keep a skeletal staff just to steward the irreplaceable infrastructure such as test stands, the loss of expertise and capability is going to be minimal, as far as America is concerned. But the people bumped off government payroll might just find a productive employment however. Even being a WalMart greeter is more productive than designing SLS (in this case its boosters).
I relish in the thought that Marshall could kick ATK in the gonads if they ever make this F-1B work, but if it were possible to end the whole boondoggle, I would.
Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at Tue Feb 25 13:51:52 2014 (RqRa5)
The Youtube heading oversells it a bit. But it's still pretty neat.
UPDATE: In the comments Steven points out that the video is from 2000. Aetna (or Etna as seems to be the prefered spelling now) pulled this off last week too, leading to my confusion...I guess Etna is just habitually awesome.
Progress...
In 1803 the population of the entire planet was a hair over a billion people. World economies were agrarian. Slavery of one form or another was practiced in all but a handful of nations. Transportation was powered by muscle or wind, though there were a few clumsy steam engines doing the sorts of work waterwheels had done for ages in more congenial locations.
One hundred years later, there were telephones, telegraphs, steamships that could cross the Atlantic with thousands of people in 5 days. Trains crisscrossed continents and industry had blossomed. Brazilians, Frenchmen and Germans had been flying experimental airships for a decade or more and on a cold December day at Kitty Hawk North Carolina, a machine that was heavier than air took flight.
Less than 66 years after that (and 44 years ago today) humans set foot on another wold.
And in the 44 years since then?....well....the youtube page that is on is littered with videos claiming that it never really happened. As the 12 who walked on the moon pass beyond the veil the possibility increases that we will once again live in an age where no living person has walked upon the moon. The solar system, a vast storehouse of resources lies untouched save for a few probes, some debris and 6 flags planted there by a people who once could accomplish things.
Perhaps our children will redeem us...we have no right to expect they'll forgive us.
The crew of Soyuz 11 docked with the very first space station (Salyut 1) and stayed in orbit for 23 days, setting a space endurance record before they were forced to cut short their mission due to an electrical fire on the station.
During the re-entry of the Soyuz 11 capsule , there was a loss of radio contact, but the spacecraft landed quite normally in Kazakhstan.
Tragically, when the recovery team arrived however, they found that a pressure release valve had opened during reentry and exposed the crew to the vacuum of space. They were not wearing pressure suits. Despite the best efforts of the recovery team to revive them, Georgiy Timofeyevich Dobrovolsky, Viktor Ivanovich Patsayevand Vladislav Nikolayevich Volkov had died on re-entry.
As terrible as this was, it bears remembering that if the boundaries of the future are allowed to be
set by the, the timid, or far worse, those
who
would presume to forbid others from striving for great things...then our future will be a
dark age. The human race is fortunate to have people such as these who will step into the breach and attempt great deeds.
1
This is a valid point that applies to all nations.
In America, the crew safety turned into a joke, as ASAP posts obviously cooked numbers and calculates the loss-of-crew estimates for SLS, which does not yet exist, against rockets that already fly.
Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at Sun Jun 30 11:00:25 2013 (RqRa5)
Boeing's CST has completed wind tunnel testing. It's expected to launch it's first manned flight in 2016.
Interestingly, although big, it's light enough to be launched on an off the shelf Atlas 5.
Now there are those who are getting their backs all bowed up and asking questions like "Why do we need ANOTHER one of these?" "Isn't this just a colossal waste that duplicates effort?"
We'll let one of our crack team of science babes politely respond to that.
...
...
'Kaay...
Well, lets try that again with added civility.
With the Dragon (which has successfully flown unmanned), The Dreamchaser and NASA's own CEV, this gives 4 competing manned space systems...which greatly increses the chances that at least one will work, and if multiple versions are successful it provides a good deal of redundancy in the event there is a problem with one system. Given that three of the projects are private enterprises, it means that there is potential for considerable downward pressure on prices via competition.
Additionally, both the CEV and the Boeing design are designed for use as afar afield as Earths moons and slightly beyond (Luna, Cruithne and some Near Earth Objects). The DreamChaser and Dragon designs are strictly near earth orbit taxis though they have the potential to be exceedingly economical to operate. So we're on the cusp of complementary and redundant capabilities in manned spaceflight.
One of the Brickmuppet's Crack Team of Science Babes brings news of
reusable launch vehicles from Texas. Space-X has, for some time been
testing their launcher recovery system. We mentioned it in passing here.
This particular test is interesting because not only does it have accompaniment by Johhny Cash, it also took place on a very windy day, indicating that this really may be doable. Future launches will take place at White Sands Missile Range and aim for incrementally greater altitudes and speeds. Subsequent test rigs will be retracting their legs and it is planned late this year or early next to have the thing go hypersonic before returning!
Great things are not easy.
They require great people to take risks.
While we mourn there loss we are fortunate to have had such people as this...
May we continue to be so blessed...
In happier days, Leslie Fish eloquently captured the hope so many of us had when the great ship first took to
the sky.
'Foundation of our future, courier of dreams..'
We should let that be the
epitaph of the ship and her brave crew; an inspiration to do still
greater things, for if the boundaries of the future are allowed to be
set by the risk
adverse, the timid, those unwilling to take risks...or far worse, those
who
would presume to forbid others from doing so...then our future will be a
dark age.
1
Brick, you really should read Wayne Hale's accounts of Columbia's last launch and entry. You might make it through his posts without tears forming; I couldn't. It's here.
Posted by: JT at Fri Feb 1 08:48:48 2013 (iStSI)
2
Meant to add that the first post of the series is dated August 14. It's heavy, heavy reading. Ad Astra, Columbia....
Posted by: JT at Fri Feb 1 08:51:26 2013 (iStSI)
3
I have a collection of Space Filks, titled "Minus 10 and counting", a reference to the number of astronauts lost at the time it came out.
But Franklin by way of Bill Whittle, if we trade too much for Safety, we will not have the liberty of space. Like all great human endeavors, we must pay for it in fallen heroes.
Posted by: Mauser at Fri Feb 1 09:08:12 2013 (cZPoz)
Sharon "Christa" McAuliffe, Payload
Specialist, Gregory Jarvis, Mission Specialist, Judy Resnik, Commander
Dick Scobee. Mission Specialist, Ronald McNair, Pilot, Michael Smith and
Mission Specialist, Ellison Onizuka smile for one of the last photos taken of them as they head to board United States Orbital Vehicle 099...better known as Challenger.
One of the problems was that the capsule had pure oxygen in it. And a lot of things that won't hardly even burn in normal air will burn explosively in a pure oxygen atmosphere.
2
Indeed.
That was the crux of why it was a scandal and not just a tragic learning curve. Pure O2 has some advantages for spacecraft but North American didn't bother to test their "fireproof" materials in pure O2.
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Sun Jan 27 17:33:47 2013 (vp6an)
3
Also, the hatch opened inwards, and between the pressure test and the overpressure caused by the fire, there was no way to open it.
After that, all hatches opened outwards, and had explosive bolts too.
Posted by: Mauser at Sun Jan 27 23:34:49 2013 (cZPoz)
One of the Brickmuppet's crack team of science babes has just rolled in with some space related news, both historical and current. She looks quite...um...we're just going to go with 'pleased'.
First comes some follow up on a previous post here, namely that the Horizons newsletter of AIAA Houston has completed the second and third installments of their fully restored (and annotated), high res reprints of the iconic Colliers series on space travel from the 1950's. The series, Man Will Conquer Space Soon was an extremely important work in that it brought to the public the realization that space travel was possible in the near term. The two most recent installments focus on lunar exploration and while they diverge greatly in both architecture and scale from the Apollo program, the expedition envisioned in the articles are still largely sound from an engineering standpoint (though the procedure for setting up the shelter is not entirely practical). Von Braun and Ley worked out their endeavor in minute detail and provided sufficient weight margins for incorporating additional equipment should they be deemed necessary by subsequent discoveries. The Horizons team has provided high resolution versions which is especially important given that the articles were illustrated by Fred Freeman and Chelsey Bonnestell.
To wit...
OMG I'm having a retrogasm!
There's a lot more in both issues ranging from a helicopter-space-capsule to a newly discovered, highly accessible Near Earth Asteroid.
One of the advisers on this project is Scott Lowther , who publishes Aerospace Projects Review, one of the best journals available dedicated to obscure, or poorly understood chapters in Aerospace engineering history. He also has a wide selection of interesting articles and documents for sale...go check it out.
The impressive architecture envisioned by the engineers who consulted for the Colliers symposium required the use of multi-stage reuseable rockets....
...which brings us to the current efforts by Space-X. That company, which has made great strides in low cost access to space, is now working on a reusable version of its Falcon launch vehicle. Rather than try for SSTO or recover stages in the ocean they plan on having the individual stages land vertically under power. This promises impressive cost savings with a more conservative design than most reusable rocket proposals if it can be made to work.
1She looks quite...um...we're just going to go with 'pleased'.
She looks like she just had some lemon.
Posted by: Wonderduck at Tue Dec 25 18:24:54 2012 (cymHZ)
2
Spaceships landing on their tails, and God and Heinlein intended.
(Alas, not original to me)
Posted by: Mauser at Wed Dec 26 22:38:27 2012 (cZPoz)
3
I never noticed before but in that station, there's a naked guy on the second level, and someone laying down apparently with a migraine on the next level down.
Posted by: RickC at Sun Apr 28 18:29:04 2013 (WQ6Vb)
4
Even in Space there will be showers and headaches.
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Sun Apr 28 22:11:12 2013 (F7DdT)
Amateur astronomers are puzzling over a seemingly anomalous cloud that has shown up on images of Mars taken over the past few days. Is it
really a cloud, or a trick of the eye? Does it really extend 150 miles
up from the surface, as some of the observers suggest? And what churned
up all that stuff, anyway?
The chances of anything living on Mars are a million to one he said.
This is also the 30th anniversary of the first flight of Columbia. With that ship now lost and the whole shuttle program being disbanded this year one might think this is a bittersweet anniversary. Rand Simberg explains why that is not so.
Brian Wang has a lengthy post on the potential of Drexler style solar sails. He also makes some important points about light pollution.... reallyimpressive light pollution.
One of the Brickmuppet's crack team of science babes has just rolled in with some space related news, both historical and current. She looks quite...um...we're just going to go with 'pleased'.
