Nuke

"i am become death, destroyer of worlds."

incremental steps. '20 years away' comes from the scientifically illiterate among the common media outlet. scientist says the experiment will take 20 years, the media interprets that as "fusion in 20 years". a lot of the reason that the expirement takes so long is that funding and building a tokamak takes forever, and you need several. it doesnt help if those steps take longer for want of a heavy lift aircraft. iter is gargantuan, i hate to think of how big the coils on demo will be. even when we have energy positive fusion power plants, it will probibly take another 50 years to get the thing down to something you can mass produce not to mention to develop aneutronic reactors. dont hold your breath.

planes like the dreamlifter prioritize volume over weight. it can only carry 125 tons, close to the capacity of the c5 galaxy. the an124 can do 150. the beluga xl has the largest volume but can only carry 55 tons. i was watching a video about iter and they had a clip of the an225 delivering some large coils and other components. i hope the loss of this plane doesn't impact the fusion timeline much.

neither one was exceptionally powerfull, and neither design was improved upon. i dont think something like an rbmk would work in space. anything that turns water into steam will be problematic in zero g. so you would have to build it on a centrifuge. i think liquid metal loops have always been preferred in space, as there is no phase change to contend with. the real limit is the heat rejection systems, which need to be massive if you want something megawatt scale. also if you intend to use the nuclear reactor for propulsion, the mass of the system is critical. you might be better off with nuclear-thermal engine rather than a dedicated reactor, then you can reject heat in the exhaust. if you want nuclear electric, say using plasma thrusters, then you got to haul radiator. the added weight may cancel out the isp advantage. i think the best power reactor for space will be a direct-conversion aneutronic fusion reactor. you would still need radiators, but only from the thermal portion of the power output. depending on the fuel used that could be as low as 5% of the total output, so a lot less radiator. however an open cycle fusion engine would give you a lot more isp than a plasma thruster.

subs technically have control surfaces. though i think you would make crush depth before you found any useful buoyancy.

thats what im making tonight. im obligated to produce one meatloaf a month. however it usually comes out pretty good. every now and again i wrap it in bacon.

im sure there are a lot of salvagable components there. some of the engines look intact. almost the whole left wing looks salvagable as well as the landing gear. if you did finish the second fuselage having access to those salvage parts would lower the costs.

the space mouse leaves a lot to be desired, honestly. i got an analog keyboard for christmas. i still havent gotten around to configuring it for kerbal.

somone probibly couldnt decide between rocket pods and gatling guns, and then had the brilliant idea. why not have both?

even as far as rotory cannon pdcs goes, that technology is kind of already a dinosaur. brrrrt is good and all, but ammunition is heavy, you need a lot of it, and its still only good for close in point defense. your ship might get better acceleration if you jettison your pdc ammo. that doesnt work in the expanse because the humans are ultimately what limit the acceleration, not the mass of the ship and its ammo stores. so if torch ships in your setting are not quite capable of breaking 1g, then dumping ammo and hauling tail might be a useful evasion tactic. there are other weapons on the drawing board. like the metalstorm gun that can hit a million rounds a minute, in theory. obviously such a weapon would only fire a burst and would probibly take a long time to reload. traditional gatling based ciws do have the advantage of being able to fire continuously, the feed systems are the real selling point. however this weapon is not limited to firing in bursts and it can dial in its rate of fire to the operator's requirements. by the time of the expanse such weaponry should be ubiquitous. rounds are stacked in the barrel and each can be fired multiple times, but i cant imagine it being as easy as a gatling to reload and would be more subject to jamming. still in a space setting ditching the heavy ammunition will help your acceleration and high velocity plasma pdcs i think would be a good option. the "ammo" comes out of the same tank that fuels your torch drive, and you already have some kind of fusion power plant. rail guns kind of also give you a better damage to ammo mass ratio, as much of the energy comes from the reactor. you only need big dumb slugs and no propellant or casings and each one does more damage than many times its weight in conventional ammo. plasma ciws for defence with railguns for attack might be the better way to do things. save the slug throwers for ground pounders. i think missiles are still the go to for long range combat. i think they would be more like icbms and less like the cute little torpedoes they use in the expanse, possibly with its own ciws to make it hard to intercept with other missiles.

there may be real life precidence for this. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MARAUDER not only is the velocity very high (3000 km/s), it also stores a lot of energy in the form of a strong magnetic field. so not only is it very destructive (about 5 pounds of tnt) but also has a strong emp effect on its target. plasma wouldn't experience atmospheric drag like a normal projectile, at least not in the same way and may be capable of hitting targets in space from the ground. supposedly the test was so successful that the research was classified. its kind of a fusion research spinoff. so i figure any setting using fusion technology would also have plasma weapons. while having a fusion power plant on board will make railguns and coilguns possible, as featured in the expanse. i think they wanted weapons that are currently in development that any scifi or military nerd would recognize. gives the expanse a more grounded feel i think, and plasma weapons would have seemed a bit handwavy, despite possibly being in existence. i also have a theory that some of the scientists involved in this projects are battletech nerds. as ppcs are typically a staple of a maurader's loadout.

i dont think id spend anything less than 400, so dont ask me. been wanting to replace the aging ch gear, but then again i really dont play flight sims much any more. i usually just use the space mouse for kerbal.

its like they took all the good stuff out. i want my spices irradiated! one of the perks of being in an alaskan fishing town, is you can go to the docks during the fishing season and buy it right off the boat. or get it yourself if you can get out to the fishing hole. and you can get everything, shrimp, crab, salmon, halibut, etc.

i cant imagine it would be too difficult to build a cargo pod for the stratolaunch. but its going to eat into its payload capacity. however it does make it so you can swap pods for different tradeoffs between bulk and mass. though im not sure if the stratolaunch was designed to land with its payload. i suppose you could either reinforce the landing gear, or drop the cargo. i suppose deployable parafoils can be used to soft land the cargo if its packaged well enough, and that may be a good option for relief supplies for natural disasters and whatnot. also the an225 was really just a mod to the an124. you could take any one of the still operating heavy lift aircaft and add bigger wings with more engines. the a380 isnt great at cargo (a plane that large and it can only manage 84 tons), but apparently they aren't great for passengers either. airlines want to get rid of them. they will go the way of the 747 and spend much of their lives hauling cargo. gut em and do wing/engine upgrade. its not like the world doesn't have a need for at least a couple heavy lift platforms.

and now for something really technical. some months ago our cable company stopped cabling, and so we were forced to go with streaming services. i have an old i5 machine doing media center duty. the problem is, we are getting sick and tired of getting up to turn on the pc when we want to watch tv. try as i might i cant get the thing to wake up via wireless keyboard. rummaging through my components ive discovered i have everything i need to make an ir toggled switch. i found a 3.3v arduino pro micro. its a atmega32u4 board, which means i can use it as a usb keyboard/mouse (il connect this to an internal usb header). then i rummaged around for an ir sensor and found one that works. this thing will have a list of bindings on its eeprom to bind remote codes to keys, etc. if it detects the right ir code it will forward the appropriate command to the pc. however the main function will be to turn on the pc from an off state. enter the purple wire. the purple wire is the 5v standby supply on the psu. this delivers 5v all the time, even when the computer is off. the arduino on the other hand will be wide awake and looking for remote codes. if it finds one it will turn on the pc by bridging the power on pins on the mobo front panel header. first issue (more of a sanity check really) that i can see is that the board will be connected to both 5v standby by the raw pin and 5v via usb. ground is also sourced from the usb (i think its good practice to source ground in only one place so as not to cause ground loops). i found a schematic of the pro micro and i think this is actually fine. there is a diode between the 5v on usb and the raw in pin (both go to the 3.3v regulator). i figure because the voltages will both be 5v, the diode wont switch on. also the 5vsb cannot feed back into the usb header. i cant think of a situation where the reverse would happen, unless something was really out of spec. is this correct or am i insane? the second is how to go about switching on the pc. i dont have a schematic for my mobo, so im kind of flying blind on this one. my instinct is that the pw+ is active low (pulled up to the standby voltage internally) and that the pw- is really just ground, shorting them starts the pc. if this is the case then i just need to connect a single pin header between the pw+ and an io pin on the arduino and i should be able to start it up by connecting the io pin to ground for a few ms, and then z-state it. alternatively i could bridge the pins with a mosfet and forget about the logic levels of the pins. the latter seems like the safest bet (says the guy always blowing up transistors), but the former would be simpler. if its active high, then im going to have to use a mosfet anyway as i cant switch 5v with 3.3v. e: i think i was overthinking this. i did a not too exotic dry run with an arduino leonardo. just plugged into the usb port acting as a mouse/keyboard. the tv remote had a number of unused buttons, more after i went through the tv settings and disabled some stuff. ended up with 16 available remote buttons which dont do anything more than put an unobtrusive "not available" box in the corner of the screen . i scanned the remote codes and put them in a switch statement. initial plan was to store bindings on the eeprom, but this solution is simpler. after binding every keyboard command for hulu to every button (with a couple to spare, hulu's player sucks) i realized that what i had made was a convoluted mess. so i ended up just using the mouse library. i got four cursor keys and an enter for scroll and click, ch+/- (which arent used because im on hdmi) controll scrolling. and a closed caption toggle serves as a probibly not needed mouse 2. i wish i could use the numbers for 8-way control, but they keep changing the channels. moving at a rate of 1 pixel 11.1 times a second is slow. a 90 ms delay was the lowest i could use where the codes were still readable (remote codes are in the 10s of kilohertz and are as far as i can tell 32 bits long). i may have to raise that because the pro micro only runs 8mhz as opposed to 16. so i wrote some acceleration code. i need to tweak the numbers but i like it. dedicating 8 of the available buttons to the mouse seems overkill, but it worked out better than the available keyboard commands. im gonna keep a few though, the ff/rw commands for example (left and right arrows on the keeb) and pause (space) are in. mom cant get through an episode of jeopardy without going back at least four times, and she has to pause during final (the cheater). these commands are pretty standard on media players, vlc and youtube at least, idk about disney+, but probibly. a dedicated gtfo command is essential on any ui. the escape key fits the bill and is mapped to eject, which seemed fitting. also i found a way to make the chrome app launch full screen, which eliminates some clicks and makes they guide easier to read. but i needed a way out of it, so alt+f4 is in, bound simply to exit. i still got a play button, a stop button, 2 skip buttons, and an info. probibly do the skips as the up and down arrows, play an enter, and stop as the win key, so i can shut the computer down when im done. info will probibly be the power button for the pc. purple wire shenanigans are not needed. apparently my usb ports stay powered when the machine is off. while the bios setting for wake on keeb is enabled, i figure the arduino is too exotic (to much root complex) for that to work. but at least it solves the first issue entirely. some reserch into the second issue seems to validate my suspicions. connecting the pin to ground for a tiny fraction of a second wouldnt hurt it much and it cant do anything in the z-state. this should be a one wire solution. il connect the power button to some io pins and just pass through the start command to the ground strobe. i might also add some indicator lights to the front of the pc, and perhaps an ir-out if i find a better remote. i can bypass the tv entirely, and scan out codes to the tv for power mute and volume, which are the only ones the tv actually needs and bypass the "not available" popup, future upgrade stuff. building my own remote is also an option. e again: i was definitely overthinking it. the 3.3v to 5v conversion was rendered moot when i discovered a solder jumper on the board to make it run 5v right off the usb port. thus eliminated the power problems i was forseeing. also overthought starting the computer. simply setting the pin from input to output and back again was enough to ground the pin and then return it to a high impedance state when i no longer needed it, only needing to run a single wire. internal usb connection required cutting the big end off of a microusb cable, and crimping some dupont connectors to the end. props to the usb standards people for being extremely consistent with wire colors. i also added a pair of wires with some male dupont headers to connect it to the fp power button. the actual build turned out to be very tight, sitting entirely inside the rather shallow front panel. i only had to drill out a hole for the ir sensor. i used a larger drill bit to form a dimple around the ir receiver dome to give it a wider field of view. i was going to epoxy it in place, but electrical tape worked out fine. routed the wires through the cutout where the slim drive would go if i was so inclined to install one (im not). code changes were minimal. i tried to do a watchdog timer, but it wasnt restarting correctly. if the arduino goes wonky il have to restart it by unplugging the computer. a hard reset button would be a nice to have but this case doesnt have one. now for the hard part, teaching mom to use 4 arrows and an enter button. so far its not going so well.

finally got it. its bigger than i thought it would be. it looks good. i played some mwo at full settings and got 90 fps. i think i can do better, as the game is terribly optimized and the default full settings turns on things im better off without (for competitive reasons). but i only had enough time for a couple games. i think its improved my aim a little, i was poptarting erppcs like a boss. i need to install doom eternal now, its probibly the only game i have that stands a chance of pushing it. the sound feels a little bit cheap for what i paid for this thing though. the bass is weak and the midranges are downed out by the higher pitch sounds. i was hoping to get the ginormous full range speakers off my desk, but they stay for now. its funny, i found the speakers on the side of the road and connected them to a $10 chinese no-name amp, and it still sounds better than most modern audio devices. the FI32U supposidly has better sound, but i doubt even that would be as good as my full ranges.

this is why we cant have nice things.

i got to get up and pre cook my pork ribs. i like to rub them down with seasoned salt and smoked paprika. then i seal them in aluminum foil and cook em slow and low for about 4 hours. then i make a batch of my rib sauce (its a spicy tangy bbq sauce) and reduce it down until its thick as mud. then i slather it on there and put the ribs under the broiler (its still too cold to use the grill). then i serve with beans and a baked tater. thems good eats. id say i make the best ribs on the island.

i was mostly speaking of the tactical rather than the political. just so were clear. its an important chess piece to take off the board. both sides probibly want the decommissioning to go on as planned. but then again, things happen in war.

russia seems to have made securing the reactor facilities a priority. i cant imagine that any country interested in taking over another would do any differently. if we had to invade north korea, i think their nuclear facilities would also be priority targets. i think they are off the board unless the ukrainians plan on taking it back. why anyone would want a broken down old reactor complex is beyond me. whoever owns it has to foot the bills. i worry that russia might attempt to demolish it if they cant hold it. i dont know what the feasibility of turning a busted old powerplant into a nuke factory is, but its something i dont think anyone wants to find out.

i figure most people are going to be planet bound peasantry. people may spend decades to save up for that ticket off world, only to realize they have grown fond of the place and don't want to leave. the ability to leave planet might be the new bar for the middle class. you are getting off world for bigger opportunities in space. and living on planets might come with some limits to your personal wealth. for example the planetary government wants to keep their planet's ecosystem stable, and there for imposes limits on how locals can spend their money, no fancy cars or private jets. most of the real estate is owned by somone, much like it is in most cities, except planet scale. so you have a lot of supply limits on what you can buy. scarcity does not apply to land. there is always a finite amount available. so the upper crusts of society might pay the space tax and move off world and buy that asteroid they always wanted. planets which are not so good at supporting ecosystems are going to be much more industrialized and there wouldn't be much room for people not working in the factories or mines and little reason for anyone else to live there other than the usual support jobs that tend to follow such industry. leaving would probibly be the first thing on the agenda of anyone born there (humans do what humans do). though they might have the option to buy a ship right off the assembly line once they have earned enough company script from years of factory work. something not as available to those living on more bucolic worlds, who might consider living on a desolate rock an upgrade. despite the grittiness of life on an airless industrial rock, their income would be a lot more significant than on farm world, and their access to space would be more available and a lot cheaper. getting your own ship opens you up to a broader economy. you can now run goods, passengers, etc. on your first voyage you might be taking a load of ex factory workers looking to take a cushy administrative job in one of the orbital stations. cash in your script at the warehouse and take a load of stuff to farm world. this trip would pay for itself a couple times over. pick up a load of grain, meat, and other farmables, while the locals gawk at you for being a rich snob. run it back to your former industrial jobsite. do that a few times and you might be able to expand your trade routes. do that for a couple decades and you might be able to build your own station or at least get a plot on a big ring station. there might also be a whole subset of people who get to the top by swinging stocks and other financial vehicles all without turning a single screw or picking a single ear of corn. they are the ones who buys a ship and then hires a crew, mostly to sit around in space dock until its owner wants to go on a pleasure cruise. in all cases your wealth really is represented by your upward mobility, taken literally. every planet will get to a point where it just cannot support any more population and people will start taking a hit to their quality of life as the available resources get split up more and more. so being planet bound will be a strong hallmark for poverty. each planet may have its fare share of rejects who never advance much further than the most menial of jobs, and everyone will still have a homeless problem. living outdoors may be an option on farmworld. but on industrial worlds they might be rounded up for "airlock maintenance" as there is no room for those unwilling to pull their own weight. corporate may be unwilling to pay for their air or even opt to ship them off world and sell them to slavers in some backwater. but for most, life is what it is now.

on of my neighbors is having a fight with one of their other neighbors. unfortunately getting them evicted them will require starting ww3.

amazon finally handed it off to ups. its coming from michigan so it probibly got held up in the freedom convoy.

i bought a game in the 90s, forget which, and it had a coupon for a free copy of either that game, or carmageddon. i chose the latter. i do not regret the decision.

my own use of profanity has diminished significantly from grade school. when i do use it i try to avoid going for the usual four letter words and express my vulgarity with a much more refined vocabulary. if i am disappointed at hearing children swear. its usually for their lack of imagination.