Exoscientist

Yes, "The Island" was a remake of "The Clonus Horror". Another problem is who gets cloned? Cloning Albert Einstein might be great, but how many? What if someone scratched some skin cells from Michael Jordan in order to clone him? And suppose someone wanted to clone Hitler or Stalin? Bob Clark

Chinese Firm Chief Executive Says Human Cloning Already Possible. Xu thinks Boyalife could totally clone humans if everyone got suddenly cool about cloning humans. Danielle Wiener-Bronner Fusion 12/07/2015 07:51 am ET http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/china-human-cloning_5664ac88e4b08e945fefdf9f Everyone has a visceral negative reaction but what are the pros and cons? One "pro" scenario is being able to clone replacement body parts without rejection. Oddly, a "con" scenario can be envisioned on that very same basis: The Clonus Horror (Robert S. Fiveson, 1979). http://www.veoh.com/watch/v93109918qyAN757Y Bob Clark

Thank you very much, Mr. Musk. See: The Coming SSTO's: Falcon 9 v1.1 first stage as SSTO, Page 2. http://exoscientist.blogspot.com/2013/11/the-coming-sstos-falcon-9-v11-first.html Bob Clark

[quote name='wumpus']The ability to produce prototypes, update, and produce another is astonishing. The ability to produce molds for "real production" is probably the biggest draw. There is also the idea of printing connectors for off the shelf carbon fiber (or composite, fiberglass, or even PVC) tubes. Here is a similar link for "printing" the custom parts for a titanium bicycle (read: thousands of dollars) with a few grams of custom parts: [URL]http://www.bicycles.net.au/2014/08/future-3d-print-own-titanium-bicycle/[/URL] Note that it might even work better to 3d print the connectors onto the tubes instead of connecting three or more connectors and welding them in place. Obviously once you get about half your tubes together, you can't fit more than one tube into each connector once it is in place. Don't expect much of a revolution from just this. You have been able to buy a custom welded aluminum frame such as above, complete with some sort of body for less than the price of a car (assembly of the whole thing extra$$$): google "kit cars" for examples. It [I]might [/I]be possible to build a strong frame this way, then print some sort of skeleton that fitted to the frame to support the "body" (as seen by outside people) presumably directly connecting some sort of cut flatish off the shelf composite panel for the body. 3D printing would be most important for the iterated design needed to find a way to get the whole thing to work together, then presumably for the molds that hold the off the shelf parts together. A more interesting idea is a "rapid prototyped/manufactured" airplane. You can buy cars and bikes relatively cheap. Airplanes are another story. There are additional advantages to competent mechanics without the proper (A&R?) licensing: apparently the "manufacturer" can perform maintenance on the aircraft with significantly less paperwork/licenses*. This changes the costs considerably. * I am not a lawyer and this is not legal advice.[/QUOTE] 3D-printing of metals is already done in professional installations, which suggest they should be able to 3D-print an electric engine. Doing it for a amateur home installation would be harder, but might be doable. Bob Clark

[quote name='Shania_L']3D printing may well replace casting for 'heavy-ish' industry purposes, but the major problem you have is the ability to produce a surface with a smooth enough finish to be gas/liquid tight against an adjacent component, ie cylinder block / cylinder head. You will still require a machining process to skim the surfaces to accurate tolerances. 3D printing however is perfect for 'bolt-on' components like brackets and other components with open tolerances that have enough leeway to mate on rough surfaces.[/QUOTE] Agreed. That's why I think it will be easier to 3D-print an electric engine. Bob Clark

[quote name='PB666']You could 3d print fred flintstones car, lol.[/QUOTE] Already done, essentially, by these 3D-printed cars without an engine. Bob Clark

3-D-printed car could hit streets next year. Chris Woodyard, USA TODAY 4:48 p.m. EST November 12, 2015 [url]http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/cars/2015/11/10/3d-printed-car-local-motors-swim/75530830/[/url] Several companies have come out with what they call "3D-printed" cars, but none have 3d-printed the most important part, the engine. This would be difficult to do with an internal combustion engine, with its high temperatures, multiple moving parts, and high tolerances. But it shouldn't be too difficult with an electric engine. In fact considering there are now miniature 3D-printers on the market for the home, an amateur could be the first to produce an entire, scale-size, 3d-printed car. And then it could be scaled up to produce a full-size working fully 3d-printed automobile. This would revolutionize the industry. Bob Clark

Pluto has blue hazes and surface water ice. Laurel Kornfeld October 9th, 2015 http://www.spaceflightinsider.com/missions/solar-system/pluto-has-blue-hazes-and-surface-water-ice/ The ice on the surface is interesting IF there is internal heat, then possibly you could have subsurface liquid water. The blue haze in the atmosphere is interesting because it suggests complex organics in the atmosphere. The complex organics in the atmosphere quite likely could be communicated to the subsurface. Then you could have subsurface complex organics and liquid water, IF Pluto has internal heating. Ice volcanoes spotted on Pluto, suggest internal heat source. By Eric Hand 9 November 2015 3:30 pm http://news.sciencemag.org/space/2015/11/ice-volcanoes-spotted-pluto-suggest-internal-heat-source We gotta do a lander mission there! Bob Clark

You would think they would. But nowhere have I seen this mentioned in regards to a possible rescue of Columbia. Bob Clark

I don't agree. In at least one of the shuttle manual captures, it had to be done by hand specifically because the robot arm could not capture the satellite, due to its large rotation. The manual capture was able to handle a larger rotation than the robot arm. Doing the manual capture though without a robot arm would require the shuttle to maneuver closer to the satellite than by using the robot arm. The astronauts might be able to put together a rod to reach out and snag a satellite that had hooks placed around it to make capture easier and at a longer distance for safety. BTW, this Columbia mission carried Spacehab. It had close to the pressurized volume as the shuttle, at about 62 cubic meters. I wonder if the CAIB considered the extra air that was contained in Spacehab. Bob Clark

There were at least two instances where the shuttle maneuvered over to a satellite in space and spacesuited astronauts manually gabbed the satellite and pulled it into the payload bay: http://articles.latimes.com/1992-05-14/news/mn-3026_1_cargo-bay http://www.nytimes.com/1997/11/25/us/astronauts-make-a-good-grab-and-bring-satellite-back-in.html Bob Clark

Actually saving the astronauts would be higher priority. Bob Clark - - - Updated - - - The Arstechnica article only gives the time constraint for the CO2 cartridges. It doesn't say how long the O2 or food or water would last. It rather implies though by conserving those they could be made to last until the Atlantis launch. Catching the supply canister from the unmanned cargo ship would be an issue. Having the robot arm would have definitely made that easier. But you don't need much to do the launch of the cargo canister. It could just be a pressurized canister. The shuttle would use its reaction jets to maneuver to it. As I said it could be just a few kilos. A tethered astronaut would have to reach it, and catch it. Not a pleasant task, but not impossible. Bob Clark

According to the Arstechnica article linked earlier in the thread, the most critical need was for the air scrubbers to remove the CO2. That's what put the survival limit at 30 days. As you remember from the scene in "Apollo 13" where CO2 scrubbers for the command module had to be jury-rigged from those on the lunar module, the air scubbers actually only weigh a few kilos. The food and water could have extended much longer assuming they knew right away that had to conserve consumables. BTW, since this is in regards to "The Martian", for you chemistry heads out there, are there some foods, liquids, or common materials that might be on the shuttles that could have filtered out the CO2 in air other than the lithium canisters? For instance perhaps the solubility of CO2 in water is different than in O2 and there could have been a way to separate out the CO2 from the air that way. Bob Clark - - - Updated - - - Why edit? Was that not that an actual launch? Bob Clark

That is not correct. There were at least 4 launches to orbit during the proposed 30 day timeframe before Columbia would have run out of air scrubbers: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2003_in_spaceflight The Pegasus listed there is especially relevant since being airlaunched and using all solid stages should have shorter prep time. In fact the Pegasus could be launched within 7 days of notice, assuming the payload was available. The Minotaur 1 also has this capability: Launch on Need, Part 2: Seven-Day Satellites for the Department of Defense. "So what sort of launch on need missions have been defined? The Department of Defense Operationally Responsive Space (ORS) office has set a goal of being able to launch a satellite within seven days. Assuming ORS has stockpiled a couple of satellites for a bad day, Orbital Sciences (News - Alert) Corporation has several launch platforms it has demonstrated can do the job, including the Minotaur family and the air-launched Pegasus. "Using a combination of surplus Minuteman missile and new-build solid rocket motors, Orbital's four stage Minotaur I has put 33 small satellites into orbit. The rocket can put up to 580 kilograms into low Earth orbit (LEO) and the TacSat-2 launch demonstrated the ability to go from payload load to launch in less than six days, plus the ability to keep the vehicle in a launch-ready mode for an extending period of time -- you have to have the rocket on hand rather than waiting six months to build and ship from the factory." http://satellite.tmcnet.com/topics/satellite/articles/201224-launch-need-part-2-seven-day-satellites-the.htm Bob Clark

The point is a rescue mission was ruled out because Atlantis couldn't be readied in time. But with resupply missions launched to Columbia, the stay time of Columbia in orbit could have been extended to allow Atlantis time to be launched. Bob Clark

Anyone know if we got extreme hurricanes in the last big el Nino year of 1997? Bob Clark

Two instances were discussed in the film where unmanned cargo ships were mentioned to send up supplies to extend the time Whatney or the crew of the Hermes could survive. This brought back painful memories. It's such an obvious answer. In the space shuttle Columbia disaster NASA rejected a possible rescue because Atlantis could not be readied in time within the 16 days the Columbia's supplies would run out. So since "nothing could be done anyway" there was no need to do accurate imaging to even find out if the wing damage was survivable. Note in the movie they had to use China to do the resupply mission to the Hermes. If NASA had ordered the Columbia imaging, finding the damage unsurvivable, all the space-faring nations in the world, which are at least five, would have been working hard to send up a cargo mission to meet up with Columbia within the 16 day time frame. But they never were even given a chance to try. Bob Clark

Thanks for the link, and the graphic. I noticed the supercritical turbine also converted a decent amount of the thermal to electrical, important for minimizing radiator size. Bob Clark

The title arises from the doubt raised by some such as Robert Zubrin that the required power systems would ever be available at the needed lightweight to make the 39 day to Mars transit time using VASIMR plasma propulsion viable: The VASIMR Hoax by Robert Zubrin  July 13, 2011. http://spacenews.com/vasimr-hoax/ The VASIMR would need 1,000 watts per kilo for its power source. But, argues Zubrin, this is a hundred times better in power-to-weight ratio than has been achieved so far for space nuclear power. He therefore argues this is a far off technology development. However, I argue the thermal power per weight put out by space nuclear reactors already is well above this. So what is really needed is more efficient and lightweight conversion of the thermal to electric power. I'm suggesting such lightweight conversion also currently exists. Then we already have the technical means to build such a plasma powered Mars spacecraft for the proposed short travel time. It is not some far off technology. Bob Clark

Nasa set to make an 'amazing' announcement about Pluto, senior scientist says Senior planetary scientist Dr Alan Stern said that Nasa wouldn't allow him to say anything before the official announcement Doug Bolton Wednesday 7 October 2015 18:25 http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/nasa-amazing-announcement-pluto-alan-stern-a6684981.html My guess is active geology such as cryovolcanism like Triton. Bob Clark

The "turbine efficiency" I mentioned about the SSME turbopumps is indeed the isentropic efficiency. However, by exhausting the turbopumps to near vacuum you can get the ideal Carnot efficiency above 90%. Therefore an isentropic efficiency of 80% still gives an overall efficiency above 70%. Also, the question of the short lifetime of the space nuclear reactors when run at full power has a couple of solutions. One way is to replace the nuclear fuel canisters when they burn out. Another is to just run the reactors at low power, which is known to extend their lifetime. After running the numbers for plasma propulsion at short flight times to Mars, I came to the conclusion you can make the total missions size smaller than with the usual slow travel times. The reason for this unexpected conclusion is the short travel time allows a much smaller habitat for the transit, and therefore smaller propellant load: Nuclear powered VASIMR and plasma propulsion doable now, Page 2. http://exoscientist.blogspot.com/2015/10/nuclear-powered-vasimr-and-plasma.html Bob Clark

Very cool. At about 4 minute mark they show a time lapse image of the planets in motion around the Sun. This is taken from a nearby hill. It might only be better if they could take the image from a drone helicopter. You could even fly in from Neptune towards Earth simulating what it would be like for a future interstellar traveler to return home back to Earth. Bob Clark

Sorry. Didn't search back far enough to find this. I'll tell the moderator to delete this thread. Bob Clark

7-Mile To-Scale Model of the Solar System in the Nevada Desert. Very cool. At about 4 minute mark they show a time lapse image of the planets in motion around the Sun. This is taken from a nearby hill. It might only be better if they could take the image from a drone helicopter. You could even fly in from Neptune towards Earth simulating what it would be like for a future interstellar traveler to return home back to Earth. Bob Clark

In fairness to Alan Howard and Stern, what they are probably referring to is more than just the nitrogen condensing and sublimating as Pluto varies in its orbit. They are referring to things like melting and flowing glaciers and even perhaps flowing "rivers" of nitrogen. Bob Clark