Science News Thread (for articles that don't relate to ongoing discussions)

[magnemoe]

11 minutes ago, JoeSchmuckatelli said:

Likely - vaguely remember reading that our seas used to be way more iron rich and some algae or plankton got ahold of it and died enmass (repeat over millennia) leaving behind iron-rich bands in present day exposed former sea beds. 

 

The way this planet works is endlessly fascinating! 

Banded iron formation https://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/permanent/planet-earth/how-has-the-earth-evolved/banded-iron-formation#:~:text=Photosynthetic organisms were making oxygen,floor%2C creating banded iron formations.

Alt hypothesis: https://phys.org/news/2009-10-banded-reveal-early-earth-conditions.html

https://www.amnh.org/var/ezflow_site/storage/images/media/amnh/images/exhibitions/permanent-exhibitions/rose-center-for-earth-and-space/hall-of-planet-earth2/banded-iron-formation_smalldynamiclead/171362-1-eng-US/banded-iron-formation_smalldynamiclead_wideexact_1230.jpg

Huh... The image did not imbed. 

It took much billions of  years from photosynthesis to we got an atmosphere you could breath as it was a lot to oxidize first, and then bacteria used up all the methane and dropped the co2 level the earth froze over hurting  photosynthesis until co2 build up again and repeat. 
Sun was not as strong a billion years ago. Iron is still here but as iron oxide. Now where did all the carbon go? Yes you had the coal fields but it was because new plants who could not be broken down 350 million years ago. 
Before that then bacteria was oxidizing stuff, but it was also billions of years. 
Pretty current even here meteorites brought none oxidized iron, Tutankhamen was buried with an iron dagger long before any could create iron out of ore as it was meteoric iron who is so cool, but it was not an +10 dagger, it was not great iron as I understand. 

 

[AckSed]

Anecdotally, wind turbines should face the wind. Scientifically we don't know why you should - until now: https://www.nrel.gov/news/program/2024/flipping-the-script-on-traditional-wind-turbine-technologies.html

[darthgently]

3 hours ago, AckSed said:

Anecdotally, wind turbines should face the wind. Scientifically we don't know why you should - until now: https://www.nrel.gov/news/program/2024/flipping-the-script-on-traditional-wind-turbine-technologies.html

Translation:  DOE grant money!

[kerbiloid]

  

7 hours ago, JoeSchmuckatelli said:

Likely - vaguely remember reading that our seas used to be way more iron rich and some algae or plankton got ahold of it and died enmass (repeat over millennia) leaving behind iron-rich bands in present day exposed former sea beds. 

Had read this, too, from the definitely other books.

7 hours ago, magnemoe said:

It took much billions of  years from photosynthesis to we got an atmosphere you could breath as it was a lot to oxidize first

Another theory tells that the free oxygen is a result of intensive geological processes, which were splitting the carbonates and so, and the bacteria were just adapting to what they currently have around, from no oxygen to much oxygen.

[JoeSchmuckatelli]

Check your staging! 

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/consumer-reports-chemical-rocket-fuel-perchlorate/

Aka - we are all eating rocket fuel 

[darthgently]

1 hour ago, JoeSchmuckatelli said:

Check your staging! 

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/consumer-reports-chemical-rocket-fuel-perchlorate/

Aka - we are all eating rocket fuel 

This will select for individuals better suited to colonize Mars?  It being so widespread one has to wonder if at least some of it isn't naturally occurring but only now being noticed at these levels due to more extensive sampling and more sensitive tests.  Like radon.  Still not good news

[kerbiloid]

8 hours ago, JoeSchmuckatelli said:

we are all eating rocket fuel 

Some were drinking the rocket fuel since 1940s.

And breathing its other part.

[farmerben]

https://www.space.com/nuclear-fission-neutron-stars-heavy-elements-gold

Theorized a long time ago, now there is some evidence for it.  Heavy elements are created when neutron stars collide and release plumes of degenerate matter, which fissions down to the elements we know.  

[kerbiloid]

Which in turn means that any sapient supercivilisation will focus on the neutron stars and their analogs, because they are klondike.

So, instead of SETI stuff the humans smust carefully study the neutron stars and other sources of dense energy and matter 2-in-1.

If somebody is out there, they are over there.

[magnemoe]

On 8/8/2024 at 8:21 AM, kerbiloid said:

Some were drinking the rocket fuel since 1940s.

And breathing its other part.

Think only the V2 used ethanol of the major operational rockets. Ethanol has the benefit is that you can add water to it, this reduces the burn temperature and adds trust as water turn into steam. Yes people working on project stole a lot, both to drink but also to sell. 

The Soviets pressure tested an rocket using vodka rater than water as it was winter. I assume it was losses here to, also the infamous booze bomber, Soviet tactical bomber using ethanol for cooling, main benefit is low toxicity and system leaked a bit and was open cycle. 
Now this was a bit lucrative for crew and ground support if the crew managed to handle high temperatures during flights. The booze was just an tiny faction of operational cost and was an morale boost. 

[DDE]

2 hours ago, magnemoe said:

Think only the V2 used ethanol of the major operational rockets.

Sutton got "drunk" on his first day on the job while exploring a freshly-fired Redstone's combustion chamber without a breathing mask.

2 hours ago, magnemoe said:

The Soviets pressure tested an rocket using vodka rater than water as it was winter.

John Clarke regales a tale of how NARTS got contracted to investigate USP drinking alcohol as a fuel. "We had some very happy sailors on that project"

[kerbiloid]

8 hours ago, magnemoe said:

Ethanol has the benefit is that you can add water to it

Yes, the bottle rocketry was very popular in early 1990s among the students and not students. Just add water as much as needed.

Spoiler

The main rocket fuel, Royal spirit.

 

6 hours ago, DDE said:

Sutton got "drunk" on his first day on the job while exploring a freshly-fired Redstone's combustion chamber without a breathing mask.

Of course, he was a naive innocent extraterrestrial being, and wasn't aware of the alcohol... toxicity..., and didn't put the mask on.
On the other hand, shouldn't he celebrate his first day?

 

8 hours ago, magnemoe said:

The Soviets pressure tested an rocket using vodka rater than water as it was winter.

The near-WWII torpedo boats first were fueled with ethanol, then to help the crew stay safe from it, they started using https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denatured_alcohol

Spoiler

 

[kerbiloid]

There can be a liquid undermars ocean.

At ~20 km depth, between the gravel, enough to cover Mars with 1..2 km of water.

https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2409983121

[DDE]

15 hours ago, kerbiloid said:

The near-WWII torpedo boats first were fueled with ethanol, then to help the crew stay safe from it, they started using https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denatured_alcohol

According to Sutton via von Braun, V-2 crews had more casualties from the spiked booze than from enemy action.

[kerbiloid]

8 hours ago, DDE said:

According to Sutton via von Braun, V-2 crews had more casualties from the spiked booze than from enemy action.

The more I know about the German rockets, the more I'm sure that they were an act of sabotage from the Allies.

[DDE]

10 hours ago, kerbiloid said:

The more I know about the German rockets, the more I'm sure that they were an act of sabotage from the Allies.

We're going to build missiles and we're going to make the Germans pay for them!

Considering how the British for decades used the French Navy as a research and testing department, it sounds plausible enough.

[darthgently]

Hope it works out:

Intuitive Machines seeks to take over NASA’s VIPER lunar rover

Jeff Foust

https://spacenews.com/intuitive-machines-seeks-to-take-over-nasas-viper-lunar-rover/

[AckSed]

United Kingdom launches its first wholly-owned optical spy satellite: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c1d77yq9zz2o

[magnemoe]

On 8/14/2024 at 3:44 PM, DDE said:

We're going to build missiles and we're going to make the Germans pay for them!

Considering how the British for decades used the French Navy as a research and testing department, it sounds plausible enough.

LOL at the French navy at the age of sail. 

German strategic rockets was way worse. First how could the second bombing of London work then the first did not back then Germany was on an winning streak? At an time then they was losing fronts all the time it would be pointless. 
Strategic bombing was pretty ineffective as it was at lest until the end of the war where you get the huge bomber fleets who could drop kiloton of bombs during an attack.
Some V1 missiles makes some sense as the allies would spend resources trying to shoot them down. 
V2 was an waste of resources, I assume they was desperate trying to find something who worked and designing rockets or weird planes is better than the east front so none working on these things would say anything. 

[kerbiloid]

13 hours ago, magnemoe said:

German strategic rockets was way worse <...>At an time then they was losing fronts all the time it would be pointless. 

<conspiracy on>

Unless somebody well-known for them from the global shadows had made them a suggestion which could not be refused, and sent an overseer to control, and then was feeding their hopes till the very end, chasing his own objectives.

Spoiler

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Kammler

https://ru-m-wikipedia-org.translate.goog/wiki/Каммлер,_Ганс?_x_tr_sl=ru&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=ru&_x_tr_pto=wapp

Was there at least something significant in the Reich 3.0 not overseen by this daemonic person, poorly known now and having died in four different and same fake-looking ways, after several fake-looking youths, and being blindly believed in by the highest authorities?

The Reichsuberoverseer?

<conspiracy off>

Edited August 17 by kerbiloid

[Nuke]

On 8/13/2024 at 7:33 PM, kerbiloid said:

The more I know about the German rockets, the more I'm sure that they were an act of sabotage from the Allies.

they said the same thing about the tokamak during the cold war. that the soviets knew would be a bottomless money pit, which it is.

Edited August 17 by Nuke

[kerbiloid]

1 hour ago, Nuke said:

they said the same thing about the tokamak during the cold war. that the soviets knew would be a bottomless money pit, which it is.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meson_bomb

[kerbiloid]

Quote

Chinese scientists planning rotating launch system on the moon

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3274828/chinese-scientists-planning-rotating-launch-system-moon

Spoiler

 

[darthgently]

This is going to make for some great live streams eventually

https://spacenews.com/axiom-space-and-nokia-partner-to-develop-high-speed-wireless-communications-for-spacesuits/

 

[magnemoe]

On 8/17/2024 at 7:15 PM, kerbiloid said:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meson_bomb

Something like spinlaunch makes much more sense on the moon because lower gravity and no air. Main issue is how the counterweight handles on release, suddenly the thing who rotate very fast is unbalanced. 
Some ways to fix it is to simple release it too, has it hit an pile of gravel, dig out and attach again. More advanced has counterweight fall some cm then landing on rails or an plate around the center so you can slow it down.