new lightweight rad shielding, loks v useful...

noctis · 2002-11-17 09:30:05

check this out:
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99993050
should help silence some of the hardcore naysayers

Adrian · 2002-11-17 10:16:09

This could potentially be highly useful for any deep space travel mission, and of course for astronauts conducting long term EVAs on Mars. I'm quite eager to see how this tech shapes up.

Phobos · 2002-11-17 14:58:12

This material would be great for inflatable habs. You could have a strong material like Kevlar or CNT materials on the outside and line the interior with "demcron." Instead of slowly building up a Mars base by launching a million tuna cans we could just launch a million inflatable palaces via a space elevator all at once (and yes it will be built damn it! ) and use a cycler for getting people to Mars and back. The possibilities are endless! Great info, I was wondering what the stuff was made of and I never would have guessed that pvc had anything to do with it.

TJohn · 2002-11-19 09:58:33

Now, how long will it take for this material to get fully tested?

Too bad that we don't have an agency that sole purpose is to test new materials, ideas, propulsion systems only.

Phobos · 2002-11-19 22:32:28

Good question. I have no idea how long it'll take. I guess we'll have a pretty good indication after people's hair starts falling out from sitting next to an unshielded reactor for extended periods of times. Personally I think NASA should be the agency whose primary goal is to test out and develop highly experimental technologies and not mire itself down in idiotic projects that take the lions share of its resources and don't get us anywhere technically or scientifically. Oh well, I guess only in a perfect world.

AltToWar · 2002-11-20 01:20:27

One of the arguments vs a mars mission is the unhealthy dose of radiation passengers will get on the way to mars. We dont want to use humans as guinipigs to on a mars mission to test the limits of human space radiation exposure.

The argument continues that instead we should use humans as guinipigs in the ISS to test the limits of human radiation exposure.

In the current state of NASA polotics, you gotta give the ISS some luvin or your project is no good.

noctis · 2002-11-20 04:07:29

ahh, am v. sleepy, plant pathology all night... the joys
but yup, anyway, why don't they just put some demron up on/in the iss, it's light, won't use much mass bringing it there, and could probably put it on the inside of the walls, so no evas needed, seems almost trivial, although knowing nasa politics it might be seen as leading somewhere and get vetoed...

Shaun Barrett · 2002-11-21 07:19:34

Noctis writes:-

... although knowing nasa politics it might be seen as leading somewhere and get vetoed...

Ha Ha !!

Amazing how NASA manages to bring out the cynic in all of us sometimes, isn't it?!

At least Demron's made by an American-based company, so there shouldn't be any politico/economic hurdles to slow its acceptance for experimentation on the ISS.
There I go, being cynical myself now! It's just that it seems like unless a U.S. congressman can see monetary returns for something (read votes ! ) in his own electorate, he won't support it. Even less so if it's foreign technology. Am I right? Or am I just too gullible in believing some of the stories we hear on CNN?
???

P.S. Whatever happened to supporting something because it's
the right thing to do, rather than because it advances
your career or fattens your wallet?

P.P.S. Mind you, with the morality of some of Australia's
politicians, I have no right to point the finger at the
U.S.A. ! ( "First remove the beam from thine own eye,
then shalt thou see clearly to remove the mote from thy
brother's eye." )

Palomar · 2002-11-21 11:08:35

P.S. Whatever happened to supporting something because it's
the right thing to do, rather than because it advances
your career or fattens your wallet?

*Well, unfortunately, most U.S. politicans are nothing more than corporate whores and puppets. On a related note, I think the work ethic in the U.S.A. is also going downhill at an alarming rate since the 1980s. Heck, lots of restaurant help in my area act as though it's "beneath" them to work waiting and busing tables in restaurants; well, if they're "too good" for this sort of work and the minimum wage that comes with it, why don't they WORK for a college degree or for a better employment opportunity? I'm speaking here of able-bodied, healthy adults -- not college-aged people. That's just one example of the general decline.

The U.S.A. likes to fancy itself this super-productive, cutting edge, hard-working society. Well, it USED to be. It seems to me that, nowadays, lots of people are more concerned with making an easy buck, goofing off, and keeping their heads firmly impacted up their butts. Just as freedom is not "free," you can't expect to have a good and healthy economy with goof-offs and people who waste time playing games on the job and doing only the barest minimum to get the paycheck. This nation wasn't founded and made strong by slipshod goofs and lazy a-holes who feel everything is somehow mysteriously OWED to them.

I love my nation, and part of that loving means, for me, being honest in admitting serious faults, pointing them out in hopes of correcting them.

--Cindy

noctis · 2002-11-21 14:48:49

it's pretty similar in england actually, although here there's all this irritating publicity on potitically unachievable stuff in the papers, like lunar hotels etc., and always, for some bizarre reason, 'within 10 years' (long enough so your unlikely to be ridiculed when it doesn't happen, but not so long that people aren't interested in the story)

Phobos · 2002-11-22 15:30:31

The U.S.A. likes to fancy itself this super-productive, cutting edge, hard-working society. Well, it USED to be. It seems to me that, nowadays, lots of people are more concerned with making an easy buck, goofing off, and keeping their heads firmly impacted up their butts. Just as freedom is not "free," you can't expect to have a good and healthy economy with goof-offs and people who waste time playing games on the job and doing only the barest minimum to get the paycheck. This nation wasn't founded and made strong by slipshod goofs and lazy a-holes who feel everything is somehow mysteriously OWED to them.

Amen! We've become a "ask what your country can do for you" rather than a "ask what you can do for your country" type of nation. Of course I'd like to point fingers but I'd just get everyone pissed off at me for being so right wing.

Palomar · 2002-11-22 15:58:45

The U.S.A. likes to fancy itself this super-productive, cutting edge, hard-working society. Well, it USED to be. It seems to me that, nowadays, lots of people are more concerned with making an easy buck, goofing off, and keeping their heads firmly impacted up their butts. Just as freedom is not "free," you can't expect to have a good and healthy economy with goof-offs and people who waste time playing games on the job and doing only the barest minimum to get the paycheck. This nation wasn't founded and made strong by slipshod goofs and lazy a-holes who feel everything is somehow mysteriously OWED to them.
Amen! We've become a "ask what your country can do for you" rather than a "ask what you can do for your country" type of nation. Of course I'd like to point fingers but I'd just get everyone pissed off at me for being so right wing.

*Labels be damned. It's sometimes amusing to watch the Yahoo! news message boards: Everyone accuses everyone else of being a "LIBERAL!!" It's such a convenient label to slap onto someone else's opinion, thereby hoping to discredit it. I've seen all ranges of opinions on dozens of topics being accused of belonging to the "liberal" persuasion. Yep, their game is to pigeon-hole the opponent by applying a quickie label meant to degrade, and thereby provide themselves with a lame excuse -not- to have to actually pause and consider the other person's opinion! It's so stupid.

I have opinions which probably fall into the "conservative" category and others which probably fall into the "liberal" category...but then, I really don't give a damn about categories either.

--Cindy

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#1 2002-11-17 09:30:05

Re: new lightweight rad shielding, loks v useful...

#2 2002-11-17 10:16:09

Re: new lightweight rad shielding, loks v useful...

#3 2002-11-17 14:58:12

Re: new lightweight rad shielding, loks v useful...

#4 2002-11-19 09:58:33

Re: new lightweight rad shielding, loks v useful...

#5 2002-11-19 22:32:28

Re: new lightweight rad shielding, loks v useful...

#6 2002-11-20 01:20:27

Re: new lightweight rad shielding, loks v useful...

#7 2002-11-20 04:07:29

Re: new lightweight rad shielding, loks v useful...

#8 2002-11-21 07:19:34

Re: new lightweight rad shielding, loks v useful...

#9 2002-11-21 11:08:35

Re: new lightweight rad shielding, loks v useful...

#10 2002-11-21 14:48:49

Re: new lightweight rad shielding, loks v useful...

#11 2002-11-22 15:30:31

Re: new lightweight rad shielding, loks v useful...

#12 2002-11-22 15:58:45

Re: new lightweight rad shielding, loks v useful...

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