Technology Updates

Calliban · 2020-09-25 03:24:49

'NASA Found Another Way Into Nuclear Fusion'

Interesting. I remember the original cold fusion work back in the early 90s. This involved saturating palladium with hydrogen gas if I recall. Most of the scientific community seemed to scoff at the idea. But I have always wondered if perhaps some sort of quantum tunnelling effect was being observed. No neutron radiation was detected. This suggests that what was going on could not have been fusion between hydrogen nuclei. The fact that no ionising radiation was detected, also indicates that any nuclear reactions that were taking place must have been low energy nuclear reactions. Were this not the case, researchers would have detected gamma rays.

The article talks about accelerating hydrogen nuclei using a neutron source. Outside of a nuclear reactor, this would be quite difficult and energetically unfavourable. However, there is the potential that at very high pressures, the distance between hydrogen nuclei could be reduced sufficiently for muon catalysed fusion to occur more efficiently. Whilst this cannot achieve breakeven on its own, it would heat the hydrogen very rapidly to fusion temperatures. Due to the high density of the compressed hydrogen, substantial fusion would occur before the metal lattice broke down and contaminated the hydrogen reactants. By its nature, this would be a pulsed fusion concept.

The way I would foresee this working would be to exploit the pinch effect. We would take a material with high-temperature superconducting properties, cool into <100K and saturate it with deuterium. A pulse of extremely high current would be applied to the superconductor, crushing it due to the pinch effect. This would lead to pressures of several megabars in trapped hydrogen. Next, the compressed sample is bombarded with 1GeV protons, which would shower the compressed hydrogen atoms with muons, leading to nuclear fusion. The fused ions would collide with hydrogen atoms heating them to extremely high temperatures. Because of the high pressure of the trapped hydrogen, fusion ions would have an extremely short mean free path length in the hydrogen, making it very probable that they would collide with a hydrogen atom before escaping. The hydrogen would rapidly heat to fusion temperatures. The rate of fusion reactions within a volume plasma, it proportional to the square of ion concentration. Because the pressure and ion concentration is so high, a large number of fusion reactions will occur in the hydrogen before the metal lattice disintegrates.

Last edited by Calliban (2020-09-25 05:00:18)

tahanson43206 · 2020-09-25 04:47:32

For Calliban re #283

Thanks for taking a look at this announcement, and for your analysis. The deterioration of the metal lattice is an interesting prediction, and the possibility of enlisting the mass of the metal lattice in an output is also interesting for propulsion. That sounds similar to the use of aluminum to hold packets of material to be fused by laser beams. The aluminum would become part of the deliverable, as fusion occurs and energy is added to the mixture.

In this case, if the design were little packets of hydrogen in metal lattice, perhaps ? the same principle could be applied ? Is there a prospect of generating enough energy to make the exercise worth pursuing?

(th)

tahanson43206 · 2020-09-28 08:17:10

For RobertDyck (primarily) but otherwise for all ...

The article at the link below describes an experiment conducted in an American city, to see what a 10 Gigabit network might look like for home owners.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/saw-glimpse- … 39487.html

I bring this up because I have been concerned about the psychological well being of travelers in RobertDyck's Large Ship. They will be confined in a small space with a ** lot ** of other people, and unlike ocean travelers on Earth who are similarly packed, ** these ** travelers will ** NOT ** be able to go out on the deck to commune with the vast ocean.

Edit #1: RobertDyck is offering a view of the Universe from glass enclosed observatory facilities. Will that suffice to provide the equivalent to a walk on a heaving deck with salt flavored wind and the many sounds of an ocean going vessel?

The 10G environment experiment seems to show that people can live at home and experience a reasonably good quality of life, although they ** still ** have the option to leave the home and explore the neighborhood at any time.

While I admire the bold vision of Interplanetary travel in space vehicles, I am confident the people who are thinking about the mechanical systems have NOT given much thought to the experience their creations will provide for their "customers".

In the case of NASA, I get the impression there are a number of people assigned responsibility for crew welfare, but NASA is a large government agency with ample funding. A small private venture seeking to work in this arena will require plenty of volunteer support to augment the core personnel.

(th)

SpaceNut · 2020-09-28 17:48:49

Astronauts accept risk as part of the glory.

tahanson43206 · 2020-09-28 18:30:41

For SpaceNut re #286

As a point of clarification, RobertDyck is designing a ship for ordinary people, not for astronauts.

However, to your point ... There are risks worth taking, and others less so ... A person considering an opportunity to fly on RobertDyck's vessel, with 999 others, will have to think long and hard about the risks involved.

Among these is staying sane over a two year period, if the vessel cannot dock at Mars for some reason.

It is appropriate for everyone involved to think carefully about the mental health of the passengers. I would be less concerned about the crew, because they will have an overriding purpose to deliver the passengers safely to wherever they end up.

One reasonable option is to plan a course of intense study, with lessons returned to instructors on Earth by Interplanetary Email.

The course of study would be set up for each individual, based upon their intended duties, their capabilities, and their ambitions.

****
Thinking about your comment further ... we (or at least I) do not have much information about the Chinese program for astronauts on orbit, but we are provided a lot of information about the crew on the ISS, and it is my understanding every minute of every day is planned out for them, with only rare moments of totally free time.

The passengers on one of RobertDyck's liners are going to be in a very different situation. I think it would be a good idea for each of them to have at least one person on Earth closely following their progress throughout the voyage, in addition to professional staff in the crew to assist with concerns that might arise.

(th)

SpaceNut · 2020-09-28 19:10:08

Passengers would enjoy the trip out and back in a large ship simular a cruise for some that are on the rich with the other end of that scale working for the journey.

Once on Mars it all different if supplies and support to the is taking the risks is treated as equal. As both are set to stand up by teaming up or going it alone.

tahanson43206 · 2020-09-30 13:07:08

The article at the link below is about an MIT project (Sparc), which is another attempt to design a fusion reactor.

https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/weve … 00731.html

For SpaceNut ... I searched the topics for ones containing the word "fusion" None of them are suitable for posting about advances in the field.

What I was looking for was a generic topic about fusion, and what I found are constrained topics, for which the article at the link above doesn't seem to be a good fit.

(th)

tahanson43206 · 2020-10-12 17:58:03

The article at the link below reports on development of a new fabric which ** might ** have applications beyond the primary focus, which is clothing.

https://currently.att.yahoo.com/news/co … 29003.html

The article hints there might be a way to use this material for desalination, but there are no details offered, or if there are, I missed them.

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tahanson43206 · 2020-10-12 19:00:48

This post is about a "new" technology, but only in the sense that I have just become aware of it at a higher level than just peripheral awareness.

A relative upgraded from an electric tank style water heater to a tankless gas unit. A nice benefit was the release of a line consumed by the electric water heater on the backup generator, which can now take care of air conditioning, which was not an option before.

I bring this up because it occurred to me that a tankless water heater design might by a desirable option for RobertDyck's Large Ship, and perhaps for Mars habitats. The counter argument is that heat collected from solar energy can be efficiently stored in a mass of water, and then consumed as needed by inhabitants of an underground dwelling.

The alternative would be to store the solar energy in batteries, and then to heat water from the battery store as needed.

It seems to me some reasonably sophisticated analysis would be needed to find the optimum design, and the design might vary depending upon a variety of factors.

(th)

tahanson43206 · 2020-10-13 12:47:22

This post is about genuinely "new" technology .... The article at the link below describes a software system that could (if implemented) help satellite operators to manage their assets in a three dimensional space with many thousands of objects in high speed movement, and significant negative consequences in the event of a collision.

https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/kayh … 34821.html

From my point of view, the piece that's missing from this story is management of the assets to remove them from LEO when they are no longer needed. In some cases, the assets in orbit were put there by a national entity that no longer exists.

(th)

tahanson43206 · 2020-10-13 14:23:57

This post is about research that seems to lead toward a future technology ...

It could go into more than one topic for NewMars ...

https://www.yahoo.com/news/creating-fue … 52998.html

There is more than one initiative reported ... one uses carbon dioxide and water as input, and (with the help of catalysts) makes formic acid.

Since I have lost track of the nature of formic acid, I asked Google and got this:

Formic acid, systematically named methanoic acid, is the simplest carboxylic acid, and has the chemical formula HCOOH. It is an important intermediate in chemical synthesis and occurs naturally, most notably in some ants.
Formic acid - Wikipedia

I ** had ** learned that formic acid is associated with ants, for what that might be worth.

***
In the case of Mars, there is plenty of CO2, but water will be hard to come by (a) and it'll need plenty of cleaning (b) before it could be fed into one of these reactors. However, the active agent would appear to be sunlight.

There are resident chemists in the forum.

I'd appreciate additional comments they might be inspired to add.

(th)

tahanson43206 · 2020-10-19 09:29:19

For SpaceNut ... this item is about advances in configuration of wood as a building material .... it could fit in numerous topics.

Research like Hu’s and Berglund’s can only add to the wild prospects for the future of materials science. Someday soon it might be possible to live in a home made almost completely from one of Earth’s most abundant and versatile building materials—from floors to rafters, walls to windows. In the garage there may be a car whose chassis and bumpers could be composed of densified wood rather than steel and plastic—knock on wood.
Sid Perkins, who writes most often about Earth and planetary sciences, materials science and paleontology, is based in Crossville, Tenn.

https://getpocket.com/explore/item/stro … ket-newtab

The abundance of Carbon on Mars makes the development of the new material configuration attractive for construction there.

(th)

tahanson43206 · 2020-10-24 08:19:56

For amateur astronomers ...

https://www.laserfocusworld.com/optics/ … ive-optics

For centuries (starting around the time of Galileo) amateur astronomers (and eventually professionals) have sought to improve their view of the night sky using lens and mirrors.

The article at the link above provides an overview of a particular technology used for adaptive optics, primarily in professional/academic settings at present.

The purpose of ** this ** post is to introduce the idea that this particular kind of adaptive optics may lend itself to amateur use, since (according to the article) the costs of elements goes down the more are used.

(th)

SpaceNut · 2020-10-24 09:08:28

The adaptive optics remove the atmosphere density changes and air currents from the received light.
Also by increasing the number of mirrors reflecting the same light to a collector location we get sharper images when properly aligned.

SpaceNut · 2020-10-26 16:12:07

Not sure that I have a topic for a perfect fit for this story...
The first satellite with AI onboard is now in orbit, and its tech could completely change how we respond to wildfires

Sure its for a specific task but its a start

tahanson43206 · 2020-10-27 08:41:40

The article at the link below is about Elon Musk (and company) donating Internet access to a village in Texas, to help kids there with school (primarily).

https://www.yahoo.com/news/dozens-famil … 34274.html

I hope this is an early indicator of how the future might unfold across the planet. The current divide between rural populations in the United States and city populations is partly due to differences in available resources in the two locations. I am glad to see this opening gambit by Musk and his backers, and hope it is successful as a model. Human talent is reported to be reasonably equitably distributed over the entire population, but it languishes untapped in localities where the resources are not present to support it.

(th)

tahanson43206 · 2020-10-29 10:02:06

This "Technology Update" is about a technology that may not yet exist ...

There are a number of companies offering software to accept speech input and translate it to a "best guess" text version.

I wrote to one of them today, asking if there is a version of that software that can take input from an ordinary telephone, and display the "best guess" on a computer screen. I suppose a variation of that would display right on the phone screen, but since I do not have a phone with that capability, a computer monitor display would be helpful.

This would be helpful for (some) Mars/Earth correspondence, because the bandwidth needed for text is much less than than needed for speech.

(th)

tahanson43206 · 2020-11-02 10:10:40

This item is from the local newspaper ...

Self-driving semi-trailer crosses

The distance covered was 280 miles.

The locale was a highly regulated highway with no stop lights.

That said, the software and hardware engineers would have had to deal with traffic on a highly utilized road, including entering traffic from side roads and roadside rest areas, and the system would have had to know where the exit portals are located, and handle the transaction at those locations.

All-in-all, I see this as an impressive achievement, and a good sign for automated transport systems on Mars, where delivery of goods and materials would be required over great distances, and allocating human supervision to the task would be a strain on the community.

(th)

tahanson43206 · 2020-11-03 09:48:13

It's good to see the UK is in the overhead Internet game. The article at the link below reports on a proposal to offer 100 Mb service using drones. While the competition from ground based services may be too much in an advanced country like the UK, this technology may well prove superior in vast regions of the world, certainly including great swaths of the US, where "traditional" wire service is poor or entirely absent.

I bring this up in connection to SpaceNut's observation that Elon's Starlink service is pricey, for the average person.

If I understand the drone concept correctly, it might be possible to deliver 100 Mbits service to ground customers at a very modest ground station investment.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/5g-beaming-s … 08498.html

(th)

Calliban · 2020-11-03 11:51:58

Tahanson, I suppose that depends upon how the new super fast 5g network ends up being used. Britain is a socialist state, run by a hereditary aristocracy, where freedom of speech is dead. Post something that the authorities decide is 'intolerant' or has the potential to 'incite hatred' and the armed police will be at your door in the middle of the night. They will drag you screaming into a van. You can then expect to spend years in prison, assuming you don't disappear. They have armies of snoopers equipped with software that they use to track down anyone that dares to say the wrong thing, anything that threatens the political ideals of their masters. Britain's Terror Police are a defacto secret police, operating outside of public scrutiny with 'broad, discretionary powers'. These people are busily developing tracking apps that allow them to track wherever people are at all times. They even cooperate with other similar secret police forces in European socialist states, in order to terrorise people outside of their borders. Here is an example of their handy work.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-euro … 7J1C3?il=0

Britain still has elections, but without freedom of speech, they don't really offer much value for human liberty. The Internet in the UK is now regulated by Ofcom, which is a sort of Ministry of Truth. This tells social media outlets what sort of personal and political values UK citizens are allowed to express. Certain political opinions are criminalised.

People in the US do not generally understand just how oppressive European countries really are, Britain in particular. Most of the British themselves are in denial. Given how the Internet has been used to monitor and track the public already, I find it difficult to believe that 5g is going to help people in the ways that they really do need help - to escape oppression.

tahanson43206 · 2020-11-03 12:22:54

For Calliban re #302

This is the "Technology Updates" topic.

Your comment would seem (as I read it at least) to be better suited for one of the Chat topics ...;

Do you have an observation to make about the technology itself?

Are you in favor of high speed Internet being offered to regions of the Earth where it is not currently available, and where costs to lay physical infrastructure are so great that the population cannot afford it?

The impetus for my post was the announcement of $99 per month for Elon Musk's Starlink service, (plus $1000 equipment costs). Do you think the drone project would provide 100 Mbits service for less than $99 per month?

Do you have a feeling for what the equipment costs might be?

I'm assuming an antenna tuned to whatever spectrum is approved for the service would be required, along with the RF receiver to feed a local WiFi router.

Is this a business venture that would pay off for investors?

It could be rolled out on a much smaller scale than is required for Starlink or Iridium, or any of the satellite constellations.

(th)

SpaceNut · 2020-11-03 19:39:51

Currently the 5G is using modified towers which means rural area are still in upgrading mode or not at all due to number of customers. The towers with the increasing speed require higher power to reach the same distances that the lower speed covers. Its more than just dropping in new equipment for the higher speed....

tahanson43206 · 2020-11-04 07:24:49

For SpaceNut re #304

Your observation about 5G rollout reminds me to try to find out what RF bands are under discussion for the drone Internet concept.

5G operates at such high frequencies direct line of sight is required. An overhead drone could (presumably) provide line-of-sight service to a fairly significant service area. However, for every 100 Mbits customer to be served, there would need to be a corresponding share of the primary feed to and from the base station. ** That ** requirement would add to the mass of the drone.

If the drone designers had in mind serving WiFi customers, the RF frequencies would be lower, but I'm wondering how contention between WiFi stations would be handled. It's bad enough on Earth when two neighbors are trying to operate their routers on the same frequencies.

(th)

tahanson43206 · 2020-11-10 19:07:54

For SpaceNut .... the article at the link below could go into several topics ... it reports on an experiment tested at the ISS.

https://currently.att.yahoo.com/news/su … 47094.html

While some have suggested the prospect of minerals which are scarce or hard to reach on earth being extracted from space instead, the technology could also make space travel more sustainable, by reducing the need for travellers to transport all the resources they need to a colony.
The bacteria could be used to break rocks down into soil for growing crops or to provide minerals for life support systems that produce air and water, researchers say.
Project leader Professor Charles Cockell, of the University of Edinburgh's school of physics and astronomy, said: "While it is not economically viable to mine these elements in space and bring them to Earth, space biomining could potentially support a self-sustaining human presence in space."
He pinpointed the Oceanus Procellarum, a region of the moon known to be rich in rare-earth elements, as a potential location for future mines.

Of the three bacteria tested, two were inhibited by lack of gravity, but one succeeded.

(th)

tahanson43206 · 2020-11-16 13:14:01

This quote is from a tech newsletter that shows up periodically ...

This appears to be an upgrade of Ethernet connectivity, and appropriate to be considered for the Large Ship, which will need high order communication between countless machines that make up the life support subsystem for the vessel:

T1 Industrial Single Pair Ethernet Connector

With Single Pair Ethernet SPE, [Company] has established a new technology standard that transmits data via Ethernet at speeds of up to 1 GBit/s with just one pair of wires, making it the perfect solution for industry 4.0 and IIoT. With this connector, the number of connections on the device is reduced, eliminating the need for an external power supply, and the devices on the plant floor that traditionally communicate over Fieldbus protocols can join the same IP-based network as the other devices. This enables peer-to-peer communication, open-loop feedback of all devices, and smart functionality from the main control room to the device.
LEARN MORE

(th)

New Mars Forums

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