New Mars Forums

Official discussion forum of The Mars Society and MarsNews.com

You are not logged in.

Announcement

Announcement: This forum is accepting new registrations by emailing newmarsmember * gmail.com become a registered member. Read the Recruiting expertise for NewMars Forum topic in Meta New Mars for other information for this process.

#2801 2023-02-26 18:25:10

SpaceNut
Administrator
From: New Hampshire
Registered: 2004-07-22
Posts: 29,422

Re: Housekeeping

I just found out the same as its gone but the build a site is still up with .net address.

The previous versions started with Ik...something but after that it was a php.net I think and stayed that way until the crashes.

This is going to be an issue if the forum is to survive the interface not being updatable without having coders for Mars Society staff to maintain the scripts.

Offline

#2802 2023-02-26 19:01:44

tahanson43206
Moderator
Registered: 2018-04-27
Posts: 18,889

Re: Housekeeping

For SpaceNut re Post # ? << not visible (just ahead of this one)

Thanks for the tip about FluxBB.net

I followed the links, and attempted to set up an account with whatever organization is supporting FluxBB now.  However, I stopped when I reached this step in the process

Secure and 256-bit TLS Encrypted verification

Stars
Free membership
$ 0.00

Your credit card WILL NOT BE CHARGED for the free membership
First name:
Last name:
Card Number:
CVV:
Expire Date:

At this point, I'm not motivated enough to put my credit card at risk.

I'm assuming the credit card request is a way to weed out spammers.

I'm ** also ** assuming this is a ** very ** effective technique!!

It also kept out a former member of the FluxBB.org web site.

(th)

Offline

#2803 2023-02-27 07:59:36

tahanson43206
Moderator
Registered: 2018-04-27
Posts: 18,889

Re: Housekeeping

For SpaceNut re Bulletin Board system upon expiration of FluxBB support....

Dr. Lewis Dartnell set up his bulletin board with an ancestor of FluxBB, or perhaps more accurately with a version that has the same ancestor as FluxBB.

I decided to investigate to see if the organization still exists, and was happy to find that it is still alive, and has recently issued an update 3.3.10 this month.

The site is: https://www.phpbb.com/

If you have time and are interested, I invite you to take a look.

Hopefully attention to our web server will resolve whatever strains the web site is experiencing with our continued growth in data base size.

It would be (most likely) at massive undertaking to convert to yet-another bulletin board system so doing so would be a last resort.

However, it definitely ** would ** make sense for someone who wanted to install a copy and learn how to run it to do so.

I just noticed there is a Community Forum.  I'm inclined to join to see if anyone there is from the FluxBB community.

I'd doubt it, but I suppose it is possible.

(th)

Offline

#2804 2023-02-27 08:29:25

tahanson43206
Moderator
Registered: 2018-04-27
Posts: 18,889

Re: Housekeeping

For SpaceNut re www.phpbb.com

I decided to request a membership, and in the process of completing the application, I discovered they have implemented a technique to filter out robot spammers.  The technique would not filter out human spammers, but since the vast majority of spam appears to come from bots these days, it should cut down on a large part of the spam registrations we saw until you (wisely in my opinion) closed the door.

The method in place at phpbb is to ask the application to look for a piece of data from the web site.

My guess is that no robot in play right now would be able to accomplish that.

Specifically, the registration process is asking me to identify a specific team within the phpbb structure that is responsible for specific activities.

That's a fairly high bar for a spam program to overcome, it seems to me.

(th)

Offline

#2805 2023-02-27 09:03:41

tahanson43206
Moderator
Registered: 2018-04-27
Posts: 18,889

Re: Housekeeping

For SpaceNut re www.phpbb.com

I don't remember applying for a membership before now, and my notes on logins do not include the site, but never-the-less, the site contains a login.

I requested a password change, and the authorization link showed up at the correct email address, so now I'm able to access the site.

The first thing I learned is that there is (was?) an active discussion of how to convert from FluxBB to phpBB.

I hope that never becomes necessary, but at least it appears there may be conversion software available.

To see the list of topics about converting from FluxBB, enter fluxbb as the search argument at the top level...

phpbb.com/search/?q=fluxbb

I'm not going to invest more time now, but welcome any discussion that may occur.

(th)

Offline

#2806 2023-02-27 19:09:01

tahanson43206
Moderator
Registered: 2018-04-27
Posts: 18,889

Re: Housekeeping

For SpaceNut re this post ....

I'm using this post to park a URL: https://sourceforge.net/projects/gmat/

The General Mission Analysis Tool (GMAT) is an open-source tool for space mission design and navigation. GMAT is developed by a team of NASA, private industry, and public and private contributors.

The GMAT development team is pleased to announce the release of GMAT version R2022a. For a complete list of new features, compatibility changes, and bug fixes, see the R2022a Release Notes in the Users Guide.

Features
Spacecraft Mission Design and Navigation
Full Mission Lifecycle Support
High Fidelity NASA Open Source Software
Optimized Maneuver and Trajectory Design
Operational Orbit Determination (Batch and EKFS) with Measurement Simulation Capability
Extendable and Customizable
Impulsive DeltaV and Continuous (Low, Medium, High) Thrust Modeling

this software is probably far beyond my capabilities, but there may be someone in the active NewMars community who could run it.

(th)

Offline

#2807 2023-02-27 19:17:39

tahanson43206
Moderator
Registered: 2018-04-27
Posts: 18,889

Re: Housekeeping

for SpaceNut re this post ...

In this post I am parking a link and information about converting from latitude and longitude to Earth Centered Coordinate System

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/534 … -in-python

Convert latitude, longitude & altitude to local ENU coordinates in Python
Asked 4 years, 3 months ago
Modified 1 year, 8 months ago
Viewed 19k times

How can I convert geodetic (latitude, longitude, altitude) coordinates into local tangent plane ENU (East, North, Up) coordinates with Python?

pyproj package does not seem to have the right functionality ...

python-2.7coordinate-systemscoordinate-transformationpyproj
edited Jun 22, 2020 at 18:50
np8's user avatar
np8
25.7k1010 gold badges8888 silver badges9393 bronze badges
asked Nov 21, 2018 at 9:21
Highest score (default)
You could use the pymap3d package:

Installation
pip install pymap3d
Simple example
Let's take the example values shown on this page.

import pymap3d as pm

# The local coordinate origin (Zermatt, Switzerland)
lat0 = 46.017 # deg
lon0 = 7.750  # deg
h0 = 1673     # meters

# The point of interest
lat = 45.976  # deg
lon = 7.658   # deg
h = 4531      # meters

pm.geodetic2enu(lat, lon, h, lat0, lon0, h0)
which produces

(-7134.757195979863, -4556.321513844541, 2852.3904239436915)
which are the east, north and up components, respectively.

The used ellipsoid is WGS84 by default. All available ellipsoid models (which can be fed as an argument to geodetic2enu) can be seen here. Here is how you would calculate the same ENU coordinates using WGS72 reference ellipsoid:

pm.geodetic2enu(lat, lon, h, lat0, lon0, h0, ell=pm.utils.Ellipsoid('wgs72'))
# (-7134.754845247729, -4556.320150825548, 2852.3904257449926)

This function is (apparently) needed for the GEO launch procedure

(th)

Offline

#2808 2023-02-27 20:28:16

SpaceNut
Administrator
From: New Hampshire
Registered: 2004-07-22
Posts: 29,422

Re: Housekeeping

I was reminded by the cable company that solar storms were occurring and that this would disrupt signals through to March 26th. Since the cable line co-shares the digital signals for computers this is quite reasonable for what we are seeing as well.

Offline

#2809 2023-02-28 08:00:58

tahanson43206
Moderator
Registered: 2018-04-27
Posts: 18,889

Re: Housekeeping

For SpaceNut re #2808

I got the Apache error this morning, when trying to upload a transcript. 

Then I got the error when trying to post this short message.

***
Regarding the cable gent's advice ... the occurrence of solar flares might indeed interfer with traffic over cables, but that would manifest as packet loss.  The problem we are seeing is happening at the server, which (I trust) is running on a UPS of some kind, so that power fluctuations will not occur to disrupt operation of the server.

I was able to create the post with just one line of text, and then add the missing text using edit.

(th)

Offline

#2810 2023-03-01 21:41:00

SpaceNut
Administrator
From: New Hampshire
Registered: 2004-07-22
Posts: 29,422

Re: Housekeeping

I have seen even rfid fail on security reading and pass within seconds yet the card is not bad its appears as background noise.

I was looking for coding from Html box entry such as a PhP to a data base

https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/how-to-in … using-php/

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/613 … javascript

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/283 … a-database

https://www.tutsmake.com/php-code-inser … from-form/

Offline

#2811 2023-03-03 13:39:51

tahanson43206
Moderator
Registered: 2018-04-27
Posts: 18,889

Re: Housekeeping

For SpaceNut re this post ....

SearchTerm:Temporary
SearchTerm:Work
SearchTerm:Park
SearchTerm:Parking spot for text

This post is intended to hold text that is in development and is to be transferred between systems.

Your rules for assisting us have been changed to preclude writing computer programs. In a previus chat, you confirmed that you are permitted to assist with use of a digital calculator to solve physics problems. Today's session will attempt to improve upon an earlier one. I will attempt to improve the quality of the question, to avoid confusion and to allow us to arrive at a useful result.

Please note that I am still unsure of the correct terminology for the problem to be solved, so I'll be watching for your guidance as we go along. An advisor suggested there may be as many as six measurements that describe the state of this object.

This is a physics problem to be solved on a digital calculator.

Inputs:
We have an object in space located 42164 kilometers from the center of Earth.
The object has a mass of one kilogram.
Using a framework with X, Y and Z axis:
X velocity is along the path of Geosynchronous Earth Orbit at 465 meters per second
Y velocity is away from Earth at a velocity of 10,000 meters per second.
Z velocity is zero. We are in the Equatorial plane.
Output:
We want to know the properties of the object now at t0
We want to advance the object 1 kilometer in the Y direction in time t1
We want to know the properties of the object at t1

In an earlier session, you provided this advice:

To solve this problem, we will need to use the formula for gravitational force between two masses:

F = G * (m1 * m2) / r^2

Where F is the gravitational force, G is the gravitational constant, m1 and m2 are the masses of the two objects, and r is the distance between the centers of the two objects.

Please show how to perform the needed calculation using a digital calculator.

(th)

Offline

#2812 2023-03-04 20:09:09

SpaceNut
Administrator
From: New Hampshire
Registered: 2004-07-22
Posts: 29,422

Re: Housekeeping

The Subaru did get a hard-fought new exhaust system to hopefully remove the oxygen sensor dash light issue of check engine so that it can pass an inspection for emissions. Had a bit of difficulty removing the bolts from the catalytic pipe to the y section that connects to the manifolds as the top bolt did not have much clearance around it and the transmission that it was almost in contact with.

Did end up not fully succeeding as I needed to pick up a new upstream air fuel mixture sensor as the threads were damaged upon its removal for reuse as it has been cross threaded on previous install but that will go in on a better day when I have more time.

Considering it would normally be 1500 to have a garage do this I got away with all of it for 700 with a bit of my own elbow grease was helpful as I am going to need a set of 4 tires for the vehicle as well.

We did get quite a bit of snow overnight but not the 18" that had been predicted as it was closer to just 10" by time it finished falling.

Offline

#2813 2023-03-04 21:43:42

tahanson43206
Moderator
Registered: 2018-04-27
Posts: 18,889

Re: Housekeeping

For SpaceNut re #2812 .... thanks for the good news of the Subaru getting a new exhaust system, and saving so much by doing the work!

Please let us know when/if the Subaru passes inspection.  That's the reward for all this hard work!

***
Glad to hear the snow fall was less than predicted.  Meanwhile, as you and your Northern neighbors deal with snow, folks to the South are getting slammed with tornado spawning thunderstorms.  A couple made their way through here.  I don't welcome snow, but would prefer it to a tornado.

Mars may seen boring to folks born on the Earth, with only the occasional dust storm to contend with, and most folks will be living well underground. I caught one of Mars_B4_Moon's recent posts, which included a prediction that 5 meters of regolith would provide the same radiation protection as Earth's atmosphere.

Void's been creating scenarios with water and swimming and gigantic mirrors. That's been fun to follow.

Calliban recently tossed in a vision of gigantic ultra thin mirrors to harness sunlight in distant regions of the Solar System.

***
Update on GW Johnson's work ... I just received an email with an update on his Space Tug and Refueling Station work ... I've been looking at GEO, but nothing seemed to work.  GW went back to look at LEO and behold! It looks as though things might just come together.  I've been looking for a way to use Dr. John Hunter's linear launcher, and wanted to eliminate the pesky solid fuel rocket to circularize orbit.  GW's Space Tug, and his LEO sited Station might ** just ** be able to make the linear launcher idea work!

I am hoping the numbers mesh tomorrow or the next day!   Dr. Hunter's been treading water in recent years, for lack of a customer.  GW's fueling station would (could) be just the ticket for old industry organizations with deep pockets looking for a way to play the Space Age.

(th)

Offline

#2814 2023-03-05 15:17:41

tahanson43206
Moderator
Registered: 2018-04-27
Posts: 18,889

Re: Housekeeping

For SpaceNut ...

This is just FYI so you can keep track of projects members are doing, and so you won't be surprised if anything happens.

On the other hand, (hopefully) you won't be surprised if nothing comes of the efforts ... that can happen, and often does.

***
Update on GW Johnson's work ... I just received an email with an update on his Space Tug and Refueling Station work ... I've been looking at GEO, but nothing seemed to work.  GW went back to look at LEO and behold! It looks as though things might just come together.  I've been looking for a way to use Dr. John Hunter's linear launcher, and wanted to eliminate the pesky solid fuel rocket to circularize orbit.  GW's Space Tug, and his LEO sited Station might ** just ** be able to make the linear launcher idea work!

I am hoping the numbers mesh tomorrow or the next day!   Dr. Hunter's been treading water in recent years, for lack of a customer.  GW's fueling station would (could) be just the ticket for old industry organizations with deep pockets looking for a way to play the Space Age.

I just received an encouraging update ... the cost of retrieving a payload delivered to the (proposed) On-Orbit Refueling Station is measured in the amount of payload that must be consumed by a Space Tug that retrieves it and pulls it into the Station.  I've been hoping for a 50% cost of delivery, but Dr. Johnson's preliminary results seem to suggest that if everything works correctly, the cost-of-delivery might be under 50%.

A ** lot ** has to work correctly to achieve that performance ...

The orbit of the Station needs to be planned correctly
The launch needs to put the payload at a place for pickup, and the preliminary pickup window looks like two minutes.

That pickup window is (probably) achievable with modern electronic control systems, but it is still quite a high bar.

The system depends upon conversion of payload (ie, ice) to propellant using solar power, so the Station needs a configuration of panels to perform that task.

Other issues ... the launch system exists only as a paper study, as an extension of actual hardware developed for testing at a smaller scale.

In short, while I am definitely encouraged there may be a viable business "out there" as a result of work to date, there is a LONG way from here to there.

(th)

Offline

#2815 2023-03-05 18:30:26

SpaceNut
Administrator
From: New Hampshire
Registered: 2004-07-22
Posts: 29,422

Re: Housekeeping

Yes, as you expend less fuel to deliver the fuel payload to a much lower orbit as it's about the difference of energy needed to bring it to a higher orbit which cuts into the payload which is desired. It is a balancing act of the equation.

Today on the ground I changed out the upstream sensor as the original had been damaged such that it was cross threaded, and wires were twist just like the other which I replaced last week.

edit
Normal drive to work set the check engine this morning after not doing so all day sunday. I did get fuel to bring it up to the 3/4 mark to satisfy the EVAP monitor but the codes that saved pending are P402 which is the catalytic convertor efficiency and the P457 for the Evap which they indicate as the gas cap lose. Both are bogus since parts are all new, so these are noise signals and false settings as a result of bad computer coding since the pending cannot set on a start. I have seen both set when the light came on since the o2 sensors need a warmup time before allowing it to be considered real value as well as for the pressurizing of the fuel tank.

Offline

#2816 2023-03-05 18:41:11

tahanson43206
Moderator
Registered: 2018-04-27
Posts: 18,889

Re: Housekeeping

For SpaceNut re ongoing work on Suburu... Thanks for the update on replacing/repairing sensors! 

Best wishes for a success with the performance test for the State!  You certainly have earned a Green Light!

***
re GW's work:
***
I just read a draft of his 12 page instructions guide for his updated orbit planning spreadsheet.

I came away with the impression that if a student completes the exercises, that student will have a decent grasp of the subject.

(th)

Offline

#2817 2023-03-06 19:11:01

tahanson43206
Moderator
Registered: 2018-04-27
Posts: 18,889

Re: Housekeeping

For SpaceNut re Scan of Posts between 206001 and 207000

There were no potholes at all in this run.

While this is the result that ** should ** be expected in a smoothly running system, it is ** still ** a surprise.

(th)

Offline

#2818 2023-03-09 19:20:08

tahanson43206
Moderator
Registered: 2018-04-27
Posts: 18,889

Re: Housekeeping

For SpaceNut .... kbd512 seems to be writing posts that have to do with air powered systems.

You'll find recent examples in the ChatGPT topic, but they don't seem to be related to ChatGPT.

Please see if you can find a better topic, or create one for kbd512 to use for his ongoing work in this interesting direction.

(th)

Offline

#2819 2023-03-09 20:19:34

SpaceNut
Administrator
From: New Hampshire
Registered: 2004-07-22
Posts: 29,422

Re: Housekeeping

Still working the Subaru code setting issues down to this final one which is the EVAP system where the code says it's got a leak... This morning's reset and tracking until it set was just a low 5 miles or basically 5 minutes at highway speeds before it showed up as pending in the code list. It finally got read again as a second time on the return trip home to which the engine computer set the check engine soon but this time there was no oxygen pending issues as before.

As far as the drift some of the discussion is around thermal source hot or cold to produce energy source for movement that show up between my posts and a few posts before that image of a heat exchanging pipe coil.

One could even think that my solar light tower was also out of the box since I talked about the use for home heating once we designed the collection system.

Both once closer to completion should be white papers or turned onto wiki pages but that sounds like a full time job...

Offline

#2820 2023-03-10 08:06:14

tahanson43206
Moderator
Registered: 2018-04-27
Posts: 18,889

Re: Housekeeping

For SpaceNut re #2819

Thanks for updates on the Suburu code settings.

Regarding your light tower idea ... Is there enough solar power in your area to justify that investment?  There might be, but that light might be better utilized by the foliage you showed us.   That foliage adds a ** lot ** of value to the property.

The answer for heating and potentially for power lies directly beneath you.

If you can tap the Earth's energy, you wouldn't be beholden to anyone other than the loan holder for the equipment.

Otherwise, like most of us, you'll be dependent upon the labors of thousands of others, all of whom collaborate to deliver power and clean water, and take away the waste for processing at large facilities where economies of scale justify the investment.

(th)

Offline

#2821 2023-03-12 07:32:25

NewMarsMember
Member
Registered: 2019-02-17
Posts: 1,343

Re: Housekeeping

Thanks to Mars_B4_Moon re #167

The Universal Translator is a staple of science fiction - the work you've reported sure does look like it is moving in that direction!

(th)


Recruiting High Value members for NewMars.com/forums, in association with the Mars Society

Offline

#2822 2023-03-12 07:33:48

NewMarsMember
Member
Registered: 2019-02-17
Posts: 1,343

Re: Housekeeping

Thanks to Mars_B4_Moon re #167

It does seem to me that Google has been advancing firmly in this particular specialization over some time.  My experiments with translation in several languages have seemed quite accurate.  My method (in working with an unfamiliar language) is to feed the translation back into English, to see what the two way trip looks like.

(th)


Recruiting High Value members for NewMars.com/forums, in association with the Mars Society

Offline

#2823 2023-03-12 07:35:08

NewMarsMember
Member
Registered: 2019-02-17
Posts: 1,343

Re: Housekeeping

Thanks to Mars_B4_Moon re #167

That doesn't guarantee the translation is optimum.

(th)


Recruiting High Value members for NewMars.com/forums, in association with the Mars Society

Offline

#2824 2023-03-12 07:36:12

NewMarsMember
Member
Registered: 2019-02-17
Posts: 1,343

Re: Housekeeping

Thanks to Mars_B4_Moon re #167

... but it is a way to reduce risk of something going way off base,

(th)


Recruiting High Value members for NewMars.com/forums, in association with the Mars Society

Offline

#2825 2023-03-12 07:40:59

tahanson43206
Moderator
Registered: 2018-04-27
Posts: 18,889

Re: Housekeeping

For SpaceNut .. the Apache Server Error is back with a vengeance today....

It is rejecting posts that are short.

(th)

Offline

Board footer

Powered by FluxBB