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Today is Google Meeting day once again....
I am hoping we can have a strong turnout of Admins and at least one non-Admin member.
I am interested in finding out what appetite the Admin community has to stretch beyond current activity.
We have a small active community and we can probably keep going for another year without changing anything.
On the other hand, the people who are going to be ON Mars in future years are alive today, and the global Internet is available a large percentage of them.
In addition, the community whose efforts on Earth will support the Mars venture are alive today.
This forum is potentially a resource for future Mars explorers and settlers, and for supporting teams on Earth.
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Depending upon who arrives, we may have (I hope we WILL have) other subjects to discuss.
Note: Last week I was overwhelmed by the challenges of dealing with technical issues ... Google has changed the menu structure, and I failed to monitor the waiting room properly. I am open to suggestions for improved performance, but I've noticed that other groups sometimes spread the work load a bit. Perhaps we might be able to use that idea, although with Google Meeting I'm not sure how that works. I've seen that system used extensively with Zoom.
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The Google Meeting systems test turned up an issue. Zoom leaves debris behind that Google doesn't like, so I had to reboot the browsers. We are online now and will be able to set up at the top of the hour.
It is 00:16:51 by the UTC clock.
Waiting room is open at 00:58 ...
This meeting was devoted primarily to deep dives into defense of Canada against possible predatory neighbors. In the course of the discussion I tried to start Google Earth but my browser could not handle the work load of the modern application.
I decided to install Google Earth Pro for Ubuntu, and will report if the program runs.
The installation package is only 57.3 MB. I assume the actual program is larger.
OK !!! The installer unpacked to these folders:
50.3 kb
24 kb
254.6 MB
243 bytes
That looks more like the size I would expect for a program this massive.
There are 400 files to extract
This installation is incomplete. I'll have to investigate.
OK ... it turns out that like with many Linux programs, it was necessary to use a terminal session to install the program. That was done, and the program is ready to run. However, OpenFOAM is running so I'll leave well enough alone. The program will be availabvle for the next Google Meeting. I hope to be able to go to any place on Earth that kbd512 wants to go to explore.
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Today is Google Meeting day for New Mars!
Possible topics include:
1) GW Johnson and Mrs. Johnson starting upon their 51st year.
NASA director personal inspection of the Orion heat shield
(did GW's letter reach him? We may never know)
2) kbd512's vision for an Optical Space Propulsion system at a new milestone
3) SpaceNut re-organization of topics -
4) Void reporting on iron oxide from the Moon for LEO manufacturing
5) The recent computer outage - backups - communications in event of outage
Note: Google Earth is now installed on the host PC, so deep dives into the Internet can now include actual scenery instead of just maps
Start time remains 1 AM UTC during this part of the annual cycle.
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Systems check went well this evening....
The Waiting Room will open at 1:00 UTC, 7 PM Houston, 8 PM New Hampshire ... It will be mid-morning in Australia.
We are open at 00:58:36 ....
We had a full house this evening .... kbd512, SpaceNut and GW Johnson were fully engaged in solving the world's problems.
We tested Google Earth at the end of the meeting, and it definitely shows promise for enhancing future discussions. Unfortunately, my system collapsed under the strain ... it had the Google Meeting in one browser, New Mars in another, the OpenFOAM animation program running, and then on top of that I added Google Earth. We were looking at an island off the Russian coast when the entire structure collapsed.
GW Johnson gave me some ideas to work on with the OpenFOAM project, so I'll work on those next week.
The first and easiest idea is to run the exact same model but increase hydrogen flow to 2 kg/s ... We tested with 2 kg/s previously, but that was in a series that ran for 8 seconds. The 1 kg/s test started at zero and ran for 4 seconds. I think it would be worth while to run the 2 kg/s test from zero.
GW also agreed with the suggestion that the washer shape I've introduced into the model might well have caused instability due to the non-curved surfaces at the intake. A properly designed nozzle is perfectly smooth in the region from ahead of the throat through to the rim of the expansion bell.
I've hesitated to proceed to remaking of the mesh because it is a lot of work, and introducing the washer was a quick way to simulate a smaller diameter throat.
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Today is Google Meeting day for NewMars.
For kbd512, I am hoping we can take a moment to discuss backups of the database.
I assume we have something in place to perform periodic backups but this will be an opportunity to confirm.
SpaceNut made massive moves of posts recently, and according to my Pothole Checker, he didn't drop a single post, but all that work made me nervous.
GW's 50th Anniversary event is available if anyone would like to view the images with him.
GW is working on another book about ramjets.
kbd512 came up with an interesting alternative layout for a habitat on Mars. I'm hoping we can spend some time on that.
Void has tossed interesting ideas out in his several topics.
Artemis II rollout may be of interest.
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Update .... GW Johnson will be tied up at the normal Google Meeting time.
We have a full agenda with the rest of the topics available.
The Waiting Room is scheduled to open just before 1 AM UTC, 7 PM Houston, 8 PM New Hampshire, mid-Morning Australia.
I'll be pleasantly surprised if anyone from Australia ever shows up but it ** could ** happen!
I'd be interested in seeing if the Large Ship could be designed to serve for transport, and then disassembled and rebuilt as a habitat on Mars.
If that can be done, it would insure that the Mars Habitat is fully operational from the moment the last bolt is tightened and pipe fixture secured.
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Systems Check went well at 00:39:09 UTC
The swinging doors will open a few minutes from now.
The swinging doors are open at 00:58:51
***
That was a ** very ** interesting meeting ... we looked at isogrids in our Internet deep dive.
We launched the evening with discussions of kbd512's vision of a ring/dome habitat
SpaceNut joined in with numerous suggestions for materials and procedures.
We settled on a population to serve: 1000
That is a nice round number to work with. SpaceNut agreed to consult his AI friends to see if any of them can work out the requirements for all the equipment needed to sustain that population.
We are in need of fresh water and sewerage systems, and the equipment to recover fresh water from the sewerage.
SpaceNut is in an industry that deals with humans in closed life support environments.
Hopefully he will be able to help kbd512 size the complex.
Kbd512 gave us an expectation that some support systems would be inside the building and some outside.
This should be a fun project.
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