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Today is Google Meeting day for NewMars
The waiting room will open at midnight UTC, 7 PM Houston, 8 PM New Hampshire, mid-morning Australia
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Systems check went well at 22:42 UTC.
The waiting room is due to open at 24:00 UTC / 7 PM Houston / 8 PM New Hampshire and (my favorite) mid-morning Australia.
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the honey comb was the trial to reproduce the apollo era for Orion before the switch to a solid machined block.
I took a tumble today hard to the ground on both cheeks, so am turning in early hope all enjoy the night as I need to get sleep and am not sure that I will get much with the pain in the back sides up to the neck plus spots in between
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The waiting room is open at 23:54
SpaceNut sent his regrets.... big work day tomorrow so he's turning in early.
It's late for our European members and it's a workday ahead for them so I'm not expecting anyone.
It's mid-morning in Australia, and not a holiday (I believe) so it is unlikely we'll be joined from there.
Still, that leaves most of the US, Canada and Mexico with favorable times.
GW Johnson sent a number of items we can study/review if there's time.
*** Post meeting report
GW Johnson was able to join the meeting, and we spent quite a bit of time reviewing the pictures SpaceNut had provided and then we went on to look as pictures we have not yet been able to upload to the forum. These are early snapshots of the heat shield as it was lifted out of the water, so they are certainly preliminary. However, they do show that the heat shield certainly had a battle on it's hands, and the capsule thermal protection system took a beating as well.
I'll try to get the images up soon. GW says he sent them in email, and my challenge is to try to find them.
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Today is Google Meeting Day for NewMars...
The link is at the top of this topic.
Start time is midnight UTC, 7 PM Houston, 8 PM New Hampshire, mid-Morning Australia
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Systems check went well at 18:25 New Hampshire time.
We are on schedule to open the Waiting room at midnight UTC, 7 PM Houston, 8 PM New Hampshire and mid-Morning Australia.
I would be astonished if a member from Australia drops in, but we've had Australian members in past years.
We are open at 23:54:48 UTC .... all are welcome ... I'm not expecting a huge crowd ... We may get there some day.
Oldfar1939 is back on the scene! I sent an email to see if his email address works.
Post Meeting Summary!
Wow! That was a supercharged meeting. Kbd512 and GW Johnson discussed aerospace designs in depth, and we discussed the Blue Origin flight as well.
Best wishes to both for their respective projects in the week ahead.
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Today is Google Meeting Day at NewMars.
We are on track to open the Meeting Room as usual at midnight UTC, 7 PM Houston, 8 PM New Hampshire and Mid-morning Australia.
Everyone who might attend is super busy with projects of various kinds.
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Systems check went well at 21:58:58 UTC
Update: We are open at 23:57:11
We are on track to open the waiting room at 7 PM Houston, 8 PM New Hampshire and mid-morning in Australia.
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Sorry guy's my wifes sister passed yesterday. She had been sick with throat cancer since my wifes passing that was not operable even after treatment.
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Post meeting report ...
Best wishes to SpaceNut and his family during this difficult time. We note the passing of Mrs. SpaceNut's wife's sister, following an extended illness.
***
This evening's meeting was devoted largely to discussion of kbd512's deep study of a design for an aircraft for combat at this point in human history. Kbd512's vision is of a return to the aircraft of the Second World War, for roles for which those propeller driven aircraft are uniquely well suited. Kbd512's vision calls for the lowest possible cost for aircraft, while at the same time protecting the human pilots from enemy efforts by using the current generation of electronics and other countermeasures.
Kbd512 has created a variety of software tools to help with the design process.
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Today is Google Meeting day for NewMars...
kbd512 is developing software to rapidly define components of wings and other aircraft components based upon performance properties
The P47 earned a reputation for being resilient ("indestructable") in combat in Europe. The design of that aircraft might be worth study all these years later. There is clearly a place for propeller driven aircraft in the modern theater, but at this point all the propeller driven aircraft (except for helicopters) appear to be drones.
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Systems check went well at 23:03 UTC
The waiting room will open at a few minutes before midnight UTC, 7 PM Houston, 8 PM New Hampshire
I'm not expecting a guest from Australia but we do have members who live there. The time would be mid-morning in Australia.
The main attraction (that I know about) will be an update on kbd512's development of software to design wings and other fuselage elements for various use cases.
We are online at 23:55:55
Post meeting summary:
kbd512 was the guest of honor this evening! We spend most of the hour looking at his work on a software system that (as I understand it) is designed/intended to help with specification of ribs and spars of a wing, given parameters for the use case. It seems likely that such software must exist for commercial aircraft or perhaps for military aircraft. kbd512's concept is for a tool that could be used for preliminary design study for small general purpose aircraft, including military applications but not limited to military applications.
From my perspective, the ultimate goal for reducing cost of manufacture is to automate everything, but kbd512 (patiently) explained that aircraft manufacture still requites human expertise for critical components.
As a 3D printer experimenter, I can easily visualize an entire wing generated by a 3D printer with an unlimited Z axis.
However, kbd512 is thinking about existing manufacturing techniques which are quite different from 3D printer operations.
In any case, if there is anyone in the NewMars membership / readership who is interested in the nitty gritty of aircraft design, kbd512 appears to be in the thick of things these days.
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I got distracted, and did not notice the time. When I looked up, it was already past 8:00 central. Sorry.
GW
GW Johnson
McGregor, Texas
"There is nothing as expensive as a dead crew, especially one dead from a bad management decision"
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Today is Google Meeting Day for NewMars...
kbd512 will be away with family activities.
We'll open the waiting room as usual in case a member or two has time to drop by.
I'd be happy to show off the images of the 3D Printable Airfoil rib I've been investigating.
I have questions about the design of the rib, so we might be able to cover some aeronautics basics.
There might be other subjects members would like to pursue.
Midnight UTC, 7 PM Houston, 8 PM New Hampshire and mid-Morning Australia.
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Systems check went well at 22:11:45
We'll open the waiting room a bit before midnight UTC, 7 PM Houston, 8 PM New Hampshire and mid-morning Australia.
Post meeting summary!
That was one intense hour! Thanks to kbd512 and GW Johnson for providing a steady flow of aircraft information, web sites, images and discussion.
kbd512 is continuing to work on software that (if I understand it correctly) is intended to help a designer to make early choices that then might allow for detailed design that does not go off the rails due to an early error.
The meeting produced more online links than I am likely to be able to share with NewMars readers.
I'll start with this one:
https://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/ … planes.php
I read this entire set of pages, and am delighted to learn about this gent's childhood dream that led to his founding of a company to make kits that are now flying all over the world. It would appear that anyone with a few thousand USD to spare, and 7 months of fairly concentrated effort can produce a single seat aircraft that is safe to fly up to 200 miles between fuel stops.
For comparison, here is Google's summary of the range of a Piper Cub:
A standard Piper J-3 Cub can typically fly about 190–220 miles (300–350 km) on a single fill-up, with an endurance of roughly 3 hours. With a standard 9–12 gallon tank, fuel efficiency is excellent, but range is limited. However, modern or modified Super Cubs (PA-18) can fly much further, often exceeding 400-500 miles.
Here is a web site that we found while searching. This site includes a great deal of information about airfoils.
https://www.abbottaerospace.com/aa-sb-0 … -wing-box/
It appears that kbd512 is interested in the wing design used by Burt Rhutan in the Long-EZ aircraft.
kbd512 led the discussion through a series of web sites that included one that showed the foam used to fill a composite wing.
The load bearing service performed by a spar in a "normal" aircraft is carried by a tension tape that runs under the wing.
In flight, as the wing tries to bend upward due to the pressure of arriving air molecules, the tension tape resists bending, and it doing so, it carries lift force back to the fuselage.
The foam inside the wing resists compression and thus resists upward force from the moving air.
It appears to me (to the extent I understand the forces at work) that the combination of the tension member under the wing, and the compression member inside the wing, allows the wing to transfer force successfully to the fuselage.
In a traditional aircraft wing, ribs handle the force of the air pushing against the bottom of the wing, and spars handle transfer of force from the wings to the fuselage.
kbd512 showed us an image of an aircraft design for an unmanned vehicle that he said comes close to showing what his current thinking would yield in a single seat aircraft with a rear mounted propeller. Apparently kbd512 is leaning toward a diesel engine at the moment. This would mean that a customer would need to provide diesel fuel or purchase such fuel if the aircraft is in civilian service. Apparently jet fuel is close enough to diesel fuel.
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Time sure flies ... it is Google Meeting day once again!
Everyone is busy .... I hope the time slot works for a few members...
Midnight UTC, 7 PM Houston, 8 PM New Hampshire, mid-morning Australia.
Starship V3 launch is coming up.
See SpaceNut's post in the Starship topic for changes.
New hot staging. Three fins instead of four. All 33 engines to fire for the flip.
52 live feeds.... Should be quite a show.
Fuel transfer test. Faster satellite deployment.
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Systems check at 23:04 went well...
We are on track to open the Waiting Room a bit before midnight UTC, 7 PM Houston, 8 PM New Hampshire.
It will be mid-morning in Australia. I'm not expecting anyone from there, but we ** do ** have several members who list Australia as their location.
Waiting room is open at 23:58:53
Post meeting summary!
That was fun! kbd512 showed us work he's been doing on software to estimate aircraft design parameters, based upon planned usage and unplanned events such as gusts.
GW Johnson reviewed the presentation he posted to the forum recently, about estimating launches of Two State To Orbit vehicles with a variety of fuels, as well as several other launch configurations.
We wrapped up as the clock ran down with discussion of manufacture of fuel bladders.
We spent some time talking about the list of SpaceX V3 changes that SpaceNut published recently.
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Today is Google Meeting day for NewMars...
The recent SpaceX flight should provide plenty of opportunity for deep dives and discussion.
This was an ambitious effort by thousands of people working in truly remarkable coordination. Deployment of a drone in the Indian Ocean is just one tiny example of the prodigious effort that gave us audience members a memorable video.
It appears that there are a few technical hurdles to overcome, so we can look forward to seeing resolutions in the weeks ahead.
This was an example of world class bleeding edge engineering and masterful performance by thousands of people in the US and around the world. The Starlink team provided reliable high speed Internet service with remarkably few dropouts considering the spacecraft was traveling at nearly the same speed as the Starlink satellites themselves.
Update at 19:06 New Hampshire time ... Systems test went well. We expect to open the Waiting Room on time: Midnight UTC, 7 PM Houston, 8 PM New Hampshire. It will be mid-morning in Australia.
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The waiting room is open ...
Post meeting summary....
Both GW Johnson and kbd512 were in fine form this evening.
Discussion went deep into the recent SpaceX flight, and then expanded to in depth discussion of planning flights to the Moon.
We've had a lot of interesting discussions over the time this weekly gathering has been operating. This one was in the upper part of the range.
A key unknown that we will be looking for is how SpaceX will implement on-orbit maneuvering. kbd512 made a strong case for using bipropellants as the SpaceX space capsule is doing (and all other similar vehicles are doing). On the other hand, GW Johnson pointed out that at the moment, SpaceX seems to be achieving satisfactory results using cold gas vented from the propellant tanks.
It remains to be see which way SpaceX will go. There is a third possibility, which is to develop small rockets to burn methane and LOX for maneuver operations. kbd512 reported that there ** was ** experiment along these lines for a lunar lander, but he was pretty sure nothing else has been done with this particular fuel.
I think the risk factors that go with use of bipropellants will argue against their use by SpaceX for vehicles they intend to operate like airliners.
In any case, at the moment, SpaceX is using cold gas thrusters to achieve the effects they need for Starship flight.
We took a quick look at the SpaceX test range, which follows the East Coast of South America and ends up near Australia.
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