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For OF1939
The video you showed us in the Solar Power topic, in Post #705, appears to me to be a blatant falsehood!
In looking at the terrain chosen for the panels, I see evidence that the planners looked for land where nothing had grown for millions of years, and where no self-respecting deer or any other intelligent creature would venture.
If the surface of Mars were covered with solar panels, absolutely no one would care, except for an artist who might long to see a vista of desert where nothing has grown for millions of years.
This issue seems to be important to you, so this forum provides an opportunity for you to develop your ideas further.
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I only posted the video because it showed an issue with solar panels that I strongly disapprove of. Especially when a viable alternative (nuclear power--Thorium based) already exists. In Europe, where the Greens forced the EU to adopt solar and wind power, these alternative energy sources have already been shown to be unreliable. In Germany (where I recently visited for 5 weeks) there are so-called Wind Farms which are idled due to lack of enough constant winds, and there are now coal mines reopening because of the war in Ukraine preventing import of natural gas.
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For Oldfart1939 re #52
Thanks for explaining your reason for posting the video....
Please forgive my pursuing this a bit further ... I genuinely have NO idea what anyone could find objectionable about a carefully placed and well maintained solar panel. The person who created the video may well have had a motivation that differs from yours.
As far as fission and thorium are concerned.... I don't think the issue is the materials themselves, so much as the obvious untrustworthiness of other human beings.
Human beings have been behaving badly since before recorded times, as indicated indirectly by evidence unearthed by archaeologists.
Human beings are behaving badly today, and we'll find out about some of the misbehavior in tomorrow's news.
If human beings could be trusted with fission, we might have more acceptance of a valuable power source.
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For Oldfart1939 re testing of new FluBB web site...
Please log into the new system at http://newmars.com/new/
Please post a message there to confirm you were able to log in, and to report your observations.
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For OldFart1939 re Encouraging post in Isaacman topic...
Thanks for reminding us of the idea of repairing and boosting Hubble!
While Mr. Isaacman is fixing things, I sure hope he decides not to take the risk of flying Artemis II with the defective heat shield currently installed.
GW Johnson can bring you up to date if you are not aware of the situation, as is (probably) true of most Americans.
If Mr. Isaacman is selected, I think his main challenge will be persuading Congress to redirect the flow of taxpayer dollars away from the current recipients who have such poor track records, and to organizations that can (and will) use those dollars much more effectively.
It should be possible for individual Americans to provide moral support by writing or emailing their Congressional delegation to support the nomination.
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For OlFart1939 re post in Orbital Mechanics topic....
https://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.ph … 43#p228443
First, thank you for your helpful contribution to the discussion of how best to move kbd512's 500 passenger dual-counter-rotating-habitat space transport from LEO to escape velocity. As you probably noted, GW Johnson can give kbd512's vessel a push from LEO that is just shy of escape. The reason for the "just shy" is that the tug needs to get back home, and GW has planned a trajectory that allows that.
kbd512's crew is then responsible for the last 600 to 800 meters per second to reach escape, and that acceleration must happen swiftly enough so that the vessel does not fall back into an extended loop around the Earth.
kbd512 is ** really ** REALLY ** opposed to use of chemical propulsion for main propulsion, so your suggestion of a nuclear thermal system may be attractive. The system needs to be sized for the task at hand, which is to push 1000 tons and achieve (about) 800 m/sec dV.
I sure hope kbd512 likes this suggestion, because if he ** does **, we'll be treated to a series of posts that will make quality reading.
As you have probably noted, this forum, though small in numbers, has three (## 3 ##) members working on various deep space space vessels.
For any reader who drops in on this topic without knowing the history, we have:
1) RobertDyck with two+ years invested in Large Ship (to carry 1000+) humans in incredible discomfort but correspondingly amazing cuisine.
2) GW Johnson, with a medium sized dual-counter-rotating habitat vessel with 4 RPM as the standard and 1 Earth Atmosphere.
3) kbd512 with a dual-counter-rotating habitat design able to carry 500 passengers is some comfort.
I suspect that all three of these designs would benefit from having a small nuclear thermal propulsion system in the mix.
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For kbd512 re #57
This topic is intended for correspondence with Oldfart1939, or noting significant posts, or for Oldfart1939 to publish something that does not fit elsewhere.
With your permission ? I will invite Oldfart1939 to comment on your post.
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For Oldfart1939 re post in Orbital mechanics topic
https://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.ph … 76#p228476
Thank you for reminding members of another of the many treasures we have in the many thousands of posts in the archive.
I have probably read more than anyone active today, because of the work I did for SpaceNut to fix hundreds of older posts. And I've read every non-political post since I joined in 2015, but all that I have read is probably only a third (at most) of what is there.
I tried to introduce a tagging system early on, but I was the only one using it, and I've run out of steam.
The forum software ** does ** provide a powerful search tool, since it collects words used in each post. The table where all those words are stored is huge by now, as I'm sure you can imagine.
If you would like to tackle the memory recall you've described, I'd be happy to see the topic brought back into view.
GW Johnson has been presenting in person and by video about his Space Tug concept for several years now. It is nice to see that work beginning to receive a small amount of recognition. If something was done previously, it is possible he was not aware of it.
Again, thanks for reminding the readers (and members) of that earlier work!
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Oldfart1939,
kbd512 is only ** really ** REALLY ** opposed to making per-passenger ticket prices out of the realm of people of normal means. If you have to fly a dozen or more times to send an ITV on its way, that tends to drastically limit who can and will spend the money to make the trip. I really don't care in the slightest what piece of tech or combination of things makes the flight affordable enough to become routine. I'm totally agnostic on what powers this ITV, so long as it delivers affordable ticket prices. Whether the tech involved is solar, nuclear, electric, chemical, the Mach Effect thruster if that pans out, a warp drive, or anything else is fine with me. If someone can prove though testing and full development of a flight-rated engine that their propulsion tech has "the right stuff", then we're golden.
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For Oldfart1939...
FYI... GW followed upon on your mention/inquiry/suggestion of nuclear fission power for space flight...
This post is for a new study by GW Johnson on NERVA style engines for Space Tug application:
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For Oldfart1939 re 17 person Exploration crew concept....
Thanks for reporting on the possible collaboration between NASA and SpaceX for a Mars expedition.
As you noted, you had started work on designing such an expedition, so this might be a good time to pick up that topic and carry it a bit further. I recall the theme of triplets of skill sets and the idea of cross training of individuals. That concept is familiar as a characteristic of elite military teams, such as the Navy Seals or Green Berets.
GW Johnson has proposed a rotating habitat deep space exploration vehicle that would provide one G at 4 RPM (as I recall). RobertDyck's design provides Mars G at 3 RPM. I'll bet the SpaceX/NASA version has no rotation at all, or something like the baton design GW has described.
In any case, it would be good to see you back at work on your 17 person expedition.
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For Oldfart1939 re link to Blue Origin test....
Thanks for showing us that 24 second run of the booster.
It seemed to me that the water deluge system was very well designed, because the burn seemed to produce only exhaust and water in one direction, as intended.
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For Oldfart1939 re 38 personnel in rotating habitat deep space exploration vessel....
38 is the number of personnel that came out of thin air as an optimum number to ride in one of GW Johnson's deep space exploration vessels.
GW has a ** lot ** of irons in the fire right now, and the deep space exploration vessel is nowhere near the top of his list. However, I brought it up this evening in the Google meeting, so now it has at least a small chance of renewed life here in the forum.
The consensus seemed to be that a multiple years long expedition away from Earth needs a crew complement greater than your Mars optimized number of 17.
My question for you is: If you had the opportunity to design a crew for a deep space exploration mission, and the count is 38, how would you assign responsibilities? As a reminder, the vessel includes two habitats for personnel that rotate at 4 RPM, so the diameter is fixed by the laws of physics. The width of the wheels is determined by the number of personnel and the amount of space allocated to them in the wheels. The ship itself will include significant volume NOT in the habitats, but my guess is personnel will want to spend as much time as possible in the habitats. On the ** other ** hand, the habitats needs to be kept as light as possible so they can be enlisted for navigation, as part of a set of gyroscopes for vessel orientation. In other words, the contents of the habitats needs to be kept to the minimum to sustain the crew in modest comfort, so as much as possible can be allocated to the microgravity environment. The ISS has shown that a lot can be accomplished in a microgravity environment.
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For Oldfart1939 re Starship launch...
I found this on space.com...
If you want to add it to the topic where you reported on the Starship 7 failure, you can keep your ID on display there.
Space Exploration Private Spaceflight
Watch SpaceX launch its Starship Flight 8 megarocket test flight on March 6
News
By Mike Wall last updated 10 hours ago
Liftoff is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. ET on Thursday (March 6).
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For oldfart1939 re new topic ...
https://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.php?id=11226
Best wishes for success with this new topic.
As you know, GW Johnson has written extensively on this subject.
It seems to me likely the early ideas you've shown us will be tried.
The 1960's NASA engineers showed how to land on the Moon.
The images you showed us reflect an ambition to ignore the lessons from history.
After writing the above, it occurred to me that the lessons from history might be teaching us a different lesson than I had been assuming.
Perhaps the SpaceX engineers look at the landings of the Apollo Lunar Landers and observe that the surface was stable and able to hold compressive loads. Perhaps the surface of the Moon, combined with the lower gravity, permits the tiny footprint shown in the links you provided. However, just on a speculation, I'll bet the Chinese will follow GW Johnson's advice, and spread out the landing legs widely, the way the NASA lunar lander legs were spread.
Hopefully we will get to see the two sets of ideas in play soon.
The race back to the Moon seems to be back on!
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For OldFart1939 re Isaacman interview ...
https://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.ph … 09#p238509
Thank you for finding and postings the link to this interview!
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For Oldfart1939...
It's good to see your ID back in the forum.
We have offered a contact email address for several years, and if you had written it down you could have contacted us any time during the recent outage. If your email is up to date and working, and if you actually still use it, we could have contacted you from the Lifeboat site.
As a test I will attempt to send a contact email now. Please let me know if it arrives.
Thanks again for returning to provide a post. I agree that the human missions topic is likely to become active in the next year or so.
In the mean time, the unmanned mission topic is available for news about development of the New Glenn and other systems.
I was disappointed by the news you brought of the lost payload, I was interested in seeing that payload succeed, because (as I understand it) the idea is to try to reach smartphones from low Earth orbit. That would be quite an achievement.
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For Oldfart1939 re post about Thorium reactors and the history of research at your University.
I'm wondering if the history of study of Thorium reactors at your University might rate it's own topic?
Here is a list of existing topics. None seem to me to be a good fit.
If we create a topic, would you have the time and energy to fill it with posts? You are really getting up there! Is there someone younger you could persuade to take this on? What I have in mind is creating a (small) repository of knowledge, similar to Wikipedia but perhaps easier to implement. I don't see this topic as suitable for discussion. The forum had a long run as a discussion site, but those days are long past.
Thorium reactors are go! (In India) by Rxke [ 1 2 ]
Life support systems 25 2025-11-29 20:59:11 by tahanson43206
2
Thorium to Tritium to Helium 3 by tahanson43206
Business Proposals 6 2024-08-22 11:23:50 by tahanson43206
3
Discovery of Huge Lunar Thorium Deposit by Calliban
Science, Technology, and Astronomy 8 2024-05-19 13:07:18 by SpaceNut
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For Oldfart1939 re post about Blue Origin:
https://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.ph … 58#p239558
Thank you for this report. It's been a while since we've seen an anomaly of this magnitude in launch rehearsal.
Since the mantra of Blue Origin is "slow and careful" it is out of character for something like this to occur.
Something like static electricity buildup might cause an event like this but there had to have been a leak of propellant, so perhaps a failure in one of the hoses or connections. I hope there were video cameras covering the loading process.
All of us Amazon customers will be helping to put the company back on track.
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For OldFart1939 re post about Health ...
To Thomas-Inclusion of a Human Health in Space Travel would be my interest in many ways. It sort of plays to one of my strengths as a chemist as I was working on a proposal that I was hoping would find some NASA funding for lengthy missions. This was even before I became a member here--but there was no funding through SBIR grants available at the time. I sorta gave up my efforts as a consequence. My final research field as a chemist/biochemist was a deep involvement in peptide chemistry and the biology thereof. I had identified a potential program of hormonal regulation of bone growth and treatment of osteoporosis induced by microgravity.
SpaceNut and I've been debating the future of the forum for years, and he has actually implemented a few changes after long thought. An example was creating the new Projects category as visible only to members, so folks could discuss their work without having the world able to see it in early stages.
He's made other changes, the most notable of which was to stop blind registration, after 20,000+ scammers created accounts. SpaceNut is patient, but even SpaceNut reached his limit with ** that ** episode.
I have proposed a "Health" category, but so far SpaceNut is not convinced.
Your post helps in the long process of deciding what changes to make.
My concern is that the forum is running along on a very small membership. All my attempts to bring in new members have resulted in very interesting contributions like those of Steve Stewart and PhotonBytes, but they are no longer active. Other new folks I brought in never added a post at all.
My present initiative is to see if we might convert from Discussion First and Foremost, to Education first and Discussion Second.
There is no need to limit discussion. Education ** should ** stimulate discussion all by itself. But discussion of global politics without any connection to Mars is not what the Mars Society is paying for.
I've suggested we open the forum to Mars Society members, but so far SpaceNut hasn't nibbled on that one either.
PS re 1939 ... You are my senior, but I have a neighbor who was born the day after the Great Crash of 1929. He's going strong (for his age) heading up a volunteer community wood shop with a full suite of power tools donated by a local industry at some point.
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For Oldfart1939 re new topic !!!
Thanks for creating this interesting new topic.
There is a high probability that the people you might want to participate in developing this topic are not currently members.
Would you be interested in helping us design an outreach campaign within the Mars Society membrership.
Mr. James Burk, Executive Director of the Society, (and formerly our Webmaster) recently informed us that we (NewMars) are considered the official forum of the Mars Society. SpaceNut has added that designation to our front page.
Mr. Burk might be receptive to a professional proposal from a person with the appropriate credentials to reach out to the Mars Society membership to invite participation in a serious exchange of data and perhaps even views.
SpaceNut seems to be holding out for discussion.
I think discussion has run it's course and it is time to build up knowledge and to support education.
Perhaps the compromise is discussion about science, as you seem to have proposed.
I am currently working on an initiative to support an educational activity involving robotics. It is not at all clear how this is going to turn out, but discussion about educational objectives might meet both requirements.
Please let SpaceNut and me know how we might help you to build up membership around your new topic.
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For Oldfart1939
Your new topic appears to be off to a good start with some data that appears to me to be well suited for a medical practitioner advising a space traveler. I am wondering who your audience might be? I other words, are you writing for a professional like yourself, or could a lay person gain some benefit from reading the topic?
You mentioned difficulty finding current information, and I can sympathize with feeling out of the flow of current journals and online resources. However, if your mind is not averse to trying one of the AI services that are competing for our attention, you might find one that has access to medical journals and which can prepare reports that are suitable for a general audience while retaining the impact needed by a professional.
SpaceNut has shown us how to make effective use of CoPilot, as just one example.
ChatGPT and Gemini are just two of the several competing systems. There may even be one that is tailored for medical practitioners. That would not surprise me at all. Medicine was the focus of early AI research, and several interesting experiments were carried out with human programmed systems. Those have been left far in the dust of course, now that neural networks have evolved as they have.
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For Oldfart1939...
SpaceNut created an entire Forum for us to develop on Human Health in Space.
We seem to be off to a good start but we might lose momentum if we let other interests take up our time.
We might be able to increase the number of participants adding to the new forum, if we keep building content at a reasonable pace.
Could you add a post a day for a while? I am looking for this new forum to become an education resource. In other words, if a person is interesting in this topic, I would like to see our forum regarded as at a level comparable to Wikipedia in value.
I would like to see every post accompanied by references so our readers can explore further if they are so inspired.
You can enlist Gemini, ChatGPT or CoPilot to help you find sources for information that would be added to the new forum.
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Thomas-most of the online forums always devolve into discussions surrounding radiation issues and how it will kill anyone going on deep space missions. This is exactly what I hope to avoid on the new forum. Dr. Zubrin has repeatedly addressed this issue in his books and I support his views 100%!
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Hi Oldfart1939... Thanks for your update in Post #74
I am encouraged by two things... you offered to work on this new forum if SpaceNut created it, and SpaceNut created the forum.
It is possible you understand the implications but for any readers who might be tuning into the forum for the first time, what this means is that you and your associates have the opportunity to create as many topics as seem needed.
I am looking for you and those who support the new forum to accumulate knowledge in an accessible form. NewMars has been in the discussion business for 20+ years, and only a few members remain to keep that going. As long as those members remain, discussion will continue, but we are not adding any new members who are interested in discussion.
Meanwhile, the education needs of the Mars Enterprise are looming, and right now there is very little going on to address the coming need. Mars Society and a very small number of organizations world wide are taking active steps to prepare humans for this undertaking, so there is definitely activity going on. This forum is well positioned to contribute by providing a solid repository for knowledge, best practices, wisdom and whatever else the Mars Enterprise is going to need.
I am hoping you will add at least one post a day to start building that repository. However, you need support and your advice on how to enlist support would be most welcome. If there are professional societies whose members might be interested in helping, then letters of invitation could be offered to the publications of those organizations. The Mars Society itself might be willing to provide publicity, but ** only ** for a well qualified initiative led by a well qualified individual.
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