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#451 2026-06-21 08:30:44
- tahanson43206
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Re: Google Meet Collaboration - Meetings Plus Followup Discussion
Today is Google Meeting day for NewMars...
The waiting room will open shortly before Midnight UTC, 7 PM Houston, 8 PM New Hampshire.
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#452 2026-06-21 16:41:41
- tahanson43206
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Re: Google Meet Collaboration - Meetings Plus Followup Discussion
Systems check went well at 22:39...
Waiting room is due to open a bit before Midnight UTC, 7 PM Houston, 8 PM New Hampshire, and mid-morning Australia.
We are open at 23:57
Possible topics include GW's four new files about Mars Transportation and related topics, Void's idea of heat shield material from the Moon, and now we have Calliban's link to a story about the Moon.
Other topics are certainly possible.
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#453 2026-06-21 18:04:30
- SpaceNut
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Re: Google Meet Collaboration - Meetings Plus Followup Discussion
https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads … tagged.pdf
Regolith Derived Heat Shield for Planetary Body Entry and Descent System with In Situ Fabrication
NASA Innovative Advanced Concept (NIAC)
Final Report
November 13, 2012
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#454 2026-06-25 06:18:05
- tahanson43206
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Re: Google Meet Collaboration - Meetings Plus Followup Discussion
A Google Meeting is planned for 10 AM New Hampshire time for a robot education session.
The meeting room will open shortly before 10 AM and the meeting will last for as long as needed but no more than one hour.
The agenda will include study of the Cokoino robot kit and discussion of how to connect to it using a computer.
System check at 13:49 went well. The waiting room is open now. A meeting about Cokoino robot kit is planned for 10 AM New Hampshire time.
The waiting room is open at 13:58:54 ... standing by.
Standing by at 14:02 ....
Meeting Summary:
From my perspective this was a productive meeting. The Cokoino robot arm I've been working with was delivered to a new home, and the new owners and I went through the procedure to connect the control board to a Windows 11 system. We were unsuccessful because we did not achieve a physical connection between the board and the computer. However, we did confirm that the drivers needed by the board are available in the Windows 11, because we found the "inf" from our installation in the "INF" folder. The drivers will be installed automatically when the board is physically connected to the computer.
Our recovery plan is to bring the board back here so i can test it on my Windows 7 machine (or Raspberry Pi 5) or both. If the board does NOT work, then something happened to it and it must be replaced. If it DOES work, then we can consider the cable as a possible factor, although three cables were tried at the new home so that seems unlikely. Power was ON in the circuit board, because a power LED was lit.
In the mean time, we have two applications for membership in the forum, and I will process those in the next few days. These new members will be joining in order to participate in the educational activities of the Mars Society. There is interest in looking at the educational offerings of GW Johnson.
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#455 2026-06-25 16:56:17
- SpaceNut
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Re: Google Meet Collaboration - Meetings Plus Followup Discussion
The 
is quite interesting
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#456 2026-06-28 07:26:51
- tahanson43206
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Re: Google Meet Collaboration - Meetings Plus Followup Discussion
Today is Google Meeting day for NewMars....
GW Johnson just posted another set of papers, so we have those to discuss today.
The recent focus of Dr. Johnson's work is protection of cryogenic propellants for his Space Tug operations.
His goal is two weeks of negligible loss of propellant due to solar heating.
At present he reports success with higher temperature propellants, but not yet with LH2, which is the ideal fuel for these energy intensive operations.
We'll open the waiting room at midnight UTC, 7 PM Houston, 8 PM New Hampshire, and mid-morning in Australia.
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#457 2026-06-28 17:51:26
- tahanson43206
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Re: Google Meet Collaboration - Meetings Plus Followup Discussion
Google Meeting Systems Check went well at 23:50
I'll leave the waiting room open.
The main topic for this evening is GW's study of insulation for cryogenic propellants for two weeks.
Other topics are welcome.
Post meeting summary:
That was fun! GW has been hard at work addressing the problem of keeping propellant cool for the duration of his Space Tug missions. He designed a combination of materials and structures that achieves the time requirements for Earth and Mars, for LCH4, LOX and LH2.
All the topics we covered are published right here in the forum:
https://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.ph … 96#p239996
The links in the above post cover the multiple layers of insulation needed for various propellants
https://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.ph … 63#p239963
The links in the above post cover the LH2 studies.
What I like about the design is that GW used perfectly ordinary materials and arranged them to achieve the needed cooling performance.
It seems likely to me that other materials or structures might improve performance at the margins, but the cost of the alternative materials may not be worth the investment. The tanks can be assembled on Earth and carried to orbit fully assembled and ready for use.
It seems to me that Dr. Johnson's vision of a space infrastructure that encompasses Earth and Mars (and the Moon as a side gambit) is coming together nicely.
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#458 2026-07-05 15:23:18
- tahanson43206
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Re: Google Meet Collaboration - Meetings Plus Followup Discussion
The Google Meeting announcement is late today... we are on schedule to open the waiting room at midnight UTC as usual.
GW Johnson has a number of papers and images and updates in general to report.
We have two new members although I don't expect either to join us this week.
We are open at 23:58:21
Post meeting summary:
kbd512 was back with us after an extended absence, and GW Johnson was on hand once again.
The two of them were BOTH primed with news to discuss so that was a fully packed hour.
kbd512 has made considerable progress on a project involving a small aircraft. On this occasion, instead of showing us calculations performed by the software he has been writing to help with the design, he described many of the elements of the aircraft that he has made decisions about and why. The discussion included materials and shapes and fabrication methods. This will be a pusher aircraft with design elements to reduce complexity and to increase service life.
GW reviewed several images he's created recently. some are published in the forum, and some are still on my local machine.
A fair amount of our time was spent looking at three drawings that are helping with the problem of writing instructions for a robot (3 armed) to deliver a tool with motion in X and none in Y or Z. GW pointed out that the velocity of movement in X needs to be taken into account as well, since there is no force measurement sensor in the robot system we are studying. To achieve a uniform steady movement in X, the software needs to plan movements that take into account the angle of each arm in a particular movement not only to compute the corresponding changes of the other two joints but the rate of progress of the tool holder in X.
I had not gotten that far, and (in fact) am still dealing with the first arm at this point.
We closed tonight's session with discussion of the Blue Origin failure, the recent SpaceX test flight, and even the recent Pegasus flight to attempt recovery of a NASA gamma ray detection telescope that needs a boost to stay ouf of the ocean a bit longer.
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#459 2026-07-12 13:33:55
- tahanson43206
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Re: Google Meet Collaboration - Meetings Plus Followup Discussion
Today is Google Meeting day for NewMars.
The link to attend is in Post #1 of this topic.
Waiting room opens at midnight UTC, 7 PM Houston, 8 PM New Hampshire, mid-morning Australia
GW Johnson has been busy as usual, and has a new concept for Mars Lander to show.
Depending upon who joins we might take deep dives into some interesting topics.
Otherwise we are risk of taking deep dives into uninteresting topics.
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#460 2026-07-12 17:59:24
- tahanson43206
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Re: Google Meet Collaboration - Meetings Plus Followup Discussion
The waiting room is open at 23:59:17
Gw Johnson gave a presentation on his ongoing study of lander design Mars.
The particular lander design we studied was inspired by one of Void's many visions.
Dr. Johnson took that idea about as far as anyone can. That idea was to deliver payloads to Mars with foldout payload pods.
The engineering design challenges are significant. GW explored several variations on the basic idea.
The problem is compounded in difficulty by GW's self imposed requirement not to drop anything on the ground during descent.
He is thinking ahead to a time when valuable items are on the ground on Mars, including people.
In the latest iteration of the study, GW has been looking at the possibility of entering the atmosphere from orbit with a traditional looking heat shield ahead of a typical looking teardrop shape, with the difference that at a moment just before hitting the ground, the heat shield would open up to give rocket engines the opportunity to slow the descent and to land the vehicle gently on the surface.
How that opening of the heat shield would be done is not yet clear. Gw has a number of ideas, many of which have proven impractical when translated into prospective hardware.
***
We also discussed the ongoing inquiry about CH4 vs CO for propellant at Mars. GW starts with a preference for high-ISP propellant, and I remain skeptical that the folks trying that approach are going to win funding when they are competing with equally competent engineers designing for the CO/LOX approach.
At this point, I don't think there is anyone on Earth (or Mars) who has a clue which approach will win long term funding and provide returns for stock holders.
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