I’ve been scanning and organizing old photos.
A year after I started at Caterpillar, management sent me to a week-long SLAM training course in Chicago. Turns out that a random bunch of engineers can be a lot of fun.
Category: Engineering (Page 1 of 2)
WaPo: First lunar lava cave has been found.
WaPo: First lunar lava cave has been found.
My prior post about China looking at lunar lava caves referenced an article that didn’t have any new information about lunar lava caves. This recent WaPo article announces the first direct evidence of a lunar lava cave. There are a few similar news reports all based on this Radar evidence of cave conduit science article. This science article has less fluff and more interesting information. That link may not remain active, so I will post an interesting diagram from the article.
SpaceNews: China interested in lava tubes.
China, and anyone interested in a Moon base, should be interested in lava tubes. If NASA does wake up, it’s likely to roll over and go back to sleep. Fortunately, Elon Musk needs a Moon base to get to Mars.
The movie, 2001: A Space Odyssey, got a lot right. The surface of the Moon is an obnoxious place to live. The surface temperature goes from about -200o F to 200o F. Gamma rays bombard the surface, but cosmic rays are a bigger problem. Cosmic rays hitting the Earth produce the Northern Lights as their energy dissipates in the atmosphere and are deflected by our magnetic field. Those subatomic particles moving at nearly the speed of light, are not easily screened
WSJ: Quest for electric planes.
WSJ: Quest for electric planes.
Why must we entertain and finance blatantly stupid ideas? Nothing is going to make Greta Thunberg happy, so let’s stop trying. No government money or mandates should encourage the dumb ideas.
Dark matter detector doesn’t find dark matter.
In a cavern, mile below the surface of South Dakota, is the world’s most sensitive dark matter detector. They haven’t detected any dark matter
The tech, called MO/GO, short for “mountain goat,” is a hybrid soft/rigid system designed to assist wearer mobility and boost the wearer while walking.
Pretty sure they came up with MO/GO first, then came up with the “mountain goat” explanation. Still, it would help a lot of people if it works.
The launch cost of $4,500 will almost certainly restrict its use for the non-mobility limited.
Depending on the performance specifications of the actual product, this could be big. It’s certainly cheaper than a knee replacement and is in the price range of mobility scooters. The military would be interested, along with people who aren’t impaired, just not up t the challenge.
MO/GO isn’t a great name, I’d go with “kicking pants”.
February 6th, 2018, Elon Musk demonstrated that launching objects into orbit had become a mundane commercial activity. To make it interesting, the object he put in orbit was a Tesla Roadster that has since traveled over a million miles and made four laps around the sun. Where is the Roadster now?
Disney spent a quarter billion dollars to build, Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser hotel, and it only remained open for a year and a half. This girl spent $6000 to be immersed in the experience. Fortunately, she’s cute and made an engaging 4-hour video about her Star Wars adventure that’s been viewed by 7 million people. She should recoup her expenses.
Disney is a big company, with a net profit of 1.7 billion dollars last year. They can’t keep making big mistakes like this. How did they screw this up so bad?
City Journal: Politics and Physics Collide
The legislature and unelected regulators enjoy magical thinking because the time frames are long, they will never be held responsible and perhaps engineers can meet the goals. Automakers have long been burdened with fleet economy standards that must be met. The Laws of Thermodynamics are problems for engineers, not legislators. Cars became lighter and less safe while also becoming more complex and expensive.
The idea that the United States can quickly “transition” away from hydrocarbons—the energy sources primarily used today—to a future dominated by so-called green technologies has become one of the central political divides of our time.