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jerryb

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Posts posted by jerryb

    bare with me here.....(spaceships)

    in Non Tech Board

    Posted

    Master......:hail::hail::hail:...all is PDFd.....but

     

    Square miles of anything in space should not be a problem....should it?

     

    Your boys are in my territory now (ex aerospace engineer), so I'm gonna have to school ya.

     

    1. You don't need multi-generational spacecraft to get to anyplace inside the solar system, all you need is really really patient astronauts. You can get to Mars in 6-9 months using current heavy-lift boosters and low-impulse chemical motors. Make the injection motors nuclear (SNAP, Nerva class fission, nothing fancy 60's tech) and you'd cut that in half. Saturn would take about twice that (depending on course & fuel requirements). Times get larger with large payloads.

     

    2. Artificial gravity is probably not necessary to Mars, but would be for any of the Jovians. It's not hard, but it's expensive in terms of mass. Here's what you'd do:

     

    First, you have your vehicle stacked for escape:

    Boost_Phase.jpg

    With chemical rockets, you're in boost for minutes. With a nuclear it's hours. Pretty soon thought you're in 0g cruise phase. Pop some bolts, some verneers fire, cable starts to pay out ...

    separation.jpg

    Once the cables are taut, thrusters fire sending the whole thing spinning...

    cruise_phase.jpg

    Note that the power section is likely the heavier than the crew quarters (needs reactor shielding, plenty of reaction mass), and the comm section is at the center of mass and so only rotating - the antennas are pointed at Earth all the time. Voila, artificial gravity. If you want to thrust the whole time, you put the motors in the middle, let the whole arrangement "sag", doesn't make any difference to the crew, force is force. Reverse the whole procedure when you get to where you're going. Note, though, that the vehicle has to be quite a bit heavier than a 0G can, 'cause it has to be strong enough to take the stresses of its own (and the payload's) weight.

     

    3. Zero gravity (actually "microgravity", as there is in fact gravity wherever you go) turns out to be really bad for living things. In humans, it starts the bones degrading very quickly indeed (days), dumping gigantic amounts of calcium into the system, which causes problems all by itself. The cardiovascular system has problems, in humans, 'cause the whole system is designed with five feet of "head" pressure differential. The heart begins to degrade ("If you don't use it, you lose it"). There are some visual problems, as well (more plumbing problems). A certain percent of people experience fairly intense motion sickness, and some of them never get over it, even after some time. Also, there's the problem of radiation: our sun is the source of all light and goodness, true, but it's also a hell of any kind of radiation you could name, none of which is "good" for you (It is rumored that male astronauts/cosmonauts of a certain age going to the ISS are strongly counseled to make a deposit at the local sperm bank. No equivalent option exists for females.)

     

    4. jerryb wrote:

    This is a deeply cool technology for moving things around inside the solar system. There are practical problems, though, not the least of which is that you're talking about square miles of material, likely metalized plastic of some kind, kept deployed by a static electric charge. You're talking about very low accelerations (.0005G), so it's not quick (for short trips), but every bit helps, and it pushes for however long you'd like. Also, you can't really steer very much - there's no such thing as a "keel" in a spacecraft, so the best you can do is apply force *away* from the sun. It's useful, for sure, but not very "versatile".

     

    5. "Cabin Fever". Note that mission times here are measured in years (3 years Mars, say 6-7 years Saturn?), and we're probably talking about a total volume the size of the average living room for 6 crewmembers. S**t happens when you coop people up for years. What about good old sweaty lovin'? You'd pretty much *have* to have a mixed-gender crew (cause what a person needs, they needs). Married couples? Great idea, but what about arguments, screw you's, "I don't love you any more"'s? What happens if someone dies? What happens if there's an affair? Remember, these are going to be some of the most highly trained, intelligent, aggressive, goal-driven people that ever lived. That kind of mind needs constant challenges, and if nothing challenging is happening, they'll make something challenging happen. Human nature.

     

    hoov100 wrote

    Remember man, we're talking about a couple of different things here. Reactors can have a bunch of different applications. As a reaction device, you just jam them rods together and inject some hydrogen, whoosh, thrust, and lots of it. It was done successfully forty years ago, very very high impulse (which is good). The only problem is that the resulting jet is "hot" in a bad way. Even by 60's standards, you wouldn't want to use it in Earth orbit (yeah, that hot). Needless to say, the old Nervas didn't even have shielding on them (what's the point?), but it made them nice and light.

    Then, you can use a reactor to generate lots of electricity, which you can do some cool things with, the coolest of which is an ion drive. You ionize some fuel (hydrogen works good, again) with say a "+" charge. Then you generate a HUGE voltage differential across a series of plates that first attract, then repel, the ionized propulsion mass. If you do it right, you have hydrogen nuclei moving at some serious fraction of the speed of light. Talk about impulse! A couple of hundred pounds of reaction mass can push you to solar exit velocity in a few months! Not much thrust, true, but you can keep it up for months. The downside is that you're talking about gigawatts of current to get that kind of performance - think of a couple of the largest current earthbound coal powerplants working wide open, you'll be in the correct ballpark.

    Share your favorite Automotive web sites

    in Non Tech Board

    Posted

    Technical, retail, race, forum or any other auto based pages....just want to visit new but qaulified sites . And yes HybridZ is tops

    My favs are...

     

    http://www.autospeed.com/

    check the archives, tons of good reading!

     

    http://www.ka-t.org/forums/index.php

    Great technical SX forum...better the most teeny bopper SX forums.

     

    http://www.autonews.com/

    News on the auto Industry

     

    http://www.locostusa.com/forums/index.php

    One day I will build one...a narrow single seat version

    Stainless Gas tank straps for 240Z

    in Group Buys

    Posted

    I am waiting on feedback regarding fit on a 07/76 to end of 78 Zs. I have yet to obtain the middle series for testing. If someone can measure them for me (and provide a pic) I can have them made no problem.

     

     

    I need a set for a 1975 280Z, can you advise the current mfg'ing status and total with shipping to 77070.

     

     

    Thanks,

    John

    Carpet replacement

    in Interior

    Posted

    So where did you buy the Chrysler carpet??

     

    Looks fantastic.......I have tried different kits in the past and have never been happy. Well done!

     

    Parts

     

    - 4 yard x 60" of carpet (this will cover the whole car) I choose to go with the original theme and get loop pile. I choose the one that are in the New Chrysler 300

    80$ Cdn.

     

    .

    thinking of buy either of these two zs

    in S30 Series - 240z, 260z, 280z

    Posted

    Low ball both and get both. Nothing like having a local parts bin to work from.

     

    As I see it the most critical aspect is how solid is the car. Body work is expensive and time consuming.

     

    The car with the "new Interior" catches my attention as it implies the body is decent...but ......?

     

    I guess the bottom line is for that price I doubt either are a gem so better look very closely at both and pick the most solid.

     

    What state is Pluto in?

    Block to tranny stiffeners....Important?

    in Nissan RB Forum

    Posted

    My RB20 has two heavy stiffeners joining the block to the tranny. How critical are these to the intergrity of the engine/tranny when increasing power?

     

    Im thinking of building an aluminum oil pan with a much bigger sump. I can build the sump forward into the angled portion of the oilpan and/or build it back as there is a ton of room.

     

    Any of you run "high" power without these stiffeners without detriment? NISSAN must have put them there for good reason???

    The Ultimate HID Headlight Upgrade the easy way!

    in Miscellaneous Tech

    Posted

    One more ...I love being Canadian and being ripped off be the retail industry. Found this seller in BC.... http://www.604racing.com/index.php?cmd=products&sub=499483b242fd7&p=

     

    $409 Canadian! Arghhhhh!

     

    Looks like the ballast is available as a replacement part. http://www.604racing.com/index.php?cmd=products&sub=49949f67f3566&p=

     

    FricFrac.....is this in fact the same unit you installed?

     

    Thanx again for bringing this to our attention.

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