Posts by annodomini2
548 posts • joined Monday 24th May 2010 10:05 GMT
Posted in CSIRO scales up solar cell printing
How well do they handle heat?
Given that typically you get about 1kw/m^2 from sunlight, 1-5% efficiency is poor even by solar panel standards.
So these things are mostly absorbing between 950 and 990w (yes some will be reflected), which will mostly be converted to heat.
I'm curious how hot they actually get and how much that impacts efficiency further.
Re: The value of "IP"
While I understand where you are trying to go with it.
Patents as a result would become virtually impossible for the non-corporate entity, having to maintain a local presence in every applicable country.
Re: Really?
114km assuming constant regression rate.
The current distance is ~384,400km.
So the difference is 0.03%
The most interesting point...
"Among self-rated papers that stated a position on AGW, 97.2 per cent endorsed the consensus view that humans are causing global warming; over half of the abstracts that the evaluative team had rated as "No Position" or "Undecided" and were self-evaluated by their authors had their ratings changed to "Endorse AGW" by those papers' authors."
This is the interesting point, so have 97.2% of published Climate Scientists, stated an opinion endorsing AGW or have or 34.8%
Or is it actually only 34.8% papers...
How many of the 8547 authors endorsed AGW?
Then how many of these 8547 Authors have definitive proof that AGW is real?
Until the the first question is answered, there is no statement of opinion and the statistic is made up.
Until the second question is answered, all the statements made are pure speculation.
Re: Maybe it's just me
But how would Gormless George and co keep their useless lazy schoolmates plush with Champagne dinners and hookers.
RepRap is an attempt, yes it can't print everything, yes you still have to build it.
But it's a step.
Nipple implant
Thing is doe it include a right nipple implant that I can twist to pick up jazz fm?
(One for the dwarfers)
Posted in Kepler continues exoplanet bonanza
Re: Moons
My only thinking being that if these planets have large moons (as with Earth), they may actually be smaller than measured.
Re: A shame but it won't work
1. Yup
2. They would ideally.
3. Nope, Automotive Integrated Sat-Nav's are expensive because they are part of the car, which means they have to be certified to the same level as all the other electronics in the vehicle. A Plug in unit doesn't. This is where the majority of the price difference comes from, plus the OEM's and dealer's margin!
4. Yup, but they are not liable for changes to the standard specification.
It is happening, you get car stereo's with Interfaces that can run apps from your Smartphone. IOS and some Android devices are supported.
Posted in Kepler continues exoplanet bonanza
Moons
Are we determining if these planets have moons???
Re: 15KWh?
This is intended for grid storage, so mass is less of a concern.
To say they will have zero maintenance is naive, they have moving parts, they will need maintenance.
At least inspection.
Durability
The primary issue facing SSD type storage flash is durability, smaller faster chips are great, but if they don't last then they become pointless.
Marketing people working overtime
The chip doesn't heal itself, it's just more fault tolerant.
Re: re. the '974 patent
Yes it's obvious now, but it may not have been say in the 50's when it was fitted to a tv, but I agree if it has been around as a concept that long then how has the patent withstood the test in the courts?
Cost...
The fuel and or mechanisms to enter orbit, lander, survival crap etc. All add weight and resulting launch costs.
Doing a flyby for under 20t might be feasible.
Landing mission you're probably looking at >50t for one way and >200t for return.
This is just a pod and enough fuel, oxygen, food and other sundries to last 2 years.
SpaceX launch costs are around $2000/lb, so you're looking at, as a min, an extra $133m for the one way lander, and $800m for the return mission. That is just launch costs not developing any of the systems.
2 years playing [insert generic popular console] in zero g. I'm sure there'll be applicants.
Re: at last a use for it!
Assuming you can actually get it to recognise the disc and work.
Re: A very neat hack.
"I'm wondering if the disk spins while it's being written?"
Yes it does
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LightScribe
Re: My Samsung Galaxy SIII needs a good battery
And if they fix the battery contacts! ;)
Looks to me like a heavy duty tent peg.
Re: Why call it Curiosity....
It's about $200,000/kg to mars.
Re: well we can hope
I just badger them until they put me through to the UK call centre, the standard offshore unit is completely useless, the UK one couldn't be more helpful.
@Ogi
That's the principle, the reality is far different!
Unfortunately to get these things working correctly takes hours and hours of fiddling with the machine, then hours and hours of fiddling with the models to get what you want.
Yes that plastic clip for a 40-50yo car costs £20, but if you include your time, usually it's cheaper to just buy the clip and enjoy the car.
@Ledswinger
An artist has already built a Solar powered unit to work with sand.
http://boingboing.net/2011/06/25/solar-powered-3d-san.html
Posted in ESA proposes 3D printing on the moon
Re: Moon power
You only get light 14-15 days out of the month, albiet for the full period.
But night is also 14-15 days, so you'll have 2 weeks of no operation.
Posted in ESA proposes 3D printing on the moon
Re: more techo-wanking
Another name for 3D Printing is additive manufacturing, so a robot spraying shotcrete only for tunnel linings is not a 3D Printer, but if it can do other things, such as surface structures then it is.
Posted in ESA proposes 3D printing on the moon
Re: more techo-wanking
Yes a membrane would help with sealing, but the structure still needs to be safe and the interior needs to be usable.
It's no good if you're tripping over ridges and out crops all the time.
Posted in ESA proposes 3D printing on the moon
Re: Moon power
The amount of energy required is dependent on how fast you want the machine to run, being a robot time is less of a consideration.
RepRap's typically run on about 100-150w (without heated bed), which is quite feasible with solar or an RTG.
Now obviously we have no figures for the current machine design, so a requirements analysis cannot be attempted without these numbers.
Space systems can be optimised to run more efficiently, due to the general funding advantage, this will help with feasibility.
The main issue won't be power, it will be all the other complex systems that will need to be built on Earth and shipped to the Moon that will drastically increase the cost and resultant viability of the operation.
Key question you haven't answered
Yes you don't wear a watch, but do you wear sunglasses?
I think this is where the distinction will be made, as long as they don't feel like you have a bowling ball strapped to your head, or give you significant eye strain as a result, I think this will be an interesting concept.
The glasses situation is a good point, will people requiring vision correction be required to wear contact lenses to use this?
The key to it's success as with most products will depend on it's benefit to cost ratio. If they try and pull the marketing must have and charge 3x price of a top end smartphone, I think it'll go the way of the early touchscreen devices, nice idea, but too expensive. Comparable to a top end SP or less (please, please, please! ;) ) and you may stand a chance of hitting the ground running.
Posted in ESA proposes 3D printing on the moon
Re: more techo-wanking
The rock on the moon is porous, just like most rock here on Earth!
Yes if you cut tunnels into the surface of the moon this is beneficial as your habitat can have a greater mass helping to provide greater protection.
The weakness is that you need material (just as tunnelling here on Earth) to reinforce the structure and critically on the Moon, make it air tight.
The reason from ESA's perspective that this is beneficial, is that they (in theory) can regulate the material added and prevent weaknesses in the structure that may potentially expose the inhabitants to the Moon's virtually non-existent atmosphere.
I think a more logical solution is to take the proposed technology to one of the many discovered lava tubes (probably extinct ;) ) and reinforce the internal structure there.
You'd have the benefits of a tunnel, without needing a TBM and a low cost (relatively) solution.
Posted in ESA proposes 3D printing on the moon
Re: robots
The Moon is only 1.282 light seconds away, they can and have been controlled from Earth.
Nasa has those 2 robots on the ISS (internal and external), under test, for helping with repairs.
They using a '65 Stingray for the ad's?
Re: But the numbers also reflect the demographic which owns an iPhone
Stealing that! :)
Re: Spin This
And if they continue with Tokamak, it will be the size of the Moon and use, 3 * 10^9 kg of Deuterium and Tritium a year, require 300 3GW Fission plants to make the Tritium to run it.
Increase global warming due to thermal inefficiencies.
All to power New York.
Re: If your name's not down, you're not coming in... [sorry, but the mistakes were driving me nuts]
This is why I like the concept of buried self contained nuclear generation systems, I believe most concepts are breeder based.
You build a 20-500MW reactor, bury it deep underground (ooh what about all those disused coal mines ;) ) and feed cables to the grid.
When it needs decommissioning, you turn it off, done. No clean up, no overheads. At least that is the theory.
If there is a problem, it's well away from people and while there is obviously a financial loss, it will be nothing like the clean up costs being experienced at say Fukushima or Chernobyl.
Stabilisation
Will there be sufficient air pressure at the launch altitude to allow the winged surfaces to stabilise the direction of the craft?
Cheap fuel on orbit
May be the key to kick starting the commercialisation of space.
There are lots of old satellites in parking orbits, now they may not be able to refuel them as:
A: They weren't designed for it.
B: Their systems are probably dead.
However they do possess a lot of processed materials that have the potential to be recycled, this is currently not cost effective due to launch costs, I.e. it's cheaper to put a new unit it up, than trying to recover old units.
But... If fuel was available relatively cheaply for recovery machines to move them to a location (on orbit) where the materials could be reused the capability to create on orbit systems may start to appear.
Given current launch costs this could potentially be quite lucrative.
I realise this is very idealistic, but at the same time if there is no dreaming then we will never get there.
The main issue I forsee is that existing satellites use hydrazine for thruster fuel, making hydrazine on orbit may be a challenge and that units intended for refuelling may need technology updates beyond the refuelling mechanisms.
Interesting Pre-cept
Sounds like Nokia are trying to play the long game.
Android got into the market by appealing nerd/geek/[insert other stereotype] segment of the market. Some of this segment will be software engineers, which gets them interested in the App side.
So they sneakily had a dev base, before the system went mainstream, this is where WinPho 7/8 falls down. Windows Phone has been in the market for ages, and it's predecessors were absolute garbage. 7 and 8 are an improvement, but they missed the boat.
The only thing that may save them is that Apple appears to have lost it's direction.
The fundamental weakness in this concept is that the steam has run out on the 3D printing fad, simply because the stuff you get out of the affordable home machines is so crap and the amount of effort required to get these machines working correctly, far outweighs the benefits.
There will be resurgence when the off the shelf tech gets to an affordable price point, but to me this is a cliche headline marketing bumpf. Rather than a solution to a non-existent problem.
The weakness in this...
Given the 1984 states that many Governments security services would like, there would probably some form of regulation making this illegal.
Yes, this tech may prevent your face being recognised, but given it uses visible light. It is also obvious.
So as you are trying to fool the sensors, the sensors can detect that you are trying to fool them, making you a target.
T-800 heading straight for you!
Re: Why should there be life on Mars?
1. You're making an assumption and on the basis of that assumption 'let's not bother!'
2. Life is extremely resilient, just because you couldn't be arsed and would give up and die! Doesn't mean the extremophiles wouldn't.
3. There are bacteria living in the ice in Antarctica, these are just one form of many extremophiles.
4. If life got started on Mars and the conditions at some of the time allow that life continue to exist, then there may be life there, unless we go a look we will never find out.
This is critical to understanding one of the fundamental questions, are we alone?
Life (in some form) on Mars indicates a wider spread of life throughout the Universe as it's not unique to the chemistry and conditions here on Earth.
"We trust computers to fly jets... why not trust them with our petabytes?"
Cost and safety/mission criticality.
90% of the code used in aircraft is there to detect when something goes wrong, this code is also implemented in different ways across different platforms with the results analysed and double checked.
There are very strict standards that must be adhered to for the code to be even allowed to go anywhere near a plane and then it needs to be further tested before it is allowed to fly.
As stated above, this is not infallible and still subject to human error.
The cost and time to implement these systems is astronomical compared to a PC operating system based application.
Is it possible to do it? Yes. Will a business do it, probably not, simply as the cost and timescales would put them so behind the market that the business would be bankrupt before they sold license 1.
Re: Where's the market?
The Broadcom BCM2835 used in the Pi is a SoC, but designed for use in set-top boxes, not phones.
Posted in ESA, NASA agree on Orion module supply
Re: Tell me something
Yes the engine was under development, but the original S5 design called for 2 large SRB's and an even bigger engine called the M-1.
The F-1 was developed for heavy lift capability by the US Airforce, but abandoned when they decided they didn't need it and resurrected at some point in the process for the S5.
The F-1 wasn't developed with the moon mission in mind.
Re: The CPU is mounted diagonally?
Most VIA's are hollow, depends on your definition of a wormhole I guess? ;)
Posted in ESA, NASA agree on Orion module supply
Re: Tell me something
The design of the S5 was established in 1962, not before the Kennedy announcement (25th May 1961 BTW) and not greater than 8 years.
There is a difference between a rocket engine and a rocket.
Posted in ESA, NASA agree on Orion module supply
Re: "presuming the project isn’t budget-cut to death"
http://www.spacesafetymagazine.com/2012/11/26/orion-capsule-cracks-pressure-test/
Posted in ESA, NASA agree on Orion module supply
Re: Tell me something
Not just money...
Political and Commercial will.
There are currently no major Political gains from going to the moon other than maybe a few votes at an election.
There is currently no commercial benefit to being on the moon, yes there are many resources, but with no infrastructure, businesses see a huge expenditure for minimal gain and in the current climate of I want my 10%+ return in 6m, long term, risky adventures are not in their interest.
Won't someone think of the kids, because some of the nut jobs think that spending NASA's budget on feeding starving kids in various parts of the world is a better use of the cash, but I can personally think of a certain US government budget that wouldn't miss the money!
Re: Beta test
Simpler than that, all politicians families, financial backers, lobbyists, current mates, school mates and the entirety of Whitehall and their families.
Trust me, if they get it wrong, then they'll get it directly in the ear, which will result in them having a genuine, greater than 10 second attention span on the subject.
