Mad Science - Let me check my notes...

Really, not good news

hawk@madscientist.name (Hawk) — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 03:12:23 GMT

Putin Pledges 400 ICBMs for Russia in Ten Years

These missiles are designed to be difficult for modern anti-missile systems to target. They deploy four to ten independent rocket bombs which go after pre-programmed targets. Very hard to stop. So when they say 400 missiles, they mean between 1600 and 4000 targets for 550 kiloton bombs.

But, hey, this isn't the worst part. No? The worst part is that Russia plans on launching more than 10 military satellites a year. Some of those will just be the usual cameras, no big deal. A lot of them will be weapons. They've been slow in getting "space superiority" but they will board and ride that train asap.

Enjoy looking up in the future. The US was ahead on the space race, was ahead on the moon race, was a super power for all of my life. Despite what people have said about "American Imperialism," I think the US has done pretty well for its neighbors. Sure, Iran still holds a grudge, but that was more than forty years ago.

Russian Imperialism is more like standing your political opponents against the wall and shooting them in the head. Techniques still practiced in Russia.

Chinese Imperialism is on display in Tibet and more gently in Hong Kong. We'll see how they look when they are landing people on the moon. Speaking of which - Les Johnson has a book out, I'll review it next time.

Another Busy Week

hawk@madscientist.name (Hawk) — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 15:44:25 GMT

I've accepted a position with RE-Labs, as Business Development Manager. This has involved a stretch of research into neutron upset and testing. Research into Research... ok, so I read a stack of papers as thick as your head. The modern age has let me do that relaxing in my armchair sipping coffee and being pestered by my dogs, but it beats the office so hard it doesn't even show up on the same page.

So, now I'm even more of a font of information on testing. If you are interested in turning your diamonds yellow, causing your optical devices to fail, or want a single event effect test on your device, rates are as low as $400 an hour.

For the biology people, this probably isn't a good source. Maybe Dr. DNA will think of something biological, it really isn't my field. It will generate sterilization to levels of purity unknown outside of deep space.. Small exposures may have interesting effects on sample tissues, but I wouldn't look for small spot size experiments.

For the electronics parts people, this is amazing. You could run a laptop in this beam, with an effectively even spread of dose. I'll get the dose vs. depth worked out this week, but the source is 33 cm wide. Extremely sweet. At a good rate of a billion (1e9) neutrons per cm2/s, you can get a complete upset check in about an hour. Full characterization could take longer, but multiple parts can be run simultaneously.

A lot of work needs to be done still, so I best get at it. Not a lot of pretty pictures generated yet, so I'd better get at that as well. Thanks for your patience, I'll be back to discuss something more fun soon. (or do Irish History teasers for The Broken Man.)
LATER!

Looking for an Agent

hawk@madscientist.name (Hawk) — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 18:59:39 GMT

Sorry folks, but this has been a very busy couple of weeks for me. I taught a class on Catalan history last weekend. I have my book through second draft and I am looking for an agent. I have been working on finishing some edits for the HEART conference which were due last Friday. I've been working on a role-playing game that will be published in June. And, I have been looking for work. Some of the "sure things" just don't seem to be sure things, so I have looked for some more unusual paths.

Folks, it has been a busy year. Thank you for your prayers or best wishes. I hope everyone has a good year. I'll start putting out some story bits the next few weeks.

Take care,
Hawk

Swarm of Nanobots

hawk@madscientist.name (Hawk) — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 20:24:46 GMT

Nuclear Thermal Propulsion

hawk@madscientist.name (Hawk) — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 05:15:49 GMT

Just Sunday I was talking to a friend about

Combined Cycle Farnsworth Driven Nuclear Thermal Propulsion.

Here is Farnsworth with his fusor...

Essentially, you run a nuclear power plant in the -K region, pushing the neutron level to critical with a Farnsworth neutron generator or an accelerator with Deuterium & Tritium in the gun. The heat from the nuclear engine is used to pump liquid hydrogen to high velocities, and heat it to expansion. The hot hydrogen flows through the nuclear power plant, cooling the reactor, and reaching maximum velocity through heat absorbtion. The external heat engine also powers an electron gun, which is used to improve exhaust characteristics and velocities.

Yeah, I really wanted to work on one, but NASA never funds anything that will actually go into space. They only fund professors to sit around and dream up ever less likely nuclear engines, like the CCFDNTP. Well, the designs have gone around the block, and now some people are apparantly using them for ground work.

First for accelerator-driven nuclear reactor

So what is all the excitement? Well, with an accelerator of Farnsworth running the K up to critical, the reactor can be designed without the ability to go critical, much less super critical. It definitely reduces the possible danger of catastrophic failure. In the event the detectors decide there are too many neutrons, the computer can shut off the accelerator. Since all the speed of those reactions can be nano to micro second, the reactor can be micro-controlled in a way that a "Insert cooling rods" reactor could never be.

I'm happy that the technology is being developed, I'll be a lot happier when the atomic rockets light up.

Beer Review

hawk@madscientist.name (Hawk) — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 04:10:42 GMT

Hey Everyone, I just found Steven's Point Brewery and I am a happy man.
Point - Saint Benedict's Winter Ale

As a short story, I bought a perfectly good stout Friday night, but I honestly wasn't happy with it. I just wasn't in the mood for a stout by the time I got it home. I went to Earthfare today, looking for something new. I found Point.

I haven't examined their line, and St. Benedict's may be a rare good beer, or the standard. First off, it is far more pale than the average "winter ale." Most of those have been at least pitch black, sometimes darker. This is red. Maybe a touch chocolate of red, but hold it up to the light and you get ruby.

Looks: Beautiful. Somewhere around a pale chocolate looking down. Red with the light behind it.

Smell: Not much, I'd knock it a couple points for a lack of aroma. I haven't used Cluster hops before, but I don't get much hop on the aroma. Ok, didn't get anything but a faint "spicy sweet" smell. Yeah, If you want a pro review, go to Beer Advocate.

Taste: wow. This is what a red should be. (What I remember Killian's tasting like when I was a newbie.) It is very sweet and malty, with enough spice flavor to balance. Finish is clean, you can drink it all night without getting tired of it. Loved it.

Now, apparantly Wisconsin doesn't care for Point, but they are now shipping it around. I'll probably check out a few in the future. Maybe it will suck, maybe it will be great, but definitely hit the spot tonight.

Solar Cycle Duration Calculations for Cycle 24

hawk@madscientist.name (Hawk) — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 01:28:45 GMT

I was reading a post by Anthony Watts on "Watts Up With That" and I like what he wrote. Now, I'm not advocating his position, but I am advocating the use of the same data he is using.

You may say, "What?" but here is the deal. Mr. Watts is doing good modeling based on data which seems to produce better (more predictive) results.

1) His results are different than mine, but he has reasons.

2) He is looking at a previous cycle and comparing regions on the sun and their relative xray emissions.

I'm talking about the following graph.

(You may have to click on the -more- link to see this picture.) This picture is tracking the deep, hot, solar jet stream. The jet stream slowly works it's way south, from high latitudes to low latitudes. There is a "Rush to the Poles" event, which I honestly don't understand. But this is the graph I have been using to predict that we are at Solar Max...and maybe they are right, Solar Max might be a year farther out. This graph is a lot better than the one I was using.

He is also saying that the longer solar cycle will lead to essentially a degree's cooling. Worth a thought.

Advertising for a Friend

hawk@madscientist.name (Hawk) — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 22:39:01 GMT

Tattoos are not as unusual as they used to be. Heck, even relatively acceptable rocket scientists have tattoos these days. My good friend Dewey Mason and his wife Paula have a shop over in Muscle Shoals and they produce beautiful work. I get to look at some every day. I think their website is nice, but lordy, they could use a link. It took me a while to find it. SO, if you are looking for ink on your skin and you live in North Alabama or Middle Tennessee, check them out. Blackbeard's Tattoo Parlour
K' outa here.

The Girl Who Snuck into a Missile Plant

hawk@madscientist.name (Hawk) — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 05:20:50 GMT

Her name is Lana Santor, and she posts pictures on Live Journal.

Yeah, I know, Live Journal. I read the story first on Gizmodo, so I'll give them kudos as well. Now I'm having my (Russian Linguist) wife translate some of the pictures so I will know what i am looking at. Amazing stuff.
The picture below is taken from her livejournal site. Figured we should show her picture, so if she ends up dead, at least she will be famous dead.

My wife saw similar sites when she drove around Russia. The old soviet war machine built a lot of crappy industrial sites, most of which are no longer in service. Like Detroit, there are a lot of places in Russia that would cost more to tear down than they are worth. Apparently this old rocket factory is still churning out boosters, or something. Most of it isn't being used, so it isn't well cared for. Like an old missile silo, it is a relic of a bygone age.

Caution! Men Working... Maybe not anymore.
Take a look at a mostly inactive industrial plant on the edge of a major city. Beautiful, ugly, but stark, very stark. Makes me want to film an apocalypse film there.

Tornadoes

hawk@madscientist.name (Hawk) — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 17:37:53 GMT

It has been a strange year, and I appreciate my readers, and my co-contributors, for sticking it out with me. We started last year on a good note. I had funding, my wife had a job, I had a rockin' Christmas. This year, not so much. I don't have funding, my wife can't get full time, and Christmas was nice, but quiet. Last March I went to Gulf Wars and had a great time, I think. I was planning on reporting my war stories when I got back. I had to run to a conference, but by the time I unpacked, things had gone weird. Last April was Tornado alley here in Huntsville.

After April things have gone a bit off. I had a decent amount of property damage and lost income from two weeks without power. I got a bit more time to think and be with my wife. I really call those good days, but they were a bit unsettling at the time.

There was the (now usual) hype that any bad weather is global climate change. Again, I'm stealing images from wattsupwiththat which they stole from noaa.

Of course that ends in 2010, in 2011 we had 84 events,which doesn't make the 1974 record, but is definitely in second place. Twice as many as an average year, and about all that increase in my back yard. There is still evidence everywhere of the tragedy. Buildings which haven't been rebuilt, fences propped up with boards, and whole swaths of trees missing. Driving north on Wall-Triana, there are these gaps, like someone decided to put in power lines, and bulldozed a swath a hundred yards wide and miles long. Houses there haven't been rebuilt. In some cases, there is no owner left to do the rebuilding. In most cases, the owner has decided to move out of the tornado alley. I can't blame them.

I'm looking for more contributors to this site. If you are interested, email me, or comment on this post. Thanks.

Solar Cycle News

hawk@madscientist.name (Hawk) — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 16:06:53 GMT

This is from the Wattsupwiththat.com page, a nice graph of NOAA.gov data. The part I like is comparing the signal from January 2000 to December 2012. I believe we have a winner. Of course, in time we will have the real answer, but I think we have maxed around 80 - 85 sunspots vs. 120 ish from January 2000. I think we will have a mild level of activity for the next three years, then it will tail off back to near zero again.

Basically, for those who didn't harden their spacecraft, You got away with it this time. If I were to plan a mission to Mars, I'd set a launch in 2014, for three years of clear sailing. Be back safe at home before 2023, because that might be a rough year. No idea, we could Dalton minimum for fifty years, but we could go back to high flux cycles just as easily.

There is no science to predicting the upcoming solar cycles. We can simply look over the last 100 years and pick .. "Oh Oh I like number 4!" Thats not prediction, that is going to the Kentucky Derby and saying "I bet a horse wins the race!" I'll be willing to guarantee that 1) the solar cycle continues 2) the next peak will be around 2023 - 2025, and 3) the sun will surprise us on every other detail.

Hey, don't touch that, its hot!

Flying cloud sparks UFO mystery

hawk@madscientist.name (Hawk) — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 04:24:42 GMT

Flying cloud sparks UFO mystery

Soyuz back in service after failed launch

It in fact was a UFO mystery. The Russians apparently didn't tell their own people about a failed launch. The "Flying Cloud" has been a mystery for several days before the Soyuz launch failure was announced in their own country. Go Russia! See what a history of disinformation and poor information distribution can lead to.

The Year of the Restless Sun

hawk@madscientist.name (Hawk) — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 16:44:49 GMT

Space.com calls this the year of the restless sun.

Honestly, it is an above average year. But, it can be considered highly because of two factors,

1) there hasn't been any interesting solar events since about 2006, and really not much since 2003. Heck, I still consider the Bastille Day 2000 events as a benchmark, but the Halloween 2006 were exceptional. So, five years and nothing really worth mentioning. This year we had a handful, maybe six, x-class flares. They weren't for the record books, but they existed, which beats out last year. (Where we had ... I can't remember... but like 100 sunspots or something? I mean dead-sun.)

2) we really have exceptional cameras pointed at the sun these days. The STEREO cameras turn every event into a watch-able movie. We'll never know what the Carrington Flare looked like, but some po-dunk CME that didn't even escape the sun was my wallpaper for two months.

image above from space.com

soho page

Probably not worth arguing over. If OE was still in the business, I'd ask him what the solar peak was and he'd have it within a week. I expect the new models haven't gotten anything right yet, and may not have it right now. I believe that we are already AT solar maximum, and further growth isn't likely. We'll see if 2012 has a hotter sun or a weaker sun than 2011. (Or, about the same.) In the picture above, you can just about see the Solar Jet streams about to converge on the equator. I can't measure how long that will take, but when it does, the solar cycle starts sliding back toward minimum. It could be soon, The experts are still saying 2 years out. Hmm.

NASA Launch at Christmas

hawk@madscientist.name (Hawk) — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 02:38:13 GMT

Merry Christmas!

hawk@madscientist.name (Hawk) — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 06:42:19 GMT

Folks, it is great hanging out with my wife, Paul, and Tom at Blackstone in Nashville. Great Food, Beer, and Company. Paul celebrates another year of not getting caught with a student's dead body in the trunk of his car. Tom continues research apace, I have a novel near completion, and Monica didn't throttle me in my sleep.

I want everyone to know, I appreciate the blessings of having all these friends. I have a wonderful wife, good friends, and enough free time to finish a novel. Ok, it would be nice to get paid...especially around Christmas... but a little turmoil is good for the soul.

Merry Christmas, and God Bless us, Every one.

Cool Japanese Robot

hawk@madscientist.name (Hawk) — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 04:30:58 GMT

Science News

hawk@madscientist.name (Hawk) — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 19:01:13 GMT

Bill Gates talking with China to develop reactor.

This is kind of depressing, kind of exciting. The small safe reactor programs have produced a lot of good designs. And I would like for any one of them to be built.

Exciting - Bill wants a better reactor design that ever before, and has apparantly given China a big list of requirements. He is making a billion dollar investment. Look, I would rather reactors were built now than later, but if Bill wants to design, build, and promote his new mini-super safe reactor, wow, that is better than the US government has ever done. He might really do more to improve the conditions of the poor in Africa than anyone has ever done before.

He might, literally, be responsible for the generation of more real wealth than anyone in history. It would be possible, given inexpensive labor and plentiful power, to turn Africa into an economic powerhouse, capable of lifting itself out of poverty.

ok. my depressing - Argonne National Labs used to do the best work in the world. We just don't support Reactor design anymore. That the Chinese have exceeded us is ... telling.

Picture provided by Space.com

KEPLER
Since I was pinged as a Kepler Hater, that link is the current status.

Look, everyone is worried about budgets. Now is the time to get some excitement going into the next congressional debates, hope they care enough to drop a megabuck on your program. Kepler is refining the science, drip by drip. It's rough work. I don't expect them to find a human-habitable world in three years or less. It may take decades with this technique. It is giving us some data, where to look, what to look at. If we had an infra-red observatory that could measure the temperature of that planet. A spectroscopic observatory that could give us an idea what its atmosphere held, then we would have results. I hope that NASA stays funded for exactly those sorts of missions.

Not (very likely to be) An Alien Spacecraft

Is this an alien spacecraft parked next to Mercury? Giant object the size of a planet has astronomers baffled

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2071099/Is-alien-spacecraft-parked-Mercury.html#ixzz1fyCBkL3E

The science guys have said that this is a problem from subtracting out Mercury from their multi-day pictures. Um... I worked on that stuff a long time ago. Most of those problems went out with the dino-cameras. What kind of problem with software could they be having? (Or is there a giant object in orbit around mercury?) ok, I bet on a software issue, but dang, OLD problem.

http://bcove.me/ndhly2w4

Monday Funny

hawk@madscientist.name (Hawk) — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 00:27:15 GMT

Blatant steal from The Onion
NASA Acquires Moon For Kennedy Space Center Exhibit

Busy Week!

hawk@madscientist.name (Hawk) — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 18:56:35 GMT

Sorry I haven't posted in a week, but went to San Francisco for a job interview. I'll not discuss my possible future employers to any great extent, but 1) awesome folks, 2) Loral Space flys a lot of satellites. I was impressed that they are working on six launches of geosynchronous satellites this year, all their products, but that is a better record than NASA.

Of course, to be fair, about all of NASA spacecraft launches are "one offs." Objects that were designed for a specific mission which will probably never be repeated, and may have never been done before. This leads to a seven to ten year product cycle. Manned missions have a fifteen year product cycle. In a world of eight year political events, you just can't get a mission off the ground.

Loral Space produces GEO satellites which run your TV, Radio, and soon your internet. There is a lot of similarity in those products. Doesn't make the job easy, they are up their getting cooked by the outer Van Allen belts for upwards of eighteen years. Some have made it thirty years. Amazing work.

I went into one of their clean rooms to watch them prepare to extend a thirty meter boom for testing. BIG room. I saw the shake & bake facility, nothing cooking now, (*heh*). I was greatly impressed by their little birds.

SO, lets talk about NASA. Rain (Director of Space Track for Dragon Con saw this link today.)
NASA's Kepler Confirms Its First Planet in Habitable Zone of Sun-like Star

Planet may be a bit big, but it is a possible "life zone" that is better than most of the hell-holes the kepler technique is getting. The Kepler Technique looks for star dimming, which it then assumes is due to a planetary passage. Look, a life planet is going to have an orbit greater than six months, so ... assuming it is parallel with our orbital plane (some odd math to determine the probability of that) we still would only get a signal for a small portion of that orbit, perhaps only a few days out of a year. (Unless the planet is HUGE, and orbiting within a few miles of the sun's corona, in which case we get a good regular ten hour signal.)

This one isn't close, 600 light years. I know, you wanted to compose a message and have the rocket city rednecks ping it off them with their new space communication laser... but it would be 1200 years to get a return signal...even if they were waiting by the phone. No, they haven't been watching I Love Lucy (or Friends) reruns. They are closer than Omicron Persei Eight, if you are a Futurama fan, but we have a few hundred years before they can comment effectively on the difference in black and white and color tv versions of their favorite shows.

So... Pictures? Ok, Merry Christmas, you damn Treckies.

NASA updates

hawk@madscientist.name (Hawk) — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 02:44:00 GMT

NASA Marshall, my local NASA group. Has been getting some work done. It is a nice little lander. (See video)
Meanwhile, NASA out at JPL is launching another rover mission to Mars. I don't know which one is more interesting, but it does show that NASA isn't completely dead.