TTLB Eco-confusion

I'm not sure I understand this TTLB rating thingy. 18 months ago, when I was actually intersted in blogging, TTLB had lovingly ranked me as some sort of slime mold creature. Then after 18 months of abandonment, I move up the food chain to an aquatic vertebrate with gills (aka the flippery fish).

Wow! Imagine how valuable this stuff will be when I'm dead!

Now that's a rocket!!!

Neener neener...

I HATE SPAM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A guy can't leave a blog alone for even a year without the onset of spam-fester!!

Space Simulator

Check out this really cool space simulator. Acheiving orbit is friggin' hard!

Orbiter - A free space flight simulator

New CEV designs surfacing

I ran across some new CEV design material (or new to me, at least). Pretty cool stuff.
(Left to right: Apollo Saturn IV, Shuttle, Crew Launch Vehicle [CLV], Cargo Launch Vehicle [CaLV])

Click here for additional info.

Getting ready for Apophis

Well, it looks like some at NASA are taking Apophis seriously. They are requesting abstracts on deflection techniques from the experts, with a deadline for submission on May 26. White papers on selected abstracts will be due on June 25. Someone is taking the NEO threat seriously. I don't know if the timing of these efforts is coincidental given the threat posed by Apophis. And it really shouldn't matter. I commend any effort to prepare for a threat. We need a sound plan that we can move into action at a moments notice.

It's gonna be a cool hurricane season

I went out and bought a generator after losing power during Ivan. So I had a generator when Katrina struck, which knocked out my power for about a week. After the storm passed, I cranked that puppy up and all was well. Plugged in my fridge, tv, etc. My primary concern was the fridge. Big mistake.

I started out with 17 gallons of gas. My generator will burn about 10 gallons per 24 hours. So I rationed the gas to make the fridge last. I ran 6 hours on, 6 hours off. I thought this would keep the fridge. 3 days and 15 gallons later, I had to borrow gas from other neighbors. But I kept it running for that friggin fridge.

To make the long story short, the fridge needed more than 12 hours per day to keep. It might have been ok for a few days, but I ran like this for a week. Maybe if I had run 1 hour on, 1 hour off. Dunno. And kinda hard to do while at work.

When it was over, I realized I had my priorities screwed up. I had agonized over trying to save the fridge, cutting off the generator at times when my kids wanted to watch TV or when we really needed the power for something else. I sacrificed comfort for the priority of perishable food. That week was really hot and miserable. Try sleeping in 90 degree heat at nearly 100% humidity in a pool of sweat. Miserable.

So...

Now I say "screw the perishable food!" It's just not worth it. New priority for the generator now is COMFORT!! So, after Katrina, I bought an air conditioner. Yay!

Found a window unit at Target for $70 that will cool up to 150 sqft. So the plan now is to sleep in an airconditioned room. Got my priorities straight now. I now plan to seal my master bedroom and bathroom from the rest of the house, mount the unit in that room, and live with my family in that portion of the house. Kinda like living in an efficiency apartment for a few days. Heck of alot cheaper than living out of a hotel room, and alot more comfortable than drowning in your own sweat.

They say air conditioning settled the south. I believe it!

I don't care if you call me soft. Several years ago, lightening struck my air conditioner and caused some extensive damage. When I called the insurance company, they wanted to declare my house uninhabitable due to lack of A/C. You just gotta spend a summer in the deep south to appreciate A/C.

Constructing for 'canes

Living in the Gulf Coast region, I go through the same drill every year. Hurricane preparedness. In fact, it's almost that time again. Yippee.

My last set of storm shutters were crudely constructed of 1x6 picketts with 2x4 braces. When I built them, I used the only wood I could purchase at the time. Plywood stocks were raided. But, now that there is time and currently no panic, I'm ditching my junky shutters for nice plywood.

But here's my dilemna... I have a brick house with aluminum framed windows. What the heck is someone supposed to attach their shutters to, anyway? I have taken the time to install masonry anchors in the brick around each window to serve as attachment points. But what about other folks? Some, they say, prefer to wedge 2x4's between the brick. No thanks. Other prefer Plylocks. I'm not too wild about these, though some people swear by them.

What I don't understand is why building codes don't require attachment points installed during construction for houses in high wind areas. I really wouldn't have minded spending a few hundred extra bucks to have anchors preset. Of course builders aren't going to take it upon themselves to furnish anchors, so why not make it code?

Just a thought.

Hang on to your butts... this one's gonna be close!

Wanna know how close asteroid 99942 Apophis (2004 MN4) will come to the Earth? This trajectory path tells it all. This is how close JPL thinks Apophis will come in 2029. It is predicted to be visible by the naked eye. But this pass isn't what has them worried.

Instead, they worry about the affect Earth's gravity will have on Apophis' trajectory. Were it not for this predicted deviation in course, the next fly-by in 2036 would be of little concern. However, because of this deviation, there is now concern that in 2036 an impact might be likely. This concern has resulted in an increase to threat level 2 on the Torino scale.

Unfortunately, NASA seems to be too science minded to recognize a need for action. Someone suggested the brilliant idea of attaching a radio transmitter to Apophis in 2029 to aid tracking the object. NASA rejected this saying we have plenty of time to prepare and it is not willing to waste money on a needless launch. However, it is considering some science missions during the flyby.

Where are the priorities here!

Somehow, I don't think Apophis will really care about a temporary worker program, or a wall (or dome for that matter).

Burt Rutan is the man.

Courtesy Scaled Composites

Watched a replay of the documentary on SpaceShipOne the other night. Gave me chills all over again. It is pretty impressive to think what they have accomplished. It's also a slap in the face to NASA.

Sure, one might argue that Mr. Rutan has technological benifits that NASA didn't have. That's a valide excuse in the previous century. But not now. And yet NASA seems to keep making the same mistakes.

I believe NASA's biggest problem has always been too much "engineering for the sake of engineering". Poor leadership allows engineers to design solutions that are more complex than the problem calls for. The KISS priciple is a foreign concept.

I appreciate the accomplishment of the Space Shuttle, but think it was a bad idea from the start. Why in the world would we want to build such a hugely complex machine to achieve low earth orbit, considering the multiple points for potential failure? Way too complex.

It's no wonder Russia and China prefer the capsule. It's simple and reliable. Proven technology. It is self-righting during reentry. Has a one-piece heat shield. Has a crew escape (ejection) system. How can you compete with that?

So, someone at NASA wakes up and embraces the capsule design once more. Now we have the CEV on its way. Much better. But still sounds vastly more complex than it needs to be. And if they even think about putting tiles on the bottom of that thing, I will completely declare NASA's manned space program a complete failure. Victim of politics and over engineering.

But, hopefully not. I will hold my breath and wait for a solid, one-piece heat shield.

Now, Mr. Rutan is on his way toward Tier Two. This will expand his craft's capabilities to earth orbit. I'm extremely curious how he plans to maintain his current space ship design, and create a variant that will survive reentry at those speeds. Very excited to see the results.

I know he is still working on the next phase of Tier One, but hopefully we will be seeing some preliminary design work on Tier Two. Hopefully.

With this said, my hat's off to the guy at NASA that invited Mr. Rutan to comment on the CEV. He is a valuable national resource that everyone should recognize. You gotta have someone with an agenda driven only by the desire for safe "no frills" spaceflight, free from political pressure, to get good guidance and sound advice for the future of our crippled, manned program.

I prefer sound, proven solutions. Mr. Rutan, however, has criticized the CEV program for not being risky enough. Somewhere in the middle there is an opportunity to move forward. But if we are going to take more risks, lets actually achieve something more than yet another low-earth orbit flight. Greater risk should yield greater returns, right?

Good Job, Tony Snow.

Well, got to sit down and watch some recap of Tony's debut on C-Span. I was quite impressed. Seemed to humanize the position. I liked the way he handled most questions, and seemed to provide better insight. Several points were amusing, including his comment on "faking it".

The next few months ought to be interesting.