Al Fin: "Cowboy Commentary", aka "Eat your veggies" The Flag banner is posted in order to defy those who would make patriotic symbols illegal or disreputable.
An update upon the political situation when the blogging here was at a minimum. A few things have changed. A change in party in DC, and the return of Trump.
The original post was questioning why Biden's approval rate was high, when the track of country type polling had been consistently negative for so long.
It would seem that the old patterns should cease, and new patterns should be adopted. One new pattern is to stop with the never-Trumper Democrat oppositional and confrontational approach. Let's see some cooperation. After, Trump has certifiably won twice now. He should get his nominees through without a big obstructionist effort from the losing side that won't accept the fact that the public supports the man, and he should have a chance to enact his program. This includes getting his nominees through the Senate.
Will it be the same-old same-old in DC, or will it finally change?
7/1/22:
Looking at the performance of this president, it is hard to understand what keeps him
afloat politically. There has to be only one explanation for that, and that is the
tribal component of politics.
What has this president done so well that it rates a positive approval? The Rasmussen
Poll have him consistently in the high 30's to low 40's. But if it is for approval,
then what exactly do they like about the guy? What exactly has he done that meets
with any approval at all?
There are some other polls that indicate that it isn't a partisan phenomenon. Dissatisfation
has been high for some time now. The right-track wrong-track poll has been underwater
for so long that it is the new normal. Is the fact that so many people are dissatified
with the way things are going, is THAT the reason for their approval of this president?
If you cannot get political accountability, then how are you ever going to get some
useful things done?
There has been plenty of talk about the "gridlock" in Washington. The gridlock, as such,
is not the issue. The issue is why do people insist on giving these politicians a
blank check all the time?
It has to be fear of the "other". They managed to convince many in their group that to
allow the other side to win is tantamount to "losing our democracy". But it is the
ability to "throw the bums out" that makes a democracy. If the guy you voted for doesn't
produce, then what is the use of continuing the support? How are you ever going to get
rid of a guy who is bad for the country, and even bad for YOU?
The politicians have made an art of avoiding accountability. Nice job if you can get
it. No matter how badly you screw up, nobody will fire you for it. That is the state
of the Democrat party. I'd like to see what this guy has done that makes him worthy
of any support at all. There isn't any. The only reason to support him is that he
is not one of the "other guys"; who have been demonized into being fascists, or something
akin to it.
It is the biggest scam going, and that is saying something.
Aw, shucks! Anyway, that's one bit of news. The other is of particular interest to yours truly. There's a new kid on the block, called Impulse, which will do space tug chores. It has a methylox set up, like the Starship. That means it could be refueled in space. Interesting. It's capabilities seem a bit limited, but that's okay.
I can envision sending a lunar landing module on one of these things, and park it at the Gateway. Then you wouln't need a big Starship to land on the moon. Although it might be useful to have it deliver a lot of payload.
There's something I saw yesterday on the web, which I can no longer find on a search. It may have been memory
holed, or maybe it just wasn't all that significant. Or perhaps there are those amongst the powers-that-be
who think that the "Resistance" has played itself out. In such a case, another Resistance as Orange Revolution would be a bad look, and the word went out to put the kibosh on such doings.
Whatever the case may be, such memory holing could actually be the case. If memory serves, the left got into
ridiculous mode right after 9-11. Then the poll numbers came out, and the left realized that their best idea
was to play along with the Bushies. So they did, and the Bushies obliged with an ill-advised run-up to the
invasion of Iraq. The left saw its opportunity there, and made the most of it.
Such history may repeat itself. The left is far more quiet and reasonable than what one would've thought they'd be.
Indeed, it reminds me of an old line in a Western flick when the Injuns got real quiet. Somebody would say
that they were "too quiet". The modern left is just too danged quiet for me to believe in any
of it.
One has to distinguish between THE revolution and just A revolution. Now is not the time for "A" revolution.
It is always time for THE revolution. Therefore, the Orange Revolution against Trump will have to wait for
another day. The left has gone quiet. They will bide their time for the best time for THE REVOLUTION. Now ain't it.
It’s rare that I post a 7 minute video, but this entire interview is fantastic.
Sen. Bill Hagerty drops truth bombs on MSNBC about the weaponization of the DOJ and obliterates every single BS narrative Andrea Mitchell throws at him, even causing her to freeze and stumble over… pic.twitter.com/pCw5riZONU
The scales of justice have a chance to recalibrate following Donald Trump's resounding victory and the departure of key figures at the Biden/Harris Department of Justice.
Screenshot of delta v map from EML-2 to Low Phobos Orbit (Mars) : map via delta-v map on github
Just toying around with the idea of making a supply line that runs from Earth to Mars. At each node, cargo could be exchanged in order to make kind of a bucket brigade. You could pass along pre-fabbed materials from Earth, while grabbing up fuel at each step. There could be a staging area where these could accumulate while you wait for launch windows to open up.
Musk is planning to build hundreds of these starships. So he could just launch each one with some prefabbed materials to build whatever is needed. If you need to store materials at each node of the way, the first launches will go toward building that node so that it could support the next node, and so forth.
The goal should be to make the entire node structure as self-sufficient as is feasible. If you have a re-filling station, then perhaps the fuel could be made there with raw materials sourced from say Phobos, the Moon, the Earth, and Mars.
Updated with a few back of the envelope calcs and notes (please forgive the informality):
Using the gizmo mentioned above:
Some destinations and their delta-v's please:
These can get from Low Earth Orbit to Geosynchonous Orbit, and out:
Leo to Geo 3.91 km/s
Geo to EML-2 2.6 km/s
Moon to EML-2 2.3 km/s
Loxleo is a topic covered previously on this blog, click on the bolded link below to see:
LOXLEO to LEO ? km/s ; would have to supply it with power
@ EML-2 could intercept and capture near earth objects (asteroids) and return
them for processing
can return asteroidal material to the lunar surface along with fuel obtained
from phobos and / or mars
lunar surface could process the asteroidal material and make things with it
either fuel or solar panels to be used for loxleo
Here's the delta-v's for the trips from the moon to Mars:
low phobos to EML-2 2.78 km/s
low phobos to lmo 1.243 km/s
lmo to Mars 3.6 km/s
phobos to Mars 4.848 km/s
A fully fueled Starship can make the trips, and possibly with exceptionally large cargoes. How 'bout them apples?
Screenshot of pdf file , which lists pages and pages of these asteroids that may be accessed for use in situ resourcing in support of deep space missions
Well, maybe he didn't EXACTLY make that claim, but he comes pretty close. Just from my own point of view, the Dems were a bunch of friggin' liars, and the lies weren't going to work on ME. Maybe there's an explanation that could explain what happened in this cycle, but if there is one, I'd say that the truth won.
An idea here is to utilize Jeff Greason's strategy of "island hopping" as a colonization strategy. (Mentioned on an earlier update of 4/17/24, which is also highlighted in red text--scroll down to it, please.)
The idea is to shuttle back and forth between High Earth orbit and the Lunar orbit planned for use in the Artemis program. You could launch from the surface of the moon more massive cargoes than from the Earth. Then you could transfer the cargo to High Earth Orbit in order to refuel Starships which are going outbound.
The high orbits would be analogous to the "islands" mentioned by Greason in his talk on youtube. It would mean much less fuel would be needed in order to transfer the cargo from space "islands", as opposed to launching them from Earth. You could use these islands as fueling stations. Refueling means deeper space missions, and of course, ultimately a colonizaton effort could be staged from these "islands".
6/5/24:
One way to deal with the challenges of long term spaceflight is to hibernate ( if that's possible).
The idea is to reduce the amount of resources, but it could also be useful for psychological purposes. "Cabin fever" can result from being cooped up inside of a rocket ship for several months or even years. Going into hibernation could not only reduce consumption of resources, but it could also deal with a lot of time.
I was also thinking that a person could enter a highly protected area that would necessitate not moving around much. It would be like a lead "coffin". A highly dense material could be used to block gamma rays, and help prevent radiation exposure. The key would be to not move around. The most efficient use of highly dense materials would involve keeping a person immobile, as mobility would require much more material for protection.
As can be seen in some of the updates, I continue to research this space station concept. The current iteration involves a 68 meter in diameter torus along the lines of the VERA stations that I began with. At this size, the amount of artificial gravity is minimized to the least amount that would be needed for adjustment.
As for making it a "coffin", one might use different materials. One cannot consume lead. However lead is very effective at stopping gamma rays. You'd need a lot more of everything else.
Perhaps you can make the station out of gingerbread, but I am kidding around. The tweet below discusses human hibernation for space travel.
It's all rather boring, but better than reading this gawdawful news. Something to divert my time for a moment so I can forget stuff that I'd rather not think about right now. Anyway, a Delta-V map that shows how little delta v is needed for Mars transfer and Mars capture orbit once you get far enough away from Earth ( but not quite far enough away to escape). Delta-V in kilometers per sec (kms).
If you were to park some stations there, and fly back and forth between Earth without committing to Mars, you can stage your trip out there. Perhaps at EML-4 or EML-5 would be more handy. Get far enough out there, and it doesn't take much to send you onward to Mars. However, once you're committed, it's going to be a long trip.
A fully re-fueled Statship may be capable of a delta-v of 7.75 kms. That's with a full load. Tugging a big space station may slow that down a bit.
Delta-V map: Earth capture orbit to Mars capture orbit
Artificial gravity calculations
In your space station, you'd need to rotate it a certain speed in order to obtain some artificial gravity. Above are some possible sizes by radius, and how many rpm needed for the approximation to one Earth gravity. Rounded to two decimal points. Sizes in meters.
You may want to guestimate about which size and speed you'd figure is best. Speeds above 2 RPM are probably not desirable. Indeed, the slower
the better, but that means a much bigger station. The bigger it is, the less feasible it would be to build it out. Note: chart show half rpm, it should be two. 6/3/24: Note: Now corrected. 6/4/24:A few more adjustments.
end update of 5/29/24 post
5/29/24:
Ooops! Looks like somebody "busted" the idea that began this little brainstorm of mine. This idea of mine began with this space station as the center of a Mars colonization effort and other such things. No effort was made on this blog to critically analyze it or anything like that. I was somewhat skeptical, but eventually I accepted it ( as a manner of argument ) all as legit. Maybe it isn't.
Seems like many years ago, I came across something similar. I merely assumed that it was a legit thing then too. The tech needed to make it a reality didn't exist.
SpaceX may be changing all that. With Starship's ability to lift large amounts of cargo per launch, and do it at reasonable prices, it would seem to open up the possibiity of something like a space manufacturer to build out such space stations. If it turns out that this guy is not such a person, but an imposter, then it is an embarrassing error. But it doesn't negate the possibility of such stations being possible to be made. Perhaps not by this guy, but somebody could.
end update of 5/28/24 post:
5/28/24:
An idea came to me recently, so I guess I'll write it up. Why not?
If one were to park a space station in high Earth orbit, it wouldn't take much delta-v to get into a Hohlman transfer to Mars. And not much more F
delta-v from there gets you into high Mars orbit. So here's the idea: Make a couple hundred of these Vera stations that can hold a thousand passengers apiece, and park them into high Earth orbit. Another hundred could get placed into high Mars orbit. Every time a launch window opens, a hundred stations are sent back to high Earth orbit, and a hundred stations are sent to high Mars orbit.
A few starships could go out to the high orbital locations and bring the passengers enroute to Mars, or back from Mars. The new nuclear pulse type rocket engine could provide the transport of the Vera stations. The Starships could be positioned near each planet in order to serve the stations. In other words, you don't need the extra mass, so why bring it along? Plus the Starships need a lot of fuel. The 5000 ISP nuclear rockets won't need much fuel at all.
If you want to, you could attach the 100 Vera stations into one mega station with 100k passengers. Their mass could protect against cosmic radiation. Spin them up for artificial gravity. The passengers should be fairly safe in such an arrangement.
I worked out the mass requirements for the delta-v, assuming 1000 tons of mass for the station, including supplies. A modest delta-v didn't require all that much fuel---25 tons. This gave a mass fraction of 97.5%. It's usually 97.5% for the fuel alone if the nuclear option is not used. So that should show the advantage of such an approach.
What used to seem pretty fanciful, now seems to be within the realm of possibilities. Not that it would happen anyway, but it is fun to think about it.
end update of 5/19/24 post
5/19/24:
It may well be wise to be modest in one's own speculations. There could be many, many complications in the way of such a project.
But speculation doesn't hurt anything. On the other hand, a little knowledge could be a dangerous thing. So, do you like danger?
I've been checking into something here with regard to calculating delta-v for trips to asteroids. There are a few things to think about. A delta-v may not be a show stopper. Another show stopper could be with the launch windows. Or it could be that and some other thing. After all, it is rocket science.
At the moment, a trip to a near-Earth type asteroid may involve no more difficulty than landing on the moon. Maybe it could be less. However, setting up a station on any asteroid may involve some complications. It is, after all, rocket science.
If the complication is launch window availability, then it may pay to have a lot of asteroids on a visit list. Then you can fly off to the one that is closest at hand. Sounds simple, but there could be more complications. There always seems to be. That is all.
end update of 5/17/24 post:
5/17/24:
Instead of making an O'Neill cylinder out of 433 Eros, make hundreds, or thousands of space stations out of it.
It can take the materials in situ: mine them, fabricate them, and assemble them in place. Then launch them to other asteroids, to do the same.
Each potentially hazardous asteroid can become a resource. It can also pay for itself if it finds enough gold, silver, and platinum while mining for base metals.
Each new station can be tasked with finding new opportunities. Multiple objectives could be attained with minimal effort. It could be done with robots, like these.
Somebody could become quite rich.
end update of 4/17/24 post:
4/17/24:
Perhaps this could be built as a cycler.
Launch once and it will stay there forever. Instead of flying to a planet, you'd fly to and from this cycler.
These could be Jeff Greason's "islands" for the island hopping strategy for Mars colonization. You'd be making your own islands.
end update of the 6/22/23 post
Update of post made on -- 6-22-23
There are several ideas for a new space station. Of all of the ones that have been seen here, the Space Gateway is
the one in which holds the most capability. It is also the biggest. There would be enormous amount of space that could
house a lot of people. It would also take the most money, because of the extraordinary amount of material that would
have to be launched up to orbit.
But the same could be said for Elon Musk's plans. A smaller number of Starships, plus a new spaceship could be better
than the current plan. It wouldn't take much to make the Gateway station into a space ship. The only things needed
would be some engines. If the Starship provided the engines, then it could be towed to its destinations.
One of the Gateway stations mentioned appears to able to house 1000 people. Ten of these, towed by Starships, could
transport 10,000 people per flight window to Mars. A hundred trips could transport a million. A million is what
Musk plans to send to Mars. But each window is two years, so that would take over two centuries. Therefore, more
stations would be needed. Ten times as many should get the job done.
In situ resourcing could cut the launch costs for each station. It would be better to launch from the Moon or Mars
than from the Earth. Consequently, the ability to make the materials necessary in order to construct such stations,
needs to go off-world. But the Gateway presentation said as much already.
The stations could be like Islands in the sky. Each Island could be a waystation, or hub, for transporting people and
materials back and forth to destinations.
There are many possible destinations between Earth and Mars. The LaGrange points come to mind.
Who and how it would be funded is the key. Space mining, manufacturing, and tourism are possibilities. Whole new
industries could be born.
here's the original post...
Not to be too negative, but this guy is getting way, way out front of the game. Big thinking means big bucks. Where's
the money going to come from in order to get these space stations off the ground? True, I didn't watch the whole thing
(not as of this writing), but gee whiz. This guy thinks BIG.
On the positive side, I think this is the right way to think about going to far away places, like Mars. Put an engine
cluster on the space stations he's talking about, and bingo... You could transport many people this way to an off
world location like Mars.
It may be desirable to explain what the title means. The term "faster please" is often used on Instapundit in order to wish along (if such is possible) wanted developments.
The term could be applied to the incoming second Trump Administration. Events could forestall many things from happening over the course of time. You may want a lot of the changes being promised, but these may not be deliverable due to circumstances beyond anyone's control.
But it is good to see that Trump really intends to "drain the swamp". Unfortunately, the project may be too big to tackle in the near term, if at all. We'll see.
11/13/24:
⚠ How disruptive would a Chinese invasion of Taiwan be? by James Pethokoukis
The risk of a Warring '20s squashing a New Roaring '20s
If you could mine the moon, what would you want to mine the most? Would it be for precious metals? Or just rocket fuel? A review of Mining the Sky suggests solar power, with the panels constructed out of lunar materials. It would certainly be
useful for getting a reason to go back to the Earth from the Moon.
For that matter, you could do BOTH. Send back fuel and materials used in construction of solar panels, or the panels themselves. They could be emplaced near GEO, and the recovery of a Starship for future launches from the ground, could
be used for transport. You would probably want to bring Starships back to Earth for servicing and repairs.
But there's a lot of stuff on the moon that could be useful.
A special orbit could be used for getting back into Earth orbit, with a minimal use of fuel. The moon base could pay for itself.
Update: The special orbit would be a High Earth Elliptical Orbit, which is similar to the one being used around the Moon for the Artemis program. The delta-v from the lunar orbit to the earth orbit might be small. This means less fuel needed to make the trips. .
11/11/24:
The political warfare of recent times has diverted us all from thinking more constructively about our problems. After reviewing the link in this post, I
note how much that the hostility seems to distract from real problem-solving. It is a pity.
The reference here was barely mentioned. It so happens that I needed some information about how to extract large amounts of oxygen, as
well as other useful materials from the lunar soil. But why re-invent the wheel? Did I not post about this very thing before? It turns
out that this particular aspect I did not, or probably not post about it.
But I did re-locate the book I had, and began to consult it. The exact information is not readily apparent yet, but there are ways to
extract the materials desired. At least, I am sure of such existence that it must exist somewhere in the literature. Or, it will have
to be dredged up somehow.
If you are going to go back to the moon to stay, you're going to need this information. As for the Starship, it is the vehicle needed to
transport a large amount of cargo to the lunar surface. This could provide the start to getting a base established that can be expanded
in time so that it can do the trick.
As mentioned in an earlier post, the potential exists to extract huge amounts of cargo that could be lifted off the lunar surface with this
Starship. I will review the book further to see if I can find more detailed answers for my questions.
The book was a real inspiration. It was nearly forgotten. There's a lesson somewhere in there for anybody to take note of. I know that I have.
11/15/21:
A stroll down memory lane here. This was one of the early influences upon the writings in
this here blog way back when. Elon Musk may want to go to Mars, but he may want to visit
the moon first. The reason being is that the moon has resources that can be used for his
Mars ambitions. Mining the moon for its resources is on par with the spirit of that book.
The moon has abundant amounts of oxygen. It may not be made of cheese, but there's plenty
of other good things there. One thing that just came to mind is that the solar wind could
be responsible for the water on the moon. What if it was possible to mine vast stretches
of the lunar surface for its particles coming via the solar wind? Would it be enough?
Over the course of time, yes. But over the time scales that we live in, which could be a
matter of days or weeks, maybe not. It could be made up for, maybe, with the use of the
materials at hand, which could capture the charged particles which can be used as a resource.
The solar wind exerts a definite pressure. It is the pressure of charged particles traveling
at high velocities. This may be the reason for the water traps on the moon. The highly
charged hydrogen nuclei could've been initially trapped and converted into water with the oxygen
available on the lunar surface. In cold places where there is no sun, the water froze,
and couldn't escape. It accumulated over time. It is believed that there could be vast
resevoirs of water trapped in these permanently shaded craters.
I was also thinking that since these are electrically charged particles, could it be possible
to mine them for electricity? The particles could induce an electrical current if they
could be concentrated somehow. It may also be possible to collect them in the metal hydride
devices discussed in an earlier post. The hydrogen could be mined to produce electricity
and water.
With these resources, you could leverage them into additional resources, such as food. It
is much less energy intensive to launch from the moon than from Earth. If there is sufficient
reason to stop at the moon on the way to Mars, it may be worth it.
A lot of bureaucracy could be obsoleted with such a ruling. We'll see how it holds up, though. The government will not take kindly to having itself cut in size and power.
Huge decision holding that CEQ never had authority to issue the National Environmental Policy Act regulations that have been used for nearly half a century https://t.co/8Jn5TF4kT5pic.twitter.com/KRn0ZDIbIS
But as a legal matter, how are secret bought-and-paid-for endorsements even legal? If you can’t run a paid ad without a clear disclosure, how on earth can you run a paid endorsement without disclosure? https://t.co/J92bjYUgrJ
Instead, I've already offered my opinion on a previous post. As for the future, anything can happen. If I laid any odds, I'd say that the government isn't likely to give up all that pork. That means SLS will probably stay on, and the Artemis project will move forward as planned.
Artemis may not get done as quickly as is planned though. SLS has been notorious about schedule slippages, and SpaceX's Starship isn't ready yet.
Sen Schumer won't allow the new Senator-elect to attend orientation. According to the WSJ article shown below, this is what to look for if a steal is in the works.
Update: The race called for Gallego, Lake loses! A big dump from Maricopa County ended Lake's bid to overtake Gallego. She's toast. Now the accusations will flying the other way. Arizona is FUBAR.
If she wins, it might be a case of poetic justice. But there's a lot of weird sheet in going down in Arizona, main. I can already hear the pinks crying and moaning about a stolen election. Feex jor cheet, main!
Guys, I am running through the voters left to count in Arizona and between that and the voters that we know we ballot chased, Kari Lake is in an incredible spot.
This thing is going to be close and every ballot matters, but I feel really good about what we know we have left.
