tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-270899075443508100.post619709871882893609..comments2024-01-03T20:28:17.727-08:00Comments on Future Planetary Exploration: 2015 Planetary Science Proposed Budget – Steady as she goes and then big changesVan Kanehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14227978868817989527noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-270899075443508100.post-67363609622630557622016-04-18T01:08:46.146-07:002016-04-18T01:08:46.146-07:00This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07720547920308398294noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-270899075443508100.post-30148755049643800512014-06-24T13:56:27.631-07:002014-06-24T13:56:27.631-07:00Hi Bill I was wondering if instead of trying to fi...Hi Bill I was wondering if instead of trying to find life on other planets, we could create our own planet, using a large nuclear powered electromagnetic,we could launch it into space and have it set in a orbit that's just the right distance from the sun, near a large asteroid field, when it is turned on it would pull in metal asteroid fragments in, and begin to grow in size, as it grows in size, it would all so start to have a gravitational pull, to pull in asteroids that are not metallic, the Earths core is liquid Iron, a nuclear reactor melt down inside the new planet, could create this liquid metal core, after it no longer needs the giant electromagnetic to help it grow.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-270899075443508100.post-32394015388700238292014-05-06T17:39:24.036-07:002014-05-06T17:39:24.036-07:00Will The Keystone Garter volunteer to go to Venus ...Will The Keystone Garter volunteer to go to Venus to enjoy it's terrestrial gravity? Mars has less gravity but at least you won't get roasted in a high pressure, over heated oven!Sage Geonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-270899075443508100.post-42796495361933315792014-05-01T12:53:08.356-07:002014-05-01T12:53:08.356-07:00Where JW should have been cancelled is when the co...Where JW should have been cancelled is when the cost increased from $3B to $4.5B one year. It is primarily to look for dark matter or dark energy (I forget). Basic research is important, but now it is around the same cost as the Large Hadron Collider, built to look for the Higgs Boson.<br />There is a lack of understanding that humans need human gravity, so Venus would preferable for colonization over Mars.<br />If there are Earth gravity planets orbiting stars nearby, we will want to consider colonizing them. If not, we will prefer rotating colonies, maybe out of Oort Cloud matter. Is why I like star shade. Less precise exoplanet observatories are good for estimating the odds of technological aliens, but not for our future colony plans. Can a solar sail go to proxima century (a useless two or three star system) in 50 years? Maybe in my lifetime.The Keystone Garternoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-270899075443508100.post-85045820565247872012014-04-30T16:33:47.910-07:002014-04-30T16:33:47.910-07:00When are you planning to do an update?When are you planning to do an update?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-270899075443508100.post-60372563552029335652014-04-25T12:36:08.559-07:002014-04-25T12:36:08.559-07:00ESA is thinking about reflying a second version of...ESA is thinking about reflying a second version of the TGO to Venus among other things.<br /><br />http://www.lpi.usra.edu/vexag/meetings/archive/vexag_11/presentations/1120-0945-Wilson.pdfAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-270899075443508100.post-89312317142872065072014-04-24T14:27:55.702-07:002014-04-24T14:27:55.702-07:00...so, the Sentinels asteroid contingency obviousl......so, the Sentinels asteroid contingency obviously favours asteroid and comet missions. And the more I think about it the more I like it. No asteroid disintegration risk. You could keep the bombs on Earth but that makes launch a fail-mode.<br /><br />I like the Star Shade better than WFIELD if Star Shade is much better at finding human-inhabitable worlds. If we find them nearby, we will want to direct our politics and propulsion system R+D towards this means. If not, other objectives will be more important.<br />For Mars, the potential for active liquid water interests me most. If you combine it with a AI/pandemic WMD sensor network, this suggests launching a network of sensors to function on Mars, finding all the tubules that have recently flowed water (or useless liquid CO2 if the thesis is flawed). It may be possible to find a historic clock, such as soil sampling that unearths how many major abrasive dust-devils there have been since last water flow.<br />Materials science is important for a sensor network. PVDF-trifluor...ethylene looks like it is capable of forming a physically tamper-proof barrier for sensitive infrastructures like biolab equipment and supercomputer databases. I like visual pattern recognition AI, and quantum key research of all types here. The PVDF- can create lamb waves to look for damage to a surface, lamb waves being a discovery by the most likeliest of Auzzie researchers, a researchers with the whitest hair and a bleating voice tone.<br />The potential NASA budget for this kind of basic research appears a few dozen million dollars a year larger than is the DARPA budget. If James Webb doesn't bankrupt America.<br />Perhaps a better and thinner CNT coating will be found that is cheaper than is PVDF-trifluo-ethyThe Keystone Garternoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-270899075443508100.post-27002834690556464182014-04-15T12:52:14.597-07:002014-04-15T12:52:14.597-07:00#4 means bag the Sentinel. Towing it to the path ...#4 means bag the Sentinel. Towing it to the path of the doomsday asteroid will probably be easiest using the volatiles as rocket fuel. This mission requires neutron bombs in Solar System orbit. I don't believe these volatiles are much of a threat to Earth.The Keystone Garternoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-270899075443508100.post-5837634363533903242014-04-15T12:46:36.710-07:002014-04-15T12:46:36.710-07:00I have a good emergency asteroid intercept conting...I have a good emergency asteroid intercept contingency. Probably terrorists, AI or aliens are more of a future reality than is a natural impactor.<br /><br />1) Find a few mostly/all volatile (frozen ices) comet or asteroid likely in the asteroid belt. These are valuable resources for other economies like as fuel stations and to provide life support services. They will likely be house sized to skyscraper sized but I'm not sure the bomb physics. Lots of silicate might ablate okay too and rocky asteroids are common.<br />2) Bombard it lightly with iron-based asteroids nearby probably basketball to bar sized.<br />2) Wait for the seismic and "surface weather" properties to stabilize to inert status.<br />3) Rendevous a probe equipped with a drill and if necessary drill through the crust that has been created by the bombardment. Drill/melt/steam through to the core. Insert a neutron bomb.<br />4) Obama's asteroid mission will be useful here: bag the asteroid.<br />5) Send the dozen or so "Sentinal Impactors" orbiting, maybe around an asteroid belt orbit. Might be too high a danger of inadvertent collisions right at the asteroid belt. There are many ways of towing a bagged asteroid to an optimal orbit. An elliptical orbit might result in too much ablation if the Sentinel travels near the Sun.<br />6) The part I haven't figured out yet is the best way to tow the asteroid into the path of a big asteroid headed for Earth. The Sentinel might be fragile but you want a quick diversion.<br />6) Spin the Sentinel for a uniform distribution of iron post-detonation.<br />7) Once the Sentinel is in the path of the doomsday asteroid, probably a week to a few minutes away, detonate the neutron bomb. The volatiles will ablate. The iron shrapnel will be small particles and disperse uniformly on the surface of the doomsday asteroid. This will limit the odds of doomsday fragmentation and eliminates the risk of "flashback"; the refraction from the surface of the doomsday asteroid that Jay Melosh discovered in the reference paper (I think).The Keystone Garternoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-270899075443508100.post-79130428695781063352014-03-15T19:43:22.418-07:002014-03-15T19:43:22.418-07:00Obama really is a dim bulb, not nearly as smart an...Obama really is a dim bulb, not nearly as smart and curious as supporters say he is. He is doing to NASA and the planetary science program what he is doing to the country, running them both into the ground.<br />I agree with Van, this lacks vision.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com