Rik's Ramblings

Friday, January 27, 2017

Metallic hydrogen - super space fuel


"It takes a tremendous amount of energy to make metallic hydrogen ... if you convert it back ... it would make it the most powerful rocket propellant known to man, and could revolutionize rocketry. That would easily allow you to explore the outer planets. "


For me, a fuel which allows a constant acceleration of 1g (+/- 20%) would be the way to go.

If this metal hydrogen fuel is dense enough, then maybe it can allow this.

Think about it.  If you can accelerate constantly at 1g to your destination, then:

    (a) the humans aboard ship experience earth gravity.  Eliminating the problems of weightlessness.

   (b) your velocity is constantly increasing, such that, you can get to Jupiter within a week.






   

Friday, January 20, 2017

'El Chapo' arrives in the US

Mexican Drug Lord 'El Chapo' Faces Life Sentence in U.S. Prison


http://nbcnews.to/2kaIo77


I thought Trump's plan was to send the "Bad Hombres" back to Mexico.  This one's going the wrong way.


Well, here we go!

Donald Trump and Barack Obama in the Whitehouse together.  In a spoof of the poster art for the TV show 'orange is the new black'.  Point being, Donald Trump is the new president, and he's orange.  He's replacing Barack Obama, who's the old president, but black.

Donald Trump looking smug in the white house.


Hey, let's not panic. After all, we survived 8 years of George W. Bush, how bad could this one be?

Well, when I say "survived" George Bush, there was that foney war in Iraq. 7000 Americans literally didn't survive that.

Then there was the housing collapse, where thousands of Americans lost their houses due to the greedy banks and their subprime mortgages. Banks which George secretly bailed out with a trillion dollars check from the federal reserve.

And ofcourse, all the car companies. Didn't they go bankrupt and get taken over by the "small government" republicans. And again given a sizeable bailout. And aren't they owned by Fiat now?

And the stock market was in the toilet.

And my mortgage interest went to 7%.

And my house lost $200k in value.

But hey, we all got a tax rebate of $100 ... the first year!


Like I said, we survived the last republican president, we'll survive this one too, and rebuild after he's gone.



Tuesday, January 10, 2017

draining the swamp

Monday, January 09, 2017

President Obama Honors Scientists

https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/01/09/president-obama-honors-federally-funded-early-career-scientists

Well, thanks for nothing Obama, you just got us all fired come Jan 21.

But seriously, I'm sure they all feel very honored.



NASA Psyche Mission

http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/news/2017/01/04/nasa-selects-two-missions-to-explore-the-early-solar-system

Psyche, also a robotic mission, is targeted to launch in October of 2023, arriving at the asteroid in 2030, following an Earth gravity assist spacecraft maneuver in 2024 and a Mars flyby in 2025.



This is very disappointing.  2030 is a long time away.  I can forgive the 6 year build time, but 7 years to Jupiter is crazy.  We need a faster propulsion system to get us to the gas giants.