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Metallic Hydrogen

awesomeness, Hmm..., news, reshaping the world, rockets, science, spacecraft 12 Responses »

Nov 062016

According to theory, if you put hydrogen under enough pressure it will form itself into a solid metal. Metallic hydrogen would have a density a bit greater than water and would be an electrical superconductor. The planet Jupiter should theoretically have an “ocean” of metallic hydrogen surrounding a rocky core. The difficulty is that the amount of pressure required is astonishingly high, higher than can be produced by man except under a few rare laboratory conditions.

On one hand, metallic hydrogen is a scientific curiosity. On the other hand, there is just barely the possibility that metallic hydrogen is metastable. This means that once formed, when the pressure is removed, it will remain a metallic solid. You will have turned hydrogen gas into a chunk of room-temperature metal.

“Metastable” of course means that it is not *entirely* stable. That chunk of metal might be happy to remain a chunk of metal for a billion years. Or someone might whack it with a hammer, zap it with a laser, nuke it with gamma rays, or yell harsh language at it, which would be enough to cause it to unravel itself back into regular hydrogen. Problem is, nobody is quite sure *if* metallic hydrogen is metastable, and, if so, how twitchy it would be. And this is something you’d really want to know. Because unraveling metallic hydrogen would make one *hell* of an explosive, more powerful than anything else out there. Recomobination of hydrogen from the metallic state would release 216 megajoules per kilogram; TNT only releases 4.2 megajoules per kilo. Hydrogen/oxygen combustion in the SSME releases 10 megajoules/kilo.

If things work out just right, metastable hydrogen could revolutionize space launch and space travel. A rocket engine based on pellets of metallic hydrogen detonations could have a specific impulse of 1700 seconds. This compares really well to the 450 or so seconds you could get out of a hydrogen/oxygen rocket engine, and quite well to a solid core nuclear thermal engine like NERVA, which would have an Isp of 800 to 900 seconds. And it would do all that without the need for radiation shielding. This would make SSTO’s almost trivially easy, make trips to the moon and Mars economical.

The problems, of course, are that we don’t know if metallic hydrogen is metastable (and if so, *how* metastable), and of course we don’t have any metastable hydrogen to experiment with to determine these things.

Except… now we do. Sorta.

Observation of the Wigner-Huntington Transition to Solid Metallic Hydrogen

Ranga Dias and Isaac F. Silvera
Lyman Laboratory of Physics, Harvard University, Cambridge MA 02138

A *small*quantity of reflective metallic hydrogen has been created at a pressure of 495 gigaPascals (71,793,680 pounds per square inch, about 4.8 million atmo0spheres) in a diamond anvil. The sample was about 8 microns in diameter by 1.2 microns thick. As of the writing of that paper (published in early October), the sample was being kept under pressure at liquid nitrogen temperature. The next step is to release the pressure and see if the sample remains solid metal.

Several papers and presentations were made a few years ago describing the potential of metallic hydrogen as a rocket propellant. Given the extreme temperature produced by metallic hydrogen going *foom,* it was assumed that the reaction would be diluted with liquid hydrogen or water. This reduced Isp, but increased thrust.

Male Birth Control Pill

Hmm..., news, science 1 Response »

Nov 052016

A few days ago, news broke that a medical trial of a birth control pill for males had been halted. The basic headline was that the pill was basically effective, but it caused a few minor side effects such as acne and moodiness, and Fragile Males Just Can’t Handle That Sort Of Thing. Turns out that it was halted for kinda more pressing reasons. Rather than do a whole lot of typing and complaining, I’ll just post this video from ShoeOnHead, who does a good job of not only laying out the story… but also points out that there are some people who are opposed to the Male Pill. People you might not initially expect, but after a moments thought you’ll realize that you’re unsurprised that they are opposed to letting men make these decisions.

Port of Call: Bayonne

aircraft, art, awesomeness, history, humor, ships, youtube 4 Responses »

Nov 052016

In 1978 the US Navy began running this very successful recruitment commercial:

Navy. It’s not just a job,

It’s an adventure.

In 1979, Saturday night Live ran this parody:

Navy. It’s not just a job.

It’s $96.78 a week.

I’ve never known anyone in *any* branch of the military to say that the parody was the less accurate one. As my now rather time-dimmed memory serves, the whole nation was laughing it’s butt off back in the day.

That time my home town joined the ranks of Metropolis and Gotham City

art, blather, Hmm... 3 Responses »

Nov 042016

I happened to stumble across this photo of the season 5 cast of “Arrow” earlier today:

Now, I don’t know diddly squadoo about Arrow, having never seen a single episode (it premiered on CW several years before my satellite system carried it, so… meh, too late to get involved). It’s based on the DC comics character “Green Arrow” who generally inhabits the same world as Superman and Batman. I know that “The Flash” spun off of “Arrow,” and that last year there was a crossover episode between “Flash” and “Supergirl,” and now this year Superman has put in an appearance on “Supergirl,” so… there ya go, I guess.

All that said, I glanced at this photo and something caught my eye. See the feller way off to the left, in the hockey mask? He looked familiar. So I dug through a box and found a half dozen comic books I bought in 1987-88. And, yup, that is the little-known minor DC character “Wild Dog.”

“Wild Dog” was sold to DC, in part, on the unusual setting. Instead of a Gigantic Mega City like Metropolis, a fictionalized version of New York, “Wild Dog” was set in small-town heartland America, in the fancifully named “Quad Cities” straddling the Mississippi, with the Rock Island Arsenal on an island in between. Why did I care in 1987? Because I grew up and lived in the Quad Cities, a set of small-to-medium towns straddling the Mississippi, right near the Rock Island Arsenal. As memory serves, the creator was a local, and DC believed that all the places were fictional, even though nearly all the locales were modeled after and mostly *named* after actual local places. One of the later stories even takes place briefly in “The Time Machine,” a local comic book shop… which was where I bought at least a few of the comics.

So a real place, my home town region, is sorta-canonical in the DC universe. I’d bet good money that if they ever delve into the back story of “Wild Dog” they’ll end up changing things, though. Heck, they have already changed the name and ethnicity of the character (because of course they did, from Wheeler to Ramirez), so the back story is almost certain to change.

An exciting new era for fire fighters has arrived

AARRRGH, blather, Gah., news, science, youtube, ಠ_ಠ 6 Responses »

Nov 042016

Someone goes way too fast and loses control of their car: not new. The car crashes and bursts into flames: not new. The responding firefighters have to dodge explosively propelled flaming battery packs: that’s gotta be a little new.

Here’s the thing: a car full of gasoline bursts into flames has got to be a nightmare scenario for rescuers, but it is at least something that they and their technology are used to. Foam will float on top of gasoline, serve as an oxygen barrier, put out the fire. But a lithium battery fire? You spray anything water based on it, the lithium will yank the oxygen out of the water molecules and combust with *that,* leaving superheated hydrogen to roam free and burn with yet more free oxygen in the air. So don’t spray water on a battery fire. And I *believe* that an adequate lithium fire will yank the oxygen out of carbon dioxide, so don’t bother with *that.* The preferred solution for a metals fire is:

Bury it in sand
Bury it in salt
Stand back and check your emails until the fire burns out.

CSB: Years ago I worked on a small badly run project to develop an ejector ramjet. The dimwit who ordered the components didn’t pay a whole lot of attention to safety issues or even just basic chemical or mechanical issues, and bought us a large titanium tube to serve as the combustion chamber for the ramjet. And titanium is fine, so long as you use the right alloy (6 AL 4V is a good one). But this tube was, IIRC, essentially *pure* titanium. And pure titanium burns like frakin’ magnesium. So the safety guy pitched a fit until management bought a special metals-fire extinguisher that shot out a spray of fine salt. The salt would cover the burning metal, melt, block oxygen, solidify. So as far as management was concerned, in the off chance there was a titanium fire, one of us minions could run out to the test stand and put the fire out. The agreed-upon procedure among us minions was, of course, “screw that noise,” to sit on our asses and wait for the titanium to burn itself out. There are a lot of things worth risking your life over, and a small shed with some cobbled together rocket equipment just ain’t one of ’em. And I kinda doubt that a Tesla that has been converted into a flaming pile of rubble is one, either. Both occupants of the car died, and I suspect that one of them was converted to a fine white ash.

Witnesses say the car was going *really* fast. One wonders if it was because the driver was a lead-footed moron, or because the car malfunctioned. Given the severity of the fire, I have doubts that that can be clearly determined.

Level of sympathy for grieving parents: approaching zero

AARRRGH, Crazy, dumbassery, Forward!, Gah., Meh., news, wisdom, ಠ_ಠ 5 Responses »

Nov 042016

Normally, you feel bad for parents of a kid shot dead. But these parents? Ummm… I’m not finding much sympathy here…

Parents of Pizza Hut robbery suspect question why employee shot, killed their son

Yeah. Their precious little snowflake – in cahoots with two other people – attempted to rob a Pizza Hut and got himself shot (while he himself was brandishing a gun) in the process. OK, so Junior was a dirtbag, but I could still scrape the barrel and find *some* sympathy, right? Well, the parents make sure that that outcome is impossible:

“Why in the hell did this guy have a gun?” questioned Hairston about the employee who shot her son.

Gee, lemme think, lady. Maybe because you were such a gawdawful parent that your son thought armed robbery was a good idea, and the Pizza Hut employee *correctly* surmised that there are scumbags such as your kid out there in the world?

She then demands that the employee should be in jail.

Sadly, Darwin is not fully satisfied here. Junior is dead and the world is better off… but he was 29 and had already reproduced at least once.

Something else to ponder: there were three criminals involved in the robbery. Since there was a homicide in the process, under many state laws the *other* criminals are to be charged with murder. So, perhaps some extra good will come of this and two more horrible little monsters will be removed from society for a good long while.

And the relevant Fark thread is *filled* with some awesome insights and one-liners…

Play stupid games, win stupid prizes…. in 30 minutes or less.
i expect employees getting in gun fights with robbers to be more of a little ceasars affair
If you don’t want to get Zimmermaned then don’t Trayvon.
It’s entirely up to you whether you trust your life to a felon. C’mon, take a chance.
Damn. And my sympathy machine is in the shop this week.

Starship Troopers Remake

art, Hmm..., news, science fiction 7 Responses »

Nov 042016

Apparently there’s been some forward motion on making a new “Starship Troopers” motion picture. Tentative “yay…?” on that. The 1990’s movie was ok as a stand-alone action/satire flick, so long as you separate it in your mind from the novel Heinlein wrote. So a new movie could be good, could be bad. If it’s a remake of the earlier flick, then the chances of it being good are minimal. Think about it. RoboCop. Red Dawn. Total Recall. Ghostbusters. Arthur. Poltergeist. The Omen. Carrie. Recent years are filled with remakes that run the whole spectrum, from forgettable to execrable. But if the movie makers forget the earlier movie and go right back to the book, it could be good.

Here’s the article:

‘Starship Troopers’ Reboot in the Works

From that, here’s the good news:

The studio is not remaking the film but is said to be going back to the original Heinlein novel for an all-new take. No personnel from the 1997 film are involved.

And here’s the “Ummmm…” news:

Mark Swift and Damian Shannon, the writing duo behind the upcoming Zac Efron-Dwayne Johnson ‘Baywatch’ movie, will pen the script for the alien-bug war film.

I remain unconvinced that a remake of “Baywatch” is necessarily a good jumping off point for “Starship Troopers.” But I guess we’ll see.

Print Is Dead

cyanotype blueprints, drawings 4 Responses »

Nov 032016

A few days ago, I updated the webpages for my cyanotype blueprints and the digitally printed large format prints to indicate that they are no longer available for sale. With my magnificently effective advertising system, it’s generally months between orders, so I figured it was time to wrap ’em up. The electronic downloadable stuff all remains as available as ever, of course.

I still have some stock of the digital prints and the cyanotypes. I imagine I’ll try ebaying them individually and see how that goes.

This vision of hell brought to you by: The Pentagon

AARRRGH, blather, Crazy, Forward!, Gah., Hmm..., politics, reshaping the world, youtube, ಠ_ಠ 59 Responses »

Nov 012016

A video apparently produced by or for the Pentagon discussing the military nightmare of the future: megacities.

Megacities are themselves necessarily threats to humanity. Breeding grounds of disease and insanity and socialism (but then repeat myself) these gigantic human-scale “Universe 25” analogues are of dubious stability. A bit of a power outage and the tens of millions of inhabitants will soon begin to not only set upon each other, but will spill out into the surroundings and will consume and destroy the natural and agricultural environments. But from the Pentagons point of view, there is the further complication of “how do you fight a war in a megacity? And the Pentagon has this problem because you have a city of tens of millions of noncombatants that you want to protect, interspersed with hundreds of thousands of enemies who blend right it.

I suspect that within a few generations the DoD might give serious consideration to abandoning the long-held American viewpoint of trying to minimize collateral damage, and take up the Russian approach: carpet bomb the whole damn thing. Surround the enemy megacity, put it under siege, and utterly destroy it. While this could be accomplished with many bombing runs of B-52s, B-1s, B-2s and C-5s all loaded with dumb bombs, it can also be accomplished by a small number of tactical nuclear weapons. And even more easily accomplished with biowarfare. Given how strained the systems are in *current* high population density megaslums, a little bit more time, population and resource strain could easily make a city of tens of millions ready to be virtually exterminated with a small outbreak of a disease that could be easily explained as entirely natural in origin. And once the outbreak becomes public knowledge, shipments of food and medicine into the megacities will slow, because who’d want to go there, and things will rapidly progress.

The recently released movie “Inferno” (a staggering bomb domestically, but doing fairly well overseas) touches on this. A James Bondian villain has spent his fortune developing a virus that will kill half the population of the planet, and Our Hero needs to find the bioweapon and prevent it from going off. The plot is entirely ridiculous, and some of the supervillains math is dubious (he assumes a planetary population of 32 billion in something like 30 or 40 years), but he does have something of a point: overpopulation is a serious problem *now* and will only get worse in the future. From the military’s perspective, fighting a war in a megacity where they’re constrained by current notions of preventing collateral damage must be an unwinnable prospect. I have my own preferred solution (get the hell *off* Earth), but in the end a good dose of Vegan choriomeningitis might be the only solution, especially in the megacities.

So… which one is the Gunman?

awesomeness, blather, Hmm..., science fiction 31 Responses »

Oct 312016

WestWorld continues to intrigue. While they haven’t made it obvious, they’ve made it unavoidable that the show actually takes place in at least two different eras. One era has the human “Guests” Billy and Logan going on adventures with the android Dolores; the other has Dolores being interrogated by park overlord Ford, with something going kinda funny with the robots due to the latest update and the park being stalked by the Man In Black. In the later era with Ford, a few hints as to the past have been dropped… something like 35 years earlier one of the two park founders killed himself; something like 30 years earlier something went *really* wrong at the park. In the earlier timeline with Billy, the founder has already offed himself, but there has been as yet no mention of something going really wrong at the park. So presumably the two eras are separated by between 30 and 35 or so years.

Billy is a “white hat,” thinks himself a Good Guy and tries to behave as such. Logan is a “black hat” and indulges in all forms of debauchery and robo-murder at the park. Billy likes Dolores; Logan thinks of her as a toaster. And then years later the Man In Black annually returns to the park, where he tortures and “murders” Dolores. You’d think that that wouldn’t really be the sort of thing that Billy would become. But in the most recent episode, you see the start of Billy becoming a different person. So what are we heading towards?

My speculation: sometime in the near-ish future, we’ll see that massive screwup at the park. My guess is that something happens to the robots so that they no longer are inhibited against killing the Guests. Perhaps they will become self aware and will actively try to exterminate the Guests. Billy obviously survives but is changed by it; perhaps Dolores, who we saw starting to undergo some pretty substantial personality changes, does something pretty nasty to Billy (have we seen the Man In Black without a hat? Perhaps there’s no scalp there…). Maybe she murders Logan, who is at least nominally some sort of friend of Billies.

But then… perhaps all that, but Logan actually becomes the Man In Black. It would seem a straighter course. Perhaps Dolores leads the Bot Uprising and kills Billy; that could easily set Logan on the course to becoming the Man In Black.

An episode or two back there was a brief sequence set clearly in the “past,” with a much younger Ford. This was done via computer trickery, presenting a youthenized Anthony Hopkins. So perhaps we will see more of that. And I kinda hope so: one of my favorite character actors, Michael Wincott (he played Malcolm Reynolds in “Alien: Resurrection” and Donald Trump in “The Crow”), plays an early model robot kept in storage. It’d be nice to see him out and about… and if he’s shown out and about with Billy and Logan, it’ll pretty well nail down the fact of the different eras being depicted.

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