Lockheed RIFT

 drawings, nukes, projects, rockets, spacecraft  11 Responses »
Dec 212010
 

In the early days of the NERVA program (early ’60’s), there came about an associated program: RIFT. Reactor In Flight Test was the rather obvious follow-on to the development of a nuclear rocket… mount the rocket to a stage and blast around in space. Lockheed had a contract with NASA to design the basic RIFT test stage, which would serve as a third stage for the Saturn V; sometimes known as the S-N stage, operational derivatives of this stage were put forward.

Compared to later nuclear stages, the S-N stage was remarkably short in length. Long stage lengths were useful to reduce the radiation hazards to the payload (especially crew); I can only assume that these early studies either assumed lower external radiation fluxes from the reactor, or assumed a higher mass of shielding. In either event, such small stages seem like a bit of a waste of the potential of a NERVA rocket, which could run for hours.  As shown, these look kinda like mounting a turbofan off of a 787 onto a Cessna, and giving it two gallons of gas.

 Posted by at 11:46 am

Journalistic Malfeasance

 blather, dumbassery, news, politics  5 Responses »
Dec 212010
 

Behold this astonishingly factually inaccurate headline:

GOP blocks youth immigration

This is a very brief news update announcing that Senate Republicans managed to stop the “DREAM Act” which would have given young illegal immigrants a “path to citizenship” via military service or by going to college. The news article *doesn’t* mention that without the “DREAM Act,” thousands of non-Americans still nevertheless manage to legally join the US military and get fast-tracked to citizenship. The article completely fails to back up the claim of the title that the GOP “blocks youth immigration.”

In fact, much of the discussion of this bill has been utter rubbish. I heard a snippet on NPR today where one of the commenters,bemoaning the failure of the bill, pointed out that in the American legal system we do not throw the children of serial killers into jail, thus implying that we shouldn’t toss out the children of illegal immigrants. There is, of course, a serious problem with this arguement: serial killing is not a good analogy for illegally crossing the border. Theft or tresspassing are much better analogies.

So, it’s time to do some basic thought experiments. Sure, it sucks for the children of illegal immigrants. There are few good answers for them. But there are answers that society as a whole has decided are good enough for other circumstances. So, consider:

Situation A: Foreigners sneak into the US with a baby. Baby is not at fault here. What to do with the baby?

Situation B: A pair of American citizens runs a scam, bilking ten million dollars out of a person, company or organization. The couple have a baby, and use that ill-gotten loot to raise the baby in the lap of wealth.

Situation C: American citizen works hard and smart, and makes a billion dollars. Raises baby, then keels over. Wants to leave that billion dollars to the baby.

OK. Let’s start with Situation B: what would society do? If the parents are convicted of stealing ten million dollars, the judicial system will recover that money – or at least whatever it can find – and return it to the rightful owner. The child of the thieves – remember, the child here has done no wrong and is at no fault – suddenly finds his fortune evaporated. Additionally, the child finds his parents suddenly absent, spending the next five to ten years in prison. So, in this case, society has determined that it’s perfectly acceptible to take an innocent child and strip from him his prospects, future and family.

Now, Situation C: the billionaire wants to leave his fortune to his kid. Most people would say “let him,” or something very similar. But not *everyone* in our society, and certainly not everyone in the position to make the rules.  The new estate tax law will have the estate shaken down for 35% of every penny over $10 million. Other people want it to be 45% or more for every penny over a smaller amount. So the billionaire gets taxed twice… once when he makes the money, and again when he gives it to his kid. The rational person would want to know why the hell it’s anyone’s business what the billionaire does with his money, or why anyone should care how much he gives to someone else. But not the money-grubbers. They care who gets how much.

So, put Situations B and C together, and you have a society that’s cool with not only taking opportunities away from the innocent children of criminals, but also the innocent children of the industrious and law abiding. Now ask yourself, how manytalkign heads who would agree with these positions would suddenly get all snippy at the idea of taking away opportunities from the children of illegal immigrants.

The children here are at no more fault that the children of the scam artists… and they have no more right to the opportunities and goodies than the children of the scam artists – and considerably less right than the children of the billionaire.

So, does it suck for the children of illegal immigrants? Yup. But it sucks for the children of every other kind of criminal as well. “But I have a kid who needs me to stay out of prison and keep working to pay for his goodies” rarely works as a defence in court for those convicted of rape, assault, murder, home invasions, identity theft, drug trafficking, prostitution, fraud or any other damned crime. Why should it apply to criminal aliens?

 Posted by at 2:54 am

Muromontite

 blather, nukes, science  4 Responses »
Dec 202010
 

You learn something new every day. For example, for more than the last thirty years I’ve understood plutonium to be the first truly synthetic element… it didn’t appear in nature until Man brought it into being. Ooops. Behold “muromontite.”

http://periodictable.com/Elements/094/index.html

The sample I have representing plutonium is the naturally occurring mineral muromontite, which is a mixture of uranium and beryllium. Putting beryllium near uranium is generally considered a bad idea because the alpha particles from the decay of uranium are captured by the beryllium atoms, which in turn release neutrons. Neutrons are very unhealthy to be around.
In the case of this sample, however, the neutrons are in turn re-captured by the uranium, which then undergoes further decay and is transformed into plutonium. The result is that this mineral contains the highest known naturally occurring concentration of plutonium.

Well, how about that. In retrospect it’s sorta obvious that plutonium would exist in the natural world. But I keep hearing that plutonium doesn’t.

 Posted by at 10:42 pm

Books Worth Buying: Convair Advanced Designs

 aircraft, awesomeness, books, drawings, Gah., projects  2 Responses »
Dec 202010
 

If you read the Unwanted Blog for unbuilt aircraft and spacecraft designs, then Robert Bradley’s “Convair Advanced Designs: Secret Projects From San Diego 1923-1962” should be right up your alley. Published earlier this year by the now-shutting-down Specialty Press, it is packed with art, diagrams and info on a large number of unbuilt seaplane and bomber concepts. From some rather obvious design revisions to the PBY “Catalina” to some truly oddball configurations (multi-hull seaplanes, flying wing seaplanes, aircraft with control surfaces that translate fore and aft on tracks on the fuselage, etc.) this books has ’em all.

An autogyro conversion of the Consolidated Model 31

At 184 pages, the book is a quality hardback with well reproduced black and white drawings, photos and artists impressions. This was to be Volume One of two, with the second volume dealing with fighter concepts. With the end of Specialty Press, the future of Volume Two is uncertain, but it will probably go to a different publisher.

And a note: since Specialty Press has decided to get out of the business, iot’s not clear that there will be that many more copies of “Convair Advanced Designs” available on the market. So snap ’em up before they’re gone.

Additional Note: Bob has written several articles for Aerospace Projects Review on various Convair design projects.

Note: you can also start your Amazon searches right here…

 Posted by at 10:50 am

Bell “Remora”

 blather, drawings, projects, spacecraft  8 Responses »
Dec 192010
 

An early-1960’s idea for a one-man “space pod.” Similar in concept to von Braun’s “Bottle Suit,” the Remora would allow an astronaut to work in a more comfortable settign than a full pressure suit, while giving the astronaut more tools and greater protection from radiation, meteoroids and other space hazards.

The name “remora” comes in part from the fact that the “suits” would not, unlike normal EVA suits, have to be put all the way through an air lock. Instead, the “head” of the Remora would enter a small port on the spacecraft, would lock in, the pressure would equalize and the transparent dome would open, allowing the astronaut to climb right out. The pressure in the spacecraft/space station would be the same as that within the Remora, meaning no prebreathing and no dangerous and time consuming steps up and down in pressure.

The images below are photos of Bell promo glossies. At the tiem I took ’em, I was far from home and fully prepared to do some scannin’… except I brought the wrong damned cable. Ooops. Anybody want to underwrite a return visit, so I can spend the time (of which I had very little last time) to do it right?

 Posted by at 6:25 pm

Photos of guns terrifies some Aussies

 blather, dumbassery, humor, politics, weapons  15 Responses »
Dec 192010
 

Now this is just sad.

Is this a “great gift for children”?

I barely know where to start with this. It makes me so angry. Why would any toy retailer think this was appropriate?

Oy.

The toy itself is exceedingly lame… a wooden board with cutout puzzle pieces, with photos of guns stuck on the pieces. I guess it’s a simple puzzle for toddlers.

Guns are not educational toys for three-year-olds.

First off, the toy in question is not a gun, just a *picture* of a gun on a  piece of wood *vaguely* shaped like a gun. This sort of horror at guns is massively unhealthy… not only for the whiner suffering from it, but for everyone around him.

Now, if you want a good educational toy for a child, there are some good ones:

Single-shot training rifles in .22 caliber can apparently be weilded by kids as young as four. And such training rifles should clearly be made available; rather than viewing firearms with horror, kids should be taught what firearms are… and what they aren’t.

Now, there are also more expensive toys for your more advanced learners:

And some for those ready to skip a few grades:

But hey, Australia, if you don’t want your kids to play with or even understand firearms, that’s cool. They can grow up to be ignorant and fearful of them, wholly incompetant to wield them in any useful way. The neat thing is, there are other cultures that take a quite different approach to kids and weapons. I’m curious to see what that culture clash will be like.

 Posted by at 6:05 pm

Fun Personal Anecdote

 aircraft, blather, science  8 Responses »
Dec 182010
 

I recieved an email on this news story:

Air Force warns not to pick up F-22 debris if found

which includes this:

Any debris discovered by snowmachiners or others should not be handled because the aircraft was built with materials that can present health risks if they are mishandled.

The email questioned if I knew what those materials could be. Of course the warning could be a bluff; the F-22, while a pretty old design, is undoubtedly loaded with classified components made out of advanced materials that various foreign powers might like to get their paws on. But there is a real health concern, given that the F-22 is built out of a whole lot of carbon fiber composites.

One day back in California I worked at a rocket test stand that had, some time earlier, played host to a carbon fiber rocket case that went *foom*. It was a hot, long, sunny day, and I took a moment to sit on a step in the shade.
Long story short: shouldn’t’ve sat there. All the clothes I was wearing wound up being thrown away, from shoes to lab coat to undies. I got to go home early, wearing someone else’s lab coat for modesty, spending not just the rest of the day, but several *weeks* pulling little carbony needles out of my ass. That drive home was… uncomfortable. There was a necessary tradeoff between driving as quickly as possible in order to reduce travel time… and not travelling so fast as to arouse the greed of the innumerable state troopers on the road.

When a metal aircraft crashes, there is an immediate danger from shrapnel, as bits of metal go flying. But once they’ve landed, their dangerousness is largely over. While there is a risk of getting cut from large pieces of torn metal, the risk is easily understandable, and generally restricted to larger pieces. Tiny little bits are generally not much more dangerous than sand or pebbles. But when carbon fiber fails spectacularly, you get *clouds* of little needles. They are evil little bastards… they can easily be too small to see with the naked eye, but you can sure feel ’em when they dig in. If you get them in your eyes or lungs, you are in for a world of hurt.

 Posted by at 4:02 pm
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