Even a microscopic defect or damage to a fan blade can cause a failure at the immense RPMs that that blade is working when the engine is full power or near to it.
The thread for space cadets!
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Even a microscopic defect or damage to a fan blade can cause a failure at the immense RPMs that that blade is working when the engine is full power or near to it.
Are we alone, or is there life in the heavens?
Sandia’s ‘Z machine’ helps study whether other planets could sustain life
Copyright © 2021 Albuquerque Journal
BY RYAN BOETEL
Sandia’s ‘Z machine’ helps study whether other planets could sustain life
Copyright © 2021 Albuquerque Journal
BY RYAN BOETEL
The researchers charged up the Z machine, and in a blink of an eye its fist-size target plate was moving faster than 30 kilometers per second before exploding into a sample of bridgmanite — an elusive material found in the center of the Earth. The experiment, carried out at Sandia National Laboratories, was part of a project that is giving scientists insight into the bellies of planets hundreds of light years away — insights that may help them answer the age-old question: Is there life beyond Earth? Or at least whether there’s a distant planet somewhere capable of sustaining life as we know it. The groundbreaking research was recently featured in an article in Nature Communications. The article, authored by a team that included several Sandia scientists, delved into experiments on bridgmanite conducted at the labs’ Z Pulsed Power Facility, or Z machine. The focus on the Sandia research comes as the world’s attention is once again fixed on the heavens. Last month, NASA landed a rover on Mars that will spend the next two years drilling in search of any evidence that microscopic life ever lived on Earth’s neighbor.
The Sandia study is trying to figure out if a planet could sustain life. One step was to find bridgmanite’s melting point and other traits. By knowing more about bridgmanite, scientists may be able to ascertain what it’s like on the
surface of faraway planets, and which ones most closely resemble Earth, said Joshua Townsend, a Sandia physicist who was part of the study.
The team made a short list of seven “super-Earth” planets between 21 and 1,500 light years away that could have atmospheres similar to Earth. “These are not planets that you and I are ever going to see. But it’s still important to ask these questions and find answers,” Townsend said. “If we can do this and find out which planets we think are habitable or Earth-like … that helps us focus our attention on planets that we think may hold life.”
The Z machine is a 30-meter-diameter circle, with what look like florescent capillaries snaking across it. Its outer walls can store energy and force it into its center, which produces high temperatures, almost unfathomable amounts of pressure and powerful X-rays. That creates conditions found nowhere else on Earth, allowing researchers to perform what Sandia calls “high energy density science.”
From late 2016 to late 2018, Sandia researchers placed pieces of bridgmanite at the center of the machine seven times, and took what the team called “Z shots” at the samples. While one of the most abundant materials on the planet, bridgmanite is next to impossible to find naturally. It’s found in the core of the Earth, and likely deep inside other rocky planets. It can also be found in meteorites, said Sandia scientist Chris Seagle, who proposed studying bridgmanite using the Z machine.
Sandia National Laboratories’ Z machine, on Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque, is part of the Pulsed Power Program, which started at Sandia National Laboratories in the 1960s. SOURCE: SANDIA NATIONAL LABORATORIES
By learning more about bridgmanite, such as when it melts and how it responds to intense pressure, scientists can draw conclusions about planets even if they are light years away from Earth. To complete the study, the Sandia team partnered with the Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington, D.C., where Yingwei Fei, a scientist and coauthor of the article, makes bridgmanite in a lab. Using the Z machine, the scientists collected precise measurements on bridgmanite’s characteristics that weren’t previously known.
“Through the experiments we did on the Z machine, … we were able to study, with really incredible precision and accuracy, the properties of this material at very high pressure, like you would expect to find inside these big planets,” Seagle said. “And, more importantly, we found when this material melts.”
Why is the melting point so important?
Of the millions of “super-Earths” throughout the galaxy, Seagle said the only ones that could theoretically sustain life are those with a liquid core. “Whether a planet’s inside is liquid or solid has a really big effect on a lot of other really important properties of a planet, (including) whether it can sustain an atmosphere,” he said. The search for life should focus on planets that likely have a liquid core, Seagle said. “We know from the Earth … that the liquid motion in the core is what creates a magnetic field,” Seagle said. “If a planet has a magnetic field, that magnetic field protects the planet from solar winds or a nearby star’s stellar wind.” Without that protection, a planet would be stripped of anything needed to sustain life, he said.
So if scientists know things like the melting point of bridgmanite, and how it behaves under intense pressure, finding out which planets have those conditions inside them is a matter of physics. “When you know the mass and radius of a planet you can calculate its density,” Seagle said. “If you know the density, and how various materials behave as a function of pressure and temperature, then you can start to build up a model and figure out what these planets are made of.” Townsend said the data from the research project could guide future scientists searching for life beyond Earth.
“What’s been missing is an understanding of the interior of the planets. That’s what we’re trying to comment on,” Townsend said. “Here’s the list of planets you care a lot about. Here’s how our results can help you understand better what might be going on on these planets.”
EnglishEdward
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r16
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ı don't know how it would benefit anyone unless it involved New Turkey and as everybody already knows nothing evah happens to New Turkey . Though ı was much moved by this outgoing American official under Trump calling the F-35 a piece of s___ .
Another option to go to space: https://www.euronews.com/2021/03/03...eeks-eight-creatives-for-paid-for-moon-flight
Deadline for application is March 14.
I've sent this to a friend of mine who does landscape architecture, but she said she's quite worried that this will go via SpaceX, and that their last 2 rockets crashed during landing. Makes it hard to decide right now.
Deadline for application is March 14.
I've sent this to a friend of mine who does landscape architecture, but she said she's quite worried that this will go via SpaceX, and that their last 2 rockets crashed during landing. Makes it hard to decide right now.
I already applied. Pleiadian Komnenoi expect me near Rama.
@r16: Israel (right is the energy minister of Israel, left is the US ambassador) just gave away the only two turkish islands in the Aegean, to Greece.
Maybe they felt that Laussanes returns them to Greece, due to the failure to have autonomy and greek mayors there 
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Did you feel the earthquake?
No. I think it was in central Greece (?).
I looked at a map, I thought it was about 40 Km from Thessaloniki so I thought of you. Glad you are OK.
Seems to be there:
Blue is Thessalonike. The earthquake is close(r) to mt Olympus, so aliens
Seems it was near Larisa, so roughly 130-150 KM from Thessalonike.
r16
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ah yes , pressure to comment on the mighty things happening . Would finally write it in the general politics thread but this should also fit , like me Starfleet Admiral and ı think a product or something has already become famous ...
so , the dear people of CFC , as Bidon the barrel delays pressure on New Turkey , because New Turkey has always been loyal to America , even when pressure on America strains them in ways they can't fathom and there are indeed more references to that lslamists and "Muslims" are far more controlled by the British ... And yet there is "pressure" like which should scare us ... All under the cover of threatening Russia with exercises in Ukraine . Largest number of NATO advisors evet , new purchases , some 125 million dollars of military assistance and whatnot by America . Voice of Russia says war is coming , a proxy war where the West will use Ukraine as boots on the ground and liberate places . Even if Ukraine has some great babes , ı will not lift a finger for NATO , my views are known , no need to being vulgar at all . May you be defeated shortly and sharply , considering am still not permitted , like bringing peace to the world .
then the specific American exercise , 145 helicopters shipped in , like 20 000 troops . New Turkey "answers" with its greatest naval exercises as yet . 168 ships , like exactly not all of them rubber inflatables . ı don't care . Neither for the Mighty West . Nor New Turkey's bravado , because it is only electioneering . The Dutch have stalled publicly announcing that they know NewTurkey will abolish the Republic and become the greatest lslamic Power in 2023 and instead have declared a toothless call on their Parliament to claim 1915 as a genocide ... Wasn't surprised on that . ln the same bid to the same end we will have human rights in 2023 and not before , more in tandem with an economic reform package that will supposedly convince investors that New Turkey will not simply confiscate their money . GNP per capita is back to 2008 levels , possibly we are not in G20 these days and they badly need foreign investments ... Respecting copyrights get a regular mentioning , strangely , as Rolls Royce was so eager to get the engines of Quantum Experimental , the Qatari fighter jet developed in Ankara and balked when the PM did his part and assigned his man to co-produce the said engines . Am ı impressed ? Not at all . We know what those helicopters would do ; in some stupid novel series in which America encouraged the stupid "Eurasian" crowd in this country . 101st or 81st try to land in lstanbul , gets lost in an urban hell , great efforts and a backpack nuke in , ı think , Los Angeles . For the second round there were suddenly Turkish airborne divisions flown around in il-76s . Will not happen , we have no need of Candids . And China and lndia fighting America even . Only to be followed by the oppression of the Ergenekon conspiracies . Raise high and smash down for mental effect ! As such , lsrael promising military support and a defeat of this country , with the supposed surrender of the so called last islands in the Aegean means nothing , considering ı will have all of the islands occupied properly , 3000 odd of them . When the war happens . Mostly rocks they are , any platoon can occupy ten a day , now that any helicopters around will be ours ; the rest shot down , bombed on the ground or busy evacuating to first ltaly and America , in stages . lf you need lsrael to secure stuff in smallprint , my heart feels sorry for you . Because when confronted he will only babble it was the Greeks who had prepared the map , he didn't know any better and of course he would respect the ownership of those two in front of Dardanelles . Do ı really have to stress that New Turkey tries to be heroic to fulfill the desires of the West and give everything , because the West fears something ? So much that they will not show up when they get what they richly deserve and we will have to dig them out ?
ı had this proposed ... To have use of the same , but not on that chassis .
least offensive angle , too . No , not on you but due West ...
so , the dear people of CFC , as Bidon the barrel delays pressure on New Turkey , because New Turkey has always been loyal to America , even when pressure on America strains them in ways they can't fathom and there are indeed more references to that lslamists and "Muslims" are far more controlled by the British ... And yet there is "pressure" like which should scare us ... All under the cover of threatening Russia with exercises in Ukraine . Largest number of NATO advisors evet , new purchases , some 125 million dollars of military assistance and whatnot by America . Voice of Russia says war is coming , a proxy war where the West will use Ukraine as boots on the ground and liberate places . Even if Ukraine has some great babes , ı will not lift a finger for NATO , my views are known , no need to being vulgar at all . May you be defeated shortly and sharply , considering am still not permitted , like bringing peace to the world .
then the specific American exercise , 145 helicopters shipped in , like 20 000 troops . New Turkey "answers" with its greatest naval exercises as yet . 168 ships , like exactly not all of them rubber inflatables . ı don't care . Neither for the Mighty West . Nor New Turkey's bravado , because it is only electioneering . The Dutch have stalled publicly announcing that they know NewTurkey will abolish the Republic and become the greatest lslamic Power in 2023 and instead have declared a toothless call on their Parliament to claim 1915 as a genocide ... Wasn't surprised on that . ln the same bid to the same end we will have human rights in 2023 and not before , more in tandem with an economic reform package that will supposedly convince investors that New Turkey will not simply confiscate their money . GNP per capita is back to 2008 levels , possibly we are not in G20 these days and they badly need foreign investments ... Respecting copyrights get a regular mentioning , strangely , as Rolls Royce was so eager to get the engines of Quantum Experimental , the Qatari fighter jet developed in Ankara and balked when the PM did his part and assigned his man to co-produce the said engines . Am ı impressed ? Not at all . We know what those helicopters would do ; in some stupid novel series in which America encouraged the stupid "Eurasian" crowd in this country . 101st or 81st try to land in lstanbul , gets lost in an urban hell , great efforts and a backpack nuke in , ı think , Los Angeles . For the second round there were suddenly Turkish airborne divisions flown around in il-76s . Will not happen , we have no need of Candids . And China and lndia fighting America even . Only to be followed by the oppression of the Ergenekon conspiracies . Raise high and smash down for mental effect ! As such , lsrael promising military support and a defeat of this country , with the supposed surrender of the so called last islands in the Aegean means nothing , considering ı will have all of the islands occupied properly , 3000 odd of them . When the war happens . Mostly rocks they are , any platoon can occupy ten a day , now that any helicopters around will be ours ; the rest shot down , bombed on the ground or busy evacuating to first ltaly and America , in stages . lf you need lsrael to secure stuff in smallprint , my heart feels sorry for you . Because when confronted he will only babble it was the Greeks who had prepared the map , he didn't know any better and of course he would respect the ownership of those two in front of Dardanelles . Do ı really have to stress that New Turkey tries to be heroic to fulfill the desires of the West and give everything , because the West fears something ? So much that they will not show up when they get what they richly deserve and we will have to dig them out ?
ı had this proposed ... To have use of the same , but not on that chassis .
least offensive angle , too . No , not on you but due West ...
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This will get to space, one way or another, and more likely with Tusk instead of Musk
(just an intermezzo, to allow for the thread safely returning to its topic; but if you can get mit to lose you, I might take part in the politics thread about this)
(just an intermezzo, to allow for the thread safely returning to its topic; but if you can get mit to lose you, I might take part in the politics thread about this)
Buster's Uncle
AC2 Owner
Sunday morning, I offered CFC a large collection of Civ II & Civ 6 smilies, and added:
[looks innocently off into the distance, says mildly] Now, if people were to click on the quote-link to go express their own interest/enthusiasm --- I suppose it'd help the cause; TF, I sense, being a huge II-head only really interested in that...
Thunderfall expressed interest in installing a few...And I also humbly submit these two for the Space Cadets of CFC:
-and this one because so cool->
-and this one because Star Trek rocks so hard ->
[looks innocently off into the distance, says mildly] Now, if people were to click on the quote-link to go express their own interest/enthusiasm --- I suppose it'd help the cause; TF, I sense, being a huge II-head only really interested in that...
hobbsyoyo
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Figuring out novel ways to fold up bulky equipment like solar arrays and antennas is a hot topic in the space industry right now with the rise of the CubeSat form factor.
IMO the shape is an artifact of multiple gravitational interactions by passing stars.What is StDr 56?
No one quite knows what this captivating object in the constellation of Triangulum is. StDr 56, named after the amateur astronomers Xavier Strottner and Marcel Drechler who found it, could be a planetary nebula, made up of expanding shells of gas ejected by a dying Sun-like star. Except that its long, thin filaments are hard to explain, as is its massive size, perhaps as large as 33 light years across. Astronomer Phil Plait is baffled and wants other professionals to make more detailed observations. “Just what is StDr 56? Besides jaw-droppingly gorgeous, I mean. Maybe we can find out,” he writes.
It’s about the same size as the full Moon in the sky.
There's a handful of prominent physicists staking their reputation on it being a UFO, though the overwhelming majority think it was a natural object like an extinct comet.
You don't want to use it for launch because of the radioactive exhaust. I have read a couple of brief articles on this particular engine but few of the articles gave hard details. From just looking at the rendering, I don't see a lot of ducting and pipework for heat exchangers which would be necessary to create an un-radioactive exhaust. Of course, renderings like this are notoriously unreliable when it comes to accuracy - they're marketing mock-ups rather than real designs.
RTGs (radioisotopic thermal generator - a battery that runs on decaying plutonium) for space probes are built like mini tanks. They can survive launch failures and come down without breaking open. They even survive re-entry, which is why returning RTG-powered probes are directed to crash into a deep ocean trench. This is for US RTGs anyways, as I'm not sure how sturdy Russian space RTGs are. I assume you could package fuel pellets for a reactor similar to how they package RTGs, though I'm not sure they necessarily would given how massive that package would end up being. There may be a clever way of armoring key parts of a fully-fueled reactor-rocket engine such that it could survive a launch failue.
Yes, absolutely. Actually you could get by with much less than many tonnes. I don't know but I suspect to protect a few kg's of uranium or plutonium, you'd need on the order of 500 kg of protection.
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hobbsyoyo
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There is definitely something of a bubble right now, though I'd argue that the doom-and-gloom warnings are overblown. Explosive start-up growth (and eventual startup megadeath) are signs of a healthy economic segment and ultimately is a good thing for the industry as we're about to find all sorts of new technologies that work or turn out to be instructive dead-ends.Glut in Small-Rocket Makers Expected
BY ANDY PASZTOR
Companies and entrepreneurs world-wide are working on more than 100 new small-rocket ventures, but industry officials anticipate a shakeout may leave just a handful of survivors.
Some commercial boosters already have blasted satellites into space, supported by deep pockets and prominent backers such as Lockheed Martin Corp. and British entrepreneur Richard Branson. Others are testing launchers using previous seed money and sometimes shoestring budgets. Still more projects in early development could hit a dead end, officials predict, because of potential funding shortfalls.
All competitors, though, confront the same market reality. Burgeoning corporate, civilian and military uses of compact satellites weighing under a ton—ranging from toaster-size models to versions resembling refrigerators— won’t generate enough demand to support the current glut of small launchers.
“Could the industry support 100 new launch companies? Of course not,” said Chuck Beames, chairman of small-satellite maker York Space Systems LLC and a former Pentagon space official who also chairs a trade association advocating for small spacecraft. He said a more realistic number would be four healthy small-rocket operators and several established companies flying larger commercial boosters.
The latter group, primarily targeting a different market segment of huge satellites headed into higher orbits, include Elon Musk’s SpaceX, Europe’s Arianespace SA and Blue Origin Federation LLC, run by Amazon.com Chief Executive Jeff Bezos. United Launch Alliance, a joint venture between Boeing Co. and Lockheed Martin, specializes in carrying large Pentagon satellites. For all of them, transporting small satellites is a secondary goal.
Large satellites go more than 22,000 miles above the Earth, remaining fixed above the same point on the globe. They are designed for spy and surveillance missions; civil and military communications; and broadcasting video signals. Some cost many hundreds of millions of dollars apiece.
The new generation of small satellites zip around the Earth at altitudes measured in hundreds of miles, but they often carry advanced sensors able to perform functions done by larger versions. They are proliferating for applications including Earth observation, communications, gathering climate-change data and tracking hostile missiles. Latest-generation compact satellites can cost between tens of thousands of dollars to many millions.
The small-rocket sector is attracting more attention because forecasters envision a boom in production. Estimates peg the number of such satellites that reached orbit last year at 1,200, with more than 10,000 expected over the next decade. In comparison, about 400 small commercial satellites launched between 2015 and 2018, consulting firm Frost & Sullivan says.
Nearly half the $15.7 billion in venture capital invested in commercial space last year went to a range of launcher-related developments, estimates say, though the segment produces a sliver of total industry revenue.
A Rocket Lab launch site in Mahia, New Zealand, in 2018. KIERAN FANNING/ROCKET LAB/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES
That said, you can see from the actions of the successful launch companies that they are realizing they can't build a solid business solely around small launch. Elon started talking about Starlink in like 2015 as a means to fund his efforts, Rocket Lab started building satellite platforms shortly after hitting orbit and now Astra is also making their own satellite platform.
Very cool! This is an important technology because it means that greenhouses on Mars (which receives like 40% of Earth's sunlight) will be able to overcome the low-light challenge without having to expend a ton of energy on artificial lights. One day power will be ubiquitous on Mars but at first it will be an austere environment so having a technology that allows you to lessen your dependence on power-hungry grow lights for food is a potential game changer.
It's weird that ESA is the only major space power that isn't pursuing independent manned space flight. The Indians are making a serious push to fly astronauts on an indigenous capsule in a couple of years, the Russians are still launching Soyuz capsules while working on a replacement, China has tested a new deep-space capable manned capsule and is preparing to launch a new space station, and even New Zealand is moving in this direction as Rocket Lab is advertising their new medium-capacity rocket as being designed for manned spaceflight.
That said, ESA is a key contributor to Artemis hardware as well as the ISS - and these are both manned projects that have or will have European astronauts onboard.
I'm pretty sure they included the selfie cameras purely for propaganda value. If they had needed them for landing, Curiosity would likely have had them too.
That is an amazing photo. However, I cannot help but think that this is from a landing craft that is about to be flown off into a hill so it does not hit the buggy. Do you think that a camera that you need for AI terrain mapping just happens to be great for taking pictures of the payload, or did they send a camera from earth to mars just for this photo?
The tires are actually one of the key differences between Curiosity and Perseverance. Curiosity's tires proved to be more fragile than expected and are likely going to be the life-limiting component of that rover. Perseverance got upgraded tires in response that should make them more durable.
They simulate the landings probably two or three dozen times for practice, if I had to guess. Though the entire sequence runs without human intervention, they would simulate it over and over to check the code and sequencing to make sure it's flawless and in hopes they can flush out any bugs that can be fixed before the real thing happens.
Cameras are lightweight and small but they still add a ton of complexity to your electronics design. They also pose a serious bandwidth challenge when comes to sending more images back to Earth from distant locations. As I said above, I'm somewhat confident that these camera's main function was to take pretty pictures rather than to serve as a useful diagnostic tool. There are enough telemetry channels (sensors/data points) on the landing system that it's doubtful they'd need a video feed to reverse-engineer the source of any problems. NASA designs like that - they instrument the heck out of everything.
I will say that if a private company had built this rover, it's far more likely that they would use a few cheap cameras and a lot less of the expensive sensors that NASA uses to monitor and diagnose problems. The approach I'd say is a lot less robust than NASA's but far cheaper to implement. As you say, taking a picture of the lander can be helpful in figuring out what happens, with the caveat that they're only especially useful if you do not already have a bunch of other, better instruments taking data.
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GreatLordofPie
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They did catch one unexpected thing with the camera; a spring fell off the heat shield during separation, though I think that still falls under "norminal". Plus they can get some good data from analyzing chute deployment and the dust flying around. Also, I need to do a little hometown pride flex and point out that the cameras were made by a Vancouver company
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