Spacecraft

News from the Charlotte Court House Court House

The GPS says it's 99.7 miles from my house to Charlotte Court House, so why did my odometer reading increase by 385 miles riding there and back? That's a trick question, of course, and the answer is 24, 43, breakfast in Altavista, Grit Rd, Renan Rd, and 40 for the 99.7 miles there, and then 47, Saxey Rd, 612, Duffey Rd, Mt Laurel Rd, Hunting Creek Rd, Lenning Rd, Volens Rd, Cody Rd, 40, side trip to Smith Mt Lake Dam (Dams!), 40, 8, Christiansburg Pike, for the 99.7 back.

Oh yeah, the CCH Judge is a good man. I listened to cases for nearly two hours (got there a bit early, and my hearing was about half an hour late). Most of the cases were 71-75 in a 55, though there was one fellow who'd been clocked at over 100 in a high-speed chase. They even had video. Unlike the rest of us though, this young fellow was privileged to wear government-furnished clothing. His mother did not look very proud.

The judge mostly would allow folks to take the defensive driver's school if they hadn't already taken it. One fellow had a pretty tarnished record, something like -7 points, but he hadn't taken the course. He pleaded not guilty, the deputy testified that he'd clocked him at 74/55, the fellow pointed out that the officer had written in the wrong date on the ticket and had then corrected it. THEREFORE, he had possibly also made a mistake on the speed. The judge told him, take the course and I'll dismiss the charges. The fellow continued to argue that the ticket was invalid because of the date. The judge said that he thought that was certainly a possibility but that he had decided to take the officer's word for it. The fellow allowed that he did not take the officer's word for it. The judge said "yes, but I get to decide whether or not to take his word for it." The fellow said, but I still don't think it's valid. The judge said, "very well. forget about the defensive driver's school. the charges stand. guilty as charged. next." Everyone in the courthouse had to bite their tongues to keep from laughing.

Anyhow, when my turn came, the judge noted my clean record, but also noted that i'd taken the course a mere two years ago, and so he couldn't really do anything except possibly reduce the speed. I asked him to consider letting me take a motorcycle-specific safety course. He asked me to elaborate. I told him about Motorcycle Safety Foundation. He agreed that I could take an MSF course, do 20 hrs community service, and he'd dismiss it. Piece of cake, if I can just find an MSF course to get into this summer.

To the Court House in Charlotte Court House

Tomorrow I have my day in court, regarding the Curious Incident at Charlotte Court House.

Another Anniversary

I just realized that my first blog entry was on June 16, 2003: Space Blogging at Virginia Tech. Nobody made me a cake :^{

Stepping Stones

Clark Lindsey went behind the curtain to speak with some of the wizards of suborbital flight, specifically to find out whether "the development of commercial suborbital RLVs will contribute directly or indirectly to the development of orbital RLVs." His resulting essay, Suborbital spaceflight: a road to orbit or a dead end?, does a very nice job of presenting the issues and the various schools of thought regarding the answer to that question.

One of the prevailing ideas in the responses he received is the use of suborbital vehicle development as a sort of stepping stone to the development of orbital vehicles. I am 100% in agreement with this viewpoint.

I teach spacecraft design to seniors in aerospace engineering. The senior design projects are stepping stones to the real projects they will pursue as professionals. However, these design projects have typically been "paper studies," where the students do everything on paper. This approach, of course, allows students to design complex vehicles for challenging missions, sometimes resulting in a design which has absolutely no hope of implementation.

Based on the experience of students working in my lab, I have been trying to move towards design experiences that include some degree of implementation. For example, one of our senior design projects led to the fabrication and test of a 20-kg "nanosatellite," called HokieSat, that may someday reach LEO by way of a shuttle launch. However, even if it never launches, the students' experience added a unique dimension to their undergraduate programs. In another example, a group of students have designed a payload for a sounding rocket mission. This payload will launch on an improved Orion rocket, reach an altitude of about 80 km, and will be recovered at sea. This project provides a small group of students with an experience that clearly changes the flavor of their undergraduate programs. Ultimately, I'd like to see all of our aerospace engineering undergrads participate in stepping stone projects like these, and I think they'd be better engineers for the experience.

I've Been DeLinked!

An anonymous commenter two three posts back has removed me from his bloglines, with the following advisory:

I just wanted to say I decided to unsubscribe from your blog in BlogLines. I initially subscribed because I wanted to hear about "Discussion of Spacecraft Design, Dynamics and Control, and News." Unfortunately for me, all you talk about is your very slanted "news."

I'm a Republican and I dislike Moore as much as the next guy. All I wanted was spacecraft discussion. Maybe you should change the name of your blog.

He has a point. I suppose I can shout the usual "It's my blog and I'll blog what I want to" but the truth is that I blog less about spacecraft than about some of the other current events that get my attention. Why would this be?

Time. There's only so much of it. I enjoy reading many of the space-related blogs and news services, and I am compelled to read many of the non-space-related blogs and news services. I spend a lot of time working, writing, reading, and talking about spacecraft-related topics and don't always feel like blogging about them too. So, perhaps I blog about a lot of non-space-related issues as diversion from space-related work.

And I guess that brings me back to: It's my blog and I'll blog what I want to. But I'll try to include more space-related posts.

Advice for Families of Victims

Douglas Bass has some statements he'd like to hear from the families of victims of animals: America, please, Please, PLEASE Lose the Tragedy. I hope everyone will read it. I'd like to hear more people making statements like these before we reach the point where we're all calling for the utter destruction of our enemies and all their friends.

Anniversaries

I just noticed the date is June 22, a special anniversary for me. I graduated from USAF boot camp on June 22, 1978, and coincidentally, from USAF Officer Training School on June 22, 1984. Both schools were in San Antonio, Texas: Boot camp at Lackland Air Force Base, and OTS at Medina Air Base. San Antonio is already hot and humid, and I don't envy the folks who are graduating today, much less the folks who are just beginning their training and will be there all summer. Of course, it's a hell of a lot hotter in other desert regions of the world.

On June 22, 1986, my wife and I and a bunch of friends celebrated my promotion to First Lieutenant by spending the afternoon at Lyon's Brewery Depot in Sunol, California. The mayor of Sunol was there, lying on the floor of the bar. The next day, my wife surprised me with the results of a home pregnancy test, so tomorrow is a special anniversary too.

Hitchens Spanks Moore

Christopher Hitchens, noted member of the VRWC, takes on Fahrenheit 9/11: Unfairenheit 9/11. The lies of Michael Moore.

To describe this film as dishonest and demagogic would almost be to promote those terms to the level of respectability.

Thank you, sir! May I have another?

To describe this film as a piece of crap would be to run the risk of a discourse that would never again rise above the excremental.

Read entire, and make sure you get to the Orwell quote at the end.

More on Wolfe, and Fudgcicles

Fred, Keeper of the Eternal Golden Braid, sent me a link to this Crooked Timber post (I couldn't resist). The comments are especially interesting and link-rich.

A Cat Named Reagan

That student I caught in the act a while back has gone and done it now. Meet Reagan:

Here's the story:

We were literally in the process of moving out of the apartment (as in moving boxes to the car) when we found a stray cat in the parking lot. We were horribly busy and on a tight moving schedule, but we couldn't leave the poor thing by itself. So we had it checked out at the animal clinic and adopted it. And we named him Reagan after President Reagan, because we were so touched by all the funeral stuff that was going on last week. You can't really see in the picture, but Reagan's got a cute little white tip on his tail, whereas the rest of him is a soft gray color.

By the way, Reagan's new friends are He Who Defends the Tie Fighter, and his fiancee.

Enemy Offensive

Wretchard discusses some recent events in the Iraqi campaign, including the seizure of three British naval craft by the Iranians. His analysis comparing with 1979 is spot on, and his conclusion is perfect:

[T]he only real question should be how to humiliate the Mullahs. Tables were made to be turned. They should be made to remember this day so that if their miserable theocracy lasts another ten years they can never bring themselves to look at a calendar opened to the month of June without trembling.

Read entire.

Here's To SpaceShipOne

This morning I found an unused classroom with TV and watched the launch, and later, the landing.

There's lots about this moment in history over at the blogs of Rand Simberg and Phil Bowermaster. Check them both out.

Off The Road Again

Over the past five days, I've driven several hundred miles, ridden the V-Strom a couple of hundred miles, walked a few campus miles, and hiked a few Appalachian Trail miles.

The Wife is off touring America with her Mother, so I'm single-parenting. I'm a member of the Virginia Space Grant Consortium's Advisory Board and we met last Thursday in Hampton. Instead of riding the scooter as I usually do, I drove, partially so I could take the boys with me and let them tour William and Mary and the University of Virginia, two of the schools on their short lists. Interesting that the two schools have a friendly fight going on over ownership of Thomas Jefferson.

We also managed to score some passes to the Virginia Air and Space Center, which happened to be sporting the newest Harry Potter extravaganza on I-MAX. Very cool.

Saturday's 200 miles on the V-Strom were fantastic, and included a dozen or so miles of the fabulous 35-mile stretch of VA 16 from Marion to Tazewell. Alas, I had to cut it short to get home before dark. I did get to ride-test the new GPS mount I installed on Saturday morning though. Very nice setup, with a Powerlet plug and a RAM mount.

And Sunday being Father's Day, the boys couldn't get out of going for a hike. So we made the short drive to get to Brush Mountain and the Audie Murphy Memorial Site.

Back now though, and getting ready for the next trips: Charlotte Court House later this week; Riomaggiore, Italy next month; and some kind of longish motorcycle ride later in the summer.

Meat, Alcohol, and Motorcycles

Carolyn is posting regularly about her motorcycle trip to Alaska, with lots of photos! Just scroll down (or click on the June archives).

Wo Die 'Boomin' Sind?

I wonder why this story hasn't gotten more attention?

UN inspectors: Saddam shipped out WMD before war and after

The United Nations has determined that Saddam Hussein shipped weapons of mass destruction components as well as medium-range ballistic missiles before, during and after the U.S.-led war against Iraq in 2003.

Two Guys and a Van

Presumably not "a van down by the river." Mark Oakley, our favorite Rocket Man, is back on the blog, and this excellent post answers some of your questions about Operational Costs.

Watery Satellites

Gyre.org links to an interesting article on fuel cell technology and its application to satellites: Water to Boost Satellite Snooping.

The U.S. military is developing technology to extend the life of its spy satellites, which become useless once they run out of fuel and their orbits decay. But instead of creating a complex chemical propellant, the Pentagon has turned to one of the simplest compounds on Earth -- water.

The new self-sustaining satellites would last much longer and give the military new flexibility in monitoring activities around the world.

The fuel cells would indeed provide advantages over the electro-chemical batteries that are currently used for energy storage. However, the article makes some suggestions that simply are not true:

• "a replenishing fuel supply would give the military new options for maneuvering satellites" Fuel cells do not provide a "replenishing fuel supply." They simply replace the typical Nickel-Cadmium or newer technology electro-chemical batteries with a superior technology for energy storage. NiCd batteries have disadvantages such as low depth-of-discharge, memory, and low cycle life. Other battery technologies have similar disadvantages. Fuel cells do too, just not as significantly as do the older technologies.
• "satellites with regenerative power sources could be moved between regions of interest within a few hours" Fuel cells do not change the maneuverability of satellites. Propulsion systems change the maneuverability. The low-propellant electric propulsion systems enabled by improved power systems are also low-thrust. Low-thrust electric propulsion systems can be more maneuverable over time because they use less propellant to effect maneuvers. However, the maneuvers take much longer. (See for example SMART-1.) Thus, the article's quote "It would be no problem to move satellites from Korea to Iraq" is not quite right. (Actually, the statement doesn't make much sense in any case.)

Fuel cell technology can indeed improve satellite performance, just not in the ways that the article claims.

Reagan's Critics, Remembered

Andrew Sullivan gathers the 1980s remarks of prominent anti-Reagan commentators. One example:

"Are we rushing headlong into the next step of those 40 years of progressions by which we do something then they do something, by which we pretend that we're going to build this and it will somehow strengthen our deterrent then they do it, and low and behold, the next thing we know is, the President of the United States is addressing the nation saying, ‘My fellow Americans, I hate to tell you this, but the Soviet Union is deploying more of these, and we have to respond, and I'm asking the Congress for more money in order to respond.’ Star Wars is guaranteed to do that, and it's guaranteed to threaten the heavens -- the one line we haven't yet crossed with weaponry: the heavens." – Senator John Kerry, on SDI, the program that brought the evil empire to its knees, August 5, 1986

Read the rest.

Cowboy, Re-redefined

Wretchard on Reagan and more. Read entire.

Disposing of Nuclear Materials

ChrisC30 commented on my recent "anti-Kerry attempt", suggesting that I have "been living under a rock somewhere." ChrisC30 agrees with me though, that Kerry will say anything:

Bottom line, anyone, will do anything, that is necessary to secure what they want. Kerry wants the big chair.

ChrisC30's response to my reasonable (IMNSHO) questions regarding Kerry's policy statements on nuclear materials concludes with this:

I'm not pro-Kerry. I'm primarily anti-Bush, but not anti-Republican.

Okay, his entire philosophy is summed up as "anti-Bush."

But the main point of this post is his suggestion for disposing of nuclear materials:

Here's what I'd do...launch the slag into space, were it practical. I don't think there's really anywhere on earth where it's "safe", and certainly nobody wants the stuff anywhere near their homes and/or workplaces. Do you? Launch the slag up there, and point it into Sol. Stars love nuclear radiation.

ChrisC30 is evidently unaware of the controversy surrounding the legitimate use of nuclear materials in space, as well as unaware of the physics involved in moving objects around in space.

The Cassini spacecraft, launched October 15, 1997 on a Titan IV-B with a Centaur upper stage. Cassini's power subsystem includes three radioisotope thermal generators (RTGs), with a total of about 72 pounds of plutonium to generate heat that is in turn used to generate power for the spacecraft. As noted in this Scientific American article, "more than 1,000 people demonstrated against the mission" at the Cape Canaveral launch site. That's 1000 people for 72 pounds of well-encapsulated plutonium. Extrapolating (a stupid thing to do, I know, but what the hay), if we were to launch the 49,000 metric tons of nuclear waste accumulated in the U.S. alone, the anti-nukes-in-space folks would have to round up 1.5 billion protesters. Okay, I admit that this number is bogus, but certainly there would be more than 1000 protesters if we were planning to launch 49,000 metric tons of nuclear waste into space.

But could we even do it? A single Titan IV can throw maybe 6 metric tons into geostationary orbit (GEO), and there have been about 30 Titan IV launches at a cost of about $400 million per launch. Assuming we turned Lockheed-Martin on to build some more Titan IV's (more than 8000!), and we could reduce the price to say $100 million per launch, the cost would still exceed $800 trillion, assuming that no extra mass would be required to shield the material before launch.

However, even so if we spent this $800 trillion, placated the 1.5 billion protesters, and managed to put the nuclear waste into GEO, we're still a long way from "pointing it into Sol" as ChrisC30 suggests. The fuel required to put an Earth-orbiting object into a Sol-impacting trajectory is greater than that required to put the object into orbit in the first place. Thus, we'd have to have the equivalent of those 8000 Titan-IV's in place in orbit to put the nuclear waste on its way.

In short, ChrisC30's suggestion is interesting, but infeasible to the point of being ridiculous.

Carolyn's Goin' To Alaska

Carolyn, the Blue Poof Motorcycle Blogger, is on her way to Alaska, riding her Suzuki SV650S, and, as she puts it,

Amazingly, all of this stuff fits into my Wolfman magnetic tankbag and Givi E360 saddlebags, with room to spare.

She is incredibly organized. Since she's carrying a laptop, I hope that she'll be bloggin' from the road.

Ride well, Carolyn. I do believe there are some trees between California and Alaska :^}

Inanimate Bloggers

Douglas Bass (Belief Seeking Understanding) asked last week: Would You Have A Problem With Your Gun Having Its Own Blog? He has "a picture in [his] mind's eye of every firearm having it's [sic] own IP address, and some hardware and software inside it that posted an entry to its own blog about the time and place where it was fired."

This idea is interesting, possible, and extensible to all sorts of other applications, including computers, motor vehicles, PDAs, pets, and people. But is it a good idea?

Bass puts it to the blogosphere:

If you are a firearm owner, would you have a problem with there being a public record of when and where the firearm was used? Would you consider this a violation of the Second Amendment? Technically, I don't see how it would be.

I came at this entry by way of Murdoc, who linked to this response at Army of One: The Right to Bear Arms. The gist of AoO's objection derives directly from the original motivation for the Second Amendment, and he puts it succinctly:

I think the whole idea behind the right to bear arms is that the possession of a firearm serves as some type of deterrent to centralized control of society.

Bass replied with another post: Gunblogging - In Which I'm Told It's An Awful Idea, in which he provides an honest response and interpretation of the original intent. He does, however, seem to favor "gunblogging" as a means of reducing gun-related deaths, and he extends the concept a bit:

What if these gun blogs had an RSS feed, where the phone would ring with a call from the 911 operator shortly after the shot was fired? What if the police had hardly anything to do with it, and it was just part of the 911 system?

Numerous commenters point out flaws in the policy.

I think this interesting idea is foolish. In this age of increased awareness of identity theft, spyware invading our desktops, and webcams (sssl) invading our workspaces, Americans are generally interested in finding ways to protect their privacy. Even though I am generally innocent, I am opposed to the regulated tracking of my home computer activity, I am opposed to the regulated tracking of my motorcycle rides (even though I carry a GPS and usually post trip reports), I am opposed to the regulated tracking of my whereabouts, and I am opposed to the regulated tracking of my firearms.

Counting Weapons

Frank J. has been posting military stories in his Our Military category. Some goodies too. One of them reminded me of an amusing episode that occured when I was an undergraduate at Auburn University.

I was a USAF Staff Sergeant, attending Auburn under the Airman Education and Commissioning Program, and my friend Bill Z. was a Marine Staff Sergeant (one rank higher than the USAF SSgt) attending under the Marine equivalent. I was studying Aerospace Engineering and Bill was in Electrical. We had a lot of classes in common our first year or so and we also both liked beer and pinochle, so we hung out together.

One day we were walking past the ROTC building and the Marine Gunnery Sergeant, known as Gunny (all Marine Gunnery Sergeants are known as Gunny), was counting rifles aloud as he moved them from a cart into a rack in the Marine van.

Gunny: 17, 18, 19, ---

Bill: Say, Gunny, aren't you supposed to be wearing a 45 when you're counting weapons?

Gunny: Don't bother me. I'm counting weapons. 46, 47, 48, ....

Bill and I bit our lips and hustled off to class.

Ray Charles

Died today at 73.

Oh, Those Missiles

Murdoc has a nice analytical discussion of the Scrapped Iraqi missile engines found in Jordan. Read entire.

U.S. Commandos Free 4 Hostages Held by Pro-Saddam Iraqi Kidnappers

On June 8, 2004, a team of U.S. Special Forces commandos rescued four hostages who had been kidnapped in Iraq. The hostages were three Italians who were kidnapped in April and one Pole who was kidnapped about a week before the rescue operation. This successful rescue was reported widely in the national and international media; however, as of June 10, 2004, the Roanoke Times had yet to carry this story. This omission is not the first case of reporting bias in the Times. How about some fairness in coverage of events in Iraq?

Jobs, Jobs, Jobs

For months, the Roanoke Times lambasted the President for his personal role in the loss of jobs that began with the recession in 2000. The Times was joined by the likely Democratic Party Presidential candidate John Forbes Kerry, who told us that this election is about jobs, and Kerry was joined by the Times, whose support for Kerry is transparent.

Lately the jobs meme has left the front page and now has evidently left the paper altogether. On Friday, June 4, 2004, the Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics released the monthly "Employment Situation" report, which stated that "employment rose by 248,000 in May [2004]." The report went on to state that "The May increase in payroll employment follows gains of 346,000 in April and 353,000 in March." For several days I have looked for the Roanoke Times spin on this development and have found nothing.

Since this election is about jobs, and the Roanoke Times is committed to the defeat of President Bush, good news is evidently no news.

Markeroni

One of my addictions while motorcycling is photographing historical markers and signs and whatnot. Here, for example, is a sign describing Mini Ball Hill. It's on the dirt road on the North side of Salt Pond Mountain, near Pearisburg, Virginia.

Salt Pond is now known as Mountain Lake, site of the filming of Dirty Dancing, a mediocre film with some hot dance scenes.

Anyhow, I am delighted to learn that there is an online community of folks who share in my addiction: Markeroni

A friendly, informal and light-hearted online community about visiting and logging historical markers and historic landmarks.

Very cool.

Kerry on Nuclear Weapons and Materials

In January 2004, during a Democratic primary debate, candidate Kerry stated that President Bush "has exaggerated the threat of terrorism." That statement was preceded in recent history by several terrorist attacks that might give a thoughtful person reason to pause before making such a statement. But that was when Kerry was playing to the Democratic base, which believes that America is the most evil nation on Earth. Now Mr. Kerry has a different audience, or perhaps different audiences.

In May 2004, Kerry's line is that President Bush is not taking the terrorist threat seriously enough, and that the possibility of terrorists gaining access to weapons of mass destruction "is the single gravest threat to our security." As part of his effort to meet this threat, he "will launch a global initiative to fully secure the materials needed for nuclear weapons that already exist and sharply limit and control future production."

One presumes that the first step of this initiative will be the continuance of the President's Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI), established in May 2003, and unanimously approved by the United Nations Security Council in April 2004. The PSI is already credited with the elimination of Libya's WMD program. Kerry has evidently not mentioned the PSI in his national security speeches. Possibly he is unaware of the initiative, but more likely he just doesn't want to call attention to the successes of the current administration.

One might ask: How will a President Kerry "fully secure the materials needed for nuclear weapons"? Does he know where they all are? Will he issue a warrant for the arrest of yellowcake merchants? Will he invade any nation that is in possession of these materials but is uninterested in allowing their possessions to be secured by imperialist Americans? What if France doesn't like Kerry's plan?

And on the homefront, Kerry has another nuclear philosophy, one aimed specifically at Nevada's five electoral votes, leading him to promise "If I'm president, Yucca Mountain will not be a depository." He may be able to keep that promise, but it will require some fancy footwork in a Congress that will not be too different from the body that overrode the Nevada governor's veto of the Yucca Mountain repository. If a President Kerry refuses to accept the reality of nuclear materials in the United States, one wonders how well he will confront the far more complicated reality of nuclear materials around the globe.

Perhaps a President Kerry will be an effective leader in meeting the threats of terrorism, exaggerated or not. Personally, I believe that, except for his lifelong opposition to the application of American military force for any purpose, Mr. Kerry simply says what he believes the audience of the moment would most like to hear. As President, who will that audience be? Besides the mysterious foreign leaders who wish to see him elected, of course.

66,033

See Linda's post at Civilization Calls for the significance.

Back Again

I'm back, though blogging will be intermittent. Highlights of the past week include a very interesting workshop on undergraduate engineering education (Conceive-Design-Implement-Operate), Dickey Betts at the Rams Head Tavern in Annapolis, sailing in Severn Creek (we lost the race, but had fun anyhow), some interesting backroads between Blacksburg and Annapolis, good NC-style bbq at Lexington Trimmings, and a baby shower for my youngest brother's wife. Now I'm back and gotta get some work done.

Why Haven't the Fascists Rounded Up Michael Feingold?

He's a movie reviewer and is evidently mildly anti-Republican:

No U.S. president, I expect, will ever appoint a Secretary of the Imagination. But if such a cabinet post ever were created, and Richard Foreman weren't immediately appointed to it, you'd know that the Republicans were in power. Republicans don't believe in the imagination, partly because so few of them have one, but mostly because it gets in the way of their chosen work, which is to destroy the human race and the planet. Human beings, who have imaginations, can see a recipe for disaster in the making; Republicans, whose goal in life is to profit from disaster and who don't give a hoot about human beings, either can't or won't. Which is why I personally think they should be exterminated before they cause any more harm. (emphasis added)

In a free democratic society, I suppose he should have the right to say things like this. But in our jackbooted neoconnazi system, I can't imagine how he has escaped arrest, fair trial and speedy execution. What's gone wrong with our system?

Here's a link to the movie review that he begins so boldly, throwing all caution to the wind. Frankly, though, I'd be careful about reading it, since you never know who they will be rounding up next.