* Posts by Beachrider

590 publicly visible posts • joined 14 Jun 2010

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NASA: We're gonna rip up an ASTEROID and make it ORBIT the MOON

Beachrider

One of the things about getting a larger asteroid...

I always thought that NASA was trying to somehow capture the asteroid and change it into an environment of some kind. If they are getting into much smaller, that must have come off the table. Perhaps they are piecing this down to meet budgetary requirements.

Canadian bloke refuses to hand over phone password, gets cuffed

Beachrider

Remember, you haven't been admitted to the USA yet...

The trick at "border checks" is that you really don't have all the rights of being in the USA, yet.

They may or may not imprison you, but declining their questions can result in your deportation. This can happen even if you present a USA Passport.

Getting fresh at the border is a LOT trickier than getting fresh with police within the USA...

Spotty Ceres baffles boffins with bright patches

Beachrider

I just couldn't help it...

Cleaning woman Clara Clifford discovered

your clean copper clappers

kept in a closet were copped by Claude Cooper

a kleptomaniac from Cleveland. Now is that about it?

Beachrider

Relative reflectivity...

Most of Ceres is VERY low reflectivity stuff. These two spots are reflecting 40% of incoming light. It looks like SO much more because they are vastly overexposing the dark-stuff to bring up some detail. The reflectivity of these spots is about the same as an iceberg (in Earth terms).

They will go much farther with this unusual contrast photography with New Horizons, in the coming months.

Facebook privacy policy violates European law, says report

Beachrider

You could just stop using Facebook...

Things like Facebook are driven from Advertizement revenue. If the ADs are a problem, you could just stop using it. That works well for the TOR network, doesn't it?

Google's plan to become your phone company

Beachrider

Multipe RX/TX in a cell phone...

In the USA, this is ALREADY common, they use:

824-896 MHz (the original cellular frequencies)

1850-1900 Mhz (urban additions for cellular work)

3G, 4G, LTE additional frequencies.

And this is in every Verizon smart phone!

Blind justice: Google lawsuit silences elected state prosecutor

Beachrider

Having 50 goverments and a federal government, too...

It isn't easy to deal with 50 state governments, with their contradictory approaches to issues. Surprising things are legal in some states (Colorado Cannabis anyone?) and 10 years of jail in others. I am not long term fan of Google (at all), but doing business in all 50 states is very tricky.

Google didn't shut this guy down, they just closed of an avenue of prosecution. It really wouldn't be hard for him to attempt another perspective, but he might risk 'summary judgement' where MS ends up paying Google's legal expenses to defend the perspective.

In the American Legal System, virtually ANYTHING can be run in Civil courts, if all you want is money.

Legs in 2015: SpaceX Falcon's landing put on hold

Beachrider

Hot fire test failure...

It is good that SpaceX does this test. Not so good that there are problems with the results. With Orbital now turning over some launches to ULA Titan, this commercial launching shows that this is not yet an activity to take-for-granted.

How does the US government run the internet? This is how

Beachrider

USA running the Internet...

There is nothing preventing others from doing their own services deployment and connecting it to the Internet. There is a lot of evidence that indicates that it is often done. If you follow protocol, no one will notice AND you can inter route packets.

Mars was a WET mistress: Curiosity probes once-moist bottom

Beachrider

Isn't it GREAT that so much will be known...

These kinds of rover missions are meant to establish what-we-need to do to make our 'move' on Mars?

NASA prods sleeping New Horizons spacecraft: Wakey, wakey, Pluto's calling

Beachrider

PLUTO is far from unique...

The issue is that there are MANY bodies expected in orbits like Pluto's. It has a 3:2 ratio of orbital period with Neptune and waggles 17degrees away from the ecliptic. Many others have already been found (Makemake, Vatuna, Quaoar, etc.) that will never collide with Pluto and can coexist indefinitely because of orbital resonances/inclinations.

Pluto was found WAAAY earlier, but it appears to be an example of a class of objects in that general area past Neptune (Kuiper Belt).

Orion: To Mars, the Moon and beyond... but first, a test flight through Van Allen belt

Beachrider

Re: USA commitment to ISS

POTUS is the executive leader of this USA, simple. Commercial space is depending on business until 2024, simple.

Of the 27 'major units' of the ISS, NASA paid for 20 to be made. They were made in various places, though.

Beachrider

Re: Competing with Soyuz...

NASA doesn't appear to agree, perhaps you know more...

NASA wants to 'sleep' the people within Orion for the trip. The CSM and other transit device would give supplies and issue-response mechanisms, as needed.

Nothing wrong with using a separate craft when Mars orbit is achieved, though.

Beachrider

Orion and the ISS...

@bleu, Orion was never scrapped (hence, your word 'nearly'), but its Constellation-project SRB-based rocket system was formally scrapped after the Ares I-x test flight in late October 2009. The Ares V was formally scrapped at the same time.

The direction was changed to focus on commercial vehicles to the ISS.

From that point forward, Lockheed's Orion was for deepspace-only. Boeing presented CST-100 to function at a lower price (and hold more people) than Orion.

Beachrider

Competing with Soyuz...

Remember that CST-100 and Dragon compete with Soyuz, not Orion. The Orion specification is to protect astronauts for many MONTHS outside the Van Allen Belts. Soyuz would need to transfer its load to a more-heavily shielded transit device for the bulk of the trip.

NASA would add the ESA Thales ATV-adaptation plus a Bigelow unit for the longer Martian trip. They are researching keeping most/all of the astronauts 'asleep' for the trip, to minimize the need for highly shielded transport.

Beachrider

NASA is about Basic Research...

NASA's job is to enable basic research on not-yet-commercializable technology areas. The pursuit of commercial space is a key benefit of that research. Even the commercial companies benefited from access to NASA's research (Merlin clearly derived from Fastrac, for example).

There is no commercial model for deepspace manned transfer yet. NASA clearly does not believe that simply adding existing shielding to Dragon or CST-100 will make them into an Orion. We will see.

NASA does need to compete with ESA, RSA, JSA and CSA, as part of the technology-race that is always happening...

Beachrider

USA commitment to ISS

On January 8, 2014, as part of justification to continue Commercial Flights to the ISS, the President commited the USA to support the ISS until 2024. It was in all the papers, 11 months ago.

I don't know why anyone would advise anything else.

BIG FAT Lies: Porky Pies about obesity

Beachrider

Smoking related illness...

I agree with the @AC, stats from the USA indicate that you need to add CHF (Heart Failure) and blood-plaque problems (Kidney Disease, stroke, more) with long-term smoking.

The major stat in the USA is that a person uses 60% of their LIFETIME medical costs in the last six months of life, when a multi-week hospital stay is involved.

IBM goes gunning for Intel with Nvidia GPU-charged Power8 servers

Beachrider

Antitrust...

IBM has been dragged into antitrust court by the USA & EU eight times in forty years. That has had quite an effect on IBM's ability to dominate competitors.

You can believe or disbelieve in these antitrust suits, but the have really handcuffed IBM...

SpaceX Dragon cargo truck flies 3D printer to ISS: Clawdown in 3, 2...

Beachrider

I wonder if they are going to do autonomous docking some day...

The Russian supply probes can automatically dock, if needed. I don't recall if the Commercial vendors will be adding this function someday.

SCREW YOU, Russia! NASA lobs $6.8bn at Boeing AND SpaceX to run space station taxis

Beachrider

Boeing is looking at alternatives for Atlas...

Boeing is advising that BE-4 KeraLOX and other engines can be adapted to a new rocket. They are looking at 5 years before it clears all testing. There is NOTHING stopping Boeing from requesting Falcon 9s for their work, though.

The Atlas Vs used in the proposal are about $100 Mn per launch (plus other payload and capsule). Falcon 9s are supposed to be available for under $70 Mn per launch.

Astronaut training, recovery and flight operations are all on the commercial vendor, and in their proposal.

Beachrider

Remember the Anschluss?

The Russian movement into Crimea has stark similarities to the German movement into Austria and Czechoslovakia. Following that up with Eastern (or all) of the Ukraine even more so.

That didn't work out very well...

Beachrider

Re: Let's put that in perspective shall we?

Not so long as ESA continues with miniscule budgets when the EU is a larger-than-USA Economy. Get the ESA doing more! They have had significant achievements, now MORE.

Beachrider

Price matters

Two is all that they can afford, with current budgets.

Beachrider

Russian engines on Atlas...

Clearly, having a backlog of 2 years-of-engines within the USA is part of a plan to sustain launches with short-term-stoppages of deliveries. Boeing is working on 'Atlas 6', with some more details by October 1.

Stay tuned...

Beachrider

Russia advises that they are NOT continuing with ISS past 2020.

The USA has floated a proposal to extend the ISS to 2024. It is not 'pumpkin-time' for Russia's decision YET, but they have advised that they would decline to continue participation past 2020.

More to come...

Beachrider

Atlas is a brand, not a technology..

Atlas V is a substantially different config than 'earlier' Atlas rockets. It was built to use twin-RD-180 engines for moderate-heavy payloads. Its ancestry is clearly to RD-170 not any American Engine.

Agena had a hydrazine engine, not KeraLOX. There is NO way that RD-180 is similar to Agena.

Beachrider

Delta IV won't be man-rated anytime soon...

NASA has many standards in the post SS activity. Deltas, with their continuous refueling requirement, just won't get there. The new standard is KeraLOX-friendly. Expect CST-100 to go up on RD-180 with a backup plan for Falcon 9. I agree with earlier posts that advise that all of these launchers use a standardized control approach, so that CST-100 and Dragon 2 would be adaptable to any other approved rocket-system.

ULA cannot change their rockets. Boeing and Lockheed would have to do this on their own. CST-100 is a Boeing (not ULA) system.

Is there life on Mars? Cloud-gazing Curiosity accused of lacking scientific focus

Beachrider

This is a normal NASA process...

This kind of document interchange is normal process. The objections will be take up in subsequent discussions.

Were you guys thinking that it would all be tweeted?

Riddle of odd bulge found on moon is solved

Beachrider

Re: Of course, had we not abandoned the Apollo project...

The problem with settlements on Luna is that no one has built 'self sustaining settlements' models. Several have tried, but the 14-day 'sun is up' followed by the 14-day 'sun is down' diurnal-cycle has been problematic. It creates very large temperature swings.

The interesting discussion about polar settlements (where this 28-day cycle MIGHT be less severe) haven't borne fruit, either.

There is quite a lively discussion about water+mineral availability, but 99%+ of Luna is drier than Atacama.

Beancounters tell NASA it's too poor to fly planned mega-rocket

Beachrider

Why don't you guys get ESA going...

I know that there is lots of interest in NASA's budgets, but nothing would get NASA better funding than if the ESA got anywhere-near NASA's level of funding. You guys elect the folks to do the ESA.

Beachrider

This rocket is NOT about ISS...

This is a deepspace rocket system that can fly to a Lagrange point and fly back. With improvements, it might even go to Mars or a deepspace station. The Russians don't do any of THAT.

At any rate, SpaceX expects to gain more ISS/LEO work that reduces the Russians in 2018. They are going after Arianespace in the open-commercial launch business before that, too.

The Sun took a day off last week and made NO sunspots

Beachrider

Re: It's the beginning of the next Maunder Minimum.

So Jake, you are pretty sure that ALL the causes will fit on ONE bumpersticker?

SpaceX FINALLY lobs six sats into orbit (don't mention the landing)

Beachrider

He IS trying something difficult here...

But as others have noted, the explanation for what happened and how it happened is still being compiled. Does anyone know if they recovered anything?

Think Google Glass is creepy? Wait until it READS YOUR MIND

Beachrider

Does Google glass put out fires?

It sounds like someone's hair is on fire...

Snowden leaks latest: NSA, FBI g-men spied on Muslim-American chiefs

Beachrider

This is not EASY stuff...

Governments are correctly taken-to-task for abuse of people, even when they are attempting to protect some people from other people. The Japanese Internment of 100,000 people in four US states during WWII is one example. Kipling's "White Man's Burden" was a rallying cry at the dawn of the 20th century, is horribly condescending now.

The criticism for the actions is just. A lot of important, valuable gains have been made from actions that would be horrible to do today.

Software giant CA Technologies dumps arcserve biz

Beachrider

Re: Another product ruined by CA

I don't think that Arcserve surged its marketshare after purchase. It was retracked as a security-oriented suite of data protection products. The visionaries from Cheyenne departed a year before the CA acquisition. As I recall, the network bandwidth was a severe constriction for Arcserve with the then-largest setups. CA was investigating hardware solutions (Fibrechannel, etc.) to help make the backup/recovery aspect more viable.

Beachrider

Arcserve in the mid-1990s...

I worked for CA when they acquired Arcserve. At the time, they had the best 'Enterprise Backup' operational software, especially if you had NetWare fileshares. We had a fat-laptop with a SCSI tape that we used to demonstrate function at user sites. That is NOT to say that it worked perfectly.

I still am not pleased with the bullet-proof measures in common Enterprise Backup systems. We rarely get 100% correct backup on any given night. We have tried 5 vendors in 12 years. I think that most datacenters underallocate staff to maintain the various mechanisms of Enterprise Backup.

In space no one can hear you scream, but Voyager 1 can hear A ROAR

Beachrider

Escaping the Sun's gravity effects..

The Oort Cloud is generally accepted as being 'under the control of the Sun's gravity'. It goes out to 1 light-year. It will take tens of thousands of years for Voyager to get that far!

NSA man says agency can track you through POWER LINES

Beachrider

USA Power companys 'read the meter' over power lines...

Several USA power companies can get their billing info over the power lines. They use such info to find out where people are illicitly using 'free power', too.

Nothing really new here...

BAE retracts hedge fund hack allegation

Beachrider

Incorrect Accusation on page 1

Retraction on page 20

Brit SPACE HEDGEHOG team flies student Mars payload

Beachrider

Cool story bro...

Needs more dragons...

US Supremes just blew Aereo out of the water

Beachrider

STOP in the name of love...

.... Before you break my heart!

(Few under 50 will get that)

One amazing reason why NASA boffins are celebrating Curiosity's 687th day on Mars

Beachrider

This could get the ESA rolling...

You guys just need to get the ESA rolling. They have a LOT of tech, but need to start MUCH more tech to get there!

Oracle shares pummeled after giant reports glacial growth

Beachrider

Oracle is sometimes inflexible on privacy...

In the USA, there are 'HIPAA' privacy rules, particularly surrounding healthcare information. The big prosecutors in the USA have been quite active prosecuting violations of 'protected health information'.

Caregivers don't want to pay for violations done by their business-partners, so they get agreements from partners to pay the fines IF the partner is the cause.

In my state, Caregivers are sharing that Oracle is not signing such agreements. This is making it easier to choose vendors (or transition to vendors) that sign these agreements.

It is not good for Oracle growth in the Caregiver sector of the economy.

Hubble space telescope seeks new encounter for Pluto-bound spacecraft

Beachrider

Background radiation...

I think that we should be afraid of owls. My cat is...

US MARTIAN FLYING SAUCER tests above Hawaii: postponed

Beachrider

Martian landings...

NASA is trying to get a more-general capability for Mars landings, particularly with heavier payloads and higher martian-altitude landing sites.

Using rockets all the way down would require a substantial fuel supply for those long burns, there is enough atmosphere on Mars to cause the burns to start early and run for a long time.

Using parachutes all the way down leaves a lot of energy to be dissipated by short-burn rockets or rockets+bags. This is acute for higher-altitude landings and/or massive probe landings.

Both Viking and MSL were just under 1 ton. With larger loads, this kind of hybrid air-friction tool saves precious weight on fuel and large landing rockets. It will be cool on probes anticipated for 2020 and beyond.

YOU - NASA. Enough with the ROBOTS, get some PEOPLE to MARS

Beachrider

Are some Europeans just poking sticks...

Hmmmmm, this looks like some non-USA-taxpayers are trying to cajole USA-taxpayers into ante-ing up for MUCH more NASA bucks while the EU de-federalizes and the ESA has LOWER budgets.

As a taxpayer: I love NASA, the USA may be able to ramp NASA up as the deficit comes under control, but if the Europeans REALLY found this important...

China ponders ban on IBM servers

Beachrider

Re: How about that p-system stuff that is MADE in China?

Shenzhen Great Wall makes MOST of the low-mid p-series machines. IBM Hong Kong depends greatly on in-China sales of these machines...

Beachrider

How about that p-system stuff that is MADE in China?

IBM does a LOT of its p-series manufacture in China. I think that those factories are not very cost effective if there is NO market for them in China!

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