Posts by TopDog64

Google suspends 16GB Nexus 7 orders

10"

When do we get to see a 10" version?

Bio-boffins create world's first digital STD

TopDog

Will my computers anti-virus work to protect it from this infection?

Watching hurricanes

Why slag off the ten mins cooling?

With a good system that should be enough to save all data to re-boot where it left off.

I wish my PC did the same.

F*****g blue screens.

Schmidt bewails Blighty's boffin-v-luvvie culture clash

David Braben.

Eric Schmidt has only echoed David Braben and the reason which he says is why he is involved with the Raspberry Pi project.

I wonder how likely it is that Eric Schmidt and Google invest in thr Raspberry Pi. You never know, their next generation Cloud services could be hosted on £15 credit card sized computers.

Dawn eyes Vesta's full-frontal charms

NASA

NASA could save money on feeding astronauts on future moon missions by finding out the secrets of the Soup Dragon. Food from bare rock and empty space. What a gal that dragon is!!

Russia: 'We'll dump the ISS into the sea after 2020'

L1

Surely by using a VASIMR drive (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/03/10/ad_astra_nasa_vf200_announcement/), the ISS could be placed in a parking orbit at the Earth/Sun L1 Lagrange point. That way the solar panels would keep the batteries charged until the technology for a manned return is possible. Also, this would allow on board instruments to provide a long term study of our own star the Sun.

LOHAN spaceplane project starting to shape up nicely

Is this it?

Is this the model kit you mentioned? http://homepage3.nifty.com/formodelersbywb/f19-11.jpg

If it is, then this picture of the completed model certainly supports your opinion. http://www.fiddlersgreen.net/aircraft/Lockheed-F19/IMAGES/f-19.jpg

Design

Why not model Vulture 2 on Spaceship 2 which Virgin Galactic are to use.

Its predecessor is a proven re-entry an glide design. I exppect that Scaled Composites would supply design and material info in return for data obtained during the flight.

Controling Vulture 2

First of all I wish to express my disappointment at Helium being used as the lift medium. I fully understand the safety implications involved, but Hydrogen is not a gas which is in scarce supply on this planet and is much cheaper.

You are batting on a sticky wicket if you think that a tractor rocket will be stable without any form of control. The WWII V2 rockets used graphite guidance control vanes in the engines exhaust (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V-2_rocket) and modern SCUD missiles still use a similar system (http://www.astronautix.com/fam/r17.htm). I suggest using a rocket in pusher mode with graphite guidance control vanes using PTFE hinges (away from the exhaust gasses) and use of shape memory actuators instead of servo motors. Solid state gyros and accelerometers are available off the shelf (Nintendo Wii handsets) to provide electronic guidance.

Best of luck.