Another way to get to space "without" rocket fuel

One of the biggest problems in getting to space is rocket fuel. We need a lot of it. It's expensive. Mainly because we need a lot of fuel to lift more fuel to lift whatever we're lifting from the stratosphere into space. When I was growing up, this was going to be solved by the "space plane." It was a shuttle that took off like a plane and entered orbit by simply flying above the atmosphere. I'm not sure what happened to this wonderful late 1980s dream. The new dream is the space elevator, but I'm going to float a different idea here.

What's interesting about this "rocket thing" is the original explanation of overcoming the earth orbit by Newton was an arrow or missile shot at incredible speed in a line closer to parallel with the ground (perhaps 30 degrees). Newton theorized that the pure speed of an object could take it into orbit. This got me thinking, what's an effective way to launch a missile? Like in the old sense, the really old sense.

10,000 year old, bent atlatl dart

Well, that would be the atlatl. A lever system used to launch a dart at game during the Ice Age. So, what is stopping us from just making a very large atlatl? It can't be that expensive compared to what we're paying now to get stuff into space. But wait, there's more...

Elon Musk wants to use some sort of tube technology to get people from New York City to Los Angeles in 45 minutes. This technology, I assume can be used as a sort of rail gun. So, not only do we have a physical launch mechanism, we can have a electrical launch mechanism. We can set the launch of the rocket on the end of the giant atlatl and on this railgun track in that ideal(?) 30 degree ideal launch trajectory (the one that gives maximum distance to an object thrown). Essentially it would be a glorified roller coaster where the track just ends at the apex.

So we have a giant atlatl and a rail gun working in sync with each other. We need to power this somehow, so let's throw in a nuclear reactor, because that just makes sense. Throw in some steampunk technology to power the atlatl and creative electrical engineering to charge the railgun, not simple, but there are smart people that can figure that out.

Basically, this launch engine reduces the amount of fuel that needs to be held on the rocket for launch. It is also a reusable launch system, which doesn't get dumped in the Indian Ocean.

Follow up Note (09/03/2013): This process would probably use so much initial force that it would seriously rearrange the contents of the craft being launched: Enough G force to kill most living things.

Are We to Trines and Squares, Yet?

In Astrology, we have a number of names for events when forces of planetary bodies come into alignment: trines, squares, conjunctions, and oppositions to name a few. We also see these events in Astronomy. For instance when the Sun and the Moon are in opposition or conjunction (i.e., the Sun, the Moon and the Earth are in a line), the tides are more severe, with higher high tides and lower low tides, and the Moon is full or new.

Modern theories on the solar system state that just after the first 1/2 billion years of the solar system, Saturn and Jupiter were in orbital resonance. So for every one time that Saturn circled the Sun, Jupiter circled twice. This caused a greater number of conjunctions (in the astronomical sense) between the Sun, Jupiter and Saturn. This resonance was so strong that the solar system vibrated like a guitar having it's strings played. This resonance is believed to have cleared the solar system of debris (a time known as the late heavy bombardment), which gives the Earth and other planets clear paths around the sun, minimizing the chance of any further asteroid impacts. It also knocked Uranus over and threw Neptune into the outer solar system.

While the effects of astronomical aspects are not nearly as extreme now, as with the early solar system, the Saturn-Jupiter resonance is an interesting look at how much power astrological aspects can have.

Mercury Direct

Other than the heavenly objects that we can see without too much effort, the Sun and the Moon, the tiny planet of Mercury is the easiest to understand from an astrological standpoint. When Mercury goes backward (retrograde), we enter a period of internal contemplation, and when Mercury goes forward (direct), our communication amongst each other improves.

Over the weekend, Mercury stalled (from our perspective) and began to move in a forward motion. From our perspective this happened in the constellation of Gemini in the Cancer area of the sky. Robert Wilkinson describes this event in the Aquarius Papers as:

"A quickening of the ability to coordinate, put things together, understand the whole and the parts, the process and the larger cycles. "

Mercury will continue to accelerate for the next 10 weeks or so. What are you doing to better understand the world and communicate with other over the next couple months?

Are We Living in or Around a Torus or Two?

When I say "torus," I'm not misspelling an astrological constellation from the Zodiac. Nor am I referring to a Ford 4-door sedan. I am referring to a perhaps mythical, quasi-scientific shape that may or may not exist from the tiniest atom to the largest galaxy. In short, it's a glorified donut shape.

A torus

The below picture was published in the journal Nature in 2003. It shows something called the Oort cloud (pink), which extends about 1/3 of the way to the next nearest star. The Oort cloud is made up of icy objects like the Kuiper Belt and is in the "freeze zone" of the solar system, which extends out from just before Uranus's orbit, as shown by the red in the diagram. In the freeze zone, most everything is solid ice, including methane. The Oort cloud appears to take the shape of the torus, or it might be better seen as 2 toruses, one on top of the other and bottom to bottom.

The Oort Cloud

If we are in fact wedged between two toruses, we might be able to more easily navigate the solar system at some time in the near future, perhaps utilizing solar sails or something similar to utilize the energy.

I have heard arguments that the universe is simply a series of toruses layered one on top of another, and we can already harness some of this energy. For instance in 1901, Tesla invented something called the "free energy device," which is said to pull energy from these toruses in which we live. Follow this link for a YouTube video on how to make a "free energy device" for about $2.

Interestingly enough, Belgium also appears to be building a torus shaped structure as a giant battery to store wind energy in the North Sea. The Wired report seems to be based on Reuters and IEEE Spectrum (a journal for Electrical Engineers) reporting. So, there might be something to this strange shape after all.

New YouTube Channel

Created a YouTube channel linking to videos that are pertinent to this blog:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7qLbfjwh6o&list=PLv9SIDzZC2D2bdkMcUW-bp4syw93ugiGZ

Covers non controversial subjects such as quantum physics, more controversial subjects like global warming, and questionable subjects such as the electric universe.

While the electric universe explanation isn't perfect, with some of the analysis being downright sloppy, it's an interesting way of thinking about the universe.

What is Space? A Nova episode.

Ice Caps, Ice Packs, What Do They Mean?

A major component to the future weather of the Earth is what is happening with all the ice. Whether we're referring to the winds that drive El Niño or the ocean conveyors, what the ice packs do and how they do it will affect life here for years to come.

The first safe assumption is that there is going to be a lot of water. Whatever causes global climate change (probably an excessive human production of greenhouse gasses), there's going to be a lot of melting in at least the Arctic region before things begin to cool down, again . . . if they do.

That is to say, we already know that Greenland is getting warmer than freezing in the Summer, and it may not be unreasonable to assume that this melting trend will continue. Also, the Arctic Ocean has less ice cover every year. Based on these two observations, let's assume that the northern ice cover of Earth will continue to melt towards zero ice cover.

In contrast to the center of the Greenland Ice Sheet, the highest temperatures measured toward the center of the Antarctic Ice Sheet do not come close to crossing the freezing mark, with the record high (9.9 degrees Fahrenheit at South Pole Station) well below freezing.

There are two extremes that we can consider as possibilities as the northern latitudes melt: the (1) positive feedback loop and the (2) negative feedback loop. Under assumption one, things continue to get hotter. Under assumption two, things get colder.

(1) Everything melts. In fact, the north gets so hot that it starts to raise global temperatures, which in turn melts the south pole. This is exactly the trend we're seeing now. The north continues to melt just a little faster than expected. Under this positive feedback loop, eventually the north pole will not even have ice in the winter, creating higher pressure in the northern latitudes (from the ocean heating the air in the winter). This will then force more hot air south from the equator in the southern summer, allowing the south pole temperatures to climb above freezing and melt the southern ice.

(2) Everything stops. The northern ice melts so quickly that the cold water interrupts ocean conveyors, specifically the North Atlantic's Gulf Stream. So instead of everything melting, we are again plunged into another ice age.

Chances are that the reality will fall somewhere between these two extremes, rather than one or the other coming to fruition. However, the same old status quo, which is in between, is somewhat unlikely given the rapid changes that are occurring in the world environment. We can probably expect slightly more turbulent weather on the world scale for some amount of time to come.