Recent content by YetAnotherBob

They use telescopes, obviously. Those are historically, Optical, since the 1950's radio wave and most recently, Infrared and ultraviolet, along with limited x-ray and now gravity wave devices. Quite a lot has been learned too. One problem is that the farther away you look, the less you are...

The Second Law of Thermodynamics is a statistical averaging observation. It is generally stated as Entropy always increases to a maximum in any closed system without the application of outside work. This came from the study of heat engines, chiefly steam engines, well over a hundred years ago...

AlienLifeForm, The problems you allude to come from the beam intensity. Simply widening the beam target solves this problem. But that drastically lowers the power available. Another solution is to simply include a system to chase away birds or insects from the working drone. To power a rocket...

Microwaves have been used to transmit power since the late 1970's. In 1979, NASA powered a 100 W light bulb on the Big Island of Hawaii from a radio transmitter located on an island a bit over 75 miles away. this was done as a part of a feasibility study on the technologies for Solar Power...

SpaceX is working towards a manned landing by 2024. They have the benefit of a contract for doing that, though the current lawsuits are trying to stop anything from being done. But they do not stop any work from being done, they just keep NASA from paying for it. Rockets continue to be built...

I've seen reports and articles that propose using high thrust light sails. Those reports generally ignore the absorbed light. Thermodynamics has defeated a great many wonderful designs in the past and it appears to be continuing the trend. Breakthrough Starshot is planning on it's star wisps...

E= MV*2 convert km/h to M/Sec, multiply kg by 1000 to convert to grams, there you are. So, 57,200,000,000 kg * 48000 km/sec * 1000 m/km /3600 s/hr gives kg-m/sec^2 That's roughly 8749.5 Megatons, roughly the same as half the US arsenal or a quarter of Russia's total bombs. It will create...

Space X is actually doing quite well with it all. The first few Falcon Nine's as I said above crashed on landing. We just had another crash on landing this week. Rockets actually take a lot of abuse. This weeks Falcon Nine had flown (If I recall correctly) six times previous to this. It most...

SpaceX is taking an experimental approach to the design of the Starship system. So far, SN 8 and 9 have crashed on landing. SN8 slowly, and SN9 at near terminal speed for a human in free fall. That's 30 and 120 MPH respectively.' The analysis isn't really out yet, but apparently, only one of the...

I'm not sure just what hybrid you mean. The most common hybrids I've seen are combined solid / liquid chemical rockets. Space Ship One used one of those. It burned rubber with oxygen. It makes for a nice compact rocket, though it doesn't have a great Specific Impulse. Unlike most Solid fuel...

The plans I've seen are that the elevator cars climb up the cable. They need some power source from above or below for this. Generally lasers or masers are considered. The cable is anchored at the top and the bottom. The bottom is anchored to the Earth, any large chunk of bedrock will do. The...

What will it take to stop SLS? The same thing it took to start it. An act of Congress. NASA has a directive from the US Congress, (House and Senate both) to build and fly the SLS and go to the Moon. NASA really has no choice in it. It's law. It will be Ironic if NASA finally lands with it's...

Ari Arecibo exists because it sits in a dish shaped natural bowl in the hills there in Puerto Rico. To build one similar, you'd have to either do a lot o Earth Moving or else be extremely lucky. The position close to the Equator helps too in what it can look at. Build it further North and you...

I am an Engineer. Magnetic systems use a magnetic field to connect two different bodies. In an electric motor those are magnetic coils in the Rotor and the Stator. The stator is stationary and the rotor rotates. That's how the motor works. There is some counter rotation in the body of the motor...