Experiment thread.. read on!

[vladius]

There are alot of smart cookies on here. And alot of cookes that are.. shall we say.. needing a few more chocolate chips. But, still, many smart people visit this site, from all levels of education. I want to start a thread where people will submit ideas about experiments that they would carry out had they the funding and resources of NASA and ESA at their disposal. <br /><br />Be clear about what your experiment is trying to prove or disprove, or theory or phenomenon you want the experiment to research. I know a guy who knows a guy (you know the drill) who has good scientific contacts in NASA, and i will try to submit the thread to him. <br /><br />The way I see it, even if the ideas and theories are horribly flawed, collective brainpower always prevails and yields good things. Lets see if we can all stumble on something amazing.

 

[bobvanx]

Wow...<br /><br />What experiment would I like to see performed? I'm always thinking of these, why can't I now, since I've been asked?<br /><br />The number one constraint on human development is energy supply. When England ran out of wood for fires, they passed a "no new buildings" law. Not long after, they learned how to burn coal, and the forests came back. Coal got expensive and more scarce (at first, you could literally pick it up off the ground!!) and oil came to the rescue. Oil is becoming more expensive, what will be abundant enough to supply energy for tomorrow, and the indefinite future?<br /><br />My experiment would be then, more of a demonstration (build and measure results) sort of experiment, a discovery process to use lunar resources to make solar cells that beamed energy back to Earth, to replace base-line power generated by coal and oil.

 

[bobvanx]

The other thing I want is far more down-to-earth.<br /><br />You know those corn-starch packing foam peanuts? I want someone to invent a fome-board product that was 100% biodegradable.<br /><br />So the paper cladding would be of tree-free fibers. The foam infill would be corn or rice starch. Even if the board cost 2x that of a polystyrene foam core board, I could still sell it.

 

[vladius]

good start. space based energy, and foam peanuts. <br />lets think about space based energy for a moment. your suggestion was lunar solar power beamed back to earth, im assuming with the use of microwaves, or masar. <br /><br />problem i see with solar cells on the moon: cost-benefit ratio. It would be incredibly expensive to build, and even more so to maintain, considering the amount of rock that smacks the lunar surface. anything else we could try A) to reduce cost B) another way to create energy in space, or C) protect the cells so we dont have to go there as much once installed?<br />Anyone any ideas? or other experiemnts?

 

[nexium]

I posted several pilot programs on the global warming thread in free space, this week. Feel free to cut and paste without mercy if you can twist any of them into a discussion. You have likely noticed the side of the moon which faces Earth is totally dark a day or two per month. This means the beam to Earth would stop unless you build a power grid that covers a significant part of the moon. Instead I suggest putting a ten to ninty ton asteroid (which would provide raw materials to build solar cells and the large transmitting antenna) in circular orbit about 20,000 kilometers above Earth's surface. This is a solar sychronous orbit and could keep the same face toward Earth. The power grid would be easy on such a tiny object and the asteroid would stay on the daylight side of the sun set terminator of Earth. It would supply rectennas during the peak demand period when the wholesale price of electricity is high. Rectenas could be located thoughout the tropic zone and much of the two temperate zones. If the system produced several gigawatts, the beam could be split unequally between three rectenas up to 2000 kilometers apart according to the local need for more power. Neil

 

[mcbethcg]

I think we need to think about self-replicating machines for this purpose, to lower the cost-per-watt level enough. But not the Cylon type.

 

[nexium]

Comeon reikel give us a clue about your large scale removal of CO2 from the atmosphere. Your super conducting wire could be attached to to my solar power satellite to suppliment the solar cells. About 10,000 kilometers per hour with respect to Earth's surface, 20 kilometers long would produce how many kilowatts would you guess? Doesn't this give the space craft a large static charge? Neil

 

[vladius]

some sweet ideas guys.. okay.. this is what im going to do. in Free Space tonight, im going to start a thread for each new idea that comes up. im going to link each thread that gets created to my first post on this thread. the subject on each thread will be INNOVATION-*topic* that way we can add to each others ideas and see how they grow, and become more cohesive.<br /><br />I can already see the collective brainpower starting to work... <br /><br />Anyone else think this is a good idea?

 

[thalion]

With the resources of NASA and ESA at my disposal? Here would be my wish list:<br /><br />1.) Further study of tethers in Earth orbit for power generation and altering orbits.<br /><br />2.) Further study of how to efficiently transmit solar power generated in space to the ground.<br /><br />3.) Send an orbiting mission to Jupiter exclusively to study its lightning and see if the planet also has upper-atmospheric electrical phenonmena like "elves", "sprites", "blue jets" of the type that have been found on Earth. There are other space missions I'd like, but I think I'll follow the trend of the thread and keep the other proposals down-to-earth.<br /><br />4.) Further studying how genetic modification affects crops and natural plants.<br /><br />5.) Do some real feasibility studies of how to make "artificial gravity" work.<br /><br />6.) Pour some real money into solar sail studies and missions in preparation for an interstellar probe, which I think should be a high priority.

 

[bobvanx]

Here's an easy one, merely re-using assets already deployed.<br /><br />I've seen tantalizing visual evidence that there are physical processes occuring in Martian soil, seen in the non-directed MI images that we've received. My hypothesis is that there are observable changes in Martian soil structure over the course of seconds as well as days, due to biological effects. Biological effects can be differentiated from physical effects with careful observation and characterization.<br /><br />The next time MER Spirit or Opportunity gets to a location in which we have signs of a briny surface, do the following: <br /><br />Dig a trench.<br />Take images of the disturbed soil immediately after trenching, with time separations on the order of seconds.<br />Take stereoscopic image pairs of the trench wall and surface crust, with time separations of as fast as you can (IIRC it's on the order of a few dozen seconds to manuever the arm).<br />Take images on the order of 100s of seconds.<br />Take images on the order of 300s of seconds.<br />Take images at the same sun position over the course of at least four sols, and as many as eight.<br /><br />Register the images and look for new salt crystal growth, any granular re-organization, threads pulling grains along the surface, percolation, subsidence, or other movement.

 

[bobvanx]

Oh, yeah,<br /><br />These MER rovers have to turn over rocks and look underneath!<br /><br />There are rocks on Earth that block UV but allow visible light through, and colonies of microorganisms live on the underside. We've got to start turning over rocks!<br /><br />PS: Dr. Steve Squyres, I know you are always careful to let us know your rovers aren't designed to find life. That's fine. Please use them in this extended portion of the mission to do so, anyway. You know the MI has seen some weird stuff. Go investigate.