Private Enterprise- To mars

[Qoais]

Hi HFN
It's almost scary watching those things do their thing    They're "thinking" what to do next.

[HereForNow]

Exactly! Now given everything that we have discussed up to this point, you can see what this means.

Just imagine how many of these things you could launch per shuttle, via electro-magnetic rail gun system.

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Inspired by biological systems, scientists have developed miniature robots that can self-assemble using parts that float randomly in their environments. The robots also know when something is amiss and can correct their own mistakes.

Scientists have long been fascinated by how living cells are able to replicate DNA using building blocks floating randomly inside the cell’s nucleus. The interior of the nucleus is filled with a gel-like liquid known as nucleoplasm. The DNA building blocks, known as nucleotides, float around in this liquid like ingredients in a molecular soup. Also present in the nucleoplasm are proteins known as polymerases, which pluck nucleotides from the soup as needed when copying DNA.

The beauty of this approach is that the parts do not have to be presented in a specific order the way they are in a car assembly line. All the cell has to do is make sure there is a continuous supply of nucleotides and the polymerases do the rest. Furthermore, the more nucleotides present, the more likely they will come into contact with the polymerases and the faster the DNA strand can be assembled.

To artificially recreate this process, a research team from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), headed by Joseph Jacobson, created robots capable of latching onto one another in specific sequences.

The robots come in two colors, yellow (Y) and green (G), and float around on a cushion of air like pucks on an air hockey table. Each robot is programmed to latch onto a green robot on one side and a yellow robot on the other to form 5-robot strings such as YGGYY or GYYGG.

The robots also have a built-in mechanism to correct any errors they might make. Each robot is able to check the color of its neighboring block and will unlatch itself if the sequence is not correct.

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The Potential and Power of Quantum Computing

In a traditional computer, information is encoded in a series of bits, and these bits are manipulated via Boolean logic gates arranged in succession to produce an end result.  Similarly, a quantum computer manipulates qubits by executing a series of quantum gates, each a unitary transformation acting on a single qubit or pair of qubits.  In applying these gates in succession, a quantum computer can perform a complicated unitary transformation to a set of qubits in some initial state.  The qubits can then be measured, with this measurement serving as the final computational result.  This similarity in calculation between a classical and quantum computer affords that in theory, a classical computer can accurately simulate a quantum computer.  In other words, a classical computer would be able to do anything a quantum computer can.  So why bother with quantum computers?  Although a classical computer can theoretically simulate a quantum computer, it is incredibly inefficient, so much so that a classical computer is effectively incapable of performing many tasks that a quantum computer could perform with ease.  The simulation of a quantum computer on a classical one is a computationally hard problem because the correlations among quantum bits are qualitatively different from correlations among classical bits, as first explained by John Bell.  Take for example a system of only a few hundred qubits, this exists in a Hilbert space of dimension ~1090 that in simulation would require a classical computer to work with exponentially large matrices (to perform calculations on each individual state, which is also represented as a matrix), meaning it would take an exponentially longer time than even a primitive quantum computer. 
    Richard Feynman was among the first to recognize the potential in quantum superposition for solving such problems much much faster.  For example, a system of 500 qubits, which is impossible to simulate classically, represents a quantum superposition of as many as 2500 states.  Each state would be classically equivalent to a single list of 500 1's and 0's.  Any quantum operation on that system --a particular pulse of radio waves, for instance, whose action might be to execute a controlled-NOT operation on the 100th and 101st qubits-- would simultaneously operate on all 2500 states.  Hence with one fell swoop, one tick of the computer clock, a quantum operation could compute not just on one machine state, as serial computers do, but on 2500 machine states at once!  Eventually, however, observing the system would cause it to collapse into a single quantum state corresponding to a single answer, a single list of 500 1's and 0's, as dictated by the measurement axiom of quantum mechanics.  The reason this is an exciting result is because this answer, derived from the massive quantum parallelism achieved through superposition, is the equivalent of performing the same operation on a classical super computer with ~10150 separate processors (which is of course impossible)!!   
    Early investigators in this field were naturally excited by the potential of such immense computing power, and soon after realizing its potential, the hunt was on to find something interesting for a quantum computer to do.  Peter Shor, a research and computer scientist at AT&T's Bell Laboratories in New Jersey, provided such an application by devising the first quantum computer algorithm.  Shor's algorithm harnesses the power of quantum superposition to rapidly factor very large numbers (on the order ~10200 digits and greater) in a matter of seconds.  The premier application of a quantum computer capable of implementing this algorithm lies in the field of encryption, where one common (and best) encryption code, known as RSA, relies heavily on the difficulty of factoring very large composite numbers into their primes.  A computer which can do this easily is naturally of great interest to numerous government agencies that use RSA -- previously considered to be "uncrackable" -- and anyone interested in electronic and financial privacy. 
    Encryption, however, is only one application of a quantum computer.  In addition, Shor has put together a toolbox of mathematical operations that can only be performed on a quantum computer, many of which he used in his factorization algorithm.  Furthermore, Feynman asserted that a quantum computer could function as a kind of simulator for quantum physics, potentially opening the doors to many discoveries in the field.  Currently the power and capability of a quantum computer is primarily theoretical speculation; the advent of the first fully functional quantum computer will undoubtedly bring many new and exciting applications.

[HereForNow]

Now having the power of a quantum computer aboard a satellite, controlling the assembly process of thousands of these fully animated components, assembling both inner and outer portions of the station is where it all begins. The hard part if NASA would have done it. 
Here on Earth, we could have Green-Living like never before.

In space we would not have to launch a singal astronaut to begin with.

Satellite swarm self-assembling a large array in orbit
One focus of the workshop will be the coordinated motion of satellite swarms. Primitive goal-oriented instincts will be coded into the control system of each satellite, guiding it to complete a small task, whilst remaining unaware that a more complex undertaking is being achieved collectively. This is how ants and termites behave in nature. In this way, a satellite swarm may be given a collective intelligence, allowing it to achieve useful tasks in space.

Large structures could be built, or many satellites could fly in formation to simulate the performance of much larger apertures than can be launched, whole, into space.

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Other more ambitious plans incluce an idea that inspired all of this. BTW Thank you Japan. (RIE)

The proposed structure is so large that it cannot be built with currently available materials, due to their weight. The design relies on the future availability of super-strong lightweight materials based on carbon nanotubes. The Shimizu TRY 2004 Mega-City Pyramid is a proposed project for construction of a massive pyramid over Tokyo Bay in Japan. The structure would be 12 times higher than the Great Pyramid at Giza, and would house 750,000 people. If built, it will be the largest man-made structure on Earth. The structure would be 2,004 meters (6,575 feet) high and would answer Tokyo's increasing lack of space.

By the way Japan. Here is the technology for spinning webs of the material you are planning to use.

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And finally, an outcome of exactly where all this is going.

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Now this blue print of the Death Star ofcourse is not my proposal, but you can see how things like this can be inspiring. When imaging a huge crew of engineers, machinist, scientist, biologist, mechanics and so on going to Mars it excites me. Having a mechanical marvel like a Death Star is still out of the realm of any serious proposals to date.

However, let's consider the thread for a moment. With design alterations to this impossible feat, I beleive sencerely that it can and should be done for the sake of exploration. The problems involving sheilding, 0 gravity, and time of mission have all been solved with this design. A fully automated, self-sustaining station is exactly what can be acheived with the explained technologies.
 

[HereForNow]

As far as the main cannon well goes  .....
Let's use it in the design for the sake of sensory and communication.

BTW I would have four such wells located in the equatorial sections of our fully sheilded Buckyball design.
For propulsion- ion propulsion would be used in the Equatorial areas between communication arrays for rotation and manuvering. This research falls within the realm of physics instead of technology, with the distinction being that physics is about uncovering the laws of nature while technology is about applying that physics to build useful devices. A renewed commitment to Nuclear propulsion is everything.

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Oxygen production- Artificial photosynthesis. 
As covered.

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Now by looking at this particular map, what place in mars would be the most interesting to you?

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Sheilding?


If exposed to an electric charge, buckypaper could be used to illuminate computer and television screens. It would be more energy-efficient, lighter, and would allow for a more uniform level of brightness than current cathode ray tube (CRT) and liquid crystal display (LCD) technology.
As one of the most thermally conductive materials known, buckypaper lends itself to the development of heat sinks that would allow computers and other electronic equipment to disperse heat more efficiently than is currently possible. This, in turn, could lead to even greater advances in electronic miniaturization.
Because it has an unusually high current-carrying capacity, a film made from buckypaper could be applied to the exteriors of airplanes. Lightning strikes then would flow around the plane and dissipate without causing damage.
Films also could protect electronic circuits and devices within airplanes from electromagnetic interference, which can damage equipment and alter settings. Similarly, such films could allow military aircraft to shield their electromagnetic "signatures," which can be detected via radar.

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