Private Enterprise- To mars

[HereForNow]

Landers

Aerospace giant Boeing is believed to be experimenting with anti-gravity technology pioneered by a controversial Russian researcher.

According to Jane’s Defence Weekly magazine, the company has admitted that it is working on technology that could reduce the pull of gravity— or increase it for the purpose of building weapons. If such experiments prove successful, Boeing would capsize more than 100 years of traditional aerospace propulsion tactics.

The magazine claims that the company is doing the work at its Phantom Works advanced research and development facility in Seattle. What’s more, Jane’s says the company is trying to get controversial Russian scientist Dr Evgeny Podkletnov to help it reach its goal of building an anti-gravity device. Podkletnov claims to have developed anti-gravity devices in Russia and Finland in the mid-1990s.

Podkletnov’s project, GRASP (Gravity Research for Advanced Space Propulsion), is the basis for most work in the “gravity shielding” field. The Russian scientist claimed in a 1996 paper submitted to Physica C that he had created a “gravity shielding” device, whereby objects suspended above a superconductor rotating at 5,000rpm showed an apparent fall in weight of 2 per cent.

But the paper was leaked to the press before being published in the journal, and the negative reaction from the scientific community led him to withdraw it. Some copies have survived on the Internet, but the experiment has not been re-created in other labs. Critics say that even if it was successful it would be far too expensive to build superconductors big enough to produce any substantial weight reduction, especially not on a commercial basis.

The GRASP project as a whole has the purpose of exploring “propellentless” propulsion for the purpose of building space launch systems, artificial gravity on spacecraft, and fuelless electricity generation, also called “free energy,” Jane’s reports. There is also speculation that the technology could be used to build powerful weapons, namely a device called an “impulse gravity generator,” which would theoretically be capable of producing a beam of energy that can exert a force of 1,000g (1,000 times the acceleration produced by earth’s gravity at sea level) on any object. Such a weapon would supposedly vapourise virtually any object.

According to Podkletnov, a Russian laboratory demonstrated the 4in (10cm) wide beam’s ability to repel objects a kilometre away.

NASA reportedly tried to build a similar anti-gravity machine in the mid-1990s but failed. Jane’s says the US government will commence a second round of similar tests at Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama in the coming months.

Boeing is reportedly attempting to recruit Podkletnov, but because of moves by the Russian government to block the egress of scientists to the West, the company is experiencing difficulty. The UK’s BAE Systems and Lockheed Martin are also thought to have contacted Podkletnov to assist their efforts along these lines.



http://www.tribuneindia.com/2002/20020905/science.htm#4

[HereForNow]

Self-replicating robots, which shocked even C-3PO, himself a robot, have become a reality on Earth in the form of Fabbers, printers that can create virtually any object and even clone themselves. We first introduced you to Fabbers about a year ago so it's time we revisit these machines that bring the power of printing into the third dimension.

The people behind Fabbers, mostly academics and hobbyists at this point, believe that digital fabricators have the potential to become one of the most transformative technologies of the 21st century. Eventually the concepts behind the current and somewhat primitive Fabbers will facilitate breakthroughs in medicine, such as nano-Fabbers, and space travel. Eventually, futurists predict the arrival of, a Universal Fabber, which can reproduce almost anything, including itself.

While Z Corp already produces expensive industrial machines to pump out prototypes for big corporations, the Fabber movement brings the open-source, do-it-yourself mentality of the early personal computer era to 3-D printing.

The RepRap Research Foundation, which took shape in 2004 when University of Bath Professor Adrian Bowyer published Wealth Without Money: The Background to the Bath Replicating Rapid Prototyper Project, offering his Fabber blueprint for free, with the goal of making the machines cheap enough for everyone to enjoy. A model that replicates itself has already been built, but the timetable for making it remain unclear (later this year we hope).

RepRap members believe that Fabbing technology represents something larger than a breakthrough in printing. They hope Fabbing will become a disruptive technology that will replace existing means of production, and, perhaps even make society less dependent on money.

[Weapon of Mass Destruction]

Of course, much of this is a reality now, self-replicating robots, Martian landers, but I am afraid that the economic crisis that the world is going through will push back things like Mars exploration for years.

We should have been there by now, though!  At the pace that the Apollo program was put together, we could have gotten there in the Reagan years had there been the leadership.  Reagan was more interested in building the Star Wars missile system instead.   

[HereForNow]

Regaurdless if any of this stuff would ever happen,  I like to beleive that someday down the road money won't be the issue anymore. What do you think of the whole picture so far?

[HereForNow]

I see you sungate.

[Pagan]

Hey, Sonny, I notice you never got around to the advances in the sex field in the future, hadn't you best get around to that now, too?

[HereForNow]

  well now that varies on how women and men learn about sex in the future.
Ofcourse if this giant flying buckyball in space ever pans out, you and the mate of your choice will be able to go for it in alien enviroments.

You betcha!

[0_o]

Not acheivable at this time but definitely a good odea.
I like it.

[Qoais]

Given all the information so far, who has any questions?

Did I miss it?  What are your mega-buckyballs made out of - graphite?

[Jennie McGrath]

Well, since Herefornow is no longer here, I guess this is MY thread now.

If you would want to get to Mars, how would you do it, and what would you want to set up there first?  I imagine we'd have to do some terraforming first.  That would take a century.  Then we'd open it up to bids.  Who would want to open the first McDonalds up there?

Come to think of it, do we really want to go to Mars first?  Maybe the moons Europa or Titan would be a bit more hospitable to human life!

[Event Horizon]

Ion Thrusters Come of Age for Interplanetary Spacecraft



Engines powered by chemical fuel? How passé. For the spacecraft with truly modern flair, an ion thruster is the only way to go. Such a system might not provide powerful and dramatic bursts of speed, but space agencies around the world are recognizing the benefits of its slow-and-steady approach, which is just what’s needed for cruising between planets.

Ion propulsion works by electrically charging, or ionizing, a gas and accelerating the resulting ions to propel a spacecraft. The concept was conceived more than 50 years ago, and the first spacecraft to use the technology was Deep Space 1 in 1998. Since then … there have only been a few other noncommercial spacecrafts that have used ion propulsion [Technology Review]. However, the technology has a clear advantage over chemical propulsion when it comes to long distance missions, because a very small amount of gas can carry a spacecraft a long way. Astronautics expert Alexander Bruccoleri explains that with chemical propulsion, “You are limited in what you can bring to space because you have to carry a rocket that is mostly fuel” [Technology Review].

Now, a European Space Agency (ESA) probe will use four ion thrusters to scoot all the way to Mercury, the planet nearest to the sun. That mission won’t launch until 2014, but ESA officials say the $37 million propulsion system will be the most efficient yet, and will also be the most ambitious test of the technology to date. The Mercury probe will be launched by a conventional rocket, and will continue to use chemical propulsion until it’s out of Earth orbit. When it begins its six-year cruise to Mercury, though, its ion thrusters will kick in. The system will draw electricity from solar panels; as the xenon ions pass through the electrified grids they accelerate to up to 50km a second (31 miles per second) and shoot from the rear in a parallel beam. On Earth, at sea level, the thrust would be just enough to lift a pound coin. In space, however, the same thrust will create a much much bigger lift [Telegraph].

Meanwhile, NASA is developing new ion engines under the NASA Evolutionary Xenon Thruster (NEXT) program, and has also partnered with Ad Astra Rocket Company. That agreement paves the way for Ad Astra’s VASIMR system to be fired in space, attached to the International Space Station, if further ground-based tests are successful…. If flight testing on the space station goes according to plan, Ad Astra hopes to win a NASA contract to use VASIMR to provide the periodic boosts needed to keep the ISS in its orbit [New Scientist]. Ion thrusters have been suggested for a possible manned expedition to Mars, although such missions are in doubt following a presidential panel’s declaration that NASA’s human spaceflight program is on an “unsustainable trajectory.”

But it isn’t clear how the panel’s recommendations will affect NASA’s space-faring plans. It may be worth noting that ion thrusters got an appreciative nod from NASA’s new administrator, Charles Bolden, during his Senate confirmation hearings, when Bolden called lawmakers’ attention to an ion engine that can enable trips to Mars in “39 days instead of 8 to 11 months” [New Scientist].

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2009/09/08/ion-thrusters-come-of-age-for-interplanetary-spacecraft/

[HereForNow]

Given all the information so far, who has any questions?

Did I miss it?  What are your mega-buckyballs made out of - graphite?

Raw materials- or space debris from the formation of our solar system on down to things we launched during the cold war. Material would be collected by robotic mining equipment and refined to be remanufactured into useful materials that would make up the structural components. After stage 3 of the construction phase it would be collecting Raw Materials_via collision, and the fully autonomous refining of these materials would be done in the middle regions of the shell of this station.

[HereForNow]

Well, since Herefornow is no longer here, I guess this is MY thread now.

If you would want to get to Mars, how would you do it, and what would you want to set up there first?  I imagine we'd have to do some terraforming first.  That would take a century.  Then we'd open it up to bids.  Who would want to open the first McDonalds up there?

Come to think of it, do we really want to go to Mars first?  Maybe the moons Europa or Titan would be a bit more hospitable to human life!

We will share!
We are married by forum now. LOL


Traveling outside of the solar system in search of Earth-like planets id the primary mission of this space station, or cosmic Arc if you would like. The Exodus Project if ever done on this scale, would be able to sustain and nurish the generations of human kind that bravely accepted this life style.

[HereForNow]

Not acheivable at this time but definitely a good odea.
I like it.

Is acheivable and can be done.

[mdsungate]

   Holy Buckyballs Batman!  I see that the rumors of your departure were greatly exaggerated, HereForNow.   Congats on the design.  This thread has grown as much as the whole forum has, LOL.   

I agree with your optimism.  Money is not the real obstacle:  Ignorance is.  The economy always has its ups and downs, just like the seasons.  The point is not how fast we get there, it’s just TO get there, LOL.   And Regan never built “Star Wars” “Weapons of Mass Destruction”, (at least not as far as we civilians know).  But his mere threat to build it single handedly took down the entire soviet empire without firing a shot, LOL.  Of  course we have to wonder if they really did spend $100 dollars a piece on a toilet seats, or if that’s just what the books say, and the money actually went on building a real “Star Wars” defense system. 

You just might be the next Jules Verne, HereForNow.  You know unless someone can envision something like an atomic submarine in the 1800’s, then the young scientists of the 1900’s wouldn’t have it in their heads to try and build one. 

All this talk of mass destruction in 2012 has got me to thinking where would it be safe if the Mayan prophesies came true?  Their predictions are that this world, (the forth one in ancient Hopi Legends), will end in bombardments of celestial objects and worldwide earthquakes.  Just where on Earth would you be safe from something like that?  I certainly wouldn’t want to be in an underground fortress safe from the impacts of asteroids if there was going to be massive earthquakes as well.  So I guess the real answer is that this time, building an Arc won’t work, and neither will hiding underground so…
GET US OFF OF THIS ROCK, before we all go the way of the dinosaurs, LOL.
 
Mike