It's a wonder

...that Vista works at all.

I spent the better part of Thanksgiving week updating and securing my loaner laptop. After downloading and installing some 9,378,461 Windows updates, I have finally run into a wall. There are four updates that refuse to install. It's a larger problem for 64-bit Vista than for 32-bit. This means that the help available is for 64-bit, and of course this is a 32-bit machine. The last bit that I could find in the Microsoft Knowledge Base suggested that the fault is due to having the OS load for the first time without having certain hot-fixes and firewalls installed and running (a chicken-and-egg problem if ever there was one.) The solution was (as it always seems to be) to format and reinstall. Of course.

So mu initial research into vortex precipitation is not real promising. This page suggests that a high power laser could do the trick. Of course, you'd have to power the laser with a nuclear reactor, making it somewhat inconvenient for use on an aircraft.

Another page reports that cloud seeding in the Southern Ocean is more successful than average due to the purity of the air. Meaning the converse, dirty air would be more difficult to seed, is probably true. I wonder if you'd need to use traditional seeding techniques to get the energy in a wake to dissipate.

SpaceX might end up beating Scaled and Armadillo to orbit. They have their re-entry license, which is kind of a big deal for the coming back home part of spaceflight.

The Air Force sees utility in hypersonic weapons platforms. I thought that these ideas had died out with the crash of the Valkyrie. Not that I'm opposed, mind you. The engineering challenges are enormous - and fun.

Baby news. Our most recent doctor's visit went smashingly. Baby and mother continue to do very well. We will do the genetic counseling because we're old, but I expect that to be a non issue.

More Wednesday.

Cheers,

-- Zach

Friday!

It's Friday night, and none of my children want to sleep. Sometimes I wish they came with off switches.

School updates. Calculus test this morning. I either got an A or I got an F. Someday I'll feel comfortable with the material. Physics has been going very well of late. My first test was an F, my second an A. With a little luck, I'll do well in this class. I need to have a good first Physics class. Momentum and all that. History is pretty easy, and it's quite enjoyable. I've a paper due Tuesday, but it should be fairly easy to complete. It's simply a book report on our massive textbook. My oceans class is too easy to be a three thousand level course.
 
On to science type things. NASA will try to launch Discovery December 3rd. The GUCP issue has been resolved and the external tank repair is on track. This will be the first time the tank has been repaired on the pad. Ironic that it happened for the last launch of Discovery.

The troubled life of the F-35 has encountered a new, even more troubling problem. It seems that the rear bulkheads are cracking after 1500 simulated hours instead of the 8000 hours they're designed to last. This issue only affects the B model, because it (the Marine Corps jet) uses a lighter materiel for the part. The best case scenario is that a faulty test regime is to blame for the problem. The worst case scenario is that the problem is a design flaw. That might actually kill the program.

I'd love to have Mike Suffredini's problem: "How are we going to utilize this wonderful vehicle that we've assembled in space?"

In other news, Saturn radiates heat unevenly over its surface. Nobody knows why.

The next space race has begun, but it's about economics, not pride. I think that this has the potential to be the right way forward. Unfortunately, it's going to be difficult without at least some government regulation. Too often the race to be first to market claims safety as its first victim. I'd hate to see good people die because someone was in a hurry to make his money back on a billion dollar investment.

Starting next week, I'd like to add a segment about whatever secondary projects I'm working on. You all know about my involvement with the RGSFOP, and that progress will be recorded there. For my next trick, I'd like to at least research precipitating the energy out of wake turbulence.

Have a great weekend. I and my stomach ache are off to the teevee for a while.

Cheers,

-- Zach

Super Slappy Science Updates

Happy hump day, intrepid readers. Normally, I'd be at apogee preparing for the terminal dive phase of my week. Unfortunately, my plans were derailed by sleeping almost ten hours last night. Oh well. I suppose I needed it.
Super slappy science, in no particular order.
Collapse? What Collapse? Societal Change Revisited
The concept that societies simply vanish, or that they die a fiery, cataclysmic death, is one that Hollywood loves. It would seem, however, that it's not consistent with reality. Large societies tend to weather large stressors well, and it is almost impossible to point to one event and say "Yes, the sack of Rome by the Visigoths caused the collapse of Western Civilization."
Civilizations are like tires with slow leaks. Problems exist for long periods of time, occur slowly, and tend to mask their effects. The people comprising the society may not even notice that there's a problem until long after the society is gone.
This is fascinating stuff. Applied to our own civilization, it shows that the fall of the US is not imminent.
NASA - Shaping the Shuttle
It's stories like this that persuaded me to get into this field in the first place. This is why I want to be an engineer.
NASA - NASA to Show Live Webcast of Nanosatellite Launch
Nanosatellites offer the promise of high launch frequency and low launch cost. Of course, miniaturization is an issue...
I just found a post that was supposed to have gone live on October 24^th. Oops. It's included here below for the sake of completeness.
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You know that you're old when your Saturday night is spent furtively trying to get children to sleep (and back to sleep). I put the little ones down at about 8 or so, then promptly passed out. Smersh fell asleep pretty quickly, but SWWNO fought it until almost midnight. Smersh woke up about 12:30 am, likely from nightmares or night terrors. When that happens, the only way to get her back to sleep is to stand in the middle of the living room under the bright bright light and twirl slowly. Counterclockwise. For an hour.
Of course, SWWNO woke back up at 6:30 and woke her sister up shortly thereafter. I thanked my wife for a "rockin' Saturday night" and got up to begin the new day.
Rockin' Saturday nights when you're old. Why didn't they mention this in school?
The failed NASA balloon launch has been studied. From the report:

In summary, the causes for this mishap evolved from: (1) a flawed underlying assumption, (2) a problematic historical mindset, and (3) an ineffective organizational structure.

This is actually kinda neat. I saw a show on TDC about the folks that launch the majority of NASA's balloons. Their professionalism was impressive.
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That's all I have time for right now. Until Friday...
Cheers,
-- Zach

Finally getting caught up

It's incredible. Even with all the best intentions, updating this blog is still incredibly difficult. Here goes.

Family life proceeds apace. My wife was sick for a while. Then I caught an unexpected case of strep throat. Then SWWNO came down with the same thing. My daughter and I both had to go to the doctor in order to get better. I'm still not anywhere near 100%. Maybe by December I'll be back to myself. I sure wish I knew what it was that we caught.

School is kicking me. Hard. Calculus is more difficult than it was last semester, but I think I'm doing better. We didn't focus as much on logs and trig last time. I'd like to think I'm becoming good at trig and inverse trig. Now, we're working on integration by parts. This wasn't even covered in my last class.

I'm doing much better in physics now, thank you very much :-) It seems that I'm much better with relativity and quantum mechanics than I am with waves and optics. I know what to work on for the final, at any rate.

This post is coming to you from a loaner laptop that my kind neighbors are letting me use. They have three total and can only use two at a time. It's about three years old, 17" Gateway (which is at this point really HP), and incredibly heavy. I always think of the old Compaq Portable computer as I lug it around campus. On the other hand, I love it. I can't imagine trying to do all the stuff I'm trying to do without a laptop.

caveat: it's missing the "a" and the "4" keys, and I broke the number "6". Anybody know how to replace keys on a full sized laptop keyboard?

Two quick aeronautics items today:

Boeing refits old Seattle plant for P-8 aircraft production

They made B-29s here. That alone is reason enough to keep the plant active.

FAA reinstates requirement to stay back from Boeing 747-8

So, I guess I'll start looking into precipitating wake turbulence again. I wanted another project!

That's about all I have time for today. It is my intention to get on a Monday-Wednesday-Friday posting schedule. I have tons of material available, so the weak link is me taking the time to write it up. Wish me luck, fellow netizens...

Cheers,

--Zach

The only rest a man gets from one labor

is in the immediate engagement of another.

I wish I could remember who said that.

Anyway, short post tonight, only because I said I would.

Pickle has been sick all week. When we took her to the doc in a box, they said, "Wait here." For like three hours. We still aren't sure what was wrong with her.

I am a big fan of pushing threatening asteroids out of the way. So is Rusty Schweickart. (Mozilla spell check suggested "Schwarzkopf" - what does that mean, I wonder?) Is there a better way to solve the rogue asteroid problem?

NASA Ames Research Center has posted new subsonic research opportunities. Read about it here. I am sure I'll participate in that at some point in my scholastic career.

Whoa - it's late. I need to get to bed because I have a calculus test that I'm mostly prepared for. Goodnight all.

Cheers,

-- Zach

Someday, we'll all be healthy at the

same time.

This is the random grab bag of stale updates, thrown together in a flash because I'm really busy. In no particular order:

- I got my first nibbles on the NASA project today. I'm so excited!
- I think I might be able to make it through physics alright.
- Stanley Fish is a hero of mine. He's talking about how the humanities don't translate directly into income. Since this is so, they are the first departments to get cut. In the would of business, this is the right proper thing to do. Professor Fish wishes it weren't so. (NY Times free login required)
- Space Ship Two has made her first glide flight. I'm really stoked about private space ventures. There's a sense of the gumption that NASA had in the 1950s throughout the new generation of space-farers. I just wish the craft were Alclad and Dayglo :-)
- NASA is considering a rocket powered Mars plane. I like the idea, but I think the implementation is a bit sketchy. My personal baby is a rotary winged very light weight craft.
- The Soviets never made it to the moon with people, but it wasn't for lack of trying. here here and here (the last one is Русский язык only, but Google translate is your friend.

That's all I have time for today. More on Wednesday.

Cheers,

-- Zach

The Preponderance of Cloth

Our family is a lot of things. Kinda big, kinda kooky, a little bit country, a little rock and roll. One thing that is very true about us is that we're always up for saving some money. It naturally follows then that we use cloth instead of disposable when it comes to diapers. We also use cloth baby wipes, dry most of our clothes in the sun, and use natural soapy stuff to clean the whole lot.

It is then easy to see how having a broken washing machine could throw a monkey wrench into the works.

Thankfully, we decided to get the extended warranty. Service calls are free until Smersh (the baby) is five. Even when the service call is to clean out the internal drain for the washer.

Woo-hoo! Clean, unsmelly laundry. Our Frigidaire is the best.

In other news, school proceeds apace. Well, mine does. Poor Pickle (the oldest) has been sick so much this month that she's missed four days now. I'm sure we'll get in some kind of trouble for that. Yet another reason why we're considering homeschooling. One of my to-dos for the week is to research ready-made homeschooling curricula. If push comes to shove and we end up pulling her out, I'd like to be ready already. Having something pre-made that will cover the requirements for Texas allows me to break everything down and administer the daily stuff. SWMBO can then simply do the daily task, or at least make sure it gets done.

Союз is away. What an awesome rocket. Interestingly, there isn't a direct translation of "rocket scientist" in Russian. I forget what they call smarty-parties like that, but calling them a rocket scientist sounds funny.

That's all I have time for today. Tune in next time for socks, destruction, and a new kitty(?).

Cheers,

-- Zach

Been a Minute.

I'd like to get back into this habit. Here I go!

Okay, so I'd been all ready to talk about the new FAA regulations regarding the 747-800 and the 787. Briefly, they (the FAA) wanted to mandate a 10 mile follow behind distance during landing, as well as increased follow behind distances during takeoff and at certain other flight times. I had wondered at the time whether there was a solution to the problem of the massive wake turbulence created by these monsters.

My thinking was influenced by the NOAA and their cloud seeding efforts. Would it be possible to try a similar thing with wingtip vorticies? Would it be desirable? I'm thinking here of a tool that would add energy to the wake, causing it to condense and "rain out" of the path of the airplane. What might the after effects be? And so on.

Of course, now the FAA claim that the guide was a plain old mistake, and that the follow behind distances would most likely not be so severe as had been thought. Apparently, the disruption that these new regulations would have caused would have been a very big problem for airlines and airports. The net result is that my idea's gone nowhere.

I still wonder if it's possible to essentially precipitate out wake turbulence. Thoughts?

Cheers,

-- Zach