This video predates Dragon V2, but the basic concepts remain the same.
Crew capability was the very reason SpaceX was founded, so we will do whatever it takes to make this happen. – Elon Musk
Related:
Category Archives: News
How to tell if your cell phone is too big
Smart drag race
It’s the first five metres that count …
CST-100
Boeing’s answer to the SpaceX Dragon V2 (although technically unveiled first).
The next space race will be commercial.
YMTAN
Yet More Transparent Aluminum News
From last year …
I’m surprised that Apple doesn’t just buy them outright and be done with it.
Thin, Very Thin Transparent Aluminum
Transparent Aluminum
I first told you about Transparent Aluminum* here.
I have talked about it several times since.
GT Advanced Technologies (GTAT) has the technology to make thin, very thin sheets of it.
Apple has a large plant in Arizona where GTAT is making Transparent Aluminum for them by the ton (literally).
Last February 2014
* in case you have forgotten transparent aluminum is sapphire, Al2O3
Bras in Space
The creation of the Apollo AL7 Pressure Garment is one of the great American stories of the past forty-plus years. […] NASA turned the creation of the spacesuit into a competition (largely dominated by military contractors)—and it was assumed a military contractor would win the day.
Instead, pitted against the military-industrial complex, Playtex created the 21-layer spacesuit, each layer distinct yet interrelated in function to the rest of the whole—a masterly combination of elegance, complexity, and form. […] Traditional engineering firms could not figure out how to meet all the mission requirements and create a functioning suit that would keep the Apollo astronauts alive. The seamstresses at Playtex, with their years of experience fashioning girdles and bras, could, and did.
It was the same materials. It was bras in space. It was literally the same materials that were used in the bra-making process. The straps from bras were reused to hold the thing into shape and the Nylon fabric that a bra-cup is made of was used to give strength to the Latex so that it didn’t expand under air pressure. Then the Latex itself was the same, as they say it started out as exactly the same Latex as went into the girdles […]
We Choose To Go To The Moon
We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.
President John F. Kennedy, September 12, 1962, speaking to incoming freshman students at Rice University, Houston, Texas
SpaceX Soft Lands Falcon 9
SpaceX Soft Lands Falcon 9 Rocket First Stage
Following last week’s successful launch of six ORBCOMM satellites, the Falcon 9 rocket’s first stage reentered Earth’s atmosphere and soft landed in the Atlantic Ocean. This test confirms that the Falcon 9 booster is able to consistently reenter from space at hypersonic velocity, restart main engines twice, deploy landing legs and touch down at near zero velocity.
After landing, the vehicle tipped sideways as planned to its final water safing state in a nearly horizontal position. The water impact caused loss of hull integrity, but we received all the necessary data to achieve a successful landing on a future flight. Going forward, we are taking steps to minimize the build up of ice and spots on the camera housing in order to gather improved video on future launches.
At this point, we are highly confident of being able to land successfully on a floating launch pad or back at the launch site and refly the rocket with no required refurbishment. However, our next couple launches are for very high velocity geostationary satellite missions, which don’t allow enough residual propellant for landing. In the longer term, missions like that will fly on Falcon Heavy, but until then Falcon 9 will need to fly in expendable mode.
We will attempt our next water landing on flight 13 of Falcon 9, but with a low probability of success. Flights 14 and 15 will attempt to land on a solid surface with an improved probability of success.
This message was sent from SpaceX to […]. It was sent from: […], SpaceX, 1 Rocket Road, Hawthorne, CA 90250. For more information on SpaceX, please visit http://www.spacex.com
Parrot Bebop
Not to be confused with Cowboy Bebop
Hydrogen Reactor – Brunton – Review
In case you missed my link in https://contrafactual.com/2014/07/13/brunton-hydrogen-reactor
Totally Sci-Fi. The Brunton Hydrogen Reactor is my latest gadget, and it is really cool.
The Hydrogen Reactor is a reactor that converts hydrogen and air into electricity and vapor. It’s all a bit hocus pocus, and since I’m not a scientist, I really can’t explain it in bigger detail.
In the package you get a reactor and 2 hydrogen cores. Each hydrogen core contains 4.500 mah which is equivalent to 3 iPhone charges. I’ve researched this fact very carefully, because some sites claim it to be 9.000 mah. My phone and Brunton tells them wrong. The core is made of solid metal that binds the molecules. It’s NOT nuclear, so there is nothing to be afraid of.
You screw the core in, hear a funny little *puff*, wait for the blue light, and then you connect your device. It’s quit easy and straight forward. You can boost the output if you…
View original post 368 more words
Brunton Hydrogen Reactor
This high-science device combines hydrogen and oxygen to produce electricity on-the-move and under any condition. Simply lock the Hydrocore fuel into the Hydrogen Reactor™ to power USB devices like smartphones, tablet computers, UV water purifiers, rechargeable lights, portable game consoles, GPS transceivers and more.
Remember when fuel cells cost millions of dollars, could only be afforded by NASA, and were powered by liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen that was known to explode? Of course not, you weren’t born yet. Well maybe you were since the Space Shuttle used them.
Tesla Recruiting US Vets to Build Cars
Click the image below to read the entire article at Green Car Reports.
Quotes from the article:
The Silicon Valley electric carmaker is poised to become a leading employer of veterans, according to the San Jose Mercury News.
Tesla now has more than 6,000 employees, of whom 300 are veterans. A further 600 veterans are “in the hiring pipeline,” according to the company.
Tesla […] has made Veterans Day a company-wide paid holiday.
Read the entire article at Green Car Reports.
Did I mention that Elon Musk is my hero?
And now … the rest of the story
From The Loop
As reported by Reuters
Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook in a 2013 speech at Auburn University described people with disabilities “in a struggle to have their human dignity acknowledged.” He said, “They’re frequently left in the shadows of technological advancements that are a source of empowerment and attainment for others.”
And now … the rest of the story
What Tim Cook continued to say, but Reuters left out
“… left in the shadows of technological advancements that are a source of empowerment and attainment for others, but Apple’s engineers push back against this unacceptable reality, they go to extraordinary lengths to make our products accessible to people with various disabilities from blindness and deafness to various muscular disorders. I receive hundreds of e-mails from customers every day, and I read them all. Last week I received one from a single mom with a three year old autistic son who was completely non-verbal, and after receiving an iPad, for the first time in his life, he had found his voice. I receive scores of these incredible stories from around the world and I never tire of reading them.” “We design our products to surprise and delight everyone who uses them, and we never, ever analyze the return on investment. We do it because it is just and right, and that is what respect for human dignity requires, and its a part of Apple I’m especially proud of.”
The Loop takes Reuters to task with strong words for the surgical removal of the rest of (and key part of) the story.
I applaud Tim Cook and his team at Apple for their vision and accomplishments.
Roskilde Festival Radio Nøgenløb
The Roskilde Festival is the largest North European culture and music festival and has existed since 1971. They are a non-profit organisation consisting of about 50 full-time employees and thousands of volunteers. It is held in Roskilde, Denmark in late June.
http://roskilde-festival.dk/about_roskilde/
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roskilde_Festival
• • •
It is also famous for the Roskilde Festival Radio Nøgenløb (Naked Run) held on the Saturday of the Festival (this Saturday just past). The Nøgenløb is a foot race around the Festival grounds where the participants, men and women, run totally naked (shoes are allowed). It has been run every year since 1999, with a ticket to the next year’s festival awarded to the male and female winner.
The Danes obviously don’t have the phobia of public nudity common in the U. S. and some other countries.
• • •
And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.
~ Genesis 2:25, King James Bible
• • •
The Roskilde Festival Radio Nøgenløb serves as an example of what a pack of Zs might look like as they run naked across the countryside.*
WARNING THE IMAGE BELOW LINKS TO A VIDEO THAT SHOWS NAKED MEN AND WOMEN RUNNING IN THE NØGENLØB. IF YOU ARE OFFENDED OR ASHAMED OF THE NAKED HUMAN FORM, DO NOT CLICK THE IMAGE BELOW.
* Except maybe for the body paint and the GoPros
Transparent Aluminum Arrives
Late last year I had the epiphany that industrial sapphire was in fact the Transparent Aluminum presaged in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.
The first sample has escaped into the wild.
Tell me again why UBS and Canaccord Genuity just downgraded GT Advanced Technologies (NASDAQ:GTAT)???
Happy Belated Birthday
From The Register
Touching anywhere above will take you to the full article.
One Martian year, 687 Earth days – Happy Birthday Curiosity!
Meanwhile at another location on Mars …
SpaceX F9R Fin Test
F9R 1000m Fin Flight | Onboard Cam and Wide Shot
From the YouTube details section:
Jun 19, 2014
Video of Falcon 9 Reusable (F9R) during a 1000m test flight at our rocket development facility in McGregor, TX. This flight was our first test of a set of steerable fins that provide control of the rocket during the fly back portion of return. The fins deploy approximately a minute and 15 seconds into the flight, and return to their original position just prior to landing. The F9R testing program is the next step towards reusability following completion of the Grasshopper program last year. Early flights of F9R will take off with legs fixed in the down position, however we will soon transition to liftoff with legs stowed against the side of the rocket with leg extension just before landing. Future test flights of F9R at our New Mexico facility will include higher altitudes, allow us to prove unpowered guidance and to prove out landing cases that are more flight-like.
See also
A Brief History of Everything
SpaceX Launch LIVE
UPDATE
Technical problems scrub SpaceX launch attempt
An issue with pressures in the Falcon 9 rocket’s upper stage propellant tanks resulted in a scrub today. […] awaiting confirmation on timing of the next launch attempt, possibly within 24 hours.
Source http://www.floridatoday.com/
😦
===============================
Screen shots from email (the links don’t work, but touching either of the images will take you to the webcast sight).
Elon Musk: an exceptional innovator
My hero 🙂
Elon Musk is the CEO of SpaceX and Tesla. In these two companies, products manufactured have never been proposed before. For SpaceX (USA), the company is able to sell a rocket launch for satellites for 12000 dollars / kg as cost for Ariane 5 (Europa) is 23000 dollars / kg and for Proton (Russia), 18000 dollars / kg.
As ILIAD for French Telecommunication, SpaceX is completely redefine the market of space rocket launch. He obliges restructuring Safran (Ariane) into Airbus group in June 2014.
Elon Musk is also the CEO of Telsa, a company selling only electric cars in USA! Elon Musk is a serial creator, as he was the creator of Paypal sold to Ebay in the 2000’s years.
“If a company depends on its patents is that it does not innovate or when it does not innovate fast enough.” It is with these words Elon Musk justifies his…
View original post 127 more words
Mars or bust
The Register is reporting that Elon Musk expects to have space-farers on Mars within the next twelve years. Only when the “interplanetary mission gets underway” does he expect to “float [SpaceX] on Earth-bound stock exchanges.”
Read the full story at The Register.
Previously posted videos
In case you missed them … or just want to watch them again.
I feel like a kid again.
Elon Musk is my hero.
Rum Goddess …
… from the lower east side
Last month while making a pilgrimage to my old stomping grounds to attend to family matters, I hooked up with Pegasuspilot after a 27 year hiatus. I introduced him to OCTOMORE, and he introduced me to Ron Zacapa Centenario 23 rum. I left him with the open bottle of OCTOMORE and he gifted me with a fresh bottle of Zacapa.
As I write this I am finishing the Zacapa (drunk from a silver cup … also gifted to me). Thankfully the Zacapa is a fraction of the price of the OCTOMORE and apparently available locally.
I have never fancied myself to be a rum drinker, but Ron Zacapa Centenario 23 is sweet nectar of the gods. Bottled at 40% ABV, “FROM VIRGIN SUGAR CANE & BOTTLED AT HIGH ALTITUDE”, Ron Zacapa Centenario 23 from Guatemala is a treat that anyone can afford. This is sipping rum that can be enjoyed neat, on the rocks, or in mixed drinks. If you like rum, look for it. If you like single malt scotch, look for it. It is a delicious diversion. To me it doesn’t taste like traditional rum. It is sweeter and smoother.
Oh no … I just poured the last drop of Zacapa into my silver cup. Yum yum yum. Thankfully the mellowing agents in Ron Zacapa Centenario 23 won’t allow me to be sad.
So good, you’ll do the Swinburne Stomp
Tactical Machete
By the same folks who brought you James Bond’s PPK …
Walther® Mach Tac 1 Machete
Solves problems “chop chop”
Wicked Walther® Mach Tac 1 Machete.
Human-powered weed wacker with killer looks! Here’s a “hedge trimmer” that never runs out of gas. Take the battle to undergrowth with a vengeance. This name-brand Walther® wonder is ready.
Razor-sharp 440 stainless steel 15 3/4″l. blade
Guthook design on spine of blade
Contoured synthetic grip
Modern, hybrid blade design for effective slashing
Protective nylon sheath.
Blade is 3/16″ thick. Machete is 21 2/3″l. overall. Weighs 1 lb., 1 oz.
Available at sportsmansguide.com
All Our Patent Are Belong To You
I just can’t say it enough …
ELON MUSK IS MY HERO
Today Elon Musk open-sourced all of Tesla’s patents. In a bow to the famous internet meme “All Your Base Are Belong To Us“, Elon Musk released the following blog post (click the title to go to the post):
All Our Patent Are Belong To You
By Elon Musk, CEO
Yesterday, there was a wall of Tesla patents in the lobby of our Palo Alto headquarters. That is no longer the case. They have been removed, in the spirit of the open source movement, for the advancement of electric vehicle technology.
Tesla Motors was created to accelerate the advent of sustainable transport. If we clear a path to the creation of compelling electric vehicles, but then lay intellectual property landmines behind us to inhibit others, we are acting in a manner contrary to that goal. Tesla will not initiate patent lawsuits against anyone who, in good faith, wants to use our technology.
When I started out with my first company, Zip2, I thought patents were a good thing and worked hard to obtain them. And maybe they were good long ago, but too often these days they serve merely to stifle progress, entrench the positions of giant corporations and enrich those in the legal profession, rather than the actual inventors. After Zip2, when I realized that receiving a patent really just meant that you bought a lottery ticket to a lawsuit, I avoided them whenever possible.
At Tesla, however, we felt compelled to create patents out of concern that the big car companies would copy our technology and then use their massive manufacturing, sales and marketing power to overwhelm Tesla. We couldn’t have been more wrong. The unfortunate reality is the opposite: electric car programs (or programs for any vehicle that doesn’t burn hydrocarbons) at the major manufacturers are small to non-existent, constituting an average of far less than 1% of their total vehicle sales.
At best, the large automakers are producing electric cars with limited range in limited volume. Some produce no zero emission cars at all.
Given that annual new vehicle production is approaching 100 million per year and the global fleet is approximately 2 billion cars, it is impossible for Tesla to build electric cars fast enough to address the carbon crisis. By the same token, it means the market is enormous. Our true competition is not the small trickle of non-Tesla electric cars being produced, but rather the enormous flood of gasoline cars pouring out of the world’s factories every day.
We believe that Tesla, other companies making electric cars, and the world would all benefit from a common, rapidly-evolving technology platform.
Technology leadership is not defined by patents, which history has repeatedly shown to be small protection indeed against a determined competitor, but rather by the ability of a company to attract and motivate the world’s most talented engineers. We believe that applying the open source philosophy to our patents will strengthen rather than diminish Tesla’s position in this regard.
How many?
Can you guess?
How many nuclear devices has humanity detonated since the first one at Trinity New Mexico?
I’ll give you a hint …
1 – Trinity NM
2 – Hiroshima
3 – Nagasaki
4 – that one in the Pacific
10 – a few more in the Pacific (Bikini Atoll, Marshall Islands)
50 – a bunch at the US Nevada Test Site
100? 200? 500? (All of the testing by all of the nations)
1091?
4.5 Degrees | XKCD
http://www.xkcd.com/1379/ or http://m.xkcd.com/1379/
Warning: this comic occasionally contains strong language (which may be unsuitable for children), unusual humor (which may be unsuitable for adults), and advanced mathematics (which may be unsuitable for liberal-arts majors).
New XKCD posts are published M W F
WP41
41 days of the Wahls Protocol Diet
The Mrs continues to get stronger. No wheelchair, walker, or cane for weeks now. Clarity of thought improved and improving. Morale and outlook improved and improving. Reduced need for pain medication. Slow and persistent weight loss. Clothes bought a month ago are too large.
As for me … Slow and persistent weight loss. Clothes bought a month ago are too large. Generally improved feelings of health. Easier to walk on bad knee.
No hunger pangs.
A Future For US Rare Earth Element Industry
First Drive
Google’s Latest Self-Driving Car
A Brief History of Breeder Reactors
LFTR in 5 Minutes
EELV: The Right to Compete
From http://www.spacex.com/press/2014/04/29/eelv-right-compete
EELV: The Right to Compete | SpaceX
On April 28, 2014, SpaceX filed a bid protest in the United States Court of Federal Claims to challenge the U.S. Air Force’s latest Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) contract with United Launch Alliance (ULA), a joint venture of Boeing and Lockheed Martin. The long-term contract, which guarantees the purchase of 36 rocket cores from ULA to be used in national security launches, was granted to ULA on a sole-source basis without any competition from other launch providers.
SuperDraco
Dragon V2 Unveil
This gives me goosebumps – guess I’m still just a starry-eyed kid from the 60s.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Abm8rzda4Y?rel=0
Elon Musk will be known as the “Father of Modern Commercial Space Flight”.
Stay tuned … The future will be televised on the web.
Sleep
Sleep. Sweet delicious sleep. Warm, safe, clarity regenerating sleep. In 2013, researchers determined that sleep is critical for flushing neurotoxins and other metabolic waste from the brain and spinal column. These toxins accumulate during the day as a result of normal brain and neurological processes. If not flushed away every night they begin to poison the brain, inhibiting clear thought, reasoning, and memory. This more than anything else explains the importance and the necessity of getting a quality night’s sleep. Anyone who has been awake over twenty-four hours doesn’t need the results of clinical studies to know that sleep is necessary for clear thinking.
OCTOMORE 06.1 SCOTTISH BARLEY Déjà Vu
BRUICHLADDICH
PROGRESSIVE HEBRIDEAN DISTILLERS
OCTOMORE/06.1_167
Touch the image above (you want to touch it) to go to the Bruichladdich OCTOMORE 06.1 SCOTTISH BARLEY webpage.
THE WORLD’S MOST HEAVILY PEATED WHISKY, THIS IS THE SIXTH EDITION OF THE UBER-EXPERIMENTAL CULT OCTOMORE.
Titanic amounts of peat but with a light, delicate complexity and a beguiling finesse. Young, yet eminently mature, it defies us. It remains an enigma. We embrace that.
Here, we pay tribute to its pedigree, to the land from which it came and the raw materials that gave it life: Octomore Scottish Barley.
We believe challenging convention matters.
• • •
I am sequestered in an undisclosed location, dealing with stressful family matters (the Mrs’ side). A bright side to this is that a local wine and spirits store had a bottle of the above mentioned cult elixir. As I have depleted all the home stocks of OCTOMORE, I justified buying another bottle (and got permission from the wife).
Review
There are several fine reviews of this spirit on the web. Google is your friend. As for me, it is the same OCTOMORE that I have come to love. No, not merely love, but obsess over. Stalk.
Yet this OCTOMORE is stronger, spicier, with more bite on the tongue. Bottled at 57% ABV it has a kick that can be mellowed with a drop or two of spring water. Like the OCTOMOREs that preceded it, the high phenol level of 167 PPM does NOT equate to the same smoke level as a Caol Ila, Laphroaig, or Ardbeg. The smoke is subtler, woven through a sweet, young, crisp experience.
Not my favorite OCTOMORE of all time, but like sex or pizza (if you know the old joke), it is still OCTOMORE.
But wait … was it the fact that I was several “wee drams” into the bottle when I began writing? A bit of research and a nagging remembrance uncovered:
I’ll be damned. This was my second bottle of OCTOMORE/06.1_167. As I said, I (we) finished off both the OCTOMORE/06.1_167 and the OCTOMORE 10. This bottle of 06.1_167 was much cheaper than it was at home location. A good deal. It is interesting to me that on my second bottle it seemed stronger, spicier. Oh well.
Damn good whisky!
Toyota buys Tesla
NOT
In fact Toyota sees no future at all in battery electric vehicles like Tesla or the Nissan Leaf. Toyota sees the future through hydrogen tinted glasses.
Click on the image above or the URL for the full story with many cool videos.
http://www.toyota.com/fuelcell/
This explains why Toyota abandoned its relationship with Tesla and will eventually stop making the RAV4 EV. Toyota is betting on hydrogen … at least in California … where it plans to build a hydrogen infrastructure sufficient to fuel a limited fleet of Fuel Cell Vehicles. This fleet of FCVs will satisfy California requirements for zero emissions vehicles and allow Toyota to continue auto sales in California.
Tesla EVs or Toyota FCVs, which will prove to be the most successful solution? Only time will tell.
WordPress for iOS 4.0.3
Toyota to buy Tesla?
First clue …
Touch the image above to read the full article.
The above article recounts that Toyota already owns shares in Tesla and sold Tesla the plant where the Model S is made. Furthermore Tesla provides the entire electric drivetrain for the Rav4 EV, a “compliance car” sold only in California to satisfy regulations requiring auto manufactures sell a certain number of zero-emission vehicles. Tesla expects to finish supplying Toyota this year.
SUPERCHARGER
More Elon Musk news …
Travel free* from coast to coast
* if you drive a Tesla
Click on either of the images above to go to the Tesla Supercharger site.
Russia to ban US from space
Elon Musk wins the RD-80 ban by default
From The Telegraph
Click the above image to read full article.
Russia will also ban its rocket engines from being used to launch US military payloads, possibly giving Elon Musk’s SpaceX a chance at the US military launch market currently monopolized by United Launch Alliance (ULA), a joint-venture between aeronautics industry leaders Boeing and Lockheed-Martin.
WP14
See WP0 and The Wahls Protocol
WP Day 14
In the last two weeks Mrs has lost 20 pounds, I have lost 4+ (I don’t know what the ‘+’ is because my scale would say ‘0-ld’ until I got down to its limit).
Summer Reruns
As summer approaches, I will be reblogging selective posts … reruns … if you haven’t read them they will be new to you.
The Nudist War will also go on hiatus following the May 25th posting of TNW – Day 56. Life is getting in the way of writing. In the grand tradition of summer reruns I will be repeating The Nudist War, if you have resisted reading it, now is your chance.
Forbidden Gardens
Silent Ride
Sunshine on the White House
SpaceX News from The Register
Nothing fancy, just a link. Watch the video.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/05/02/spacex_touts_latest_gear_with_new_module_rocket_demo/
WP11
So a week & a half ago Mrs and I started on the Wahls Protocol Diet (http://terrywahls.com/about-the-wahls-protocol/).
Basically lots (9 cups a day) of leafy greens, highly colored fruits and berries, nuts, seeds, other hi-omega3 things, non-starch vegies, meat, fish, chicken. Almost too much food to consume. No wheat. No milk products. No eggs. No hunger.
Ex-Samsung Lawyer …
… Admits Samsung Couldn’t Tell the Truth if their Lives depended on it
Strong words
Read the full article at Patently Apple
The Patently Apple article is a synopsis of an article originally published by Vanity Fair.
Disclaimer: This blog is written and maintained on an Apple iPhone 5s using the Automattic WordPress for iOS app.
Contrafactual 