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Showing posts from September, 2018

Syntactic foam and Pressure–certified Microballoons

The strongest material in compression strength per-unit mass: pressure certified microballoons I have been fascinated with syntactic foam for many years. I filed a US patent in 1996 on a highly flexible syntactic foam based dive suit. Later I worked on syntactic foam in a polypropylene matrix (used for insulating oil pipelines under the ocean). And I learned all about the syntactic foam used on submarines. I have applied for quite a few SBIR grants based on some aspect of hollow glass microballoons or syntactic foam based on polymers. One part of fly ash from coal burning power plants are called cenospheres; cenospheres are not manufactured on purpose, and as a byproduct they're potentially very cheap. Their molecular makeup also makes them higher melting than the typical glass microballoons that are in commerce today, so cenospheres can successfully be mixed with molten aluminum for example, whereas typical glass microballoons soften too much to be mixed with molten alumin

Rocket Launching using a mortar mechanism

Why the mortar wants launch method for a rocket is advantageous compared to a rail gun or other electromagnetic means of launch. I wrote a previous post on this subject which can be found here: http://rethinking-tomorrow.blogspot.com/2018/03/method-to-launch-large-rockets-using.html On Wednesday, September 12, 2018, 1:17:14 PM EDT, Keith Klipstein wrote: As I began reading your blog on Rocket to Mars I couldn’t help but thinking a Long Rail Gun might be simpler.. The capital required for an electromagnetic launch would be vastly greater than what would be needed for a mortar launch tube to be drilled into the Earth with a tunnel boring machine. TBMs have previously been used to create ICBM tunnels. Muzzle velocity ExitingThe end of the tunnel Depends strongly on the average acceleration Of the projectile as it travels down the Launch tube. and also the Length of the launch tube. the capital required for a mortar launch Tube That is 10 m in diameter Could be less th