Cross pollination alert--- Space colonization post

11/27/24:

So I dug a little deeper in order to evaluate this idea.

Not only has Parkins studied it, but others have as well. It seems to be a viable alternative to burning up propellant. It's advantages could be higher ISP. It's downsides are the usual with high ISP concepts---small thrust. Although Perkins advocated its use for large spacecraft, so it may be possible to get it to work for high thrust as well.

Another possibility is to use ablative propulsion. It will heat it up, and the conversion to a hot gas will provide thrust as it rapidly expands.

Posting one at geo seems excessive. Perhaps one could follow another, but at a higher altitude. In that way, the velocity difference won't be too much to force it out of range too quickly. Or so I think.





11/23/24, 8:49 AM:

Methinks this line of speculation belongs on a blog about speculations.

But that would be consistent.

Anyway, I can use this tool in order to continue the discussion here, as opposed to the other place. (LOX-LEO)

Boots and Oil Blog: Elements of a gas harvesting mode (Loxleo) https://t.co/umqM9difiy ---Forgive the shameless self-promotion...

— BootsandOil (@BootsandO6892) November 23, 2024

5:57 PM The red stream around the Starship is the stuff that you could capture for use in space. 80% of the mass needed for the raptor is oxygen, and there's a lot of it available up there. Know what I mean, Vern?

Starship reentry over the Indian Ocean pic.twitter.com/JKoph5QnmW

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) November 21, 2024

Whither Elon Musk?

There are those like Kizinger who call Trump voters "a cult". Perhaps there are some who are like that, but not me. The same goes for Elon Musk, I'd say. I won't glorify Musk. He has had some success, but he hasn't had THE success that he is aiming for.

In terms of Tesla, his cars are not that good. They are way the hell too heavy, and probably too expensive. They solve no problems. De-carbonization? Nope. The only way to de-carbonize is nuclear, and the greenie weenies won't go there. With nuclear energy, batteries make more sense. But even then, the best possible solution, in my opinion, is fuel cells. Musk won't go there. He's not sold on nuclear energy.

As for SpaceX, he seems to be following Robert Zubrin's Direct Mars approach. He can get people to Mars with that platform alright, but starting a civilization there will take something far more comprehensive than making super rockets that are re-usable. It's going to take more rocket launches than the public will tolerate. Perhaps if he put his rockets out in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico, he could do it, but such a location is problematic.

He needs to Mine the Sky. One way or another, an economic basis has to pay for the off-world civilization he wants to found, Mining the Sky is the ticket to that kind of future. He has the means at his disposal, but does he have the will?

The way it is

Linux update and other things

The goal is to get away from Windows. This has been largely achieved, but sometimes, it is tempting to go back because Windows is still easier to use, and Linux has a few issues. The issues shall go unspecified here, as that is not part of the overall goal. The overall goal is privacy and security. Maybe that is for me to know and for anyone else to find out.

I don't like to be that way, but that is the way things are. If things were not that way, the move from Windows wouldn't have been necessary. But it IS necessary, and with it comes a bit of distrust. We have that to thank Big Tech for.

This isn't going to be posted on the main blog, but on the secondary blog. Which reminds me of what I created it in the first place. It is to spin off some items that the main blog need not cover. Among these is one of my other goals. That is to make something out of the land that I purchased. It has been 10 plus years now, and there's really nothing to show for it.

I backed away from settling it, and have been keeping it on hold. But it has now morphed into neglect. The whole project seems to have gone on hold.

Holding is an option for now, but eventually you have to do things, or get off the pot. I've done a lot of work on this project which fits under the category of planning, Not much has gone into execution.

When there are plans, the plans can just go into a big pile of unseen and unused items that get forgotten about. I need to fix that.

One of those was to make videos that I could reference whenever I needed to refresh my knowledge of things studied and planned in the past. This blog and the main blog is also part of that.

But security and privacy is also a part of this. So the videos are going to be held offline. Unfortunately, that is the way that it is these days.

No more videos are being made. The last ones made were a few years ago. I think the idea was to post them here, but as the saying goes, shit happens.

The latest is this move to Linux and the keeping of material offline. I don't like it that way, but that is the way it is.

Ah, computers. So much fun.

11/20/24:

Zorin is back. All is did was wait for a substantial update to be available. Then I set the computer up just as I did when installed everything. That is, everything was in the same place as it was on the last OS install, which was Mint. Then I did the update on Mint. By golly, the thing restored the link to the Zorin OS. Well, goody-goody. I tested it all out too, and it works! It works!





11/14/24:

To think that I started out to try to make a living off these things.

It may seem like belly-aching, but here goes anyway. All that work getting Zorin to work has just been trashed by Mint. It may have been something I did, but the thing DID cut out my connection to it.

Perhaps I can get it back. Perhaps not.

It was caused by an update by the Mint OS. The thing is, I updated it without the Zorin USB in the computer. So it zapped the thing out since it wasn't plugged in during the update.

I'd really like to know what the hell that has to do with another OS on another storage device?

Bitch session concluded.

Ah, I have neglected this blog again.

Not much way to inspect statistics though. There doesn't appear to be much of an audience anyway. But I intend to keep posting here, even though the posts may be erratic.