Search found 15 matches

by vasimv
Mon Oct 31, 2016 2:33 pm
Forum: General
Topic: boostrapping a mars colony
Replies: 71
Views: 42870

Re: boostrapping a mars colony

And the reason I dislike ball grid arrays. They're not so easy to troubleshoot and repair. Biggest problem of chips with BGA is lead-free solders used because ecology requirements. It tends to lose contacts with these because their temperature and mechanical characteristics, too fragile. I hope the...
by vasimv
Sun Oct 30, 2016 6:23 pm
Forum: General
Topic: boostrapping a mars colony
Replies: 71
Views: 42870

Re: boostrapping a mars colony

I was addressing Tom's current terrestrial needs mostly. Being able to make something like an Atmel would be awesome. If a few Kg will last decades fine, but there are plenty of reasons to want native ability quickly. I for example would be inclined to join a more libertarian colony, which would ha...
by vasimv
Sun Oct 30, 2016 9:57 am
Forum: General
Topic: boostrapping a mars colony
Replies: 71
Views: 42870

Re: boostrapping a mars colony

As Tom said, while an on site programmer migbt be nice, he mostly would be auditing code written on earth. Of course, most of code will be written on the Earth in any case. But you will need a programmer on the Mars. Debugging is not possible with 6..44 minutes delay in response. And you can not co...
by vasimv
Sun Oct 30, 2016 1:02 am
Forum: General
Topic: boostrapping a mars colony
Replies: 71
Views: 42870

Re: boostrapping a mars colony

Actually, you need high speed microcontrollers and FPGAs. Not for complex math calculations but to poll/process data from sensors, adjust output values (PWM on motors and such) and replace/emulate some stuff like serial interface driver. Slow MCUs will require a lot of additional stuff to be useful ...
by vasimv
Sat Oct 29, 2016 7:15 am
Forum: General
Topic: boostrapping a mars colony
Replies: 71
Views: 42870

Re: boostrapping a mars colony

You'll need power transistors too then. Fpgas are not the only silicon based parts you'll need. I've mentoined igbt/mosfets already. To be fully correct, need some different stuff: 1. FPGAs and microcontrollers 2. SDRAM and FLASH memory chips (that "spartan 6" does have some onboard but not enough ...
by vasimv
Fri Oct 28, 2016 8:14 pm
Forum: General
Topic: boostrapping a mars colony
Replies: 71
Views: 42870

Re: boostrapping a mars colony

using fpgas can at least turn it into a commodity rather than a billion different specialized chips. Yep, one kilogram of military grade "Spartan 6" FPGAs will have 300+ chips, easy to bring them in massive numbers. These ones are good enough to build almost all kinds of electronic stuff, from moto...
by vasimv
Fri Oct 28, 2016 12:07 pm
Forum: General
Topic: boostrapping a mars colony
Replies: 71
Views: 42870

Re: boostrapping a mars colony

I think they'll need few 3D printers. Small sized plastic ones, small sized powder metal and big sized for cement work. It'll allow to build a lot of stuff right on Mars, replace missing/broken parts and make some buildings even. In addition, i would add few tonns of microcontrollers/FPGAs, IGBTs/MO...
by vasimv
Wed Jul 27, 2016 8:15 pm
Forum: General
Topic: Sci-fi thermonuclear reactor
Replies: 3
Views: 4110

Sci-fi thermonuclear reactor

Hello everyone! I'm trying to write scifi book and need some tips. I'm not good with the nuclear science as many people here, hope someone will give good points on this. The book is about sub-light spaceship slowly travelling to other star, to build the human colony. It has pulse thermonuclear engin...
by vasimv
Thu Feb 04, 2016 6:44 pm
Forum: General
Topic: What would a fusion reactor look like from the outside?
Replies: 17
Views: 13946

Re: What would a fusion reactor look like from the outside?

Hmm I read something about relativistic effect of space war. basically at a certain point your shooting at where they were not where they are. Depends on speed. Anyway, even if you move close to speed of light (and harder to hit with a weapon) - you don't want to be detected. There is not many ther...
by vasimv
Thu Feb 04, 2016 4:59 am
Forum: General
Topic: What would a fusion reactor look like from the outside?
Replies: 17
Views: 13946

Re: What would a fusion reactor look like from the outside?

For military ships you may want to use moving/rotating directed radiators, to hide thermal emission (from one side at least). Otherwise they will be too easy to detect and target weapons/missiles on it.
by vasimv
Wed May 25, 2011 5:56 am
Forum: News
Topic: 10KW LENR Demonstrator?
Replies: 3678
Views: 1159130

If Rossi can produce peltier modules 100W with 20% efficiency in small quantities - he could make demo of self-sustaining power plant with his E-Cat without any problem. As soon as he gets electricity from heat - it can be converted to any needed voltage with 80-95% efficiency.
by vasimv
Tue May 17, 2011 12:23 pm
Forum: News
Topic: 10KW LENR Demonstrator?
Replies: 3678
Views: 1159130

"Additionally, we have built engines that don’t burn any fuel at all. Instead, we can recycle the heat from other sources such as ovens, furnaces, exhaust pipes or even solar collectors – thermal energy that would otherwise be wasted into the environment. Our Waste Heat Engine harvests this externa...
by vasimv
Tue May 17, 2011 11:44 am
Forum: News
Topic: 10KW LENR Demonstrator?
Replies: 3678
Views: 1159130

This is kind of what I was thinking except I thought he should use a small free-piston Stirling cycle engine. Better efficiency. Possible. But problem is to get efficient ready-to-use power generator. Just checked some manufacturers websites, they don't offer steam turbines less than 100 kW power (...
by vasimv
Tue May 17, 2011 10:50 am
Forum: News
Topic: 10KW LENR Demonstrator?
Replies: 3678
Views: 1159130

Rossi (and some of his predecessors with CF/LENR/etc) could just build small electric plant and run on just reaction's power to stop these discussions about a wrong measurements. So, idea is simple. As Rossi's device could generate steam - why not plug it into a small turbine of some sort? Pre-heati...
by vasimv
Tue May 17, 2011 5:58 am
Forum: News
Topic: 10KW LENR Demonstrator?
Replies: 3678
Views: 1159130

About possible Rossi's motives in case IF this is scam: He is targeting for something big, that is why he isn't asking money right now. Defkalion's plant may be just bigger fraud installation to make a someone with big money believe in his claims. It is even easier to hide power sources on big site ...