Recovery.Gov Project Tracker

[mvanwink5]

And another update to FPDS:
The Navy has updated the FPDS by adding P00018 to the list on 1/13/14. Again, the reason? "Other Administrative Action," and no money or perceptive changes...

[DeltaV]

Nope, the logistics of driving that far are not acceptable. The average move in distance for a day going flat out pedal to the metal is 100 yards.
It would be easyer just to keep on course and look back later to see if things changed. Sad but true.
http://marsrover.nasa.gov/mission/tl_surface_nav.html

Wrong rover. Curiosity is a nuke.

http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/news/pdfs/MSLLanding.pdf

The rover has a top speed on flat, hard ground of about
1.5 inches (4 centimeters) per second. However, under
autonomous control with hazard avoidance, the vehicle
achieves an average speed of less than half that.

Factoring in another ad hoc 60% speed reduction for terrain gives

(~1/0.6){(175 yd)/[(~0.45)(1.5 in/s)(1/36 yd/in)]}/(3600 s/hr) = 4.3 hr

So the question of whether it is a real/fake alien artifact, a Russian beer bottle, large diamonds, a GEICO ad crew camera lens, etc. could be answered in under 6 hours, ignoring comm delays.

But why would a rover named Curiosity want to do that.

[DeltaV]

And another update to FPDS:
The Navy has updated the FPDS by adding P00018 to the list on 1/13/14. Again, the reason? "Other Administrative Action," and no money or perceptive changes...

Site change from Luna Farside Facility to Olympus Mons Laboratory.
Google Lunar X-Prize and all that.

[paperburn1]

you think you could see whatever it is with the mast camera, unless they are wearing camouflage or their ninjas

[swamijake]

Bad case of STD: Significant Topic Drift. If you's like to talk about the Mars Rover, I suggest a new topic.

[IntLibber]

WTF is going on with polywell? The 2012 report said 4-5 years to production of fusion systems, and the $5.3 million of ongoing funding was for two years to resolve electron injection "anomalies". One would think we'd be seeing a bit more online than NOTHING if this were the case, that polywell was so close to net power feasibility. Is anybody in touch with EMC2 Corp? Is the project a failure and simply being kept on the down low to avoid one more PR embarrassment for Obama, or to avoid the DOE publicly lambasting the silly US Navy for thinking they knew more about energy research than the vaunted Dept of effing Energy? The only thing keeping me at all hopeful is the fact that congressional/senate republicans are not lambasting Obama over this publicly, either they're ignorant of it, have forgotten, or else the Navy has a successful program and wants to get a strategic leg up on the russkies and chinese by classifying it. If it were that much of a big deal though, you'd think Obama would be flogging the crap out of it as the solution to all our energy ills, so it can't be all that great. Its beyond time for people to have some idea what is going on.

[mvanwink5]

Yes, public information is so sparse it makes tea leaf reading look like a science. I tend to look at government funded science as a risky way of doing research, the checks are always late and you can get screwed by the lowest accountant. Then every level up from there is fraught with politics. If EMC2 has something accomplished as indicated from the sole source memo a year ago then maybe something more will leak out. However, during one of CSI's question and answer sessions last fall, a person on the periphery said the Navy was being heavy handed on any status leaks. That is the best I can offer, sorry.

Maybe EMC2 is tired of being underfunded and is looking at chancing the VC route like General Fusion is doing (more tea leaf parsing)...But VC's can be just as secretive (Tri Alpha), or open - relatively - (like General Fusion).

[mvanwink5]

Also I don't think politicians get embarrassed about anything related to money. Trillion plus with a capital "T" deficits, not including robbing the SS piggy bank, gets greeted with a badge of honor, as good for the economy. I try not to even think about it. .Gov is deep in Alice and Wonderland territory.

[ladajo]

I think no news in this case is good news or at least neutral.

If things went bad we would know about it by know.

[rcain]

...

If things went bad we would know about it by know.

I'm not so sure about that - public failure/abandonment gives information away to the 'competition'; better to pretend its still limping along, even provide a real crutch (just the one mind, can't have it suddenly finding its feet & running off).

[ladajo]

I think that is partial to the "Conspiracy Theory" perspective. I really don' t think that there is a lot of voodoo going on with EMC2 and political management.
I think it is simple.
As referrenced by the publically speaking project managers from EMC2 (Bussard & Nebel), the navy didn't want a lot of press given internal navy politics as well as external politics. I believe this was all about protecting funding as well as maintaining who controlled it.

Currently, it seems that EMC2 is at a crossroads contracting wise. They have spent the money we know about, and the contract vehicle they ar eon now just got some date mods. This would seem to indicate one of two things.
1.) The navy has paid them to do something and they aren't done yet.
2.) The navy is going to pay them more to do something beyond what they had planned.

In any event, if navy funding goes away (what we can see), then that means the navy is done with it.
If navy funding continues, then the navy is either close to done with it, or ready to press on for further work.

If EMC2 goes out of business, I am sure we will know sooner rather than later. I leading physicist like Dr. Park is not going to just "Fall off the planet". He would show up somewhere else for sure. Also, folks that worked there would say that they don't anymore, and that EMC2 shut down. You can't control that with an NDA.

I really think the two key tells are the contracts and the existence of the company. Either one or both together speak to things happening.

[paperburn1]

or maybe they are winding coils with Westinghouse or Power Source?
who knows?

[Carl White]

Or Lockheed Martin? Didn't they make a surprise announcement about a 100 MW prototype fusion generator by 2017, not so long ago?

[mvanwink5]

"New" FPDS update: Modification Number - P00019
Spacer New Save Draft Validate Approve Correct Modify Save As Template Delete Print Help
Transaction Information
Award Type: Definitive Contract Prepared Date: 02/20/2014 11:13:56 Prepared User: KIM.MATSUNAGA.N68936@NAVY.MIL
Award Status: Final Last Modified Date: 02/21/2014 17:20:19 Last Modified User: CAROLINE.WALKER.N68936@SA1700.NAVAIR.WD
Reason For Update OTHER ADMINISTRATIVE ACTION

Well, we are past the completion date on this project (4-30-14), anyone know if there are still cars parked out front?

[crowberry]

"New" FPDS update: Modification Number - P00019
Spacer New Save Draft Validate Approve Correct Modify Save As Template Delete Print Help
Transaction Information
Award Type: Definitive Contract Prepared Date: 02/20/2014 11:13:56 Prepared User: KIM.MATSUNAGA.N68936@NAVY.MIL
Award Status: Final Last Modified Date: 02/21/2014 17:20:19 Last Modified User: CAROLINE.WALKER.N68936@SA1700.NAVAIR.WD
Reason For Update OTHER ADMINISTRATIVE ACTION

Thanks for this update mvanwink5! There is one interesting change in the latest update to note:
P18: Est. Ultimate Completion Date (mm/dd/yyyy) : 09/30/2014
P19: Est. Ultimate Completion Date (mm/dd/yyyy) : 04/30/2014
So we have already passed the "Est. Ultimate Completion Date", whatever that means in this jargon.

Well, we are past the completion date on this project (4-30-14), anyone know if there are still cars parked out front?

In this thread viewtopic.php?f=6&t=5394 mattman wrote:

I spoke with someone close to the work. He is of the impression the Navy funding is winding down, which means a publication is coming.

Any news on what is really going on would be of course very interesting, whether it is a publication or something else.