gene-h

16 ms·

121.
by gene-h 5y ago
The problem with space based solar power is RF interference. The transmitter will interfere with RF comms on the same band thousands of kilometers from the receiver. And I mean thousands. Figures 55 and 56 show how much RF power is incident
122.
by gene-h 5y ago
SPARC will not generate electricity[0]. It's intended to show that the ARC concept, which should be able to generate net electricity[1], is viable. If SPARC works, ARC might be built as early as 2030. 'As early as' being the
123.
by gene-h 5y ago
It's a cute approach, but perovskite solar cells can probably do much better. Perovskite solar cells can be made at close to room temperature, use relatively common elements, and can be made fairly thin. The current efficiency record f
124.
by gene-h 5y ago
When one thinks of making 'supersoldiers' the first thing that comes to mind is making soldiers physically stronger, but in modern warfare this offers little benefit. However, decreasing the need for sleep offers a huge benefit ac
125.
by gene-h 5y ago
BioRxiv paper's on this work is here[0]. This is some pretty interesting work. It'd be interesting to figure out how they adapt walking to traverse 3d terrain, because robots are really bad at this. Tardigrades have about 200 neur
126.
by gene-h 5y ago
Define what you mean by fly more efficiently. I'd like to see some numbers on efficiency.
127.
by gene-h 5y ago
The traps require antibodies specific to the virus, so what's the advantage of this over other antibody therapies? Producing antibodies for therapies is expensive enough and producing DNA origami may not necessarily scale.
128.
by gene-h 5y ago
This article appears to be based on this article in bioRxiv[0]. It references some supplementary videos, so perhaps it's in some work that is yet unpublished? [0] https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.0
129.
by gene-h 5y ago
I'm curious about the mechanical digital amplifier mechanism, do you have any examples?
130.
by gene-h 5y ago
They don't have that information, but I suspect degradation may be continuous. There is a nice plot in the supplementary information on page 5 of how this material compares to other materials[0]. Also, I need to make a correction. I sa
131.
by gene-h 5y ago
The reason they aren't using more established pv tech is that they're demonstrating a new class of photoelectric material. This material may be cheaper to produce than more established pv materials and may be easier to tune to spe
132.
by gene-h 5y ago
It's demonstrating that a new class of materials which may be suitable for solar cells which previously had a degradation problem can be made more degradation resistant. The interest in this class of materials is that they can be made
133.
by gene-h 5y ago
This article is writing about this publication: https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rsos.2021...
134.
by gene-h 5y ago
I honestly do no see the point of code CAD for anything but a couple limited cases. Designing is an inherently visual process and you lose a lot by working with code. In modern CAD software one already does 'programming' by specif
135.
by gene-h 5y ago
It's not a very ideal launch system. Not only must your payload contend with high accelerations, but also a huge pulsed magnetic field. This will make launching electronics more difficult, because they will be exposed to a large electr
136.
by gene-h 5y ago
I am surprised that this was accomplished using primitive electric motors, relays(?), and mechanical parts. This page[0] seems to have some better descriptions of how they worked. The device seems to operate using two relay driven escapemen
137.
by gene-h 5y ago
Computational weaving is becoming an exciting field. One big interest is producing 3d woven composites[0]. Rather than gluing layers of 2d fiber as is done commonly, stronger 3d structures can be built by weaving them. This is also being co
138.
by gene-h 5y ago
It might not because the tunnel won't necessarily produce conditions representative of flight[0]. This is because the method they use will alter the air chemistry and thermochemical effects matter for hypersonic flow. The temperatures
139.
by gene-h 5y ago
Rod logic will not be faster than electronic computers. According to Drexler's thesis, it's reasonable to expect "that RISC machines implemented with this technology base can achieve clock speeds of ~ 1 GHz, executing instruc
140.
by gene-h 5y ago
I wonder if you could make a torque amplifier[0] with the transistors? A torque amplifier is a mechanical device which takes in a shaft rotation and power outputting the same rotation angle except with higher torque. This was an important c
141.
by gene-h 6y ago
Are ya'll doing any crazy multiphysics topology optimization to optimize magnetic fields, heat transfer, and fluid flow?
142.
by gene-h 6y ago
32 cm band transmission to an orbiter as a relay[0]. The atmosphere of Venus is thick, but does not strongly absorb radio and microwave frequencies. Even the clouds on Venus really aren't all that thick. [0] http://www.svengr
143.
by gene-h 6y ago
Technically the Venera probe itself didn't melt. The solder in its electronics did. Higher temperature solder could have been used, but this would not have made a difference in the end because silicon stops behaving as a semiconductor
144.
by gene-h 6y ago
The sulfuric acid on Venus is not that concentrated in the air. The clouds on Venus are much thinner than you would think and the thickest ones are believed to be similar to cirrus clouds on earth. Not to mention, we've already sent ba
145.
by gene-h 6y ago
We unfortunately get more scientific value out of a falling probe because you can get atmospheric composition from deployment all the way to the ground. Some quite strange phenomena may be happening closer to the ground. There is evidence t
146.
by gene-h 6y ago
Venus still deserves another atmospheric probe. The last time we sent an atmospheric probe was 1985[0] and tech has greatly improved since then. Still, it is hard to get funding for such missions because such missions do not last much more
147.
by gene-h 6y ago
Sonar could probably be implemented using fluidics for navigation on Venus. Now a big problem is that it has traditionally been difficult to make fluidics operate at ultrasonic frequencies. There have been fluidic ultrasonic beam break sens
148.
by gene-h 6y ago
Looks like Atlas may have had an accident during filming, there's a hydraulic fluid stain on the floor: https://youtu.be/fn3KWM1kuAw?t=163 And it must also be said that these are preprogrammed maneuvers on a closed cou
149.
by gene-h 6y ago
I'm surprised no one's built a mechanical version of flappy bird using a differential analyzer[0]. With two disk integrators and some differentials it's possible to integrate the equation of motion for the vertical direction,
150.
by gene-h 6y ago
This is pretty interesting. One problem I think the field of mechanical engineering has is that there is no high-level hardware description language to describe mechanical devices. Sure we have things like modelica which come close, but the

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