An interstellar position fixing method

Paper is now available for download at:

http://vixra.org/abs/1106.0053

CI.

Nuts and bolts

It has been an interesting start of the year for 2011 with some recent items worth mentioning:

Marc Millis of the Tau Zero Foundation posted two papers related to interstellar flight:

Progress in revolutionary Propulsion Physics: summarises the current state of where we stand towards a solution? for "timely interstellar flight - to reach other habitable worlds within a human lifespan". There are currently many options available to reach other stars using known physics. Most would take many decades just to reach our neighbour stars and none of them can get us to destinations beyond many light-years away in a timely, human lifespan timeframe. The paper uses many references from the first recent textbook devoted to this area of research and is worth every dollar: Frontiers of Propulsion Science. I like Figure 1 in the paper which graphically shows the many areas of Physics and concepts that need further research grouped by the key barriers to practical interstellar flight as stated in the paper: Non-propellant propulsion, faster than light travel and energy breakthroughs.

Second paper by Marc: Energy, incessant obsolescence, and the first interstellar missions: there's a review here. Regarding the "incessant obsolescence postulate: No matter when an interstellar probe is launched, a subsequent probe will reach the destination sooner and with more modern equipment": better launch as soon as one has the capabilities to do so because the opportunity may not present itself again due to unforseen circumstances in the future or "societal retardation" ie unforseen catastrophies or less energy production. The implicit motivations for interstellar flight, Table 6 in the paper is interesting, apart from the obvious scientific benefits from the mission and safeguarding humanity's long term survival, I liked another reason that Marc mentions in his talk to pursue interstellar flight: it gives nations something to conquer peacefully and together rather than concentrating on conquering each other on Earth.

Significant results released by the Kepler space telescope shows possible candidates for other Earth like planets. From the NASA press release:

"The fact that we’ve found so many planet candidates in such a tiny fraction of the sky suggests there are countless planets orbiting stars like our sun in our galaxy," said Borucki. "Kepler can find only a small fraction of the planets around the stars it looks at because the orbits aren’t aligned properly. If you account for those two factors, our results indicate there must be millions of planets orbiting the stars that surround our sun."

Also checkout APOD, Centauri Dreams, this and this.

Got in the mail a few days ago: Advanced Propulsion Systems and Technologies, Today to 2020. Another major problem to practical interstellar flight is getting the expected large amounts of hardware out of Earth's gravity well into orbit without using chemical rockets. Space elevators have been proposed (which seems only viable if ultra high strength carbon nanotube cables can be commercially fabricated in the required lengths). A more elegant solution? from Space Drive Physics is worth looking into (see Marc's first paper for an introduction, Chapter 3 Prerequisites for Space Drive Science and Chapter 12 Thrusting against the Quantum Vacuum in Frontiers of Propulsion Science). Anyway should be an interesting read.

CI.

Fremantle Harbour, Western Australia.

Dampier Harbour, Western Australia.

Book Review: And Yet It Moves

Today I finished reading And Yet It Moves: strange systems and subtle questions in Physics by Mark P. Silverman. I found this book particularly interesting as it introduced me to quantum phenomenon which previously weren't very familiar to me. The author being a research physicist has first hand experience with the topics he discusses. Several experiments are descibed including the wave like propagation of electrons in the two-slit experiment describing the familiar wave interference effect and the Aharonov-Bohm effect and other subtle behaviour of electrons. To me the nature of this particle is somewhat still not understood. Some texts for example will describe the electron as point-like as today's experiments give no measurable size of this particle (the classical electron radius is given as 10^-13 cm), however there is no such thing as a point-like entity (and no such as thing as a mathematical singularity in nature for that matter which rules out infinities as well, the Universe is not infinite) so suffice to say the electron must have a size albeit very small and unmeasurable with current technology.

The author goes on to describe some exotic atoms describing some which can be nearly the size of bacteria!, the physics of light reflections, light polarisation, the Mach-Zehnder interferometer, the amazing (check this out!)  Vortex Tube and other interesting subtle effects. The author asks on p204:

"Can the rotation of the Earth influence the structure of an atom?"

And goes on to discuss biomolecular chirality ie why living things make and use specific types of molecules such as right-handed sugar molecules or left-handed amino acids (this isn't understood, Earth evolutionary reasons?). The last chapter "Science and wonder" gives a personal account on various issues with science education, from the last page:

"To teach science well, one must have the philosophical attitudes of a scientist: to see science as culturally important, technically useful and aesthetically moving; to understand that the pursuit and acquisition of scientific knowledge helps free the mind from the bondage of ignorance, superstition and prejudice; to have a driving curiosity to comprehend the reason that manifests itself in nature and to enjoy sharing this curiosity with others.

  Einstein's eloquent words say it all:

The fairest thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of true art and true science. He who knows it not and can no longer wonder, no longer feel amazement, is as good as dead, a snuffed-out candle."

Great book, definately recommend reading it, got me chasing up some of the references at the back as well.

Red Bull Flugtag 2010 photos

     

A few weeks ago we had the judges onboard for the Red Bull Flugtag event in Farm Cove near the Sydney Opera House. Those crazzy people with their flying machines were at it again! It was a nice sunny day and there was a good turnup with the crowds and boats.

One of the teams made quite a long flight (it was pretty much a standard flying kite though, no exotic design). Most just fell straight down off the ramp to see their flying machine broken into bits and pieces. The judges gave scores to each team for design, asthetics etc.

After the crew are rescued by Surf Rescue, what happens to these flying machines?

Although few teams have demonstrated their mastery of flight, it was a fun day out on the water.

CI.

A day out on a 100 tonnes mobile slewing crane

I recently finished a course at Botany Cranes to get a WorkCover 100 tonnes mobile slewing crane licence (for work reasons on boats). Because I was the only one in the class, they sent me with one of the crane drivers for a day for a dual lift job to see first hand the operations of the crane and get some dogging experience. I thoroughly enjoyed the course and more importantly passed the big test at the end. The crane I went on was a Liebherr 100 tonnes crane who make some of the best cranes in the world. The other crane that came with us was the 130t crane. A support truck and crew is also needed for the cranes to carry additional hook blocks, counterweights, packing for the outriggers etc.

Leaving the yard from Botany Bay our destination was the P&O container depot near Bankstown to put together an Omega Megastacker crane (brand new) which is used to lift and move shipping containers.



The Cranes



The job

After a toolbox meeting with the other crew, the cranes are parked into position and outriggers for the cranes extended to maintain stability of the crane during lift. Timber packings are used under the outrigger pads to spread the weight of the crane over a larger surface area onto the ground. All the wheels of the crane must be above ground and the crane dead horizontal. There is an electronic equivalent of a spirit level which makes this process fairly straightforward.



Setting up the outriggers



The crane operator will decide what hook blocks are required for the job, what hook radius he will be operating (and hence how much boom needs to be blown out) and more importantly how much the load mass with all lifting gear such as spreader beams need to be included. The crane operator reads the Load Chart for the crane which gives all this important information and will decide how much counterweight needs to be placed at the rear of the crane. All these factors will dictate what the maximum load the crane can lift for those parameters. With the boom fully extended, this crane would tip over if the operator forgets to place counterweights on the crane. The Liebherr cranes have an onboard computer which also makes all this process straightforward and safe (we don't want the crane to be tipping over or brake the $2.5 mil crane!). The more the boom is blown out or the more the boom is lowered for a given boom length, the less the crane can lift.

After unhooking the hook block at the front of the crane and setting up the counterweights, the crane operator blows out the necessary boom sections. Everything is hydraulically operated and one selects from the computer screen how much boom we want. Two heavy hauler trucks turned up with the Megastacker's boom and arms, nice $20000 paintwork!



The first truck looks like a Transformer in disguise? ;-)



After both cranes are setup and the truck with the first part of the Megastacker in position, the dogmen setup the chain slings required for the job. One person will direct the crane operators for the dual lift job. This is a delicate operation and both cranes need to work together so no extra stress is placed on the cranes and lifting gear. The first part of the job required the boom section of the Megastacker to be placed into position so the Omega technicians could pop in the holding pins for the boom. Once this was done hydraulic rams needed to be lifted and bolted on both sides. The position of the boom had to be in perfect alignment otherwise the pins wouldn't go in.



Putting the million dollar Megastacker together



After the boom section and rams were secured, the next part of the job was to lift and attach the grabber (which grabs and locks into the containers). This was also a delicate operation. Hydraulic rams needed also to be lifted and bolted into position.

The grabber section for the Megastacker

By late afternoon the job was finished and it was time to pack up the gear and stow the cranes for road travel. Because of the tare weight of these cranes, they aren't allowed to travel on some bridges (including Sydney Harbour bridge), tunnels etc so he needs to have a good read of a street directory to decide what is the best route to get to and from a job. We make it back to the Botany Cranes yard after heavy traffic on the main roads. With all the construction that goes around the city, the other cranes are also out doing jobs.

So there you go, great day out and learnt a lot. If you want to see how big these cranes get, checkout the Liebherr 1200 tonnes mobile slewing crane! (Other crane types get even bigger). Doing the Dogman course at the moment (at another school because of timetable reasons). A Dogman is the person who slings the loads, directs the crane operator etc, big test in a few days so better get back to studying! Till next time.

CI.

Caricature

Got a visit in the wheelhouse yesterday by Caricaturist Gavin Bell during a cruise in Sydney Harbour (Red Bull Flugtag event photos coming soon). Here it is!

Voyages to Lord Howe Island

It's been a while since I've updated my blog, been a bit busy with work/new job/studies etc.

Started working on the general cargo vessel MV Island Trader the last several weeks. Doing my 4th trip this coming week. Lord Howe Island is just over 300nm East of Port Macquarie, NSW. The boat delivers everything that a small community of 300 + 400 or so tourists need on the island including diesel for the island's power station, petrol, LPG, A-1 jet fuel for the airport, frozen and refrigerated goods, building materials, cars/trucks, mail and all kinds of other general cargo. The Island Trader departs Port Macquarie usually every second Thursday and on the return trip picks up garbage, return mail, empty fuel drums etc from the island for disposal back on the mainland. A one way trip takes just under 2 days.

 

The previous day and on the day of departure, the derrick cranes on the boat and forklifts are getting a good workout loading the cargo onboard, crew secure all cargo and make sure everything is well strapped in. Final drafts of the vessel are taken, stability calculations done, cargo gear stowed and secured, final checks done, we then wait for the next high tide to leave port. Leaving the wharf which is a few Kilometers up the Hastings River near the Pacific Highway, we venture downstream past the two cable car ferries that service the Port Macquarie area further down from Dennis Bridge.

Getting to Lord Howe Island is pretty easy, after crossing the bar at Port Macquarie head East and eventually you'll get to the Island. From the island head dead West 270° T to get back to Port Macquarie. There can be busy shipping traffic near the coast but once clear of the coast there is very rarely any vessels in sight after 50nm.

During the trip I typically do regular 4 hour watches on and off as Officer Of the Watch (OOW) in the wheelhouse. The boat is on autopilot so I'm not actually steering the boat in the above photo ;-) however minor course corrections need to be regularly made as the autopilot steers by the steering compass. According to the GPS, our speed over ground is usually around 8Kn however sometimes the ocean currents will make us go slower or faster for our given engines RPM and our SOG can vary from 6.5Kn to 12.5Kn (record so far), big difference! This can affect our ETA to the island significantly to the point where sometimes we can miss the high tide or we would arrive too early which in this case we would slow down during the last leg. There are quite a lot of sea birds visible along the way as well including Albatrosses. Close to the coast we saw the usual migrating whales and dolphins.

Our destination at the island is the wharf constructed in front of the site which used to be the island's flying boat airport terminal when flying boats used to provide regular flights to the island from Rose Bay, Sydney. The island now has a 1Km runway and Qantas provide usually 3 flights a day out from Sydney, Port Macquarie and Brisbane using Dash-8s.

The wharf is inside the lagoon on the western side of the island which is surrounded by reefs however there is a narrow passage for vessels to enter the lagoon marked with transit leads and sector lights. To get to the wharf we also need a high tide and the Lord Howe Island Harbour Master will give us a reading of the current tide at the wharf via VHF radio as the current tide readings can vary depending on weather conditions (such as barometric pressure) compared to predicted tide table readings.

Getting through the channel can get a bit hairy when the sea is a bit rough and the Captain (Master 3) who has lots of local knowledge will decide whether to enter or not. If conditions are too rough to make an entry, the boat can either do circles around the island or drop anchor at a sheltered location till things settle down. Once inside the lagoon the waters are usually pretty calm however at high tide big waves can still go over the surrounding reefs and cause surges in the lagoon.

Once secured at the wharf, the Engineer will start emptying the ballast tanks so the boat sits at the bottom, this makes it safer for cargo unloading however even then one has to be careful with the derrick cranes as at high tide the boat can still surge a bit. There can be quite a large crowd at the wharf apart from the wharf crew, tourists turn up to check out all the maritime action. It will take the rest of the day and the next day to unload all the cargo with the help of the wharf crew who live on the island. Supplies and goods are then delivered to their destinations by several trucks that go throughout the island. The Captain was kind enough to let me off so I could hop on one of the trucks to get a sightseeing drive of the island on my first trip.

The boat usually stays at the island for a couple of days. During those days it's very busy as after all the cargo is unloaded, there is the back load cargo to be taken onboard, stowed and secured. However sometimes we finish a bit earlier in the afternoon and on one trip managed to go for a walk to some other areas on the island. Ned's Beach which is on the eastern side of the island was interesting with big King fish swimming around my legs when I was feeding them nibblies. I also introduced myself to the local cows and went hill hiking to get a better view of the scenery:

There are many resorts on the island and tourism is the main revenue maker and the export of the local Kentia palm tree seeds which is native to the island. There are a few boats that also do diving, fishing and sightseeing trips to Elizabeth and Middleton coral reefs which are located 150Km north-east of the island. These are the southern most coral reefs in Australia. If you venture at night to have a beer at the local bowling club, bring a torch with you because there are no street lights (which is great because you can see the Milky Way, should have brought my telescope with me ;-) There is no mobile phone reception on the island however there is a Telstra public phone available and we can watch TV onboard when we are at the island.

The back load is usually light, skip bins full of garbage, recycled plastic etc, lots of empty 200L A-1 jet fuel drums, empty LPG tanks and IBCs (Intermediate Bulk Containers) for petrol and other stuff. I'm told that the airplanes that land at the island have to always refuel in case they can't land back at their destination and have to be diverted so no one wonder they go through a lot of fuel drums.

Heading back to Port Macquarie is pretty much the same routine with watches and I'm finding sleeping in the bunk with the boat rolling side to side relaxing however the trips that I've done so far haven't been that rough. One of the deckhands onboard cooks dinner for the crew every day and he's a pretty good cook too. The most relaxing part of the job is while we are at sea as in port things get busy and this gives me a chance to catchup on my readings.

On the second day of the return sea voyage we also do an emergency drill such as Man Overboard, Fire drills etc and test equipment. After we are docked at the wharf back at Port Macquarie up the Hastings River all the back load is unloaded and we give the cargo hold and boat a good cleanup and any maintenance required on the cargo gear and boat is carried out. After signing off it's a 5 hour drive for me back to Sydney. Till next time.

CI.

More interesting technology

Been a bit busy with my studies so no long posts for a while but here's an interesting photo of a touch screen onboard a boat I work on as Engineer ;-)