This is an improved variation on something I already posted. It was created by putting two photos together
into one illustration, and then I
labeled it appropriately, using epithets
I found on-line (that others came up with).
We all already know what evils this regime is doing. So, the image I created needs no further explanation! Too many do not learn from history!
The vast difference between understanding what the job of
President really is, and what Trump actually
does and says, makes one wonder what he
really understands about anything. If
he’s this bad now, how bad off will he
be 4 years from now? Think about THAT!
86 47
This one makes fun of the security breach mess created by the demonstrably-incompetent Pete Hegseth, whom the Senate should NEVER have approved for Secretary of Defense! The only one I can think of who is even more demonstrably incompetent is Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Secretary of Health and Human Services, although there are several others very nearly as bad as Hegseth!
Kennedy the vaccine denier is going to get a lot of people killed by doing lot of very stupid things. Probably even a greater death toll than Musk and his DOGE are going to cause. And that’s a lot of dead people!
It starts
with Hegseth sending the Marines to the LA protests. One has to wonder who actually paid the hired
rioters to cause trouble. Could it
actually have been the Trump cult who hired the “ringers”, trying to make Trump opponents look bad? (That’s almost what Jan. 6 2021 was.)
86 47
This is where we are headed if Trump can overcome the courts trying to stop him when Congress won’t.
86 47
There are many who would prefer to see this procession instead of the expensive “Army birthday parade” at Trump’s insistence in DC on Flag Day (June 14th), a thing he has wanted since his first term. To opponents of Trump, this would actually be funny.
It would be even funnier for Trump opponents if the
associated headstone were to look like this:
These are among the “funnies” I have found on-line. There are quite a lot of them. It’s nice to know I am not alone in opposing
Trump.
86 47
Update 6-10-2025: I seem not to be alone in my opinions
here. I found this on-line:
My federal rep voted to defund Sesame Street. Based on past actions, I believe my federal senators will also vote
that way, too. And I will not forget their perfidy!
86 47, and all the
minions, too, plus the Trump cult majorities in the House
and Senate!
We do not need a “fearless leader” cult dictatorship, which is really what Trump offers. I’d rather get rid of them at the ballot
box, than by revolution in the
streets. Less mess to clean up
afterward.
This is the face of fascism (absolutism, neo-Nazism, autocratic rule, dictatorship, you choose a word) in America today:
That’s not exactly the same as anything I have done or
said, but it is what the New Republic
thought strongly enough to make a cover of it.
And I do in fact agree with them,
as some of my earlier articles clearly indicate.
As the title of this article says, history may not actually repeat itself, but it sure as hell rhymes a lot. Read on.
I found these other two illustrations below, on-line for free download. Along with some rather amusing epithets for
Trump and his government, misbehaving illegally, un-Constitutionally, and anti-democratically the way they do. In my opinion, the very best of these epithets are:
Agolf $hitler rhymes
with Adolf Hitler
and
The Turd Reich rhymes with The Third Reich
Where I came across these is in the two illustrations
below. I hope you find them as funny as
I did. Although, given the dangers this regime poses to
America, this is gallows humor. The first one tries to show the truth vs the
lies Trump tells about Biden, and the
funny is at the very bottom of it.
I did see at least one mistyped number in the image just
above, but that makes no difference
to the point it is making about the propaganda lies with which we are
inundated. Virtually everything ever
claimed by this bunch, when actually
fact-checked, is not just false, but the majority of these are actually “pants
on fire” lies. There are thousands upon
thousands of such lies.
The next one is even funnier, at least to me. This is a photo someone took of a billboard somebody else put up. On-line, I found out you could get shirts and other stuff imprinted with what’s on that billboard. The choice of faces makes this “Turd Reich” assessment actually a multi-national problem.
But I will say
this: Trump has appointed a lot of
incompetent, unqualified turds to lead
various government agencies. Which
actually makes the funny into something quite accurate!
I have sent several messages to all three of my federal
representation asking them to do something to remove this crowd from our
government, before their “policies” and
mismanagement start killing us by the 10’s of thousands (and they soon will, while driving the rest of us into unemployed poverty).
My representative and senators have done nothing I can
see, which to my way of thinking makes
them complicit in these crimes, up to
and including treason of the “aid and comfort” type. I have told them that, too.
I am but one voice,
easily lost in the multitude.
The rest of you need to inundate your representatives and
senators with similar messages, so that
they know that they, too, will suffer the fate of traitors and
murderers, if they fail to act.
86 47, and the sooner
the better.
I’m unsure where I found this, but it is too good not to share. It is both true and funny, in a gallows humor sort of way.
And this other one just below is closely related.
There’s only been a few verified cases of illegal aliens actually
committing crimes here. Certainly less
than a hundred or so, although they get
ballyhooed into the public thinking there are lots of evil criminals among about
a hundred thousand immigrants in any given year.
But
when you get right down to it,
Trump, with his pardons of almost
two thousand convicted criminals who were also among his supporters, has set loose far more criminals upon America! Far beyond any among the illegal immigrants! And at least a handful of those Trump
pardoned have already been re-arrested for committing yet more crimes!
And then there is all the other Trump corruption, plus all the defying of the courts, and the general disregard of the law and the Constitution.
So, what did
you-the-majority expect when you elected a convicted felon who wants to rule
over you as a dictator? You are getting
EXACTLY what you voted for! Including
the distinct possibility of never having a real election to vote in, ever again!
86 47
Update 6-7-2025: I see "they" finally brought Kilmar Garcia back to the US, but NOT because the courts told them to! They did it to file charges against him for "transporting illegal immigrants", based on people in the vehicle with him that had no luggage, in a 2022 traffic stop. (In Tennessee, I think it was.) This is our Trump-weaponized DOJ violating the law by not doing what the courts ordered, but instead persecuting further an immigrant they already abused!
Update 6-3-2025: A close version of this article ran in today's Waco "Tribune-Herald" as a column on the opinion page.
---------
The recent Flight 9 test resulted in the loss of both the
upper stage spaceship and the lower stage booster. A lot of stories class this as just another
failure in a series of three, but it is
a little more complicated than that.
The “Superheavy” booster portion of this test was actually a
lot more successful than many believe.
They never intended to recover this one,
instead choosing to stress it possibly to destruction, on a return flight profile that was likely
fatal. And that is exactly what
happened.
On the plus side,
this was the very first re-flight of the reusable “Superheavy”
booster. This very same stage launched
the Flight 7 “Starship” test, with most
of those 33 engines reused on this Flight 9 test. What was “new” on Flight 9 was twofold: (1) the deliberate overstress return, and (2) the demonstration of a “quick flip”
during hot staging.
The “quick flip” was entirely successful! Until this flight, after staging, the booster would flip slowly using only
vectored thrust from a few of its engines,
which also settled the propellants in the tanks so that the engine pumps
could maintain a good suction.
This time around, the
hot stage ring that protects the forward end of “Superheavy” from the hot blast
of “Starship’s” engines during staging,
was built to an asymmetric shape,
so that “Starship’s” exhaust was deflected out one side only. The force of that asymmetric exhaust
deflection flipped “Superheavy” around much faster, saving propellant for the landing. That was completely successful!
The stressful return involved flying the booster at an angle
to the oncoming wind, instead of
streamlining straight in, tail
first. That being off-angle increases
the aerodynamic drag, so that less
braking propellant might be used.
But, there are structural limits
to how much off-angle is survivable.
They found that limit experimentally, essentially breaking up that “Superheavy”
with too much wind load coming from the side,
where it is nowhere near as strong.
That is something very important to know “for sure”. It is just like pulling too many gees that can
rip the wings off an airplane! You must
know your limits!
The Flight 9 “Starship” upper stage spacecraft did not
experience engine failures during the ascent burn from staging to orbital
insertion, unlike what happened on
Flights 7 and 8. It appears that they
may have fixed at least a part of what was going wrong on those two
flights.
However, there was a
slow loss of propellant tank pressure,
due a leak (or leaks) somewhere.
Their attitude thrusters are cold gas thrusters powered by the
propellant tank pressure. And there
must be at least some pressure to successfully ignite an engine.
Whether this loss of propellant tank pressure had anything
to do with opening the payload door is unknown to me, but not long after that door failed to open, is when the vehicle went into an uncontrolled
spin for lack of attitude thrusters. And
they called off the engine relight test because of it, too.
Not having attitude control is why the ship broke up upon
reentry over the Indian Ocean. The heat
shielding is only on the belly and around the nose, so that if you are pointed in the wrong
direction, you are unprotected from the
extreme heating of orbital reentry. The
vehicle was spinning completely out of control as it entered.
SpaceX is going to have to figure out what caused the leak
and loss of tank pressure. That won’t be
easy. But it has to be done, and I hope they obtained the necessary data
to figure out that problem, from this
test.
Getting a reentry survival is crucial toward verifying their
heat shield design. I would suggest that
SpaceX add some independent attitude thrusters to these flight tests, so that loss of tank pressure does not mean
loss of attitude control. The Draco
attitude thrusters on their Dragon capsules would be a good choice, with lots of real experience behind them.
I do not know for sure, but had Flight 9 been equipped with independent attitude thrusters, that particular “Starship” might have made it back through reentry successfully. That would have been a huge “plus” for this mission! They will still have to find and fix the propellant tank pressure leak, in order to make the final landing burn, however.
This one needs very little in the way of comment. So far, too many have bowed the knee to the would-be dictator. Bravo to Harvard for standing up to him!
Trump’s buddy Musk is the target of this one, also too funny not to share. Since this is his last official day as head of DOGE, I thought I’d better post this quickly.
86 47
I’m not the only person who has noticed these similarities. My wife found this on Facebook. History may not actually repeat itself, but it often rhymes! You are losing your democracy, the same way the Germans of the 1930’s lost theirs.
86 47
Putin does not actually want any peace in Ukraine without totally destroying or conquering it. He never did. That is why Trump, after all these years, perhaps finally came to realize (at least a little bit) that Putin considers him a lap dog, not a friend among equals.
In turn, that is why Trump
is now publicly lashing out verbally at Putin.
Except that, being the egregious liar
that Trump demonstrably is, we should
not believe anything he says, we should
only look at what he actually does.
If he switches sides back to Ukraine, AND ACTUALY HELPS TO DEFEND THEM, then MAYBE we can believe his apparent switch
from being Putin’s lap dog to being an opponent of Putin! I’ll believe it when I see it happen, and not one second before!
But even if he does switch back, the earlier switching sides to support Putin IS
STILL TREASON of the aid and comfort type!
No matter what mistaken prosecution immunity the Supreme Court might
have given him, he is still subject to
impeachment and removal for committing treason as President.
Congress, do your
sworn duty! Either that,
or else be complicit in Trump’s treason!
86 47
This photo posted on Instagram by former FBI director James Comey got him investigated by the Secret Service as a possible threat. The more-or-less “standard” definition of the slang term “86” is to ditch something, meaning get rid of it. The usual connotation is something nonviolent and nonlethal, although the term is very occasionally used to mean “kill something to get rid of it”.
Given the more-common nonviolent meaning of “86”, the juxtaposition “86 47” simply means “ditch
or get rid of Trump”. That’s something a
lot of us would like to see happen,
while we still have a democracy left.
Here is the offending photo that Comey took and posted, of something created on the beach by someone
else:
Everybody ought to be posting this (or something similar) somewhere!
The following quote is the text of a letter I sent by email
to the Washington DC offices of Representative Pete Sessions, and Senators John Cornyn and Ted Cruz.
Quote:
Donald Trump has been committing treason of the “aid and
comfort” type, in full view of the
public, in two related ways. One is damaging our NATO alliance to the
point our allies no longer believe we will come to their aid, if they are attacked. The other is promoting a “peace” solution for
the Ukraine-Russia war that gives Ukrainian territory occupied by Putin’s
Russia, to Russia as a condition for
ceasing hostilities, which is a “win”
for Putin by his own definition! We can
argue about the Supreme Court’s decision giving Trump immunity from federal prosecution
for his “official acts”, but there is no
implied immunity concerning impeachment for his acts of treason, as witnessed by millions on live television.
Trump has been extorting various universities, media companies, and law firms to do what he wants, by withholding their funding, and in Harvard’s case, by threatening their tax status because they
would not submit. Extortion is a very
serious crime in all 50 states!
Again, we can argue about any prosecution
immunity per the Supreme Court, but this
really is a crystal-clear case of his abuse of the powers of his office! Abusing the power of his office is an
impeachable offense, and has been, since the very founding of the Republic.
Trump through his minions has deported thousands of illegal
immigrants (and a few bona fide legal US residents) to foreign prisons without
any due process, and has a demonstrated
history of defying court orders about this process. This is in utter defiance of the Constitution
that he swore to uphold at his inauguration!
He has said in public that he thinks his “policies” pre-empt
Constitutional due process protections.
This is a horrifying violation of his oath of office, and of his duties as President! It may not be prosecutable, but it is most definitely impeachable!
I am calling upon you to put a stop to these gross offenses! Grow a spine and oppose this would-be
dictator, while there is still time! Do the job you swore to do, when you took your oath of office! Or else you are demonstrably complicit in all
of these crimes and offenses!
End quote.
The extortion and deportations, with demonstrated contempt for due process of
law, are possible because Trump’s
appointees are not generally qualified or even competent, but instead utterly loyal to him: they are willing to commit any atrocity or
illegality that he wants. That has
effectively weaponized many agencies for retribution against Trump’s enemies, and together with massive indiscriminate
layoffs, rendered many others
dysfunctional with internal chaos. Those
are the hallmarks of conversion to dictatorship seen before in history, with many previous “fearless leader” cults.
To this I would only add Trump’s egregious lying to the
public, about almost everything. Nearly every time anybody has fact-checked
his claims, it’s been “pants on fire” or
very nearly so! There is absolutely no
logical reason to believe anything he says,
about the economy, about
immigration, or about the effects of any
of his policies upon you!
You might not want to hear that, but so say the facts! You are entitled to your own opinions about
any of these things, but you are NOT entitled
to your own “facts”! There really is
such a thing as objective fact and objective truth. And for the broadcast news media, many of you seem to have forgotten some years
ago, that reporting the objective facts
and truth out-prioritizes any equal time given to political opinions. The recent extortion is making that failure worse
yet.
As to Presidential impeachment, Andrew Johnson was impeached but narrowly
acquitted, essentially for abuse of his
powers of office just after the Civil War.
Richard Nixon was about to be impeached, but resigned before it could happen, over the same basic abuse of powers
offense, regarding Watergate. Bill Clinton was impeached, but acquitted, over lying to the public about a sex act in
the Oval Office with an intern. Donald
Trump was impeached twice during his first term as President, and narrowly acquitted along party lines by
the Senate both times, for essentially the
same abuse of powers offense as Johnson and Nixon, plus inciting the Capitol riot (an
insurrection against the government).
This time around, Trump
has (1) two counts of treason, (2) multiple
counts of abuse of powers, many leading
toward establishment of a dictatorship,
and (3) thousands of counts of egregiously lying to the public, as the grounds for impeachment yet again.
I’d much rather see this done within the laws and
institutions that we have (but soon, before
Trump can completely destroy them).
Revolution in the streets is a lot messier and harder to clean up afterward. But it has to be done, one way or the other, and soon,
before the conversion to a dictatorship is complete (which is what the
Trump “fearless leader” cult is really all about)!
What I
recommend you do: contact your federal
representation often, and encourage them
to do something about these crimes and that threat to our democracy! Myself,
I have done so around half a dozen times in only the last couple of
months, and I will continue!
I also think that Trump will sooner or later become aware of
me, and try to take his retribution by
abusing my Social Security or my Medicare,
or by using the IRS against me,
or by even trying to deport me (a 5+ generation native-born American
citizen) without due process. He could
do that to any of you!
But, I consider this
opposition to him my civic duty! My oath
of office upon entering the Navy more than half a century ago demands it, and it had no expiration date!
If a
majority of public input runs against Trump in their feedback from
constituents, some few of these
Republican representatives who are not part-and-parcel of the Trump “fearless
leader” cult, might actually try to do
something about him. Faint, but a hope!
For all of them, their
oath of office demands it, yet so many
fail to abide by their oath, which
should tell you all you need to know, come election time, if we ever actually have any more real elections! It takes only a simple majority in the House
to impeach, but a 2/3 majority in the
Senate to convict.
Thurgood Marshall was right! Make your voices heard! Or else fight it out hand-to-hand in the streets! THAT is where we currently are!
Update 5-23-2025: I have sent email letters to my 3 federal reps every week since posting this, beyond those mentioned in the posting as having been sent before this was posted. I really am practicing what I preach! I just sent anther today. And I will continue sending them! I urge all of you to do the same! Unless they hear otherwise, they will continue to believe Trump and his miscreants have majority support, and will act accordingly.
-------
Update 5-10-2025:
A close version of this article appeared as an opinion column in the Waco "Tribune-Herald" newspaper on Saturday, 10 May 2025. I happen to be on their board of contributors.
---------------------------
News stories have it that sometime this week Kosmos 482 will be entering the Earth’s atmosphere uncontrolled, after 53 years of being lost in a decaying orbit. This is the Venus atmospheric entry craft for a Russian probe to Venus launched in 1972. It failed to leave Earth orbit. Most of it came apart and reentered years ago, but this entry capsule did not.
This thing could come down anywhere on Earth between 51
degrees north latitude and 51 degrees south latitude! It weighs about 1100 lb (or 500 kg). It is an entry craft design, so the claims that it will likely burn up in
the atmosphere are hogwash! It was specifically
designed to survive that!
Update 5-10-2025: Kosmos 482 fell to Earth today, Saturday, 10 May 2025. Most reports do not know where, although Roscosmos in Russia says it fell in the Indian Ocean.
Update 5-23-2025: It apparently fell west of Jakarta in the sea, very near Indonesia. Much of southeast Asia was close enough to have been at serious risk, as it turns out.
It has a landing parachute designed for Venus’s thicker
atmosphere, but after 53 years in
space, that might not work, and certainly the controls to deploy it might
not work. Which means you will most
likely have around a half-a-ton object,
coming down to hit at a few hundred miles per hour, and all in one big piece! The odds are roughly 2 against 1 that it will
hit ocean. That’s mostly empty water, but there are people living on islands out
there! There are also ships and planes
at risk crossing the ocean, not to
mention the many risks on or over land.
There’s more space flights in recent years, so we have seen more space junk coming
back. There was a half-ton chunk of
metal fell on a village in Africa, and a
Florida house struck by a chunk of steel weighing several pounds. Some of this debris has been identified, some not.
Most of it came from things not designed to be re-entry craft, yet they still hit the surface, at least as several pieces. The point is,
there’s now enough of it, and it
is large and heavy enough, to be a
significant risk!
Up to now, the
pronouncements have been (1) it’ll most likely fall in the ocean (true) and (2)
it will mostly burn up in the atmosphere before striking the ground (not
true).
This one (Kosmos 482) is an entry vehicle. Kosmos 954 that fell in Canada back in 1978
was a Russian spy satellite not designed for re-entry, that had a nuclear reactor aboard. It made a radioactive mess to clean up in multiple
Canadian lakes and a swath of arctic land hundreds of miles in extent! Reactors are designed for high core
temperatures: the claim that it “would
burn up on entry” was patently false,
even then.
The US space station Skylab fell on western Australia a
couple of years later. The Space Shuttle
was supposed to re-boost it, but ended
up not even making its very first test flight until a couple of years after
that crash. Skylab was converted from
the thin propellant tankage of a Saturn-5 third stage. It weighed about 85 or 90 tons at entry and
it did break up, but not very many of
the pieces burned up! The Australians
claimed to have picked up some 75 tons of Skylab debris, including a 1-ton film vault that was almost
entirely intact. So much for the “these
things burn up on entry” theory!
The loss of Shuttle Columbia halfway through re-entry over
Texas in 2002, rained down tons of
debris for hundreds of miles, showing
just exactly how ridiculous that oft-repeated claim is.
And this risk has been known for decades! John Glenn’s Mercury capsule was sent to
orbit by an Atlas booster that was essentially a lightweight stainless steel
balloon, relying on some inflation
pressure just to hold its shape. That
shell broke up during entry, yes, but a piece of the internal propellant piping
washed up on an African beach only a few years later. This piece of debris was identified by the
serial number stamped on it, it was in
that good a shape! This was 6 decades
ago that “they” knew this could happen!
There’s a lot of debris up there in orbit that sooner or
later we will have to contrive a means to go get, for disposal.
I think everybody understands that.
But when you find yourself in a deep hole, the first thing to do is stop digging! We do not need to be launching more things
into orbit that inherently become debris that will collide (creating more
debris) or fall back.
We need to modify the international space treaty to preclude
launching satellites that have no means to de-orbit themselves in a controlled
fashion over the remotest part of the Pacific.
We need to preclude the jettisoning of anything at all, not even paint flecks, once orbital-class speeds have been
achieved. We need to very strongly
discourage fielding any future launch and space vehicles that are not fully
reusable, or that do not offer safe stage
disposal capability.
That’s the real lesson here,
and it has been staring us in the face for many years now, unaddressed!
Will it take deaths on the ground from falling debris to prompt
addressing it? How negligent is that?
Described herein is a concept (only) for a
facility in low Earth orbit for the assembly and fueling of interplanetary
vehicles requiring hyperbolic departure (and arrival), in particular those associated with space-tug
assisted departures and arrivals. Such a
facility need not be a 1-to-2-decade long international project to build, if it is docked together out of modules that
fit within the payload spaces of the current launcher fleet! That should be easily achievable for a “clean
sheet of paper” design like this!
For lunar missions,
the departure from LEO is not hyperbolic, although it is elliptic at very-near-escape
perigee speeds! Depending upon the
choice of the extended departure (and arrival) ellipse, the LEO departure velocity requirement for a
lunar mission can be reduced to near-zero,
with the space tug assuming most or all of that velocity requirement
just getting the craft onto the ellipse.
No calculations have been made, these results are concept only, as is perfectly reasonable at this early stage! The basic design concept has two core
sections, one made of pressurized
modules docked together, and the other a
truss core to which a multitude of propellant tanks are attached.
Attached to one end is the Power and Propulsion Section, where solar electricity is made, stored,
and distributed. This section
includes propulsion sufficient to address the needs for countering orbital
decay, conducting debris avoidance, and performing end-of-life safe disposal.
The pressurized-core section is the Vehicle Assembly and Refueling
Section, where interplanetary vehicles
are assembled from modules, mated to
space tug vehicles as appropriate, and
fueled-up from the propellant depot section for the relevant missions. Many remote-operated arms similar to those used
at the International Space Station (ISS), and previously on the old Space Shuttle, are installed to make vehicle assembly and
handling operations as safe and easy, as
is possible. This is a manned
microgravity facility, probably manned by
rotating crews, as is the ISS.
The truss core section has multiple propellant tanks
attached to it, with the propellant feed
lines and electric power lines housed inside the truss. This is the Propellant Depot Section, presumed to be kept supplied by
unspecified tanker flights up from Earth. It would have both cryogenics and
storables, to supply a variety of
on-orbit needs. Its capacity is also
easily expandable.
The concept for the Vehicle Assembly and Fueling Section
is sketched in Figure 1. The
concept for the Power and Propulsion Section is sketched in Figure 2. The concept for the Propellant Depot
Section is sketched in Figure 3.
All figures are at the end of this article.
This kind of a facility would be easiest to keep supplied, if located in a low-inclination eastward Earth
orbit. That presumes vehicle modules, propellants,
and supplies are shipped up from the surface. It would clearly be useful in any event, but it is an essential enabling item for
making use of reusable space tugs for elliptic departure and arrivals, as described elsewhere in Reference 1.
Vehicle Assembly and Fueling Section
As the sketches in the first figure indicate, this facility is built up from many
cylindrical modules docked together, and
each is to be small enough to fit in the payload spaces of the existing
launcher fleet. Some of these are
oriented along the section axis, and the
others are perpendicular to it, but all are
in one plane. These could be either
hard-shell modules, or inflatables with
hard structural cores, or a mix of both
types. That choice remains unspecified, at this time.
The modules along the core axis provide much crew living
space, lots of storage space for life
support and other supplies, airlocks for
space-walk activities, plus any
equipment for Earth observations (potentially replacing those functions after
the ISS is decommissioned). These modules
would be equipped with external cradle mounts, to help hold the vehicles being
assembled, thus freeing up the arms for
other tasks that are part of the assembly process. Some of the hatches should be closed, when the modules are not in use by the
crew.
The modules perpendicular to the core provide the spaces for
the arm operators to work. The arms are
affixed to the module ends. These modules
need large windows, by which the arm operators
can see their workpieces in order to work.
Assembly work areas are disposed along this section, on two opposite sides. It should be able to handle a busy traffic
load, if arranged in this way.
Per Reference 2,
I am suggesting that this section’s internal atmosphere follow the “Rule
of 43”, that being a two-gas oxygen-nitrogen
system, at 43 volume percent
oxygen, and 43% of a standard atmosphere
total pressure. This is very close to
the best atmosphere that I found (which was 43% oxygen, 43.5% of an atmosphere total pressure), and it is easier to remember! It has the same oxygen concentration (as mass
per unit volume) as sea level Earthly air at 70 F, so the “predicted fire burn rate danger” from
the usual Arrhenius overall-chemical rate equation, is no worse than that down here on Earth, at sea level on a warm day.
Further, the “pre-breathe
criterion” allows no pre-breathe requirement be imposed for donning pure-oxygen
space suits, of helmet pressures down to
as low as only 3.002 psia (155.2 mm Hg)!
That criterion says the ratio of nitrogen partial pressure to suit
oxygen helmet pressure, may not exceed
1.2, in order to avoid the nitrogen blow-off time otherwise required. (The absolute minimum tolerable suit pressure
for functional cognitive capability is 2.675 psia (138.3 mm Hg), before applying a 10% leak-down factor. The cognition margin is very slightly
negative once leaked down.)
As a further bonus,
the proposed oxygen partial pressure is the same as that at about 2500 m
altitude, so there should be no
long-term hypoxia risks, or even any reproductive
health risks for female crew, based on
centuries of human experiences living up to that altitude, but not above it.
Power and Propulsion Section
Most likely, the
“best” propulsion choice for this application is a hypergolic storable
bi-propellant system, pressure-fed for
the greatest engine simplicity and reliability.
Tanks would be bladdered, with
inert gas (helium) expulsion at effectively the feed pressure to the
engines. Propellants would likely be
nitrogen tetroxide (NTO) oxidizer and monomethyl hydrazine (MMH) fuel, although the other hydrazines could also
serve, which include plain
hydrazine, unsymmetrical dimethyl
hydrazine (UDMH), and Aerozine-50 (a
50-50 blend of plain hydrazine and UDMH).
These tanks would need a thin layer of insulation topped with a very
reflective aluminum foil, plus electric
tank heaters to prevent freezing while shadowed.
There is a core module to this section that connects to the
rest of the station on one end, and the
engines and their propellant tanks on the other. It would have multiple “fins” mounted to the
sides, some being waste heat
radiators, the others being solar
photovoltaic panels. There would be
controls, batteries, and distribution switching equipment inside, plus a docking module for capsules bringing
crew and supplies. This core module is
pressurized for easy access, but the
hatch into it should be closed, when crew
are not working in there.
Propellant Depot Section
This section has a modular truss core containing the
multiple types of propellant feed lines,
and the necessary power lines.
The propellant tanks are mounted to its periphery, as sketched in the third figure. There are basically two types of propellant
tanks, those equipped to store and
deliver cryogenics, and those equipped
to store and deliver storables. Each
propellant species must have its own line fittings, not interchangeable, so as to prevent incorrect hookups (which
would most likely be disastrous). There
are no pressurized modules in this section.
For the storables (which includes rocket-grade kerosene RP-1), the bladder in the tank provides the means to
transfer propellant, driven by inert gas
pressure that everts the bladder, as
indicated in the third figure. These
tanks will also need some insulation topped by reflective foil, and some in-tank heaters, much like the tanks on the Power and
Propulsion Section. The difference is
that the inert gas pressure can be lower,
just enough to drive the transfer,
and not at all far above the level to prevent “hot room temperature” boiloff.
The cryogenics are different, in that there are no feasible bladder
materials that could survive eversion at cryogenic temperatures. These have to be metal tanks with no
bladders, although they do need a layer
of insulation topped by reflective aluminum foil, plus cryocooler equipment.
In zero gee, the
propellant will initially be free-floating globules, eventually settling into a thick film coating
the entire inner surface of the tank with a vapor void up the core, but with no pressure other than enough inert
gas pressure to stop boiloff. The
slightest touch causes the thick film to break up into free-floating globules
again. Up to now, the only way to control this behavior into a stable
pool from which a pump can draw suction, was to use thrusters to accelerate the
vehicle. You can’t do that with tanks
on a space station whose orbit you do not want to change.
I had previously come up with the spinning tank concept to
fling the propellant to the outer wall by centrifugal force. From there,
a pump could draw suction from openings along the tank sides instead of
one end. This was conceptualized as the
vehicle docking with the tank, in turn
undocked from the station. The docked
vehicle and tank would move away to a safe distance and then spin-up in
“rifle-bullet” mode, to fling tank
contents to the outer walls. Then pumped
transfer could take place, followed by
de-spin, then redocking the tank with
the station, and finally undocking the
vehicle from the station’s tank. While
this would work, it does involve
multiple docking operations, and
spin-up/de-spin of some massive objects.
But it was better than trying to store spinning tanks on the station. This concept was described in Reference 3.
I have since revised the concept to just spinning the
propellant inside the stationary tank,
by means of moving vanes inside the tank. The suction pickups remain on the outer
periphery. If you use a pair of
counter-rotating vane sets inside the tank,
separated by a perforated baffle,
you can avoid gyroscopic forces being applied to the station. This
concept is shown in the third figure.
There are no dock/undock operations associated with a
propellant transfer by this means. The
vanes can be spun by a coaxial counter-rotating shaft assembly, entering one end of the tank through a gland
seal, with the drive motor left
accessible for repairs and replacements.
You just spin up for the transfer.
Otherwise, nothing moves. This is also the least mass to spin up, reducing the energy requirements for
spin-up/de-spin, and eliminating any and
all thruster operations.
I put the oxygen (LOX) tanks closest to the Vehicle Assembly
and Fueling Section, because that is the
largest species volume being used, and
that shorter length minimizes the power line losses for the motors powering the
liquid spin. As the third figure
shows, I put the cryogenic fuels
hydrogen (LH2) and methane (LCH4) adjacent to the oxygen, because their volumes are also large, to reduce transmission line losses a bit
further. I separated the NTO from the
MMH with the storable RP1, in order to
minimize the possibility of spilled hypergolics coming into contact, even in vacuum. That is a crucial safety consideration!
The truss can be extended further, with additional tanks installed, either for other propellant species, or for additional capacity, or both.
This is because there is no other section to the station beyond the
Propellant Depot Section.
I think this “spin the propellant inside stationary tanks”
concept may be easier to develop and implement than the alternative “each tank
is its own syringe” concept, because (1)
the rotating-shaft gland seal technology already exists, even for cryogenics, (2) the required piston seal concepts and
associated leakage recovery concepts for the “syringe” do not yet exist for
cryogenic fluids, and (3) the
tank-and-equipment masses and dimensions would be lower: vanes and motor vs a syringe piston and its driving
equipment. The hardware has to ride up
to LEO inside existing payload spaces,
after all!
Conclusions
#1. A combined
vehicle assembly facility and propellant depot in LEO could enable all sorts of
interplanetary missions very effectively,
and even missions to lunar orbit,
plus replace the Earth-observation functions that will likely cease for
a while when the ISS is decommissioned.
#2. This type of LEO
facility is an enabling item to put an effective space tug operation into
effect, that uses elliptic departures
and elliptic arrivals, to reduce the
velocity requirements of interplanetary (and lunar) vehicles.
#3. This kind of
fueling operation could use “spin-the-fluid-in-a-stationary-tank” to reduce the
overall energy requirements of propellant transfer, eliminate any need for the use of ullage
thrusters, and also eliminate many
dock/undock operations.
#4. All the other
technologies required to build this thing already exist.
References (use date and title in the archive tool on the
left, to access quickly):
#1. G. W.
Johnson, “Tug-Assisted Arrivals and
Departures”, posted to “exrocketman” 1
December 2024.
#2. G. W.
Johnson, “Refining Proposed Suit and
Habitat Atmospheres”, posted to
“exrocketman” 2 January 2022.
#3. G. W.
Johnson, “A Concept for an On-Orbit
Propellant Depot”, posted to
“exrocketman” 1 February 2022.
Figures:
Figure 1 – Concept Sketches For the Vehicle Assembly and
Fueling Section
Figure 2 – Concept Sketches For the Power and Propulsion
Section
Figure 3 – Concept Sketches For the Propellant Depot Section
Update 5-4-2025:
Conversations with a friend led
me to understand that what I have in mind for the vane-equipped tank may not be
readily apparent to the reader. Please
see the sketch in Figure A below,
as you read the following more detailed descriptions.
There are just two sets
of vanes inside the tank, mounted on shafting that causes them to
counter-rotate. Their tips spin circumferentially, but in opposite
directions (which avoids applying gyroscopic forces to the depot
station). There is a perforated baffle between the two sets of vanes so
that the two volumes of fluid which are affected by the vanes, also rotate circumferentially, independently in each section.
Yet the baffle is perforated, so that the radially-measured levels of the fluid, flung out to the tank wall, are equal in the two sections. It is one shaft, with a gland seal at one tank head, and an internally-mounted bearing at the other. There is a gear box near the middle that makes the shafting turn in opposite directions in the two sections. There are probably 4+ vanes in each section, mounted to the shafts. If you forgo “instant” response, these vane and shaft assemblies can be fairly lightweight construction.
The propellant pickup is along one side of the tank, not one or the other end head, since the centrifugal forces will fling the propellant to the outer cylindrical wall, forming a big hollow cylindrical "form" in each of the two sections, as wetted to the local outer wall. These propellants are moving in opposite directions circumferentially in the two sections, induced to do so by the spinning vanes. But that circumferential motion does not really affect the suction drains along the tank cylindrical wall!
You spin the vanes to withdraw propellants, but you need no spin to pump propellant into the tank. I put the drive motor outside the propellant tank for its safety (remembering the in-tank stirring-fan device that caused the explosion on Apollo-13), and for easy maintenance and repair. Cryogenic gland seal technology already exists, in rocket engine turbopumps. The vane shaft motor and the propellant withdrawal line are on the end that attaches to the core structure of the orbital propellant depot space station. All the power lines and fluid delivery piping is inside that core.
This is a heavier solution than ullage thrusters, so this is definitely only for a propellant depot in orbit (where you do not want to disturb the orbit with ullage thrust), not the vehicles it is supposed to supply with propellants on orbit.
However, per the not-to-scale concept sketch in Figure B below, it might be "just the thing" for the "payload" propellant tanks of a dedicated tanker vehicle sent up to supply this depot station. Those will be rather small compared to the rest of the upper stage delivery craft, in turn small compared to its launch booster. The sketch is not to scale, in order to provide clarity about which tanks are vane-equipped, and which are not. Ultimately, this tanker needs to be a fully-recoverable vehicle.
Figure B – Concept Sketch for Dedicated Tanker Vehicle
Update 5-27-2025:
I extended my investigations into some preliminary design
analysis to determine some “typical” design characteristics for spinning-vane
tanks of the counter-rotating type. I
ran my numbers in metric, since that is
what most space industry people are now using.
It is customary to use rotation speed measured in
revolutions per minute, rpm. The conversion to or from radians per second
looks like this:
ω, rad/s
= (N, rpm)*(2*pi rad/rev)/(60 sec/min)
or N, rpm = (ω, rad/s)*(60
sec/min)/(2*pi rad/rev)
The radial acceleration component “a” felt at the radius tip
for a rotation speed ω is:
a, m/s2
= (R, m)*(ω, rad/s)2 or ω,
rad/s = [(R, m)/(a, m/s2)]0.5
You divide that “a” by the standard value of g = 9.80667 m/s2
to express that acceleration in “standard gees”, as n = a/g,
which is often also customary,
and dimensionless.
The distance s that something falls through, under constant acceleration a, depends upon the square of the fall
time. Radial acceleration is not
constant, but we will ignore that:
s =
0.5*a*t2
The floating spherical globules are everywhere throughout
the tank cross section, so the average
distance through which a globule must fall is R/2. Substituting that into the previous equation
and solving for a fall time, we have:
t =
(R/a)0.5
which is a sort of time constant tconst for the
process of all the globules accelerating outward along the radius. (Note that for axial “ullage”
acceleration, you would use the tank
length L instead of its radius R for a measure of the average fall length s = L/2
in the same equation for time constant.)
The process is quite stochastic, but the usual “rule of thumb” is to wait 3
time constants, and then the process is
pretty much completed. Thus:
tsettle ~ 3*tconst
Figure C shows N, rpm versus n, gees, parametric upon values of R from 1 to 5 meters. There is clearly a wide range of possible values. The corresponding settling time estimates versus n, gees, parametric upon R are given in Figure D just below.
Figure C – Results for N, rpm, Versus n, gees, Parametric Upon R, m
Figure D – Results for tsettle, sec, Versus n,
gees, Parametric Upon R, m
Amazingly enough,
those tsettle values actually formed a tight band of
solutions across a fairly wide range of R from 1 to 5 meters! If one selects n = 0.1 gees, the settling times all fall 3 < tsettle
< 7 sec! So, the design problem is rather conveniently
bounded at about n = 0.1 applied rotational gees, with any conceivable settling times under
about 10 sec!
Applying that revelation,
I plotted the necessary rotation rates N, rpm, versus the tank radii R, m, for only 0.1 radial gee. Those data are given in Figure E, and indicate a bound on the rotation rate as
4 < N < 10 rpm, for all radii from
1 to 5 meters! That rather conveniently
bounds the rotation rates to rather low values.
Tip speeds are also closely bounded as about 1 to just over 2 m/s, also low numbers.
Bear in mind that if you wait about 10 sec, you have all the settling times covered! That is a rather short settling time! The smaller value of 3 sec occurs at the
smaller R = 1 m, so yet smaller tanks
are no problem at all. At this time in
history, it would be difficult to
imagine successfully transporting to orbit a tank much larger than 10 m in diameter, so we have that end of things fairly well covered, also!
And the highest tip speed is less than twice the max flow speed
recommended for liquids in pipes. We
should be okay there!
Figure E – Required Rotation Rates vs Radius at 0.1 Gee
This Figure E and a nominal settling time of 10
seconds pretty well has most conceivable tank sizes “covered” for designing-in
counter-rotating vanes. Such
would require no dock and undock operations to transfer the propellants, and would apply no unwanted forces due to
spin reactions or gyroscopic resistance forces to whatever structure or vehicle
such a tank is mounted upon (precisely because there are counter-rotating sets
of vanes). The pump suction points are
on the tank lateral wall instead of the ends.
So what? The tank itself does NOT
spin! So, there is no balance problem, other than the vanes themselves, when you build one of these tanks. You just spin up the vanes, wait about 10 seconds, then start your transfer pump. How simple is that?
Again, such would
enable cryogenic propellant storage and transfers from an orbiting propellant
depot station, to any vehicle departing
from there. Such could also be the
“delivered payload” tanks of a dedicated supply tanker vehicle, arriving at that same station. The implications for making deep space
missions cheaper with reusability, and
cheaper still by means of space-tug-assisted elliptic departure, are simply staggering!
My wife found a version of this on Facebook and told me about it. I went searching on the internet, and found this jpg file version, which I could actually use. It was so funny I cannot resist posting it!
Note the Canadian maple leaf on the fan. Considering all the crud Trump and his
minions have done regarding Canada, I am
not surprised someone drew this cartoon.
Pretty soon that maple leaf could be any of the symbols for every
country in the world!
But with a looming recession and high inflation, it is definitely gallows humor! Trump has done this in less than 90 days: taking a decent economy and crashing it. If you don’t believe that, then explain to me why the values of your
401(k)’s have crashed!
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., our Health and Human Services Secretary, has stopped our government from recommending fluoridation of drinking water, based on false theories that it might do harm.
Fluoridating water at the concentrations we have historically used, prevents a significant portion of tooth decay, without any known harm. You use just enough to be effective. The data shows this to be true.
The water fluoridation risk is really all about yellow or brown stains on your teeth with too much fluoridation, versus enhanced rates of tooth decay with too little. There are no other scientifically-known side effects except those stains!
Kennedy is entitled to his own opinion, but he is NOT ENTITLED to his own “facts”! There really is such a thing as “absolute scientific fact”!
Using too much of anything can do harm, as also can using too little! A case in point is life-sustaining oxygen itself: too little causes death! No one denies that! But, too much also causes harm, up to and including death! You really do need an adequate amount! And the range of adequate values is known!
Earth’s air has volume 20.94% oxygen, corresponding to about 0.21 atmosphere partial pressure, out of 1.0 atmosphere total at sea level. We do fine up to 40% oxygen in hospital oxygen masks, but anything above that 0.21 atmosphere is an enhanced fire danger. People do just fine very long-term from there all the way up to 8,000-9000 foot elevations, where the oxygen partial pressure is about 0.15 atmosphere.
Long-term, that suggests that 0.155 to 0.21 atmosphere partial pressure of oxygen is quite safe. Short-term, both lower and higher values are known to be safe from flying experiences using vented pure oxygen masks. Those range from about 0.14 to about 0.8 atmosphere partial pressure of oxygen. Too little is too little, and too much is too much. So you stay in the range known to be adequate.
So also it is with fluoridation of water. Kennedy cannot make good decisions based on bad information! No one else can, either. He’s also wrong about vaccines, and for the same reason: false beliefs!
I vote with science, which has proven to be self-correcting, even when what was thought to be true has instead proven to be wrong. Politicians who spout false narratives like Kennedy CANNOT claim that!!!
Found this image on LinkedIn. It’s too good (and too true) not to
post.
It is my opinion that “they” are already starting to
automate-away all the white collar jobs.
But “they” are doing it without paying any attention to the
“garbage-in, garbage-out” law that is
inherent with any computers. And with absolutely
no regard to the evident fact that AI has no capacity for factuality or truth.
“They” are the vast majority of the super-rich individuals
and the giant companies they own. Their
only concern is more wealth and power, at
everybody else’s expense. They own the
politicians who enable them to oppress you, by rigging the laws against you! “They” are the oligopoly!
In point of fact,
it is also my opinion that the term “artificial intelligence” is an
oxymoron! There is no
intelligence or understanding, there is
only stylistic imitation. Even a real parrot
is more intelligent and actually understands something. AI does not!
If “they” can figure out how to build robot plumbers, electricians,
carpenters, truck drivers, welders,
and such, “they” will automate
away all the blue collar jobs, too!
Between the white collar jobs and the blue collar
jobs, that’s the end of the American middle
class! Welcome back to abject economic slavery, folks! If “they” don’t just outright kill you
instead! Or deport you to some overseas
prison that will kill you for them.
This is NOT going to end well for the vast majority of the American people!
It has been suggested that inflatable or extendible heat
shields can be used to lower the entry ballistic coefficient, and thereby lower entry heating, perhaps to the point of not needing heat
protection on a stage or other item returning from low Earth orbit.
To that end, I used
my spreadsheet version of the old H. Julian Allen and A. J. Eggers 1950’s-vintage
entry model, at fixed entry speed and
angle below horizontal, with a constant
entry interface altitude. I kept the object
mass and hypersonic drag coefficient constant, and used a fixed nose radius to heat
shield diameter ratio.
All I varied was the diameter (and nose radius right with
it). This produced a set of ballistic
coefficients β = M/(CD*A) that decreased dramatically from a near-Apollo
value of 300 kg/m2, down to
very low values at very large diameters.
See Figure 1 below for the scope investigated and inputs used (all
figures are located at end of this article).
The trajectory model uses a simple scale-height type
exponential model of density with altitude.
It presumes a constant angle below horizontal in a 2-D Cartesian
modeling set up. It presumes the drag
coefficient (and thus the ballistic coefficient) is constant with speed. It corresponds to a certain velocity-altitude
trend that is doubly exponential. This
is only approximate, but it really is
in the ballpark! End-of-hypersonics
for a blunt object is usually local Mach 3,
which for Earth, is just about 1
km/s, but I arbitrarily took this down
to 0.7 km/s (about Mach 2.1), which is
well into the range where ribbon chutes can be deployed.
The results I obtained for each of the four ballistic
coefficient cases are given in Figures 2 through 5 below. I expected to see the end of hypersonics
altitudes increase, and the peak
stagnation heating rates decrease, as the
ballistic coefficients reduced, and they
did. I also expected to see peak
deceleration gees increase as ballistic coefficients decreased, but that is not what I got: peak gees stayed just about the same for
all 4 cases.
I then ran stagnation surface temperatures at those peak
heating rates, for a low emissivity and
a high-emissivity case. I did the
analysis in US Customary after converting the heating rates, then converted the temperatures back to
metric. These show a strong
decrease as ballistic coefficients get very low, but are still problematic for anything but
high-temperature steels and exotic alloys! They are reported in Figure 6 below.
I also ran the average pressure exerted upon the heat shield
at that observed constant 6.3 gee peak deceleration. This is nothing but mass times gees times the
acceleration of gravity, then divided by
the heat shield blockage area. These are
not as problematic as the stagnation point temperatures, by far.
They are also reported in Figure 6.
Whether the inflatable or extendible heat shield concepts are survivable, I leave to others.
Figure 2 – Entry Trajectory Results for the Highest
Ballistic Coefficient
Figure 3 – Entry Trajectory Results for a Lower Ballistic
Coefficient
Figure 4 – Entry Trajectory Results for the Next-to-Lowest
Ballistic Coefficient
Figure 5 – Entry Trajectory Results for the Lowest Ballistic
Coefficient
Update 4-12-2025: Oops, found an error converting to degrees C in my data. Revised Figure 6 replaces the original.
Figure 6 – Temperature and Pressure Results for the Ballistic Coefficient Study
Update 4-12-2025:
I went ahead and estimated the attached-flow heating rates
as stagnation divided by 3, and the wake
zone heating rates as stagnation divided by 10.
This is only an educated guess,
but it is rough ballpark correct.
From these I computed surface temperatures that equilibriate
the convective heating with thermal re-radiation to surroundings at 300 K Earth
temperatures. There is no ablation, no transpiration cooling, and no conduction into an interior heat
sink. These temperatures are shown in Figure
7. Bear in mind that they are very
approximate!
Figure 7 – Temperature Trends Around the Entering Structure
The pictures I’ve seen of inflatable and extendible heat
shield concepts seem to fall in the range of 2 to 3 for shield/capsule diameter
ratio. 2.5 diameter ratio is about an
area ratio near 6. Factor 6 below typical
capsule ballistic coefficients (near 300 kg/m2) would be about 50 kg/m2. Bigger diameter ratio may be too fragile to
serve, since I have not seen any concept
images with ratios any bigger than about 3.
At a rather low ballistic coefficient of about 50 kg/m2, assuming a dark and emissive surface, we are looking at surface temperatures near 1100
C at stagnation, near 790 C for
attached-flow regions near the rim of the shield, and near 500 C for all the surfaces immersed
on the wake zone behind the heat shield.
If the surfaces are not highly-emissive,
those temperatures will be significantly higher yet! That is what the plot indicates.
The table just below gives some typical “max service
temperatures” for a variety of possible materials of construction. It would seem that there are no flexible
materials one could use to construct inflatable or extendible heat shields for
Earth entry from low orbit, which would
not be damaged or destroyed by only one use.
Carbon cloth might work,
but would suffer both serious oxidation damage, and heat-induced embrittlement, preventing any re-use. It might actually suffer burn-through
holes, if too thin or too-lightweight a
weave.
