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The Vacuum Balloon, a new approach to Building 'Skyhooks' with a great range of Uses. The concept of a lighter-than-air craft using vacuum is actually the oldest of any practical approach, dating back to 1670! The basis is simple, a balloon gets its lift from the fact that its average density (weight of containing structure plus any external cabins plus contained gas, divided by volume) is less than that of air.
The contained gas is typically hydrogen or helium or hot air (the latter is less dense than cold air). Replacing the contained gas with a vacuum gives greater lift, but the structure containing the vacuum must be strong enough to withstand the external air pressure (about atmosphere at ground level).
With modern materials, such a Vacuum Balloon (reference off page) is practicable, with the ability to remain permanently aloft.
Notes: On Web 2004 Jul 6. PandoraM3 Class: Devices
Thoughts about Solar Towers, Promising new Energy Source from the Environment. [The following explanation is from www.wcsscience.com/enviromission/page2.html]
What exactly is a 'solar tower'? Click here to see a prototype of a solar tower power generating plant that was constructed and successfully operated in Spain. The tower operated for seven years, between 1982 and 1989, and consistently generated 50kW of pollution-free energy.
At the bottom is a huge greenhouse-like building, covering many acres, and open at the sides. As in all greenhouses, the air inside gets very hot. It wants to rise ... and it does, through the open tower in the middle. As it passes up the tower, it spins turbines just like in a hydro-electric plant, except it's the wind caused by all that hot air going up that spins the turbine blades. The turbine in turn powers an electrical generator ... and you get free electricity! Because the sides of the greenhouse are open, new air is constantly coming in to get heated and rise up the tower.
Here is a device whose development is underway. I saw a BBC (?) TV program about the Spanish tower, one thing they noted was that plants grew very well in the windy conditions under the canopy.
There are ways that the output of such a tower might be increased. Putting material with high heat capacity, such as black rock, under the canopy might improve evenness of output over 24 hours. Injection of water into the column under the turbine might increase its generating capacity.
A row of towers at right angles to prevailing wind direction should create a 'thermal mountain range' which would improve rainfall, especially if the tower outlet gave a fan-shaped rather than cylindrical stream. Notes: On Web 2004 Jul 9. I thought of this device in 1974, and sent details to Andrew Mensaros, Western Australia's Minister for Energy at the time. No response was received. PandoraM3 Class: Energy
Synthetic Tornados or Hurricanes, a new Energy Source from the Environment. The whirling columns of air known as tornados, hurricanes, willy-willys etc contain enormous amounts of energy. According to Bill Bryson (p.231 in 'A Short History of Nearly Everything', Doubleday, 2003), a tropical hurricane can release, in 24 hours, as much energy as Britain or France uses in a year.
There seems no basic reason why harnessed, synthetic tornados could not be assembled as a huge new source of energy for mankind. Development of synthetic tornados should also give valuable information on controlling 'wild' tornados, with the possibility of reducing the immense damage they may currently cause. Notes: On Web 2004 Jul 6. PandoraM3 Class: Energy
A possible new class of Antibiotics from Fern roots. I operate a composting system called a TCC Compost Stack which uses mainly tree prunings. Each stack has sides about 1 metre by 1 metre wide, up to 2 metres high, normally built against previous stacks. It is a simple, longer-term system in which branches (up to the stack width), stalks, root pieces, and leaves are built up in a series of square layers and topped with a little soil, maybe from earlier stacks.
Stacks are ready for use as high-organic soil or potting mix after 9-15 months, when the original branches and other plant material have turned into a fine chocolate-brown mix, ideal for growing trees. I have noticed that while a piece of pine branch 2 cm thick will have turned into soft brown particles in this time, roots and lower stems of Boston Fern (Nephrolepis cordifolia) only 2 mm thick will be virtually intact and not composted.
It seems likely that these fern parts may contain a powerful antibiotic which could be of value in medicine. Notes: On Web 2004 Jul 7. I described the TCC compost stack in Quandong Magazine Vol. 16, No. 3, 1990 (page 11). PandoraM3 Class: Health
A new Organic, Non-Chemical Method of Eliminating Mosquitos and Malaria using Copepods. Australian researchers working to eliminate mosquitos, and the diseases they spread such as malaria, from villages in Southeast Asian countries, have had success by seeding the local water tanks or reservoirs with tiny crustaceans called copepods. These copepods feed on the mosquito larvae, which live in water.
Developed countries with warmer climates also suffer from mosquito problems, and in Australia they spread diseases such as Ross River Virus, which can be very debilitating for victims. These mosquitos do not live in the water supply, instead their larvae develop in every sort of cavity which holds water derived from rain, sprinkler systems, and the like.
These cavities include not only more obvious things like bird baths, old cans, and discarded bottles, but also axils of plant leaves, small plastic and metal items, and even leaf litter. Areas can be sprayed with chemicals to kill the mosquito larvae, but this is expensive and time-consuming, has only a short-term effect, and also kills many beneficial insects.
Copepods reproduce by producing tiny egglike capsules called cysts. In contrast to the eggs of higher animals, these cysts have great viability, able to be dried and kept for years before being revived by adding water.
The basis of the present method is to spray a mosquito-affected area with water containing a concentration of specially-raised copepod cysts, either from the ground or from the air. A fine spray should 'seed' most of the water-holding objects, and the treatment should last at least one season. Any excess of cysts should be quite harmless to humans or other animals.
Different copepod species and species mixes may be suited to areas with different climatic conditions. Notes: On Web 2004 Jul 9. I noted this concept in 1999. One description of the work of Australian researchers on eliminating mosquitos from water supplies can be found here (offpage). PandoraM3 Class: Health
A Suggestion for a Solution to the Third World Debt problem. The problem of underdeveloped countries staggering under the weight of debts to other countries, or global agencies such as the World Bank, is regarded as intractable. These countries clearly need investment in infrastructure and the like to raise their output and standard of living, but such investment cannot give the same rate of return as it would in a developed country. Hence the poor country is left with an increasingly unaffordable interest demand on its economy.
The background to this situation, why the Rich get Richer and the Poor get Poorer, is covered on page 16 of my book Matrix Thinking.
A solution to this problem might lie in a type of 'swap debt for equity' approach. That is, for a country to sell a lot of its assets, particularly land, to people or groups from outside its borders. Such a suggestion is likely to evoke groundswell opposition, and the reason for this is a factor which I have called SIOS in the chapter beginning on page 25 of Matrix Thinking. Without an understanding and appreciation of how SIOS operates, a suggestion such as that just given is unlikely ever to proceed.
This is in spite of logic. If organizations from a foreign country own land and assets in an underdeveloped country, they will naturally seek to improve these assets and 'exploit' them to improve their productivity and yield. Asset stripping does not make sense in a low-yield situation, and the foreign owner cannot export the land itself. If the host country does not discriminate in its laws against the 'foreign' owner, as in attempting to restrict repatriation of yields, both sides win. The ultimate effect is an unseen partial merger of the two country's economies, which cannot but assist the one which starts off poorer. Notes: On Web 2004 Jul 9. The basis of the reasoning given above appeared in 1982 in the first draft of 'Matrix Thinking'. PandoraM3 Class: Human Society
A Method of Neutralizing Bank and ATM Robberies, Banknote Forgeries and the like. Most counting of notes in banks and other financial bodies which handle large amounts of banknotes are done by machine.
If banknotes carried their serial number as a barcode, it would be technically simple to scan and transmit these numbers to a central clearinghouse, perhaps one based on the existing world credit card network.
This system, even if its use was completely voluntary, would have a marked effect on reducing theft and other misuse of banknotes.
The clearinghouse need only record the handler, a flag bit, and last date of handling against each note record. In the event of a bank robbery, the bank would notify the clearing house of the serial numbers of prescanned notes taken, with a request to set the relevant flag bits to 'alert'.
After this, the clearinghouse software would throw up an alert when any of the alerted notes were scanned in a bank deposit, or by a larger retailer or other note-handler. The pattern of such alerts would allow potential recipients of stolen notes to watch out for non-innocent passing of such notes.
The mere existence of such a feature would make it very chancy for anyone to steal banknotes and susequently pass them, anywhere in the world. Those who changed more than a few Australian notes into an overseas currency might well find it worth their while to use the system to check that the notes were not stolen.
The same system would quickly throw up forgeries where serial numbers were duplicated or in an invalid range or were repeats of genuine notes. Notes: On Web 2004 Mar 30. PandoraM3 Class: Security
A new More Practical Approach to a Space Elevator. The Space Elevator consists of a cable link between a geosynchronous satellite and the Earth, up which capsules and cabins could climb or descend, taking goods and people up into space or back. Some notes on the origin of the concept appear below.
While theoretically sound, the main limitation to engineering implementation of the idea is that a very long cable would be needed, as the geosynchronous orbit is some 36,000 km above the surface (orbital periods for satellites further out are longer, closer ones shorter -- at the geosynchronous orbit a satellite travels around the Earth, in the same direction as the Earth is rotating, in about 23 hours 56 minutes, and so appears stationary in an equatorial orbit.
A cable 36,000 km long hanging down from a geosynchronous satellite would be quite heavy, and would break under its own weight, before any extra load was applied, with materials available in 2004. The novel mentioned below invokes use of a 'hyperfilament' material, enormously stronger that anything we have now.
The new approach mentioned here involves Orbit Rings which could operate in a whole range of orbits from Low Earth Orbit (about 100 km) out to any desired distance under about 0.1 AU, including non-equatorial orbits, and provide a Space Web which could support cables, cable cars, pipelines etc using mateials with standard engineering strengths and properties.
Because Orbit Rings have no need to be geosynchronous orbit, they could be in any orientation with respect to the Earth, say one equatorial, another 1 km beneath it in polar orbit, and another 1 km below that inclined at 45 degrees below that. Notes: On Web 2004 Jul 8. I thought of the idea of a Space Elevator in 1956, when I was an undergraduate at Cambridge, and a member of the British Interplanetary Society. In 1979 Arthur C Clarke, the originator of the idea of a geosynchronous satellite, published a novel The Fountains of Paradise about building a Space Elevator, and at the end he mentions published suggestions for such a device, the best known being an article by John D Isaacs in the 1966 Feb 11 1966 issue of Science. An even earlier publication, on a 'heavenly funicular', by Y N Artsunov, appeared in the 1960 Feb 11 issue of the Russian publication Komsomolskaya Pravda. PandoraM3 Class: Space Travel
Into Space Safely, Slowly, Cheaply: a new route using Vacuum Balloons and Orbit Rings. This concept uses two essentially permanent networks to proceed slowly, safely, and cheaply from the Earth's surface up into Space.
The lowest network, within the Earth's atmosphere, is held up by Vacuum Balloons, which are feasible to a height of about 40 km.
The upper network, essentially above the atmosphere, is held up by Orbit Rings. These are feasible down to a height above surface certainly no more than 90 km, and possibly (because they involve very little air-flow resistance) down to 40 km also.
Items travelling up from the surface to orbital levels (and vice versa) might well go via small capsules travelling along cables, powered by individual solar engines. Personal travel, in pressurized cable cars, would require greater energy sources, but these still might be electrical in nature and use power cables fed from surface or above-ground sources. Pipelines would also be possible to transmit liquids, even (see Space Webs between the Earth and the Moon). Notes: On Web 2004 Jul 6. PandoraM3 Class: Space Travel
Orbit Rings, a new Rung for the Ladder into Space. When Arthur C Clarke came up with the idea of a geosynchronous satellite -- a satellite which orbited the Earth above the Equator in the particular position where it would appear to hover directly above a particular spot on the Equator -- it was not long before someone came up with the idea of a Space Elevator.
The Space Elevator consists of a cable link between a geosynchronous satellite and the Earth, up which capsules and cabins could climb or descend, taking goods and people up into space or back. As this cable would need to be about 36,000 km long, it could not even support its own weight using currently-available materials.
The basic idea behind Orbit Rings is for a series of complete rings of material, maybe something like fishing line, stretching right round the Earth and travelling in any allowed orbit (Its weight works out at only 3.25 tonnes). While each ring would need a long length of material -- around 40,000 km in the case of an orbit close to the Earth's surface -- the strain on the material would be quite small, as it would be travelling in essentially free orbit.
However, the momentum of such a ring, relative to the Earth would be quite large. It should be possible to arrange for a ring to pass through one or more 'Waynodes' as in the illustration, with essentially friction-less transfer of momentum capable of maintaining the Waynodes, connected by cables to other Orbit Rings or Vacuum Balloons, in fixed positions above the Earth.
Physical contact between the orbit ring and the waynode might be eliminated if the wire had a fine metal coating and was handled in a 'maglev' situation, or perhaps both the wire and the waynode could be negatively charged or positively charged.
Of course there may be practical difficulties to overcome, such as 'ripples' occurring in the ring material. And there will be electrodynamic considerations, with currents being generated due to movement within the Earth's magnetic field. These could lead to electricity generation capacity, or conversely, could be used to control movement of the ring material. Notes: On Web 2004 Jul 6. PandoraM3 Class: Space Travel
Dynamics of Orbit Ring Orbits. Elsewhere on this site is a description of Orbit Rings -- complete rings of material, using something like fishing line, stretching right round the Earth and travelling in any allowed orbit.
The dynamics of circular Orbit Rings is straightforward -- in the absence of perturbing influences, they should continue to remain circular. If not in an equatorial orbit, the Earth will rotate under them, but their distance from the surface should remain constant.
However, if an Orbit Ring is set up in an elliptical orbit, its dynamics are not clear to me. Presumably if the Ring (strictly, the Ellipse) was made of perfectly rigid material, it should rotate as a whole, with the points at the end of the major axis remaining as such.
On the other hand, if the Ring was made up of perfectly flexible material, then a given point on it should presumably rotate around the ellipse, moving from a major axis end to a minor axis end and on to the other major axis end. For a real material, the dynamics might be something in between.
Elliptical orbits for a complete-line material might be strongly influenced by Earth's gravity, perhaps tending to decay to circular orbits.
This matter could be of basic importance in setting up Space Webs, particularly those between one planetary body and another, as between Earth and Moon. Notes: On Web 2005 Mar 7. PandoraM3 Class: Space Travel
Space Webs, a potential framework for pumping material from the Earth to the Moon. The concept of Orbit Rings, described on this site, can be extended to encompass 'Space Webs' which could, at least in theory, provide a physical link not only between the Earth's surface and Earth satellites, but even between the Earth and the Moon.
Looking at a Space Web schematic, it can be seen that wire links between waynodes on Orbit Rings could carry, or be replaced by, flexible tubes, along which materials such as air or water could be pumped.
Because the Moon is airless, Orbit Rings on the Moon could be positioned quite close to the surface, and linked directly to it. This is important, because the same lack of atmosphere means that Vacuum Balloons could not be deployed.
Other factors to be considered are that outer Earth and Moon orbit rings would probably need to be in the plane of the Moon's orbit about Earth, and that the Moon is not at a fixed distance from the Earth, but varies by some 44,000 km. This highlights the need for investigation of Orbit Ring Dynamics, which may permit the use of elliptical orbits. Notes: On Web 2005 Mar 7. PandoraM3 Class: Space Travel
The Expanding Earth -- Doubling its Radius over 200 million Years. Yes, it seems crazy, but there is now a huge mass of evidence that the Earth has greatly expanded in size over past geological ages, with the continents being separated, as it were like paper discs stuck on a blown-up balloon.
As with the theory of Continental Drift, this idea was initially received with scepticism, but I now regard the accumulated evidence as conclusive, especially in light of the lack of conflicting evidence. In fact the Expanding Earth theory gives the first solid and rational explanation for the movement of continents, now an accepted idea.
Like to know more? You can download parts or all of my 1989 book Nuteeriat from the Web as free PDFs. Notes: On Web 2004 Jul 9. As mentioned in my book Nuteeriat, the Expanding Earth theory had its scientific origins in the 1800s, with earlier references in ancient scriptures extending back 3000 years. PandoraM3 Class: The Earth