rockets

Through a recent set of random meetings I was able to hook up with Richard Davis of New Space Global who invited me up to Mojave to witness a solid rocket test by USC's Rocket Propulsion Lab. As crazy as I am about space stuff I have always had the bad luck of missing launches and tests that I wanted to see.

The test was about 30 minutes outside of Mojave. I met Mr. Davis at the Mojave Air and Space Port. Which is decidedly less shiny and sparkly and 'Jetson-y' than one might hope a space port would be. In fact it is an old structure and largely exists as a airplane graveyard. That isn't to say it isn't cool because it is. Most of the major space players have operations out of the airport (e.g., Masten, The Spaceship Company, Scaled Composites). And there's a surprising amount of interesting avionic/aerospace detritus around the airport.

But that was just the meetup. The test was elsewhere. The drive to the test site was surreal. From the highway, to a side road covered in sand dunes, to a dirt road, and finally to what was essentially a giant beach with no water. The last 10 minutes of driving were not done on any discernible road and I'm pretty sure we took a wrong turn somewhere. We were just driving over land. Luckily I had 4-wheel drive. My friend's front-wheel drive rental did not fare so well and we had a few hairy moments where I thought the car was going to be stuck. Here's where we ended up.

When I got out of the car I was struck be a few things. First, we were in the middle of nowhere. Second, it was BLAZING hot. It's was actually quite a frightening place to be in one sense. If you were out there alone without any water or shelter I imagine just surviving for a day would be tough. There was nothing for miles around except the load roar of invisible military planes from the nearby Edwards AFB.

The site itself was quite rudimentary. A test bunker, 2 launch sites, a housed generator, a sheltered area to do work, and lots of random disused infrastructure lying around from previous tests.

About 15-20 students and a couple of professors were there getting the rocket ready. I chatted with the professors a bit but left the students to finish their work. I'm pretty sure they were technically engineering students. But engineering to me is something else. It's all about taking a laboratory product someone has figured out how to make and now you want to make millions of tons of that stuff. So it's all about process, throughput maximization, risk mitigation, efficiency improvements, etc. There was none of that going on here. It was all about jerry rigging stuff, improvising, and just getting this rocket to burn. I don't say that in a derogatory way. This is how innovation starts. But it was scrappy to be sure. But it also tells you to some extent the state of space technology. There were no off the shelf parts or standardized fuel to buy. It was an entirely handmade rocket. It was a solid-rocket type. Similar to the 2 rockets that flank the Space Shuttle. What were they burning? Effectively rubber, aluminum and ammonium perchlorate.

The other scrappy aspect of it was safety. There was a bunker but I was chuckling at the idea that it would do much. In fact in a previous test a solid rocket blew up with smoldering pieces of rocket fuel entering the bunker. Safety goggles? Nope. Even the loading of the rocket was done by 8 guys just picking it up. Even some rudimentary straps would have lowered the risk of that thing tumbling down. And walking around the back and looking at the nozzle. Sure go ahead. The other weird thing about the setup was the rocket front was pointed towards the launch structure where the countdown occurred. Better than the rocket tail pointed that way. And it's a low likelihood that the rocket becomes unhinged. But still. Why mess with things like that.

I did learn one thing I had never thought about though. Most people think about rocket orbital launches in the context of supplying enough energy to put it into orbit (think height). But one of the professors said that actually most of the energy needs to be put into the speed or kinetic energy of the rocket to keep it in orbit (think of the velocity it needs to spin around the earth.

After an initial problem with a loose wire on the igniter switch, the rocket lit. It was awesome. It sounds cool, it looks cool, and it smells cool. It was worth a long and hot wait in the desert. I'll definitely have to catch more of these types of events. The video is below. You can skip to 2:55 to see the countdown and burn.

A couple thing to point out. One is you'll see some flareups towards the end. This was fiberglass batting in the rocket that can be ripped off during the fire. It's not great but it doesn't impact the thrust much. More difficult to see in the video is a nice trench that the rocket dug out its backend. You'll also notice when the rocket is lit there's a small puff of smoke out the back of the rocket before it actually ignites. You can hear some groans in the gallery. One of the students said they've had problems with the igniters. But it was a false alarm. It burned.

flying paramours

I'm guessing this is fake. The camera movement suggests the camera has a high quality stabilizer on it. Yet having spent a lot of time in Brazil, I would guess this sort of thing happens weekly. It's so incredibly Brazilian.

death

I've posted one of these before. But here's another. An account of what it is like to be dead (and obviously brought back to life).

Nothing. I don't even remember being dead, I can't quite describe it because you are not aware of anything that is going on. I'll tell you though, it's a scary feeling to come back to the real world...back to "reality"...whatever it may be. It's frightening really: the realization, especially at the young age it had happened, that the only thing on the other side is darkness. At minimum you can call this darkness peace though, because as I've said you're not aware of anything, you don't know you've been dead until you come back. It is nothing you can imagine because your imagination is ceased, it is dissolved, it is nothing. 

You are simply here now and who you are now, and there is no point in spending your entire life trying to please people and be happy at the expense of others. It gives you insight into the fact that the awareness you've got now is the only time that you will have sentience. Death is like the brief moment between beginning to black out and blacking out....you cease everything...you do not recall a thing in that time period. Your mind has left you, your body has left, everything has left you and you do not know about this...or care necessarily because you're not there to exercise control over your thoughts and imagination. Just nothing. No awareness at all. 

I entered the dark, the void, the infinite abyss - I crossed to the other side and it gave me no stories to bring back with me to the light. I hope that what I experienced was just a brief period of what could have developed into something where a sentient entity developed, but I highly doubt that. I'm cursed to be ground in reality for the rest of my life, the reality that I'm alive now and I think now, and I am now. I am only here now, I am on the the side of the living, and I must enjoy my thoughts, my world, my time now. Now is the only time to enjoy anything, otherwise you there is nothing...just darkness...just no you.

salt

The NY Times has a piece up on salt intake. Specifically it is about a report done by the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies titled, "Sodium Intake in Populations: Assessment of Evidence.".

I have read the entire report.

The purpose of the report is to determine if health advisories suggesting people consume less than 2,300 mg of salt or even as low as 1,500 mg of salt, especially those over 51 does anything. Currently the average US person consumes 3,400 mg of salt.

The report was pushed forward by the CDC and it recommended the Institute convene an expert committee to run it. The committee looks legit. Health professionals as well as statistical experts. There were no funny food companies behind the research.

It was kind of a meta-analysis of other studies but technically not a meta-analysis.

For outcomes related to CVD, stroke and mortality the studies were ALL observational. Translated? They were worthless.

For outcomes related to heart failure there were some randomized clinical trials (RCTs). Translated? These are all that matter.

So what did they find?

First and most interesting was they basically deemed the entire set of salt research to be crap. Poorly done, poorly designed, and ultimately worthless.  I love that. In particular they cited the use of observational studies as useless and the measurement of salt intake to be pathetic (e.g., people reported how much salt they ate.). They caveated the whole report. To such an extent that the conclusions almost read like they had to force them because they couldn't put out a report that said, "We don't know anything." And frankly as a result of that we should stop reading there. But let's see what they say.

Basically they say that yes salt is correlated with CVD risk but that the 2,300 mg per day recommendation has no basis. And in fact the effect of salt on CVD risk (as in how much does the risk go up) was completely unquantifiable. I read that to mean it is minimal at best. They went on to say that there was evidence however from RCTs that low salt intake (defined as 1,840 mg per day) can lead to an INCREASED risk of adverse effects for people who have heart problems. And that this probably extends to people who don't have heart problems.

choice

Well done visualization of David Foster Wallace's commencement speech.

my name is myrna nudorf

You know those times? When you see some quiet, shy person. A little homely. Reserved. You wonder, "what's inside there?"  And then something happens. A catalyst. In this case an opportunity to sing. Their beauty comes radiating outward.  They transform before your eyes and blossom. Just watch the girl on the right. This is her moment. Her shining moment.

my name is john daker

Most people who know me know I have an extremely soft spot in my heart for well done church singing. And this guy nails it.

"Whep!?"

perspective

Pretty heart warming story here about someone who overcame a lot of adversity to live a life better than most.

umm...

Just umm.

bias

Study: Downloadable PDF

In the largest false memory study to date, 5,269 participants were asked about their memories for three true and one of five fabricated political events. Each fabricated event was accompanied by a photographic image purportedly depicting that event. Approximately half the participants falsely remembered that the false event happened, with 27% remembering that they saw the events happen on the news. Political orientation appeared to influence the formation of false memories, with conservatives more likely to falsely remember seeing Barack Obama shaking hands with the president of Iran, and liberals more likely to remember George W. Bush vacationing with a baseball celebrity during the Hurricane Katrina disaster. A follow-up study supported the explanation that events are more easily implanted in memory when they are congruent with a person's preexisting attitudes and evaluations, in part because attitude-congruent false events promote feelings of recognition and familiarity, which in turn interfere with source attributions.