A Michigan man walks from a hospital without a human heart.
I wonder how reliable that device is? Can it be maintained or repaired without shutting it down?
Category Archives: Technology and Society
High-Speed Rail
It’s not news that Kevin Drum opposes it, but it’s still nice to see attacks on it from the left. Yes, it is a waste of time and money.
Falcon Heavy
Still on track for launch this year, according to SpaceX. I hadn’t realized that the 53 tons was metric. So payload’s even bigger than I thought.
Whole Grains
No, the fact that they’re not as bad for you as refined grains doesn’t mean they’re good for you. This is a great example of nutrition junk science.
Fight For Space
The documentary project has a trailer out, and a new Kickstarter to complete and release it. It seems to have evolved considerably (and usefully) from the original project.
The Spaceship That Almost Landed
My thoughts on this weekend’s mostly-successful flight over at PJMedia.
Central Command
It looks like its Twitter account has been hacked by Jihadis.
The country’s in the very best of hands.
[Update a few minutes later]
TWitter has suspended the account. But they took over the Youtube channel, too.
Wearable Tech
Forget it, what people want is more battery life.
This obsession with “thin” phones makes me crazy. Have the gay men who run the fashion industry, but hate normal female bodies, taken over tech as well?
I just “upgraded” from my dying Droid Global 2, a phone whose batteries were easily changed, for a Droid 4, which has a better OS, and is 4G instead of 3G, and slightly thinner, but has a non-replaceable battery. I consider it a downgrade.
Successful Flyback
…and failed landing. That’s what flight test is about. They’ll learn from it, as they always do from a failed attempt.
I would note, though, that this does complicate their operations, if they plan to land down range every time, and can’t return to launch site. I suspect they’ll determine that the problem was crappy weather conditions, and their FLIR or whatever they were using for guidance wasn’t doing very well. That means that there’s a new condition imposed on a decision to fly — weather at recovery site. Shuttle often scrubbed with good weather at the Cape, due to unacceptable conditions at abort sites, and that was just for contingency. If SpaceX wants to recover down range, they may occasionally have to make a decision as to whether to risk the loss of a stage, or delay and arouse customer ire. It will depend on whether or not there’s a tight window (e.g., a planetary mission), and who the customer is.
[Update a couple minutes later]
Oh, I hadn’t read to the end. It sounds like it wasn’t a weather problem — they “ran out of hydraulic fluid” (not sure what that means — it’s not a closed system?). But that seems like good news, both for their chances of recovering next time, and for being able to operate in less-than-perfect conditions. Sounds like they only thing that might prevent a launch, in terms of barge conditions, would be sea state (or high winds), not weather per se.
[Update a few minutes later]
Here‘s what looks like a reasonable explanation from Jon Goff. I haven’t read the post itself yet, but I’m sure it’s worthwhile to do so.
[Update a few minutes later]
OK, Elon just tweeted that it was hydraulics for the control fins, and they came within 10%. So that means an excellent chance of success the next time, with the addition of a little bit more juice.
[Update a few minutes later]
Upcoming flight already has 50% more hydraulic fluid, so should have plenty of margin for landing attempt next month.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 10, 2015
The Pile Up In Michigan
Holy crap. We’re seeing a lot of things we never would have, before the days of ubiquituous videocams.