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One small failure for man, one great for mankind.

takeachance Premier Member Registered on Dec-07-2001 More User Info Message #4927 posted by takeachance (Info) January 22, 2007 21:05:58 ET Want to know how the Egyptians built the pyramids? I do and after thinking about it a lot, I suspect it was from the strategic use of people, structure, sand and water. With no use of modern power tools they achieved goals that are remarkable even by today’s standards. They didn’t have much but they did have people, sand and water. It was important that the people needed to be put to work so they couldn’t conspire coup attempts all hours of the day and night. This was their economy and it seemed to work for generations with astounding effects. I suspect they were able to achieve their goals because of strategic use of their abundant natural resources; the people, the Nile, and the sand. Through trenches and tanks dug by hand and beast, the Nile supplied a great potential for the builders. Via step-up locks and floating pontoons, I envision a huge working group comprised mainly of people with buckets of sand and others with buckets of water, or maybe manual driven waterwheels, but in essence they used many differentials to add up to a greater function. I also suspect they used the Pythagorean Theorem to distribute the weight onto floating platforms coupled with hemp rope and reed braces that distributed weight of a single massive block onto a great many equally weight distributing barges or pontoons. This uses the buoyant effect of water and takes advantage of the fluidous nature of floating objects. I can see ten thousand people walking up a ramp to pour water into the next upper level lock. Then I see another thousand filling sand onto the counter bucket weights that work as the counterbalance for the stone creating lift. Do that a number of times and you got it to the placement height. That is what our generation is lacking, vision….cooperative vision. That is why we have not advanced further into space and I fear it is to our demise as earthlings. America must become open to new avenues into space. It must get more repeatable and in a much more cost effective manner; preferably one that doesn’t pollute or destroy the earth in the process. I believe the pyramid launcher or some other ocean driven pellet-gun type orbital launcher might be a path closer than our current shuttle and multi-stage rocket vehicles. Using a similar strategy to how the pyramids were built, I suggest we use the ocean to launch payloads into orbit. If nothing else, use it to throw a multi-stage rocket high into the high atmosphere to where it can then start its propulsion. Firing engines from higher up would effectively allow much less engine and fuel weight to be required for orbit launch. In my opinion, onboard required fuel and engine weight are currently the greatest inefficiencies in our launch methods. Hell is seeing the potential undone.

Re: One small failure for man, one great for manki

forged registration Registered on Dec-17-2005 More User Info Message #4928 posted by forged registration (Info) January 23, 2007 15:18:45 ET In Reply to: One small failure for man, one great for mankind. posted by takeachance (Info) January 22, 2007 21:05:58 ET i think space travel is a big waste of money...we're fifty light years from the nearest star...even if mars were made of gold, it would be too expensive to mine it and bring it back to earth i don't think we lack vision and cooperation...here is an interesting way to launch things into space: http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/space/spaceelevator.html The space elevator starts with a basic platform in the ocean, near the equator. Attached to the platform is a paper-thin ribbon no more than a metre wide that stretches 100,000 kilometres into space, about one-quarter of the way to the moon. There it's tied to a satellite that pulls the ribbon taut and keeps it straight as it orbits in synch with the Earth's rotation. "The idea is somewhat like taking a ball on a string, spinning it around in your hand," Laubscher says. "It doesn't just flop down, it actually opposes the force of gravity and stands outward. That's really what's happening with this cable." Spacecraft would ride up the cable on an electrically powered climber that would be fuelled by ground-based lasers shining onto solar panels. Once above the Earth's atmosphere the spacecraft would be released to orbit the Earth and do whatever business it was sent to do. Or it could ride the elevator right to the end and be thrown toward Mars or Venus. "It helps to be a scientist rather than a science fiction writer," Laubscher says. "It helps that carbon nanotubes are known. That really helps a lot. And it maybe helps being at Los Alamos." Carbon nanotubes? Until 10 years ago, there was nothing to build a space elevator with. It would take every scrap of steel on the face of the planet and the thing would be huge and impossibly heavy. So scientists were forced to fantasize about a space elevator built with a magic material they called "unobtainium." Then, in 1991, scientists discovered carbon nanotubes. They're hollow carbon tubes 100 times stronger than steel yet so tiny 50,000 of them would fit inside a human hair. There can be millions of carbon nanontubes in a petrie dish. For scientists, the discovery of this new form of carbon was a tantalizing surprise and they're rushing to exploit the possibilities of a molecule that has all the strength of a diamond yet is six times lighter than steel. "Think about a soccer ball," Morgan says. "Sixty carbon atoms can arrange themselves into a soccer ball that's a very strong shape. Think about them then adding carbons in rings and stretching out the ends of that ball. This is what carbon nanotubes look like. They do have the right strength-to-weight ratio, properties. To actually build a cable you just have to work on them. It's kind of an engineering problem."

Re: One small failure for man, one great for mankind.

bl1959 Registered on Dec-13-2006 More User Info Message #4929 posted by bl1959 (Info) January 23, 2007 23:56:54 ET In Reply to: One small failure for man, one great for mankind. posted by takeachance (Info) January 22, 2007 21:05:58 ET One of the things I like to do is to take my dogs running in one of the parks near my home. Its mostly walking trails, probably about five miles worth, through woods and along an old canal built back in the early 1900's. Not too many people go there and I feel lucky to get to use the area. Anyway I get to thinking about things, things that seem important, and alot of times it comes down to something like this. It occurs to me that there is alot of strife in the whole world. Each society, nation or like minded peoples make their own value systems. I do believe some of them are better than others but none of them is perfect. But as an individual, out in the woods, with dogs maybe, I wonder what people really need. What is enough? What stimulates the heart, mind and spirit? Air, food, shelter and companionship. I think I would be happy to live my life as a farmer. Taking notice and care of the fruits of nature. Fundamentaly, I believe that would be enough. In todays society, at least for me I am starting to feel like a tool. Just clog in a wheel that doesn't have a spirit. Life is pretty much mapped out for the average joe. Books on how to raise your kids (yes we have a study on that), public school ciriculum, jobs with no sense of accomplishment, goals and milestones to meet. As for society, I can only hope that the course of the whole is for a just cause. I have been working on a fundamental thought but it still needs some work. "As long as its a well thought out approach to a defined goal, and as long as the outcome benefits the greater good of a just cause, I'm pretty good with it." Anyway, I appreciate your post. Peace

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