A Relativistic Gravity Theory Could be Tested at Large Hadron Collider

Test of relativistic gravity for propulsion at the Large Hadron Collider, 13 page pdf

A design is presented of a laboratory experiment that could test the suitability of relativistic gravity for propulsion of spacecraft to relativistic speeds. The first exact time-dependent solutions of Einstein’s gravitational field equation confirm that even the weak field of a mass moving at relativistic speeds could serve as a driver to accelerate a much lighter payload from rest to a good fraction of the speed of light. The time-dependent field of ultrarelativistic particles in a collider ring is calculated. An experiment is proposed as the first test of the predictions of general relativity in the ultrarelativistic limit by measuring the repulsive gravitational field of bunches of protons in the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The estimated ‘antigravity beam’ signal strength at a resonant detector of each proton bunch is 3 nm/s2 for 2 ns during each revolution of the LHC. This experiment can be performed off-line, without interfering with the normal operations of the LHC.

Exact ‘antigravity-field’ solutions of Einstein’s equation, 3 page pdf

‘Antigravity’ propulsion and relativistic hyperdrive, 4 page pdf

Exact payload trajectories in the strong gravitational fields of compact masses moving with constant relativistic velocities are calculated. The strong field of a suitable driver mass at relativistic speeds can quickly propel a heavy payload from rest to a speed significantly faster than the driver, a condition called hyperdrive. Hyperdrive thresholds and maxima are calculated as functions of driver mass and velocity.

Technology Review covers the arvix paper

In 1924, the influential German mathematician David Hilbert published a paper called "The Foundations of Physics" in which he outlined an extraordinary side effect of Einstein's theory of relativity.

Hilbert was studying the interaction between a relativistic particle moving towards or away from a stationary mass. His conclusion was that if the relativistic particle had a velocity greater than about half the speed of light, a stationary mass should repel it. At least, that's how it would appear to a distant inertial observer.

That's an interesting result and one that has been more or less forgotten, says Franklin Felber an independent physicist based in the US (Hilbert's paper was written in German).

Felber has turned this idea on its head, predicting that a relativistic particle should also repel a stationary mass. He says this effect could be exploited to propel an initially stationary mass to a good fraction of the speed of light.

The basis for Felber's "hypervelocity propulsion" drive is that the repulsive effect allows a relativistic particle to deliver a specific impulse that is greater than its specific momentum, thereby achieving speeds greater than the driving particle's speed . He says this is analogous to the elastic collision of a heavy mass with a much lighter, stationary mass, from which the lighter mass rebounds with about twice the speed of the heavy mass.

What's more, Felber predicts that this speed can be achieved without generating the sever stresses that could damage a space vehicle or its occupants. That's because the spacecraft follows a geodetic trajectory in which the only stresses arise from tidal forces (although it's not clear why those forces wouldn't be substantial)

The experiment would measure the repulsive gravitational impulses of proton bunches delivered in their forward direction to resonant detectors just outside the beam pipe. This test could provide accurate measurements of post-Newtonian parameters and the first observation of ‘antigravity’, as well as validating the potential utility of relativistic gravity for spacecraft propulsion in the distant future.
A new exact time-dependent field solution of Einstein’s equation is given in Eq. (8) by (Felber, 2008 and 2009).
This exact strong-field solution provides further support for the weak-field results presented in this paper. According to Table 1 and Eq. (9), the exact field solution in Eq. (8) for a mass moving with constant velocity corresponds precisely in the weak-field approximation to the weak-field solution in Eq. (2), for the special case of constant velocity.
A simple Lorentz transformation of the well-known unbound orbit of a payload in a Schwarzschild field gives the exact payload trajectory in the strong field of a relativistic driver with constant velocity, as seen by a distant inertial observer. The calculations of these payload trajectories by this two-step approach, and their animated versions
(Felber, 2006b), clearly show that suitable drivers at relativistic speeds can quickly propel a heavy payload from rest to speeds close to the speed of light.
The strong field of a compact driver mass can even propel a payload from rest to speeds faster than the driver itself – a condition called hyperdrive. Hyperdrive is analogous to the elastic collision of a heavy mass with a much lighter, initially stationary mass, from which the lighter mass rebounds with about twice the speed of the heavy mass.
Hyperdrive thresholds and maxima were calculated and shown in Figure 5 as functions of driver mass and velocity. Substantial payload propulsion can be achieved in weak driver fields, especially at relativistic speeds.

The exact time-dependent gravitational-field solutions of Einstein’s equation in (Felber, 2008 and 2009) for a mass moving with constant velocity, and the two-step approach in (Felber, 2005b, 2006a, 2006b and 2006c) to calculating exact orbits in dynamic fields, and the retarded fields calculated in (Felber, 2005a) all give the same result: Even weak gravitational fields of moving masses are repulsive in the forward and backward directions at source speeds greater than 31/2 c .

The field solutions in this paper have potential theoretical and experimental applications in the near term and potential propulsion applications in the long term. In the near term, the solutions can be used in the laboratory to test relativistic gravity for the first time. Performing such a test at an accelerator facility has many advantages over similar space-based tests of relativity that have been performed and contemplated for the future, including low cost, quickness, convenience, ease of data acquisition and data processing, and an ability to modify and iterate tests in real time. Such a test could provide accurate measurements of post-Newtonian parameters in the extreme relativistic regime and the first observation of ‘antigravity’. Our estimates suggest that each proton bunch in the LHC beam would produce an ‘antigravity beam’ with a signal strength of 3 nm/s2 and a duration of 2 ns at a detector. With a suitable high-Q resonant detector, a typical proton circulation time of 10 hours, and an impulse frequency at peak luminosity of 31.6 MHz, the SPL of the ‘antigravity beam’ at the LHC could be resonantly amplified to exceed 160 dB re 1 μPa.

Robert Freitas Wins the 2009 Feynman Prize for Theory

The winner of the 2009 Feynman Prize for Theory is Robert A. Freitas Jr. (IMM), in recognition of his pioneering theoretical work in mechanosynthesis in which he proposed specific molecular tools and analyzed them using ab initio quantum chemistry to validate their ability to build complex molecular structures. This Prize also recognizes his previous work in systems design of molecular machines, including replicating molecular manufacturing systems which should eventually be able to make large atomically precise products economically and the design of medical nanodevices which should eventually revolutionize medicine. The Foresight Institute, a nanotechnology education and public policy think tank based in Palo Alto awards the Feynman Prizes.

The winner of the 2009 Feynman Prize for Experimental work is the team of Yoshiaki Sugimoto, Masayuki Abe (Osaka University), and Oscar Custance (National Institute for Materials Science, Japan), in recognition of their pioneering experimental demonstrations of mechanosynthesis, specifically the use of atomic resolution dynamic force microscopy — also known as non-contact atomic force microscopy (NC-AFM) — for vertical and lateral manipulation of single atoms on semiconductor surfaces. Their work, published in Nature, Science, and other prestigious scientific journals, has demonstrated a level of control over the ability to identify and position atoms on surfaces at room temperature which opens up new possibilities for the manufacture of atomically precise structures.

Congratulations to the winners. Below is the latest work from Robert Freitas.

Recent Nanotechnology and Nanomedicine Publications by Robert Freitas

Robert A. Freitas Jr., “Chapter 22. Comprehensive Nanorobotic Control of Human Morbidity and Aging,” in Gregory M. Fahy, Michael D. West, L. Stephen Coles, and Steven B. Harris, eds, The Future of Aging: Pathways to Human Life Extension, Springer, New York, 2009. In press.

Denis Tarasov, Natalia Akberova, Ekaterina Izotova, Diana Alisheva, Maksim Astafiev, Robert A. Freitas Jr., “Optimal Tooltip Trajectories in a Hydrogen Abstraction Tool Recharge Reaction Sequence for Positionally Controlled Diamond Mechanosynthesis,” J. Comput. Theor. Nanosci. 6(2009). In press.

Robert A. Freitas Jr., “Medical Nanorobotics: The Long-Term Goal for Nanomedicine,” in Mark J. Schulz, Vesselin N. Shanov, YeoHeung Yun, eds., Nanomedicine Science and Engineering, Artech House, Norwood MA, 2009, Chapter 14, pp. 367-392. In press.


Nanomedicine, Nanorobotics, Nanofactories, Molecular Assemblers and Machine-Phase Nanotechnology Publications of Robert A. Freitas Jr. in 2009

Welcome to the future of medicine,” Studies in Health Technol. Inform.

A chapter describing the negative consequences of medical technology development and commercialization that is too slow, and makes the case for an immediate large scale investment in medical nanorobots to save 52 million lives a year. It also explains the essence of nanotechnology, its life-saving applications, the engineering challenges, and the possibility of 1000-fold improvement over our current human biological abilities. Every decade that we delay development and commercialization of medical nanorobotics, half a billion people perish who could have been saved.

Chemical Power for Microscopic Robots in Capillaries (arxiv, by Tad Hogg and Robert A. Freitas Jr.

The power available to microscopic robots (nanorobots) that oxidize bloodstream glucose while aggregated in circumferential rings on capillary walls is evaluated with a numerical model using axial symmetry and time-averaged release of oxygen from passing red blood cells. Robots about one micron in size can produce up to several tens of picowatts, in steady-state, if they fully use oxygen reaching their surface from the blood plasma. Robots with pumps and tanks for onboard oxygen storage could collect oxygen to support burst power demands two to three orders of magnitude larger. We evaluate effects of oxygen depletion and local heating on surrounding tissue. These results give the power constraints when robots rely entirely on ambient available oxygen and identify aspects of the robot design significantly affecting available power. More generally, our numerical model provides an approach to evaluating robot design choices for nanomedicine treatments in and near capillaries.

Meeting the Challenge of Building Diamondoid Medical Nanorobots

The technologies that are needed for the atomically precise fabrication of diamondoid nanorobots in macroscale quantities at low cost require the development of a new nanoscale manufacturing technology called positional diamondoid molecular manufacturing, enabling diamondoid nanofactories that can build nanorobots. Achieving this new technology will require the significant further development of four closely related technical capabilities: (1) diamond mechanosynthesis (2) programmable positional assembly (3) massively parallel positional assembly1 and (4) nanomechanical design. The Nanofactory Collaboration is coordinating a combined experimental and theoretical effort involving direct collaboration among dozens of researchers at multiple institutions in four countries to explore the feasibility of positionally controlled mechanosynthesis of diamondoid structures using simple molecular feedstocks, which is the first step along a direct pathway to developing working nanofactories that can fabricate diamondoid medical nanorobots.

Nanorobot Control 39 page pdf

Medical nanorobots may be constructed of diamondoid nanometer-scale parts
and subsystems including onboard sensors, motors, manipulators, power plants,
and molecular computers. The presence of onboard nanocomputers will allow
in vivo medical nanorobots to perform numerous complex behaviors which must
be conditionally executed on at least a semiautonomous basis, guided by receipt of
local sensor data, constrained by preprogrammed settings, activity scripts, and
event clocking, and further limited by a variety of simultaneously executing realtime
control protocols.

Such nanorobots cannot yet be manufactured, but preliminary scaling studies
for several classes of medical nanorobots including respirocytes, microbivores,
clottocytes and chromallocytes have been published in the literature. These
designs allow an analysis of basic computational tasks and a summation of major
computational control functions common to all complex medical nanorobots.
These functions include the control and management of pumping, sensing,
configuration, energy, communication, navigation, manipulation, locomotion,
computation, and the use of redundancy management and flawless compact
software.

Nanorobot control protocols are required to ensure that each nanorobot
completes its intended mission accurately, completely, safely, and in a timely
manner according to plan. Six major classes of nanorobot control protocols have
been identified and include operational, biocompatibility, theater, safety, security,
and group protocols. Six important subclasses of theater protocols include locational, functional, situational, phenotypic, temporal, and identity control
protocols.

Alcor Cryonics Has Published a Detailed Denial of the False Claims About Abuse of Ted Williams Head

A lot of people are letting misguided emotion and cryonics ick factor guide them into believing the false accusations. It seems clear that the accuser Larry Johnson planned to try to both make a buck out of finding fault with Alcor. It looks like he was also attracted to do it because of the Ted Williams angle. Ted Williams was a his "hero" and he started working their 6 months after Ted was placed there. Larry was at Alcor for 8 months and about half of that time Larry was actively recording and stealing.

ABC confirms that the head freezing was what was ordered. A Huffington post piece talks about how the son of Ted Williams was trashed by sports writers who emotionally did not want Ted frozen.

October 7, 2009: Alcor Response to ABC Nightline

Last night, Larry Johnson appeared on ABC's Nightline to promote the sale of his book, Frozen: My Journey into Cryonics, Deception and Death.

Mr. Johnson has had numerous opportunities to defend his actions in a court of law — both in Arizona and New York. He has failed to appear in Court in both states and has taken extreme steps to avoid service of process, and yet has no problem appearing on national television to slander innocent people and attempt to destroy a 40 year old nonprofit organization that has worked hard to gain respect among many in the scientific and medical communities.

Nightline made efforts to investigate Mr. Johnson's many fallacious claims. Mr. Johnson was caught in his own web of deceit when one of his claimed errors in the Ted Williams case was exposed as false. He was also forced to admit that he tried to profit from the death of baseball great, Ted Williams by charging visitors to his website $20 to view alleged photos of Mr. Williams' cryopreserved head. Such photos, some of which are part of internal case documentation files, were removed from Alcor without authorization by Mr. Johnson.

In his book and during the Nightline segment, Mr. Johnson claimed he witnessed Alcor staff striking Ted William's head with a wrench. Mr. Johnson, who was an executive with authority over the procedure in question, also claimed he said nothing about the purported incident when it allegedly occurred nor did he bring it to the attention of any other staff or board member. In fact, multiple individuals verified as documented witnesses to patient transfer procedures state without hesitation that Mr. Johnson's claims are pure fabrication. Alcor's internal investigation did not reveal any reports or recollections of any Alcor patient ever being struck by a wrench or any other object, accidentally or otherwise. Yet this fictional and unsubstantiated report continues to echo, as if it is fact, over and over again in the media

It is important to note that Mr. Johnson came to Alcor with supposed medical experience, and he was paid and entrusted to improve procedures and ensure the safety and privacy of Alcor members. In his short tenure, Mr. Johnson misappropriated Alcor property for his own financial gain; he invaded the privacy of private individuals by secretly recording their conversations; he absconded with medical records and technical photographs that were taken for documentation purposes and has presented these out of the context in which they were intended in order to make Alcor and its well-founded and documented procedures seem ghoulish in the eyes of the unsuspecting public. Mr. Johnson's actions violated the trust of Alcor, breached the confidence of its members and damaged the reputation of the science of cryonics.

As Nightline asked in the lead-in to the segment, "is this self-styled whistleblower just out to make money?" The answer is a resounding yes.

Ralph Merkle said that Johnson's main area of responsibility during his tenure at Alcor in 2003 was the supervision of the cryopreservation of Alcor members. According to Merkle, "Johnson expressed none of his lurid and sensationalistic concerns during his employment — when preventing and correcting any such alleged mistakes would have been a major part of his duties. Only afterwards, when he could profit from exaggerations and misrepresentations, did he start to complain about how Alcor performed cryopreservations."

Some of Johnson's most derogatory attacks of Alcor involve alleged mistakes during the cryopreservation of baseball great Ted Williams. Merkle said "It is absurd for Johnson to make these allegations because he had yet to be hired by Alcor when Williams was cryopreserved.

Bloomberg reports that Alcor Life Extension Foundation Inc., the Arizona cryonics company, sued a former employee to block publication of his expose claiming the organization mishandled the remains of baseball star Ted Williams.

ABC Coverage

In one of the most potent allegations in Johnson's book, he said Alcor cut off Williams' head without prior approval from his family.

"He was supposed to be a whole-body suspension," Johnson said. "He was supposed to be in one piece. They got him to the O.R. at Alcor and proceeded to cut through his neck."

But, in this instance at least, Johnson's version seemed to be incorrect. ABC News found notarized agreements, signed by Williams' oldest son and youngest daughter allowing Alcor the option of removing their father's head. The papers were signed in Florida just after 9 p.m. ET -- at least an hour before the operation began in Arizona, according to the log Johnson cites in his book.

Slanted Media Against the Son of Ted Williams
Huffington Post' Brian Ross: Ted Williams Head: How SI and the Mainstream Sports Media Gave John Henry Williams a Bum Rap

With the Larry Johnson kiss-and-tell book about Alcor Life Extension Labs coming out, the pot is being stirred again about Ted Williams frozen head, and its treatment.

Forget that Mr. Johnson, as COO, ran the lab, and could have cleaned up the very things that he is now lamenting... for profit.

Disregard that Tom Verducci, the sports writer who began ringing the fire bell about Williams' handling of his father's remains at Sports Illustrated (SI) did little more than source Bobby Jo Williams-Ferrell and those friends and family who didn't like the idea. He also did very little follow-up when the court upheld that Williams indeed did co-author this request along with the children to whom he was still speaking.

Liquid Nuclear Battery That Has the Potential to Reach One Million Times Chemical Battery Power Density

University of Missouri researchers are developing a nuclear energy source that is smaller, lighter and more efficient. Jae Kwon, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at MU. “The radioisotope battery can provide power density that is six orders of magnitude higher than chemical batteries.” The nuclear batteries are providing power for a decade or more. There are various radiation sources for energy levels of watts to kilowatts. Higher power levels would tend to need radiation shielding. The smaller devices would provide a fraction of a watt, but again last for a decade.

The Navy thinks it is feasible to scale liquid nuclear batteries to the 100 kw to 1 MW levels. For that kind of application, you could have the radiation shielding.

Kwon and his research team have been working on building a small nuclear battery, currently the size and thickness of a penny, intended to power various micro/nanoelectromechanical systems (M/NEMS). Although nuclear batteries can pose concerns, Kwon said they are safe.

“People hear the word ‘nuclear’ and think of something very dangerous,” he said. “However, nuclear power sources have already been safely powering a variety of devices, such as pace-makers, space satellites and underwater systems.”

His innovation is not only in the battery’s size, but also in its semiconductor. Kwon’s battery uses a liquid semiconductor rather than a solid semiconductor.

“The critical part of using a radioactive battery is that when you harvest the energy, part of the radiation energy can damage the lattice structure of the solid semiconductor,” Kwon said. “By using a liquid semiconductor, we believe we can minimize that problem.”

Jae Kwon's recent paper submitted to the 15th International Conference on Solid-State Sensors, Actuators and Microsystems was awarded the honor of being selected as "outstanding paper"

"The hard part of using radioactive decay is that when you harvest the energy, part of that energy goes towards creating defects that damage a solid-state semiconductor," Robertson, associate director of the research reactor, said. "Our hypothesis is that with a liquid-state semiconductor, the same damage won't happen. So we created a battery without that part degrading over time."

A long-lived power source not much larger than a MEMS device could be a hot property in the MEMS manufacturing industry. But Kwon says that there is "a long way to go" before his battery is ready for commercial marketing.

"Not necessarily in terms of a long time, but we have a lot of work before it is ready for industry. At this moment, we're still at the fundamental research level," he said.

Kwon, Robertson and their team are currently focused on increasing the power output and shrinking the size of the battery even further - among other things, they are exploring using other materials besides the sulfur-35 isotope they are currently using. They've also filed for a provisional patent.

"In the future, the battery can be thinner than the thickness of a human hair," Kwon said.

The research papers of the MEMS group at the University of Missouri

D. Meier, A. Garnov, J.D. Robertson, T. Wacharasindhu and J.W. Kwon, "Production of 35S for a Liquid Semiconductor Betavoltaic," Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry, in-print.

PRODUCTION OF 35S FOR A LIQUID SEMICONDUCTOR BETAVOLTAIC.
Meier, D.(1,2), Garnov, A.(2), Robertson, J.D.(1,2) Wacharasindhu, T.(3) Kwon,
J.W.(3) 1. Department of Chemistry 2. Research Reactor 3. Department of Electrical
Engineering University of Missouri‐Columbia.

The specific energy density from radioactive decay is five orders of magnitude greater than the specific energy density in conventional chemical battery and fuel cell technologies. As a result, radioisotope micro‐power sources (RIMS) hold great promise for the development of small power sources with dimensions consistent with the miniaturization advances being made in microelectromechanical (MEMS) systems. While a number of conversion schemes can be employed in RIMS, betavoltaic conversion technologies are compatible with the semiconductor manufacturing processes used in MEMS. We are currently investigating the use of liquid semiconductors based betavoltaics as a way to avoid the radiation damage that occurs in solid state semiconductor devices due to non‐ionizing energy loss (NIEL). Sulfur‐35 was selected as the isotope for the liquid semiconductor tests because it can be produced in high specific activity and because it is chemically compatible with liquid semiconductor media. Sulfur‐35 is a pure beta emitter with an average beta energy of 49 keV and a half‐life of 87.2 days. It was produced at the University of Missouri Research reactor via the 35Cl(n,p)35S reaction by irradiating potassium chloride discs in a thermal neutron flux of approximately 8x10^13 s‐1·cm‐2. A 150 hour irradiation produced on average 200 mCi per gram of KCl. The 35S was separated from the irradiated target and converted into elemental sulfur. The 35S was then mixed with selenium and incorporated into a liquid semiconductor device fabricated here at the University of Missouri. Results of the separation chemistry and device testing will be presented.

R. Almeida and J.W. Kwon, "Evaporation Controlled Ejeection with Thin Liquid-Film-Based Micorofluidic Valve," International Conference on Miniaturized Systems for Chemistry and Life Sciences, (South Korea), Nov. 1-5, 2009, Accepted.

C. Kirkendall and J.W. Kwon, "Liquid Damping Isolation on Quartz Crystal Microbalance for Effective Preservation of High Q and Sensitivity in Liquid," IEEE Conference on Sensors, (New Zealand), Oct. 25-28, 2009, Accepted.

T. Wacharasindhu, J.W. Kwon,D. Meier, and J.D. Robertson, "Radioisotope Microbattery Based on Liquid Semiconductor," Journal of Applied Physics Letters, 95, 014103, 2009.

A liquid semiconductor-based radioisotope micropower source has been pioneerly developed. The semiconductor property of selenium was utilized along with a 166 MBq radioactive source of 35S as elemental sulfur. Using a liquid semiconductor-based Schottky diode, electrical power was distinctively generated from the radioactive source. Energetic beta radiations in the liquid semiconductor can produce numerous electron hole pairs and create a potential drop. The measured power from the microbattery is 16.2 nW with an open-circuit voltage of 899 mV and a short-circuit of 107.4 nA.

T. Wacharasindhu, J.W. Kwon, D.E. Meier, and J.D. Robertson, "Liquid-Semiconductor-Based Micro Power Source Using Radioisotope Energy Conversion," IEEE International Conference on Solid-State Sensors, Actuators and Microsystems, (Denver, CO), June 21-25, 2009, pp656-659.

D.E. Meier, Alex Garnov, J.D. Robertson, T. Wacharasindhu and J.W. Kwon, "Production of 35S for A Liquid Semiconductor Betavoltaic," International Conference on Methods and Applications of Radioanalytical Chemistry (Kailua-kona, HI), April 5-10, 2009.

T. Wacharasindhu and J.W. Kwon, "Liquid Semiconductor Diode as a Thermal Harvester for High Temperature Applications," PowerMEMS"08, (Sendai, Japan), Nov9-12, 2008, pp. 53-56

Jae Kwon faculty page at University of Missouri

Introduction to Nuclear Batteries-Betavoltaics
Nuclear Battery

A collection of links on betavoltaics.

Two Stage Configuration Winterberg Fusion Rocket Could Go 20% of lightspeed

Adam Crowl, crowlspace, points out that with the 6.3% of light speed exhaust velocity from Winterbergs deuterium fusion rocket design means a 120,000 ton starship attached to 12,000,000 tons of deuterium can do a delta-vee of ~0.2 c (20% of lightspeed). This would be using the two stage configuration of the Project Daedelus (which was also based on Winterberg ideas). Daedelus had exhaust velocity of 3% of light speed.

With an efficient magnetic sail that means the journey speed approaches ~0.2 c, albeit with the mass-penalty of the sail. Perhaps a plasma-magnet can be formed at such speeds, with a quite different decceleration profile to the mag-sail, since the artificial magnetosphere balloons to match the plasma ram-pressure. Essentially the size goes up as the relative speed goes down, thus allowing a more-or-less constant braking force. A decceleration of 0.1 m/s2 will bring the vehicle to a halt in ~19 years over about 1.9 light-years from 0.2 c.

From Winterberg's paper: Neutron entrapment in an autocatalytic thermonuclear detonation wave is a means to increase the specific impulse and to solve the large radiator problem. The maximum exhaust velocity becomes 6.3% of light speed.



Project Daedelus

Daedalus would be constructed in Earth orbit and have an initial mass of 54,000 metric tons, including 50,000 tons of fuel and 500 tons of scientific payload. Daedalus was to be a two-stage spacecraft. The first stage would operate for two years, taking the spacecraft to 7.1% of light speed (0.071 c), and then after it was jettisoned the second stage would fire for 1.8 years, bringing the spacecraft up to about 12% of light speed (0.12 c) before being shut down for a 46-year cruise period. Due to the extreme temperature range of operation required (from near absolute zero to 1,900 K) the engine bells and support structure would be made of beryllium, which retains strength even at cryogenic temperatures. A major stimulus for the project was Friedwardt Winterberg's fusion drive concept for which he received the Hermann Oberth gold medal award.

This velocity is well beyond the capabilities of chemical rockets, or even the type of nuclear pulse propulsion studied during Project Orion. Instead, Daedalus would be propelled by a fusion rocket using pellets of deuterium/helium-3 mix that would be ignited in the reaction chamber by inertial confinement using electron beams. 250 pellets would be detonated per second, and the resulting plasma would be directed by a magnetic nozzle. Due to the scarcity of helium-3 it was to be mined from the atmosphere of Jupiter via large hot-air balloon supported robotic factories over a 20 year period.

The second stage would have two 5-meter optical telescopes and two 20-meter radio telescopes. About 25 years after launch these telescopes would begin examining the area around Barnard's Star to learn more about any accompanying planets. This information would be sent back to Earth, using the 40-meter diameter second stage engine bell as a communications dish, and targets of interest would be selected. Since the spacecraft would not decelerate upon reaching Barnard's Star, Daedalus would carry 18 autonomous sub-probes that would be launched between 7.2 and 1.8 years before the main craft entered the target system. These sub-probes would be propelled by nuclear-powered ion drives and carry cameras, spectrometers, and other sensory equipment. They would fly past their targets, still travelling at 12% of the speed of light, and transmit their findings back to the Daedalus second stage mothership.

RELATED READING
Marx Generators exist and Winterberg proposes putting one hundred of them in series to power a gigavolt fusion power system. Winterberg came up with the theory for the Z-pinch system that is being tested at the research labs now.

Winterbergs deuterium rocket uses similar principles to get to fusion as his most recent proposal for a fusion power system.

Winterberg's conjectured metastable explosive from using high pressures (100 million atmospheres) to alter molecules appears to have experimental confirmation from Young Bae of the Bae Institute

Winterbergs micro fusion work has been covered extensively on this site.

All of the articles that have been tagged with Winterberg

Orbital Gun Launch Systems, Light Gas Guns, Ram Accelerators and My Nuclear Cannon

New Scientist reports that John Hunter and two other ex-LLNL scientists have set up a company called Quicklaunch to make a light gas launch gun. The gun is larger than the Super High Altitude Research Project (SHARP) of the 1990's, but is smaller and cheaper than what was proposed for the Jules Verne Launcher Company. Guns constructed by Hunter’s group included a 3 meter version that reached 8 km/s, and a 130 m gun that accelerated a 5 kg projectile to 3 km/s. This project was referred to as the Super High Altitude Research Project (SHARP), and an unsuccessful commercial spin-off was called the Jules Verne Launcher Company.

At the Space Investment Summit in Boston last week, Hunter described a design for a 1.1-kilometre-long gun that he says could launch 450-kilogram payloads at 6 kilometres per second. A small rocket engine would then boost the projectile into low-Earth orbit.

The gun would cost $500 million to build, says Hunter, but individual launch costs would be lower than current methods. "We think it's at least a factor of 10 cheaper than anything else," he says.

Hunter acknowledges that the projectile would be slowed by its passage through Earth's atmosphere. But he says drag would be minimal on a pointy-nosed projectile, causing it to slow by only half a kilometre per second.

He also admits that the heat generated by the high-speed passage through the atmosphere is "like a welder's torch". However, it would be relatively short-lived, he says, with the projectile clearing the atmosphere in less than 100 seconds. Designing the projectile so that it could survive having some layers of its outer skin burned off would get around this problem, Hunter says.

Jules Verne Launcher Proposal



John Hunter had the Jules Verne Gun Company and they were trying to get funded in the mid-90s.

The full-scale gun would be bored into a mountain in Alaska for launches into high-inclination orbits. The gun would have a muzzle velocity of 7 km/second and fire 5,000 kg projectiles. The payload would be 1.7 m in diameter and 9 m long. Following burn of the rocket motor aboard the projectile, a net payload of 3300 kg would be placed into low earth orbit.

SHARP experience indicated maximum fire rate of the gun would be once per working day. A single gun could orbit over 1000 tonnes a year into orbit at a cost per kg one-twentieth of conventional rocket launchers. The economic breakeven point was calculated to be between the first 50 and 100 launches.

Payloads would be subjected to accelerations of about 1,000 G's during launch, so Hunter recruited specialists to design prototype hardened satellite systems. JVL was apparently still operating in 1998, but no investors came forward to finance the multi-billion dollar development cost.

LEO Payload: 3,300 kg (7,200 lb). to: 185 km Orbit. at: 60.00 degrees.
Launch Price $: 2.000 million. in: 1996 price dollars.

Another cost estimate was 6.6 billion dollars.

The barrel of the full-scale version would be 3km (1.9 miles) long and have a calibre or diameter of 1.7m (1.9 yards). It might be permanently dug-in inside a mountain to launch satellites at a fraction of today's rocket costs.

Popular Mechanics had a feature when the discussion was about 10-11 ton projectiles.



Ram Accelerators

Ram accelerators have been feature on this site. The Washington guys think they can build it for $40-50 million.

The ram accelerator is a chemically powered hypervelocity mass driver that operates with intube propulsive cycles similar to airbreathing ramjets and scramjets. The launcher consists of a long tube filled with a pressurized gaseous fuel-oxidizer mixture in which a subcaliber projectile having the shape similar to that of a ramjet centerbody is accelerated. No propellants for this launch process are carried aboard the projectile; it effectively flies through its own propellant “tank”. The ram accelerator at the University of Washington has been operated at velocities up to nearly 3 km/s and in-tube Mach numbers greater than 7 in methane-based propellant mixtures. This Mach number capability corresponds to muzzle velocities greater than 7 km/s when using fuel-rich hydrogen-oxygen propellant. The combination of hypervelocity muzzle velocities and the ram accelerator’s inherent scalability to multi-ton payload sizes makes it suitable for direct space launch.

Although it resembles a conventional long-barreled cannon, the principle of operation of the ram accelerator is notably different, being closely related to that of a supersonic airbreathing ramjet engine.

The total propellant mass used per ram accelerator launch to 8 km/s is

~20 times the mass of the projectile; e.g., ~40 metric Tons for a 2000 kg projectile.


Comparison to air breathing rocket


The firing sequence of a ram accelerator


Different from a regular big gun


Multiple stages of acceleration


Projectile mass and launch speed determine the cost per kilogram

Baffle tube ram accelerator (2005)

Ram Accelerator at wikipedia.

Nuclear Cannon

This site has previously presented the concept of the one underground pulse nuclear launch cannon. It is reconfiguring Project Orion into a one pulse true nuclear space cannon with no atmospheric detonations. Only underground detonation like was done Amchitka Island in Alaska. Most of the nuclear test ban can stay in place. The Threshold test ban only comes into effect when scaling up past the 150 kiloton underground test or launch. The Comprehensive test ban (1996) which would ban underground tests has not been ratified by the USA yet. The concept needs to use underground explosion for peaceful purposes. After reviewing the idea, we will look at the details of underground nuclear explosions.

One post presents the basic idea of the one pulse cannon and

works out more details of the underground launch and the configuration and how it relates to historical nuclear test.

Briefly Reviewing the One Underground Pulse Nuclear Launch Cannon

The light gas gun and ram accelerator work shows that smaller projectiles could be launched and survive the forces of launching and mostly be constructed to survive the passage through the atmosphere. A 150 kiloton nuclear cannon launch could deliver several thousand tons to orbit which would be more than the annual launch volume of the light gas gun or ram accelerator proposals.

I have an analysis of using a one pulse Orion like configuration to launch 100,000 to 200,000 tons of cargo to Orbit or the moon using one 10 megaton explosion. 150 kilotons which is allowed under the Threshold test ban could probably launch 500-1000 tons. Chemical rockets would take $1-5 trillion to launch that much cargo into space. Even assuming super-high volume chemical rocket costs could be reduce by ten times, this would still be a $100 billion to 500 billion value. (fuel, water, metals and any other gravity hardened material.)

10 Megatons of TNT, equal to 4.185x10^16 Joules (1 ton of TNT = 4.185x10^9 Joules, One Joule is one kilogram/M^2/S^2 )The average power produced during the entire fission-fusion process, lasting around 39 nanoseconds, was about 1.1×10^24 watts or 1.1 yottawatts. Configuring a nuclear device the way project Orion had planned would direct 85% if the energy at the pusher plate.

so 3.5*10^16 Joules towards kinetic energy.

Kinetic Energy =1/2*Mass*Velocity^2
Escape velocity=11186 M/S
EV ^ 2 = 125 million (m^2/s^2)

2.8*10^8 kg or 280,000 tons. Say 140,000 tons to double escape velocity if we wanted to be pretty sure that the projectile cargo could go the moon if we aimed it right.

It is a modification of the old underground nuclear tests. Repeating the old 5-10 megaton tests, but reconfigure to optimize conversion to kinetic energy as per the
Project Orion, Pascal-A/B, Thunderwell and Casaba-Howitzer work. Radiation containment for underground tests is a known problem and demonstrated by actual US and Russian tests.


This chart of space velocities corrects some previous information that I had for the nuclear cannon

Sacrifice one salt dome or an area under an island. Salt dome is easier to make a large diameter shaft for the projectile. Using natural geological feature mostly reduces cost of containment and has been demonstrated historically.

Actual out of pocket cost could be less than one billion dollars. Can be done within 2 years. Supercomputer modeling would be needed to get everything to work properly.

Very limited technical risk for the launch. Nuclear bombs work. Leverages the trillions spent on the arms race for good. (sunk costs)

Need to get some support from notable people who already support Project Orion.
Can we get George Dyson, Freeman Dyson or other old-timers to look at this idea and
see if they like it ? How much support if there is no airbursts, no dangerous EMP, and no atmospheric radiation but just vastly superior unmanned space launch capability. Negotiate for the exception to the comprehensive test ban. Maybe allow Russia, China, UK and France and other to share the payload that is delivered or for each to be allowed to launch one.

Historical containment of hundreds of underground nuclear bomb tests and the technical details of them and how they relate to the nuclear cannon concept.

If the nuclear cannon jump started a real space program.

Eros has a lot of gold and platinum in it. Perhaps a $100 trillion plus at $1000/ounce. The issue would be how much could be mined in a year and how would it effect market prices. Eros is shaped like a 33 km by 13 km by 13 km banana.

There is $100 billion in resources for every person on earth in the asteroids.

FURTHER READING

the first chapter of a lifeboat study on electromagnetic launching reviews the history of gun launch work.

Uzi Vishkin, Who Has a New Computer Programming Paradigm, Interview by Sander Olson

Here is the Uzi Vishkin interview. Dr. Vishkin is a Professor in the Department of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Maryland:



Dr. Vishkin has developed a new computer paradigm that has the potential to speed up many computer operations by 10x or even 100x. The new software developed by Dr. Vishkin, called eXplicit Multi Threading (XMT), is so easy to learn that high school students have been taught how to program it. Semiconductor makers are starting to show interest in this new technique given the dramatic speed gains that are possible. XMT could be standard on most desktops by 2013.

Explicit Multi-Threading (XMT): A PRAM-On-Chip Vision web page, which has technical information and tutorials

Question: Why are current software techniques poorly suited to take advantage of current multicore processors?

Answer: Students in computer science are still learning the C programming language, which has been used since the 1970s and which is poorly suited to extract the performance of multicore processors. The "software spiral" is effectively broken, and new hardware gains will only result in performance improvements if coupled with software that is explicitly parallel. In order to take full advantage of the capabilities that multicore processors offer, the computer industry will need to embrace a paradigm shift. Quite a few parallel programming languages have been developed over the years for supercomputers, which are also parallel machines . However, programming them is considered a challenge, and has repelled all but the most devoted programmers. We now have a new paradigm, called eXplicit Multi-Threading (XMT). XMT offers the best chance to take advantage of the benefits of multi-core processors.



Question: Tell us about XMT. How is it superior to current approaches?

Answer: XMT comprises a workflow process that systematically guides the programmer from finding a fast parallel algorithm to producing a parallel program. I developed the XMT paradigm in the late 1990s. It evolved from an earlier concept known as the Parallel Random-Access Machine/model (PRAM), which was an early attempt at parallel programming. The PRAM attempt was considered as having a great potential for a breakthrough in parallel computing, but until the arrival of the XMT paradigm with it, it was not clear how reduce this potential to practice. XMT requires a coordinated hardware and software approach to work optimally. At its core it is an extremely fine-grained approach to programming which is far superior to the course-grained programming techniques employed today. The XMT's fine-grained and irregular approach to parallel programming is so easy to use that even high school kids can write efficient programs.


Question: How does XMT work?

Answer: In XMT, the programming task is broken down, or "spawned" into threads that are very fine-grained. The instructions are essentially "broadcast" to all the cores of a chip instead of being individually sent to each core. Each thread advances on its own, rather than being synchronized with the other threads. The individual threads are then joined together when completed. So there are hardware algorithms for partitioning and merging the threads.


Question: What are the main advantages of XMT?

Answer: XMT provides several potential advantages over competing solutions. First and foremost, It is highly efficient, and can take full advantage of the latent power of PRAM programming, a concept that provides the largest knowledge based and easiest known approach to parallel programming. It is highly scalable, and can seamlessly scale to 1,000 cores or more. It is also easy to learn and program - a group of students at Thomas Jefferson high school in Virginia has already learned how to program using XMT.


: What sort of performance speedups did you achieve with this hardware? What speed improvements could one expect with most applications?

Answer: Compared to a core-2 duo processor, we managed a 10x improvement for our 64-processor XMT prototype, which in silicon is the same size as the Core-2 duo. We believe this to be indicative of the performance speedups that are possible. Although performance improvements will vary depending on the application, we predict substantial speedups of most applications. For some general-purpose applications, 100x speedups should be feasible with a 1000-processor XMT chip.


Question: Tell us more about this prototype XMTmachine.

Answer: The prototype is a Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) running at 75 MHz. It has 64 cores, and was specifically designed for XMT computing. It was so easy to build that it was designed by a single graduate student in only 2 years using standard Verilog software. In silicon, the chip is about the same size as a single commodity CPU core. Performance would obviously increase if it were to be fabbed using more modern lithography, such as 45 nm transistors.


Question: How radically does hardware need to be redesigned in order to take full advantage of XMT?

Answer: The changes are not radical. One needs to add a prefix-sum functional unit, which allows for fast coordination among parallel processors. An extension of the von-Neumann program- counter and stored-program apparatus is needed, along with a reduced synchrony on-chip interconnection network. A uniform memory architecture is also advantageous. Such changes are actually fairly minor and relatively easy to implement – some current and emerging chip designs would only need to be modified in order to take advantage of XMT.


Question: How long does it take to learn the XMT programming model?

Answer: Not long at all. The XMTC language is essentially C with two additional commands: SPAWN and PREFIX-SUM. This workflow, with multiple levels of abstraction, allows high-school and college programmers to do the same tasks as they are currently doing in their serial programming courses.


Question: How many programs could be rewritten in order to take advantage of XMT?

Answer: I believe that most programs could be modified to take advantage of XMT. Even programs such as data mining can be sped up substantially by using XMT. The objective now is to get a large number of programmers familiar with XMT concepts and programming.


Question: Is XMT intended to replace other programming models, such as Nvidia's CUDA?

Answer: No, it is intended to supplement and enhance other programming models.

Question: How familiar is the computer industry with XMT?

Answer: The industry is becoming aware of this. I gave talks on XMT last year to Intel in the US, and in China. I am about to leave to give another series of talks on this in Haifa, Israel. I have also taught the XMT programming to college and high-school students. I am in talks with other researchers at semiconductor companies about these concepts. The industry will become increasingly interested in XMT as it becomes apparent that this is a necessary solution to the multicore programming problem.


Question: How long before the XMT concept becomes mainstream?

Answer: XMT could be standard on most desktops as early as 2013. XMT is already mentioned in 28 non-XMT patents, and working hardware has already demonstrated that is an order of magnitude speedup over conventional hardware running standard software. The industry realizes that a new workflow paradigm is needed for parallel programming, and the XMT paradigm works. XMT will be the enabling paradigm that allows the computer industry to break the multi-core programming bottleneck.

Exawatt Lasers

Todd Ditmire of the University of Texas will talk about the present and future of the university's Texas Petawatt Laser program at the Optical Society's (OSA's) Annual Meeting, Frontiers in Optics (FiO; Oct. 11 to 15, 2009, San Jose, CA). At present the Texas Petawatt Laser producing pulses at the petawatt (10^15 W) power level, the laser could reach the exawatt (10^18 W) power level with modifications.

The Texas Petawatt Laser currently produces petawatt power through a process of chirping, in which a short light pulse (150 fs in duration) is stretched out in time. This resulting longer pulse is amplified to higher energy and then recompressed to its shorter duration, thus providing a modest amount of energy, 190 J, in a very brief interval.

The Texas device is capable of producing power densities exceeding 10^21 W/cm2.

To get to exawatt powers, Ditmire hopes to combine largely existing laser technology and his already tested 100 fs pulses with new laser-glass materials that would allow amplification up to energies of 100 kJ. The laser's 190 J current energy level is typical of laser labs at or near the petawatt level, such as those in Oxford, England; Osaka, Japan; and Rochester, NY. With support from the government and the research community, building an exawatt laser might take the years to achieve, Ditmire estimates.

Europe's big lasers: the exawatt roadmap

Over the next decade, a trio of planned pan-European research facilities will give scientists access to unprecedented laser powers and intensities, opening the door to exotic science that will shed light on the origins of the universe and, it is hoped, provide the foundations for a sustainable energy future.

The overall construction cost for this new generation of "super lasers" is in excess of €2 bn, with operational budgets running to several hundred million euros per year.



A major European laser facility in the works is the Extreme Light Infrastructure (ELI), a project that's being led by scientists at the Laboratoire d'Optique Appliquée (LOA) at the Ecole Polytechnique, Palaiseau, France. Scheduled to fire up in 2015, ELI will enable fundamental science to be carried out at the very highest laser powers (in the exawatt regime, 10^18 W) and intensities (10^24 W/cm2).

According to Collier, though, the jury is still out on the best approach to realize a high-repetition-rate 200 PW laser. "For a certain class of experiments, you want this power to be focused as if it were a single beam in order to get maximum intensity. Obviously we can't deliver that amount of energy in a single beamline."

One possible contender is a titanium:sapphire single-laser beamline called ILE, a work-in-progress at LOA. Even when fully optimized, however, the peak output power from ILE falls way short, at around 20 PW. The solution could be to coherently lock multiple beams into a single output, though this is a daunting challenge in its own right.

This site previously looked at zettawatt and exawatt laser plans.

A zettawatt system could be built using Yb:glass, with the advantages of being relatively compact due to the high Fsat of this material and being diode pumpable, much development work needs to be accomplished to reach this intensity level with this material. The proposed systems described below have been stimulated by the construction , both in France and in the U.S, of lasers delivering a few megajoules of energy as well as the availability of large telescope technology (10m diameter) and deformable mirrors

An exawatt system on the other hand,which would produce 10 kJ in 10 fs, i.e., 10^25 W/cm2, could be readily constructed. Only one percent or 30 kJ of the NIF/LMJ energy would be necessary. The beam size will be of the order of one meter in diameter. The amplifying method will be composed of a matrix of 25 Ti:sapphire 20×20 cm^2 crystals and two gratings of meter-size.

Attoseconds, Zeptoseconds and Yoctoseconds

Attoseconds are 10^-18 seconds. 1 attosecond is the time it takes for light to travel the length of three hydrogen atoms.
Zeptoseconds are 10^-21 seconds
Yoctoseconds are 10^-24 seconds. 1 ys: time taken for a quark to emit a gluon. The time that light needs to traverse an atomic nucleus

1.
Collisions of heavy ions in a large accelerator facility (schematic). Under certain conditions, double light flashes of a few yoctoseconds duration can be emitted. MPI for Nuclear Physics

Yoctosecond Photon Pulses from Quark-Gluon Plasmas

Present ultrafast laser optics is at the frontier between atto- and zeptosecond photon pulses, giving rise to unprecedented applications. We show that high-energetic photon pulses down to the yoctosecond time scale can be produced in heavy-ion collisions. We focus on photons produced during the initial phase of the expanding quark-gluon plasma. We study how the time evolution and properties of the plasma may influence the duration and shape of the photon pulse. Prospects for achieving double-peak structures suitable for pump-probe experiments at the yoctosecond time scale are discussed.

High-energy heavy ion collisions, which are studied at RHIC in Brookhaven and soon at the LHC in Geneva, can be a source of light flashes of a few yoctoseconds duration (a septillionth of a second, 10-24 s, ys) - the time that light needs to traverse an atomic nucleus. This is shown in calculations of the light emission of so-called quark-gluon plasmas, which are created in such collisions for extremely short periods of time. Under certain conditions, double flashes are created, which could be utilized in the future to visualize the dynamics of atomic nuclei.

In the collision of heavy ions (i.e. atoms of heavy elements from which all electrons have been removed) at relativistic velocities, such a quark-gluon plasma is created for a few yoctoseconds at the size of a nucleus. Among many other particles, it also creates photons of a few GeV (billion electron volts) energy, so-called gamma radiation. These high-energy flashes of light are as short as the lifetime the quark-gluon plasma and consist of only a few photons.

Temporal evolution of the quark-gluon plasma. Two ions (colored disks) collide along the beam collision axis (black double arrow). Image (a) shows the time immediately after the collision. The plasma (orange area) shines light (wavy arrows) in all directions, so that a first pulse in the direction of the detector (green semi-circle) is formed. (b) After some time, the inner dynamics of the plasma will cause light to be preferentially radiated perpendicular to the direction of flight of the ions. During this time no light is emitted into the direction of the detector which is placed close to the collision axis. In (c) the plasma radiates again in all directions, so that the second pulse is emitted in the direction of the detector.
MPI for Nuclear Physics

2. ADVANCED SPECTROSCOPY: Attosecond spectroscopy moves beyond the atomic scale

Ultrashort attosecond light pulses, when used as the "shutter" in an imaging or spectroscopy system, can probe into the attosecond realm to see how the actual motions of electrons drive atomic and molecular dynamics.

The application of these 80 as pulses to the field of spectroscopy is vast. "For example, in life sciences attosecond spectroscopy may ultimately create ways of understanding the microscopic origins of how a disease, such as cancer, emerges and develops at the most fundamental level: in terms of the motion of electrons," said Ferenc Krausz, director of MPQ, head of the Attosecond and High Field Physics division of MPQ, and pioneer of femto­second and attosecond science.

To create an attosecond light pulse, a phase-stabilized femtosecond laser with pulse-to-pulse uniformity in terms of intensity, frequency, and physical shape are input to a gas jet such as neon. The femtosecond pulse pulls electrons from the neon atoms (field ionization), which then collide with their "parent" atoms in a recombination process and produce a synchronized, attosecond duration, extreme ultraviolet (XUV) pulse in a high-order harmonic generation (HHG) process

Further shortening light pulses would enable even more new scientific ground to be explored. “Pulses in the so called zeptosecond time scale (1 zeptosecond is 10–21 seconds) might also become available in the future,” says Goulielmakis. “This timescale is relevant to the proton and neutron motion inside the nuclei of atoms and therefore will open the door to capturing nuclear processes in real time.”



3. Laser gate: multi-MeV electron acceleration and zeptosecond e-bunching

Relativistically-intense laser beam with large field gradient (”laser gate”) enables strong inelastic scattering of electrons crossing the beam. This process allows for multi-MeV electron net acceleration per pass within the wavelength space. Inelastic scattering even in low-gradient laser field may also induce extremely tight temporal focusing and electron bunch formation down to quantum, zepto-second limit.

Nickel Lithium Batteries from Japan and Lithium Air Batteries from IBM

1. Researchers at Japan’s National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) have developed a prototype of a battery that can simultaneously offer the high cell voltage of Li-ion cells and the large cell capacity of Ni-MH cells: a rechargeable nickel (cathode) / lithium metal (anode) battery using a hybrid aqueous and organic electrolyte separated by a superionic conductor glass ceramic film.

A rechargeable Ni-Li battery, in which nickel hydroxide serving as a cathode in an aqueous electrolyte and Li metal serving as an anode in an organic electrolyte were integrated by a superionic conductor glass ceramic film (LISICON), was proposed with the expectation to combine the advantages of both a Li-ion battery and Ni-MH battery. It has the potential for an ultrahigh theoretical energy density of 935 Wh/kg, twice that of a Li-ion battery (414 Wh/kg), based on the active material in electrodes. A prototype Ni-Li battery fabricated in the present work demonstrated a cell voltage of 3.47 V and a capacity of 264 mAh/g with good retention during 50 cycles of charge/discharge. This battery system with a hybrid electrolyte provides a new avenue for the best combination of electrode/electrolyte/electrode to fulfill the potential of high energy density as well as high power density.

A paper on the proposed Ni-Li system was published 5 October in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.

Two page pdf with supporting information.

2. The Battery 500 Project recently held its kickoff meeting at IBM's Almaden Laboratory in San Jose, Calif., where leading scientists, engineers and other experts brainstormed about how to perfect the power source for all-electric automobiles.

In order to make 500 miles on a single battery charge possible, IBM is tracking toward an energy density of 1500 to 2000 watt hours per kilogram

45 page slide presentation on IBM lithium air batteries.

IBM plans to harness its nanoscale semiconductor manufacturing techniques to boost the capacity of batteries by increasing their storage density by 10 times over the lithium-ion batteries used today. The Battery 500 Project aims to achieve that goal with a lithium-air battery technology, whose feasibility was demonstrated earlier this year at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland.

Lithium-air batteries are unique in that instead of being a sealed system, they couple to atmospheric oxygen—essentially harnessing the oxygen in the air as the cathode of the battery. Since oxygen enters the battery on-demand, it offers an essentially unlimited amount of reactant, metered only by the surface area of its electrodes. IBM believes its nanoscale semiconductor fabrication techniques can increase the surface area of the lithium-air battery's electrodes by at least 100 times, enabling them to meet the goals of the project.

This site covered the lithium air batteries before.


A comparison of practical and theoretical specific energy limits for various battery technology. Others predict higher practical and theoretical levels.

FURTHER READING
43 pages of slides of another presentation from IBM on lithium polymer batteries.

Lithium–Air Battery
SJ Visco, E Nimon, LC De Jonghe, PolyPlus Battery Company, Berkeley, CA, USA, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley,USA

Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Introduction

The large free energy for the reaction of lithium with oxygen has attracted the interest of battery researchers for decades. At a nominal potential of about 3V, the theoretical specific energy for a lithium/air battery is over 5000 Wh kg-1 for the reaction forming LiOH (Li + 1/4O2 + 1/2 H2O ↔ LiOH) and 11,000 Wh kg-1 for the reaction forming Li2O2 (2 Li + O2 ↔ Li2O2) or for the reaction of lithium with dissolved oxygen in seawater, rivaling the energy density for hydrocarbon fuel cells and far exceeding Liion battery chemistry that has a theoretical specific energy of about 400 Wh kg-1.

A 52 page presentation that indicates that lithium air may not beat more advanced lithium ion.

Robotic Driving and More at Cornell

The researchers also will work with self-driving Segway transporters, which will be programmed to work together as teams for mapping and search-and-rescue-applications.

Physorg reports that Cornell is geting a new $1,473,121, three-year grant from the National Science Foundation to advance the self driving car.

"We'll be looking at the next level of intelligence in the vehicle," said Mark Campbell, associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering and the lead researcher for the project.

Skynet, Cornell's entry in the DARPA Urban Challenge, drove itself through 55 miles of simulated city driving and was one of the top self driving cars.

Cornell Self Driving Approach

All of Skynet's core code was open-sourced on Google Code in 2008. This includes our Artificial Intelligence, Path Planner, Target Tracking and Position Estimation algorithms.

Team Cornell divides its technical approach along five major sub-problems identified in the DARPA Urban Challenge: building a drive-by-wire vehicle platform, determining the location and orientation of the platform, sensing and tracking objects in the platform’s environment, estimating and extracting the structure of that environment, and planning and executing missions intelligently within that structure. These dividing lines allow solutions to these sub-problems to be developed in parallel, with rapid and seamless integration into a final prototype vehicle.





Cooperative Tracking
Campbell's research group is working on cooperative tracking using Multiple UAV's


Three ScanEagle UAV's cooperatively tracking a target moving on a road

Sensor Fusion

Fusion theory applied to the Cornell vehicle in the DARPA Grand Challenge. Multiple sensors are quickly fused probabilistically to create a map for driving.

IBM Targeting 100 Dollar Genome Sequencing

IBM is developing nanopore DNA sequencing to ultimately bringing the cost to as low as $100 or less to sequence a genome.

MIT Technology Review has details.

Several research groups are developing their own approach to nanopore sequencing. All involve the movement of DNA molecules through a tiny pore one base at a time; as the bases move through the pore, they can be read using various techniques. But one of the biggest obstacles to making a practical nanopore sequencer has been controlling the rate of the movement of the DNA. This is the problem the IBM group is working on. "The DNA goes through the pore too fast," says Gustavo Stolovitzky, manager of functional genomics and systems biology at IBM's T. J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, NY.

For the past two years, Stolovitzky's group at IBM has been developing chips arrayed with "DNA transistors" that use layered electrodes to control the movement of the DNA. The electrodes are built on the company's research fabrication line using the same technology employed to make silicon integrated circuits.

The IBM researchers first deposit conducting and semiconducting materials that will act as electrodes onto silicon wafer layers each about three nanometers thick. Then they use a transmission-electron microscope to blast a hole as small as one nanometer in diameter in the stack. A chip is cut from the wafer and placed in the middle of a container of potassium chloride, like a partition. DNA molecules are placed on one side of the solution, and a voltage is applied across the chip. Because DNA has an electrical charge, the IBM researchers can control its movement through the pore by using the electrodes to create electrical fields.

Controlling the movement of the DNA with microelectronics might prove more practical, and it seems to allow for better control, says Schloss.

Colfax CXT8000 Eightway Nvidia GPU Server

Hexus features the Colfax CXT8000; a server with eight NVIDIA Tesla GPUs and purportedly the world's first such system. (H/T Sander Olson)

Bright side of news covers the CXT8000 as well.

The Colfax GPU server section of their website.

The eight GPU (eight Tflop), 4U, rack-mounted supercomputer was rendered even more impressive by its specially engineered motherboard - sporting no less than eight PCIe Gen 2 x16 slots, ensuring that each C1060 Tesla GPU gets blasted with data over full bandwidth

Backing up the eight GPUs with their whopping 1,920 processor cores (8 x 240), the system also sports two Intel Xeon (Nehalem) DP quad-core W5590 processors, up to 144GB of DDR3 system memory, two internal 2.5in SATA drives, two 1,200W (2,400W) non-redundant power supplies, four Intel 82574l Gigabit Ethernet controllers, IPMI 2.0W/IKVM support, integrated ASPEED AST 2050 VGA controller and a Linux OS.

The basic configuration costs around $21,140

A prediction that I had from 2006.

PREDICTION: Thousand+ CPU workstations- mainstream chip vendors 2009-2012

By counting CPU cores, this server has 1920 CPUs from mainstream chip vendor Nvidia.



In other supercomputing news, The University of Tennessee’s supercomputer, Kraken, has broken a major barrier to become the world’s first academic supercomputer to enter the petascale, performing more than 1 thousand trillion operations per second, a landmark achievement.

Kraken, a Cray XT5 computer, also has a massive amount of memory to store the information used in scientists’ large-scale projects. With 129 terabytes of memory, Kraken can store the equivalent of more than 10 million phonebooks.

As the first computer managed by a university to pass this milestone, Kraken puts UT in front of other major computing centers across the country, while enhancing the national research effort through Kraken’s role in NSF’s nationwide network of computers called TeraGrid, the largest computational platform for open scientific research. Kraken is housed in the computing facilities at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, which are also home to another petascale computer, called Jaguar.

Marx Generators

A 114 page masters thesis from 2005 on the operation of a 3 Megavolt Marx Generator at the University of Missouri Columbia

The UMC Marx and all its subsystems are housed in the Pulsed Power Research Laboratory on campus. This lab enables students to design, build, and test large-scale pulsed power projects. One of the goals of the lab was to develop a test facility to study oil breakdown of enhanced and uniform gaps. The now operational test facility includes a thirty-stage, three megavolt Marx generator. The pulser is designed to deliver a 3 MV output pulse with a risetime (10-90%) of ≤ 10 ns with a peaking gap. The output polarity of the pulser can be easily reversed for switch and dielectric testing.

The Marx is designed to be charged with two, ± 50 kV power supplies for a 3 MV
output pulse. Currently, the Marx is configured to charge with one +50 kV Glassman power supply and one -40 kV, Kaiser power supply. The +50 kV, Glassman Model PS/WG-50P6, is a 300 W power supply that can deliver 60 mA. The -40 kV Kaiser Series 1000 is a 500 W power supply that can deliver 12.5 mA.

The Marx is dual-polarity charged and contains thirty capacitive stages. Each stage
consists of six 32 nF tubular capacitors. The six capacitors per stage are arranged three in parallel to form a half-stage with two half-stages in series. The capacitors are members of the Condenser Products KMOP Series. The capacitors are housed in thermo-plastic tubing and consist of a composite dielectric of kraft tissue and polyester film with a mineral oil impregnant.

The capacitor voltage maximum is 250 kV with a temperature range of -40°C to +65°C. The capacitors are designed for 500,000 shots with no applied reverse voltage. With applied reverse voltage, the number of shots in the lifetime of the capacitor will decrease according to the formula described in Equation 2.1 given by Condenser Products

Video of A 2-3 Megavolt Marx Generator in Germany




Winterberg wants to Use One Hundred 10 Megavolt Marx Generators to drive Nuclear Fusion

The Winterberg Super Marx Generator Proposal

The Marx generators exist and are affordable for a moderate university. Building and connecting one hundred in series seems like challenge but not necessarily more than a big super collider facility. Such a facility would not only be able to investigate science but possibly enable commercial fusion energy generation. Perhaps a super marx could be funded 25% from federal funds (perhaps Department of Energy), 25% fomr the state where it would be sited, 25% from a collection of Top Universities (MIT, Harvard, Stanford etc...) and 25% from 50 smaller universities. The physics and engineering departments of those schools get shared research access.

Lysosome AntiAging Science in NY Times, Lysosome Science Already One of the Seven Key Areas in SENS

Self-Destructive Behavior in Cells May Hold Key to a Longer Life is an article in the New York Times covering Lysosome science.

the Lysosens project was one of the first funded projects of SENS (Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence)

The NY Times is validating what SENS is doing. Donate to support SENS and accelerate the solutions to aging. (click this link to go to donate)

Project: Lipofuscin-Destroying Enzymes to Treat Macular Degeneration
Lysosomes are the cell's waste incinerators, responsible for destroying all kinds of molecules when they are no longer needed. Thus, they harbor an impressive array of enzymes capable of attacking and breaking many substances, but not all. Some molecules are formed so slowly that evolution "did not select for" an enzyme for degrading them. Rather, these molecules are stored in the lysosomes, and accumulate over the entire life span until they get in the way of the affected cells' normal functioning and cause disease. Medical bioremediation is the proposal to destroy these molecules using lysosomal enzyme therapy. See De Grey AD, Alvarez PJ, Brady RO, Cuervo AM, Jerome WG, McCarty PL, Nixon RA, Rittmann BE, Sparrow JR. Medical bioremediation: prospects for the application of microbial catabolic diversity to aging and several major age-related diseases. Ageing Res Rev. 2005 Aug;4(3):315-38. PMID 16040282.

Dr Cuervo is one of the researchers featured in the NY Times article.

LysoSENS
Destroying junk inside cells is one of the seven targets of SENS

The SENS strategy was first published in 1999 and there have been meetings, research and activity starting in 2000.


Trends in Cell Biology article : The regulation of aging: does autophagy underlie longevity? is the primary basis of the NY Times article The Trends in Cell Biology article is by Tibor Vellai , Krisztina Takács-Vellai1, Miklós Sass and Daniel J. Klionsky.

The accumulation of cellular damage is a feature common to all aging cells and leads to decreased ability of the organism to survive. The overall rate at which damage accumulates is influenced by conserved metabolic factors (longevity pathways and regulatory proteins) that control lifespan through adjusting mechanisms for maintenance and repair. Autophagy, the major catabolic process of eukaryotic cells that degrades and recycles damaged macromolecules and organelles, is implicated in aging and in the incidence of diverse age-related pathologies. Recent evidence has revealed that autophagic activity is required for lifespan extension in various long-lived mutant organisms, and that numerous autophagy-related genes or proteins are directly regulated by longevity pathways. These findings support the emerging view that autophagy is a central regulatory mechanism for aging in diverse eukaryotic species

Our cells build two kinds of recycling factories. One kind, known as the proteasome, is a tiny cluster of proteins. It slurps up individual proteins like a child sucking a piece of spaghetti. Once inside the proteasome, the protein is chopped up into its building blocks.

For bigger demolition jobs, our cells rely on a bigger factory: a giant bubble packed with toxic enzymes, known as a lysosome. Lysosomes can destroy big structures, like mitochondria, the sausage-shaped sacs in cells that generate fuel. To devour a mitochondrion, a cell first swaddles it in a shroudlike membrane, which is then transported to a lysosome. The shroud merges seamlessly into the lysosome, which then rips the mitochondrion apart. Its remains are spit back out through channels on the lysosome’s surface.

Lysosomes are versatile garbage disposals. In addition to taking in shrouded material, they can also pull in individual proteins through special portals on their surface. Lysosomes can even extend a mouthlike projection from their membrane and chew off pieces of a cell.

The shredded debris that streams out of the lysosomes is not useless waste. A cell uses the material to build new molecules, gradually recreating itself from old parts. “Every three days, you basically have a new heart,” said Dr. Ana Maria Cuervo, a molecular biologist at Albert Einstein College of Medicine.

This self-destruction may seem like a reckless waste of time and energy. Yet it is essential for our survival, and in many different ways. Proteasomes destroy certain proteins quickly, allowing them to survive for only about half an hour. That speed allows cells to keep tight control over the concentrations of the proteins. By tweaking the rate of destruction, it can swiftly raise or lower the number of any kind of protein.

Lysosomes, which eat more slowly than proteasomes, serve different roles that are no less essential. They allow cells to continue to build new molecules even when they are not getting a steady supply of raw ingredients from the food we eat. Lysosomes also devour oily droplets and stores of starch, releasing energy that cells can use to power the construction of new molecules.

The decline of autophagy may be an important factor in the rise of cancer, Alzheimer’s disease and other disorders that become common in old age. Unable to clear away the cellular garbage, our bodies start to fail.

Dr. Cuervo and her colleagues, for example, have observed that in the livers of old mice, lysosomes produce fewer portals on their surface for taking in defective proteins. So they engineered mice to produce lysosomes with more portals. They found that the altered lysosomes of the old experimental mice could clear away more defective proteins. This change allowed the livers to work better.

“These mice were like 80-year-old people, but their livers were functioning as if they were 20,” Dr. Cuervo said. “We were very happy about that.”

Andrea Ballabio, the scientific director of Telethon Institute of Genetics and Medicine in Naples, Italy, and his colleagues have found another way to raise autophagy. By studying the activity of genes that build lysosomes, they discovered that at least 68 of the genes are switched on by a single master protein, known as TFEB.

When Dr. Ballabio and his colleagues engineered cells to make extra TFEB, the cells made more lysosomes. And each of those lysosomes became more efficient. The scientists injected the cells with huntingtin, a protein that clumps to cause the fatal brain disorder Huntington’s disease. The cells did a much better job of destroying the huntingtin than normal cells.