Tag: military

Hydrogen

Following up on the depolymerization initiative of the DOD, there is a similar initiative being undertaken by the DOE. Hydrogen age, here we come.

In the next quarter to half century, further advances may lead to large-scale production of hydrogen gas for fuel cells and the ability to store in the ground both bio- and fossil-derived CO2. Microbes could enable the inexpensive production of hydrogen by consuming a hydrogenated feedstock and releasing H2, for example, splitting water with light or splitting hydrogen from biomass or even coal.

2007-03-14: Hydrogen car dashboard


Driving around Monterey in the BMW Hydrogen 7.

The liquid hydrogen tank is in the trunk (at -418°F), and a H2 button on the steering wheel switches the V12 engine between hydrogen and gasoline.

2007-06-22: Superconducting Turbojet

A superconducting motor would be very lightweight and far more efficient electrically, generating 3x the torque of a conventional electric motor for the same energy input and weight. In addition, an electric aircraft would be far quieter than a conventional jet as there are no internal combustion processes involved. Liquid hydrogen is cold enough to make the superconducting magnets work but also has 4x as much energy weight for weight than aviation fuel.

2008-01-11: Thermoelectric Energy Conversion. Using hydrogen as a heat exchanger, solid state, 60% efficient energy generation. Can be used with solar, internal combustion, turbines and other sources of waste heat.

The JTEC is an all solid-state engine that operates on the Ericsson cycle. Equivalent to Carnot, the Ericsson cycle offers the maximum theoretical efficiency available from an engine operating between 2 temperatures. The JTEC system utilizes the electro-chemical potential of hydrogen pressure applied across a proton conductive membrane (PCM). The membrane and a pair of electrodes form a Membrane Electrode Assembly (MEA) similar to those used in fuel cells. On the high-pressure side of the MEA, hydrogen gas is oxidized resulting in the creation of protons and electrons. The pressure differential forces protons through the membrane causing the electrodes to conduct electrons through an external load. On the low-pressure side, the protons are reduced with the electrons to reform hydrogen gas. This process can also operate in reverse. If current is passed through the MEA a low-pressure gas can be “pumped” to a higher pressure.

The JTEC could utilize heat from fuel combustion, solar, low grade industrial waste heat or waste heat from other power generation systems including fuel cells, internal combustion engines and combustion turbines. As a heat pump, the JTEC system could be used as a drop in replacement for existing HVAC equipment in residential, commercial, or industrial settings.

2008-02-08: Mach 5 Civil Transport

To compliment the Scimitar engine, Reaction Engines has proposed a suitable vehicle configuration (A2) that attains the necessary subsonic and supersonic lift/drag ratio for efficient commercial operation. The airframe is designed to have adequate control authority about all axes to handle engine-out and to achieve pitch trim over the full Mach range. In addition the airframe configuration is an efficient structural shape with circular cross section hydrogen tankage and uninterrupted carry-through wing spars. The vehicle is sized to carry 300 passengers since this is typical of future supersonic transport designs and thought to be the minimum to achieve a competitive seat/km cost.


They also have an unpiloted, reusable spaceplane intended to provide inexpensive and reliable access to space.

skylon space plane will be ~$550 / kg to orbit initially and $145 later, significantly cheaper than spacex, which is around $1500 / kg. the space shuttle was $22k / kg. this is achieved with a lower mass ratio, because skylon is air breathing up to 25k altitude. this is a very interesting design and i hope they succeed.

2010-07-13: Hydrogen Drone

Boeing has unveiled the hydrogen-powered Phantom Eye unmanned airborne system for collecting data and communications, a demonstrator that will stay aloft at 20 km for up to 4 days.

Between this and the british unmanned fighter plane, an inflection point.

2014-03-14: Making hydrogen storage practical will make tesla batteries look like amateur hour, and have huge implications.

DOE had hoped that by 2017, a research team could pack in 7.5% hydrogen by weight by 2020. Li’s team has already crossed that threshold, with a hydrogen storage density of 9.5%. The team has also demonstrated the potential to reach an even higher density

2020-06-09: The push to make America tun on hydrogen. This seems at least partially a boondoggle like ethanol.

Nikola’s truck cab—a 1000-horsepower system comprising carbon fiber tanks, hydrogen fuel and a fuel-cell stack—will push an 18-wheeler up to 1200km and weighs 9000kg. The same juice would demand a lithium-ion battery that would add at least 2000kg to a truck with the same range.

2020-12-10: Negative emission car. This is extremely silly, but then again I remember how much people enjoyed the display in a Prius that tells you how much energy you’re getting back from braking. Anything can be turned into a game.

The car is equipped with Toyota’s “Minus Emissions” technology, whereby air is taken into the vehicle, purified, sent into the fuel stack in order to generate electricity, then vented back out of the vehicle. By the time it comes out of the exhaust, the air has been scrubbed of any harmful chemicals and particulate matter 2.5 microns or greater in size. Are people around you likely to notice that you’ve left fresher air? Perhaps not, but you will: “The large 31cm center display includes an Air Purification display that shows the amount of air purified when driving through an easy-to-understand graphic of runners and digital display. It also includes an Air Purification meter that shows how much air is purified during acceleration. The meter enables the driver to feel the contribution that the new Mirai is making to the environment.”

Nuclear Weapons

Broken pipes and rusty fences. If that ain’t scary, few things are.

The main entrances to Los Alamos are only marginally better defended than TA-33’s land. The military-like guards keeping watch at these points certainly look fierce in camouflage paints and black bulletproof vests. But there’s little to back up the image. Their belts have gun holsters, but no guns to fill them. Around facilities like the biology lab, where anthrax and other biotoxins have been handled, no sentries stand guard at all. Nor is there any kind of fence to keep the curious and the malicious away — not even a piece of string.

2006-10-09: Might it all be posturing?

The United States Geological Survey is now reporting the magnitude of the claimed North Korean nuclear test as 4.2. This seems to be curiously low. Now, estimating explosive yield from the body magnitude of a seismic event is a tricky business, and requires knowledge of details such as the depth of the detonation and the geological properties of the surroundings, but a magnitude around 4.2 is what you’d expect for a detonation of 1 kiloton. The “natural size” of a crude fission bomb is in excess of 10 kilotons, from which you’d expect a magnitude closer to 5. It is very unlikely that a low kiloton yield device would be used in an initial test.

2006-12-03: The Agony of Atomic Genius, biographical sketch of J. Robert Oppenheimer

Now I am become death, destroyer of worlds

2008-06-28: Man-made nuclear explosions in the 1940s and 1950s released isotopes into the environment that do not occur naturally, allowing the dating of works of art.
2010-09-21: The Atom Bomb on Film. Or you could go to the atomic testing museum in Vegas and see these and much more in person.

2010-11-25: Nuke Detector. Turn a supertanker into an antineutrino detector by kitting it out with the necessary photon detectors and filling it with 10^34 protons. Then station it off the coast of suspicious countries and submerge it.
2013-11-26: India nuclear assassinations and the Indian government is mum about it. Nuclear scientists have very high mortality in Iran too, but the government there is making a huge ruckus about it.

Indian nuclear scientists haven’t had an easy time of it over the past 10 years. Not only has the scientific community been plagued by “suicides,” unexplained deaths, and sabotage, but those incidents have gone mostly underreported in the country—diluting public interest and leaving the cases quickly cast off by police.

2014-02-05: Nuclear backpacks

during the Cold War, the United States did deploy man-portable nuclear destruction. If Warsaw Pact forces ever bolted toward Western Europe, they could resort to nukes to delay the advance long enough for reinforcements to arrive. These “small” weapons, many of them more powerful than the Hiroshima bomb, would have obliterated any battlefield and irradiated much of the surrounding area.

2014-11-15: X-Ray Man

In 1957, a young man named Darrell Robertson enlisted in the US Army and participated in a secret training program in the middle of the Nevada desert. He and his fellow recruits were sworn to secrecy and, for decades, told no one of their experiences. In 1996, the US government declassified the project and Robertson was finally able to tell his story. In X-Ray Man, Robertson recalls training exercises in which the Department of Defense used him and other soldiers in nuclear tests more than 10 years after the horrors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were already well known. Kerri Yost’s powerful short documentary is an account of how Cold War-era fears allowed for shocking treatment not just of supposed enemies, but also of those enlisted to fight against them. Though cancer has attacked his body, Robertson, supported by his wife, remains stoic and dignified, offering the quiet but forceful observation that ‘any person in the military becomes part of military science’.

2015-09-09: Nuclear wars for SETI. Nuclear explosions might be the first thing we see of other life at interstellar distances. Gamma rays are much easier to detect than radio waves, but would only last a few days at most. You’d have to be extremely lucky to catch that, but then we can spot GRB like that all the time.
2016-07-17: The H-Bombs in Turkey

Among the many questions still unanswered following Friday’s coup attempt in Turkey is one that has national-security implications for the United States and for the rest of the world: How secure are the American hydrogen bombs stored at a Turkish airbase?

2019-03-12: Trinity Test. The first detonation of a nuclear bomb

2021-02-20: $100b nuclear deterrence

To avoid being destroyed and rendered useless—their silos provide no real protection against a direct Russian nuclear strike—they would be “launched on warning,” that is, as soon as the Pentagon got wind of an incoming nuclear attack. Because an error could have disastrous consequences, James Mattis testified to the Senate Armed Services Committee in 2015 that getting rid of America’s land-based nuclear missiles “would reduce the false alarm danger.” Whereas a bomber can be turned around even on approach to its target, a nuclear missile launched by mistake can’t be recalled.

Neocon blueprint

the Project for the New American Century whose goal is to promote American global leadership wrote this blueprint for american leadership in the new century.

As the 20th century draws to a close, the United States stands as the world’s most preeminent power. Having led the West to victory in the Cold War, America faces an opportunity and a challenge: Does the United States have the vision to build upon the achievement of past decades? Does the United States have the resolve to shape a new century favorable to American principles and interests? “What we require is a military that is strong and ready to meet both present and future challenges; a foreign policy that boldly and purposefully promotes American principles abroad; and national leadership that accepts the United States” global responsibilities. “Of course, the United States must be prudent in how it exercises its power. But we cannot safely avoid the responsibilities of global leadership of the costs that are associated with its exercise. America has a vital role in maintaining peace and security in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. If we shirk our responsibilities, we invite challenges to our fundamental interests. The history of the 20th century should have taught us that it is important to shape circumstances before crises emerge, and to meet threats before they become dire. The history of the past century should have taught us to embrace the cause of American leadership.