PC hardware, computing, and RGB LEDs
- Lexar NM600 NVMe M.2. SSD (480GB) review @ Guru3D
- Deepcool Gamer Storm Castle 240 EX review @ Hexus
- Iiyama Red Eagle G-MASTER GB2760QSU-B1 27in 144Hz monitor review @ KitGuru
- QLC versus TLC NAND flash technology in SATA SSDs @ Legit Reviews
- Aerocool Tor Pro review @ TechPowerUp
Games, culture, and VR
- Steam unveils its upcoming, very familiar-looking library redesign @ Rock Paper Shotgun
- Lego struggles to find a plant-based plastic that clicks @ Slashdot
- Stardock and Star Control creators settle lawsuits—with mead and honey @ Ars Technica (too bad more lawsuits aren’t settled this way)
Hacks, gadgets and crypto-jinks
- OnePlus 7 Pro review @ HotHardware
- Magic record stand can play your records for you @ HackADay
- Blacksmithing for the uninitiated: your first time at the anvil @ HackADay
- Jabra Elite 85h review @ Engadget
Science, technology, and space news
- Why do bats have such bizarrely long lifespans? @ Ars Technica
- A field guide to transmission lines @ HackADay
- How deadly pufferfish toxin led to a breakthrough long-lasting local anesthetic @ New Atlas
- Dangling tape could be used to de-orbit old satellites @ New Atlas
- The long-awaited upgrade to the US weather forecast model is here @ Ars Technica
Cheese, memes, what have you
- SpaceX space cheese @ atlasobscura.com
- These are the cheeses that have the lowest levels of lactose @ self.com
>Why do bats have such bizarrely long lifespans? @ Ars Technica
I’ve been killing Meat Loaf – Bat Out of Hell [url<]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7ES7ueI7p0[/url<] these past days
Looking forward to Garden my Weed day in Illinois, beginning in January.
I have no garden, and my lawn is o’naturel.
edit cant type tonight
Re old bats—
These researchers need to be careful — we are not ready for immortality
Feeds into the vampire myth.
[quote<]Stardock and Star Control creators settle lawsuits—with mead and honey @ Ars Technica (too bad more lawsuits aren't settled this way)[/quote<] Lawyers: AIEEEEE!!!! We are ruined! They didn't drag this out until their assets were sucked dried! Cruel monsters! Slicers of Innocent Throats! What we should tell our firm? We are going to be tending the furnace. We are going to burn in the atomic fire! AIEEEE!!!!!!
Re: the dangling tape. I don’t understand. It’s just there to generate electricity to power onboard thrusters? Don’t pretty much all satellites have real solar panels? Why can’t they use those instead?
Because the maneuvering thrusters of satellites don’t typically use electric thrusters, they use gas propellants. This is mostly because the impulse provided by an electric thruster is not large enough to produce any significant change in the altitude/attitude of something with the mass of your “average” satellite within a reasonable time, something that isn’t an issue if you just want to deorbit it. Many of the satellites still in orbit likely reached the end of their service lifetimes not because they no longer function or because they are no longer useful, but rather because they ran out of fuel, necessitating the presence of something like the device in the article.
*EDIT* I realized later that the above makes doesn’t actually answer your question and also makes no sense because even electrical thrusters still require a propellant (they simply accelerate ions via an electric field, producing thrust.) The New Atlas article actually misunderstood the mechanism through which the “dangling tape” would deorbit a satellite. Effectively, the tape would generate a charge when heated by the Sun and the charge would experience a force due to the fact that it is moving through the Earth’s magnetic field. The thought is that this force would be enough to pull the satellites to lower orbits until atmospheric drag takes over.
More information can be found here: [url<]https://etpack.eu/[/url<]
The current generated by the tape could be fed to a … resistor. In this case, one joule of electric power would decrease the satellite’s kinetic energy by one joule. If the electricity was used to power a (braking) ion thruster instead, that would decrease the kinetic energy by one more joule at best. That’s probably not worth the additional weight and cost if the satellite does not have ion thrusters for other purposes.
The resistor idea would only work if the energy being provided to the resistor was generated via the orbital motions of the satellite rather than radiation from the Sun.
Thanks for the link. Helped me to understand how the open electrical circuit becomes closed. However, the radiation is not the only source of energy; part of it is the Lorenz (electromagnetic) force, so the energy is extracted from Earth’s magnetic field, too. This makes the resistor idea workable, and the description of the “generator mode” confirms that.
Another note on using ion thrusters: the LWT would serve as a brake for old satellites. The thrusters on these satellites may well be worn out, failed, or out of propellant.
Ah, that makes much more sense (the Edit part). I didn’t click the original article, so shame on me.
[quote<]LWT can also be used in thruster mode to increase orbital height. This is possible using a power supply that reverses the natural direction of the current, then the spacecraft is re-boosted.[/quote<] Power supply such as a solar panel? This has some interesting potential for station keeping.
Well, that’s not gonna work–my garden is ALL weeds. And chipmunks–that traumatize Jeffrey the Destroyer, ’cause he barks at them through the sliding glass door and they just ignore him–he HATES that. Considering that Jeffrey is a breed known for its ferocity and hunting skills (miniature poodle), the chipmunks really stress him out.
Sounds about right. I was awoken this morning by the sound of my mini-poo barking at squirrels.
Mmmmm, weeeed.
Indeed. The title has a different meaning where I live.
I would have posted this, uh, later this afternoon, but I like reading replies during the day more than I valued the joke.
Not all of us have the luxury of living in Michigan (or one of the the other 10-ish states).
That alone doesn’t make something a luxury.
The hand in the photo is preparing to plant some of it, not rip it out.
You must live in Illinois.
I live in Serbia.
It was a reference to news that the state of Illinois just passed a law to legalize recreational weed as of 2020.
All I need is a green card then. 🙂
This post is seriously off-brand for someone calling himself Principal Skinner