ESA's Gaia space telescope now ready to map 1 billion stars!

Some initial calibration issues occurred with this instrument, which
extended its commissioning phase. I don't think that they're sure that
it's going to be nearly as accurate as they had originally hoped, due to
these problems.

Yousuf Khan

Gaia: “Go” for science | Astronomy.com
http://www.astronomy.com/news/videos...go-for-science

"Gaia is now ready to begin its five-year science phase, but the
commissioning also uncovered some unexpected anomalies.

One problem detected early in the commissioning was associated with
water freezing on some parts of the optics, causing a temporary
reduction in transmission of the telescopes.

This water likely was trapped in the spacecraft before launch and
emerged once it was in a vacuum. Heating the affected optics to remove
the ice has now largely solved this problem, but it is likely that one
or two more “decontamination” cycles will be required during the mission
to keep it in check.

Another problem is associated with “stray light” reaching Gaia’s focal
plane at a level higher than predicted before launch. This appears to be
a mixture of light from the Sun finding its way past Gaia’s
10-meter-diameter sunshield and light from other astronomical objects,
both making their way to the focal plane as a diffuse background."

On a sunny day (Fri, 01 Aug 2014 06:37:20 -0400) it happened Yousuf Khan
wrote in :

Some initial calibration issues occurred with this instrument, which
extended its commissioning phase. I don't think that they're sure that
it's going to be nearly as accurate as they had originally hoped, due to
these problems.

Yousuf Khan

Gaia: “Go” for science | Astronomy.com
http://www.astronomy.com/news/videos...go-for-science

"Gaia is now ready to begin its five-year science phase, but the
commissioning also uncovered some unexpected anomalies.

One problem detected early in the commissioning was associated with
water freezing on some parts of the optics, causing a temporary
reduction in transmission of the telescopes.

This water likely was trapped in the spacecraft before launch and
emerged once it was in a vacuum. Heating the affected optics to remove
the ice has now largely solved this problem, but it is likely that one
or two more “decontamination” cycles will be required during the mission
to keep it in check.

Another problem is associated with “stray light” reaching Gaia’s focal
plane at a level higher than predicted before launch. This appears to be
a mixture of light from the Sun finding its way past Gaia’s
10-meter-diameter sunshield and light from other astronomical objects,
both making their way to the focal plane as a diffuse background."

What do you expect from people who play insane load music in an instruction video.
I just stopped it.
Stupid.

On 01/08/2014 8:19 AM, Jan Panteltje wrote:
What do you expect from people who play insane load music in an instruction video.
I just stopped it.
Stupid.

Dem kids and dere loud moo-sic. Get offa my lawn!

Yousuf Khan

On a sunny day (Sat, 02 Aug 2014 02:14:45 -0400) it happened Yousuf Khan
wrote in :

On 01/08/2014 8:19 AM, Jan Panteltje wrote:
What do you expect from people who play insane load music in an instruction video.
I just stopped it.
Stupid.

Dem kids and dere loud moo-sic. Get offa my lawn!

Yousuf Khan

I have a very powerful HiFi, 300W RMS, plus 80 W bass + some watts tweeters (all separate amps).
Am working for several studies at the same time,
I tell you when I read a technical article there are no musical notes between the lines.
Anyways they made other beginners errors,
One of the funniest (from my expertise background) was not realizing
(was it cassini probe) that if the main carrier experiences Doppler the modulation ALSO is affected.
That almost cost them the experiment
Kids designing.
It HAS to be, I made a lot of silly mistakes when I was that age,

The sad part is that the oldies all die and the knowledge and experience is lost.
And politics, not genuine interest, drives things.
You have seen that with Von Braun and his moon trips, his mars plans,
no.. some politician[s] wanted jobs for everybody, so design a project that does not do anything
for anybody and lasts forever without going where no man has gone before.
What could be better than circling the earth and sell acrobatics on teevvee.
And what could be better than a reusable shuttle as anybody who has
ever looked at that rocket equation knows that is no help to go anywhere.
Just a bunch of clueless idiots and political puppets.
Somebody just posted a link to this:
http://luminarium.freeforums.org/nas...gine-t335.html
looking at the little data even in the paper referenced,
I remember the 'radiometer'
They did the experiment in a vacuum tank but without vacuum.
One side heats the air molecules, and low and behold: Thrust.
Not saying it is that way, just that that radiometer reminds me of it.
BTW a radiometer is a vane in what is supposed to be a vacuum, [but not always really is] that turns if hit by light.
Some say and some don't say it works because it is NOT vacuum... [turns wrong way because of heating air molecules] [1]
Well that discussion was here anyways or in sci.physics some years ago,.
OTOH the thing could be classified too, would think so by the absence of any useful info and data in the published paper.

Well, WTF, you are all gone die of ebola anyways, so who cares.
I just did read it is now in Phillipines too, the 'doctors' that came back are all infected.
And anybody they met on the plane, thousands.
So maybe the next species or some survivors will start all over again,
study our old scribbling on tape and disk and chips
and try to figure out HOW WE EVER GOT TO THE MOON AND BACK.
Still waiting still waiting still waiting

[1] I take no stand on this, I do know that that I could feel the hit on my hand of a large photographic flash.

I could have answered with simply "duh", "yea man. cool man", or "HUH?'
but OK maybe some other time.
Piece man ;-)
hehe

On 02/08/2014 3:44 AM, Jan Panteltje wrote:
Somebody just posted a link to this:
http://luminarium.freeforums.org/nas...gine-t335.html

Yeah, I saw that, and I was about to post about it too, but I just added
my thoughts in that thread instead.

looking at the little data even in the paper referenced,
I remember the 'radiometer'
They did the experiment in a vacuum tank but without vacuum.
One side heats the air molecules, and low and behold: Thrust.
Not saying it is that way, just that that radiometer reminds me of it.
BTW a radiometer is a vane in what is supposed to be a vacuum, [but not always really is] that turns if hit by light.
Some say and some don't say it works because it is NOT vacuum... [turns wrong way because of heating air molecules] [1]
Well that discussion was here anyways or in sci.physics some years ago,.
OTOH the thing could be classified too, would think so by the absence of any useful info and data in the published paper.

I do hope this is something genuine. The explanation about it thrusting
out virtual particles from the quantum vacuum makes sense to me. I've
been working on the idea that the quantum vacuum is responsible for the
effects we currently call Dark Matter and Dark Energy. They are all
variations on the Casimir Effect, which has been known about for
something like 80 years already.

Yousuf Khan

In sci.physics Yousuf Khan wrote:
On 02/08/2014 3:44 AM, Jan Panteltje wrote:
Somebody just posted a link to this:
http://luminarium.freeforums.org/nas...gine-t335.html
Yeah, I saw that, and I was about to post about it too, but I just added
my thoughts in that thread instead.
looking at the little data even in the paper referenced,
I remember the 'radiometer'
They did the experiment in a vacuum tank but without vacuum.
One side heats the air molecules, and low and behold: Thrust.
Not saying it is that way, just that that radiometer reminds me of it.
BTW a radiometer is a vane in what is supposed to be a vacuum, [but not always really is] that turns if hit by light.
Some say and some don't say it works because it is NOT vacuum... [turns wrong way because of heating air molecules] [1]
Well that discussion was here anyways or in sci.physics some years ago,.
OTOH the thing could be classified too, would think so by the absence of any useful info and data in the published paper.
I do hope this is something genuine. The explanation about it thrusting
out virtual particles from the quantum vacuum makes sense to me. I've
been working on the idea that the quantum vacuum is responsible for the
effects we currently call Dark Matter and Dark Energy. They are all
variations on the Casimir Effect, which has been known about for
something like 80 years already.
Yousuf Khan

There are a few claims about Q-thrusters that don't require much thinking about.
Even people that have built them claim they are "reactionless"
or some such. AFAIK the machine just separates the e+ and e- with
a combo of electric and magnetic fields and throws them out the back.
No big deal.

I don't think they can even arrange to have the particles anihilate
again to make it appear the thruster is clawing against the vacuum -- there
should still be photons headed off aft to give the game away.

--
[The ol' "It hasn't warmed for 17 years":]
Climate models accurately predicted global warming when reflecting natural ...
The Guardian, 21 Jul 2014
Predicting global surface temperature changes in the short-term is a
challenge for climate models. Temperature changes over periods of a decade
or 2 can be dominated by influences from ocean cycles like El Ni?o and La Ni?a.

On 02/08/2014 9:20 AM, R Kym Horsell wrote:
There are a few claims about Q-thrusters that don't require much thinking about.
Even people that have built them claim they are "reactionless"
or some such. AFAIK the machine just separates the e+ and e- with
a combo of electric and magnetic fields and throws them out the back.
No big deal.

I don't think they can even arrange to have the particles anihilate
again to make it appear the thruster is clawing against the vacuum -- there
should still be photons headed off aft to give the game away.

Well, when virtual e+ and e- particles spontaneously appear from the
quantum vacuum, they are being created by passing gamma ray photons.
They don't just get created randomly in the vacuum. The type of
particles that are created randomly are much lower mass than even an
electron. And because they are so short-lived we can't even capture them
long enough to determine what type of particles they are. What's less
massive than even an electron or positron? My guess is some type of
neutrino/anti-neutrino, but even that's not guaranteed. We must come to
terms with the fact that perhaps the particles that pop-in and out of
existence don't even have names, because we've never discovered them
yet, since we can't capture them fast enough.

And these drives are generating microwaves rather than gamma rays, so
it's not likely to be electrons and positrons coming out the back, as
those would send gamma rays out the back.

Yousuf Khan

In sci.physics Yousuf Khan wrote:
On 02/08/2014 9:20 AM, R Kym Horsell wrote:
There are a few claims about Q-thrusters that don't require much thinking
about.
Even people that have built them claim they are "reactionless"
or some such. AFAIK the machine just separates the e+ and e- with
a combo of electric and magnetic fields and throws them out the back.
No big deal.
I don't think they can even arrange to have the particles anihilate
again to make it appear the thruster is clawing against the vacuum -- there
should still be photons headed off aft to give the game away.
Well, when virtual e+ and e- particles spontaneously appear from the
quantum vacuum, they are being created by passing gamma ray photons.
They don't just get created randomly in the vacuum. The type of
particles that are created randomly are much lower mass than even an
electron. And because they are so short-lived we can't even capture them
long enough to determine what type of particles they are. What's less
massive than even an electron or positron? My guess is some type of
neutrino/anti-neutrino, but even that's not guaranteed. We must come to
terms with the fact that perhaps the particles that pop-in and out of
existence don't even have names, because we've never discovered them
yet, since we can't capture them fast enough.
And these drives are generating microwaves rather than gamma rays, so
it's not likely to be electrons and positrons coming out the back, as
those would send gamma rays out the back.
Yousuf Khan

No doubt there are a few different versions around.

But my thinking even before I read the wiki page was to push against
something it almost surely has to be charged. Ergo neutrino out.
If it has a charge it most likely has been spotted in a cloud chamber and as
is well known.

From wiki:

The Q-thruster operates on the principles of magnetohydrodynamics (MHD), the
same principles and equations of motion used by a conventional plasma
thruster. The difference is that the Q-thruster uses the atomic particles
spontaneously produced by quantum vacuum fluctuations as its propellant. The
atomic particles produced by the fluctuations are subsequently electrically
ionized to form a plasma. The now electrically charged plasma is then
exposed to a crossed electric and magnetic field, inducing a force on the
particles of the plasma in the E?B direction, which is orthogonal to the
applied fields. The Q-thruster would not technically be a reactionless drive
, because it expels the plasma and thus produces force on the spacecraft in
the opposite direction, like a conventional rocket engine. However, this
action does not require the spacecraft to carry any propellant. This theory
suggests much higher specific impulses are available for Q-thrusters,
because they only consume electrical power and thus are limited only by
their power supply's energy storage densities. Preliminary test results
suggest thrust levels of between 1000-4000 #N; specific force performance of
0.1 N/kW, and an equivalent specific impulse of ~1x1012 s.

White, H.; March, P. (2012). "Advanced Propulsion Physics: Harnessing the
Quantum Vacuum". Nuclear and Emerging Technologies for Space. Retrieved 29
January 2013.

"Propulsion on an Interstellar Scale - the Quantum Vacuum Plasma Thruster".
engineering.com. 11 December 2012. Retrieved 29 January 2013.

--
Global Warming Kicks Up Record Pacific Trade Winds
Discovery News, 03 Aug 2014 17:24Z
Glaciers are shrinking worldwide and permafrost is thawing in high-latitude
and high-elevation areas, reports this year's Fifth Assessment Report from
the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. BLOG: Dire Outlook For
Climate Impacts, New Report ...

On 03/08/2014 9:20 PM, R Kym Horsell wrote:
No doubt there are a few different versions around.

But my thinking even before I read the wiki page was to push against
something it almost surely has to be charged. Ergo neutrino out.
If it has a charge it most likely has been spotted in a cloud chamber and as
is well known.

Well, I don't think that they're neutrinos either, that was just a
suggestion for a particle that weighs less than an electron. It's likely
the particles produced in the quantum vacuum have all kinds of mass
ranges, and all kinds of charges, but these particles never last long
enough for us to observe them.

Yousuf Khan