Five Thumbs Don’t Make a Hand

Modern digital backed audio systems are composed of several key parts. The speakers and their acoustics, digital amplifier with DSP equalizer, electronics to select the audio source which includes the wireless connectivity like Bluetooth, computer to playback the digital content either streaming or stored audio, embedded software, internet software and mobile app. And of course, there is the business and marketing side of it (modern - selling directly online or the old way - through resellers).

With the accelerated trend of mergers and acquisitions of consumer brands, high end audio companies are now part of giant holdings. Buying companies and collecting them inside a shopping cart like in a supermarket is not that profitable. Unless, you buy brands so that they create synergy among them. Five thumbs don’t make a hand. A hand needs index finger, middle finger, ring finger and pinky finger besides the thumb.

I am a Klipsch fan. Reading bad reviews of their failed high end active speakers, made me write this article. Speakers are not perfect due to laws of physics. Therefore, combining them with any external amplifier would not yield perfect flat sound reproduction. On the other hand, coupling the speakers with onboard digital amplifiers that perfect the sound output using specially programmed DSP equalizers would give perfect flat response. This also reduces the overall cost of the hi-fi system and increases the convenience of the product which is important for many non-audiophile listeners like me.

Klipsch’s high-end Heritage active speakers are designed for this purpose. However, their electronics fail after a year or two which is unacceptable for a high-end product. Klipsch has know-how on speakers and acoustics, and not so much on the other things I stated at the beginning of my article. Ideally, the holding which bought Klipsch should have bought other companies to fill this gap to create perfect products. That is one of the reasons I keep emphasizing the importance of vertical and horizontal integration on product design. Modern technology requires more know-how for a perfect product. Unfortunately, the current trend is just the make sales without designing anything. Companies just place a badge of a brand from their portfolio on a Chinese product and sell the product as if it was designed by that brand.

With so much junk on the market, there are opportunities for the companies which develop their products properly; market and service them accordingly.

Lunar Exploration

I recently read that the latest lunar space suits would be designed to allow days of sustained exploration. I thought of another alternative to achieve the same goal. The explorers on earth utilize mules on their expeditions. The extraterrestrial explorers can utilize rovers and handcarts.

Extraterrestrial rover would have a pressurized cabin for the astronauts to rest and fulfill their humanitarian needs. It would have large extended solar panels to charge itself and provide power to the astronauts. It would carry the food, water and additional oxygen supply. Additionally, it would have a section for quick emergency first aid.

In addition to the rover, the astronauts would drag a handcart which would carry spare batteries and life support systems. The handcart would also house some test equipment as well as power tools to extract samples. Additionally, it would have quick repair kits for the damaged space suits.

From the specifications I defined, it is better to have a lunar lander that can move instead of a need to carry an additional rover. Lunar lander rover does not need to move fast, but should be able to give life support to the astronauts in close proximity.

The Wall Grill

In the morning in my dream, I saw my mother cooking small fish fillet on an iron. She was holding the fillet from the extending skin of the fish and pushing the fillet on the iron with her thumb.  With this method she lightly cooked both sides of the small fillet that could be placed on a sushi. Then I woke up and thought about my dream and turned it into a product, The Wall Grill.

Lately, houses are becoming smaller in big cities. As a result, the kitchens are diminishing. How about using the wall of the kitchen as a cooking surface. A slightly angled stainless steel grill surface attached to the wall. The food to be cooked would be attached to the pegs on top of the grill. It would have separate heater sections controlled by thermostatic knobs. At the bottom of the grill there would be fat collection tray that can be removed and cleaned in a dish washer. A section of the grill would house holes for steam release like in a classic iron. This would allow steam, grilled cooking.

There would also be an external grilling iron. It would be a modified iron optimized for cooking food. You would press it on the food to cook it and steam it on demand.

Underwater Pipe Organ

While listening to Xaver Varnus playing Bach’s Toccata & Fugue in The Berliner Dom, I dreamed of an underwater pipe organ fed by the gas from an underwater chimney. I got my inspiration from Captain Nemo’s organ inside the Nautilus.

Pipe organ would be played by an underwater robot. How would it sound or would it sound at all I don’t know. The whales and the dolphins would most likely hear it. Imagine them gathering around the pipe organ like inside a giant cathedral.

Here is the Music played on surface 😊

Xaver Varnus plays Toccata and Fugue in D minor (edited by Mendelssohn) on the great Sauer Organ of the Berliner Dom.

Snooker League

I like watching snooker, but seeing so many problems in the organization made me think of new ideas. Organizing open tournaments with so many players is not something I support. This is a problem of Tennis as well. I am in favor of grouping players into leagues. I propose three leagues for Snooker. The top 32 players in the 2 years list will play in a Premier League, like in Football, for a year. The next 64 will play in League 1 and the remaining will play in the Amateur League.

Premier League will have tournaments with high frame count. The players will earn points according to the frames they win. As a result, a player loosing at the decider will get much more points than the one white washed. The games won on quarter finals and beyond will award extra points. All games will be played out of 15 red balls. There will be no Shoot-Out. Each frame won will award 15 points to the player. The tournament price money will be independently determined from the points. Every tournament will award points unlike the current Masters.

League 1 will have tournaments with lower frame count. The players will earn points according to the frames they win. In addition to the classical snooker, there will be 6-10 red ball tournaments as well as multiple Shoot-Outs. Frames won on 6-10 red ball and Shoot-Out will award 10 points. Amateur League will also have similar tournaments.

The objective is to make all leagues attractive to the audience and award the players fairly.

Missile Concept

I thought of a type of missile to be used on stealth fighter planes. These planes have enclosed bomber bays. Therefore, the protrusions would limit the number of missiles that can be deployed for each mission. The missile concept I propose would utilize a ramjet instead of the most common solid rocket engines. There will be no protruding air intake, instead the air will enter the engine by Coandă effect. The missile will have gimbled nozzle for thrust vectoring. As a result, there will be no fins or wings for flight stabilization, but thrust vectoring.

The missile will consume the same fuel as the fighter jet to simplify the logistics. Higher efficiency of the ramjet compared to solid fuel rockets will increase its range for the same mass or reduce its weight for the same range.

Fighter Jet Concept

I would like to propose a family of dual-purpose (piloted and drone) fighter jet. It will be based around commercial turbofan engines. The bigger variant will be designed around a Rolls-Royce Trent XWB-97 engine and the smaller variant will be based around CFM International LEAP. The fuselage of the plane will not exceed the diameter of the engine. High bypass turbofan engines have a large fan in the front and narrow cross section at the back. Therefore, a tubular fuselage will allow space for fuel tank and bomb bays. Both engines I propose generate enough thrust to allow Vertical Takeoff and Landing. Much better fuel economy of a commercial engine allows longer range with less fuel.

The rear of the plane will house an afterburner for thrust boost on demand and gimbled nozzle for thrust vectoring. There will be an optional pilot bay as well. The pilot will lay down inside the bay. During takeoff and landing pilot would be in vertical position. In case of emergency, the bay will be released from the plane to save pilot’s life. Laying down position will be advantageous on high G maneuvers due to better blood circulation and less strain on the spine. The plane will also be operatable in drone mode without a pilot bay.

The plane will takeoff and land on three anchor points, one on its vertical stabilizer and the rest on each wing. VTOL operation will allow almost any ship to be an aircraft carrier and increase the launch sites outside the airports. Use of commercial engines will lower the cost of the planes and their operational cost, as well as improve their reliability.

Top-Down Rocket Design

Space exploration requires mission optimized rocket designs. A design approach that was successful for LEO missions would not necessarily be successful on high energy missions. I am referring to the two staged reusable rockets of SpaceX and similar companies. Ariane 6 has a much better approach especially for high energy missions. I would like to propose a new approach. It is a top-down designed rocket. A rocket design that would allow five or more stages. Depending on the mission, the number of stages would be chosen. For LEO satellite missions, two stages would be enough. For ISS module deployment like LEO missions three or even more stages would be utilized. For the moon four stages and for Mars, six or even more. Instead of strapping boosters around the main rocket like in Ariane design, the additional stages would be attached to the bottom of the previous one depending on the mission requirements.

This design approach would require unified propellent on all stages of the rocket. Additionally, the engines should have modular nozzles to allow easy swapping of them for optimal ambient pressure. The large rocket engine design I proposed earlier would allow this.

Ambitious space dreams require larger single use rockets. Reusability is only practical to the very first stage of any rocket and not for the upper stages.

A Large Rocket Engine

I had previously proposed rocket engines, this one is a scalable engine optimized for cryogenic propellant, liquid methane and oxygen. These propellants require pre heating for a sustainable combustion. Like in SpaceX Raptor engine, the propellant would be pe burned in order to heat them before combustion. My design puts the pre burner inside the combustion chamber. The objective is to transfer the heat inside the chamber more effectively to the propellent. This design negates the regenerative cooling channels outside the combustion chamber and the rocket nozzle. Allowing much larger combustion chambers than the current rocket engines. The problem with large combustion chambers is that the combustion efficiency decreases with the increase volume. I solve this problem with heat exchanger fins around the pre-burner. When the propellant is heated to auto ignition temperature they burn on contact. Therefore, increased heated surface inside the chamber increases the heat transfer between the gas molecules and the hot metal surface.

The pre burner, the combustion chamber and the nozzle of the engine will be made of Tungsten which has a very high melting point and still a good conductor of heat. There will be no regenerative cooling on the combustion chamber. Therefore, the internal temperature will be kept considerably below the melting point of Tungsten by pumping adequate propellant inside the chamber.

Removal of propellant pipes around the combustion chamber lowers the cost of manufacturing large combustion chambers and reduces the heat stress on the shell of the chamber. Removal of propellant pipes around the nozzle lowers the cost of manufacturing the rocket nozzle and simplifies the gimble mechanism.

Four Stage Rocket

The first stage of a rocket generates a lot of thrust which becomes too much as the fuel is depleted and the rocket gets lighter. The engines are turned off to keep the acceleration to an acceptable level. Adding more stages can be another alternative. Generate just enough thrust in each stage so that no engine needs to be turned off.

I thought of a four-stage rocket. First two stages would accelerate the rocket in earth’s atmosphere. The remaining two would mainly operate in vacuum. First two stages would have wings attached to them which would be optimized for their cruising altitude and speed. Once, one of these stages deplete their fuel, the successive stage would fire and push back the previous stage behind. This would also melt away the stage separation section. The depleted section would glide towards the sea with the help of its wings. In the meanwhile, the engine openings towards the nozzle would be sealed by polyurethane foam like material, to prevent the sea water entering the engine. The light weight empty stage would float on water once it lands on it. Then, it would be recovered by ships and refurbished for reuse. Unlike, current reusable rockets which can only be recovered on LEO missions. The rocket I propose do not require fuel to land and can be utilized on all missions, like the space shuttle.

The wings on the rocket will also allow it to take off from the ground with an angle like the planes. This also reduces the takeoff thrust requirement for the rocket.

At the moment, the rockets mainly have two stages, which I guess is not enough for deep space exploration.

Fusion Space Cuisine

Fusion cuisine is defined as "a style of cookery which blends ingredients and methods of preparation from different countries, regions, or ethnic groups; food cooked in this style". In the case of space, it is mainly space optimized cooking based on concentrated ingredients.

3D printed food produced by the TNO research center in the Netherlands, a member of the URBAN consortium investigating 3D printing in support of a lunar base. A food printer creates diversity in looks, tastes and textures from a limited set of ingredients.

The objective of 3d printed fusion cuisine is to provide space travelers with healthy, delicious and nice-looking food with minimum cargo requirement. I personally do not find feeding space travelers with freshly harvested vegetables and fruits. This method would be too bulky and cumbersome for weight conscious rocketry. It is best to send the dry extracts as nutrition and hydrate them with recycled water. The scent and food colorant wood also be included in concentrated forms to keep the moral and physiological wellbeing of the travelers by influencing them visually and olfactory (sense of smell).

Lunar Solar Corona Explorer

The solar eclipse is an ideal time to study sun’s corona. It is the moon’s shadow blocking the strong solar rays to allow the instruments to detect subtle changes without saturation. A lunar orbiting satellite can also achieve this even better. As the satellite orbits the moon, it would experience solar eclipse many times.  It would be a much better observation while there would be no obstruction like the earth’s atmosphere. The farthest the satellite is from the moon, the slower it would orbit and make much better observations. The satellite would also double as a communication relay for the surface instruments as well.

A simpler version of this idea was implemented by two satellites orbiting in formation. The one in front casting shadow like solar eclipse on the following satellite. Proba-3’s first artificial solar eclipse 

Sightseeing Plane

I got my inspiration from the airships attached to the top of the skyscrapers. The sightseeing plane would be a multi-wing plane to allow very low stall speeds like an airship. The passengers unlike a traditional plane would be seated in front of the plane. All seats would be front seats. The seats will rotate around. Therefore, there will be no need for aisles between the seats. The design is based on high aspect ratio wings. The passenger cabin of the plane will also follow the design of the wings. This would induce a high drag like in airships. However, utilizing multiple wings and lowering the cruise speed would reduce the drag to allow the plane to be airborne. The wings of the plane would accommodate low profile lithium batteries. The plane would be propelled by brushless motors with large propellers. This would lower the noise of the propellers and the motors compared to high-speed small propellers used on drones.

The sightseeing plane would be launched from a suspension bridge supported by vertical wind turbine towers. Once the plane’s motors reach the cruising speed, the plane would be released from the suspension bridge. As the plane descents down the ground, it would generate lift and fly higher. After the plane is released, the cranes on top of the suspension bridge would lower hooks on the ground. Then, grasp another plane on the ground and raise it to the top for a new launch.

Once the flight is complete, the plane will approach the bridge and let the hooks grasp it. Low cruising speed of the plane will allow this. Once the plane is grasped, the motors will be shot down and the plane will be lowered to the ground. The passengers will board and disembark from the plane on the ground.

The vertical wind turbine towers will generate electricity for the planes and to the city. In very windy days, there would be no flight, but a lot of electricity generated by the towers.

Nuclear Energy Strategy

After reading the article and the comments on “Westinghouse shifts eVinci microreactor focus away from commercial applications.” I decided to write this article. It seems small nuclear power plants distributed around the country is not feasible. Instead, the nuclear plants should be build larger and concentrated on few strategic locations. However, building nuclear plants in small sections is still a valid argument. At the moment nuclear power is mainly used by developed nations which have an average government lifetime less than four years. An energy project with first outcomes appearing after four years is not very attractive by the politicians.  Therefore, the next generation nuclear power plants should be able to produce some electricity within first few years of the project start. They may reach their full capacity much later, no problem.

It is important for a nation’s sovereignty to depend less on exported energy and raw materials. Producing excess energy using nuclear power is critical in my point of view. If it is not possible to produce nuclear energy in distributed locations, then the centralized high energy centers should be distributing the excess energy around the country. Aluminum power cables would be ideal in creating such network. Aluminum is abundant on earth's crust and its cost is mainly electricity. I recommend the nuclear plants to be built in close proximity to aluminum production locations. Excess energy would be stored as processed aluminum. Energy intense industries should also be nearby. In the old times such industries would be located close to the coal mining sites. Therefore, the new nuclear plants should be located close to the coal mining sites. One additional benefit of this is excess nuclear energy can be used to gasify the coal which can be fed into the existing natural gas pipelines.

Developed nations export natural gas which enter the country from a handful of locations. As a result, high energy nuclear plants can also distribute their immense energy to the whole country from few locations.

Future is Unmanned :)

After seeing “The Future is Unmanned” on a person’s profile in LinkedIn, I decided to write this article. AI with limited intelligence could have interpreted this phrase as “There would be no men in the future”. In reality, men are going nowhere, it’s just their location is changing. From the cockpit of an airplane to a chair inside a control room on the ground. They even have the same title, Pilot. More interestingly, autonomous technologies require more men. Such robots are complex compared to cockpit-ted ones and require more men hour in the development. Of course, once they are designed, they require much less men during manufacturing.

If the future is unmanned, then what will happen to all these men continuing to be born. What will happen to all those billions? Will robots work instead of men to keep men alive? Is the time coming for humanity to reduce its population voluntarily?

The nature finds its equilibrium at the end. The nature does not require humans to survive not the opposite. If we keep increasing our numbers, the nature will reduce it for us at the end and the Future will be really unmanned.

Universal Power Supply for Electronics

This one was an old idea. I wanted to record it as well. With so many different AC plugs globally, there is a need for standardized power plug for low power electronics. At the moment USB is used for this purpose and it is a mass. The plug I propose is only for power transfer not for data communication. It is a classic barrel type plug. They can be plugged in any orientation with grounded outside for safety. The major difference is the insulator layer which is not a black plastic but a light transparent insulator. The purpose of it is low bandwidth optical communication. When there is no load on the plug, the output voltage defaults to 3.3V. Once the plug is inserted into a socket, the socket send signal over the optical section to adjust the voltage. The current limit as well as voltage can be set by the receiving end. As a result, the power adaptor utilizing this plug can provide up to 50 volts to an electronics device. It is a more versatile and future proof system compared to resistively set chaotic standards of USB. It is best to send power and data separately over dedicated cables. There can be special combo cables that have both cables attached side by side for convenience. For data communication I opt for optical instead of copper cables.

Sustainable Hi-Fi Platform

If you are interest in Hi-Fi, I recommend you watch XrayTonyB YouTube channel. Especially his video on damping factor is very informative. When you watch the video, you learn that no speaker is perfect and amplifiers don’t match perfectly with every speaker. As a result, I believe that a true hi-fi of today should be a modular active speaker. We don’t need the clutter of old hi-fi components. Today, the audio and video are digital and don’t require physical medium to reproduce them.

The sustainable hi-fi platform I propose will be based on standardized modules attached inside hi-fi speakers. Each speaker will be driven with a dedicated amplifier. This dedication will be based on the characteristic of the speaker, not just it's ohm value.

Digital music will be streamed into the hi-fi via USB, HDMI (ARC), optical, Bluetooth or Wi-Fi. The DAC, digital stream processors and the wireless transceivers will be removable modules. As a result, changes in technology will not make the system obsolete. The consumers will be able to upgrade their system more economically over time.

The speakers will have removable casing to meet consumer esthetics. As a result, the manufacturers will not need to stock expensive powered speakers based on their color. The casings would be stocked which will be much cheaper than the electronic parts.

Placing everything inside the large speaker case negates the need for expensive audio cables and connectors, as well as external amplifiers, streamers and their cable clutter. Only one of the speakers within a system will house DAC, digital stream processor and the wireless transceivers. The rest of the speakers will be connected to the main speaker via special cable which carries electricity as well as the digital audio signal for the specific speaker.

Each speaker case will house detailed schematics of electronics and mechanics of the speaker to assist future servicing of the products. I got my inspiration from old radios where such schematics would be sticked inside the casing. Unlike the old ones, the schematics will be printed on long lasting coated papers.

Once the standards are properly defined, the result would an upgradable Hi-Fi system like the upgradable desktop PCs.

The Apple Way

My experience with Apple had many ups and downs from the first day. In 2009, I decided to develop iPhone app and bought my first iPhone and iMac. In order to register as a developer, I had to fill a form and fax it to USA in the year 2009. At least they didn’t request me to send the registration via post 😊. Additionally, the support and the way things operated behind the doors shaped my thoughts about the company. A luxury restaurant with an out-of-date kitchen. In 2011, I bought an iPad for my sister from an Apple store in Big Apple, NYC. I provided my credit card as a payment method and had to sign the virtual payment slip on an iPad with my fingers. The finger drawn figures on the screen by no means resembled my signatures but they accepted it. A month ago, I bought an external hard disk drive from Apple Turkey’s website. The online shopping page was leagues behind the mainstream. More importantly, even after a month of purchasing the product, I still do not have a receipt. I tried to contact the online and phone help. However, the person who answered me on the phone was very rudely hang up the phone and I couldn’t resolve my problem. The company only provides technical support nothing else. I tried to contact the retail shops and they divert me to the online help. Within the warranty period, if my product malfunctions I don’t have an official receipt to request for a warranty. I am glad that I didn’t bought an expensive Apple product online. At least I can throw away the disk if it fails. Green Apple with prehistoric operations, I have nothing to say more…

Auto Union

I would like to broaden my proposition for elderly care to automotive industry as well. If Europe wants to reduce the waste on their land and reduce carbon footprint of their manufacturing facilities, they need to define and mandate standards on parts that make up a car.

At the moment almost all car manufacturers own several brands and these brands share a lot of parts between them. I propose this point of view to be broadened. Not all parts need to be standardized, but the ones that are defined would have several quality levels which are also standardized. As a result, the manufacturers and the consumers would be free to select the quality themselves. The car modules would be defined by their percentage compliance with the standards, e.g. This car is manufactured using 20% Auto Union parts. This standard would cover the software of the cars as well. At the moment Europe heavily depends on exported operating systems and computer architecture and processors. For example, the car computer and entertainment systems, all depend on exported hardware and software.

The definition of green manufacturing should not be limited to proprietary parts produced out of recycled plastic or less material. A proper green manufacturing must rely on the life of a product. Fast degrading or depreciating products are by no means green. Additionally, wasting resources (raw material, employee time and energy) on manufacturing non-standard products is by no means green.

Sustainable Elderly Care

Anyone who is supporting elderly people knows that they require special equipment (wheelchair, patient bed, oxygen generator…) on their final days. The usable days of such equipment is unknown. Therefore, people usually do not want to buy very expensive models and opt for cheap ones. Most of these cheap products are not serviceable and cannot be used by more than one person due to their poor quality. This leads to more landfill.

My proposition for developed nations, especially for Europe, is to design and standardized such devices. The objective is to make these equipment 100% serviceable and modular with standardized dimensions and connections. Once such products are produced, they would be rented to individuals. The users would make payments as long as they keep using them. Some or all of this rent cost can be compensated by the social system of the country or the insurance firms. When the user stops using the equipment, it would be renovated at a servicing center. In order to reduce the waste generated during the renovation, appropriate materials should be selected in the design.

Once such system is formed, the people who requires such equipment would benefit the most while they would be using higher quality products at a reasonable cost and don’t need to consider the aftermath when they no longer require them. Additionally, much less waste would be generated over the years which also lowers the energy requirement to manufacture them.

Footprint of Tournaments

Today I was watching Snooker Xi'an Grand Prix and the commentor mentioned that the player had to pay a large amount of money to alter his flight date because he had wined his previous game and progressed on the tournament. Snooker is an individual sports where the income is based on one's success on the tournaments. Most of these tournaments are organized in England and China. These two countries have quite distance between them. As a result, any flight from one country to the other costs really high. Most players don't earn that much money to compensate these travel cost. My proposition for World Snooker Tour is to form a tournament calendar to minimize the travel costs. At the moment, an Asian tournament is followed by a British one. At some extremes, like the one this week, a tournament at the heart of China is followed by Northern Ireland. Which requires at least three connecting flights to reach from one destination to the other.

My recommendation is to organize all Chinese tournaments one after the other followed by the ones at Thailand and then the ones at Arabic peninsula then England and its surroundings. As a result, a player can travel from one destination to the other with a single flight and at a lower cost. Funny thing at the moment, depending on the tournament stage, an unexpected win for a player would cost money because a flight change and extra stay at the hotel surpasses the amount earned.

My proposition is valid for other sports events as well. Unfortunately, latest sports events require more and more travelling. This contradicts with the latest global warming movement especially in Europe. All these sports federations are filled with European executives and they make such decisions.

Hybrid Bi-Amping

People like tube amplifiers because of their softer tones at higher frequencies. At lower frequencies this effect is less pronounced. More importantly, due to audio transformers used on tube amps, the lower frequencies are less amplified. The high-end Hi-Fi speakers usually support bi-amping. Therefore, high frequency section of the speaker can be driven independent of the mid to lower frequency section of the speaker. I would like to propose a hybrid bi-amp to create the lovely soft tones of a tube amp with a much efficient and economical way.

My design solves three major problems. First, the low frequencies would be better amplified using transistor amplifiers compared to tube counterparts which are less affected by the tube’s tonality. Second, high frequencies do not need high power amplifiers. Therefore, the tube amplifier can be designed with much less power output which reduces the cost. Third, output audio transformers of the tube amplifier can be optimized for a narrower frequency range to lower cost and improve tonality.

The input signal would be pre-amplified using tube amplifiers. Then the amplified signal would be split into high and low frequencies using a cross-over network. The lower frequencies would be power amplified by efficient push pull amplifiers without coupling capacitors or transformers to output even the lowest frequencies, 20 Hz. The highs would be power amplified using a single ended tube amplifier, e.g. by KT-88, to create the beautiful tones of a single ended amplifier. Coupled with highly efficient horn speakers, e.g. Klipsch horns, they would produce really powerful highs with minimal input.

Hybrid Media Player

After the Millennium, technological advancements virtualized many things. However, humans still have five senses. We need to touch, feel and see. That’s why in the age of digitalization the sales of vinyl have increased. At the moment only CD and Vinyl have new releases. I would like to propose a hybrid media player to satisfy contemporary users’ demand. It would be an all-in-one product. Bringing back the advancements of turntable of 80s, CD players of 90s and streaming music of the Millennium.

People buy vinyl to see the physical media while listening to their favorite music. That’s why I propose a vertical turntable. I got my inspiration from Sony PS-F9. This allows the specially designed vinyl surface to be visible by the listener. Additionally, the turntable will have dual needle to be able to play both sides of the vinyl without the need for user flipping them over. Additionally, high end linear turntables of 70s and 80s could identify the tracks on a vinyl. However, their old detection mechanism doesn’t work on clear vinyl. I propose the advanced optical mouse technology to be adapted for this task. Some optical mouses can even work on glass surfaces, so they can also identify the tracks of a clear vinyl. As a result, the turntable would work in a similar fashion like a CD player.

For the CD player section of the media player, I propose a DVD writer mechanism. This allows all audio disc formats to be read including DVD Audio. The choice of a writer allows much longer laser life and ability to read rewritable discs with a high success rate.

The front section of the player will have two rotatable RGB spot lights. This would expose the effects overlayed on the latest LP records. There would optional accessories such as big analog VU meters attached in front of the player.

The media player will have on board amplifiers. The vinyl section will utilize an analog amplifier and the digital section a digital amplifier. Most importantly, the player will have a proper computer on board to play all audio formats developed so far. Once you read all the content on a compact disk, decoding the content is just software. It is sad to see latest CD players that cannot read many advanced audio disk formats and even CD text. If there is a license for a format, that cost can be charged to the end user.

The player will have dual Bluetooth (one for remote controlling the player, one for Bluetooth Audio connection) and Wi-Fi connectivity (for streamed audio).

Short Range Electric Boat

I would like to propose an electric passenger boat that operates at short distances like the ones in Bosphorus. Since the Titanic tragedy, the passenger ships have double hull. My proposed ship will have its inner hull made of aluminum capacitors. I had previously proposed such a structure for the wind turbines. Aluminum plates separated by aluminum oxide insulator layers. This plywood-like structure is very strong and comparably easy to manufacture. The oxide layer would be adjusted to allow optimum voltage difference between the plates. These capacitor plates would be connected to one another via insulated frames and fuse-able connectors. Therefore, if one section shorts, the fuse would protect the remainder sections.

As a result, large structure of the boat is used as an energy storage medium which has a much longer life than chemical batteries. This setup would only provide limited power which would only work for short ranges. The boat would be charged at every dock. The capacitor storage would allow rapid charging and can be charged many times without degradation.

This idea can be extended to other vehicles as well which would operate at short distances and can be frequently recharged.

Details of International Underwater Station

A submarine hull has two major components, the superstructure and the pressure hull. The superstructure of a submarine is the outer non-watertight hull which provides a hydrodynamically efficient shape. The pressure hull is the inner hull of a submarine that resists sea pressure and maintains the submarine’s structural integrity at operating depth. I propose a double pressure hull design for the International Underwater Station (IUS) while it doesn't need to travel at high speeds. In order to increase the usable space and maintain buoyance, the hulls of the submarine will be made of concrete filled steel structures. Manufacturing big steel structures is a mature technology for ship building. This will allow low-cost building of a big submarine that can operate at considerably high depths. Concrete has a high compressive strength and can be easily used to fill the void between the steel double hull. A special composition of concrete should be used for this purpose. The concrete would also seal the leaks that may occur on the superstructure. With special composition, they would resist the corrosive sea water better than most metals. The additional weight of the concrete would also allow more hollow space inside. Heavy weight and larger dimensions would also increase the stability of the underwater research station.

IUS would have hatches to allow additional submarines to be attached to each other like in ISS. Each IUS section would have emergency rescue spheres that would take the occupants to the surface in case of an emergency. Additionally, any damaged section would be released from the rest to maintain the operation of the IUS.

IUS would accommodate small submarines for humans as well as tethered robots. This would allow detailed inspection of tight spaces. Samples gathered by these inspections would be analyzed at the onboard laboratories.

We All Live in a Yellow Submarine

International Space Station has reached its end of life and new space stations are planned. I would like to propose an International Underwater Station which would benefit humanity more than its space counterpart. An underwater habitat was described in Jules Verne's "Vingt Mille Lieues sous Les Mers" almost two centuries ago. However, we are still leagues behind creating such habitat even though we have the technology. We should start by creating an underwater research station. It would be made of specially designed submarines. These submarines would be cascaded like the space stations sections are attached to one another. As time goes by more sections would be added and the old ones would be removed.

International Underwater Station would make research on deep-sea habitat and would also clean the surrounding region as it explores. It would create underwater farms to feed its occupants like in Jules Verne's novel. With a nuclear reactor on board, it would be a self-sufficient habitat.

An autonomous ship above water would accommodate the submarine to assist in logistics and as a rescue boat in case of emergency. A smaller version of this underwater station would be deployed on Mediterranean Sea first, then a larger version on the oceans.

Hybrid Streaming

For some time, I have been watching YouTube videos on vintage audio video media. In those videos the YouTuber tries to show its audience the quality of these stored media and the players. However, the current audio video formats treat the media as one single piece. Once different things are combined into one video, the quality of the sections making up the video are transformed into a single format and the details are lost. YouTube's compression algorithms worsen the case further.

My proposition is a new media format which is simply a gapless playlist of different media. It has some similarities to MKV, but the major difference is that it is a playlist. The video and audio are played in order without a gab. The viewer watches the video as one long piece. However, some of the video and audio would be streamed in different format to enable proper experience. The streamer services would stream them as it is without converting them into other formats.

This technology would allow proper product reviews of media recorders and players as well as true to life reproduction of vintage media.

Space Antiproton Decelerator

The Antiproton Decelerator is a unique machine that produces low-energy antiprotons for studies of antimatter, and “creates” antiatoms. Isolated and stored antimatter could be used as a fuel for interplanetary or interstellar travel as part of an antimatter-catalyzed nuclear pulse propulsion or another antimatter rocket. Since the energy density of antimatter is higher than that of conventional fuels, an antimatter-fueled spacecraft would have a higher thrust-to-weight ratio than a conventional spacecraft.

It is very difficult to create and store antimatter on earth while a collision between any particle and its anti-particle leads to their mutual annihilation. An ideal location to create and store antimatter would be where there is no matter in the first place. The vacuum of space is an ideal location. The South Atlantic Anomaly is an area where Earth's inner Van Allen radiation belt comes closest to Earth's surface, dipping down to an altitude of 200 km. This leads to an increased flux of energetic particles in this region.

My proposition is to create a robotic space station that would create antimatter in space. Like in ISS it would be composed of sections. One of the sections would be Antiproton Decelerator. Its orbit would pass over the South Atlantic Anomaly to harvest the highly energetic particles already created by the sun. Ideally, it should be powered by nuclear batteries in order to reduce drag of solar panels at lower altitudes.

To have particle accelerator on earth and anti-particle decelerator in space makes sense.

Rocket Drafting

If you have watched a bicycle race, you should have noticed the drafting of the riders. Drafting is an aerodynamic technique where two moving objects are aligning in a close group to exploit the lead object's slipstream and thus reduce the overall effect of drag. This technique is exploited by the migrating birds as well as in the form of wake updraft. Airbus believes an aircraft can save 5-10% of fuel by flying in formation, 2.8–3.7 km behind the preceding one.

This technique can be used by the space rockets as well. The countries that only have small rockets with limited payload can launch several rockets in formation to increase payload. This technique can also be used on high energy space missions such as geostationary satellite launches, lunar and planetary missions. A single stage rocket with an aerodynamic nose cone can fly ahead of the main rocket to reduce its fuel consumption and increase its payload capacity. Wake updraft would only work for the first stage of a rocket while the rocket still travels through the thick air.

It would pave road to swarm of space rockets. Swarm satellites are already in use by NASA’s Starling mission, A Multi-CubeSat Mission to Demonstrate Autonomous Swarm Technologies.

Alternate SR-72

The Progressive Rocket I proposed can be altered to function as a SR-71 replacement. Rise of anti-access/area denial tactics and counter-stealth technologies renders speed more promising than stealth for penetrating protected airspace. Therefore, a hybrid rocket, ramjet, scramjet plane would suffice the requirements. The main difference of my design compared to SR-72 (SR-71 replacement) is that it will utilize rocket engines instead of turbofans at low speed.

Inefficient but much lighter rocket engines (compared to turbofans) will be fired on takeoff until the adequate speed is reached for the ramjet to fire. Once ramjets are fired, the rockets will be shot down. Beyond certain speeds, the ramjet will transform to a scramjet for efficiency. Transformable ramjet is much lighter and simpler than a turbofan engine. This reduces the R&D and manufacturing cost of the plane.

The plane will have multiple wings like a biplane. Reduced thickness of the wings will not have a drag penalty compared to traditional wings. This will increase the lift capacity of the wings so that the plane can fly at higher altitudes. Additionally, vertical sections supporting the wings will double as vertical stabilizers. The presence of liquid oxygen on board will also allow the plane to fly at higher altitudes by supplying oxygen to the engines.

In order to compensate for extra fuel consumption, the plane can be build larger. Simpler design (compared to SR -71) of the plane allows easy scalability. My design also allows fast servicing times and reduced preparation times compared to the original SR-71. It can also be refueled in air by a tanker version of it.

The plane’s common technologies with the progressive rocket, reduces the R&D budgets and manufacturing costs for both of them.

The Progressive Rocket

Based on the ideas I proposed earlier, I would like to define the progressive rocket I mentioned previously. The objective of this rocket is to utilize earth’s atmosphere for the reusable first stage of the rocket. As a result, the first stage will have wings and additional ramjet engines to assist the rocket engines.

The first stage of the rocket will utilize RP1 as fuel and LOX as oxidizer. The rocket will takeoff like a plane from an airfield. Initially, the rocket engines of the first stage will be fired. This will give fast acceleration to enable shorter take off. When the rocket reaches minimum speed for ramjet to operate, the ramjet engines will be fired and some of the rocket engines will be shot down for efficient flight. Plane like takeoff will require much less thrust compared to a vertical one. Therefore, there will be fewer engines on the first stage. Also, the engines will not be throttleable and will not have gimbal. The ramjet engines will have thrust vectoring. During takeoff ailerons will be used.

Ramjet nozzles will have regenerative cooling which will preheat liquid oxygen before being injected into the ramjet engines. At low altitudes, ramjet engines will utilize external oxygen. As altitude increases, liquid oxygen will be injected to maintain thrust. The air entering the ramjet will be accelerated by the exhaust gases which will increase its efficiency compared to a rocket engine even at higher altitudes. However, most of the thrust will still come from the rocket engines.

The wings of the rocket will enable it to takeoff with much less thrust compared to a vertical takeoff. The lift generated by the wings will also reduce the thrust lost to counteract the gravity. Additionally, the wings coupled with ramjets will reduce the fuel requirement for the return to base flight. It will be also much easier to land the first stage of the rocket with wings. The first stage of the rocket will be like a biplane. Unlike traditional wings that are thick to generate lift. These wings will be thin to reduce drag. Airlift will be generated by angle of attack. Thin vertical sections supporting the wings will double as vertical stabilizers. The upper stages of the rocket will also have much smaller wings to improve the stability of the plane.

The first stage of a rocket usually reaches Mach 8. Ramjets cannot operate efficiently at those speeds. The engine would need to transform into a scramjet during flight. If that wouldn’t be possible the flight trajectory and final speed of the first stage would be adjusted accordingly.

The previous attempts on this idea tried to come up with a magical engine that would do everything. However, I propose the existing engines which would support one another to improve fuel efficiency.

Progressive Rocket

Yesterday I read about progressive rock and listened to “Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band”. Then, I decided to write this article. Progressive rock style emerged from psychedelic bands who abandoned standard rock traditions in favor of instrumental and compositional techniques more commonly associated with jazz, folk, or classical music, while retaining the instrumentation typical of rock music. A landmark work of British psychedelia, Sgt. Pepper is considered one of the first art rock LPs and a progenitor to progressive rock.

That’s what we need to do with our rocket designs, abandoning standard rocket design and add more innovation to every piece of the design. Reusability is one good example. However, it is a single, we need an album. For example, in my previous articles I had proposed wings for the first stage, cascaded propellant tanks for liquid methane and oxygen, high bypass nozzle for the first stage and many more.

Today’s advanced simulation technologies allow radical designs to be tested with minimal cost. AI can be used to perfect the details as well. We need to break through from the traditional approaches to achieve our ambitious space exploration goals.

Orbital Flight Trajectory

I would like to say few words on orbital flight trajectory. The orbiting of an object relies on the centrifugal force counter acting the gravity. When a rocket propels itself away from the earth, the earth's gravity effecting on the rocket doesn't change much within couple of hundreds of kilometers. On the other hand, if that thrust is diverted to increase the rocket's horizontal speed, the centrifugal force would reduce the effect of gravitation on the rocket. That's why the rocket trajectories are designed to increase the rocket's horizontal speed even at denser lower atmosphere.

A complex alternative to reach orbital speed would include the use of light weight but sturdy wings on the first stage of the rocket. Close to 1 g of the rocket's thrust is lost to counteract the gravity. The wings would reduce that need while they would contribute to the lift passively. However, they would induce drag. That's why I stated that the design would be complex. A perfect design which would have less drag compared to the positive lift it generates can be developed. I think it is totally feasible. One benefit of the wings is that they would help the first stage of the rocket return to the launch site safely with less propellent and less complex engines.

Aviation Strategy

I was looking at the comparison of orbital rocket engines. There was so much different design. It reminded me of mobile phone manufacturers that would use tens of different cameras on their product line where as Apple would perfect a sensor for years. If a country has billions to spare there is no problem with experimenting with so many different designs. However, I would like to propose strategies for countries with limited budget.

Within the aviation sector, space has a considerably small percentage. There are more than 100 thousand one-way flights daily worldwide. The main cost of these flights is jet fuel. In the meanwhile, most space launches still use RP1 as the rocket fuel. Which is a more refined version of jet fuel. My proposition for the countries is that they should invest more on jet fuel refining to reduce the cost of RP1 and increase its production. Even though, liquid methane is becoming a new standard as a rocket fuel, RP1 has still have many advantages that would never go away. Most important of being a liquid at room temperature and having higher energy density per volume. This allows simpler engine design and smaller propellant tank for the same thrust.

The countries with considerable military budget should also invest on solid boosters as well. While most of the missiles use solid boosters on their initial stages. Additionally, solid boosters give so much thrust with simpler design compared to liquid rocket engines. Therefore, the rockets with solid boosters would require fewer liquid engines which would simplify the design. It is also important to establish a solid booster manufacturing facility that is consumed regularly. The produced missiles are mainly stocked pilled and only a few are tested regularly. On the other hand, regular space launches would allow the process to be continuously tested in real life. Establishing strong civilian roots for military is important. They would reduce the costs and keep high production capacities alive in peace time. That's why I propose RP1 as rocket fuel which has its root on jet fuel and solid boosters which has its root on military missiles.

Data Manager

Modern technology allows people to generate huge amounts of personal data. However, at the moment there is no data management standard. What I mean is a data tracking and management standard. When you take a picture or video or receive a media from social media platforms, they are stored on your phone and depending on your subscription some of them are uploaded to cloud. Many people even do not have such cloud syncing. My proposition is that an app would index and assign a GUID to such data once it is created. Then, as this data is duplicated, the management platform would note that. As a result, you would know where the copies of that data is stored. It can be cloud platforms or external disk drives or other computers or mobile devices. Additionally, this standard and GUID would be shared over the social media platforms to track the same data. If you have the original photo, you don't need to store the small copy of it created by Instagram or WhatsApp.

Once the standards are set, the data management apps with the help of end user and AI can aggregate and classify your data. It should also prioritize them so that the most important ones are duplicated more and stored on expensive cloud services before the less critical ones.

Storage Medium for 4k

For some time, I have been watching a YouTube channel that displays old audio and video equipment. Watching the progress of storage medium is very interesting. At the moment the highest capacity storage medium is 100 GB with a triple-layer UltraHD Blu-ray disk. I would like to propose an alternative to that. A 120 mm floppy disk with a hard disk drive platter inside.

As solid state storage became the standard for computing, the demand for mechanical hard disk drives is diminishing. The know how developed on these magnetic disk drives can be transferred to come up with an alternative to optical counterparts. The mechanical disk drives have a higher storage density then their optical counterparts. They are also more reliable in the long run especially compared to multi layered disks. They would be somewhat more expensive though.

The trend with video is online. However, very high bit rate quality video and audio cannot be streamed over internet to many locations around the world. There would be still need for a read only medium to distribute very high-quality movies. Buying a very big and expensive TV and consuming highly compressed and lower quality media over internet can raise demand for such new medium. An enclosed hard disk drive platter can be an alternative to Blu-ray disks while they would allow much higher capacities and retain info more reliably.

Jewelry Manufacturing Ecosystem

It was in 2009 when I got inspired by the Apple App Store. I was among the first developers in the platform including the first iPad apps. Creating a platform for the designers can be extended to manufacturing as well. I have several ideas on that. Here is one on jewelry manufacturing.

The objective of this platform is to utilize technology to develop jewelry to reduce the need for environmentally and humanitarianly corrupting gold and diamond. There are already materials available that can substitute them. However, they lack the trend. The idea relies on a technical manufacturing facility to develop materials and alloys that would be used to manufacture jewelries. Some of the manufacturing process would also be automized to reduce costs and improve quality.

The jewelry designers would create designs that can be manufactured by this facility and sell them online over the dedicated website. The manufacturing company will handle the financial transactions and the shipment as well as provide servicing to the products. The jewelry would be produced on demand and shipped after manufacturing and quality control. There would be several manufacturing facilities around the world for fast delivery. It’s a kind of jewelry version of Amazon’s book publishing. Instead of authors, the designers would get the commission. Unlike book publishing there would be some limitations to be accepted as a designer. At least one sample should be produced and photographed before sale.

Proposals for material substitutes:

- Instead of Diamond (C), Moissanite (SiC) would be used. It would be lab grown, so that it would lack imperfections which improve brilliance and clarity. Additionally, they could be perfectly colored with proper additives.

- Instead of Gold (Au), different alloys will be used. The alloys will be selected to have corrosion resistance and dermatologically safe. There would be no plating which peals of after several years. One suggestion that goes well with Moissanite would be Aluminum Silver (AlAg) alloy. It’s lightweight, strong, and corrosion-resistant. More importantly Aluminum forms a eutectic with silicon at 577 °C. As a result, the gemstone can be directly fused on the jewelry negating the need for prongs.

- I also propose specially etched silicon wafers used as ornaments. Silicon when etched in nanometric scale reflect light in specific wavelengths. Like the nanostructures on a butterfly wing. These colors are generated with sealed nanostructures that never fade.

Rules and Regulations by Authorities

When I returned home from vacation, I was welcomed by graffitied elevator. The chamber of engineers had made those ugly stickers mandatory for residential elevators. The elevator had more important flaw of not settling level with the current floor. However, this was not considered as a problem. The authorities are being paid to develop standards and regulations. However, when the people occupying those seats are short sighted, problems arise. Unfortunately, capable technical people are scarce and those who work for authorities are not usually the best. I propose the regulations to be questioned by semi-technical people with broader view before being published.

An extension of this problem can be seen on the environmental protection. When the regulations are set without solving the root cause of the problem. The problem is transferred to locations with less regulations. However, when the environment is polluted, it is transferred to the origin country as well. The objective of rules and regulations should be to solve problems, not to create obstacles for the industries or the society. It is easy to write and publish a rule, however it is much more difficult to come up with solutions. Therefore, more effort should be put on the solutions. I, myself almost always come up with solutions when I see a problem. I wish, I could transfer my mindset to more people as well.

Finally, the rules and regulations should be developed in coherence with the trends. Innovations don’t happen in a day and they take some time to spread around. Unfortunately, the regulators lag behind such trends even though they had time. As a result, the innovations and reforms should start from the regulatory side to speed up the advancement of the humanity.

Hybrid VTOL

My previous VTOL design relied on rocket engines. This time I am proposing a hybrid design. The plane will use efficient turbofan engines during flight and utilize rocket engines during takeoff. SpaceX Merlin engines can be modified to operate with jet fuel instead of RP-1. Even though, jet fuel is not an ideal rocket fuel, rocket engine would only operate during takeoff and landing. Takeoff requires so much power which cannot be met with vector thrusting turbofan engines. Here is an example: Boeing 737-800’s engine CFM56-7B27 generate 121 kN thrust from 2,370 kg dry weight. On the other hand, SpaceX Merlin engine generates 845 kN thrust from 470 kg dry weight.

Hybrid VTOL would require a new plane design. The passenger cabin would accommodate the luggage like in trains. The entire bottom of the plane would be used to store jet fuel, LOX and the rocket engines. Turbofan engines of the plane would have thrust vectoring for stabilizing the plane during takeoff and landing. They would also assist the ailerons during flight. This design eliminates the need for some of the complex flaps on the wings as well.

As a conclusion, a VTOL plane can be easily developed using current turbofan and rocket engines. More importantly utilizing the same fuels. The only additional requirement would be liquid oxygen. Which would only be consumed during takeoff and landing. Airports can be modified to accommodate such planes. The boarding of the planes would also be different with luggage carried inside the plane like in trains. This would eliminate the need for waiting for the luggage. More importantly, the luggage would not be lost or damaged!

The Washing Machine

All consumer electronics have moved away from the real-world cases to complex products with lots of bells and whistles that fail frequently. I would like to propose a washing machine design based on my use cases.

The objective of this washing machine is to clean and dry the cloths effectively with highest reliability and lowest disturbance. The machine will not have detergent drawer and will not spin dry. Its user control will only have push buttons and LEDs. It will have a mechanical on/off button and a wireless enable switch. The clothes will be washed up to 35 degrees Celsius which is approximately the body temperature. The clothes will be dried using a heat pump assisted air dryer. The reasoning behind all these as follows:

- In real life, when a cloth has a critical stain, it is treated before wash with special chemicals. Therefore, a washing machine do not require a prewash. Additionally, there are detergents with softeners. As a result, there is no need for a detergent drawer which attracts mold and gets very dirty and is hard to clean.

- Almost all washing machines have a rotary switch. They are susceptible to accidental rotation. Once they are rotated, the program is completely altered. On the other hand, a push button can be deactivated when required. The selection would be displayed as a LED when needed. The washing machine will only have buttons for classical use cases. Additional features will be accessible via mobile app. As a result, there is no need for complex button schemes and displays on the machine. The screen of a phone or tablet will provide the best user interface to access additional features if needed.

- Mechanical switches permanently turn off a device and functionality unlike push buttons. Therefore, wireless connectivity can be permanently disabled if needed.

- Detergents of today are activated even at very low temperatures. As a result, there is no need to heat up the water above 35 degrees and deform the clothes as well as consume power. Additionally, the washing machine will have a small heat pump to heat the water with less electricity compared to a resistor.

- Modern houses are getting smaller and smaller in Europe. As a result, there is no room for a dryer or place to hang the clothes after wash. The washing machine should dry the clothes after washing without the destructive spinning method. The heat pump and an air blower inside the drum reservoir will air dry the clothes. Eliminating the spinning also reduces the power requirement for the main motor of the machine.

- For a better cleaning, the drum of the machine will be large. The dry weight of the clothes will be measured before washing and the user will be alerted on overload conditions before the washing begins.

Ultimate Electric Highway

I had previously proposed a robotic highway. I would like to enhance that idea further. The new idea is an ultimate electric highway. It would be composed of suspension bridges with wind turbine towers. The electric generated by the wind turbines would be feed over the single lane roads. The vehicles operating on this elevated highway will be powered from the road. As a result, they don’t need to incorporate a large battery on board. However, they will still have a small capacity battery. The highway’s electric infrastructure would also be connected to the mains grid. The surplus power from the wind turbines would be fed into the grid and vice versa. All the vehicles would be autonomous while traveling on the highway and would be manually operated outside the highway. This allows the electric vehicles to operate point to point. While traveling long distances they would operate autonomously and powered from the road. When outside the highway they would function like a traditional electric vehicle with battery and manual control. This setup allows personal cars to operate on the highway as well. Unlike my previous idea on robot only highway. The overall objective of the idea is the come up with a solution to operate electric vehicles over long distances without the need for larger batteries. The idea relies on already mature wind turbine construction. The suspension bridge architecture also speeds up the construction.

Lunar Transporter 2

On 11ᵗʰ of November 2024, I had written about a Lunar Transporter.

I would like to re-emphasize the importance of such a rocket stage in order to establish a lunar base. The main objective of lunar transporter is to preserve the momentum between the lunar-earth transporter orbit. The transporter would be accelerated on LEO and ideally preserve most of its momentum by orbiting the moon. While it is orbiting the moon, it would deploy its cargo to the drop zone, I had discussed earlier. Then it would fire its engine for an earth injection. Once it reaches earth, it would orbit at LEO. Then, it would be refueled and loaded with a new cargo. Finally, it would fire its engine for a translunar injection to complete a full lunar-earth transporter orbit.