A Novel Approach to Space Datacenters

It looks like the space datacenters will be the next competition area for the space industry. I would like to make my proposal for a novel datacenter satellite design.

Data centers need processing power and energy. The highest efficiency electronics can be manufactured on Gallium nitride (GaN) wafers due to their high electron mobility compared to Silicon. Additionally, highest efficiency solar cells are built on GaN for the same reason. Finally, Gallium nitride technology is more resilience to radiation than silicon.  My proposition is to combine the solar cells and the processors (including memory and other supporting chips) into one wafer. Some parts of the wafer would produce electricity from sunlight; the other regions would do the calculations. There is no need to cut the wafers into smaller pieces. The chips would be distributed around the wafer for a higher production yield rate. Like in the modern processors, if a section of the chip is faulty that part would be disabled in operation. GaN is also used to manufacture lasers. The communication within the wafer can be conducted by wires but inter wafer communication can be done using lasers which would be a part of the wafer as well.

The datacenter satellite would have a design similar to Starlink satellites, folded flat panels mainly. The bottom section would be responsible for the navigation and communication of the satellite and would be made of standard electronics and solar panels. The satellite would be deployed to the sun synchronous orbit to receive continuous sunlight, negating the need for bulky batteries.

Cryogenic Free Liquid Rocket

This idea is just a more realistic aggregation of my previous ideas on the topic. There are two major oxidizers used on rockets; liquid oxygen on liquid rockets, ammonium perchlorate on solid boosters. My proposition is to combine ammonium perchlorate with RP1 to create a rocket with no cryogenic liquid to simplify the rocket design to improve reliability.

I will describe the first stage design which can be copied on the upper stages as well. The solid oxidizer will be molded into a hollow cylinder. This cylindrical solid oxidizer will be slide into the rocket shell that has the engine section on its bottom. There will be a separator section between the engine and the cylinder. The sides of the separator will have evaporator sections for the solid oxidizer. The hollow part of the cylinder will then be filled with RP1 fuel. The inner walls of the cylinder will be coated with a special insulator to prevent contact between the fuel and the oxidizer.

Just before the rocket is launched, the evaporator sections will be externally heated to decompose the solid oxidizer into its gaseous components. The temperature required is close to 200°C. Then, the RP1 and gaseous oxidizers would be mixed in the combustion chamber and ignited to generate thrust for the rocket. RP1 will be pumped into the combustion chamber using turbo pump that works by burning the RP1 with gaseous oxidizers. RP1 will also be used to cool the engine and the nozzle. The heat of the engine will also be used to keep evaporating the solid oxidizer further.  As solid ammonium perchlorate keeps evaporating, it will collapse down due to its own weight. By doing so it will keep the RP1 under pressure. Negating the need for pressurizing gasses. The propellants of a liquid rocket are kept under pressure during flight to maintain high pumping rate for the combustion. This requires heavy and thick tanks considering the amount of propellent stored in rockets. The solid oxidizer cylinder negates this need as well. Solids don’t exert pressure on their container walls, in this case the walls of the rocket. RP1 doesn’t require a tank because the solid oxidizer is the container. When all the RP1 is consumed, the remaining solid oxidizer would be used as warm gas propulsion.

Service Product Line

I had previously complained about the product inflation for the physical goods. The service product lines are quite the opposite. When you look at the services offered by the digital content providers, they are simple a yearly based subscription. You either get everything or nothing. Some improved on it a little, you get many things for a year or some things for a year.

Providing products based on the services is way simpler than physical goods. My proposition is to price individually most of the services the company provides. Then, these services can be bought individually in quantities or bought in bondless with other services.

Let me give an example: I mainly watch volleyball matches and snooker. I also try to watch the final matches of the tournaments for tennis, basketball and football. The sports broadcasters only sell yearly subscription which include most of the matches for many sport branches. Either all or none. I cannot buy subscription based on the sports. Some offer individual event purchases but they are rare. Additionally, I am willing to pay extra for a Turkish commentary as well. Such details become more pronounced on my next example.

Purchase plans offered on social media platforms. Many even do not offer such plans. I should be able to purchase an ad free subscription based on my data usage. More importantly, I should be able to individually purchase the detailed searches I can make, the messages I can send, the features I can use. I wouldn't need all these all the time. I should be able purchase features on demand. I should be able to deposit an amount on my account to be later used for such tiny purchases which may cost on the order of cents. As a result, I wouldn't need to save my credit card information on the company's server and don't need to make financial transactions for cents amount. The company would receive the total money at the beginning. Due to time value of money, it would be more profitable for the company as well. The prepaid deposit also allows any amount to be send to other people. No need to buy gift cards for a digital service.

One last thing. I had used LinkedIn more than a decade ago. On the recommendations tab I would see people who have attended the same university or company I've been to during the same years as I did. Now years passed and the latest LinkedIn is full of AI features, but the recommendations tab displays the students from my graduated university or recent employees of the company I worked for. I don't know why the page still asks for my graduation year if it will not use it to filter out people for me. All the social media platforms push more and more recommended people and posts to their subscribers using AI. I don't know how do they train those AI, but my old experiences were much better than the recent ones for LinkedIn and Instagram.

The Product Line

My complaining articles continue. This time I address two important topics on product lines of the companies.

In 2009 while I was developing iPhone apps, I read books on Steve Jobs. Those books sold millions and most probably every major marketing manager had read them. One of the reasons of Apple's success was attributed to the simplification of its product line. When I read it, it made a lot of sense to me. However, after all those years I see no effect of it on the companies. They still keep extending their product line with indistinguishable products.

I recently bought an electric toothbrush. Such products are a motorized handle and removable brush bits. The changed bits differ depending on the use that is acceptable. However, the company producing it offered almost twenty different varieties of the handle which is simply a battery operated motor. These devices are not serviceable as well. Increasing the complexity of a simple product makes it impossible for the company to manufacture them in Germany or the USA. My proposition for the companies is to come up with minimum number of products to satisfy customer needs. Simplify the design, make them serviceable, manufacture them locally and sell them directly online. Instead of overcomplicating a simple machine, use the technology to develop different products. Ex: Battery operated kitchen mixers, mini massagers, adult toys...

One last word on the environmental friendliness of the products. All the global consumer good companies spend millions of dollars to emphasize their environmental sensitivity. However, none of their products is serviceable. Increasing the serviceability of a product doesn't decrease the sales of a company, but increase the brand royalty. A short lived experience for a customer would probably lead to a change of brands. Additionally, selling the spare parts for the products offered at a reasonable price would strengthen the products status among its rivals. Providing experience to the customer is important. If the company keep charging ridiculously high prices for the accessories and spare parts, the end user would be forced to buy cheap aftermarket alternatives which would damage the experience.

Publishing An Environment Friendly Book

I don't like writing company names and brands on my articles. Just for the next few articles I make an exception because I have complains. Hope my solution proposals inspire someone.

Let's start with my book. My book is published on Amazon and it is printed on demand. As an author living in Turkey, I can only order author's copy of my book from Amazon.de and Amazon.com.

When I order my book from Amazon.de, the book is printed in Poland. Then it would be transported to Netherlands and from there air shipped to Turkey. It's a looong journey. I once ordered 10 copies of my book and due to long cue in the Poland printing house they printed and shipped four of my books from UK and the rest from Poland. The UK printing and distribution system was perfect. Once the books were printed in UK, the next day they were shipped by air to Turkey from UK. However, I cannot directly order my books from UK. I also tested the service in the States. It took more than a week for my books to be printed in Las Vegas. Then they were send via air to Turkey. You can see the photos of the books that I received.

All my books were send by the same cartoon envelop with no weather sealing or padding, independent of the location (Poland, UK, USA). As a result all my books experienced humidity problems and all had minor damages on them from banging each other due to lack of padding in the package.

Printing a book and transporting it to the customer has a huge carbon footprint. Using zero plastic in the packaging may look environmental friendly however it results in damaged products. In my case I returned the books back to the USA for a refund. Which increased the carbon foot print further. Using few grams of plastic could have prevented that. Just cover the books with protective film like playing cards or cigarette boxes are covered.

Environment friendly strategies should be developed from a wider perspective. Narrow minded actions harm the world more.

Internet Volant Scripta Manent

I had to modify the famous phrase to reflect the status of internet as a storage medium.

Many years ago I had a Google+ page. I used it as an article achieve. When an article I read inspired me, I would write a couple of words on Google+ and post the link to the article. Not long after when I needed to look up an old article, I saw that the link was not functioning. That is the reality of internet. The links are not permanent pointers and the websites where the article is posted do not stay for decades. Eventually, Google + was also shut down. I write my thoughts on Blogspot which may also get nixed out by the internet giant.

Publishing the contents of my book made sense to me. Physical books have a much longer life compared to anything on internet. At the moment my book has copies in the USA, Denmark and Turkey. Centuries later probability of one still exists is high.

This weakness of the internet made me develop the Global Data Bank idea. One can request his/her data from the major social media companies. However the data format is not easy for a practical use. If such data would be stored and retrieved with globally defined standards and tags, they would be much useful. Global standards are important for the future.

Multiplane Ramjet

I would like to propose an alternative supersonic passenger plane design that have multiple wings. There was only one supersonic passenger plane, Concorde. It had delta wings. Even though it has disadvantages, I am in favor of multiplane designs that have multiple wings.

Supersonic shock waves generate a lot of stress on the structures of the plane. Delta wing has a stronger wing design, that's why its preferred on supersonic planes. I propose three thin wings that are supported with small ram jets. Multiple wings have much higher lifting capability than delta wings and are strong. Distributed smaller engines generate thrust more evenly and have less stress on the structure of the plane.

Ram jets generate very low thrust at low speeds. In order to overcome this, I propose injection of liquid oxygen besides the fuel in the combustion zone. This would generate much higher thrust. Liquid oxygen injection would continue until the plane reach minimum efficient speed for the particular ram jet. The plane can be accelerated on the ground by the use of a catapult like in aircraft carriers. Coupled with liquid oxygen boost and large wing surface area, the plane would take off from a very short runway.

Multi wing design would allow the plane to fly at a higher altitude compared to Concorde. This would reduce the air drag even for a thin three wing design and may allow the plane to fly faster than Concorde.

The wings of the plane would be thin and wouldn’t allow fuel tanks inside. The fuel and the liquid oxygen would be stored in tanks at the back of the plane. This would reduce the usable space of the plane. Another alternative could be to store some of the fuel on tanks attached between the multi wings like extra fuel tanks of fighter jets. The plane can use RP1 as fuel like the rockets. Liquid oxygen would only be used on take off and partially on landing. Therefore, even a small amount of LOX is enough.

A Novel Thorium Electric Generator

I was reading the history of coal gas. From there I jumped on the gas mantle (In my childhood street sellers would illuminate their stands with them. It had a warm bright light). I combined what I read from these two articles and came up with a new Thorium electric generator idea.

When heated to incandescence, the thorium volatilizes particularly into radium-224. This is the key to my idea. The powdered thorium oxide would be heated to incandescence using an electric heater. The pressurized heater chamber would be filled with carbon dioxide gas. Then, the heated gas would be used to turn a turbine to generate electricity. The cooled gasses would be pumped back into the heater chamber completing a closed loop. Hopefully, the produced energy would be higher than the energy consumed to heat the Thorium.

Thorium turns into Radium-224 after a series of alpha and beta decays. These decays give off energy as well. The alpha decay is actually an energetic helium atom. During electric generation process the helium would be removed from the loop. Helium is a valuable industrial gas and it would be stored and sold as a valuable by-product of the energy generating plant. The radioactive Radium-224 accumulating besides the heated thorium atoms has a half life of 3.6 days. Which then alpha decays into Radon-220 gas. As a result, the heated chamber would keep heating itself from the alpha and beta decays. The resulting gasses, helium and Radon would be used to turn the turbines besides carbon dioxide (which has a very high vapor pressure). Radon-220 on the other decays into stable lead in less than 12 hours.

Finally, when the thorium oxide completely turns into molten lead, the chamber would be almost free of radioactive particles. The fuel, thorium oxide, would be replenished and the lead would be removed.

Equidistant Satellite Launcher

Unlike Geostationary satellites, LEO satellites cannot cover a certain region continuously. Depending on the altitude, they are over the same location for a limited time only. In order to increase the availability, more satellites should deployed on the same orbit. I would like to propose a method to deploy equidistant satellites in the same orbit with a single launch. A modification on the payload bay of the rocket would be enough.

A two staged rocket would be launched as usual. The first stage will work as usual as well. Then, the second stage will reach the orbital altitude and speed. Once the orbital speed is attained, the rocket will rotate 180 degrees to reverse its nose against the direction of motion. Afterwards, a special explosive will detach the cover of a section of the payload bay. The momentum of the released cover will increase the speed of the rocket slightly. Then, the first satellite will be released. After the satellite is released and there is a safe distance between the rocket and the satellite, the second payload cover would be detached by an explosive. Again, the speed of the rocket will increase slightly. With the increased speed, the next satellite's deployment location will be reached. Then, the satellite will be released. This loop will continue till the last satellite is deployed. Finally, the remaining parts of the rocket will be directed to a safe crash site on earth.

Normally, such satellite deployment would be done using more fuel consumption. I propose the rocket’s payload covers to be detached in sequence to gain the necessary momentum to move the rocket to the next deployment location. The location of the explosives should be specially designed not to damage the payload. The explosion should only generate gas and forward momentum to the payload cover. The payload cover should be freed from its connection points before explosion. Its like a gas airsoft gun. Instead of a plastic bullet, the payload cover is fired.

Necklace of Selene

In ancient Greek mythology, Selene (Σελήνη) is the goddess and personification of the Moon. As with every beautiful woman, Selene deserves a necklace on her neck so as the Moon.

Missions to the poles of the moon are already planned. One of the difficulties of those missions is the energy supply. The poles receive very low solar energy. In order to overcome this difficulty, I propose flexible wire-shaped solar cells that circle the moon. The distance needed to be covered in order to circle the moon is small when close to the poles. The flexible wire would be composed of sections. Some sections would serve as a solar cell. These sections would be large in diameter to stand out from the lunar surface. These sections would then be connected with thin conductive wires. The result would be a giant necklace circling the moon that serve as a solar battery for the polar base. The solar fibers would be connected in series to form a high voltage low current power supply. The end of each solar section would have a circuitry that could bypasses the solar fiber in case of a malfunction or lack of light. As a result, only the sections receiving light would be connected as solar battery and the rest would be bypassed as wires only. Circling the moon ensures 7/24 energy supply.

The solar fiber would be deployed by a special lunar rocket. The rockets forward momentum, gained by the trajectory from earth, would be used to lay the fiber on the surface of the moon. Once the spool of fiber finishes, the rocket would crash on the moon. Then, a special robot would be deployed near the solar fiber. This robot would clean and raise the sunken solar fiber from the lunar dust. If the fiber is deployed in sections, the robot would also connect these separate parts. The two ends of the fiber would be connected to the poles with wires. One end of the fiber would be the positive and the other end would be the negative of this long solar fiber.

Moon Strider

The Moon Water Wheel satellite I proposed earlier allows the following lunar explorer “The Moon Strider”. I got my inspiration from the water striders that walk on water. They are very light and have long thin legs.

The Moon Strider would be a flexible solar panel supported by a thin titanium plate for rigidity. It would have thin legs made of carbon fiber tubes and carbon nano tube fibers connecting the sections to the motor section on top. I propose piezoelectric motors for the actuation of these legs. The robot would have four legs and 2 arms that function as legs as well. The tips of the arms attract the lunar dust and carry them to the head for analyses. The head of the robot accommodates all the sensors. The robot does not carry bulky batteries. The power-hungry operations such as walking, sampling and communicating are only done when the solar panels are illuminated. The satellite I had proposed earlier would beam light on the robot on Lunar nights. The satellite also relays the signals from the robot to the earth, reducing the communication power need for the robot.

The Moon Strider would be deployed on the Moon in rolled form. It would also be covered by a rolled protective cylinder made of wire mashes. The satellite carrying the Moon Strider would spin it before releasing it on the moon for a free fall. I got my inspiration from the Dambusters bombs. The spinning would reduce the effect of impact on the robot. The rolled cylindrical wire mash would unfold after it is released from the satellite. After hitting the surface of the moon, it would absorb the shock and crack, releasing the rolled Moon Strider unharmed. Then, the strider would melt the wires that keep it rolled. Once the robot unfolds, it would start its exploration of the moon. The deployment of the robot should be conducted on Lunar days.

The light weight design and long legs allow the robot to go over the obstacles and climb the crater walls. The satellite carrying the robot would also function as the illuminator, relay satellite. Also, more than one robot can be deployed to cover more areas.

Moon Water Wheel

The Moon is the closest body to the Earth. Conducting research on it is much easier and cheaper than any other body in the universe. However, energy is the main problem for the Lunar Explorers. Spending millions for a couple of days of research on the Moon is not fair for the taxpayers. I know it is not an ideal solution but would like to make a proposition for a continuous energy supply for the Lunar Explorers.

The idea gets its inspiration from the water wheels. They are used to generate usable kinetic energy from the moving body of water. They can also be used to elevate the water from the ground level. I propose a satellite that rotate around the Moon’s equator. It would charge its on-board battery using solar panels. When it reaches the un-illuminated part of the Moon where the lunar explorer is operating, it would send a concentrated beam of light to illuminate the solar panels of the explorer to quick charge its battery until the next rotation. In order to stay in orbit, the satellite would orbit the moon every couple of hours. As a result, the lunar lander would be charged with frequently pulses of light. This allows the explorer to keep operating during the lunar nights, which lasts two weeks.

I propose an equatorial rout for the lunar explorer. It would walk and conduct experiments on a line that is continuously illuminated day and night. Number of satellites can be increased to increase the power delivered to the explorer. The satellites would also relay the signals from the explorer to the earth. This would reduce the explorer's power consumption to communicate with earth as well.

Let's invest more on the infrastructures before sanding short lived space explorers.

Wind Needle

Almost every big city in the world has a radio tower. Eiffel (Paris), Berlin TV Tower (Berlin), Danube Tower (Vienna), Tokyo Tower (Tokyo), Oriental Pearl TV Tower (Shanghai) and The Space Needle (Seattle). Most of these towers have a rotating restaurant on their upper floor and their top level serve as RF transmitter antenna.

I would like to add a middle level between the restaurant floor and the transmitter level, “The Vertical Wind Turbine Level”.

Building a tall tower is not cheap and such transmitter towers consume very high electricity. Addition of a vertical wind turbine would very well lower the operational cost of the tower. It would also contribute to the silhouette (road to electronic tower toys that have a spinning top).  The magnetic field generated by the turbine can be shielded for the transmitter section. The rotating restaurant would only rotate when the wind turbine is running and generate electricity. The transmitter on the other hand would have a back-up supply.  Generating and consuming electric within the tower would lower the transmission losses as well.

Space Needle of Seattle is the most beautiful tower after the iconic Eiffel. That’s the reason I chose it for my mockup work.

R&D Town

R & D Town was an idea I had written many years ago in Turkish. I would like to re-emphasize it for its importance for the advancements of the mankind. Research and Development is a long and expensive process. The improvements on this process are beneficial for everyone.

The idea is to aggregate everything related with R&D in a town and make it operate 7 / 24. There would be no stationary company operating in the town. All the scientists and engineers would work project based. Only technicians operating the machines and assisting in the labs would be the permanent employees of the town.

The labs would be specially designed to accommodate many equipment on demand, would have proper air ventilation and resting areas for the researches. Researching is not a 9:00 to 18:00 work. The researches would continue experimenting for many hours when they are focused. That’s why the labs would have proper resting areas for quick refreshments for the researches. The accommodations would also be close to the labs. No time would be lost due to traffic.

The town would have a central on demand computer aided manufacturing facility. It would have the latest 3D printers, CNC machines, Laser Cutters and more. It would be operational 7 / 24 to minimize the delay between product iterations. If a design is finalized in the middle of the night, its manufacturing will start immediately and the end product will be available for inspection in the morning. Researching is a long and tiresome process, speeding up the individual sub processes increase the motivation and reduce the overall cost. Additionally, finding qualified technicians is not easy. Aggregating the processes and gathering the people and machinery in one location allows more efficient use of resources.

R&D town has a much wider scope than the vertically and horizontally integrated space hub I had proposed earlier. It is a one stop research area for big projects like Manhattan, Apollo and many others. Once the technology is perfected the end products can be manufactured on other locations.

The second most important objective of the town would be to develop and optimize the mass production of products developed. Within the town, there would be locations to build production lines to perfect the manufacturing processes. Afterwards, the production line would be disassembled and re assembled on the factory location again.

A Modern City

Many years ago, I had thought about a modern city that had a well-established robotic infrastructure. The goal was to lower the operational cost of the city and increase convenience without increasing the number of workers. It mainly relied on closed passages underground and autonomous robots. The underground tunnels would be very dense. In order to reduce the amount of digging, the tunnels would be built on the ground level and the streets would be built above that like in Disney’s utilidor system.

All the public transportation would be done using autonomous underground buses. These busses would operate by battery and have Mecanum wheels. Therefore, the tunnels would not have high power supply and rail infrastructure built. This is important for reliability. Complicated infrastructures pose risk to modern cities. They are susceptible to hacking and attacking. Empty tunnels are cheaper to built and easy to operate. There would be some traffic control systems underground. They would be used to accelerate the movement underground. If they don’t function, the autonomous vehicles would continue operating but at a lower speed. Additionally, Mecanum wheels can move sideways closing the gap at the stations. No more “Mind The Gap” announcement. The stations would be just one level below the road level. They would be small and have closed walls and controlled doors between the tunnels and the passenger waiting area. Therefore, the tunnels would be sealed against the humans and the animals. This would reduce the control complexity for the autonomous vehicles.

The autonomous vehicles operating underground would not only carry passengers but also goods and garbage for the city. Every building within the city boundaries would be connected to these tunnels. Therefore, most of the goods transported within the city would be carried underground. This would reduce the traffic on the roads, blockage of sideways due to unloading of trucks and demand for truck drivers. Additionally, the garbage would be collected much frequently with no noise and no pollution on the streets. The garbage cans would be stored underground away from the heat and the sun.

There would be smaller autonomous vehicles operating on special sections within these tunnels. They would be used to transport food and small parcel to individual houses. They would enter the building after a robotic security check. They would move inside the building within a shaft next to the elevators. Therefore, there would be no motorcycle cargo carriers on the streets and less foreigners entering the buildings.

Symmetric Autonomous Voyageurs

I recently saw the videos of an autonomous boat crossing the ocean. Seeing the little boat struggling among the giant ocean waves made me think. I had seen a toy car that could run upside down. It was symmetric and had no defined top or bottom. I thought about two autonomous boat designs that incorporated this symmetry.

The first one operated with solar energy using brushless motors. Its shape resembled two torpedoes attached side by side and covered with solar panels on top and bottom. The boat would have two separate motors and propellers. The steering would be done by differentiating the speeds of the motors requiring no rudders. It would be back heavy, ideal for a boat design. Long thin design would allow more surface area for the solar panels and reduce drag on water. Even if it would be turned upside down by a wave, it would keep going due to its symmetry of design. It may have a keel for stability, two at the bottom and two at the top.

The second design would be a sail boat with additional solar powered motors. It would have four hard sails around it. The hard sails would be fin shaped and would have multiple use. The one at the top would be directed to be used as a sail. The ones on the sides would be used to increase the horizontal stability of the boat. The one on the bottom would serve as a keel and rudder. All the fins would have the same shape and would be rotatable. Even if the waves turn the boat upside down, it would steel keep sailing. The main body of the boat would be like a torpedo to reduce drag and increase solar panel surface area. The boat would have a single brushless motor on its back. The steering would be done using the sail and the rudder.

Multi Weather Clothing

Multi Weather Clothing idea dates back to my university years. I thought about it due to lack of standards and technology lacking on active clothing. A person living in a modern city experiences large temperature differences within the same day. During winter when the weather is cold outside, the indoor temperatures are quite high. In winter one wears multiple cloths on top of each other. Therefore, the extra layers can be removed to adapt the warm environment. However, during summer the opposite is not true. One wears a single T-Shirt to adapt the warm weather outside. However, the indoors are cooled like a refrigerator and one doesn't have extra clothing to cover his/her body. One reason for the summer colds. Also, I sweat a lot and try to buy breathable clothing. Many companies claim their products are breathable, but hide how much.

I thought about an international standard called Multi Weather Clothing. It would create and update the values related with human anatomy and define the limits for human survival in different environments. For example: How much sweat different regions of a male or a female produce depending on the age and weight. What it the minimum and maximum temperatures that certain parts of the body can withstand. As a result, the limits of the human body will be created and updated continuously. The cloths will receive certifications according to their adaptability to different environments. For example: a cloth that can adapt its climate control between 20 and 35 degrees; between -10 and 10 degrees.

The climate control for daily use clothing would be achieved by selecting special fibers that change their shape at a certain temperature. The weaving count would also be altered for certain regions of the cloth to allow more air ventilation. At the moment many cloths claim they are good, but good is not an objective measure.

I also thought the standard would cover the protective cloths worn by fire fighters, divers and astronauts. A continuous standard based on the values of human anatomy extended from daily clothing to the outer space would be beneficial for everyone. The companies that develop real technologies would have measurable competition with one another on the eyes of the consumer. This would increase the sales and market value of these companies. At the moment who creates the most hype earns more. Let the objective numbers compete instead of the vague words "Used by NASA". The technology transfer between the consumer products and the extreme environment products of earth and outer space would increase. As a result, the consumers would get better products and the R&D costs are better distributed among the buyers.

A Brief History On Computers and Internet

My first computer was a Goldstar MSX (later became Lucent Goldstar, LG). It ran Basic 1.0. It lacked the games of more famous Commodore 64 and I personally wrote a basic drawing software, mini games and stored them on a cassette. I started using it before I learned English. When I started American College (high school) my English was beyond Yes, No, One, Two, Three. I knew GOTO, PRINT, IF, RUN :) During high school I had an Amiga 500 upgraded to 1MB. I only played games with it, no programming. In high school I got computer class that thought Turbo Pascal on PC that ran MS-DOS. I would use 3.5 floppies at home for games, and 5 1/4 disks for programming at school.

My first contact with internet was in September 1996, when I started the university. The electronics engineering computer room was at the end of a narrow corridor. I sat on the first computer from the right when I entered the room. It was an old Macintosh. I clicked on the browser. I don't know why but I typed in nasa.gov. I also don't know why I used .gov extension instead of .com and it worked. After some time, the page started to form on the screen. Mainly characters and then the Nasa logo appeared. I was very impressed from what I saw on the screen. I was convinced that the information came from America not from the internal memory of the computer.

In 2001 when I was working in Frankfurt, I bought my first domain iboman.net. I created my second homepage with the images I shot with my first digital camera Finepix 4700 (I still have it and it still works). My first homepage dates back 1997 when I created one in Geocities on the Madison Avenue. I had no digital photos of myself. Therefore, it was mainly text based. While I was working in Frankfurt, there was no Facebook or Instagram to share my photos with my family and friends living in Turkey. That's why I created my homepage with lots of photo albums. I would create thumbnails of all the photos I uploaded. I would write the html pages manually including the alt-text for the images. In 2002 I had visited Porsche Museum in Stuttgart. I created the page for it on my homepage. It had quite some photos from the museum and each had the same alt-text "Porsche Museum". One day I saw my homepage was listed in top 10 on Altavista when searching Porsche Museum.

I still have the same Sweatshirt. Two photos taken 22 years apart.

Şifrert

Mega Firm

The Mega Firm has many aspects that I will discuss separately. I will start with its work. It will mainly provide services using technologies it developed. The main objective of the firm is to develop autonomous swarm bots. This goal requires diverse infrastructure which require perfect integration. Due to immense amount of subject there would be more than one mega firm. One will be responsible with the development of operating system, global databank and relevant software. The other will be developing the bots and their components. The last one will develop and provide services utilizing the bots.

The work within the companies will be carried out following the processes developed and improved continuously. Therefore, they all need a central business management platform. This is the very first thing needs to be developed else as the companies expand, they would be uncontrollable. Requesting or following works using emails, phone, messenger platforms will not be well received. Globally defined forms and processes will be the only way of doing work. The employees will be continuously encouraged to enhance these forms and processes to keep them up to date with current needs.

Since 1990s computers are the essentials of all the business. Unfortunately, for the last decades the operating systems and the software running on them became so short lived. Therefore, the mega firm need to develop its own operating system that don’t change so often and require so much resources to run. Additionally, it shouldn’t support old technologies and be user friendly. No current OS satisfies these needs. The same is true for the productivity software as well. Even though developing everything in house sounds cumbersome and inefficient, in the long run this strong basis would allow the firm to develop much complex systems faster with less bugs. The operating system used to develop the machine will also be used by the machine itself. Additionally, some of the functions developed for the productivity software will also be used by the machines themselves. Perfecting one will benefit both worlds. I developed this necessity from my past experience. I had written mobile apps. Unfortunately, I had to rewrite everything every year in order make it compatible with the yearly OS releases. Additionally, the productivity software is complex and take time to get used to. By the time you are easy with the interface, they change it completely. All these things add up to inefficiency for the R&D team. This change pace scares the talented people and reduces the available human resources.

The immense amount of work requires new ways of motivating the employees. I propose a computer game like awarding and promotion system. Every work will be divided into small parts that can be completed in hours. The employee will choose a task and complete and submit it. Each work submission will be awarded with its initial submission price money. The work will be reviewed which will earn money for that person as well. The problems will be fixed by the work submitter free of charge. The money earned will be paid to the employee the next day including the weekends. The amount and quality of the work completed will earn status points for the employee which determine its ranking within the company. If one works hard, he/she can earn money and ranking in short time. No one needs to wait for the yearly promotion dates. Higher salary and promotion are earned by hard work not networking and personal relations like in other firms. Else such demanding work cannot be completed. Big changes require high momentum. That is the reason such objective systems should be developed.

Listing the tasks on the bulletin and expect the employees to solve them efficiently is not realistic. There should be a knowledge base to guide the employees in solving these problems. The knowledge base would be written text, video or live support from experienced employees. Helping others and sharing experience earn money and status for the employee doing it. Therefore, knowledge sharing is encouraged with a win-win approach. I would like to share two of my experiences on this. There was a tv show where a young guy tested the ways of increasing one’s performance. The goal was to decrease the sprint time of the guy over a 100 m track. Initially, a person with a bicycle rode in front of him with money attach at its back. It wasn’t enough to increase his speed. Then, a dog chased him which didn’t have a major effect as well. Finally, a sprinter came and taught him the tricks of sprinting. The result was a clear success. In the second example, the guy was me. During my military service, I had the pass a long jump course. I didn’t know the tricks of long jumping. I just ran on the track with my legs wide open and fell a little short of the minimum distance. Just before my second attempt, I heard somebody silently saying “run with smaller steps”. I did what he told me and I jumped the required distance. The moral of the story is promotions and punishments don’t affect much unless you teach people how to do it properly.

In the mega firm one can become a higher-ranking officer only if he/she keeps sharing his/her experiences with others. This system is used to somewhat eliminate the power-hungry people trying to reach the upper levels. Additionally, no one in the firm would have super powers. The upper management will be composed of directors and vice president of directors. These positions will change after six months; vice presidents will be directors and the directors will become vice presidents. Each directorate will have one male and one female manager. This ensures equal male female distribution on the upper management at all times. The CEO and the Vice President of the company will be selected among these directors and will only serve for a year. No one will hold power for a long duration. The aim of this system is to distribute the wealth and status more evenly within the firm. The upper managers will not get mega salaries and huge powers which wouldn’t be attractive for power hungry people. The objective is to establish a self-optimized system that depends less on managers for success. Making decisions on consensus is critical. Therefore, the employees will be taught and promoted to have a wider point of view. Only the ones who have wider point of view will be eligible for upper managers. The ones who keep insisting on the same subject and miss the big picture will have limited status ranking.

Tube Guitar Amplifier With Tremolo

After watching all of Uncle Doug videos on vintage guitar amplifiers, I decided to design my own. It is based on Fender Tremolux and Deluxe Reverb tube amplifiers. To keep it simple my amplifier has one input and tremolo but no reverb. I used 2 x 12AX7 and 2 x 6L6GC. The amplifier has volume, tone, tremolo intensity and speed adjustments on its control panel. Within the amplifier chassis the bias of the output tubes can be adjusted by a pot.

My design's main difference from Fender is the tremolo circuit. I tried to modulate the audio signal on the volume stage of the amplifier. This has not been done before. I used an opto-coupler to adjust the volume level using a single triode.

Another difference of my design comes from the use of standard transformers instead of special transformers used on tube amplifier. Tube amplifier transformers are expensive and are hard to find. However, AC step up transformers are cheap and easy to find. I use one to generate the B+ voltage for the amplifier. I use silicon bridge rectifiers instead of tube rectifiers. For the filament voltage I use a standard 12V transformer. I also convert the output of the filament transformer to DC and filter it. This reduces the hum of the amplifier. 12AX7 use 12V filament voltage. 2 x 6L6GC filament inputs are connected in series to be powered by 12V as well. The output tubes are fix biased for higher output power and low distortion. The negative bias voltage for the output tubes is generated using a voltage doubler circuit from the output of the 12V transformer.

The values of the components are yet to be determined.

Invisible Space Pipeline

Jumping jet fountains excite anybody who see them. I thought about using them on space for refueling the satellites. Even on earth's atmosphere they fly uniform like traveling through an invisible pipeline. Imagine it on space.

The idea can be initially tested on LEO satellites. The tanker rocket would fly vertically to the space and reach the elevation where the satellite to be refueled is orbiting. Then jet stream the propellent in space aligned with the trajectory of the satellite. The satellite would have a cone on its direction of motion which contains sponge like absorption material. The speed of the streamed propellent and the satellite should be close to each other. The propellent speed would be attained by the turbopumps on board the tanker rocket.

The temperature of the propellent is also critical. It should be close to its boiling point. With the impact of the propellent and the satellite, the liquid would turn into gas. This would lessen the effect of the impact. You can compress a gas but not the liquid. The impact would push the propellent into the satellites’ tank negating the need for a pump.

If the idea is proved to be viable at LEO it can be extended for the GEO satellites and further.

Mars Explorer Capsule

I would like to extend my “Universal Atmospheric Entry Capsule” proposal further. An entry capsule for a mission to Mars. The design of the capsule will be similar to the one I proposed for Venus, a delta wing shaped capsule. However, the atmosphere of Mars is much less dense compared to Venus. Therefore, the capsule would be discarded after completing its mission. However, the passive deceleration design maximizes the payload to Mars.

The descending phase of the capsule will be similar to the Venus delta wing. The payload of the capsule will be the Mars glider. Fitting a long wing inside a small payload area is not possible. Therefore, I thought of a method to build one on Mars while the capsule is still flying. The wings will be made of plastic tubes which would be stored in a rolled form during voyage. Once the speed of the capsule drops below a certain level, these rolls will be opened. It will be like fire fighters rolled hose opening. Unlike a hose the result will be a wing. The inside of this hollow wing will be filled by two-part chemical. When cured they will become an elastic strong frame for the wing. The curing requires heat which Mars lacks. To overcome that, the chemicals will be pre-heated during descent which generates a lot of heat. Once the wings become more rigid allowing an independent flight, the Mars glider will be released from the capsule.

The glider will not have an active propulsion, but only follow the winds. Its high aspect ratio wings will keep it airborne for many hours and even days. The glider will have tiny wind turbines on its back. Made of coreless motors which are low-profile, light weight and easy to control. These generators will provide power to the glider. Additionally, applying power to them will generate additional drag which will be used to steer the glider.

As a result, much larger area on Mars can be observed in detail. Depending on the payload capability of the glider, an electrostatic sampler can also be integrated on board (Explained in detail on the Venus Explorer Capsule).

Venus Explorer Capsule

I would like to extend my “Universal Atmospheric Entry Capsule” proposal. An entry capsule that doubles as an explorer for a mission to Venus. The design I had proposed required no propellent and rocket engine to decelerate on Venus. By changing the shape of the capsule, we can make it multi-purpose. A delta wing shaped entry capsule.

The capsule would approach Venus’ atmosphere with a low angle. It would open the air inlets on its nose to allow air braking described on my previous article. The dense atmosphere of Venus would lift the delta wing capsule reducing the effect of gravity and acceleration due to gravity. The capsule would slow down during its descent without needing an active braking system which need to be discarded after use. Once the speed of the capsule drops below a certain level, additional thinner wings would be extended to keep the capsule airborne.  The capsule would then continue exploring Venus over the air like the hard-shell airship I proposed on my previous article. Delta wing capsule would not have an active propulsion system for navigation but follow the wind. Therefore, it wouldn’t require huge amounts of power and big propellers. However, the capsule will have small wind turbines attached on its back for electric generation. They will not induce too much drag on the flying delta wing, but produce renewable electricity all day and all year long. Additionally, applying electric to these turbines would generate additional drag that would be used to steer the capsule during its flight.

The capsule would also have an electrostatic sample attracter attached on a carbon nano tube fiber. This sampler would be lowered from the wing when it is flying close to ground. Then, the electric charge on the sampler would attract and hold dust particles on the ground. After that, the sampler would be retrieved and the particles would be analyzed on board the Venus capsule. 

The overall objective of this design is to explore large areas of Venus in detail from the air. Additionally, retrieve small samples from the ground and analyze them on board. Combining a space capsule and a delta wing plane maximizes the payload efficiency. As a result, nothing is discarded after reaching the planet.

Universal Atmospheric Entry Capsule

I would like to propose an entry capsule design that would work on any mass in the universe that has dense atmosphere. It would work on Venus, Earth, Mars and the moons of Jupiter and Saturn that have atmosphere. It is an evolution of my previous idea “Space Capsule Slow Down Using Suction”.

The design will work as follows:

The space capsule will approach the atmosphere at a very low angle. It will open up the air inlets on its nose. The air entering from the nose will go through narrowing passages and will heat up from this compression, like in a scramjet. The heated and compressed air will then be exhausted from the nozzles perpendicular to the direction of motion. The exhausted gas will slow down the air trying to fill the void behind the moving capsule. Therefore, a low-pressure zone will form behind the capsule, whereas the nose of the capsule experience high pressure. The pressure difference will create suction effect which will slow down the capsule. The low angle of attack on the atmosphere will increase the duration of the fall and help a more gradual slow down. As a result, the payload will experience much less G compared to other designs. When the capsule reaches a certain speed, the parachute will be deployed to further slowdown the capsule.

Depending on the density of the atmosphere, an improved version of the design can be utilized. The capsule would have a wing shell on its outside. As it approaches the atmosphere the wings would be opened and locked. The rest of the capsule design would be the same. The addition of wings will allow much longer flight time and smoother deceleration.

Both designs have one major benefit as well and that is the steerability of the capsule during its descent. Some of the warm gas exhaust nozzles can be closed on demand during flight. As a result, the capsule can be directed. Allowing a more precise landing and obstacle avoidance.

On my next articles, I will propose variations of this design. A capsule falling on earth marks the completion of a mission. Whereas the descending of a capsule on a planet marks the beginning of the most important part of a mission. Therefore, the capsules should be optimized for each mission.

Circular Landfill Management Using Renewable Energy

I had already written about this idea before. I keep seeing Europe complaining about their raw material deficiency. They need to develop new technologies and new approaches for recycling and mining. Within the mass of Europe continent, they can find everything they require. Additionally, every nation on earth would benefit from the technology developed which is a good exporting option as well.

Labor intense landfill sorting should be replaced by automated pulverization and sorting process. Mimic human digestive system. Everything we eat is chewed and swallowed then go through digestive organs in succession. The landfill sorting system will not use any chemicals to break up the particles. Only mechanical grinding will be used including ultrasound waves. Different materials have different hardness and sound absorption which help the separation process. The pulverized particles will be scanned by sensors to detected their content to direct them into separate collector bins. Pulverization process would be energy intense. However, decreasing the particle sizes speed up further purification processes and lower the energy requirement of the later stages.

I propose the use of specially designed wind turbines to supply the energy requirement for the sorting process. Wind has kinetic energy. Grinding is a mechanical process. Therefore, there is no need to convert the wind energy into electricity and convert electricity into mechanical energy again. The wind turbines would be used to generate pressurized air which would power the air powered grinders. As a result no need for copper, rare earth elements and semiconductors for the grinding section of the process. The electric required for the rest of the processes can be supplied from the grid.

The production rate of the Circular Landfill Management system would depend on the wind speed. The objective of this system is to recycle the unprocessed landfills with minimum infrastructure and labor with maximum automation. Easy scalability of the platform will have huge effect on the economy. The future landfills would be moved to locations where there is more sustained wind for increased processing rate.

Unlike mining that has to deal with a lot of impurities, landfills are full of what we need in the first place. They are also much closer to the civilization lowering the transportation cost. Finally, clearing up the landfills reduce the environmental pollution.

Planetary Solar Surrounder Relays

I had previously stated the need for a Solar Surrounder Satellite Network. This network allows yearlong communication with space probes exploring the planets and their moons which have different solar orbital period than the Earth. Space exploration is expensive and sending satellites to distant locations take time. Therefore, multi purposing is valuable. I propose the Solar Surrounder Satellite Network to be composed of satellites orbiting the key planets (Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn). As a result, these relay satellites can be used to relay signals from another relay to the Earth as well as detect and relay weak probe signals deployed on the specific planet and its moons. In order to communicate effectively with all the moons of a planet the relays should be orbiting the planet closer than its closest moon. This would result in a more frequent communication window. The communication provided with these relays will not be continuous but in windowed time frames. Which is much better than receiving nothing for months.

These relays can be deployed to far away planets using the rocket I proposed in “Direct Trajectory To The Moon”. This design allows larger payload rockets to be developed with less complexity. The first stage is a heavy payload rocket that lifts the upper stages beyond the earth’s atmosphere and returns back to the launch site. Vertical only displacement and not encountering very high speeds during the travel, reduces the cost and design complexity. The upper stages will only operate in vacuum. Therefore, they don’t require a shell to protect them from the atmosphere. The stages will be composed of an engine and cascaded spherical tanks carrying RP1 and liquid oxygen. With this design, the second stage’s engine can also be recovered on earth close to the launch site.

Planetary missions require large payload rockets. Scaling up the existing designs would be complex and may have reliability problems. We need to come up with new and simpler designs that can be scaled easily.

BOTWe TEMOPe

I would like to write a series on The Mega Firm. It is the vertically and horizontally integrated firm I keep referencing in my ideas. Its existence goes back to my childhood. I wanted to create more advanced designs, but LEGO was not satisfying my needs. I had also learned English and was creative in coming up with new names. Then BOTWe TEMOPe "Best Of The World and The Most Popular one" was born. Botwe Temope would produce advanced building blocks for more creative people. Botwe section would develop mechanical parts, Temope section would develop parts that contained wires, electronics, motors, leds, sensor and speakers. These parts would get together like LEGO, but made up of much smaller parts. As years went by, in my mind I extended the product line and the capabilities of the firm. Now it makes sense to name my theoretical Mega Firm as BOTWe TEMOPe.

I will discuss about the organization and the work of the firm in separate articles.

Direct Trajectory To The Moon

I would like to continue on my previous article on “Complexity vs Fuel”. This time on the launch trajectory. I would like to propose a new rocket design and trajectory for lunar missions.

The main difference of the new rocket from the rest is its direct ascent from Earth to the escape velocity. After the rockets final stage and the payload reach the escape velocity of earth, it will follow traditional trajectories to establish its mission. The objective of this is to simplify the flight trajectories and more importantly minimize the time spend on lower orbits that contain so much space debris. All the lunar missions start with a circulation of the earth at a lower orbit that is full of lethal obstacles.

The first stage of the lunar rocket will be a classical liquid propulsion rocket that will only fly vertically until it reaches an altitude above the Kármán line. During its flight it will spin slightly to stabilize itself like the bullets. Once its fuel is almost depleted it will release the upper stages and the first stage will return back to the launch site using the remaining fuel and parachutes.

The upper stages of the rocket will not be aerodynamic. Therefore, they will be hidden inside the extended walls of the first stage until they are released in vacuum. The upper stages of the rocket will be similar in design, but gets smaller as the stage increases. The stage will be a cascaded spherical propellent tank and an aerospike nozzle engine at the bottom. The inner tank will be filled with liquid oxygen and the remaining by RP1. Therefore, LOX tank will be thinner and lighter. The nozzle will be fixed. The steering will be done using warm gas propulsion which will be hot oxygen. The liquid oxygen needs to be gasified before burning. Some of this warm gas will be used to steer the rocket. Simplifying the design. The spherical tanks will be painted in black to heat up the propellants to maintain the tank pressure using the sun. The constant spinning will ensure even heating and stability.

Depending on the payload, the upper stages will be two or more. Only the final one will travel with the payload to accomplish complex maneuvers for moon landing. The remaining stages will fall on earth. The vertical trajectory will allow the upper stages to fall close to the launch site. The stages will have parachutes to slow them down. Only the engine section will have high temperature protection. The thinner tanks will melt and protect the engine section from overheating. Once the upper stage is recovered, the engine will be refurbished to be reused.

Complexity vs Fuel

Recent rocket failures lead me to re-emphasize my proposition to simplify the rocket designs and their trajectories. Most of the time the additional complexity brings only couple of percent of fuel efficiency. On the other hand, that complexity increases the design and manufacturing costs as well as probability of a failure. I propose simplification of the rocket as a hole. Re-design it and solve the obstacles in a simplified manner. If your solution gets complicated, go one step above and change the design in the upper level to decrease the complexity at the lower levels. Designing the rocket a little larger and using more fuel actual costs less!

Invest in the cost reduction of the propellants. Liquid fuel, RP1 is almost ideal. Just find ways to lower its cost. The cost at the fueling point (launch site) is important therefore manufacture it close and transport it cheap. Liquid oxygen on the other hand has no alternative. Manufacture it on launch site using renewable energy (wind). I see no wind turbines on a space hub. Rockets are not nuclear bombs or an erupting volcanos. If they fail, they don’t demolish large areas. If placed properly, the probability of a wind turbine hit by a rocket debris is not that high.

It may not be a perfect example, but an electronic device that has discrete parts are easy to build, easy to maintain and easy to repair. Compared to chip and software-based designs. An example: Push-Pull amplifier vs DSP based Class D amplifier.

A much better example: Raptor engine.

Wind Tunnels

I know this is not a new idea, to harvest wind energy within tunnels. I had seen small vertical wind turbines that generate electricity at the bus stop from the wind of the buses. This effect is much more pronounced in closed tunnels compared to open air installations. The developed countries have tunnels totaling thousands of kilometers. However, the electricity produced within them is almost zero. The reason is that; solution is not simple requiring new technologies and careful analysis in each case.

The wind turbines for the tunnels should have the following features:

- They should be unobstructive. The tunnels have emergency paths for evacuation and those spaces should not be blocked by the wind turbines. I propose them to be placed on the ceiling  of the tunnels. This design can be implemented in metro tunnels where there is no exhaust gas emission and the tunnels do not require huge air circulation. Even then only part of the tunnels can be used for turbine installations.

- The accessibility in tunnels is limited. Therefore, the turbines should require low maintenance not to disturb the traffic inside.

As a conclusion, there are many opportunities for renewable energy generation. However, most of them require new technologies to be developed and manufactured in large scales. This can be overcome by big firms that are vertically and horizontally integrated.

Multi Purposing Bridges and Buildings

The most critical part of wind electric generators is the height of the tower. As you go up you get more wind. However, building tall towers is expensive. Therefore, it is a good idea to multi purpose tall towers and buildings to harvest wind energy. I propose specially designed vertical wind turbines to be mounted on top of suitable towers and buildings. When build with composite materials and in smaller dimensions they would have minimal effect on the existing structures. As I had proposed in my earlier articles, special design of the vertical turbine reduces its weight on the structure as the wind speed increases.

Suspension bridges cost billions and have very tall towers. Perfect for vertical wind turbines to harvest more energy which would contribute positive to the income of the bridge.

Wind Energy Industry needs innovative players like Apple and SpaceX to come up with innovative designs that are deployed in large numbers. At the moment majority of the deployments are the very same design.

Blood, Money and Electricity

Blood, Money and Electricity are three essentials of modern human. The basis of them is the Energy. Blood carries sugar and oxygen to the cells which are used to generate energy to sustain cell’s life. Money is the energy supply for the businesses and services. Modern society was built using energy, fire. Humanity is ambitious to step foot on Mars after the first steps on the moon. Space Exploration requires consistent energy supply like human beings’ need for blood and money. That is the reason I propose going towards the SUN, the energy source, the central bank, the heart of our solar system. As you go towards the sun you would get more and more renewable energy. Once you have enough energy you can build a civilization like our ancestors did. Like when you have plenty of money you can overcome many problems (landing on the moon in less than a decade), plenty of energy has the same effect when you are on a bare planet.

Let’s dress up the bare Venus !

Undersea Research Platform

This idea evolved in my mind couple of years ago while I was reading Clive Cussler’s Dirk Pitt adventures. Autonomous, remotely operated undersea research platform. Let me explain it over the wreck of Titanic.

The bots making the platform would be carried by a robotic catamaran. The boat would use sails for long distance navigation and then utilize solar panels and wind turbines to utilize electric propulsion on the research site. If the exact location of the wreck is known, the research boat will stop at that location. Then, deploy OLPS (Oversea Local Positioning System). OLPS is a small boat that carries a GPS antenna and an underwater RF transmitter attached under it. OLPS will be connected to the main boat with a tether that has power and optical data connectivity.

I propose tether cables to have two aluminum wires for high voltage ac power transmission. The insulator between the wires will be special optical cables to allow high speed data connectivity. As a result, the tethers will be small in diameter and lighter compared to traditional ones.

I also propose low frequency RF transceivers for local positioning. RF technologies developed for 6G and Starlink would be adapted to lower frequencies to allow distant low bandwidth underwater RF communication.

After OLPS is deployed, the main boat will lower an underwater power and communication base. The base will be connected to the boat using tethers. The base will have thrusters to position itself close to the wreck guided by OLPS. The base will have low frequency RF transceiver, underwater optical transceiver and conical wireless chargers for ROVs (Remotely Operated Vehicle) and ULPS (Undersea Local Positioning System). ULPS is an ROV that carries a low frequency RF transmitter to allow other ROVs to guide themselves more precisely underwater. The conical wireless charger will be covered by rubber to seal between the charger and the ROVs bottom while wireless charging.

The communication between the base station and the ROVs will be established by low frequency RF (low bandwidth) and wireless optical repeaters (higher bandwidth). Once the ROVs return to the base for recharging, they will upload the detailed information they gathered via tether’s optical cables. OLPS and ULPS will allow the ROVs to autonomously navigate within a wreck. This process would not require high bandwidth communication. After the uploading of data to the main boat and the remote scientists’ analysis, ROVs would be re-programmed to explore further.

Venus Airship Explorer

Atmospheric density at the surface of Venus is about 65 kg/m³ or 6.5% the density of liquid water. This high density allows an airship to explore the surface of Venus. However, the airship should withstand 464 °C temperature and 92 bar of air pressure while sailing close to the surface of the planet. I propose a spherical airship made of borosilicate glass filled with helium. Borosilicate has high compression strength and high melting point and is lighter than Aluminum. Thin spherical shell will also be strengthened with carbon nanotube fibers. As a result, the airship will be a transparent hard-shell balloon.

Venus Airship will be launched by a classical two stage rocket. The second stage of the rocket will reach the escape velocity to allow its cargo to reach Venus. Even current LEO optimized rockets will be able accomplish this mission due to the low weight of the airship. When the fuel of the second stage is consumed, helium inside the empty propellent tanks will be pumped into a high-pressure gas canister attached to the airship. This additional gas will be released inside the airship as it descents to the surface of Venus to balance the outside pressure. As a result, the spherical structure will never experience high pressure difference. Allowing it to be thin and lightweight.

The lightweight of the airship will allow it to utilize the solar sail during its journey to Venus. The solar sail will be initially used to accelerate then to decelerate the airship. The solar sail will be composed of two parts. The smaller first part will double as a solar sail and a parachute; the second part will be a light weight solar sail. Once the airship enters the atmosphere of the planet, the second part will be destroyed and the first part will slow down the lightweight airship till it starts floating on the dense Venus atmosphere. Then, the parachute will be discarded.

The airship will have four small wind turbines attached close to the surface of the sphere. The strong Venus winds will be utilized to generate electricity all year long unlike solar panels. The turbines will utilize Alnico magnets that keep their magnetism even at high temperatures. The airship will mainly sail following the wind. However, partially electrifying the selected wind turbines will generate air drag which will be used to direct the airship in four main directions.

The transparent shell will allow the sensitive devices such as cameras and sensors to be mounted internally, shielded from the outside environment. The inside bottom of the shell will be covered with a conductive material to serve as a communication satellite dish.

Detailed closeup analysis of very large areas on Venus cannot be achieved on the Moon or the Mars. That is one of the reasons I insist on Venus exploration.