Pneumatic Robotics

I had previously proposed autonomous construction robotics. The problem with such robots was the energy source. The chemical batteries have limited energy storage and they require lithium which is scarce. The second best choice of energy source is combustion.

It would be wise to pressure a gas and use pneumatic systems to do the work instead of electric motors. Most parts required to build a pneumatic system are not scarce like the rare earth magnets for motors. Additionally, motors require high power semiconductors which are exported as well. With a pneumatic system, the semiconductor requirement would be less demanding.

My proposition is to heat up carbon dioxide to generate pressure for the pneumatic system. Carbon dioxide has higher vapor pressure than air and water, therefore more efficient to use. Most important part is the higher efficiency of converting chemical energy to usable kinetic energy. Additionally, as an energy source anything that burns can be used. This allows such robots to operate in rural regions or 3rd world countries. If some of the carbon dioxide is lost in the closed loop, it can be replenished by a carbon dioxide filter on the exhaust. The pneumatic system would also generate the necessary electric power for its electronics using an alternator. As a result, only a starter battery would be required to build such a robot.

Wildfire Extinguisher

Developed nations are known to be environmentally conscious. They spend billions to monitor the environment and lower the pollution. However, they all lack on the wildfire fighting department. What is the meaning of monitoring the forests if you cannot extinguish a wildfire properly. I had previously proposed several ways to extinguish wildfires. Here is a new idea.

I propose an X-Wing with combustion engines and propellers to be used as a firefighter plane. X-Wing design will allow the plane to lift off and land vertically to almost any location. This allows logistic bases to be established close to the forest regions. Vertical takeoff requires much more engine power than a horizontal flight. Once the plane takes off and start flying horizontally, the excess engine power will be used to liquify the exhaust gases of the combustion engine. The engine will operate with liquified natural gas. As a result, the exhaust gas will contain carbon dioxide and water vapor. Both gases will be cooled and pressurized to a temperature and pressure where both carbon dioxide and water exist in the liquid form. Then, this liquified exhaust gas will be stored in fire extinguisher canisters. Which will be dropped over the fire like a bomb. As the canister approach the heat zone, the liquefied gasses will expend and the shell will explode, releasing the liquid inside.

Classical firefighting planes drop water over the fire which has minimal effect due to water being vaporized way above the ground. With my approach the canister will delay the release of the liquid. More importantly, carbon dioxide gas is heavy and would sink down to the ground. It would both cool the fire and push away the oxygen on the ground. More effective than a simple water-based extinguishing.

All developed nations have the necessary technology to build such planes. Hope they take action.

Streaming Services 2.0

Today’s streaming digital content is too simple for me. The monetization scheme is very primitive as well. I would like to propose a new data storage architecture and streaming platform based on this data. The monetization scheme will also be more advanced.

I had proposed a global services and object model. There the tags are globally defined and each data has a Globally Unique ID (GUID) and has atomic datetime stamp. Storing data with atomic datetime stamps allow them to be aggregated by a computer in real-time. Digital recorders have advanced electronics on them however their real-time clock module is very poor. They should be changed by an atomic clock for a consistent synchronization. Additionally, text-based content created for the streaming data should utilize GUID while linking info to a streamed data. For example, a sports event is recorded with multiple cameras and microphones. In the meanwhile, commenters record streaming audio of the event. Additionally, the statistics of the event is also recorded manually and partially computerized. As these data streamed online, the consumer’s smart tv will aggregate them depending on the consumer’s preferences. At the moment audio channel selection exists, however the statistics are pre-overlayed on the image. I propose them to be send separately and the user preferred ones to be overlayed on the image with preferred fonts and placements.

The monetization of the streamed data is monthly or yearly subscription only. This scares the viewers who are not interested on everything or have time to watch all the streams to justify the price. Additionally, this approach limits the enhancement on the streamed data. For example, additional commentary audio channels and more detailed info. With the current subscription scheme, additional features cannot be charged extra to the customer to reimburse its cost. What I propose is a prepaid system. The consumer spends a deposited amount of money on demand. Every feature serviced will have a cost. As the consumer demand it, he/she will pay for it. The streamed video would cost more than the audio commentary which would cost more than the statistics. The video would have different quality settings, options for multiple cameras.

Because of this primitive subscription scheme, I only receive commentary in one language and some events are streamed without commentary as well. My approach would allow more features to be added to a streamed content because the cost can be reimbursed.  This is in a sense the service version of the modular electronics I proposed earlier.

Make the services modular!

Middle Class Airlines

Aviation industry has transformed over the decades. However, their servicing scheme became over complicated and inefficient. I thought about a new airlines company that only focuses on its flight. Has a minimal to no marketing department. Has only one type of seat in the cabin which is optimized for the duration of flight.

Aviation companies offer mileage programs where the upper managers or the sales people of the companies collect the miles. No benefit for the company that pay the bill.  Additionally, they sell goods with the miles collected. These complicated royalty programs increase the cost of an aviation company. My ideal company will not have any royalty program. Will declare prices based on the costs and sell the tickets directly without paying commissions to the agents. The cost of a seat may vary depending on the time of purchase. That makes sense. Saving on the complex royalty program would be a great saving for the company. There would be special agreements with the other airlines, but there would be no mileage earnings.

All the flights will have seats that are thinner and have back rest. Short distance flights will have knee distance calculated for a 190 cm person and same number of seats per row like in an economy class. The seats will not incline. There will be no info display in the cabin but Wi-Fi that broadcast the flight info and the external camera views for the mobile devices. Internet service will be sold for an additional fee. There will be two sections within the cabin. The front will be silent section. The back will be cry room. (Inspired by the cry rooms of the old cinemas in the States. Place for parents with small children.) The curtain separating the two sections will be sound proof.

Middle to long distance flights will have seats that incline close to 160 degrees. There will be more knee room. Again, there will be two sections to separate the noisy and silent area. The variety of food serviced will be minimized, but their quality will be improved instead. There will be no food that makes noise such as hard nuts and chips.

I had once calculated for a long-distance flight seat plan. I replaced all the seats with the standardized middle class seats and calculated the price of each seat. A flight offering only middle class (no economy or first class) could sell the tickets for a 50 percent premium over the economy. Which is a very acceptable premium.

Quantum Justice

Classical laws of physics are applicable to everything we see and touch. However, as the objects approach the speed of light and the distances approach to zero quantum physics become more dominant.

There are many bad people out there who look clean on paper but guilty on reality. Governments should not wait for these people to make mistakes or hire underground groups to punish them like in the tv series “Mission Impossible”. Quantum justice should be applied to these people. In classical justice, a person is either guilty or not. In quantum justice, there would be quantum state as well and the person can be guilty and not guilty at the same time. Which is on paper not guilty, but guilty in the real life. Even though the quantum state is fictional the punishment would be real.

Some may argue that such justice can be misused by the bad people who poses power. My argument is, such people don’t require quantum justice to abuse their power, they already find thousands of ways to execute their bad will. My proposition is for the good people who poses power and want to play it with the rules till the end. Quantum justice brings new rules to the table so that the good people don’t feel remorse when they punish the bad.

Space Cannon

After reading an article about thousands of drones being produced and used in current wars, I thought about an idea. During WW 2, allied forces bombed the critical facilities and infrastructures to reduce the enemy’s production and logistic capabilities. Space weather radar technologies have evolved a lot which improved the weather forecasts. This technology coupled with the satellites containing space cannon can be used to organize pinpoint operations to critical targets from space.

Space cannon is a modified version of a potato cannon. Instead of potato, tiny carbon nanotube (CNT) bullets are used. CNT bullets after careful aiming would be pushed away from the satellite with pressurized gas which is also used for the ion thrusters. The bullets don’t need to have a very high speed. They would already have a supersonic speed which is the orbital speed of the satellite. CNT is the hardest known material. It wouldn’t get damaged during its supersonic descent to earth and can penetrate anything with such speed and hardness. It would be impossible to detect and stop them.  Their shape can be optimized after thorough testing. Their tiny size and low propulsion requirement would allow multiple bullets to be triggered with different trajectories to increase the hit rate. The compactness of the cannon would allow them to be integrated to almost any satellite orbiting the earth. One important thing is, they have to be supported with high accuracy weather data for a precise trajectory calculation.

Even though, the bullet would be tiny, it would still shot down a plane, damage a power distribution transformer or a communication center. If it hits a locomotive, it would stop a train and block a railroad. The possibilities continue.

The down side of this weapon is its simplicity. Which would enable your enemy to copy it and use it against you as well. However, technological advancements and infrastructure would increase the accuracy and therefore effectiveness of it which would make the difference between the sides.

Extremes of Packaged Food

I had stated about my local manufacturing idea in my very early articles. Its objective is to compact the production facilities and place them close to the demand. This becomes more important for the processed food. Companies in order to achieve long shelf life, fill the packaged food with preservatives and sometime with high salt percentages. If the automated local production can be adjusted to the demand. The foods would not need that many hazardous chemicals in them. Therefore, food processing technologies should be enhanced to produce at a lower volume without increasing the cost too much. This would increase the public health considerably.

One additional problem is with the junk food. My observation is chips with no flavor has only oil and salt as ingredient. However, any additional flavor comes with at least ten different chemicals that push the junk food into extremes. A parsley flavored chips should not include onion and garlic powder and so many extra chemicals besides the parsley itself.  New frying technics can be developed to reduce the oil content. Additionally, the salt should be pulverized into fine particles and mixed with the oil at a much lower percentage. This would allow much even salt spreading over the chips and much reduced salt percentage on the chips. One last funny think. A famous cola producer started developing colas which contain both sugar and artificial sweetener. Worst of both worlds 😊 They happen to produce chips as well.

As a result, the packaged food can be much healthier with a proper mindset. However, my observation reveals that the manufacturers are pushing their products’ junkiness to a new record every year. Then, they come up with products which are marketed as ultra healthy that are more dangerous with more hidden chemicals. Then, the public health services pay the bill so as the tax payers even if they don't consume them.

Reusable Solar Stage Rocket

The third and the final reusable rocket stage is the solar stage. This stage would circulate the earth and a planet close to the sun (Venus or Mercury). It will look like a folded umbrella. It will be assembled from smaller pieces on the LEO orbit. The first section will be the liquid propulsion rocket’s engine section with a propellent tank group. The subsequent sections will add more propellent tank groups to the rocket. Then, high voltage ion thruster section with a gas tank will be added. The outside of this section will have the folded solar panels which double as solar sail. The subsequent sections will have more gas tanks for the ion thruster and folded solar panels. The nose of the rocket will carry the payload of the rocket.

Once the addition of sections is complete, the rocket will fire its liquid rocket engine to increase its altitude and reach the escape velocity. The consumed propellent tank groups will be ejected as the rocket accelerates and will decompose like the second stage’s tanks. When all the propellent is consumed, the liquid rocket section will eject itself from the remaining rocket assembly. The ejected rocket section will be at the escape velocity and can be programmed to crash on to the moon.

The remaining solar stage will unfold its solar panels to generate maximum electricity which will be used by the high voltage ion thrusters to accelerate the rocket further. While the rocket is distant from the sun, the panels can be fully extended and the solar wind would have minimum effect on it. As the rocket approaches the sun, the solar panels would be slightly folded back to reduce the solar drag. Additionally, close proximity to the sun would generate more power, negating the need for fully extended panels. This approach will accelerate the rocket to very high speeds and reduce the travel time to Venus and Mercury. The consumed gas tanks of the ion thruster will be ejected during the journey to reduce the weight. At a certain distance from the target location, the engines will be stopped and the solar sail will be fully extended to decelerate the rocket with the help of solar wind.  This will allow the payload to be released at a slower speed to help it safely land on the planet.

Once the payload is released, the rocket will circle around the planet and fire it’s ion thrusters once more for the return trajectory. The solar panels and the sail will remain extended so that the solar wind would contribute to the acceleration as well. The rocket will fold the solar panels back, as it approaches the earth to minimize the drag on the ionosphere. Hopefully, it will settle back on a LEO orbit where it will be serviced with new payload, ion thruster gas tanks and a new liquid propulsion rocket.

Reusable Second Stage Rocket with Substages

I would like to propose a reusable second stage rocket based on the design I proposed for the first stage. The second stage will have the same design layout compared to the first stage. The first major difference will be, the vacuum optimized nozzle. The second difference will be, the ejected tanks will not be recoverable. They will be made of a special plastic which would decompose into gas while falling towards the earth.

There will be three different versions of these rockets. The first version will have maximum payload bay for LEO missions. The second version will have more stacked tanks and smaller payload bay for high energy missions. The third version will only have propellent tanks and a disposable aerodynamic cone to be used for interplanetary missions and second stage refueller. The additional tanks carried by the second stage would be transferred to an orbiting second stage to extend its range.

Once the second stage completes its mission, it would rotate around and direct its engines towards earth with a slight angle. As it orbits the earth, the ions at that altitude will decelerate the rocket and reduce its altitude slowly. The objective is to use the thin atmosphere to slow down the rocket with no fuel consumption. Additionally, it will allow the rocket to approach its launch location by circulating the earth. After certain altitude, the rocket will fire its engines to decelerate the rocket actively. The air filling the Lincoln hat like void of the rocket will be ejected in a controlled manner from the top of the rocket, like the first stage, to maneuver the rocket. The descending trajectory of the rocket will be planned to make it land on the launch platform.

Reusable First Stage Rocket with Substages

I was previously in favor of larger but small number of engines. However, in order to achieve high efficiency, the engines should be operated at maximum pressure. In order to achieve varying thrust, multiple engines would be operated and they would be shut down one by one to reduce the thrust. Therefore, now I am in favor of multiple engine approach. I would like to enhance this concept further by changing the propellent tank structure. I propose multiple tank groups to be stacked one above the other so that the consumed section can be ejected to reduce weight.

The engines of the first stage of the rocket would be placed on the outer edge of the rocket. External propellent pipes would feed the propellent to the engine. The pipes would also enforce the sides of the propellent tanks to withstand high pressure. Each group of tanks would be consisting of cascaded fuel and oxidizer tanks with a pressurizing hydrogen tank above. Cascaded tank design doubles as a support between the tanks top and bottom. Else the top and bottom of the tank would be in dome shape which would increase the height of the tank group.

Once the tank group’s propellant is depleted, it will be disconnected from the main pipes and ejected from the rocket. After ejection, empty tank will deploy a parachute to slow down its descent. The hydrogen filling the tanks will also be released to slow down the rocket. The empty tank will splash down on sea and will be refurbished and reused. Reducing the overall weight of the rocket during its ascent by releasing the empty tanks will reduce its fuel consumption.

Once, all but the last fuel group is depleted the first stage will disengage from the second stage and will start falling. Lincoln hat shaped inner void of the rocket will function like a parachute and slow down the rocket during descent. Additionally, the air filling the gap will be released from the top ventilation holes in a controlled manner to maneuver rocket without using any fuel, foldable fins or gimbled nozzles. Finally, the fuel in the last tank will be consumed to stop the rocket and let it touch down safely.

I propose this concept to work on a first stage which only lifts the upper stages to an altitude above the Kármán line. It will be a vertical only trajectory with no lateral speed. This would allow a much larger diameter rocket with less aerodynamic design. Also, simplify the rocket and the tanks recovery.

Rocket Concept 2

After thinking over my previous ideas, I came up with the following liquid propellent rocket design. It will have cascaded propellent tanks to reduce the overall tank weight. Liquid oxygen can be separated from liquid methane by a comparably thin wall and the liquid methane will be stored in a unibody rocket tube made of borosilicate glass covered with carbon fiber and coated with magnesium and aluminum layers. The nozzle of the rocket will be a unibody pressure molded graphite that has four major thrust nozzles and four deceleration nozzles. Unibody graphite nozzle will be enclosed inside a tungsten shell which will be used to attach the nozzle to the rocket’s body.

Tesla turbine pumps will be used to pressurize propellent inside the combustion chamber. The propellent will be preheated inside the reservoir over the unibody graphite block which is heated by the exhaust gas. There will be four independently throttleable engines to generate differential thrust for navigation control. The propellent tanks will be pressurized by the hydrogen gas placed above the propellent tanks.

When the rocket’s propellent is depleted, the second stage will separate from the first stage. Then the first stage will start falling towards the earth. The propellent tanks connections to the pumps will be closed and direct connections between the tanks and the combustion chamber will be opened. The main nozzles of the rocket will serve as air intake and will pressurize the air filling the nozzle cone while the rocket is falling down. The pressurized hydrogen filling the tanks will be released to the combustion chamber and ignited with the air coming from the main nozzles. The exhaust gas will then be released from the deceleration nozzles placed with an angle to the sides of the unibody graphite block.

Slightly outer emission of exhaust gas will not block the fresh air directly coming below the rocket. Additionally, horizontal vector of the thrust will help to stabilize the rocket during descent, negating the need for foldable fins. Hydrogen coupled with the ambient air will generate thrust for a longer time allowing a smoother descent. Finally, there will be no need to conserve some propellent for descent and all the propellent will be used to accelerate the payload.

Tesla Turbine

Rockets have limited resources and unlike planes cannot utilize external air. Their efficiency relies on the pressure and temperature difference between the combustion chamber and the outside. Higher the difference better the efficiency. Turbo pumps are good in that sense while they isolate the low-pressure tanks from the high-pressure combustion chamber. However, scaling them is not that easy. Having a lot of small rocket engines instead of bigger ones is not that efficient and easy to control.

Tesla turbine is a much simpler pump that has lower efficiency compared to advanced turbo pumps, but can be scaled up easily. The fuel consumption on the rocket pumps is way smaller than the fuel consumed by the rocket itself. Therefore, relatively inefficient pump wouldn’t result in lower overall efficiency. As the rockets get bigger, the proportion of casing weight to the propellent weight gets lower. As a result, overall efficiency of a rocket would be improved by larger rockets and engines.

The latest technological advancements would improve the performance of Tesla turbine. The disks can be made of carbon nanotube that is strong, light and can withstand high temperatures. Tesla turbine may not be suitable for very long operations. However, a rockets engine only runs for a couple of minutes.

My new rocket design would have cascaded propellent tanks, tesla turbine pumps, a unibody graphite nozzle section and use hydrogen as the pressurizing gas. Four engines and nozzles by differential throttling would negate the need for complex gimbaled nozzles. Hydrogen would be cheaper and lighter than helium, wouldn’t react with the propellent at cryogenic temperatures and serve one additional purpose where helium can’t. I will explain it on my next article.

Correction Article

I would like to apologize for my impossible rocket concept (https://iboman2.blogspot.com/2025/07/rocket-concept.html). It had several flaws. The major one being the wind turbine on its nose. The air taken from the inlet would immediately freeze inside at cryogenic temperatures and provide no pressure over the propellent. Coupled with the considerable drag of the turbine. The idea would not work.

However, it is still possible to burn a lot of fuel less efficiently and achieve some results when The Real Rocket technology is not available by a country. The propellent tanks need to be pressurized as they get empty. Helium is used for this task. However, it is very expensive and hard to source. Hydrogen gas maybe used instead. Hydrogen's boiling point is well below the propellants used on the rocket. A proper sponge like insulator should be placed between the pressurizing gas and the propellent to avoid any reaction between them.

At the end of the day, it's all about burning the fuel as efficiently as possible and fast to overcome the gravity. Direct lift off requires a lot of thrust. The airplanes utilize the lifting power of the air and take off with much less thrust. That's why in my very early rocket designs; I had proposed a giant plane to lift of the rocket's upper stages.

Europa Explorer

Jupiter and Saturn’s moons are very promising in terms of scientific research. I read about NASA’s BRUIE robot planned to be send to Jupiter's moon Europa for exploration. I thought about my version of such a robot explorer.

The Europa Explorer I plan will be deployed by the “Far Away Rocket” I had proposed earlier. Its single engine, multiple propellent tank design excels in high energy space missions. Due to its design, the payload should be stored around the long vacuum nozzle of the rocket. The rocket will only operate in vacuum. Therefore, even some space would protect the payload from extreme heats without extra shield.

The explorer needs to be toroidal to maximize the volume of the storage space. The explorer will have four legs to help it navigate on the ice and underwater. The foots of the robot will be wide like fins of a duct. Which will increase the traction on ice as well as improve swimming. The toroidal base will also have ballast tanks to adjust its buoyance underwater.

The toroidal body of the explorer will be filled with liquid hydrogen. Some of it will be used to slow the explorer during its decent to Europa. The major power supply of the robot will be nuclear battery. Radioactive heat will be used to keep the sensitive parts warm as well. This heat will also be used to heat up the exhausted hydrogen to improve thrust.

Once, the explorer safely lands, it will deploy a blimp and fill it with hydrogen gas. The blimp will also be powered by a nuclear battery. The atmosphere of Europa is mostly oxygen which is considerably heavier than hydrogen. Allowing for a balloon navigation. The abondance of water on the moon will allow the balloon to be refilled by the Explorer’s onboard electrolysis hydrogen generator.

As a result, with a single mission Europe will be explored on the surface, underwater and over the air.

Rocket Factory

I would like to propose a rocket factory for the rocket I had proposed earlier. The objective of this design is to come up with a light weight rocket casing that can withstand moderate pressures. My proposition is a glass shell knitted with carbon fiber and covered by aluminum magnesium alloy.

The foundations of the factory will be towers. These towers will have vertical wind turbines on top. The cranes will be mounted on these towers as well. The factory will be covered by layered tent fabric for light weight sealing.

The factory will have four major sections. The first one will be a sealed robotic glass furnace. Before the process begins, the air inside the big furnace will be emptied. Then, the furnace will be heated to appropriate temperature. Vacuum is a good isolator, therefore heating only glass shaping parts is enough. Afterwards, the borosilicate shell will be extruded. The shaping and attachment of glass parts will also be completed inside the furnace using pneumatic robots that can operate at high temperatures (This know how will also be used by the robots that will operate on Venus.). The homogenous temperature and lack of air improves the quality of the glass. Once the process is complete, the furnace will be filled with carbon dioxide which is less corrosive then, humid air. The furnace will be slowly cooled by the cogenerator that utilize carbon dioxide. As a result, some of the energy used to heat the furnace will be retrieved back. When the furnace is cool enough carbon dioxide will be replaced by the ambient air.

The second stage of the factory will knit carbon fiber around the glass shell. The third stage will be a sealed robotic metal furnace. Carbon fiber covered glass shell will be dipped inside a molten aluminum alloy bath that will cover the shell. Aluminum bonds well with silicon and its melting temperature is well below the silicon. This process will be repeated to increase the alloy thickness. Cold welding on a giant aluminum piece would be almost impossible. Therefore, any piece needed to be welded on the aluminum shell will be welded in this section using pneumatic robots. As with the glass furnace, the metal furnace will also be vacuumed before heated. It will be cooled slowly using carbon dioxide cogenerator.

The final stage of the factory will do the surface finishes. The factory will be mainly operated by the renewable energy generated on its premises.

Rocket Concept

The idea is to come up with a liquid rocket design that can be implemented with limited engineering resources. Building complex turbopumps, combustion chambers and nozzles maybe outside the reach of some countries. Even though at a lower efficiency, the rocket may still launch a satellite into orbit.

The idea is to burn a lot of fuel at a moderate pressure. The stages of the rocket will be strapped side by side. The first stage will be a giant tank that is separated into two sections. The larger section for liquid oxygen and the smaller one for the liquified methane. Gaseous fuel is preferred due to its better dispersion after the injector compared to the liquid fuels. These two cryogenic liquids have close boiling points. Therefore, they can be stored next to each other without thick separators. The idea is to increase the height of the tank to increase the pressure on bottom. Also, the piping from the tanks to the engine is shortened. The engine of the rocket will be a triangular graphite block. On the sides, the liquid propellent will flow and heat up before ignition. Additionally, the nozzle will be cooled. Graphite has high temperature resistance and is very good heat conductor and comparably cheaper than the alternatives. The fuel and the oxidizer will meet on the top of the pyramid and there they will be ignited. Opposite ejection will slow down the oxidizer and the fuel for a better combustion. Finally, the exhaust gas will be ejected straight downward like in aerospike engines.

The propellent tanks will be pressurized using the external air compressed by the nose wind turbine. The turbine will be carefully designed for an optimal drag to compression ratio. The upper sections of the propellent tanks will have special sponges that will stop the sloshing, equalize the pressure on the propellent surface and isolate the contact between the ambient compressed air and the propellent.

Four of these rockets will be strapped together to form the first stage of the rocket. The middle section will have ailerons to direct the rocket. The air intake from the middle void will be circled by the hot nozzle gasses. As a result, the air will be heated and accelerated to contribute to the thrust of the rocket.

The rocket will carry two separate second stages. Therefore, two separate missions will be conducted with one launch.

Far Away Rocket

While I was thinking of possible researches on the moons of Jupiter and Saturn, I realized that there weren't many satellites operating at such long distances. I thought that lowering the cost of such missions would increase their number.

I thought about a two staged rocket. The first stage will only lift the rocket vertically up to the Kármán line. The second stage of the rocket will also be staged, but with a much radical design. The propellent tanks will be grouped by two (oxidizer + fuel). They will be connected to the engine of the rocket via external piping. There will be junctions on the tank connections. These junctions will control the flow and turn on and off the connections. There will be four pipes; first one for the propellent, second one for the oxidizer and the last two for the exhaust gas used to pressurize the tanks. Each tank will have a thin film separating the propellent from the exhaust gas. This film will eliminate direct contact of the exhaust and the propellent. Additionally, eliminate the sloshing inside the tank. The exhaust gas will be cooled to adequate temperatures inside the engine bay before released to the tanks.

Once a group of tanks are depleted, the junction box will disconnect them from the main pipes and the next group will be connected. Then, the upper section of the junction box and other attachment points will be ignited to release the empty tanks. Slightly tilted design of the tanks will also help. After the empty tank pipe connections are broken, the pressurizing gas inside will escape and push the tanks away from the rocket.

As a result, the upper stage will only have one vacuum optimized nozzle and one engine. Whereas rockets with more stages need to have as many of these as the number of stages. This saves weight and extends the range of the rocket. The huge nozzle will be designed to accommodate room for the payload of the rocket.

Vacuum only operation of this stage and slow speed through the atmosphere would allow such design.

All Mechanical Recycler

I had previously wrote about a wind powered recycler installed on landfills. I want to clarify the all- mechanical separation process within the facility.

Vertical wind turbine shaft is directly attached to the grinder disk to maximize the power transfer and simplify the design. Air blower will be mounted below the grinder disk. As the grinder disk generate tiny particles from the landfill, they will be filtered out using the rotating filters. The filters determine the size of the particles escaping from the grinder. These disks will be periodically rotated to remove any clogging. The blower below the grinder will be used to cool the grinder and the warm air will be used to blow out the grinded particles. This process will speed up the drying of the particles. Turning waste into very fine particles increases their surface area considerably. Which helps the drying process as well.

The blown away fine particles will be sorted out by their density. Then ferrous particles will be separated using passive switchable magnets (like the ones used by welders). Finally, the remaining particles will be electrostatically separated. More stages can be added to the process that help sort out the particles. These stages should be all mechanical as well.

The objective of this system is to sort out the landfill using only mechanical systems with minimum electric and chemical requirements. Therefore, the facility wouldn't rely on external resources other than the wind. This is a much more sustainable and scalable approach to recycle the landfills.

Sorted out very fine particles would then be send to dedicated recycling facilities for further sorting and purification. Large surface area of the particles would reduce the cost of further processes.

Achieving Big Goals

Achieving big goals is like aiming for a target upstream. If you cannot maintain a certain momentum, you can never reach your target. If such objectives are given by a single focus, most of the time they will fail without achieving much.

My proposition is to generate a horizontally and vertically integrated roadmap to achieve the big goal. A thorough analysis would reveal such a roadmap. The ultimate goal would be achieved by following the roadmap that has different invention points on its path. They are like the oar strokes of rowing. They add momentum to the movement. The vertical and horizontal integration creates synergy among the inventions and increase their total value.

Additionally, the organization or firm aiming for the big goal should have infrastructure to mass produce and market the inventions as fast as possible. Ideas or inventions not realized don't add value and momentum. 

Jurassic Mars

The traces of sea on Mars surface increases the probability of life in old ages. However, detecting a fossil underground is not easy for the Mars explorers. I would like to propose a setup to map the underground of Mars.

The critical part of the setup will be the digger. It will have a highly radioactive material on its front. The radiation should be gamma ray that can penetrate large distances. This radioactive particle will mechanically vibrate the front section of the digger. The surface of the vibrating part will be made of silicon carbide or similar hard material that allow gamma rays to pass through. This vibration will allow the digger to penetrate through the ground. This motion will also be used to generate small electricity to power the controller. The controller will be placed in the middle section of the digger embedded inside a thorium lead shield. Thorium’s hardness also helps the digger to penetrate. The rear section will have the motorized director. The shield in the middle will also protect the director’s magnets from the radiation. The size of the digger effects its digging capability considerably. Therefore, the smaller is the better. Increasing the number of diggers would increase the mapping speed.

On the surface there will be rammers on tripods to generate vibrations. The digger will adjust its path by the direction of these vibrations. The vibrations will also be used to send very low bandwidth signals to the digger. The digger will also reply back with partially blocking and unblocking the gamma radiation. The vibrators will be powered by nuclear battery and will only vibrate once or twice a day.

By careful guessing, planning and execution; fossils of the Jurassic Mars can be found. Maybe a theme park on Earth can be opened as well 😊