Global Sea Routes for Autonomous Ships

I had previously proposed a modern day Silkroad connecting the two ends of Eurasia over the air on my article “The World Autonomous Air Cargo Way”. I would like to extend this idea for the autonomous freighters and container ships.

Electrically operating autonomous ships can be a future for the global sea transportation. The built-in batteries do not need thousands of kilometers of range. A network of floating offshore vertical wind turbines would extend the ships range. These turbines would be placed on critical locations on the sea routes. The wind farms would have batteries under the turbine towers to allow speed charging of the ships even at low wind speeds. The weight of the batteries would also improve their stability. 

When an autonomous ship approaches to a wind farm, the power plug which doubles as a mini boat would cruise towards the ship. Then, the boat plug would engage to the ship forming a sealed connection. The floating power cable would allow fast charging of the ship’s batteries. Once the charging is complete, the plug boat would cruise back to the wind turbine and the ship would continue on its route.

The autonomous ships would be piloted by skippers when they approach or leave a harbor. Later, autonomous ship only harbors would be built for full autonomy.

Deep Sea Forging

Forging is a manufacturing process involving the shaping of metal using localized compressive forces. It is done to strengthen the metal pieces. The forging can be conducted at cold, warm or hot temperatures. My proposition is to forge using high pressure at the deep-sea floors. 

The electrically operating barges would carry the metal parts to be forged to the open sea where the sea depth and the proximity to the harbor is optimal. Once in location the barge would activate the on board vertical wind turbines. These turbines would then power the cranes that lower the metal parts to the sea floor. Carbon nano tube wires would be used as tether due to its strength and pressure resistance.

The lowering speed would be adjusted depending on the metal part. This slow homogeneous pressurizing process minimizes the internal fatigues seen on traditional forging. Deformations would also be minimized. On locations where hydrothermal vents are present, warm casting can also be done utilizing the hot water source on the ocean floor.

As a conclusion, energy intense metal forging can be done using renewable energy sources. Additionally, complex and large parts can also be forged which would be beneficial for the aviation and space industry. Giant rocket casings and the propellent tanks can be hardened as well as other complex parts.

The Modern Multi-Wings

We live on a planet with atmosphere. The advantage of air is its lifting power and its disadvantage is the drag. Therefore, while we are traveling inside the atmosphere it’s best to optimize the advantages and disadvantages. In the early days of aviation, multi wing planes were experimented a lot. Unfortunately, not these days. Our designs are too much illusioned by the fancy computer illustrations that have single wings. I don’t know the details of the wing design and simulation software, but they may not even have proper options to test and design multi wings.

Since the early days of aviation, the material science and the engine designs have evolved considerably. I propose that we should experiment more with drone planes that have multiple wings that are made of advanced composite materials such as carbon nanotube. High aspect ratio wings produce the highest lift. However, they are fragile. Multi-wing design makes them stronger even compared to traditional wings. This allows the plane to fly at a higher altitude, reducing the drag penalty. More importantly, the use of advanced materials allows much thinner profile for wings, reducing the drag further.

The multi-wings can even be used on the first and the second stages of the rocket that travel inside the atmosphere. It would even help the recoverability of the second stage as well. More lifting allows more thrust to be directed to horizontal acceleration instead of counter acting the gravity. Additionally, the used rocket stages can stay longer aloft. Allowing more gradual deceleration by air drag instead of using more propellent to slow down.

With todays advanced prototyping technologies, it is very fast to experiment with such ideas. If you want to differentiate your company from the competition. You should think more out of the box.

Warm Gas Ion Thruster

I would like to propose a warm gas ion thruster design to be used for the first stage of a rocket. Ion thrusters have high specific impulse but very low thrust. Therefore, they are mainly used for satellite navigation only. I thought about increasing the thrust by the use of warm gases and the atmosphere as the electric source; compared to cold gas and solar panel electric source used on other ion thrusters.

The warm gas ion thruster would be filled with a gas in liquid form. Initially, I thought about using liquid nitrogen due to its low cost and comparably low ionization energy. The rocket shell will be made of aluminum with carbon nanotube fiber mash to improve its strength. The idea is to electrically charge the liquid nitrogen as the rocket travels at high speeds in the air. The aluminum casing is the ideal material for that. It is a very good conductor of electric and heat. As the rocket travels faster and faster within the atmosphere it would build up more charge on it and heat up due to drag. Which are then efficiently transferred to the liquid nitrogen inside. High aspect ratio of the rocket coupled with the very thin fins inside and outside the shell increase the surface area for charge and heat accumulation.

The heated liquid nitrogen would be transferred to an evaporation chamber at the bottom of the rocket. Where it builds up pressure before exiting from the oppositely charged electret nozzle. Electrets are materials that keep their charge like permanent magnets keep their magnetism. The electret nozzle section will be thermally and electrically isolated from the rest of the rocket to preserve its charge. High voltage difference would further accelerate the exhaust gas to increase the thrust.

The warm gas ion thruster would be strapped together to achieve higher total thrust like the solid boosters attached to a liquid propulsion rocket. They would be very cheap and simple. Therefore, they don’t need to be reused like the very expensive and complex liquid rockets. The flight trajectory of the rocket should be optimized to improve the thrust efficiency. This design would only work at lower altitudes. Just before their launch, the ion thrusters would be heated and electrically charged by induction. Once the required levels are reached, the evaporation chamber would be opened to generate thrust for liftoff.

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.