If all else fails, you can simply put colossal cables on the surface around the whole planet and make a magnetic field the old-fashioned way, with electricity. A lot of electricity. A LOT. But scientifically possible.

I was thinking they could build large domes because the Martian atmosphere is 1% of Earths and its gravity is 40% of ours, think of the architecture one could come up with, radiation and perchlorates considered.

That is one of my more favorite possibilities, as it would require significantly less power draw than an artificial planetary shield from a satellite or superconducting belt. The drawbacks however, appear to be that it doesn't assist in atmospheric retention and is not a naturally perpetual process. Therefore prone to mechanical failure and requiring constant upkeep. But I think this will be the logical first step for magnetic field solutions over frontier colonies. Definitely very cool to think about.

Interesting, how about a local system to protect settlements, instead of burrowing into Mars to live, surface housing protected by a magnetic field under a huge polycarbonate dome ( import from Earth).

>with newer technologies towards single stage planes

Single stage to orbit from earth is a waste, whatever great technology you use. If two stage full reuse works out it will always be more efficient.

Glad we have FEA, additive manufacturing really wouldn’t be easy to implement without it. I say this because AM is still a rather under-standardised field and will probably remain that way for a while, at least process-wise. Of course you have a general idea of what happens when you change parameters or object geometry, but without simulating things on a case by case basis, no way you would be able to produce a reliable part.

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No, at least with current technologies in a sane amount of time.

But generating magnetic field with a satellite is possible.

Muah chef’s kiss. A very thoughtful addition

50 Dachma a week?

Can't they just call it the N. Grace Roman Space Telescope? Or even just Nancy G. Roman Space Telescope?

Because all I can think of is that horrible horrible TV woman, sadly.

Accretes the question : Is the boundary between cosmological space/time expansion and metaphysical speculation decreasing or not?

I was trying to figure out how the TV showed was related. I thought I was missing something.

I work in medical. Implants are cycled to test their long term durability. 3D printed implants often have this problem - one implant will survive 300k cycles, another only 5k. Same material, same design, made by the same manufacturer on the same equipment at the same time.

Metal printing has a long way to go before it can approach the durability of machined parts.

Maybe! For now, this seems too costly for mass uptake. Not the computing, but the manufacturing. What they’re marketing is truly marvelous with regard to the efficiency, but it’s still wayyyyyyyyy cheaper to cnc something that’s good enough. Give it another ten to twenty years… baby you’ve got a stew going.

That kinda genius, I wonder if a cruder method could be used with fdm printing via using load sensors in the print bed.

Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I've seen in this thread:

|Fewer Letters|More Letters| |-------|---------|---| |JWST|James Webb infra-red Space Telescope| |NRHO|Near-Rectilinear Halo Orbit| |NRO|(US) National Reconnaissance Office| | |Near-Rectilinear Orbit, see NRHO|

^(2 acronyms in this thread; )^(the most compressed thread commented on today)^( has 15 acronyms.)
^([Thread #8573 for this sub, first seen 16th Feb 2023, 06:16]) ^[FAQ] ^([Full list]) ^[Contact] ^([Source code])

The mirror is 1 of 2 donated to NASA from the NRO, intended for use in spy satellites.

Mirror Update

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Neil deGrasse Tyson is that you? But yes, thank you for the correction.

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Single stage to orbit is highly unlikely to happen (or at least become common) in the foreseeable future. Even very optimistic concepts have very small payloads for the masses in question, and any weight gained during development could compromise that capacity. Moreover, there's a case to be made against SSTOs given other potential designs.

Reaction Engines Limited 2014 concept detailing the Skylon D1, for instance, has a 325,000 kilogram fully fueled SSTO delivering a 53,500 kilo vehicle (empty) into the lowest possible equatorial orbit with 15,000 kilos of worth of payload. That 53 1/2 ton vehicle is a larger penalty against the payload mass than the STS' Orbiters were, and the payload capacity itself is inferior to modern, partially reusable Falcon 9s. Yes, they're not totally reusable, but one wonders if the savings of reusing that expended mass would be worth the added developmental costs.

If the SABRE engines are not as good as thought or if new features and their extra mass must be added (as had happened in the aftermath of the Falcon 9's initial landing failures), the resulting payload mass reductions would be larger than they would be for multi-stage craft. Hypersonic engine research is also very difficult and very expensive, and that high R&D means there would have to be a significant frequency of flights and low turn around time for the vehicle to be competitive. Additionally, Skylon D1s delivering payloads to higher orbits would invariably rely on independent upper stages that would likely be disposable.

However, as far as plasma jet engines go, the largest bottleneck for them is energy storage. Amusingly, Gerard K. O'Neill's 2081: A Hopeful View of the Human Future had launch vehicles conveniently get around this issue by using Solar Power Satellites as their energy source during airbreathing mode in lieu of storing it all onboard. Not bad for a book published in 1981! While we are currently in want of SPSes, the idea has finally gotten real traction in the last decade with the entities within United States, China and Europe having committed to launching SPS testbeds into orbit in the next few years.

I wonder if a 3d printed lost-"wax" process would work better. 3d print it, pack it in sand, pour in molten alloy that melts the 3d printed object. Get the same shape but with cast material.

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Astronomers, not astrologists.