Cooling instead of heating

The Problem: wind and solar energy produces energy only at limited periods during the day. Current proposals to store the energy include pumping water upwards, or heating work substance, which consequently releases the energy to produce steam. These methods are wasteful.

Possible solution: use excess energy produced during "bright" or "windy" periods for cooling instead of heating. In particular, wind power can be used to liquefy natural gas in Canada and Siberia. Solar can be used to produce LNG in the Middle East. Liquefied gas can be used to directly cool industrial facilities. Furthermore, part of the energy used for liquefaction can be recovered if one heats the liquid by the ambient temperature to produce jet, which can rotate a gas turbine through the nozzle. This scheme can make significant quantities of the gas produced during oil extraction economic (currently, most of it is burnt into the atmosphere, especially in the Middle East). In the future, one can even use excessive quantities of cryogenic liquids produced in the process for cooling superconducting power transmission lines.

Proposals for the space probes non-standard landing systems

PROBLEM: Mars' atmosphere is too thin to sustain "soft" landing on a parachute. 

Solution: Use lift instead or, in conjunction with, drag to decelerate the vehicle.



An asymmetric rotor with long, superhard carbon plastic blades, is accelerated through the "free" fall of a probe. The probe is suspended from a bearing.

Another design may include paraglider with the sledges accompanying the payload.


Prior Art: Tree samara, such as in maples or elm. 

Appendix to Russian Aviation (c. 2013) on oldpossumsbookreview

Modification of Tu-214 (modernization of an obsolete passenger aircraft) as AWACS plane.

http://oldpossumsbookreview.blogspot.com/2013/01/forecast-of-state-of-russian-air-forces.html

World of the Game of Thrones

This is a possible sketch of the world(s) described by Martin in "Game of Thrones." Real star system Gliese 581 was the inspiration. 

Explanatory notes. Data are very approximate. This is a planetary system around red dwarf star of M=0.2 M_solar (T=3,100 K, r_orb=10^6 km, Luminosity=0.6% Solar). Because of tidal effects on the host star, the planet always has one side to the star. Hence, it does not have normal night and day as does the Earth. 

• The planet itself has a radius of approximately 1.4 times the Earth's radius and 3 times Earth's mass. In the presence of thick atmosphere, its almost tidal-locked position would probably cause runaway greenhouse effect, like the Venus', but it has a large (about a mass of Mars) gaseous satellite. Furthermore, as a result of some cosmic catastrophe, the orbit of this satellite is highly inclined to the ecliptic plane and, similar, to Uranus its rotation axis is approximately parallel to the ecliptic. 

• Because of the tidal locking, liquid water can exist only in ~15 deg. zone near the terminator. However, because of the presence of the large oddly position satellite and incomplete locking, the planet is engaged in complex multiperiodic wobbles.  The smallest of these periods around 13 hours--the period of rotation of the satellite--slightly shifts the terminator. For the inhabitants, this provides the impression of night and day, though the real change in luminosity is probably not as high as on Earth (improving the filming conditions for the night sex scenes). 

• Far side being cold (-200 C) and near side--hot (170 C) creates supersonic winds near the terminator, which change direction with the wobble. Factually, two habitable zones near the poles are separated from each other and nothing is known about the life at the South Pole. Our North-South direction corresponds to the North-West direction (into the cold wilderness) vs. South-East direction (into an uninhabitable desert). A habitable zone itself is an imperfect circle around the "North" pole with the surface area slightly higher than the North America. The continent itself is marked by red contours on the last figure. 

• Because of relative irregularity of night and day, the notion of daytime never developed and technology, in general, is primitive and is unchanged for thousands of years. Large satellite is on the opposite side of the planet during daytime and mostly behind the horizon of the inhabited continent during the nighttime, so its presence went undiscovered for all but technologically savvy Valyrians, of whom little is known. 

Long winter. The system has a Jupiter-size planet moving along highly elliptic orbit. In the perigee it shifts motion of the original planet and its giant satellite out of resonance. Resulting intermittent stochastic motion of the satellite shuts down periodic wobbling of the planet and daily shifts of the terminator. Near the North Pole this results in a "long winter," an irregular season of protracted cold and darkness. Jupiter-sized planet is accompanied by a number of comets in Lagrange points (L1 and L2 in the Fig. 1), which are interpreted by locals as signs of impending long winter. 

Orientation system for the blind

Problem: walking stick as an aid to the blind is in umpteenth century of its existence. Modern technology can do better.

Solution: ultrasound sonar or microwave radar in the walking stick. The signals from the radar are transformed into a combination of vibrations of the handle and clicks and whistles through the microphone. Optimal combination of acoustic signals to alert the blind person of the surroundings has to be determined experimentally and may be individualized.

Unsolved problem: cost

Interstellar

Starships are usually imagined as gigantic contraptions. This is a guarantee they'll never be undertaken. Instead, the author proposes a "starship" with a weight of 3-8 kg and the payload of 250-750 g. 

Propulsion is performed by the following ingenious mechanism. While radioactive decay is symmetric over the solid angle, geometric placement of the fissile material (e.g. Am-241 or Pu-240) can be achieved in such a way that the decay products from a tablet of such material in the direction of the motion of the spaceship will be reabsorbed in the elements of the construction. On the contrary, the decay products in the direction of motion will be emitted predominantly into free space. Reaction force then will accelerate the vehicle. 

Fission alone cannot achieve anywhere near a few percent of c needed for the interstellar travel. Yet, the ship will have the sails made of Pd foil saturated with D, T or He3 or a Li6 foil. Fast particles, which are produced by the fission reaction will (with some probability) produce fusion in the asymmetric sails. Again, the sails (author presumes) can be built is such a way that a net recoil from a fusion reaction will be directed along the acceleration path. 

The space system thus constructed can be made so cheap that the swarm of these vehicles with AI-divided tasks between them can accomplish investigation of the planetary system (almost) as successfully as a large probe. 

The payload (similar to the Coke can) will have microscopic actuators to tighten or slacken the wires to the sails. Because the maximum thrust of the contraption is expected to be on the order of a fraction of a newton, the actuators to direct the ship need not be particularly strong. Of course, acceleration/deceleration of such ship is more or less stochastic. 

Prior art: 1) Suggestions of L. Alvarez (one of the fathers of US hydrogen bomb and asteroid hypothesis for the Jurassic collapse) to use fission of transuranium elements emitting into gas jet for space propulsion. 

2) Tritium based initiators for nuclear explosions. 

3) Stochastic micromachines or nanobots. 

Unsolved problem: the communication of the data back to Earth from another planetary system. When the apparatus reaches the nearest stars with planetary systems (in 150-400 years; no reason to be worried of obsolescence--Voyager is now 37 years old), there will be need to transmit the data to the Earth if anyone will still be there to listen with the transmission system weighting on the order of 150-250 g and the available energy on the order of a few watts. 

Expandable bed for long waiting at the airports

Problem: In case of postponed flights passengers have to wait days in the giant airports without possibility to relax. 

Solution: small, low expandable bed, which can be easily fitted to the backpack.

Prior Art: US Army expandable beds.