Recent content by nitronewt

Found it - here it is http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=19710019929

According to the Wikipedia article, it cites this as the source Huzel, D. K. and Huang, D. H. (1971). NASA SP-125, Design of Liquid Propellant Rocket Engines (2nd Edition ed.). NASA.Technical report

I have a question regarding the design of rocket nozzles. I am not an engineer nor a physicist but I am involved in amateur experimental rocketry and I was curious regarding grossly overexpanded nozzles. According to Wikipedia a grossly overexpanded rocket nozzle (very bottom of the...

Ok, that makes sense. But what about fission reactors? We are able to create those and contain them. Why then can't we use a small fission reactor as a catalyst for a larger fusion reactor? Maybe these are dumb questions, but I'm not a nuclear physicist and very curious about the technology...

Yes so I guess that's my question. Does the method for starting a fusion reaction vary that much from a controlled reaction to a bomb? And if so, what are the differences?

This is a total newb question but please explain. If nuclear fusion is occurring during a hydrogen bomb explosion, then why is it said that more energy is needed catalyze fusion than will be produced during the reaction - H-bombs seem to blow that theory out of the water. (no pun intended) :-p

Thanks for the encouragement Yanick. I think every small contribution helps, and perhaps the attitude toward the disease is hindering making progress toward a cure. I have began experimenting with some software such as FoldIt, unipro UGENE, and PerlPrimer. I remember when people used to laugh...

I'm sure I could never cure cancer in my garage, or at all for that matter. I have no education in the field other than personal research and reading. I guess my thought was that if a group of great minds in the field could come together and explore creative and innovatiive methods of research -...

Perhaps this sounds very idealogical, but many of the greatest innovations and ideas in the world today were proposed by people with less education than many of their peers. I guess I'm just thinking that the worst that can happen is we gain some knowledge on the way. Why not perform research as...

I have looked around for a group of people who perform cancer research as a kind of open /crowd sourced project. Not paid researchers, but a group of people passionate about science and finding a cure. I have found some resources for this kind of research through organizations like COSMIC but no...

Would it be possible to mask the heat signature from the re-entry pod by pumping cryogenic liquid just beneath the surface of the skin of the vehicle to counteract the heat caused by re-entry?

I was sitting here thinking today, would it be possible for someone to build a stealth ICBM? It just seems somewhat scary as it would be very easy to build a rocket that could be remotely ignited. Couple that with avionics capable of adjusting the trajectory and stealth material/construction...

Thank you for the responses. Yes that is precisely what I am talking about. It would seem that if we could create a pulse strong enough to bend space-time in the manner showed by Antiphon's link, it could create a wave in space-time that would propel a ship forward. It seems that it could be a...

So could you then emit a pulse of light from the back of a capsule at a strong enough energy level to propel you forward?

Theoretically is it possible to propel a vessel through space by creating a wave in space time using intense amounts of light to bend space time?