Need 1.2 billion to build and launch hundreds of drone satellites that go to asteroids to mine and refine ore. Then shuttle the ore via ion thrusters to space 3D printers at Earth's Lagrange Point 4, which then use solar heaters to build space habitat components
So like, Kickstarter or something?
FYI For anyone starting their own space program (he mentions casually) there's a thing called ITAR registration, which is pretty much mandatory for anything space or rocket related
"International Traffic in Arms Regulations" is basically a set of rules in the U.S. saying you can't do business with anyone on the govt naughty list
But you have to register for this, which costs $2250 ($2750 renewal) every year, which is currently reduced to $500 because of COVID until 2021
Skipping = Jail+fine
Texas Instruments makes a nice D-type 16-bit flip flop with 3 states:
74LVTH16374
Put 4 of these together with a few capacitors and other helper components and you've got a 64 bit register appropriate for RISC-V CPU built from scratch
Also the 16374 has an operating temp range of -40C - 85C. Storage, -65C - 150C. Quite manageable with active controls
What you lose in space and power consumption, you gain with parts availability and development cost
It's not exactly radiation hardened, but a computer built with coarse electronics, even CMOS, is less susceptible in low Earth orbit
Besides RADHARD components tend to be much slower than contemporary consumer chips anyway. Might as well go bigger to make things easier and cheaper to build
Launch costs will tumble even more
Looking at the precautions for potting compound made me realize how incredibly toxic some of this stuff is. Especially the chemicals used in aerospace for high/low temperature tolerance
Some of this stuff will make your eyebrows fall out with one whiff
All of them need a respirator, long sleeves, and thick gloves to handle safety
The Curiosity rover has 2 radiation hardened computers (primary + backup) clocked at a maximum 200MHz. The CPU alone costs $200K, without the mainboard and other support hardware
Plan is to make my own radiation "tolerant" CPU with similar specs, but in RISC-V RV64, in my living room for the same price as a PizzaHut dinner for 2
Piece of cake
Found my starting point. The registers can be built with a bunch of these D-type 3 state flip flops:
74ALVCH16821
PDF Datasheet https://assets.nexperia.com/documents/data-sheet/74ALVCH16821.pdf
According to my rough calculations, I need an O'Neil Cylinder built in Earth's Larange point 5, with a diameter no less than 1.14km and length no less than 7.61km, to support a renewable forest for firewood for a single a wood stove in a single orbit
Seasons like winter can be simulated with solar shading and moisture pumped through a central line of needle spray nozzles. The Coriolis effect on falling snow and rain would be remarkable
Maintaining this wouldn't require much processing power
This can probably be built in a weekend with a bit of spare stainless steel, some pipes, and maybe a gasket or two
How hard can it be
TIL This is the "noise" captured by Voyager 1 in the interstellar medium. I can't be entirely sure there are no space whales
Wonder how practical it would be to build something approaching the Voyager probes' durability in my living room
http://www-pw.physics.uiowa.edu/voyager/v1pws_interstellar_epo.html
There's technically no rule against using bamboo inside a spacecraft, aside from weight considerations (and possible sensitivity to temperature fluctuations)
The only hazard is possibly flammability, but that has countermeasures
A DIY space program needs lots of antennas
It's possible to build a fairly adequate parabolic dish (beam waveguide type so the base is stationary) with EMT electrical conduit. The dish just needs to support itself and EMT conduit is fairly easy to bend to the correct shape and is robust enough to survive outdoors even under heavy snow
There's a lot of "X has more processing power than the Apollo lander" and similar phrasing and that's usually not a good comparison
Spacecraft hardware is highly specialized and extremely capable in the narrow field in which they're used
From a biological perspective, it would be like comparing brain size and neuron count. Behavior is a lot more accurate indicator of intelligence and capability
I can't even guess how smart an octopus is, but we don't typically use their size to compare
And speaking of space hardware, being resilient is often more important than just capability and speed
In fact, most space-rated hardware is going to be slower than their consumer counterparts, but that's OK because the software is highly optimized to run on it
The trick to getting the DIY space program operational on that front is making sure the hardware is resilient and the programming optimized and actually fits the purpose more than increasing raw speed
This is by far one of the better animations of a rocker bogie that I've seen in a good while. It moves the middle suspension bar to the rear, which frees up the middle for actual storage, power etc...
This is by far the simplest practical breakdown of the rocker bogie mechanism that's easy to understand. It's one thing to read papers with angle calculations, pressure delta etc... but another to actually see just the moving components
I think this platform would work quite nicely for the simplest practical rover
https://wpirover.wordpress.com/2011/11/15/rocker-differencing-kinematic-suspension/
And then there's this guy who built an entire rocker bogie car for his kid
r҉ustic cy͠be̸rpu̵nk🤠🤖
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