MISSION FOR NASA'S SPACE LAUNCH SYSTEM

The following op-ed was published in the June 23, 2014 issue of Space News

MISSION FOR SLS by Edward Hujsak
Now may be a propitious time to raise the question: Is it better to undertake an occasional manned mission, at a cost of many billions of dollars, to explore asteroids, return to the moon, and journey to Mars, or should we stay close to the planet and exploit a region that has so far been only touched upon, despite the availability of the hugely expensive but sparsely manned Interna- tional Space Station. An April 22 column by Washington Post’s Dana Milbank, titled “NASA’s lofty goal of a manned Mars mission doesn’t match budget reality,” and subsequently printed in other newspapers under the title: “Lost in Space,” underscores the confusion concerning the future.
There are two dominant scenarios, admitted;y with variations in each:

1. Occasional high dollar ventures by astronauts to destinations like asteroids, Mars and the moon. For the most part, these are long, dangerous journeys, unlikely, however to sustain public interest for long, until the destination is reached and then there is a short spurt of heart-stopping activity. (missions to Mars generate wide interest only after the spacecraft has landed).Then, the long journey home. This scenario calls for infrequent SLS launches which will therefore be very high cost, and result in exploring space at a snail’s pace. The United States is arguably the leader in undertaking such missions, having already sent astronauts to the moon several decades ago. But it is also the leader in robotic missions, even to the distant planets. A four decade hiatus has followed the last exploratory manned mission: Apollo. Will another such hiatus follow a manned mission to Mars?

2,The second scenario envisions a robust activity along several lines in low Earth orbit, quite within existing capability and for which the pattern has already been set by the Soviet Union’s Mir and the United States’ Skylab, follow-on to Apollo. Instead of monster structures like the International Space Station, what is envisioned are turnkey stations mirroring Skylab, of a size that can be lifted into orbit by single flights of the SLS....around seventy-five metric tons.

It is a fair assumption that many nations in the world would like independent access to a turnkey station, through lease or actual purchase, as well as transportation to and from. A part of it may simply be prestige, but more likely it would be independent research by its own scientists who need the space environment to proceed. These activities may range from medical research to fundamental materials research and development, particularly in the nano region, a relatively new frontier. A second application that caters to frivolous but adventurous tastes is tourist hotels. For some, and there are many who can afford it, a week in earth orbit would be the adventure of a lifetime.

The new paradigm envisions a bustling near-Earth activity, with perhaps hundreds of people in orbit doing valuable work in multiple stations, and at the same time proceeding with robotic exploration of the outer regions, which is being done now with spectacular success. It foretells major new industries.....design and construction of work stations, design, development and implementation of a reusable transportation system for economical transfer of personnel, and a system for control, monitoring and servicing of stations as they age in service. It brings into focus the challenge of operating in low Earth orbit with positive return on investment, as we do at geosynchronous orbit.

This is the only plausible scenario that will ensure a requirement for SLS flights at a reasonable rate. For other proposed missions, flights will be few and far between.......possibly years apart. Thus they will be very expensive if one factors in the cost of keeping a launch crew and production in place.

The United States is not the only nation that can undertake this unique opportunity. Russia can certainly do it, and one wonders to what purpose they would be undertaking development of an HLLV, with a seventy-five metric ton payload capacity, as recently announced. China too, a recent newcomer, with no presence at the International Space Station, has already a demonstrated ability with its own station and is capable of huge surprises.

In summary, this is one way to keep a vibrant space program in place, with inherent drivers to develop a reusable passenger transportation system, vastly improved situation for beneficial discoveries, improved cooperation among nations and an enormous new employment base for technological talent that presently lies dormant, risking loss of skills in an extremely valuable area.

Mars and asteroids can wait. If we take the route of missions spaced decades apart, of which there may be just one-of, there will exist little reason for the next generation to look to space as a career opportunity.

ELECTRIC CARS AND THEIR MANY QUESTIONABLE DESIGNS

THE FOLLOWING PAPER WAS SENT TO THE TRANSPORTATION HEAD AT THE ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (EPA).

This article is to point out the many fallacious notions and approaches to electric car designs and finally suggests an approach which, hopefully, the Department of Energy will sponsor.
To begin: electric cars which charge their batteries from the grid are highly regional in their efficacy. A car like the Tesla, for example, may make sense in Washington State or in Western New York where the energy source for the grid is predominately hydro. Also in regions where solar, wind and geothermal are available, and where nuclear power plants generate electrical energy. The latter may be significant, furnishing nineteen percent of US Power, but the other sources are insignificant. By far the greatest part of US energy is supplied by coal and natural gas burning plants (sixty-four percent). Because of the low thermal efficiency of these plants, the thermal efficiency of electric cars that draw from the grid runs less than that of most modern gasoline powered cars.This has huge negative implications.
We arrive then, at the question: “Are there other approaches to electric car designs?” We soon discover that there are two general approaches: electric cars that have a large bank of batteries and draw from the grid and electric cars that have on-board generation from various sources with a modest complement of batteries. The first approach has engendered an assortment of research and development programs to develop a lighter weight, more efficient, long life and less costly battery.
But it does nothing to reduce the electric car’s dependence on fossil fuels. A continued trend and expansion along this line has ominous log term consequences. It is because of the gradual conversion of coal burning plants to “natural gas” which occurs as both fossil fuel and non-fossil fuel....the latter in prodigious amounts, probably world-wide, yet to be uncovered. The salt brines deep under the states of Louisiana and Texas alone contain an estimated deposit of methane amounting to 150,000 quads (annual total energy consumption in the United States is 70 quads). Burning and subsequent release of all that carbon as carbon dioxide is unthinkable.
With on-board generation, one immediately comes up with either hydrogen fuel cells (as far back as 1947 Allis-Chalmers built and demonstrated a tractor that ran on methane fuel cells). But besides the question of safety and doubtfulness that

insurance companies will approve the garaging of hydrogen or natural gas fuel cell powered cars, there are other serious considerations. Where does hydrogen come from? The standard industrial process makes it from methane, with attendant release of the compound’s carbon to the atmosphere as carbon dioxide. Another method is electrolysis at off-peak hours in generating plants. This might be effective in hydro plants, but doubtfully elsewhere. Meanwhile, California has inexplicably embarked on creating a distribution of hydrogen gas stations.
With all the questions raised and doubtful gains of on-board generation with fuel cells, there is still a better way to build an electric car, with unassailable benefits. Still favoring on-board generation of power, it is a design that uses a high- performance biodiesel generator that runs at constant speed to keep a small bank of batteries charged, taking advantage of the fact that current development points to diesel efficiencies approaching fifty percent. Availability of biodiesel fuel is growing. California already has nineteen biodiesel dispensing stations.
Such an automobile could easily boast of a thousand mile range. Moreover, it has added flexibility in that short trips like to the grocery store needn’t start the diesel engine, and if on a long trip one runs out of fuel, batteries are enough to make it to the next biodiesel pump.
Creation of a demonstrator by the EPA as a model for the automotive industry would be a relatively simple engineering effort and could be done for under $100K. Strongly recommended is an RFP to do this, with appropriate funding.

THE YEAR OF THE DAISY

I'm happy to report that my new book THE YEAR OF THE DAISY AND OTHER LOVE POEMS
is in print.... a limited edition of 500, all copies signed and numbered It will shortly be available on Amazon, but can be purchased directly from the publisher  Mina-Helwig Company, PO Box 1292, La Jolla, CA 92038-1292 ($29.95 ppd , check or m.o.).
The book is dedicated to "Two remarkable women" and is beautifully illustrated by my grandniece, artist Elizabeth Zaikowski (artofelizabethzaikowski.com).
I may have posted  the title poem before, but to repeat:

The Year of the Daisy

That was the year
That daisies all decided
to perform flawlessly,
To help humanity
Along its faltering way
Every one, its petals plucked
To rhythmic chants:
She loves me, she loves me not,
Would tell you that she loves you.
He loves me, he loves me not,
Would tell you that he loves you.

It was her favorite flower, you know.
Garlands framed the altar
Where we said our last good byes.

Now this lavender bloom,
Lifted from the roadside,
Has graced my table for a week.
Drawn into its lonely self at night,
It flares to fullness at daybreak,
atop a dime store, Ming inspired,
Thin-stem porcelain vase.
I pluck its petals one by one.
She loves me, she loves me not.
She loves me, she loves me not
.................She loves me

A MISSION FOR NASA's SLS

In theory, energy needs at the biosphere’s existing population level of close to seven billion could be met  with a mix of clean sources that are  hydro, nuclear, photovoltaic (ground), solar thermal, geothermal, biofuels and photovoltaic (space based) and thus arrest the oncoming problem of climate change. Thorium based nuclear plants are an interesting possibility as thorium is plentiful.
    Where does space exploitation enter the picture? Studies during the latter part of the twentieth century confirmed the feasibility of erecting giga-watt scale solar power  collectors stationed at geosyncronous orbit, configured to beam power via microwave to terrestrial receivers. As a minimum, the government should fund the development and deployment of a demonstrator. If successful, in the normal course of events, utilities companies would take over, just as industry followed up when communications satellites were shown to be practical and economically promising. At present, lacking any serious mission, it makes sense from several aspects as a first mission for the SLS, not the least of which is prospect of payback.
    If Earth population growth continues at the present rate of around one per cent per year, it will double in under seventy years, and energy demand will concurrently at least double and could triple as consumer demand spreads across the globe.  Emissions will grow with population growth, and deforestation will reduce corrective ability, thus speeding up climate change.  The last ten years were the warmest on record. The trend is likely to continue, probably at a higher rate, due to the nature of positive feedback. Disbelievers confuse weather with climate change. A weather event like the exceedingly cold parts of the United states during the winter of 2014 underscores the arguments of the disbelievers. The consequences of climate change have been predicted and must be taken seriously: higher temperatures, calamitous storms, flooded lands from ocean levels, uninhabitable tropics, starvation and mass die-offs, and massive  diasporas into areas of moderate temperature, Canada and Siberia.
    On the bright side, and paradoxically also on the dark side, it is turning out that carbon based energy is plentiful, even if the population doubles and even without any effort to produce clean energy. The problem facing humanity is to stop its use or suffer the consequences. Absent serious concern and action, corporate power and weak governance are likely to prevent anything of the sort occurring. Politics will prevent any corrective measure like the suggested space power development from being promoted and funded.
    The elephant in the room is methane.... non-fossil methane, which is secreted in prodigious quantities beneath Earth’s surface. In  Earth’s early history, before there was plant life, methane was a significant component of the atmosphere. Along with other gases, it was pushed into subterranean cavities and fissures, as well as into solution in hot brines in vast quantities and sealed by subsequent crustal movements. As an example, estimates of the amount of methane dissolved in hot brines deep below Louisiana and Texas and extending into the Gulf run as high as 105,000 quads. The annual U.S. energy consumption is about 70 quads. How many such deposits exist worldwide? U.S. patents cover extraction methods that are already in development. In another area, non-fossil methane is harvested by employing advanced drilling technology and fracking, to fracture  the methane-containing rocky structure with high pressure water, releasing the entrapped  gas. All this spells big trouble, as corporate power and greed will exploit and keep governance in a state of helplessness.
    Perceptive, sensitive and sensible governance would say no. This source of energy must stay bottled up because it will certainly lead to the ruination of the biosphere. We have the ability, and we have the technology to obtain our energy, clean energy, from where it is the most plentiful.... from the sun.
    NASA  sponsored studies of space based solar power in the last decades of the twentieth century. Feasibility was proven. A sensible first mission for the SLS would be a solar power demonstrator. In the course of events, with success, utilities companies will step in, much as communications companies stepped in when the government demonstrated geosynchronous communications satellites.

CORPORATE PERFIDY III

                                                            CORPORATE PERFIDY III

                                                          

    Cautions were highlighted in a previous article regarding sources of foods for human consumption, pet foods, health supplements and original and generic prescription pills, when packaging information states only.“Distributed by.” A conclusion can be made concerning probability that the product came from an unidentified nation, and definitely not made in the United States. As such, the consumer has virtually no reliable assurance that the products were made in surroundings  at least as good as their own kitchen, with raw material streams of pristine quality.

     A facet of the production environment is the water that is used for processing. Huge tonnages pass through the factories that produce the above  consumer goods. If a person is to become a consumer, for example, of the chickens that the United States Department of Agriculture agreed could be shipped to China for processing, it is reasonable to desire assurance that the water used to process those chickens is of the highest quality, bacteria free.  But no assurance will be given, and the packaged chickens, sold on U.S. store shelves, will only say “Distributed by.”

     The international water supply is recognized as a critical problem, especially for under-developed and even industrially rising nations, but the influence is global.

    A number of articles have been published on the water issue, even extending to the possibility of future“water wars” over claims to prime natural sources. Among recent ones are:

1. Jonathan Hujsak, January 1, 2010 .  Cost Management; John Wiley & Sons.
    The Emerging Water Crisis and its Economic Implications. Part 1: Defining the Problem   

2. Jonathan Hujsak, January 1, 2011.  Cost Management; John Wiley & Sons.
    The Emerging Water Crisis and its Economic Implications. Part 2: The Global Food Supply Chain.

3. Jonathan Hujsak, January 1, 2012.  Cost Management; John Wiley & Sons.
    The Emerging Water Crisis and its Economic Implications. Part 3: Water and the Global
Industrial Sector.

A SCULPTOR'S DREAM

SHRINE FOR THE UNIDENTIFIED DEAD

by Edward Hujsak

Introduction   
    I suppose there are countless sculptors who dream of the one enormous, meaningful work of their lifetime, something that carries a serious message for all humanity and will last through the ages. Some actually make a career of huge sculptures, which brings to mind the arrogant, though temporary works of Christo and Jeanne-Claude in places like The Grand Canyon and Central Park. Most, however, will never come into being.
    I came late to sculpture, after a long career in rocket engineering. But there was sculpture of a kind there too, with implications far bigger than any thought of by professionals. I worked on the design of rockets that carried spacecraft to the moon, to Venus, Mars, and the outer planets. And now, thirty-six years after leaving Earth, Voyager spacecraft is finally leaving the solar system, after visiting all the outer planets, to meet a distant star thousands of years from now.    
    Nevertheless, I have that dream too. Though now in my 89th year, undertaking the large project I have in mind, as an individual, is borderline preposterous.
    Or is it?

The Idea
    They were mothers, fathers, laughing children, lovers, teachers, artists, farmers, toilers in all the trades, and nothing is known of them. Hurled into oblivion through the misfortune of being in the path of one of nature’s catastrophic events as well as trapped in horrors of man’s origin, an awareness of their frequency and extent by those on safer ground tends to a numbness..... something like the calm that follows the clamor in a chicken coop, when the fox has finally left with his captive.  In the twentieth and twenty-first centuries alone we have witnessed many calamities that cry out for compassion and understanding, but soon become history. To name a few: World War II, which resulted in 35 million deaths during and in the years after, across Europe;  the Influenza Pandemic of 1918, which killed twenty million people, the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami, Multiple Bangladesh floodings, Bhopal, Rawanda, indigenous genocide in Brazil, the Cambodian Khmer Rouge genocidal massacres, the Bosnian Serb army genocide and anti-communist massacres in Indonesia, the Holocaust and carnage in Russia following the Bolshevik revolution. The list is long.
    In the aftermath the victims are roughly collected by survivors and rescue teams, tossed onto ox-carts or other conveyances and dropped into excavated pits or trenches to be subsequently bulldozed over ....or left to rot where they lay. They are forgotten forever. Some are never recovered, lost at sea, victims of storm and war. They simply disappeared from the human scene.

Memorials
    There is something about sculpture that augers for the position that they should be one-of, and not diminished or diluted by repetition. The Twin Towers memorial, the Vietnam Memorial in Arlington Cemetery, the spectacular sculpture of Nelson Mandela in the middle of a field in South Africa, the Katyn Forest Massacre Memorial  that honors the Polish Officer Corp. and police officers that were captured and slaughtered by the Soviet army in Poland’s Katyn Forest early in World War II  stand as examples.

 On the other hand, there are Holocaust museums and memorials in 25 nations around the world. There are forty in the United States alone. Whether more than one is more meaningful, or whether desire for a shorter commuting distance has an influence is a subject for conjecture.
   
The Shrine Concept
    My dream is to achieve a work titled “Shrine for the Unidentified Dead.” It would be a place for people to visit, to contemplate the vulnerability of humans on planet Earth, the importance of interdependence, cooperation, compassion, and the futility of conflict and combat. It consists of a platform upon which are erected vertical elements that are evocative of Eastern and Western cultures, but with no specificity with regard to religion. The construction is of steel, or bronze. If steel, considerations are Corten, stainless, or zinc-gold plated steel, if the latter can be demonstrated to weather in the climate at the selected construction site. The spires will produce moaning sounds, varying in pitch as the wind creates and sheds Aeolian vortices off sharp corners. Visitors will have access to the platform as described later, becoming, in a sense, a part of the  ambiance.

   The height of the spires is approximately ten meters. The depth  about a third of a meter. The sculpture would be erected on site.
     The execution of the work would, through the design of the structure upon which the shrine is mounted, additionally evoke remembrance of the lost civilizations  of the Americas, mainly the Incan and Aztec empires that were doomed to extinction from Spanish invasions led by Pizzaro and Cortez as a consequence of combat and the introduction of European diseases such as  smallpox, measles and diptheria, and mass starvation that followed. It is impossible to imagine the totality of that episode in history. Yet an awareness  of it must be a continuing part of humility and contemplation in the human scene.

Siting
    The complete project has the sculpture mounted on  a supporting structure that is themed to the Aztec and Incan cultures.  The interior of the structure could be a museum. Access to the memorial would be at the rear, where the Earth would be raised to within two meters of the platform and a wheelchair type of ramp would lead to the platform. Likewise, entry to the structure would be in the rear, with a spiral ramp inside leading to the floor of the museum. It would be sited  in an accessible, but unpopulated area, in a climate zone that allows year-around visitation.  A location such as a bluff in the Julian area of San Diego County, in California, overlooking the Anza-Borrego Desert and mountains to the East would, for example, be acceptable.


Execution
     Far too large a project for an individual to undertake, there is a way to do it in a painless way, including raising the several millions that it could cost. It could be undertaken by a major university as a joint project of the arts, architectural and engineering departments. The benefit to the university would be global recognition and prestige, but more importantly, it would become the center of knowledge for this subject, in particular the lost civilizations of the Americas. The project should be particular attractive to a city that has visitors year around from all over the globe. It would be in the city’s interest to assume responsibility for maintenance and administrative presence far into the future as a valuable and enduring part of its arts heritage.  
 
Funding
As to raising the money for the project, the project could take advantage of a recent development, a benefit of the computer age, that makes it easy to raise large sums of money. It is called crowd-funding. For this project, the principals would write what would amount to a proposal to its alumni, requesting each to contribute the price of a few cups of coffee. It is possible that among the alumni, one would even have an acceptable site for the project that they would want to contribute.

Note: There are illustrations that accompany this article but were not accepted for posting. Contact me at hujsaked@aol.com if interested.

                                                          

MAGIC PILL

                         KEEP YOUR LIFESTYLE BUT TAKE THIS PILL

    The extent to which the medical profession and the pharmaceutical industries are conjoined at the hip can hardly be better illustrated than by their recent recommendation that Lipitor should be in general use across the population to lower cholesterol levels.
    
  Why would anyone, after reading the various side effects of Lipitor, which are amply defined on the internet, fall for this line? The list is long and includes such things as muscle pain and weakness, dizziness, insomnia, chest pains, peripheral edema, urinary tract infection, back pain, arthritis and memory loss. Also attention must be paid to possible interactions with other drugs. And oh yes, if you are pregnant or breast feeding, definitely do not take this drug.
    
   Lipitor has been  around for a little over twenty years. What of the long term effects of taking this drug? There is understandably no information on this aspect of its use.
    
   Another concern is that the drug is available as a generic, manufactured in places like laboratories in India. There has been at least one recall of generics that were produced in foreign laboratories.
    
   Of course, the medical profession would be serving the public better by informing them on what foods to consume, in what quantities, what foods to avoid,  and recommended proportions of food types, leaning on nature to hold cholesterol at acceptable levels.
    
   But no. Live it up, citizens. Our magic pill will keep you out of trouble.