Tune in, Turn on!

Considering that quantum physics now views atoms as some kind of wave construct (a variety of static wave), it seems reasonable to use the same tools used in optics to manipulate them. In fact, viewed this way, matter, photons/light, and electromagnetic waves seem headed in the direction of being the same standing wave construct propagated in different media. It also opens the door to a myriad of unorthodox ways of handling these waves as well.

It should be just as possible to handle these waves using the tools created for other classes of waves.  For example, it would be conceivable to use what is called a comb filter, in the field of radio, and apply that to do something like filter everything out of water that is not H2O. Or filter H2O to produce hydrogen. What you could produce using a lens, I'm not all sure, but it should be an interesting experiment! And how about using a 'tuner' to release and refine gold out of gold ore? The possibilities are huge and wide open. A plant 'tuning' hydrogen, then burning it could replace coal and nuclear power plants and producing pure water for human use.

My biggest hope is that someone, somewhere will read these crazy theories of mine and attempt to find out if it's more than a dream. The number of human problems that could be solved seems to me to make such research a  higher priority than a lot of other things being studied today.

In the long run, such filters and tuners  could open the door to the universe.

Touchdown!

Against a whole lot of odds, the Rosetta mission has succeeded. The Human race now has a temporary, tiny foothold on the core of a comet.

Just getting there was a monumental task. The story started ten years ago. On top of a rocket sits the main probe and a tiny instrument lander. The lander will be like a pebble tossed down a well. Our little pebble will sit in the cometary well and hopefully tell us all kinds of things we don't know. The mission launches and one of the longest space missions in history begins.

Now we're faced with a slow motion chase. The probe can't head straight for the well. We don't have ability to fly something fast enough to make the 4 billion mile trip in any sane amount of time. A hundred year mission wouldn't be viewed as practical. So we sent it out in the wrong direction. Or at least nowhere near where the comet was. As is the case with most things involving orbits, it gets complicated. First we whip the probe around the Earth like a hula hoop in a classic slingshot maneuver. That gets things going much better than any rocket motor we could attach. Not to mention the amount of fuel needed. Still not fast enough. We send the probe to Mars, for it's help. Now we have a fast enough probe. All of 85,000 mph. Woot! Fast boat to China! NOT. I mean really. 85,000 mph. A mere 45000 years to the nearest star. Sigh. So  much for human ingenuity.

Well, our little pebble is on its way. We can sit back for the next 6 or 7 years and twiddle our thumbs.

Now it's 2014. The pebble is at the well and things get the scientific equivalent of exciting. Did we plan the orbit to the right well? Has anything interfered with the orbits of our pebble or the well? Will the pebble and the well end up in the same place at the same time? The number of things that could go wrong has probably kept our team's psychologist busy staving off anxiety attacks for most of the ten years.

But now we're up against the biggest gamble of all: tossing the pebble. The probe cosies up to our well. The pebble is tossed. A bunch of people are probably very close to breakdowns. Something goes wrong and the team finds out if stress can cause mass heart attacks in a group of people. Pure luck lends a hand. Our pebble's landing hardware and anchor has failed. Somewhere out in the dark and utter cold of space, something stopped working. Now our luck: the pebble lands anyway. Three bounces and it settles at the bottom of the well.

The relief is tremendous! Ten years work and billions of dollars have been well-spent. The pebble goes to work and we start getting back the very first pictures of a comet's core. It may be just black and white pictures of what looks like your average pile of rubble on Earth, but it's so very much more.

The pebble down, we are getting priceless data about what the solar system was like when the comet formed. The drama is not entirely over. The batteries powering all this activity have been sitting on the shelf for ten years and they don't last forever. So for the next 3 days they're being recharged by a solar panel array. Then it's back to work unlocking things hidden for eons.

We're just opening the book. There will be many chapters and it all adds up to a great treasure. I can't wait to read the next page!

Cold News From Outer Space

There's no lack of news this time around and not all of it is good. Fortunately, even some of the bad news isn't so bad.

First off we lose two spacecraft in a matter of days. This is a disaster, because in the case of the Virgin Spacecraft Two, there was a fatality. Then there was the case of the unmanned SpaceX cargo launch that had to be aborted. Spaceflight really doesn't need this kind of disastrous news.

SpaceX says that the flaw in their cargo rocket was caused by their "antique" Soviet engines that were built 40 years ago. That seems reasonable. What isn't so reasonable is that SpaceX was using those engines because they were unable to get American made engines that fit. That is very sad. The once pioneer United States lost the edge.

And the other crash. One brave test pilot lost. It's unclear what happened, though it looked like the wings or entire wing section came loose and started fluttering. Did the pilot unlock the wings too soon? Did the lock fail? It may be a year before we know. The surviving pilot is in no shape to tell us at this time.

The tiny silverish lining is that neither outfit is giving up. In Virgin's case, none of the reservations for future flights have been canceled and in fact, they had two new reservations on the day of the crash. I give those people my heartfelt thanks, as well as Richard Branson himself.

It was a tragedy, but it could have been so much worse. Maybe some company will decide that we need to get American rocket engines back in production. It's been that 40 years. Let's see if we can't do a little better in engine design!

Now on to happier things (at least in one case).

Next week there will be a BIG show! On the 12th the Rosetta probe will land ON a comet core. There was a mission that landed on an asteroid and returned, but this comet is the next best thing to an alien visitor! It was created during the same times as our solar system and gathering samples will tell us all kinds of things. Think about this - if such a comet ever decides to take a shot at Earth, we'll have a far better chance of changing the outcome.
Speaking of far, it will be between 3 and 4 billion miles out when the probe lands.

They're going to be a long way from home!