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Submission + - NASA Tests TGALS Glider-Based Satellite Launch System (gizmag.com)

Zothecula writes: Recently, DARPA unveiled its ALASA system for launching satellites from fighter planes. Now NASA is upping the ante with its Towed Glider Air-Launch System (TGALS), which is designed to launch satellites from a twin-fuselage towed glider. Under development by NASA's Armstrong Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base, California, it's designed as an economical method for putting spacecraft into low-Earth orbit with the first test flight of a scale prototype having already been conducted.

Comment Re:Regulation, more regulation, only lawyers win (Score 1) 224

I'm amazed that you can be moderated up for that post. Fukushima's workers did everything they could to avert the distaster, including risking their own lives.
What caused Fukushima was the sea wall was too low (and that was already a know fact, even before the earthquake).
Also, the reactor had several critical design flaws:
http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB...

Comment Nuclear reprocessing is a fiction (Score 3, Informative) 176

Nuclear reprocessing is one of the biggests myths proponed by nuclear advocates.
Only the plutonium, which is less than 1% of the spent fuel rod, can be really used again as MOX. However the process to seperate the plutonium is a extremely expensive and dirty one, involving pumping low level nuclear waste into the sea.
The rest of the uranium in the used fuel rod is uneconomical to reprocess because of contaminated with U232 and U-236:

"No use of reprocessed uranium in French reactors in the near future
The uranium recovered from reprocessing of spent fuel in France is not expected to be used for the manufacture of nuclear fuel in the near future. French utility EdF rather has made provisions for long-term storage of the reprocessed uranium for 250 years. This was revealed in a report of the French Court of Auditors on the decommissioning of nuclear facilities and the management of radioactive wastes.

Usage of the reprocessed uranium (REPU) is problematic for several reasons: since the REPU is contaminated with the artificial uranium isotopes U-232 and U-236, special precautions are necessary during processing: the U-232 and its decay products cause elevated radiation doses for the plant personnel, and the U-236 as a neutron absorber requires higher enrichment levels to achieve the same reactivity. In consequence, use of the REPU is not very attractive at present market conditions: conversion is three times more expensive than conversion of natural uranium, and enrichment cannot be done in France's sole enrichment plant (Eurodif gazeous diffusion plant), since the REPU would contaminate the plant's circuits. "

Comment Re:Actually...about Intel... (Score 1) 230

No, that's not it.
Intel said that they will provide foundry services for any company willing to pay the price, no exceptions.
The reason Intel is a non-option for AMD and Nvidia is, obviously, the price is too high.
Intel are accustomed to enjoying a 65% margin and that's the way they want to keep it. Brian Krzanich publicly stated this at the Citi 2014 Global Technology Conference in so many words.

Comment Re:bean counters ruin another company (Score 1) 230

Ha ha. You really think owning a fab is advantagous?
AMD did have it's own fab and the massive capital expenditure to keep that going nearly drove them to bankruptcy. Neither AMD nor Nvidia have the volume to justify owning their own fab.
The fabless model works just fine - you will note that Apple and Qualcomm, the companies getting first tabs on 14/16nm, are both fabless companies.

Comment Re:bean counters ruin another company (Score 1) 230

Ha ha. You really think owning a fab is advantagous?
AMD did have it's own fab and the massive capital expenditure to keep that going nearly drove them to bankruptcy. Neither AMD nor Nvidia have the volumn to justify owning their own fab.
The fabless model works just fine - you will note that Apple and Qualcomm, the companies getting first tabs on 14/16nm, are both fabless companies.

Comment Avoiding the ire of chinese government (Score 1) 33

Investing in Chinese companies is probably a tactic to get on the good side of the Chinese government.
Consider what Intel is doing in China: giving away subsidised SoC's that compete directly with local Chinese companies. That sort of anti-competive behavour normally attacts tariffs (a similiar sort of thing has happen before US Department of Commerce Ignores WTO, Imposes Preliminary Anti-Dumping Tariffs of 26-165%

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