11–18 of 18 posts
> [T]he power output of the Saturn first stage was 60 gigawatts. This happens to be very similar to the peak electricity demand of the United Kingdom.
NASA is reverse engineering an old staged combustion engine. It is good of course, building a computer model, test firing the turbo-pump ... fun learning exercise ... leading nowhere (cheese shop?) While Musk has produced a new from scratch staged combustion engine and is working on full flow stage combustion. Because Musk's enterprise has specific goal, like actually flying to space where is NASA doesn't have such (…
This makes me wonder if it will be possible to reverse engineer some of the complex things we're building today.
I think the answer to that is "yes", since our technology is advancing all the time. The question this made me wonder about is, "If this new 2015 engine was given to the 1970s engineers, would they be able to understand how it was made and create a similar one?" This is just 40 or so years later. It makes you wonder how advanced an alien civilization would really have to be to impress us.
This makes me wonder if it will be possible to reverse engineer some of the complex things we're building today.
I think the answer to that is "yes", since our technology is advancing all the time. The question this made me wonder about is, "If this new 2015 engine was given to the 1970s engineers, would they be able to understand how it was made and create a similar one?" This is just 40 or so years later. It makes you wonder how advanced an alien civilization would really have to be to impress us.
Making a model by laser scanning with structured light was a known process in the early 1970s. It was used by Ford Motor to get from clay models of cars to metal dies used to stamp out body parts. Previous approaches involved plaster casts and mechanical tracing machines.
However, a computer tablet was beyond 1970s technology to even analyze, let alone duplicate.
NASA is reverse engineering an old staged combustion engine. It is good of course, building a computer model, test firing the turbo-pump ... fun learning exercise ... leading nowhere (cheese shop?) While Musk has produced a new from scratch staged combustion engine and is working on full flow stage combustion. Because Musk's enterprise has specific goal, like actually flying to space where is NASA doesn't have such (…
The F1 is not a staged combustion engine; it's a stock-issue gas generator -- as are the Merlin engines on the current generation of SpaceX rockets. SpaceX is working on a staged combustion engine (the Raptor) for their next generation of very-heavy-lift rockets, but plans for those are still in flux.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think the answer to that is "yes", since our technology is advancing all the time. The question this made me wonder about is, "If this new 2015 engine was given to the 1970s engineers, would they be able to understand how it was made and create a similar one?" This is just 40 or so years later. It makes you wonder how advanced an alien civilization would really have to be to impress us.
They'd realize that some kind of new technique was being used to fabricate complex free-form parts. After close examination of the metal, they'd discover it was a sintering process, because sintered metal has a recognizable structure. They'd quickly figure out it was built up layer by layer by some deposition and heating process, because the layers are visible. Lasers were known in the 1960s. Even kilowatt-sized lase…
I doubt they'd be able to duplicate it, since there's a whole manufacturing infrastructure they'd have to duplicate first. But I doubt they'd have any trouble analyzing it. By 1970 they had integrated circuits, and there were people who were already looking ahead to the possibilities. It's not that hard to pop the plastic off of an IC and look at it with a microscope.
Based on the gestalt of the time, they'd probably look at the tablet and think you should have something more advanced by 2015.
I've always known intellectually that the Saturn V was an absurdly powerful rocket, but I think this is the comparison that really drove it home > [T]he power output of the Saturn first stage was 60 gigawatts. This happens to be very similar to the peak electricity demand of the United Kingdom.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
They'd realize that some kind of new technique was being used to fabricate complex free-form parts. After close examination of the metal, they'd discover it was a sintering process, because sintered metal has a recognizable structure. They'd quickly figure out it was built up layer by layer by some deposition and heating process, because the layers are visible. Lasers were known in the 1960s. Even kilowatt-sized lase…
>However, a computer tablet was beyond 1970s technology to even analyze, let alone duplicate. I doubt they'd be able to duplicate it, since there's a whole manufacturing infrastructure they'd have to duplicate first. But I doubt they'd have any trouble analyzing it. By 1970 they had integrated circuits, and there were people who were already looking ahead to the possibilities. It's not that hard to pop the plastic of…
And wonder why the UI was so inconsistent ^_^.
As for ICs, the "standard" 7400 series dates back to the mid-60s: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7400_series They'd be impressed by the surface mounting, but that's not a great leap from through hole DIPs. They'd be really impressed by the CPU, since computing resources were so hard to get back then, but putting it all on a single chip is obvious, and e.g. the 4004 dates back to late 1971. Even DRAM dates back to the mid-60s (IBM), with the 1103 (Intel's first DRAM, a whopping 1024 bits) being sold stating in late 1970 (albeit with low yields for a while).