Mark at the wheel on the way to BoothBay ME
We got a good start at 8:00 and made Booth Bay by 2:30. The leg of the trip from Eagle Island to Cap Small provided a good wind and nice sail. The leg from Cape Small to Booth Bay had reduced wind so we motored most of the way. I keep the mainsail up which gives some push even when the wind direction is unfavorable for the genoa. Mark had broken a fitting on the head at the water inlet. I was able to get the proper tubing and connector at the local hardware store to fix the problem. We had stakes grilled on board that were covered in garlic and pepper. Mark went out till 2:00 am and was stopped by the police for running a dingy under the influence. He was able to talk his way out of it by reciting the alphabet backwards.
Looking forward as a child I expected a number of things to happen in my lifetime. The biggest disappointment has been the space program. I expected to be able to travel to outer space more or less at will. This has not happened. The mistake was an inability to appreciate that size really matters. We have not had the balls to make orbiters as large as they need to be. Our current program is analogous to trying to have commerce across the Atlantic by using a couple of high tech canoes. They are just too small. When the age of steam began the small ships could not hold enough fuel to make it across the Atlantic. The fellow who designed and built the Titanic figured out that if the ships were large enough there would be enough fuel to make a crossing. It turns out that the need for additional fuel did not go up as fast as did the volume of the ship. Therefore larger ships could hold enough cargo and fuel to be profitable. We are still have orbiters that are too small and I have not heard of any plans to make larger ones. I believe that an orbiter should have the carrying capacity of a 747 freighter. This thing would be large but profitable. One should also consider a push on the ground via a catapult perhaps to near supersonic speed and a carrier ship such as that employed in Rutan's space ship one. Also, the best place to launch such a ship would be at the equator and high in the mountains. Thus altiplano in Peru would be an excellent choice. Why being the ship all the way back to sea level and its dense atmosphere. Land at a high altitude to save the fuel required to get the ship back to that altitude.
The goal of our space program should be a permanent base on the moon. The reason for this is that the moon is made of stuff. Most of the major heavy things required for living in space are on the moon and once a base is established would not have to be transported form earth as is required by the space station. It is interesting that at our current stage of development all we need is dirt and solar energy. We can make everything else using these too components. However, the moon seems to be deficient in hydrogen. Of all the things we would have to take to the moon it is fortunate that the material required is the lightest element.
However, the advances in genetics and computers have been greater than I expected.
No comments:
Post a Comment