Elon got his rocket up ...

[GIThruster]

Jim is on vacation till the Fall. I doubt there will be any news from any of the projects until October os so.

Grrrr, waiting until fall = torture for somebody like me (yours truly is the personification of impatient).

October eh? I was hoping they would demostrate their ME-2010 experiment by August. Oh well, whats two months?

Anyways, it will be interesting to see not only if the effect is real, but whether it works better using the dielectrics as thin-film lattice structure.

Jim will be starting over on his PZT as cap attempt. This removes most of the acoustic impedance matching issues he's had trouble with in the past. His last attempt this last season was frustrated because he smoked the test item and since PZT is polarized, that was the end of that. He's now got a slightly altered design using annular construction instead of discs which should aid in heat management, and he'll hopefully have a new and better power system with more control by Fall as well.

Not sure what you're saying about thin films. Paul March is making an MLT attempt with doorknob caps. Don't know if he has a schedule for the summer. Bruce and I are using the thin film approach with a much thinner UFG. I don't recall mentioning it here. Did Bruce or Paul make mention? The UFG Thin is slated to operate at much higher frequencies than the UFG, and to shuttle much more energy back and forth with it's fairly awesome ALTAS cap wafer material. That approach does need a very complex power system so I have great doubts we'll see it in operation until at least late fall, could even be next year.

In the meantime, I still think anyone wanting evidence of the effect can have it just by viewing the rotator data. I know of no way to explain the signal discovered in anti-phase with electrostriction other than that it is an M-E signature.

[kunkmiester]

Not sure if I posted it on a thread like this, or on a separate thread, but I had a thought about static charge storage, rather than capacitors. If you were charging and discharging say, a van der graffe generator type of thing rather than a capacitor, would the effect hold true, or would something in the nature of how the charge is stored change things?

[GIThruster]

How the charge is stored matters, as well as how often it charges and discharges. It is the energy time rate of change that is key, not just energy, and the energy needs to be stored in the "squishy bonds" (ionic or covalent) found in bulk matter, rather than in just static charge or there is no mechanism to store the change in inertial mass.

[MSimon]

Not sure if I posted it on a thread like this, or on a separate thread, but I had a thought about static charge storage, rather than capacitors. If you were charging and discharging say, a van der graffe generator type of thing rather than a capacitor, would the effect hold true, or would something in the nature of how the charge is stored change things?

The stored charge in a Van deGraff generator is stored capacitively.

[GIThruster]

::pointing over at the M-E thread::

[kurt9]

Not sure what you're saying about thin films. Paul March is making an MLT attempt with doorknob caps. Don't know if he has a schedule for the summer. Bruce and I are using the thin film approach with a much thinner UFG. I don't recall mentioning it here. Did Bruce or Paul make mention?

Paul March mentioned about 6 months ago on the NASA forum that the bulk dielectric material may inhibit the Mach effect and that a lattice structure of alternating high-K and low-K dielectric material may be necessary in order to realize an effective MLT. He and Woodward thought this might be the reason for the disappointing results in some of their experiments. I believe (but not certain) that their ME-2010 experiments are supposed to determine if this is the case.

In the meantime, I still think anyone wanting evidence of the effect can have it just by viewing the rotator data. I know of no way to explain the signal discovered in anti-phase with electrostriction other than that it is an M-E signature.

I've seen this data. However, I am the eternal skeptic (but always hopeful) and would like to see something less ambiguous.

[Skipjack]

I've seen this data. However, I am the eternal skeptic (but always hopeful)

Sums up all my feelings. I love the idea and I sooo hope that it works (it would allow my dreams to come true... well some of them anyway ).
So I keep an eye on them. I would not bet my money on their success though. I do keep an eye on their work and I do wish them all the best.

[GIThruster]

"Paul March mentioned about 6 months ago on the NASA forum that the bulk dielectric material may inhibit the Mach effect and that a lattice structure of alternating high-K and low-K dielectric material may be necessary in order to realize an effective MLT. He and Woodward thought this might be the reason for the disappointing results in some of their experiments. I believe (but not certain) that their ME-2010 experiments are supposed to determine if this is the case."

Jim hasn't worked on the MLT approach in more than 2 years. Back during his last MLT investigations he learned that a bulk acceleration of the dielectric was necessary to generate powerful M-E, so he moved to the rotator experiment to show this--which he did. Since that time he's been working on the UFG instead and he's not using thin films or alternating layers of dielectric. He's using PZT between two PZT actuator stacks, but for the reasons Paul noted--acoustic interference in the assembly may be thwarting thrust. There are a couple other lessons learned that Jim is following but that I should probably not post here.

If there's a problem with the rotator results, IMHO, it is only that the effect was not more pronounced. There is nothing ambiguous about finding the signal in anti-phase with electrostriction as there is no other explanation that I know of for this finding. Hence, no ambiguity.

IMHO, the reason the rotator experiment is being held at arms length by nearly everyone, is that it forms convincing evidence, but not compelling evidence. It doesn't generate thrust, so even though it is significant scientifically, it is not an example of practical technology. For that, you need to build a thruster.

[DeltaV]

Elon Musk is worth more than $300 million, guys. Don't buy in to divorce settlement claims.

Tesla stock offering seeks to raise 244 million dollars

According to the documents filed with the SEC, Tesla has generated total revenue of 147.6 million dollars since it was founded and has accumulated a deficit of 290.2 million dollars.

The company said it had a net loss of 55.7 million dollars last year.

I hope it all works out. I like both product lines.

[mrflora]

Spacex plans Falcon 9 flight at Cape in September

Regards,
M.R.F.

[choff]

Successful launch today.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-501465_162- ... Content.11

[Giorgio]

Beautiful launch. If you think about how young this company is and how many bureaucratic obstacles they had to overcome, what they have achieved so far is truly amazing.

[Skipjack]

Agreed, the launch almost looked unreal. Thats how perfect it was. Absolutely smooth. No weird banking this time.
Landing the Dragon capsule was also perfect, within 800 meters off the target. That is very close, if you ask me.
Now lets just hope that the idiots in congress will finally get some sense and forget about the pork and give commercial space a chance (of course they wont, because they are to much in love with pork).

[GIThruster]

SpaceX rocks!

Go Elon!!!