Tunnel on the Moon

Following the discovery that the Moon's surface may hide a network of underground tunnels, a veteran Russian cosmonaut has plans to set up a colony of in this labyrinth of lava caves.

In 2008, Japan's Kaguya spacecraft unveiled a mysterious, metres-deep cave in the Sea of Tranquility. Nasa went back with its Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC) and snapped high resolution images of the enticing pit.

"They could be entrances to a geologic wonderland," Mark Robinson of Arizona State University, principal investigator for the LRO camera, said in 2010. "We believe the giant holes are skylights that formed when the ceilings of underground lava tubes collapsed."

Those long-dead lava tubes -- a vestigial signature of the Moon's explosive volcanic past -- could still remain as a labyrinth of underground tunnels. These, Russian space pioneers reckon, would be a perfect, natural shelter from hazardous outer-space conditions.

"If it turns out that the Moon has a number of caves that can provide some protection from radiation and meteor showers, it could be an even more interesting destination than previously thought," cosmonaut Sergei Krikalyov was quoted as saying by Reuters, at a forum on the future of manned spaceflight. Krikalyov now heads Russia's Star City cosmonaut training centre outside Moscow.

Instead of building walls and ceilings, or digging into the lunar soil, Krikalyov's plan is to send lunar explorers into the tunnels with inflatable tents. Once there, the blow-up module expands until its hard outer shell seals the tunnel.

Boris Kryuchkov, the deputy science head at the training centre, estimates that the first lunar colony could be built by 2030.

North America, on the other hand, isn't that interested in returning to the Moon. President Obama cancelled the lunar project in 2010 saying, "We've been there before. There's a lot more of space to explore." Instead, he wants Nasa to focus on landing on an asteroid by 2025, and eventually send a manned mission to Mars.

by "environment clean generations"

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Posted in: lunar,moon,obama,science,Sea of Tranquility,space,surface,Tunnel on the Moon

Fake Plastic Trees and Algae Tanks on Every Roof

                                   Fake Plastic Trees It looks like the real thing ... well, not really.

Geoengineering is a popular idea, for Bill Gates and just about everyone else these days. Now the Institute of Mechanical Engineers proposes that the UK adopt technologies such as carbon-capturing artificial trees, biofuel algae tanks on rooftops, and coating surfaces in reflective materials to cut down on heating from the sun's rays.

Those technologies may sound familiar, because PopSci has examined similar concepts in the past. Reflective rooftops represent perhaps one of the less expensive geoengineering proposals for controlling climate change, but researchers have also pressed forward with prototypes for artificial trees that capture carbon dioxide through plastic leaves and store it for carbon sequestration.

Researchers similarly continue to puzzle out how to grow more algae as a possible biofuel solution for today's energy-hungry world. One company has even resorted to feeding algae to fish, and then squeezing our unfortunate finned friends for the oil. Maybe building owners would feel compelled to adopt rooftop algae tanks en masse and spare fish such a fate ... or maybe not.

The Register casts a critical eye over the recent IMechE report, and offers a tongue-in-cheek comment on why there's no comparison between putting solar panels on the roof versus reflective materials or the algae tanks. It also points out that an artificial tree resembling a giant fly swatter and based on today's technology would capture just over one ton of carbon dioxide per day -- one million such trees would be required to offset the UK's current emissions, at a cost of $20 billion.

Plenty of experts also still want to tread lightly when it comes to geoengineering, for fear of unintended consequences on a global scale. The White House science advisor and the U.S. National Academy of Sciences gingerly examined the topic this summer and concluded that caution is warranted.

Perhaps some of these quick fixes could stand a bit more scrutiny and development, at least before laying out the grand deployment plans.

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Posted in: algae,carbon,environment,Fake Plastic Trees and Algae Tanks on Every Roof,rooftops,science,trees

In Science!

                 

                In science, a physical constant is a physical quantity whose numerical value is fixed. There are many constants used in science, some of the most famous being: Planck's constant, the gravitational acceleration and Avogadro's number. Constants can be of many kinds, some, like the Planck length is a fundamental physical distance, others like the speed of ligt meaning the speed limit in our known universe. Is it? 

Below is a list of physical constants:       

Constantă	Simbol	Valoare	Ref.
speed of light in vacuum	c	299.792.458 m·s-1 (prin def.)	a
vacuum permeability	μ0	4π × 10-7 N A-2 (prin def.)	a
		12.566 370 614... × 10-7 N A-2	a
permittivity of vacuum	ε0 = 1/(μ0c2)	8.854 187 817 ... × 10-12 F·m-1	a
characteristic impedance of vacuum	Z0 = μ0c	376.730 313 461... Ω (prin def.)	a
gravitational constant	G	6.672 59(85) × 10-11 m3·kg-1·s-2	?
Planck's constant	h	6.626 068 76(52) × 10-34 J·s	a
Dirac's constant	= h / (2π)	1.054 571 596(82) × 10-34 J·s	a
Planck mass	mp = (c / G)1/2	2.1767(16) × 10-8 kg	a
Planck length	lp= (G / c3) 1/2	1.6160(12) × 10-35 m	a
Planck time	tp = (G / c5)1/2	5.3906(40) × 10-44 s	a
elementary charge	e	1.602 176 462(63) × 10-19 C	a
rest mass of the electron	me	9.109 381 88(72) × 10-31 kg	a
rest mass of the proton	mp	1.672 621 58(13) × 10-27 kg	a
rest mass of the neutron	mn	1.674 927 16(13) × 10-27 kg	a
atomic mass unit	mu = 1 u	1.660 538 73(13) × 10-27 kg	a
Avogadro's number	L, NA	6.022 141 99(47) × 1023	a
Boltzmann's constant	k	1.380 6503(24) × 10-23 J·K-1	a
Faraday's constant	F	9.648 534 15(39) × 104 C·mol-1	a
ideal gas constant	R	8.314 472(15) J·K-1·mol-1	a
zero on Celsius scale		273.15 K (prin def.)	?
molar volume of ideal gas, p = 1 bar, θ = 00C		22.710 981(40) L·mol-1	a
standard atmosphere	atm	101 325 Pa (prin def.)	a
fine structure constant	α = μ0e2c / (2h)	7.297 352 533(27) × 10-3	a
	α-1	137.035 999 76(50)	a
Bohr radius	a0	5.291 772 083(19) × 10-11 m	a
Hartree energy	Eh	4.359 743 81(34) × 10-18 J	a
Rydberg's constant	R∞	1.097 373 156 8549(83) × 107 m-1	a
Bohr magneton	μB	9.274 008 99(37) × 10-24 J·T-1	a
magnetic moment of the electron	μe	-9.284 763 62(37) × 10-24 J·T-1	a
Lande's g factor for free electron	ge	2.02.319.304 386(20)	?
nuclear magneton	μN	5.050 786 6(17) × 10-27 J·T-1	?
magnetic moment of the proton	μp	1.410 607 61(47) × 10-26 J·T-1	?
giromagnetic ratio of the proton	γp	2.675 221 28(81) × 108 s-1·T-1	?
magnetic moment of protons in H20​​, μ'p	μ'p / μB	1.520 993 129(17) × 10-3	?
proton resonance frequency per field H20	γ'p / (2π)	42.576 375 (13) M·Hz·T-1	?
Stefan-Boltzmann constant	σ	5.670 400(40) × 10-8 W·m-2·K-4	a
first radiative constant	c1	3.741 774 9(22) × 10-16 W·m2	?
second radiative constant	c2	1.438 769 (12) × 10-2 m·K	?
standard acceleration of free fall	gn	9.80665 m·s-2 (prin def.)	?

       Some "constants" are in fact artificial system of units used, for example, mks or cgs. In natural units, some of these so-called physical constants are found to be only simple conversion factors.
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Posted in: constant,distance,Plank,science