McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft
an engineering problem which I need to solve for a story
the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh:
--- Quote from: Haru on June 21, 2012, 05:34:12 PM ---The first thing that comes to mind is sort of a pressure cooker, although that might be more steampunk rather that your time period. The idea would be to build a gigantic canon with an even bigger pressure tank below it, to give it a big chunk of speed from the start.
--- End quote ---
Doing the numbers, you only plausibly get enough energy from that to launch a capsule in the hundred-of-kilotons range to something close to Earth excape velocity, at late 1940s tech level, with an underwater nuclear detonation. (Unless I am missing an alternative which I do not think I am.)
--- Quote --- After that, you can have some rocket contraption to maneuver it the rest of the way.
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Not really plausible, alas, neither with the amount of fuel for a chemical rocket to make any significant difference to a mass that big, nor with building anything robust enough to take the stress of launch. (particularly launch-from-seabed, which needs extra energy but is better for not covering half a continent with fallout.)
--- Quote --- The whole thing build sort of like an artificial geyser with a giant cork on top, and then you loosen the cork so it flies pow, right to the moon.
Volcanos and mad science is always a great combination ;)
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Yes, but tying such a cork down until you build up enough pressure under it to carry so big a vehicle to escape velocity does, alas, get into magic materials tech.
Haru:
Hmm you're probably right. Still, I kind of like the idea of using geothermal energy to fire a space ship huge rock to the moon. But I realize that was not even the integral part of your question.
Maybe the SPO can be put on the rock rather loosely and detach on entry, where it can fall down on its own little parachute. It could be attached magnetically and released on a timer or remotely. Or it is anchored with metal rods that are drilled deep into the rock and detach with small explosives. Or some other way I can't think of right now.
In that case, I don't think the container would have to be all that durable, a sturdy metal box would probably do the trick. A mini spaceship if you will, like the capsule the astronauts used to come back in, only it can possible be even smaller than that.
LDWriter2:
--- Quote from: the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh on June 21, 2012, 06:42:12 PM ---This is in fact the case; the long-term plot relevance is for that information to have survived and got out in a context where it's thought to have been lost.
The problem is, finding a physically plausible means of storing rather a lot of information in a small space (even using remnant tech from higher tech levels, I want not to have to break physics here) that can readably survive the stresses of the launch and landing.
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Just had an idea, I would think this depends on how the info is storied. I was trying to think of what type of data storage they had in the 40s. Computer tape, written word, audio tape, punch cards, vinyl records. They may have had some type of metal "paper". Not sure if they had cassette tapes back then or not. But as I think someone suggested your world could have some tech that is from the fifties or sixties. A little mixing of tech might be a good idea because it wouldn't be a complete parallel development. Anyway what type of container would depend on what type of data storage. Lead lined for sure, padded probably, maybe a box or barrel completely filled so the object would not be able to bounce around. Not sure if they would have suspended the object by straps as I have seen at times. Not sure when that university started the yearly challenge to drop an egg from a great height and not have it break. But if you could find one of the first year results on line you might find some ideas.
A bullet shaped container maybe with either a very hard nose or a false one that is made to break off. I can picture this one going alone with the tech they had in SF TV shows-movies from the forties.
Maybe more than one copy, I think they believed in back-ups back then. Or find a way to connect it to the front of the ball in a way so that it would drop off just before impact. Some type of mechanical release mechanism or slow acting acid to burn through a strap. I believe they could have worked something out back then.
That's all I have for now.
Serack:
--- Quote from: the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh on June 21, 2012, 06:42:12 PM ---This is in fact the case; the long-term plot relevance is for that information to have survived and got out in a context where it's thought to have been lost.
The problem is, finding a physically plausible means of storing rather a lot of information in a small space (even using remnant tech from higher tech levels, I want not to have to break physics here) that can readably survive the stresses of the launch and landing.
--- End quote ---
titanium robust punch cards. Large amounts of punch cards were used in mechanical calculators during the Manhatan project according to Feynman's "Surely You Must be Joking Mr. Feynman"
You could even have organic (paper) ones laced through the major payload, and the recoverers discover them as stratta, and retrive the information by analyising the patterns in the residual whatsits between stratta.
Redundancy might be key.
the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh:
--- Quote from: Haru on June 21, 2012, 09:23:03 PM ---Maybe the SPO can be put on the rock rather loosely and detach on entry, where it can fall down on its own little parachute. It could be attached magnetically and released on a timer or remotely. Or it is anchored with metal rods that are drilled deep into the rock and detach with small explosives. Or some other way I can't think of right now.
In that case, I don't think the container would have to be all that durable, a sturdy metal box would probably do the trick. A mini spaceship if you will, like the capsule the astronauts used to come back in, only it can possible be even smaller than that.
--- End quote ---
I see I didn't specify my initial problem space in enough detail; all of what you suggest makes sense as options (well, modulo that a parachute's not much use on an airless moon) except that I need to expand on what I meant by "hide" in the first post. This is an object that has been concealed about the bullet in ways that most people involved with the project need not to have seen, and retrieved from the crash site in ways that weren't noticed by anyone until events elsewhere prompt a forensic re-examination (this latter being the bit that happens in my actual story). I think that tends against securing the object to the outside of the bullet in some way that detaches before impact; this is a situation where somebody would have noticed that.
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