MARS

Necessity… the mother of invention.
Plato

Almost all the inventions (so far), happened due to some necessity. The crucial challenge, humans face at present is to find an alternative source of energy rather than rely on fossil fuels, due to the limited availability and ill effects it impinges upon planet earth.Innovative ideas struck human brains and end up in new inventions.One such marvel is

MARS – Magenn Air Rotor System.

MARS Megann Air Rotor System

Magenn Power’s MARS is a Wind Power Anywhere solution with distinct advantages over existing Conventional Wind Turbines and Diesel Generating Systems.

MARS is a lighter-than-air tethered wind turbine that rotates about a horizontal axis in response to wind, generating electrical energy.

This electrical energy is transferred down the 1000-foot tether for immediate use, or to a set of batteries for later use, or to the power grid. Helium sustains MARS and allows it to ascend to a higher altitude than traditional wind turbines. MARS captures the energy available in the 600 to 1000-foot low level and nocturnal jet streams that exist almost everywhere. MARS rotation also generates the “Magnus effect” which provides additional lift, keeps the MARS stabilized, and positions it within a very controlled and restricted location.

Mars Technology

All conventional wind generators use bladed two-dimensional disk-like structures and rigid towers. The Magenn Power Air Rotor system is a closed three-dimensional structure (cylinder). It offers high torque, low starting speeds, and superior overall efficiency thanks to its ability to deploy higher. The closed structure allows Magenn Power to produce wind rotors from very small to very large sizes at a fraction of the cost of current wind generators.

The distinct advantages of the Magenn Air Rotor System design are as follows:

• Magenn Air Rotor System is less expensive per unit of actual electrical energy output than competing wind power systems.
• Magenn Power Air Rotor System will deliver time-averaged output much closer to its rated capacity than the capacity factor typical with conventional designs. Magenn efficiency will be 40 to 50 percent. This is hugely important, since doubling capacity factor cuts the cost of each delivered watt by half.
• Wind farms can be placed closer to demand centers, reducing transmission line costs and transmission line loses.
• Conventional wind generators are only operable in wind speeds between 3 meters/sec and 28 meters/sec. Magenn Air Rotors are operable between 1 meter/sec and in excess of 28 meters/sec.
• Magenn Air Rotors can be raised to higher altitudes, thus capitalizing on higher winds aloft. Altitudes from 400-ft to 1,000-ft above ground level are possible, without having to build an expensive tower, or use a crane to perform maintenance.
• Magenn Air Rotors are mobile and can be easily moved to different locations to correspond to changing wind patterns. Mobility is also useful in emergency deployment and disaster relief situations.

The performance specs of a 100 KW MARS ia as tabulated.

Inch By Inch

These are the photos taken during construction of the Hoover Dam Bridge Bypass.

Creeping closer inch by inch, 900 feet above the mighty Colorado River , the two sides of a $160 million bridge at the Hoover Dam slowly takes shape. The bridge carries a new section of US Route 93 past the bottleneck of the old road which can be seen twisting and winding around and across the dam itself.
This bridge is providing a new link between the states of Nevada and Arizona . In an incredible feat of engineering, the road is supported on the two massive concrete arches which jut out of the rock face.

The arches are made up of 53 individual sections each 24 feet long which have been cast on-site and are lifted into place using an improvised high-wire crane strung between temporary steel pylons.

The arches are measuring more than 1,000 feet across. The structure looks like a traditional suspension bridge. After the arches are complete, the suspending cables on each side are removed. Extra vertical columns are then  installed on the arches to carry the load.

The bridge has become known as the Hoover Dam bypass, although it is officially called the Mike O’Callaghan- Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge, after a former governor of Nevada and an American Football player from Arizona who joined the US Army and was killed in Afghanistan.

Work on the bridge started in 2005 . Around 17,000 cars and trucks are crossing it every day.

The dam was started in 1931 and used enough concrete to build a road from New York to San Francisco . The stretch of water it created, Lake Mead , is 110 miles long and took six years to fill. The original road was opened at the same time as the famous dam in 1936.

The completed Bridge looks like this

Paradigm Shift

Human race is trying to play a “good Samaritan” role towards the environment, by wiping out the serious ecological damage caused. The advancement in technologies and sophistications, in some way or the other has adversely created an irreparable damage to the planet. Now it is Nature’s turn to take revenge and self balance the ecosystem. Once Nature gets furious, mankind is thinking of using the same technology to try and reverse the effects of the damage.

A common public may think, “what damage I have done to the environment?”. Every one of us, whether knowingly or unknowingly repetitively creating damages, as part of our life style. All our innovations and technological advancements are flawed. What once thought was an advancement or innovation, is actually self destructive ideas. Human race has undermined our own existence. In every action of us, we are speeding the “time bomb” of mass destruction.

How exactly, the damage done?

The Green House Gases (GHG) namely Carbon-di-oxide,Nitrous Oxide,Methane and Flourocarbons in the atmosphere are responsible for balancing the Earth’s temperature.All our manufacturing process,Transportation and Living, needs either Power, Heating or Cooling…..results in emission of Carbon and other green house gases.Due to the excess release of these gases into the atmosphere, the concentration of GHG is increasing, causing the earth to warm in excess. The warming in turn, causes huge natural catastrophies like floods, droughts, increase in Sea Level, earth quakes and more surprisingly increased prevalence of insects, etc…etc….leads to mass destruction.

What needs to be done?

Try and reverse the GHG emissions by reducing the Carbon-footprints(amount of Carbon release).Implement innovative sustainability ideas into our life styles.We need to find alternative sources of power from renewable energy sources like sun light, wind energy, wave energy and all known natural resources.Governments’ need to implement strict laws to govern the carbon footprint.Awareness to be given for common public.

Where are we?

The idea of implementing sustainability needs excess money to be spent, makes the process very slow. Even then the ideology is spread through various fields of development, the process of reversing the effect seems to be a big leap ahead.

If all of us didn’t act now and be responsible to the environment, the future of our plant remains a “?”

“The entire world is looking at us”

                 said ISRO(Indian Space Research Operation) Chief G Madhavan Nair, after the successful launch of their dream project Chandrayan-1, India’s first unmanned Lunar mission, placing the country in an elite club of six moon-faring nations. 

                Lets express our hearty CONGRATULATIONS to ISRO, on their precise mission.

                This is a marvelous achievement, and a pride moment for every Indian.

                CHANDRAYAN in sanskrit means “voyage to the moon”.

                The 44.53 meter tall 4 staged launch vehicle PSLV-C11(Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle) swiftly ascent into the space filling the morning sky with a plume of velvety smoke tracking the projectile.

                                 The launch happened in a text book precision at 6:22 AM (IST) on 22 October 2008 at Satish Dhawan Space Centre,located in an island on Bay of Bengal,100 kms north of Chennai.

               The satellite spearheaded by the ISRO’s launch horse is weighing 1304 kg and is cuboidal in shape,carries 11 payloads, including two instruments from the American space agency, NASA, which will assess mineral resources, map the polar regions, look for ice deposits and prepare a three-dimensional atlas of the moon and prospect the lunar surface for natural resources.

Chandrayaan-1 will also look for possible uranium deposits on the moon.

               The 360-tonne PSLV-C11 has precisely achieved the objective of placing the satellite in the orbit around the earth with its nearest point being 250 km (perigee) and the farthest around 23,000 km (apogee) according to the press release from ISRO.

 

 

The satellite spacecraft will be injected into the lunar orbit on November 8th 2008,in about 15 days from now.

   The Scientific Objective  

The Chandrayaan-1 mission is aimed at high-resolution remote sensing of the moon in visible, near infrared(NIR), low energy X-rays and high-energy X-ray regions. Specifically the objectives will be  

	To prepare a three-dimensional atlas (with a high spatial and altitude resolution of 5-10m) of both near and far side of the moon.
	To conduct chemical and mineralogical mapping of the entire lunar surface for distribution of elements such as Magnesium, Aluminum, Silicon, Calcium, Iron and Titanium with a spatial resolution of about 25 km and high atomic number elements such as Radon, Uranium & Thorium with a spatial resolution of about 20 km.

  Simultaneous photo geological and chemical mapping will enable identification of different geological units, which will test the early evolutionary history of the moon and help in determining the nature and stratigraphy of the lunar crust. 

 

Mission Objectives

To realise the mission goal of harnessing the science payloads, lunar craft and the launch vehicle with suitable ground support systems including DSN station.     To realise the integration and testing, launching and achieving lunar polar orbit of about 100 km, in-orbit operation of experiments, communication/ telecommand, telemetry data reception, quick look data and archival for scientific utilization by identified group of scientists.

Foot Note:

With this success, the manned mission to space and that of Mars is dream come reality for ISRO.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

GUESS………………………..

Take a close look at the image…..Now try and guess or recall what it is….I hope by now, million signal transactions might have been occurring on your hippocampus.

 

 

 

 

 

I’m quite sure you - ingenious, would be guessed by now……………….Any way scroll down to get some more info…….

Its a Hard Disk.

Yes….It is a 1956 made first ever hard disk. You will be amazed to know the capacity. Its just 5 MB.

IBM launched the first computer with this hard disk on 1956 – 305 RAMAC.

The Disk Storage was a major component of the IBM 305 RAMAC weighing more than a ton in weight.

 

Little more about IBM 305 RAMAC

The 305 was a flexible, electronic, general purpose data processing machine that enabled businesses to record transactions as they occurred and concurrently reflect each entry in affected accounts. It maintained records on a real-time basis, provided random access to any record, eliminated peak loads, and could simultaneously produce output by either print or punched cards.

The 305 system consisted of the IBM 305 Processing Unit (containing the magnetic process drum, magnetic core register and electronic logical and arithmetic circuits), the IBM 370 Printer (an 80-position serial-output printer with tape control carriage), the IBM 323 Card Punch (similar to the IBM 523 Gang Summary Punch, providing for 80 columns of output punching), the IBM 380 Console (containing the card feed, typewriter, keyboard and indicator lights and control keys), the IBM 340 Power Supply (supplying power for all components except the motors in the 350 disk storage unit), a utility table adjacent to the console, and the IBM 350 Disk Storage Unit.

                                                                          IBM RAMAC 305

The 350 Disk Storage Unit consisted of the magnetic disk memory unit with its access mechanism, the electronic and pneumatic controls for the access mechanism, and a small air compressor. Assembled with covers, the 350 was 60 inches long, 68 inches high and 29 inches deep. It was configured with 50 magnetic disks containing 50,000 sectors, each of which held 100 alphanumeric characters, for a capacity of 5 million characters.

Disks rotated at 1,200 rpm, tracks (20 to the inch) were recorded at up to 100 bits per inch, and typical head-to-disk spacing was 800 microinches. The execution of a “seek” instruction positioned a read-write head to the track that contained the desired sector and selected the sector for a later read or write operation. Seek time averaged about 600 milliseconds.

                                                           350 Disk Storage in operation

In 1958, the 305 system was enhanced to permit an optional additional 350 Disk Storage Unit, thereby doubling storage capacity; and an additional access arm for each 350.

                               The dual arms used to record or read data from the 350 disk storage unit.

With storage capacities of 5 million and 10 million digits, and the capability to be installed either singly or in pairs, the 350 provided the 305 system with storage capacities of 5, 10, 15 or 20 million characters.

More than 1,000 – 305s were built before production ended in 1961. The 305 RAMAC was one of the last vacuum tube systems designed in IBM.

You may start appreciating this………………