Objectivist Mechanical Engineers

[Boydstun]

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Researchers are beginning to put bacteria and viruses to work producing electricity.

[Boydstun]

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Pop-up Fabrication of Microrobots

[moralist]

I'm just wondering about other Objectivist mechanical engineers as far as their industry or research area of choice. I'll soon be graduating and pursuing master's studies in mechanical engineering myself, and at this point my ideal industry is small arms (FN, HK, Colt...etc.). So what are you other MechEs doing? Anyone trying to design super efficient engines like JG in Atlas Shrugged or what? Is anyone doing research instead of industry? Any advice for kids like me?

I'm an amateur with no schooling or degree who enjoys mechanical engineering as a hobby. The latest design project I've been working on is this intake manifold on my engine. It's a completely different design from the original manifold...

I think you chose a really cool field where you can truly benefit Americans. Arms are constantly evolving, and engineers are needed to keep pushing the envelope.

Edited December 17, 2012 by moralist

[Boydstun]

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Would Be

Would be the rise to wonder,

. . . . this click-shut night.

To those trains’ risen rumbles,

. . . . this silk tie tight.

Would be to traction motor,

. . . . copper, shellac.

To axles’ bright ten-thousandths,

. . . . castings in stack.

Would be for tons two hundred,

. . . . high cranes glide free.

To locomotive thunder,

. . . . we who would be.

(Copyright 2013 by Stephen C. Boydstun)

Edited January 4, 2013 by Boydstun

[Boydstun]

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Microbattery Advance

[Boydstun]

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After WWII our father worked as a civilian for the US Air Force. We lived outside the base called Tinker. In the 1950’s, we children would hear him and his buddies sometimes muse about distant-future possibilities of ray weapons. In those days, they called them Buck Rogers weapons. Here is a bit of ray weapon attainment today: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbjXXRfwrHg.

[Boydstun]

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Gotthard Base Tunnel Opens

[Boydstun]

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Plants and the Human Mind to the Rescue

[Reidy]

If only Popeye had lived to see this day.

[Boydstun]

 

RoBeetle

[Boydstun]

OSIRIS-REx grabs asteroid dirt.

Edited October 24, 2020 by Boydstun

[Boydstun]

 

The four main engines of NASA’s new megarocket will be test-fired together today in a full-duration first-stage burn. This stage of the rocket has these liquid hydrogen engines plus solid-fuel booster rockets. This is the rocket by which the US aims to return men to the moon.

[merjet]

Aw, shucks. It's not nearby. NASA's Glenn Research Center is only 9 miles away. They open it to visitors occasionally and we toured it a few years ago. There are virtual tours here.

We also attended a Science Cafe Cleveland event in February. The speakers were from NASA Glenn Research Center. Speaker David McKissock was hilarious, especially when he talked about working with the Russians. He said the Russians have a very different perspective than Americans.

The Science Cafe has not met the latest few months due to the pandemic. We have much missed going when there are topics like these.

We attended this one a few years ago. The speaker brought a guest, a client with a prosthetic arm, who awed the audience with what he could do with it.

 

Edited January 16 by merjet

[Boydstun]

 

NASA finds cause of early shutdown of megarocket 4-engine stationary test.

 

[TommyJo]

A very large percentage of NASA's work is outsourced. How likely do you think they will have to abandon the development of their own rocket in favor of a private company? Wouldn't that be the best solution? In case a private company can do it faster and cheaper.

[Boydstun]

1 hour ago, TommyJo said:

A very large percentage of NASA's work is outsourced. How likely do you think they will have to abandon the development of their own rocket in favor of a private company? Wouldn't that be the best solution? In case a private company can do it faster and cheaper.

Interesting questions. I don't know. The four major contractors for SLS are linked here. I would bet this much: the rocketry that NASA is itself managing would be without commercial justification without the government funding for the scientific research the payloads make possible.

Private companies also provide the rockets for Defense payloads such as USAF DSX and more secret earth-orbit craft. I don't know and do wonder how much of the money some private companies have for their own space projects is from private investment with hope of (non-governmental sourced) commercial returns and how much is from profits won from government contracts in government space projects.

[TommyJo]

I think that at the beginning of its journey, each private space company depends on government orders for more than 70 percent. I think this helps a lot of these companies to earn credibility (or trust). But times are changing. It seems that in the near future, space companies will be able to develop without the help of governments. The more people need services from space (satellites, weather stations, 6g, etc.), the more we will rely on private companies.

[Boydstun]

Soft Matter Mechanics and the Mechanisms Underpinning the Infrared Vision of Snakes --Pradeep Sharma et al.

Using the same model, they should be able to create artificial materials that have pyroelectric properties for applications in materials science. Perhaps harvesting of energy.

[tadmjones]

I’ve often wondered if the reason plants in general eschew the energies that produce ‘green’ in the visible spectrum will have exploitable properties in energy harvesting. Green technology?

[Jacob88]

On 2/26/2021 at 1:45 PM, TommyJo said:

A very large percentage of NASA's work is outsourced. How likely do you think they will have to abandon the development of their own rocket in favor of a private company? Wouldn't that be the best solution? In case a private company can do it faster and cheaper.

I noticed that they started to cooperate with private companies more than ever before. SpaceX got a contract from NASA to develop a spacecraft for the flight to the ISS, Blue Origin will test the technology that is supposed to bring Lunar gravity and conditions closer to Earth's. I mention only the well-known and recenе cases of cooperation. I suppose it's a good reason to say that NASA is likely to ask any private company to manufacture a rocket, and I don't think that it's wrong. 

[Boydstun]

 

Mechanical engineer Max Braun and his legacy.

The Braun company he started is now 100 years old.

Edited June 24 by Boydstun

[Doug Morris]

I heard something on the radio today about using bacteria to convert waste plastic to vanillin, which has various uses.

[StrictlyLogical]

24 minutes ago, Doug Morris said:

I heard something on the radio today about using bacteria to convert waste plastic to vanillin, which has various uses.

I do not doubt an enviro-terrorist will soon unleash such plastic attacking organisms into the biosphere with little thought to unintended consequences.

 

Soon people will have throw out their disintegrating plastic hooks, hangers, pens, waterbottles, computer equipment, TVs, previously safe electrical appliances, recycling bins, and replace rotting composite patio planks, vinyl siding on their homes, car interiors, and replace crumbling and unsafe plastic-based safety equipment all crumbling slowly before their eyes.

So much for my "permanent" CD collection... oh well, we'll just release another plague of organisms into the biosphere to take care of the first plague.

[Doug Morris]

36 minutes ago, StrictlyLogical said:

Soon people will have throw out their disintegrating plastic hooks, hangers, pens, waterbottles, computer equipment, TVs, previously safe electrical appliances, recycling bins, and replace rotting composite patio planks, vinyl siding on their homes, car interiors, and replace crumbling and unsafe plastic-based safety equipment all crumbling slowly before their eyes.

Actually, before these organisms could do anything, an enzyme from another source had to be applied to break down the polymers into monomers.  I don't know how workable it would be to wreak havoc with organisms producing that enzyme.

[StrictlyLogical]

4 hours ago, Doug Morris said:

Actually, before these organisms could do anything, an enzyme from another source had to be applied to break down the polymers into monomers.  I don't know how workable it would be to wreak havoc with organisms producing that enzyme.

Well that sounds a little more safe... at least the eco-terrorists would have to do some legit research on their own before ruining the world.