The John Batchelor Show

Wednesday 1 August 2012

Air Date: 
August 01, 2012

 A typhoon dumped torrents of rain as it swept past the Philippines, killing at least seven people and displacing more than 20,000 others by Tuesday. Another storm lashed the capital and neighboring provinces, leaving several parts of Manila without power and under water.

JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW 

Wednesday 905P Eastern Time (605P Pacific Time): Verna Yu, Hong Kong journalist, in re: the massive Sunday rally against "national education."  See today's New York Times op-ed.

Wednesday 920P Eastern Time (620P Pacific Time):  Lobsang Nyandak,  HH The Dalai Lama's  representative to the United States, in re: China's bogus Panchen Lama: "Monks must love China and obey the law."  The real Tibetan Prime Minister met with high officials in Washington, explained that the Chinese govt is totally responsible for the 44 self-immolations in Tibet. Chinese Communist govt is promoting a stand-in, a stooge, for the real Panchen Lama, who disappeared when he was six and would now be 22 years old. Beijing kidnapped the true Panchen Lama, and Tibetan people do not accept the stooge.  JB: We watch people destroy themselves in protest, don’t know when it'll stop.  LN: Unfortunately, China continues to persecute the Tibetan people, say that they need to be forcefully controlled; ergo, no sign of a peaceful resolution in the near future.

The landing site will be at the foot of a mountain within the Gale crater. This crater floor has an alluvial fan spreading over it that could have been formed by waterborne sediments.

Wednesday 935P Eastern Time (635P Pacific Time): David Livingston, The Space Show, and Anita Sengupta, JPL,  in re: Curiosity to Mars: landing process; skycrane.  When we hit the atmosphere of Mars at abt 125 km, entry vehicle heats to a very high temp, abt equivalent to surface of Sun: 2000° C.  Extreme deceleration, 13Gs. We expect to get the info after 14 min; if all goes well, we'll know in abt 14 or 15 min.  Entering Martian atmosphere looks like a spinning top. We slow from hypersonic to supersonic (thruster firing), then deploy huge parachute. Why not use multiple big chutes? Martian atmosphere is really thin – 1/100th of Earth's – so parachutes won’t work. Our Rover is abt 2,000 lbs; have to use retro thrusters. Decelerate to subsonic speed, then release heat shield, radar can see the surface; 250 MPH, then drop parachute. Lander is underneath, in folded position. 

We test each element of the project on Earth in a relevant envt, then piece together all the parts and do a simulation to see how it’ll look on Mars.

The one ton of Curiosity, attached under the vehicle: at abt 20 meters above surface, we lower Curiosity Rover on a "triple bridle" 21 ft long, a skycrane manoeuver till we touch the ground, then cut the tether and the vehicle slides away to a safe distance and crashes. (Ergo, don’t need a landing pad.)  See: YouTube, "Seven Minutes of Terror"!   All done autonomously, vehicle controls itself.  JB: Defense stage needs anthropomorphic nickname.  AS: Chute is mostly nylon; suspension lines are Kevlar.

Wednesday 950P Eastern Time (650P Pacific Time):  Raksha  Kumar, in re: dastangoi, an ancient Urdu storytelling art – dasta = story in Persian (?); till the XIX C, was passed on only orally; then, the art form perished; was revived when stories were compiled in 41 books.  In New Delhi, in a place called The Attic, two men come out dressed entirely in white; they tell the story of a famous man, no music.  Captivating.   http://dastangoi.blogspot.com/   (pron: dah-san-goh-i)

 

Wednesday 1005P Eastern  (705P Pacific Time): Stephen Yates, Chief Executive Officer, DC International Advisory, & formerly adviser to Dick Cheney, in re: the Obama and Romney positions on China, Iran, and Israel. China's recitation of revisionist "facts" also applies to external events, as when Xinhua excoriated Romney for mentioning that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel.  China joined with Moscow to veto sanctions proposed by US, UK and France. Usu, China just drafts behind Moscow, but it has another bad habit because China knows it's tripped the wires that'd have China be sanctioned. There's a broad trend of China foolishly jumping in where it'd be smarter to be silent. China probably thinks, "We might as well push hard now as we're not likely to be able to as well in future." Something different about this Party transition – not as smooth as in past.  If it remains as assertive, belligerent, and hostile as it is now, we can truly say it’s different.

Wednesday 1020P Eastern (720P Pacific Time): Naomi Rovnick, freelance journalist based in Taichung, Taiwan - under assault from typhoon Saola - and formerly with Hong Kong's South China Morning Post, in re: Taiiwanese defense dept has mobilized tens of thousands of soldiers to help the populace.   Mainland China has (inadverently?) made a fairly positive move; Chinese students allowed to study in Taiwan.  Similar to the demographic overwhelm Beijing uses in Xinjiang and Tibet- however, Mainland students love Taiwan and don't want to return to Mainland.  One of them arrived and immediately logged on to YouTube to see the truth of TienAnMen, of the Cultural Revolution, of real Chinese history.  All young people studying there were instructed by their masters on Mainland to speak only well of China.

India restored its power supplies on Wednesday after two days of massive outages that blacked out half the country, but fears remained that the grid could again collapse under the strain of over-demand. 

Wednesday 1035P Eastern  (735P Pacific Time): Robert Zimmerman, behindtheblack, and Gordon Chang, in re: China does not have a civilian space program, only military. During Clinton, we much improved the accuracy of China's missiles pointed at the US.  Now CITIC is buying highly sensitive information from Loral/AsiaSat. The US is handing a good deal of secret information to the Chinese Peoples Liberation Army.  The White House and the State Department endorse this.   The House is Republican now and the Senate is Democratic – what's happening? Congress is so neutered; it’s naïve to think that CITIC's creation of a so-called civilian corporation to skirt US regulations. NASA isn’t even allowed to speak with the Chinese  this material (but does anyway and is called to account in Congress). PLA has an antisat warfare unit in space.  Avionics, software, orientation material: backdoor of critical intellectual property.  US self-destruction.

Wednesday 1050P Eastern (750P Pacific Time): Amaresh Kollipara, Founder and Managing Partner of Earth2Orbit, LLC, a global provider of satellite launch services, in re: North of Chennai and in other places in India, beginnings of an advanced space program.  Religions, cultures, languages – all rolled into one; unique country. Has the most poor people in the world and also the largest middle class in the world.  Asian space race, nothing like as intense as it was between US and USSR. Huge national pride in India over its space successes.  Space program Chendrayaan; in 2014, Chendrayaan 2 in collaboration with the Russians – extremely ambitious missions.  My company is bringing satellites here for them to launch.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Space_Research_Organisation

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chandrayaan-2

 

Wednesday 1105P  Eastern (805PPacific Time):  Abheek Bhattacharya, in re:  India's electrical grid is pressed to its limit.  When problems happen with India’s electrical system, there's very little to fall back on.

Wednesday 1120P Eastern (820P Pacific Time): Adam Nossiter, NYT, in re: Bamako and the rebellion, the breakup of Mali. Formation of independent militias positioning themselves on the border with the north to do what the Mallan military can't do: chase the Islamist thugs from the North, including Timbuktu. he "informal sector" not too much affected by the machinations except the lawlessness: self-organized checkpoints that demand money, and the like.  France is extremely concerned but leery of involvement, esp in view of Cote d'Ivoire and Libya.  

Wednesday 1135P Eastern  (835P Pacific Time): Ken Anderson, Hoover, in re: do we need the UN, and what of the UN today with Syria?  How does the Obama adminstration use the UN?

Wednesday 1150P Eastern  (850P Pacific Time): Ken Anderson, Hoover, continuued.

 

Wednesday/Thurs 1205A  Eastern (905 Pacific Time):  Darwin's Devices: What Evolving Robots Can Teach Us About the History of Life and the Future of Technology by John Long, 1 of 2

Wednesday/Thurs  1220A Eastern (920 Pacific Time):   Darwin's Devices: What Evolving Robots Can Teach Us About the History of Life and the Future of Technology by John Long, 2 of 2

Indian children read without power as a consequence of blackouts.

 

Wednesday/Thurs  1235A  Eastern (935P Pacific Time): David Livingston, The Space Show, and Anita Sengupta, JPL,  in re: Curiosity to Mars: landing process; skycrane.  When we hit the atmosphere of Mars at abt 125 km, entry vehicle heats to a very temp, abt equivalent to surface of Sun, 2000 C.  Extreme deceleration, 13Gs. We expect to get the info after 14 min; if all goes well, we'll know in abt 14 or 15 min.  Entering Martian atmosphere looks like a spinning top. We slow from hypersonic to supersonic (thruster firing), then deploy huge parachute. Why not use multiple big chute? Martian atmosphere is really thin – 1/100th of Earth – so parachutes won’t work. Our Rover is abt 2,000 lbs; have to use retro thrusters. Decelerate to subsonic speed, then release heat shield, radar can see the surface; 250 MPH, then drop parachute. Lander is underneath, in folded position. 

We test each element of the project on Earth in a relevant envt, then piece together all the parts and do a simulation to see how it’ll look on Mars.

The one ton of Curiosity , attached under the vehicle, at abt 20 meters above surface, we lower Curiosity Rover on a "triple bridle" 21 ft long, a skycrane manoeuver till we touch the ground, then cut the tether and the vehicle slides away to a safe distance and crashes. (Ergo, don’t need a landing pad.)  See: YouTube, "Seven Minutes of Terror"!   All done autonomously, vehicle controls itself.  JB: Defense stage needs anthropomorphic nickname.  Chute is mostly nylon; suspension lines are Kevlar.

Wednesday/Thurs  1250A  Eastern (950P Pacific Time): Exeunt. Jim McTague, Barron’s , in re: flash crash of Knight Capital, will happen again and again.

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Music (times based on Eastern Daylight Time broadcast)

9- hour:  Shaolin; Starship Troopers;  10-hour:  Shaolin; Starship Troopers; District 9;  11-hour:  Powaqqatsi, Land of the Dead; The Thing;  midnight hour:  District 9; Starship troopers

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