Oolite Bulletins

rabidvixen wrote:

The microscoop works in a completely different manner. It collects minute particles of hydrogen and other elements ....

Actually, NASA has been playing with this idea, in the 70's...
The project was called PROFAC, consisting of a nucular powersource, empty tanks, a radiator and some compressors. Oh, and a funnel-shaped 'gathering' thingy.
It would orbit around LEO, collecting the atomic Hydrogen, that's still there, though in minimal amounts, and cool/compress it to liquid hydrogen, to refuel spacetugs. (another thing they had on the drawing tables, sigh...)

PROFAC never got far beyond the drawing tables, because of the 'nucular' plant, but you see, the idea has merit!

It does indeed. In my younger days at university, when I wasn't behind the stick of a Cobra Mk III (on a BBC Microcomputer 32K in the uni lab) running ahead of a group of pirates intent on making me the catch of the day I used to design practical space craft systems for a number of groups (and I should make this absolutely clear) for the fun of it for the most part, but with real engineering and conceptual consideration in mind as I happen to be a qualified engineer (I have the documents and diplomas to prove it - honest gov!).

Among these groups was the British Interplanetary Society, and a gentleman I knew at the National Astronautics and Space Adminstration who worked on the original Saturn V multistage (and how many of us can say that they have stood in the actual mission control in Houston? An exciting moment, although when I got there it was empty for the most part). Although to be fair, these were not government, scientific or engineering contracts, think-tanks or professional work - they were merely "ideas" forwarded to people in positions of authority who might appreciate them.

I later went on to teach Space Engineering Design and Concepts to students at Brunel University in Uxbridge, west London. These days I design spacecraft purely for my own amusement, but I feel that there is merit in the MicroScoop concept - and it would be of immense help in any number of situations.

Looks like the idea is even older...

JonClarke: "idea goes back at least as far as 1959, when it was called PROFAC and the subject of a paper in JBIS. It used nuclear electric propulsion to extract and liquify O2 from the upper atmosphere"

Found this on a messageboard, Mars Rover Blog. http://www.markcarey.com/mars/discuss-2 ... -moon.html Last post on that page...

JBIS is a journal, by the British Interplanetary Society, IIRC... Small world, eh?

Weird the guy says it harvests O2, shouldn't that be H2?

In a new thread, I believe I have solved the problem of getting marooned in deep space: Emergency Distress Beacons.

Nobody uses missiles much, so you buy this beacon for 100 credits, and occupies a missile pylon. If you find yourself out of fuel (or are just lazy and want to top off on Witchdrive Fuel at the Witchpoint), you launch the Beacon and it jumps through Witchspace to the nearest Behemoth, which then jumps to your location in, oh, three minutes.