Tuesday, March 19, 2013
Thursday, January 10, 2013
Rocket boots
Rocket boots are a patented Russian invention to speed up walking. Created by scientist Viktor Gordeyev, the "boots" are actually a mechanical construction strapped on the legs and are powered by smallinternal combustion engines that add energy to every step.
The speed for walking is approximately 17 km/h and the top speed for someone perfecting the use is said to be around 35 km/h. The boots use approximately 4 centiliter per 10km.
The boots were developed in the 1970s for the Red Army but further development was halted until 2000 when it was picked up by scientists at a university in the city Ufa, targeting both civilian and military markets.
In 2007, the nickname 'Rocket Boots' was also awarded to Marco Giudice (of Dunfermline, Scotland) following a string of sensational five-a-side football displays in his home town, whereby he scored an average of 4.67 goals per hour with one blistering effort on the evening of 6th June 2008 recorded at 168.4 kmh - setting a new British indoor record. Mr Giudice would often celebrate the resulting goals scored by these unstoppable strikes by revealing a t-shirt embroided with the slogan "Lombardo".
In recent times aspersions were cast that rocket boots had lost his way and that his mythical powers had drained from his once feared footwear. All such voices were silenced on the 12th night of November 2012 - a day that shall hence forth be remembered as 'The Renaissance of Rocket Boots.' On this night, three unstoppable lightning strikes were dished out as rocket boots reared his head once more for Red Star. It is rumoured that goalkeepers around the globe have called an emergency meeting as they try to weather the new storm on the horizon.
Space Elevator
A space elevator is a proposed type of space transportation system.[1] Its main component is a ribbon-like cable (also called a tether) anchored to the surface and extending into space. It is designed to permit vehicle transport along the cable from a planetary surface, such as the Earth's, directly into space or orbit, without the use of large rockets. An Earth-based space elevator would consist of a cable with one end attached to the surface near the equator and the other end in space beyond geostationary orbit (35,800 km altitude). The competing forces of gravity, which is stronger at the lower end, and the outward/upward centrifugal force, which is stronger at the upper end, would result in the cable being held up, under tension, and stationary over a single position on Earth. Once deployed, the tether would be ascended repeatedly by mechanical means to orbit, and descended to return to the surface from orbit.[2]
The concept for a space elevator was first published in 1895 by Konstantin Tsiolkovsky.[3] His proposal was for a free-standing tower reaching from the surface of Earth to the height of geostationary orbit. Like all buildings, Tsiolkovsky's structure would be under compression, supporting its weight from below. Since 1959, most ideas for space elevators have focused on purely tensile structures, with the weight of the system held up from above. In the tensile concepts, a space tether reaches from a large mass (the counterweight) beyond geostationary orbit to the ground. This structure is held in tension between Earth and the counterweight like an upside-down plumb bob. Space elevators have also sometimes been referred to as beanstalks, space bridges, space lifts, space ladders, skyhooks, orbital towers, or orbital elevators.
On Earth, with its relatively strong gravity, current technology is not capable of manufacturing tether materials that are sufficiently strong and light to build a space elevator. However, recent concepts for a space elevator are notable for their plans to use carbon nanotube or boron nitride nanotube based materials as the tensile element in the tether design. The measured strength of these molecules is high compared to their densities and they hold promise as materials to make an Earth-based space elevator possible.[4]
The concept is also applicable to other planets and celestial bodies. For locations in the solar system with weaker gravity than Earth's (such as the Moon or Mars), the strength-to-density requirements aren't as great for tether materials. Currently available materials (such as Kevlar) are strong and light enough that they could be used as the tether material for elevators there.[5]
More here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_elevator
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