asciilifeform: ben_vulpes: toy store range, toy store machine
asciilifeform: they pass unmolested - and the cargo travels on, on land - at lizardhitler's pleasure.
asciilifeform: we are thinking of entirely different worlds, perhaps
asciilifeform: and coasts are well-patrolled in the 'civilized' world.
asciilifeform: slow, expensive, and nobody's building one in his cellar or launching from back yard.
asciilifeform: ben_vulpes: ever find it interesting that there are wankatronic societies like the 'amateur space' thing linked earlier, but nobody (has admitted to) sending a 100% amateur-built unmanned machine across, e.g., atlantic ?
asciilifeform: nor is a 300km accuracy cone acceptable for most cargo other than nuke
asciilifeform: ben_vulpes: not everything likes travelling via icbm
asciilifeform: but just such a battery could make the difference between an unmanned flying machine that can deliver $thing between point a and b, say
asciilifeform: published by tomsk politechnik university press
asciilifeform: ben_vulpes: i'll add that the document is in fact a textbook for detachment commanders operating the rocket
asciilifeform: ben_vulpes: some of the more interesting stuff is in the text - e.g., description of the molten-electrolyte battery; the sensor cooling system; the guidance loop per se
asciilifeform: ben_vulpes: the algorithmics are not described in great detail, but the waveforms representing the proportional-control mechanism are shown, and at this point the 'multicopter' folks have rederived all of it and then some
asciilifeform: ben_vulpes: gorgeous diagrams << that thing contains perhaps 80% of the info required to construct the rocket.
asciilifeform: idea being, 'me: if gravity has chiral component, consider two propellers glued back to back as 'barbell'. ought to rotate in a particular direction depending on orientation. align using electromagnetic means, infer angular momenta' al: 'here's how'
asciilifeform: these figures living, as they do, in 'forked worlds'
asciilifeform: the way al saw his situation, there are precisely two choices for him - usg and its apparatchiks, and the world of unfiltered and unfundable idiot alchemists, astrologers, 'phree energy' imbeciles, and other usenet denizens which he spent all of the '90s recreationally hunting for sport
asciilifeform: because, in his mind, there is no place to go
asciilifeform: mircea_popescu: i read the foibles of al slightly differently. more as a failure to intellectually detach from usg
