Aarkstore Enterprise -Flexible Glass Market Strategies, Shares, and Forecasts, Worldwide

Posted by admin in Articles on Jul 18th, 2010 | 0 comments

Flexible Glass Market Strategies, Shares, and Forecasts, Worldwide, 2010-2016

Table of Contents :

Flexible Glass Executive Summary

Flexible Glass Executive Summary  ES-1

Flexible Glass Market Driving Forces  ES-1

Flexible Glass as Substrates for Nanotechnology Deposition  ES-3

Flexible Glass Used In A New Way Of Generating Solar Power  ES-4

Lithium-ion and Advanced Lithium Battery Substrate Market Forecasts  ES-7

Flexible Glass Market Description And Market Dynamics

1. Flexible Glass Market Description and Dynamics  1-1

1.1   Ultra Thin Flexible Glass Substrates  1-1

1.1.1    Nanotechnology Depends On Substrates  1-1

1.1.2    OLED Technology Ultra Thin Flexible Glass Substrates  1-2

1.1.3    Wearable Displays  1-3

1.2   Flexible Glass Replaces Polymer Foils  1-3

1.3   Solar Panels Built on Flexible Glass For Building Facades  1-3

1.3.1    Glass As A Building Material 1-4

1.3.2    Focus on Energy Efficiency with Glass  1-6

1.3.3    Characteristics Of A Thin Film Solar Cell 1-6

1.4   Vacuum Coating Technologies  1-9

Flexible Glass Market Shares And Market Forecasts

Flexible Glass Market Shares and Market Forecasts  2-1

2.1   Flexible Glass Market Driving Forces  2-1

2.1.1    Flexible Glass as Substrates for Nanotechnology Deposition  2-3

2.2   Flexible Glass Used In A New Way Of Generating Solar Power  2-4

2.2.1    Flexible Glass Processes Protect Flexible Solar

Power Shingles  2-9

2.2.2    Corning  2-11

2.2.3    Asahi Glass  2-12

2.3   Lithium-ion and Advanced Lithium Battery

Substrate Market Forecasts  2-13

2.4   Flexible Glass for Imprint Molding Processes  2-17

2.4.1    Passive Optics and LED Imprints  2-17

2.4.2    LED Component Imprinting  2-18

2.5   HDD Patterned Media  2-20

2.6   Imprint For Biological Applications  2-21

2.7   Imprint For Integrated Circuits  2-21

2.8   Glass Production Regional Analysis  2-22

Flexible Glass Application Middleware Product Description

3. Flexible Glass Product Description   3-1

3.1   Flexible Glass as Substrates  3-1

3.1.1    Corning  3-1

3.1.2    Corning 0211 Thin, Lightweight, Flexible Glass  3-1

3.2   Asahi Glass  3-8

3.2.1    Asahi Glass Flexible Solar Cell 3-8

3.2.2    Asahi Glass ETFE Film   3-9

3.2.3    Asahi Glass Flexible Solar Cells  3-12

3.2.4    Asahi Glass Textured Surface Film Traps Light,

Enables Highly Efficient Solar Cell 3-13

3.3   DuPont™ Substrate Materials: Robust Processing

Thin Film Solar Performance  3-16

3.3.1    DuPont™ Kapton® Polyimide Films  3-16

3.3.2    DuPont Teflon® FEP  3-18

3.3.3    DuPont Tefzel® ETFE   3-19

3.4   Vitex Systems  3-20

3.4.1    Vitex Systems Barix™ Barrier Film (BBF) 3-20

3.4.2    Vitex Processes Protect Flexible Solar Power Shingles  3-27

3.5   Solyndra  3-28

3.6   Applied Quantum Technology  3-31

3.7   Wurth  3-32

3.7.1    Würth Elektronik Research Efficient Solar Modules  3-33

3.8   Honda Solar  3-34

3.9   Frontgate  3-34

3.9.1    Frontgate Memory Flex Polarized Unisex Reader Sunglasses  3-35

3.10     Merck KGaA Displays, Lighting And Photovoltaics  3-36

3.10.1  Merck OLED Tiles  3-37

3.10.2  Micros Microscopes Flexible Glass Stage  3-38

3.11     Cixi Kaixuan Glass Fiber Facturein  3-39

3.11.1  Cixi Kaixuan Nano-Scale Glass Coating  3-40

3.12     Qualcomm Full Color, Low Power, Fast And Versatile

Mirasol Display Technology  3-40

Flexible Glass Technology

4. Flexible Glass Technology  4-1

4.1   Thin Film Poly-Si Solar

For more information, please contact :
http://www.aarkstore.com/reports/Flexible-Glass-Market-Strategies-Shares-and-Forecasts-Worldwide-2010-2016-42334.html

http://blogs.aarkstore.com/

From:Aarkstore Enterprise
Contact:Minu
Email: press@aarkstore.com
URL: www.aarkstore.com

Aarkstore Enterprise -Switch Fabric Market ,Worldwide, -Aarkstore Enterprise Market Research

Posted by admin in Articles on Jul 16th, 2010 | 0 comments

Table of Contents :

Flexible Glass Executive Summary

Flexible Glass Executive Summary  ES-1

Flexible Glass Market Driving Forces  ES-1

Flexible Glass as Substrates for Nanotechnology Deposition  ES-3

Flexible Glass Used In A New Way Of Generating Solar Power  ES-4

Lithium-ion and Advanced Lithium Battery Substrate Market Forecasts  ES-7

Flexible Glass Market Description And Market Dynamics

1. Flexible Glass Market Description and Dynamics  1-1

1.1   Ultra Thin Flexible Glass Substrates  1-1

1.1.1    Nanotechnology Depends On Substrates  1-1

1.1.2    OLED Technology Ultra Thin Flexible Glass Substrates  1-2

1.1.3    Wearable Displays  1-3

1.2   Flexible Glass Replaces Polymer Foils  1-3

1.3   Solar Panels Built on Flexible Glass For Building Facades  1-3

1.3.1    Glass As A Building Material 1-4

1.3.2    Focus on Energy Efficiency with Glass  1-6

1.3.3    Characteristics Of A Thin Film Solar Cell 1-6

1.4   Vacuum Coating Technologies  1-9

Flexible Glass Market Shares And Market Forecasts

Flexible Glass Market Shares and Market Forecasts  2-1

2.1   Flexible Glass Market Driving Forces  2-1

2.1.1    Flexible Glass as Substrates for Nanotechnology Deposition  2-3

2.2   Flexible Glass Used In A New Way Of Generating Solar Power  2-4

2.2.1    Flexible Glass Processes Protect Flexible Solar

Power Shingles  2-9

2.2.2    Corning  2-11

2.2.3    Asahi Glass  2-12

2.3   Lithium-ion and Advanced Lithium Battery

Substrate Market Forecasts  2-13

2.4   Flexible Glass for Imprint Molding Processes  2-17

2.4.1    Passive Optics and LED Imprints  2-17

2.4.2    LED Component Imprinting  2-18

2.5   HDD Patterned Media  2-20

2.6   Imprint For Biological Applications  2-21

2.7   Imprint For Integrated Circuits  2-21

2.8   Glass Production Regional Analysis  2-22

Flexible Glass Application Middleware Product Description

3. Flexible Glass Product Description   3-1

3.1   Flexible Glass as Substrates  3-1

3.1.1    Corning  3-1

3.1.2    Corning 0211 Thin, Lightweight, Flexible Glass  3-1

3.2   Asahi Glass  3-8

3.2.1    Asahi Glass Flexible Solar Cell 3-8

3.2.2    Asahi Glass ETFE Film   3-9

3.2.3    Asahi Glass Flexible Solar Cells  3-12

3.2.4    Asahi Glass Textured Surface Film Traps Light,

Enables Highly Efficient Solar Cell 3-13

3.3   DuPont™ Substrate Materials: Robust Processing

Thin Film Solar Performance  3-16

3.3.1    DuPont™ Kapton® Polyimide Films  3-16

3.3.2    DuPont Teflon® FEP  3-18

3.3.3    DuPont Tefzel® ETFE   3-19

3.4   Vitex Systems  3-20

3.4.1    Vitex Systems Barix™ Barrier Film (BBF) 3-20

3.4.2    Vitex Processes Protect Flexible Solar Power Shingles  3-27

3.5   Solyndra  3-28

3.6   Applied Quantum Technology  3-31

3.7   Wurth  3-32

3.7.1    Würth Elektronik Research Efficient Solar Modules  3-33

3.8   Honda Solar  3-34

3.9   Frontgate  3-34

3.9.1    Frontgate Memory Flex Polarized Unisex Reader Sunglasses  3-35

3.10     Merck KGaA Displays, Lighting And Photovoltaics  3-36

3.10.1  Merck OLED Tiles  3-37

3.10.2  Micros Microscopes Flexible Glass Stage  3-38

3.11     Cixi Kaixuan Glass Fiber Facturein  3-39

3.11.1  Cixi Kaixuan Nano-Scale Glass Coating  3-40

3.12     Qualcomm Full Color, Low Power, Fast And Versatile

Mirasol Display Technology  3-40

Flexible Glass Technology

4. Flexible Glass Technology  4-1

4.1   Thin Film Poly-Si Solar

 

For more information, please contact :

http://www.aarkstore.com/reports/Flexible-Glass-Market-Strategies-Shares-and-Forecasts-Worldwide-2010-2016-42334.html

 

http://blogs.aarkstore.com/

 

From:Aarkstore Enterprise

Contact:Minu

Email: www.aarkstore.com

 

Astronomia Vedica Iii

Posted by admin in Articles on Jul 14th, 2010 | 0 comments

Astronomia Vedica Part III

All events are connected by Time, all places are connected by Space and all effects are connected by Cause in the Space-Time-Causality equation. The Science of Time ( Astrology ) and the Science of Cause ( Transcendental Philosophy ) assume great significance in the realm of superconscient learning

The Elements Used in the Computation of Time

The main element used is the Sun itself. One solar day is the time taken by the earth to rotate around its own axis. One solar day is made up of 24 solar hours, one solar hour is sixty minutes and one minute is sixty seconds.

The time taken by Sol to make a circuit of the Zodiac from the First Point of the Sidereal Zodiac is called a Sidereal Year. This is 365.25363 solar days. A Tropical Year is the time taken by the Sun to make a circuit of the Tropical Zodiac This is 365.242194 solar days.

The Five Types of Years

There are five types of years

1) Solar Year

2) Jupiterian Year

3) Savana Year

4) Lunar Year

5) Sideral Year

Solar Year

The time taken by Sol ( Sun ) to cross one degree is called a solar day. When the Sun crosses from one Sign to another, this is called Surya Sankrama ( transit to another sign ). The time taken from one Surya Sankrama to another is called one solar month. The motion of the Sun is fastest at the first week of January and is slowest at the first week of July. In other words, since the Sun’s motion is fastest in the Vedic months of Sagittarius and Capricorn, it takes only 29 days for the Sun to traverse 30 degrees of Sag and Cap. Conversely, it takes 32 days for Sol to traverse 30 degrees of Cancer, since his motion is slowest at Apogee, in the Vedic month of Cancer.

Jupiterian Year ( Barhaspathya )

One Barhaspathya is time taken by Jove ( Jupiter ) to traverse 30 degrees of a sign. The duration is 361 days and a Jupiterian Cycle is roughly 12 years.

Savana Year

One Savana day is reckoned from Sunrise to Sunrise. 30 such Savana day is called one Savana month. 360 such days is one Savana year.

Lunar Year

A lunar month is the time calculated from one New Moon to the next New Moon. Since during a solar year, 12 Full Moon were visible , the Zodiac was divided into 12 constellations. 12 Lunar months constitute one Lunar Year. This is 354.367 days. This is 11 days less than the solar year.

Sidereal Year

One sidereal day is time taken by Luna to traverse a constellation of 13 degrees and 20 minutes. The Moon takes 27.3 days to revolve around the earth. 27.3*12 is one Sidereal Year and it is 327.6 days.

Apparent Solar Day ( Savana Dina )

The time taken by the earth to rotate around its own axis. From a geocentric perspective, the Sun moves one degree per day.

Sidereal Day ( Nakshatra Dina )

This is the time taken by the earth to rotate around its own axis with regard to Sidereus, the constellation of fixed stars. This is 23 hours and 56 mins and 4.0953 seconds.

Degree ( Bhaga ), Minute ( Kala ) & Second ( Vikala )

The divisions of the 360 degree Circle , which is the Zodiac, which is the Ecliptic.

Nadis, Vinadis, Tatparas

An apparent Solar Day is 24 hours. According to Indian Astronomy, a solar day is 60 Nadis. 60 Vinadis is one Nadi ( Nazhika ) and 60 Tatparas is one Vinadi. There are minuter subdivisions like Pratatparas ( 60 Pratatparas constitute one Tatpara ), corresponding to micro seconds and nano seconds in Western time calculations. 2 and a half Nadis is one hour or 24 minutes is one Nadi.

While as per Western calculations, a day is reckoned from midnight to midnight, an Indian day is reckoned from sunrise to sunrise and a Hijra day is calculated from sunset to sunset.

Sidereal Solar Year

The time taken by the Sun ( from a geocentric perspective ), to make a circuit of the Sidereal Zodiac . This is 365 days, 6 hours 9 minutes and 9.8 seconds.

Tropical Solar Year

This is the time taken by the Sun to make a circuit of the Tropical Zodiac. This is 365 days 5 hours 48 minutes and 45.2 seconds. This is 20 minutes and 24.6 seconds less. This is because the First Point of Aries moves 50.3 seconds per year.

Sidereal Period of the Moon

The time taken by Luna to make a circuit of the Sidereal Zodiac. This is 27 days 7 hours 43 minutes 11.5 seconds.

Synodic Period

SP is the the time between 2 successive conjunctions. For the Moon, it is the time taken from New Moon to New Moon.

Solar Month & the Laws of Planetary Motion

SM is the time taken by the Sun to traverse one Sign. The motion of the Sun is fastest at Perigee ( near the earth ) and slowest at Apogee ( away from the Earth). ( This is the Earth-in-reflex, as it is the earth which is moving and not the Sun ) . In other words, the motion of the earth is fastest at Perihelion and slowest at Aphelion. During the sidereal months of Sagittarius and Capricorn, the Sun is nearest to the earth. It takes only 29 days to traverse 30 degrees of a sign. During the months of Gemini and Cancer, the Sun is away from the earth and it takes 31.477 days for the Sun to traverse 30 degrees of a sign. The slowest motion of the Sun is 57 minutes and 11 seconds. The fastest motion of the Sun is 61 minutes 10 seconds. That is why some Sagittarius and Capricorn ( Vedic months ) have 29 days and Cancer and Gemini ( Vedic months ) have 32 days, as per the Vedic Calender. The orbit of a planet is always elliptical, with the Sun as the focus of the ellipse. ( Suryaha Jagata Chakshu ). The orbital period of a planet ( Bhagana Kala ) bears relationship to the Madhyama Manda Karna ( Semi-major axis ) of the planet. ( O P = MMK^1.5 ). ( These principles, discovered by Aryabhata, Bhaskara & Brahmagupta earlier were rediscovered in the West by Kepler as the Laws of Planetary Motion. )

Kali Era & Kali Day

The beginning of the Kali Era was 3102 BC, February 18 on a Friday. Then the First Tropical & Sidereal Points were in 0 degrees Beta Arieties ( Aswini ). All planets were in the same point at that time. If you add 3102 to the English era, you get the Kali Era. Ahargana is the elapsed Kali day number, the days elapsed from the start of the Kali Era. If you divide Ahargana by 7 and find the modulus, you can know the day of the week. If the remainder is one, it is Saturday, if it is two, it is Sunday and so on.

Day of the Week = Ahargana%7 ( % is the modulus operator in Foxpro ).

Njattu Vela

The constellation tenanted by the Sun is called Njattu Velu. In a day, the Sun traverses less than one degree ( less 59.13 seconds ). Sol takes 13,14 days to traverse 13 degrees 20 minutes and so the duration of a Njattu Vela is 13, 14 days.

Njattu Velas are important from the perspective of Agriculture. Karthika Njattu Vela is the time when the Sun transits the constellation of Karthika & Thiruvathira Njattu Vela is the time when the Sun transits the constellation of Aridra ( Thiruvathira ). Aridra, Karthika, Chothi and Chitra Njattuvelas give plenty of rains and farmers use this time productively.

Article by G Kumar, Astrologer, writer & programmer of www.eastrovedica.com. Recently he was awarded a Certificate by the Planetary Gemologists Association Global ( www.p-g-a.org ) as a Planetary Gem Advisor. He has 25 years psychic research experience in the esoteric arts. To subscribe to his free informative Ezine, the Z Files mailto:info@eastrovedica.com?subject=SubscribeZF. His Astro blog is up at www.zodiacastrology.blogspot.com & his Philosophy blog is transcendentalphilosophy.blogspot.com Mobile 091 9388556053

Hypersonic and Supersonic Aviation in 2057 (nasa Award Winning Article)

Posted by admin in Articles on Jul 12th, 2010 | 0 comments

AEROAGE

En route on the mach 4.7 supersonic jet, I flipped open my iTV , which connected me to the most advanced space network, spacecast. The usual news was being broadcast; “NASCOM, the space people have started mining a new mineral on the moon which is almost identical to Uranium; the Americans have come out with yet another version of the unmanned X-67 which maneuvers itself at mach 25 (courtesy nuclear fusion engines!); the international space station at Mars has discovered a revolutionary microorganism that can be used to fight multiple cancer, a predominant disease on Earth”. Yes, this is the age I’m living in, and when I look back in time at the history of aviation, it leaves me flabbergasted. The history of AVIATION commenced in the 20th century, and a few lucky people who were witness to the first tentative flight of the Wright Brothers, managed to live through these 150 years (through medical advancement of course!) to witness the hypersonic X-67s as well. As Robert Wall once rightly said (towards the end of the 20th century), “So rapid has been the development of aeronautical science that no one can say with safety that an end has been reached or that there is any limit to the ability of man to develop flight at the same pace in the next century.”1

Today, in 2057, man has traveled a long way in the field of civil and space aviation. Advancements that were merely probable 5 decades ago are possible and practical today. All these developments are a consequence of decades of stupendous achievements in space exploration. Half a century ago, landing human astronauts on Mars was within the bounds of possibility. However, today, successful implementation of hypersonic space travel and use of geodesic domes have not only enabled man to experience the surface of Mars, but have also helped him estabilish cyborg colonies there. In addition to the Moon, even Mars is available now, for scientific exploration! The international space station on Mars, in addition to helping scientists in their research work, has facilitated in mitigating the power crisis, which at present is history! After the establishment of The International Lunar Base Station in 2037, man has passed several milestones in setting up a long term colony on the moon. Today, the hotels on the moon go full with increasing number of world, or rather space, citizens going on lunar holidays! A fleet of spaceships taking space tourists high above the atmosphere is now a routine affair. These spaceships are improved versions of Spaceshiptwo, which took Santosh George of India along with other space tourists to as high as 55000 feet, enabling them to experience the excitement of weightlessness and the thunderous deceleration of aerodynamic drag on reentry, in 20072. In addition, disputes between industries, over the acquisition of lunar land for mining have become fairly common.

At the start of the 21st century, the failure of NASA’s Mars lander caused despondency over the failure of its apparently reliable technology and put a question mark over other similar systems3. However, perennial human effort and incessant advancement in hypersonic space travel have led to the innovation of extraordinarily efficient probes which are now meeting the challenge of unearthing secrets about the solar system’s remotest planets. For example: a recent probe that has been sent to Pluto weighs only 570 pounds and stands almost 10 feet tall and 27 feet wide. It is composed of 19 solar panels, an extremely light nano-fission engine, and is controlled by an onboard computer. The probe functions by harnessing the light energy of the Sun. At present the fission engines are taking it close to the Sun. Once it is sufficiently close, the fission engines would shut down and light energy from the Sun would push the probe towards Pluto with a tremendous amount of force. The probe would then constantly accelerate and reach hypersonic speeds enabling scientists to have a glimpse of the details of Pluto within their lifetimes!

The innovation of the controlled nuclear fusion engine, after the ion and fission engines, in 2031, was by far the most significant advancement in space travel. It enabled spacecraft to reach astonishing speeds. Many decades ago, scientists deciphered that scarce and expensive raw materials exist in abundance on asteroids in our solar system. Today, aeronautical geeks have succeeded in designing manned aircraft, run by fusion engines that travel at supersonic speeds to these asteroids. They are slowed down, when close to the asteroid’s surface and then are made to land by making use of the asteroid’s relatively low gravity. During this rendezvous, with a suitable asteroid, the spacecraft uses abundant solar energy to extract and refine metals like gold and platinum and then the fusion engines power them back to Earth.4

In order to aid space travel and further exploit the hypersonic travel technology, a set of 5 astronomical telescopes, linked by laser, 100 times more powerful than the antiquated Hubble Space Telescope of the 20th century, was deployed in space in 20255 with the aid of space stations and hypersonic jets. Through these telescopes, we have been able to probe deeper into the universe and directly study details of planets in the Milky Way, without having to study the wobbling of stars.

This was just a glimpse of the hypersonic space travel in my age! Now, let’s delve into the advancement of supersonic and hypersonic travel in civil aviation. Civil aviation is governed by practicality and affordability. And when supersonic travel is looked at with these factors in mind, its picture seems somewhat blurred. Although, supersonic and hypersonic travel is easily available for civil aviation, its use is restricted only to the elite class. Four decades ago, hypersonic travel could take you anywhere on the planet in 4 hours6. Today, it can take you in just 2 hours! If the world population is transported from one corner of the globe to the other, then, oh my! The gas guzzling machines and sonic booms, created close to the earth’s surface, would simply attract the ire of environmentalists! Although this is the era of supersonic air travel, there also exists an alternative economic means of transport. No economy can ignore such basic realities. Even today we need economically viable means for mass transportation. So, where speed is not essential, the principles of freight transportation have been applied to mass travel. Non-inflammable gases are used to lift huge airships propelled by turbines7. This technology has made air travel extremely cheap, resulting in a five fold increase in air traffic compared to that of 2007. Although technology is reaching new heights every day, socialism continues to be a speed breaker!

In addition to supersonic and hypersonic aircraft being used in civil aviation, air taxis with tilt rotors have also come into daily use. Not needing a runway, these taxis can easily maneuver around the city. They help me land right in the center of a supermarket! In addition to the tilt rotors, which give them the vertical lift, they also make use of the ground effect that reduces the drag experienced by aircrafts8. This, thus, reduces the fuel consumption of the taxis. Bad news for environmentalists; they have one less topic to debate upon!

As far as the armed forces go, there is no stopping them! Billions were and are being spent to develop aircraft that are capable of traveling at such hypersonic speeds that they escape even the most efficient of all radars owned by their enemies. With the introduction of hypersonic travel, came the highly sensitive infrared radars that were capable of detecting the infrared radiation produced by the engines of these aircraft9.

Technology has constantly moved towards super automation. Way back in 2003, Arlen Rens’, a Lockheed Martin test pilot, describing automation in aviation, said humorously: “Airplanes are now built to carry a pilot and a dog in the cockpit. The pilot’s job is to feed the dog, and the dog’s job is to bite the pilot if he touches anything!”10

Now, the question arises; how did we reach this pinnacle? How did we overcome all the inevitable challenges?

The main challenges were:

a) Financial: the sums invested to develop this technology dwarfed those involved in making possible the Apollo missions to the Moon!

b) Biological: traversing long distances in space meant spending years in space in zero gravity conditions. The human body cannot adapt to stresses greater than 9g and react to situations as fast as machines. The human mind is incapable of making 1 million inferences per second unlike machines!

c) Technological: reaching high levels of automation required integrating man and machine, and the functioning of diverse systems in perfect synchronization over longer distances and timescales with a minimum of maintenance.11

d) Environmental and Ecological: sonic booms produced by supersonic and hypersonic aircrafts were a great threat to mankind, and wildlife12. Even if man could somehow artificially adapt his hearing sensibilities to sonic booms, he could possibly not dissuade animal activists from protesting against hypersonic travel. Apart from this, supersonic airlines of that age utilized gas guzzling engines, dependant upon dwindling petroleum supplies.

It has truly been a daunting task for man to find an answer to everything through technology. It is spellbinding to know how he prevented technology from reaching a standstill, without betting on speed at the cost of mankind.

It was observed rightly by Thomas Friedman, in 2006, that “the world is getting flat”. Outsourcing and around sourcing were the key to mutual cooperation, advancement, and ameliorating financial crises13 that would have otherwise brought about a pause in aviation technology. The cornerstones of cooperation, laid in the beginning of the 21st century, led to countries coming together to develop hypersonic and supersonic air travel. This has led us all to live in a more cooperative, rather than a competitive world. It was international cooperation that brought about the success of all the space projects since then and led to the establishment of international space stations.

The limiting reagent, in moving further down into space at hypersonic speeds, is the homo sapien! Although such speeds make one experience the tumbling alchemy of Earth and sky, the audacity, and miracle of flight, flying at stresses above 9g, in the Earth’s atmosphere, causes human blood to drain down from the brain, thus, extinguishing vision or even consciousness. In the old gravity suit, pilots would strain against their glottis. This would shut breathing. In the new suits, the pilots are able to flex their body muscles with less force, thus, reducing fatigue. This has been made possible by using “fluid muscles”, as they are called, which are independent of hoses and pressurized air on board, and reacts immediately to high g’s. Besides this, suits have designed in such a way, that pilots can communicate with each other even while traveling at such hypersonic speeds14.

As far as space travel is concerned, man’s shortcomings, both mental and physical, have been overcome by integrating him with machines. As Alwin Toffler predicted about 8 decades ago, the astronaut has become “an integral part of an ongoing micro-ecological process whirling through the vastnesses of space”15. What Theodore Gordon once said has come true. We have found that it would indeed be simpler “to provide life support in the form of machines that plug into the astronaut”. In accordance with his vision, an astronaut is “fed intravenously using a liquid food compactly stored in remote pressurized tank”. And “direct processing of body liquid wastes and conversion to water (is) accomplished by a new type of artificial kidney built in as part of the spaceship”16. Five decades ago, Professor Kevin Warwick, was able to connect his nervous system to his wife’s nervous system through a computer. Looking at that development, it is not hard to believe that today the human brain is directly connected to the computer, controlling his spacecraft. Thus, his mind is able to run as fast as a computer and in turn the computer gets a brain to think. Thus, what can be seen is that, the astronaut is no longer a separate entity monitoring the aircraft; he is in fact a part of the whole process.

If one divides human existence into three phases, then I would say that the first phase extends from the birth of humans till the year 1920. The second phase covers the time from 1921 to 2000 and we are at present in the third phase. This can be clearly explained by seeing the advancements that took place during these three phases. During the third phase mankind has moved so fast that from Earthlings we have started becoming Marslings! The technology that made all this probability a possibility would make a 20th century dweller dumbstruck! What humans did was that they teraformed Mars and tailored it to their requirements. The first thing that was required was to heat up the exceedingly cold atmosphere. The toxic pollution on Earth served as a medicine for Mars. Pollution creating machines were dropped on Mars whose work was to suck up a mixture of dust and atmosphere and process them into greenhouse chemicals. These chemicals trapped the heat radiated by the Sun and heated the surface and atmosphere of Mars. Once Mars was warm enough, plants and trees were grown in geodesic domes, which in turn increased the oxygen content of the atmosphere, making human existence possible17. This led to the establishment of an Earth colony on Mars which in turn gave birth to the Mars space station. The future now, is thus, to further the use of this technology and make the whole of Mars a human colony.

The technology developed for scramjets to attain hypersonic speeds, brought out a solution to the fossil fuel crises. Decades ago, rocket engines used hydrogen as well as liquid oxygen. The weight marred their performance and efficiency. A scramjet carries only hydrogen and uses oxygen from the atmosphere instead. Thus, it turns out to be lighter and more efficient18. Moreover, it also proves to be environment friendly. Mark Lewis of the University of Maryland had once said, “Flying an air-breathing rocket system above Mach5; that’s sort of the gleam in everyone’s eye”19. And yes, today we are all witness to the result of that vision. Scramjets have made hypersonic travel in the civil sector possible and to an extent, environment friendly as well. They fly at hypersonic speeds only high above the Earth and thus avoid the ill-effects of a sonic boom, protecting animals as well as mankind. In addition to the scramjets, the ion, nuclear fission, and nuclear fusion engines are also an answer to the dwindling fossil fuel resources, since they efficiently use materials that are available in abundance on the Earth, Moon, and Mars. Besides this, scientists, with the aid of nanotechnology, are trying to devise methods to manipulate abundantly available elements at the atomic level and give them fossil fuel properties.

The problem of inventing a lightweight material that can endure the prolonged high temperatures of the flight engines, plus the heat of the air friction against the wings20, was taken care of by nanotechnology. By manipulating materials at the nanoscale, scientists were able to develop in 2020 a nano-aerogel from carbon which has excellent thermal properties. This material is used to insulate hypersonic aircrafts, which in turn are made up of sheets of carbon nanotubes and nanofibres that are 60 times tougher than steel and much lighter than graphite.

For all the above advancements to take place a perennial desire to achieve something better was required. In the words of a Pelican program manager, Blaine Rawdon: “From our perspective, anything that’s already flying is history.”21

From the very beginning of space exploration, most people have always thought it to be an extravagant luxury, affordable only by the superpowers, and only justifiable by them at times when questions of global prestige, between the competing systems of capitalism and communalism, were involved22. However, it has been practically shown that on an average, every dollar spent on the space program and/or aviation industry, results in 7 dollars paid back to the economy23. A list of spin-offs from space technology can be as varied as it is long.

The most significant of all spin offs was the result of the need for smaller and more powerful computers, which provided an incentive for the development of microchips. Development of rescue blankets, CCD chip technology, virtual reality systems, advanced keyboards, etc. are all a consequence of space technology. If these things seem vague to some people, they would be astonished to know how space technology has extended its wings to everyday articles like wheelchairs, school buses, batteries, television screens, home security systems, medicines, etc24. Besides this, the modern designs of hypersonic aircraft are the result of research carried out for spacecraft designs over the years. Thus, in some way or the other, we all owe our modern comforts to space technology.

Our forefather’s of the 1960s knew that they were witnessing some of space exploration’s “game changing events”25! With our present and near future focussed on Mars, our children may experience the same extraordinary odysseys. Today, we are on Mars and the Moon; tomorrow we might be on one of Jupiter’s moons or even farther. The speed of sound has long been surpassed, and now man’s mission is to approach the speed of light! This may seem like an impossible dream but we must remember that powered flight were seemed impossible when the Wright Brothers set out with their bamboo and canvas contraption to the sand dunes of Kitty Hawk almost one and a half century ago!

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Notes

1 Robert Wall, A History of Airliners (Burlington Books: London 1980, rpt 1989) p 238.

2 Hindustan Times, New Delhi, March 15, 2007, p 1. “the Richard-Branson owned Virgin Galactic company that hopes to begin a new era in tourism in less than two years.

Apart from George, two US-based Indian Americans have also signed up for the two-hour flight, Louela Faria-Jones of Virgin Galactic told Hindustan Times from London. SpaceShipOne, a prototype of the space vehicle, flew to space three times in 2004, she said. George will fly on board the SpaceShipTwo, which has large windows, reclining seats, cabins the size of a Falcon 900 executive jet and wings approximately the size of a Boeing 757. It will carry six passengers and two pilots, Faria Jones said.

3 David Owen, Into Outer Space (Burlington Books: London 2000) p 135

4 Ibid, p138

5 Space: Episodes 3 and 4, VCD, B.B.C., 2001

6 Michael Klesius, “Wings of Change”, National Geographic (National Geographic Society: Washington DC, December 2003), p 32

7 Wall, A History of Airliners, p 251

8 Klesius, “Wings of Change”, National Geographic December 2003, p 25, 29

9 My own assessment

10 Klesius, “Wings of Change”, National Geographic December 2003, p 13

11 Owen, Into Outer Space, p 137

12 Wall, A History of Airliners, p 238

13 Thomas L. Friedman, The World is Flat (Penguin Books: London, 2005)

14 Klesius, “Wings of Change”, National Geographic December 2003, p 20,21

15 Alvin Toffler, Future Shock (Pan Books: London, 1971) p 196

16 Ibid, p 196

17 Space: Episodes 5 and 6, VCD, B.B.C., 2001

18 Klesius, “Wings of Change”, National Geographic December 2003, p 32

19 Ibid, p 32

20 Ibid, p 32

21 Ibid, p 29

22 Owen, Into Outer Space, p 128

23 Ibid, p 128

24 Ibid, p 129

25 Jeffrey Kluger, “Nasa’s Plan for a Lunar Comeback Gets a Big Boost”, Time (Time Asia: Hong Kong, March 19, 2007), p 36.

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