Scientists levitate ultra-pure glass

cnn ^ | Thursday, April 1, 2004 | By Tariq Malik

[Moonman62]

There was a galaxy a long, long time ago and far, far away where conservatives and Republicans would have said that the money in question would stay with the people who earned it. But with a free spending Republican president who would make LBJ blush with his no veto record and incredible growth in the federal government in three short years, I guess that just isn't the case anymore.

[Cogadh na Sith]

where conservatives and Republicans would have said that the money in question would stay with the people who earned it.

Now either it goes to a space program or single mothers. Government cheese or bullets. I'd rather have a space program and some wars rather than more single mothers and welfare...

[Darksheare]

MORE bad ideas!
Thanks!
*chuckle*
I'm going to be hunting those down at various local spots on a pricing mission later.

[Fedora]

Let me know if you build anything in there!--fun stuff :) Meanwhile I've been thinking more about combining the railgun with levitation--that is an interesting idea. . . :)

[Darksheare]

Not sure how it would work, but it would be neat to see.

[Xenalyte]

The new material known as REAL glass -- short for Rare Earth Aluminum oxide -- was first developed at NASA's Electrostatic Levitator laboratory at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.

Pretty lame acronym, if it doesn't encompass all the words for which it's supposed to stand.

[Xenalyte]

You and me both, dammit. Cruel fate thwarts us again.

[Professional Engineer]

Maybe they meant to say "billions and billions times smaller" :)

Read his final book. Sagan swears he never said "billions and billions".

[Professional Engineer]

Thanks for the link.

[Darksheare]

Welcome.
Umm.. how many bad ideas have we traded back and forth now?
*chuckle*

[Fedora]

Read his final book. Sagan swears he never said "billions and billions".

He said it billions and billions of times :) Just kidding! :) Seriously, I never actually heard him say it, I just remember these skits on Saturday Night Live and Mystery Science Theater 3000 where they had people imitating him saying it, which is what I think of whenever I think of it. But I never actually heard him say it. However I do remember the way he used to talk on Nova and I can definitely "hear" what it would sound like if he said "billions and billions"--ROFL! In the MST3K episode--I think it was The Pod People--there's a scene with what looks like the opening scene of Star Trek except the camera was going backwards ("boldly backing away from where no man has gone before") and it looked like a bunch of red stars, which Joel and the 'Bots determined were actually Raspberry Smucker's Preserves, prompting a comment to the effect of, "Billions and billions of Smucker's. . ."--ROFLMBO!

[Darksheare]

LOL!
Sagan's Billion and billions quote comes from a voice over he did for an educational film about teh universe.
The words were somethign to the effect of "Somewhere out in the universe among the billions and billions of stars is a star much like our own.." or something similar but the words 'billions and billions' were in there.
Had to see it in 5th grade science class, the vid section has a panning vista of thousands of stars, nebulae, galaxies, and quite a few hairs stuck to the film projector.
Right after that section played, the audio kept going but the film delaminated, got stuck, and melted.
But the audio kept going.
I'd wanted to see the section that had been mentioned about supernova stars and supergiants.

The science teacher got scared and went to look for the fire extinguisher, there was a small yellow flame flickering out of the projector, and those of us who had been listening in class reminded her that we had baking soda in the class supply closet.
We had to do some quick explaining as to why the film projector had a melted movie still in it, and was dusted liberally with white powder.
Ah, the wonders of Science class.

[Qwinn]

Hmmm, I have trouble believing that... I could swear he said it several times during "Cosmos".

Qwinn

[Qwinn]

"Yet another reason we don't need a $100 billion money pit orbiting the earth. Time to burn it up."

Guess you missed this part...

"The step was a crucial one for commercial purposes, since NASA's facility is only powerful enough to levitate tiny sample materials up to three millimeters wide and 70 milligrams in weight."

Now, on the space station, they could've levitated and made this glass at far greater masses and potentially learned a great deal more, and more quickly. And not just glass, I'm sure there's thousands of metals and other materials that could be made "pure" using this methodology that wouldn't be possible with smelters and other techniques -required- in a gravitational field.

We may not have developed this glass for a long time were it not for the Space Station, as the very sentence you quoted pointed out. And without the Station, who knows how many discoveries and manufacturing processes will wind up being postponed for perhaps centuries as a result of people who have no ability or -desire- to think outside the box known as Earth. That would be you, by the way.

Qwinn

[Moonman62]

We may not have developed this glass for a long time were it not for the Space Station, as the very sentence you quoted pointed out. And without the Station, who knows how many discoveries and manufacturing processes will wind up being postponed for perhaps centuries as a result of people who have no ability or -desire- to think outside the box known as Earth. That would be you, by the way.

Who's to say they can't build a bigger facility here on Earth. I don't see too many companies lining up to manufacture anything in space, provided they are paying their own way.

[Moonman62]

I forgot this little gem from the article. They already have a way to manufacture more of it on Earth.

Once Containerless Research scientists understood the basics of REAL glass formation, they were able to adapt the technology away from its dependency on electrostatic levitation. The step was a crucial one for commercial purposes, since NASA's facility is only powerful enough to levitate tiny sample materials up to three millimeters wide and 70 milligrams in weight.

Weber's team was able to devise a small-scale production plan that uses platinum crucibles to melt REAL glass and cooling forms that shape it into commercial rods and plates without taking away the materials positive properties.

[Fedora]

Ah, the wonders of Science class.

ROFL! Sounds like your science class' AV equipment was more updated than ours :) We were still using those old 1950s documentaries with that old guy trying to explain stuff to the younger guy who's perpetually amazed at everything the old guy says. I can't remember the name of the series, but it was very widely used at one time--appears in the science class in the movie Gremlins, and I think MST3K also spoofed an episode on the science of springs featuring "Coily" (although maybe that was from another series--similar style, though):

Episode 1012- Squirm (with short: A Case of Spring Fever)

Short Summary: A delightful and very instructive little filmlet about the danger of dissing springs. A froglike middle-aged man, thwarted repeatedly in an attempt to fix a couch because of its springs -- and therefore missing his golf game -- cries to the very heavens, wishing that springs that never been invented. He has no idea of the gravity of this invocation. God opens a can of omnipotent whoop-*ss on the unsuspecting man, sending his archangel Coily, the "spring sprite." Coily is an elfin fiend with a single sharp fang and the voice of a cartoon hillbilly grandpa. He tells Mr. Froggy that all right, he's got his wish, there are no more springs in the world. And just like that, they're gone. Coily, he can do magic things.

Mr. Froggy accepts this in stride, merely happy that he can now make his golf foursome. He never questions the whole order of the universe, in which there are apparently many small elf-devils who guard the integrity of certain very, very specific areas of creation. Or the perhaps even more bizarre alternative: that there is no God, there is no divinity, no order to things -- there is only Coily, and he is all-powerful, but for some reason he will never explain to us, all he cares about is springs and their reputation.

However, Coily goes on to show our lumpen hero the many reasons why springs are so vital in his life. Seems you can't do anything at all, truly not a blessed thing, without springs. Our man gets the message and begs Coily to restore the world's spring. Coily does it grudgingly, but the whole experience causes a massive conversion in Man-Frog: he becomes a zealot and spreads the Gospel of Springs to his golf buddies, prattling on non-stop during their game and their ride home about unbelievable importance of springs. Unfortunately, this list of spring facts (eg. springs make your liver run properly, cows couldn't give milk without springs, the name "Buddha" originally meant "chubby enlightened spring") constitutes about 90% of this short, leaving the fascinating Coily behind.

[mewzilla]

Is this what Scotty used to pen up those whales up that Star Trek movie?

[Ichneumon]

A railgun in 10 minutes

Cool site! Thanks for posting it.

[Fedora]

It turns out the aforementioned Case of Spring Fever is in the public domain and can be downloaded--if you're in the mood for a good laugh, check it out:

Case of Spring Fever, A