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March 2, 2021 Archives

Tuesday, March 2, 2021

THE HAPPENING WORLD: Vikings and Spaceships! The War of the Iron Dragon is Now Available

To celebrate the publication of volume 5, the Kindle edition of the first novel in the series, The Dream of the Iron Dragon, is presently free for everybody.

Posted at 21:57 Permalink

TRACKING WITH CLOSEUPS: SpaceX: Landing Failure Due to Fatigue Failure in Engine Heat Shield Cover

The engine cover failed during ascent of the first stage booster during the launch on 2021-02-15, leading to a premature shutdown of the engine. The Falcon 9 first stage has an engine-out capability, so the remaining eight engines successfully completed the burn and allowed the second stage to delver the payload as planned. But damage to the engine caused it to fail during the re-entry burn, leading to failure to recover the booster. The engine cover that failed was the “fleet leader”, with more previous flights than any other of the same design. It was pure bad luck that the damaged engine was one of the three chosen to fire for the re-entry burn.

Posted at 16:57 Permalink

CONTINUITY: Does Computability Theory Exclude Containment of Superintelligence?

AIs validating the safety of other AIs A 2016 paper, “Superintelligence cannot be contained: Lessons from Computability Theory” argues that inherent limits to computability (such as the halting problem) make all proposed strategies for containing a super-intelligent artificial intelligence impossible.

Posted at 14:55 Permalink

CONTEXT: Orwellian Nightmare for Kids—Courtesy of Los Angeles Government Schools and Microsoft

Coming next: “vaccine passports” for Mom and Dad, with not only their vaccination status but social credit scores as well! “Where do you want to go today?”—not there.

Posted at 13:35 Permalink

THE HAPPENING WORLD: Rocket Lab: Introducing Neutron—Peter Beck Eats His Hat

Posted at 12:54 Permalink

TRACKING WITH CLOSEUPS: In-depth Analysis of the United Airlines 1175 Fan Blade Failure

United Airlines flight 328 was not the first Boeing 777 to experience a catastrophic fan blade failure. On 2018-02-13, UAL 1175, also bound to Hawaii (from San Francisco) suffered a fan blade failure around a hour before arrival in Honolulu. As in the more recent event, the engine cowling was lost and resulted in increased drag on the aircraft. The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board has issued its final report on the incident and in this video Juan Browne examines it in depth, explaining the implications for two-engine operations over long ocean crossings (ETOPS).

The ETOPS flight rules assume an engine failure en route is benign and does not damage the aircraft structure or affect its aerodynamic performance. Both of these 777 incidents and the Southwest flight 1380 737 engine failure in April 2018, although considered “contained”, destroyed the engine cowling and added dramatically to drag on the aircraft. An airliner in such a configuration may not be able to maintain the altitude and speed prescribed by the ETOPS guidelines and, forced to fly at a lower altitude where fuel efficiency is less, might not have the fuel reserves expected to reach the closest alternate landing site or destination.

I've always thought the concept of flying over the Pacific Ocean on two engines a triumph of bean-counting over common sense.

Posted at 12:27 Permalink