Foot launched gliding! Now there is a special interest of mine. I might have to read the book.
On Mon, Jun 22, 2015 at 5:28 PM, Mike Borgelt < mborg...@borgeltinstruments.com> wrote: > > There's a fair bit of gliding in Neil Stephenson's recently releases SF > novel "Seveneves" which I just finished. On balance I enjoyed the book and > the ending wasn't a downer. I had trouble buying into the initial premise > until I calculated the kinetic energy of the Moon (in pieces) arriving at > Earth's atmosphere, even say 0.5% to 2% of it. The other bits were needed > for the rest of the story. > > Interesting concept to get to orbit starting with foot launch! Hi tech > glider and very hi tech instrument system. In the acknowledgements the > author mentions the guys he flew with in gliders and suggests that all the > hi tech instrument system will take is "sufficient commitment of resources > to development of sensors and software - perhaps combined with a few > improvements in the treatment of motion sickness" > > Only now are we even beginning to be able to do this (the instruments, not > the motion sickness) by actually being able to sense the motion of the air > the glider is flying through (no, currently available instrument systems > don't do this, they approximate this using various tricks all of which have > problems), let alone distant air. > > Interesting pilot interfaces so the information can be interpreted for > soaring, too. Again we're just beginning on this. > > Mike > > > *Borgelt Instruments* - > *design & manufacture of quality soaring instrumentation since 1978 * > www.borgeltinstruments.com > tel: 07 4635 5784 overseas: int+61-7-4635 5784 > mob: 042835 5784 : int+61-42835 5784 > P O Box 4607, Toowoomba East, QLD 4350, Australia > > _______________________________________________ > Aus-soaring mailing list > Aus-soaring@lists.internode.on.net > To check or change subscription details, visit: > http://lists.internode.on.net/mailman/listinfo/aus-soaring >
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