Re: Working Model

[JHByrne]

I seem to have volunteered to help organize and circulate the ideas we've come up with. I'll start working on a data base since I don't have anything else to do but sit around drinking beer and watching TV (yeah, right!) I suggest we call the project "Hot Nose," since that's what the design seems to be suggesting. (No, no! Not "Snot Nose!" Good grief!) Hot Nose is fine, but the deadline for names is still Tuesday night.  Any other suggestions?  I suggest 'Proteus', as it has a sufficiently sci-tech sound to it, and represents the creation of greater things from something small. I suggest that anyone with any ideas or other contributions simply keep posting them on this discussion group. I will capture them and begin organizing them into the various components like "Vessel," "Guidance System," "Electronics," "Communication," etc., depending on what we come up with. Then we can begin identifying sources of hardware/software and start hunting for what we need. Perfect.  Hibai, could you help Gail organize this into a website presentable format?  Perhaps we can make a subcategory for this project on the Icepick website, so that the project won't interfere with the various other goings on and raw science presented here. John's note about the model submarine hobbyist web site is excellent--I've added it to my "Favorites" list. It has a ton of info on who's making and selling parts for model submarines. Check it out. I also suggest someone get in touch with Nat'l Geographic, Smithsonian, and The Discovery Channel (another Byrne idea, not mine) to see if anyone would be interested in following the project. As soon as we get a little more tangibility to this project, that is, some sort of diagram and list of people, then we have something to present to a potential benefactor.  I'll see what I can come up with for suggestions, and clear it with all of you.  If we get a target list of benefactors, I guess the most valid thing I can contribute would be to write up an official grant proposal. We might also check with the educational system to identify school science competitions. Each of us can check with our local high schools to see if any of them would be interested. I've thought about this one a little.  One thing we have to be careful about is this:  the project won't work with just any HS kids.  We need a dedicated class of people, with some techical and math skills.  We don't want to waste our time holding hands.  Look up Hyman Rickover's website, the center for excellence in education.  These are the sort of kids we need -- boy/girl geniuses, not typical teenagers who will grow quickly bored with the long development process that this thing will require. I'll try to keep up with the documentation of the project, for I think that will be critical for both our own developmental use and possible publicity. Absolutely.  We must have tangible documentation.  Emails just won't cut it. Oh, a couple pesky questions: In whose garage will we build Hot Nose? And if we're scattered all over the US and other countries (like Hibai Unzueta in Spain) how are we going to get enough of us together to actually handle the assembly? That's a key question.  If/when we can somehow gather together $5000, we need someone we can entrust that money to, and someone with enough time to put into the project.  It should also be someone with some technical capacity, sufficient to actually perform some work on the physical item(s), or get them to people who CAN do the work. That excludes me.  While I can find the people we need, I'm not a technician, and lack tools.  Gail is retired, and has time, but is also not a technician.  So, that leaves Robert Crawley... who happens to have a lot of the tools we're going to need, and a great background.  I therefore nominate Robert Crawley as our 'garage'.  Any seconds?  Anyone else who can do the job that Robert can? Not insurmountable, but getting to Alaska might be like the gold rushers converging on the Chilkoot Pass. Agreed.  Alaska is too far for most of you.  If/when this project is complete, however, we're going to have to test it.  Unless someone can come up with a reasonable alternative to the Harding Ice Field, that's going to have to remain the target test site.  Any alternative has to be:  1)  reachable by most, and 2)  feature a big piece of solid ice, at least 700' thick, preferably old ice, packed over thousands of years, not a simple aggregate of glacial pieces clumped together. OK, your turn. Gail PS: Thanks, Bruce for your encyclopedic reference on Icepick & related works. I envy your library! Bruce is definitely the man in the know here.  Bruce, you usually have excellent insights, but I haven't heard your input on this latest wild scheme.  Do you have any ideas to contribute? -- John Harlow Byrne GBL