Carbon Fullerenes Used For Inventions The Future

Fullerenes

30th July 2009 - 11:26 AM

Fullerene study has always been a hot topic surrounded by scientists.
Research in carbon fullerenes has lead to many new inventions like superconductivity, fabric makeup, etc. Scientists are frequently searching for more ways to equipment this carbon formation.

wcelliott

30th August 2009 - 10:26 AM

Carbon nanotubes are supposed to be 800x as strong as steel, so you've got the makings of new techniques right there.

I once proposed to my then-employer that a carbon-fiber cable could launch an ASAT missile into space using two F-14s and a mile or so of this sort of cable. The F-14s would take off in tandem, dragging the cable behind them attached to their tailhook. The ASAT would be attached to the middle of the cable. In a precisely choreographed maneuver, the two jets would break away from each other, transferring their combined kinetic energy to the ASAT. Just as the two jets are pulling the cable tight, the ASAT is released like a rock from a slingshot and the cable is cut from the tailhooks so the jets could land. (You could also retrieve the cable for reuse with a small parachute deployed when the ASAT is off-line.)

It'd work, but I couldn't get anyone past the "giggle-factor" to consider it seriously.

rpenner

30th August 2009 - 04:38 PM

You say "precisely choreographed" but conducted no error analysis of how pilot action will affect launch trajectories?

buttershug

11th September 2009 - 02:29 PM

During the US Civil war some people tried firing two cannon balls at the same time with a chain tieing them together.
They could never get it work and it killed more of their own soldiers firing the cannons than the enemy.

flyingbuttressman

11th September 2009 - 02:45 PM

QUOTE (buttershug+Sep 11 2009, 10:29 AM)

It works if you put both cannonballs in the same cannon. It's called "chainshot" and was used very effectively against the rigging of enemy sailing ships.

Alaxir Zoa

15th September 2009 - 10:29 PM

There is one invention they really need to get made. C60. Look it up. It will solve many, many, many problems. It is supposed to be many times stronger than diamond, so strong in fact, that they could build an elevator to the moon with it.

[Suspended 3 days for posting dubious claims without argument or supporting facts.]

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