richardmurray
-
Posts
2,402 -
Joined
-
Last visited
-
Days Won
91
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Blogs
Events
Status Updates posted by richardmurray
-
But how are they ALL...as a community...treated why White New Yorkers?
We acknowledge differences among ourselves, but do Whites acknowledge our differences as far as their treatment of us?
The quick one word answer is no. But that isn't a sufficient answer. In NYC, Whites acknowledge differences among themselves. One of the problems when black people talk about how the white community treats the black is the idea that the white community is unified against us, while unified in itself.
What is my point?
Before that, I have seen a muslim woman with a hijab holding hands lovingly with a jewish man with the jewish cap on very happy, so.. you see instance of everything in new york, i am speaking of majority here. Plus, I will use the phenotypical adjective for religious races, though I comprehend italin or irish are not phenotypical but geographic heritage labels.
Now, what is my point.
In NYC at the least, and I think all over, The italian doesn't like the white jew, the white jew doesn't like the irish , the irish don't like the dutch. They all are whites who treat blacks as the enemy historically in a communal sense. But they are not united, they are against each other. The proof. I don't know if you know NYC history but their is blood on the streets in NYC from all the bloodshed these communities have spilled against each other. My point? Black groups in NYC, like White groups oppose each other, all the time. I argue, Black groups oppose each other less than white groups. The variance. White groups tend to treat all black groups the same while black groups don't tend to treat all white groups the same. But, this goes into the difference between the black community side white community in the usa. Never forget pioneer. The white community in the usa for most of its history or the european colonies that preceded actually had complete power. The black community has never in the european colonies or today, had complete power over itself, and never another community. So... the black community in the usa does have a different heritage from the white community and just because I think it is warranted to say, the native american community also had a unique heritage. Said three people's are not in the same in their heritage concerning the usa in large ways. It can't be reduced to, all humans are human, that isn't sufficient. the native american is not the whites, the whites are not the blacks, the blacks are not the native americans. yes, hybrid examples or situations occur but the majorities are not the same in key ways.
The question is why can't a majority of black leadership in the usa, implement a cognition of said variance in their ideas or policies. I actually have an unproven thought on that. A majority of black leaders in the usa have a position of human equality, individualism as a unifier that blocks said cognition. If you are frederick douglass or martin luther king jr or barack obama and one of your principles in your mind is a human unity a human equality that is pure or at the root how can you accept or implement ideas or policies that at their core accept human disunity or human inequality?
Now you said the following with more
One of the reasons for this is, unlike most White people who CLAIM to be different politically and religiously....Black people actually ARE different and are SINCERE about their differences.
White people may CLAIM to be Jewish or Christian but at the end of the day they both share the same values and ethics.
A few ritualistic differences but they pretty much dress and talk the same.Well, concerning whites if what you said is true, then the commonly called Civil War, World War I , World II, Balkans war, the troubles < which is really another round of the irish-english wars> , the current ukrainian/russian war, the january 6th incident <which can be argued is an incident in the long line of post civil war incidents between whites in the usa> where many white people have killed or harmed or threaten to harm other white people more than any other with pride or happiness are merely hoaxes or deceptions. If you do, that is fine, I don't want you to change your mind, but I oppose that view.
Concerning Blacks, I don't think internal black friction is any different in emotion than in any human group. In india, muslims ad being burned alive by hindus. In former yugolslavis as we speak, croats and slaves are battling each other, no differently than the factions of sudan. But I will say this, Black internal communal friction in the USA, the usa and to some extent the entire american continent, is mostly nonviolent. To me, white internal communal friction in the usa is historically quite violent, while said black friction is not. But again, that goes back to the people's heritage being different.
Now is white internal communal unity in the USA unlike other white people? yes. Brexit didn't happen because whites of england hated black people. BRexit happened because white of england didn't want whites of eastern europe populating rural england anymore. In Italy or Spain you see many incidents of friction between catalonians and basque or sicilians and neapolitians. But in the usa, after the commonly called civil war and the end of the commonly called world war II , the white community in the usa has a greater sense of white unity. But as january 6th proved, it isn't that strong.
I end with, you and many black people before have claimed that whites are one big happy family who unite against all others, ala the hellenistic example, while all others lack the same. but I oppose that view. I think many black people and to be blunt, black leaders like to suggest black people are more caught up in our variances than whites. but the million man march, the black community in NYC proves that assertion false for me. I think the problem is the black community in the usa has a problem getting results, and in frustration blames itself because blaming itself is easier than blaming itself aside its environment equally.
-
the question here is simple. How important is the visualization of a community in media, in particular film? I have never agreed to the idea that black people must be visualized positively by white financed media. And that is the larger issue. Black people in the usa, whose forebears wer enslaved, legally, and never had unfair financial advantages, have pleaded within the system of government or the influential channels of media , to force white financed media to present black people more positively. but, from the jeffersons to a different world, the reality is, all those shows represent a very small minority of the black community in the usa. I come from harlem in nyc, most black people in nyc are not living in the situation of the jeffersons. Cosby was a doctor who lived in a white community.A different world represents a student body that is minority. Originally, the ban on black students in white schools, like yale/harvard/high schools in cities et cetera, forced black students to be in black schools, black high schools or black colleges. Thus most black people went to black schools. IT was the ending of segregation in schooling, which is an issue the black community fails to admit didn't have the agreement internally in the black community, that the white community suggested, that led to the exodus of black people from black schools. and thus black colleges. And as for women. it wasn't media shows that led to the rise of black women as the strongest gender/phenotypical group, it was the civil rights act. as firms learned that by hiring black women they covered multiple points in the civil rights act, system of categorization for firms, black women were hired at a very high rate compared to many other groups.
-
Live Music in Oakland <Music is Will DOwning - Can't HElp It>
Photographer: Ronald Reed
https://www.flickr.com/photos/ronwired/51180741047/in/photostream/ -
Model: Dorothy Combs Morrison < with Maestro Curtis band>
Videographer: ronald reed ronwired
https://www.flickr.com/photos/ronwired/52035539372/in/feed-849661-1651180979-1-72157721616844457
PRior post
https://aalbc.com/tc/profile/6477-richardmurray/?status=2257&type=status
Ronald Reed post
https://aalbc.com/tc/search/?q=ronald reed&quick=1&type=core_statuses_status&author=richardmurray&updated_after=any&sortby=newest&search_and_or=and
-
Model: Maestro Curtis <with band>
Videographer: ronald reed ronwired
https://www.flickr.com/photos/ronwired/52036686753/in/feed-849661-1651183105-1-72157721616851232
PRior post
https://aalbc.com/tc/profile/6477-richardmurray/?status=2123&type=status
Ronald Reed post
https://aalbc.com/tc/search/?q=ronald reed&quick=1&type=core_statuses_status&author=richardmurray&updated_after=any&sortby=newest&search_and_or=and
-
Model: Goapele Mohlabane
Videographer: ronald reed ronwired
https://www.flickr.com/photos/ronwired/52019368979/in/dateposted/
PRior post
https://aalbc.com/tc/profile/6477-richardmurray/?status=2258&type=status
Ronald Reed post
https://aalbc.com/tc/search/?q=ronald reed&quick=1&type=core_statuses_status&author=richardmurray&updated_after=any&sortby=newest&search_and_or=and -
Model/Artist: BACKYARD PARTY KINGS II
PHotographer: Ronald Reed ronwired
https://www.flickr.com/photos/ronwired/52139491006/in/feed-849661-1654997204-1-72157721623217646LONG VERSION
prior post
https://aalbc.com/tc/profile/6477-richardmurray/?status=2357&type=statusRonald Reed post
https://aalbc.com/tc/search/?q=ronald reed&quick=1&type=core_statuses_status&author=richardmurray&updated_after=any&sortby=newest&search_and_or=and -
Model: Nzuri Soul with band
Photographer: Ronald Reed
https://www.flickr.com/photos/ronwired/52125051716/in/feed-849661-1654470295-1-72157721622345387prior post
https://aalbc.com/tc/profile/6477-richardmurray/?status=2336&type=statusRonald Reed post
-
Model/Artist: west coast blues society caravan of all stars
PHotographer: Ronald Reed ronwiredhttps://www.flickr.com/photos/ronwired/52237281729/in/feed-849661-1658636561-1-72157721629129650
prior post
https://aalbc.com/tc/profile/6477-richardmurray/?status=2580&type=status
Ronald Reed post
https://aalbc.com/tc/search/?q=ronald reed&quick=1&type=core_statuses_status&author=richardmurray&updated_after=any&sortby=newest&search_and_or=and -
Fashion Studio: Mario b productions
MC : Elise Hollywood Evans <microphone>
Photographer: Ronald Reed
https://www.flickr.com/photos/ronwired/52124150867/in/feed-849661-1654474362-1-72157721622343990prior post
https://aalbc.com/tc/profile/6477-richardmurray/?status=2355&type=statusRonald Reed post
-
Well... it is another Friday, another day to love, to Oxum, Oshun, Freya, or Venus, another day to Kizomba!
The leg work in this routine is very nice from Sabrina side Fabricia; you have to check out their feet throughout, they worked on the little movements very well; but do not chagrin, they did some standard or flashy moves. -
Black + Excellent with Quinta Brunson
We sat down to catch up with Tumblr nerd and Queen of Memes, @thequintab < https://thequintab.tumblr.com/ > to talk about everything from fostering genuine communication to her new book She Memes Well < https://www.am*zon.com/She-Memes-Well-Quinta-Brunson/dp/1328638987 > , on shelves NOW (SO GO GET IT---- Like frfr!!). -
My reply
I noticed your prime comment under the video. You say many will disagree and that is of course online. But, I want to speak to that first before I state my position toward your video.
A difference exists between a person of a certain race: gender/phenotype/religion/age/geographic lineage et cetera being employed as a thespian in comparison to said person's community being represented positively.
As a black man, I heard a million media outlets spout overjoy with the existence of a highly paid thespian who is black. While they chagrin that the culture of black people <which is very large, just for edification includes black people of america/africa/asia/europe or all the lands within> is absent or a negative caricature.
I know you are correct in your position. You are happy that asian statians <asian americans exists in jamaica/brazil/mexico not merely the usa> are getting opportunities to be paid thespians of the highest financial order in the film world. But, you are also unhappy that the asian statian experience is still rarely touted by the film wood in the usa. I know it is silly to say the people who disagree with you are wrong... but they are wrong.Now, to my position, I thought about the world. No country in humanity , to my knowledge, has a film industry that respects the minority populaces<minority in terms of numbers> equal to the majority populace. so, in the USA the majority populace is the white anglo saxon protestant<are most people in the usa white? the answer is yes>. In china it is the han chinese<I know different communities exist in china but I read han chinese were the largest, if I am wrong correct me>. In the same way Asian statians are not presented as part of the USA fold in film media in the usa, usually, Ugyars are not usually represented in chinese film media. I am not saying anything is wrong or right as much as , it is uncommon for any visual industry to treat the minority communities as equal to the majority community.
But, I realize a solution may exist to that problem. and it goes back to your point about cinema in india. I didn't realize india had various woods that seem to have a more equal standing to each other in india. The solution in the usa and I think everywhere is to have more varying woods. For example, the black community in the usa has made films since the time of oscar micheaux, but no one says, the Black Statian-Wood. It is black films, stateless/centerless from an industrial perspective. They are in the independent film wilderness. In the USA it is the hollywood scene or the independent scene. That has to change. The independent scene needs to stay, but the black, the asian, native american , and et cetera minority communities need their own industrial film industries in the usa. In that way is the only way I think you can not only get thespians of all races but also positive representation in film in the usa to all races.-
I made a prior comment, which I link at the end of this one , and I stay true to that comment. but I have another point. Black Panther was written by ryan coogler and Joe Robert Cole, two people of the phenotypical race commonly called black in the usa. Shang-chi was written by Dave Callaham and Destin Daniel Cretton, two people of the geographic ancestry race commonly called asian in the usa. My point is how members of a community see themselves or exhibit their culture will always be varied, sequentially, one must always strive to make their own films/art to exhibit their lens to their community or the greater humanity in total
Single Status Update from 09/18/2021 by richardmurray - AALBC.com’s Discussion Forums
-
-
Well... it is another Friday, another day to love, to Oxum, Oshun, Freya, or Venus, another day to Kizomba!
Bonifacio Aurio & Josy Semkiz , never stopped looking like they are having a blast.
Some key notes:the 45th second is very good my favorite, difficult technique,55th second the azonta stop,1:47th nice drag and dip,2:16 nice dips, he has many nice dips throughout
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPSG5g2h5eYenjoy my book, please read and tell me what you think
https://www.kobo.com/ebook/the-nyotenda -
My Comment
the problem with films like this is the end makes people feel good, this is why I prefer films like the internationalist or EMitai from ousmane sembene where the end gives the feeling most people get in the real world when they try to help somebody else against a system... the reality that they have failed and they have a choice, to keep trying to help another or become a cog in the system...
IN AMENDMENT
many commentors to this video talk about doing good like it is a new act. What people don't seem to comprehend about human history is, people always try to do good. They learn that they can't influence change the way they wish and either become cogs in a machine or keep being the usually solitary agent against the system, which is usually financially unprofitable/socially praised while also chagrined for its lack of profit <the black community in the usa talks about black leaders in the 1960s but you don't see black parents talking about their children being advocates for the black community, but law enforcers/soldiers/doctors or other agents of the system>/hard to find even the smallest community withanother interesting take on another film
My thoughts
circa 15:24 you made one huge error, you describe the usa as a melting pot and a mix of cultures, that is not true. if you look at the usa historically, it only became anything close to a melting pot in the 1960s and even then that was more broken glass pieces on the ground, not a melting pot... I think the immigrant community likes to tell a myth about the usa they came to. It wasn't a melting pot and in the usa, regionally it isn't for the most part. and that is why the modern immigrant community primarily stemming from the 1960s are always viewed by many regions in the usa as a perpetual other cause, no melting ever occured. the chinese american community in nyc is older than nyc, it as when new york was new amsterdam and yet, with the sars cov 2 many in nyc, not asian had very negative views towards a community that has been aside every other in nyc for its entire history, over hundreds of years.
-
nice, clearly an ode, I think he refers to black female writers in general. Jemesin/tananrive due/ et cetera are all climbing as a literary group... I will offer one suggestion. Art history proves that popularity dictates the artists that most people remember. All too often many artists when alive are not popular and post mortem become standardized, in the usa usually through fiscal operators wanting to use their stories and not give them money... But, the black community in the usa is coming to a place where black female writers will be the center of the literary world in the black community in the usa. I think the black community in the usa will have the first human community in any modern country, modern defined as the time of this posting to the past 500 years, where the popular literature within it will be dominated, and yes the word is dominated by women. And, by default will influence the female writers position or status or opportunity in other communities, positively or negatively.
-
Are you thinking about writing romantic comedy novels? You are in for a treat! Writing romcoms is a wonderful experience… but it’s not necessarily easy. That’s why I’m sharing 3 tips for you when it comes to writing humour into your stories.When I first started writing my Polyamorous Passions romance series in 2018, I didn’t really know what the subgenre was. I referred to these novels as “contemporary romances” and “new adult romance.” Sometimes it takes a while to hone in on our niche. I didn’t even know that “romantic comedy” was a genre of novels! A year into writing those novels, I happened to be reading a book by an indie author who calls her stories “romantic comedies,” and I realized that my style could totally be considered romantic comedy.READ THE COMPLETE ARTICLE
-
-
1
-
- Report
-
Lee Evans, the 1968 Olympic 400m champion and human rights activist, has died at age 74, according to USA Track and Field.Lee Evans, the 1968 Olympic 400m champion and human rights activist, has died at age 74, according to USA Track and Field.Evans suffered a stroke last week in Nigeria and was unconscious in a hospital there as of Sunday, according to the San Jose Mercury News.Evans was 21 when he won the 400m at the Mexico City Games in 43.86 seconds, the first time somebody broke 44 in the event.“I was so tired, I knew I did something I’ve never done before,” Evans told NBC Sports for the film “1968” on those Olympics. “I wasn’t sure I won. Nobody told me I won, so they said, ‘Lee, you son of a gun.’ I said, ‘Who won? Who won?'”He later anchored the U.S. 4x400m to gold in a world record. Both records stood for two decades.Evans ran collegiately for San Jose State — “Speed City” — with Tommie Smith and John Carlos, 1968 Olympic teammates who took gold and bronze, respectively, in the 200m in Mexico City.Evans was a founding member of the Olympic Project for Human Rights and one of the athletes to fight for racial justice before and during those Games.He wanted to withdraw from the 400m final after Smith and Carlos were kicked out of the Olympics after raising black-gloved firsts on the medal stand. But Smith and Carlos convinced Evans to run, according to Olympedia.org.Evans said an official warned the U.S. 400m runners before the final not do anything similar to Smith and Carlos. The official was worried the U.S. team would get kicked out of the Games.Evans then led a U.S. medals sweep of the 400m with Larry James and Ron Freeman. All three wore black berets in support of the Black Panther Party for the victory ceremony. They removed them for the anthem, a decision Evans said was made before the Olympics given they still had the 4x400m relay to run.“After what Tommie and John did, there was a lot of commotion,” Evans said in 2017. “We had meetings, and yelling, but it turns out, we stuck to our guns.”Evans later coached and directed track and field programs for decades internationally. -
Physicists Move One Step Closer to a Theoretical Showdown
The deviance of a tiny particle called the muon might prove that one of the most well-tested theories in physics is incomplete.
The Muon g-2 ring at the Fermilab particle accelerator complex in Batavia, Ill.Credit...Reidar Hahn/Fermilab, via US Department of Energy
By Katrina Miller
Katrina Miller, a science reporter, recently earned a Ph.D. in particle physics from the University of Chicago.
Aug. 10, 2023
On July 24, a large team of researchers convened in Liverpool to unveil a single number related to the behavior of the muon, a subatomic particle that might open a portal to a new physics of our universe.
All eyes were on a computer screen as someone typed in a secret code to release the results. The first number that popped out was met with exasperation: a lot of concerning gasps, oh-my-God’s and what-did-we-do-wrong’s. But after a final calculation, “there was a collective exhale across multiple continents,” said Kevin Pitts, a physicist at Virginia Tech who was five hours away, attending the meeting virtually. The new measurement matched exactly what the physicists had computed two years prior — now with twice the precision.
So comes the latest result from the Muon g-2 Collaboration, which runs an experiment at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, or Fermilab, in Batavia, Ill., to study the deviant motion of the muon. The measurement, announced to the public and submitted to the journal Physical Review Letters on Thursday morning, brings physicists one step closer to figuring out if there are more types of matter and energy composing the universe than have been accounted for.
“It really all comes down to that single number,” said Hannah Binney, a physicist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Lincoln Laboratory who worked on the muon measurement as a graduate student.
Scientists are putting to the test the Standard Model, a grand theory that encompasses all of nature’s known particles and forces. Although the Standard Model has successfully predicted the outcome of countless experiments, physicists have long had a hunch that its framework is incomplete. The theory fails to account for gravity, and it also can’t explain dark matter (the glue holding our universe together), or dark energy (the force pulling it apart).
One of many ways that researchers are looking for physics beyond the Standard Model is by studying muons. As heavier cousins of the electron, muons are unstable, surviving just two-millionths of a second before decaying into lighter particles. They also act like tiny bar magnets: Place a muon in a magnetic field, and it will wobble around like a top. The speed of that motion depends on a property of the muon called the magnetic moment, which physicists abbreviate as g.
In theory, g should exactly equal 2. But physicists know that this value gets ruffled by the “quantum foam” of virtual particles that blip in and out of existence and prevent empty space from being truly empty. These transient particles change the rate of the muon’s wobble. By taking stock of all the forces and particles in the Standard Model, physicists can predict how much g will be offset. They call this deviation g-2.
But if there are unknown particles at play, experimental measurements of g will not match this prediction. “And that’s what makes the muon so exciting to study,” Dr. Binney said. “It’s sensitive to all of the particles that exist, even the ones that we don’t know about yet.” Any difference between theory and experiment, she added, means new physics is on the horizon.
To measure g-2, researchers at Fermilab generated a beam of muons and steered it into a 50-foot-diameter, doughnut-shaped magnet, the inside brimming with virtual particles that were popping into reality. As the muons raced around the ring, detectors along its edge recorded how fast they were wobbling.
Using 40 billion muons — five times as much data as the researchers had in 2021 — the team measured g-2 to be 0.00233184110, a one-tenth of 1 percent deviation from 2. The result has a precision of 0.2 parts per million. That’s like measuring the distance between New York City and Chicago with an uncertainty of only 10 inches, Dr. Pitts said.
“It’s an amazing achievement,” said Alex Keshavarzi, a physicist at the University of Manchester and a member of the Muon g-2 Collaboration. “This is the world’s most precise measurement ever made at a particle accelerator.” The results, when revealed to the public at a scientific seminar on Thursday morning, were met with applause.
“The kind of precision that these people have managed to attain is just staggering,” said Dan Hooper, a theoretical cosmologist at the University of Chicago who was not involved in the work. “There was a lot of skepticism they would get here, but here they are.”
But whether the measured g-2 matches the Standard Model’s prediction has yet to be determined. That’s because theoretical physicists have two methods of computing g-2, based on different ways of accounting for the strong force, which binds together protons and neutrons inside a nucleus.
The traditional calculation relies on 40 years of strong-force measurements taken by experiments around the world. But with this approach, the g-2 prediction is only as good as the data that are used, said Aida El-Khadra, a theoretical physicist at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and a chair of the Muon g-2 Theory Initiative. Experimental limitations in that data, she said, can make this prediction less precise.
A newer technique called a lattice calculation, which uses supercomputers to model the universe as a four-dimensional grid of space-time points, has also emerged. This method does not make use of data at all, Dr. El-Khadra said. There’s just one problem: It generates a g-2 prediction that differs from the traditional approach.
“No one knows why these two are different,” Dr. Keshavarzi said. “They should be exactly the same.”
Compared with the traditional prediction, the latest g-2 measurement has a discrepancy of over 5-sigma, which corresponds to a one in 3.5 million chance that the result is a fluke, Dr. Keshavarzi said, adding that this degree of certainty was beyond the level needed to claim a discovery. (That’s an improvement from their 4.2-sigma result in 2021, and a 3.7-sigma measurement done at Brookhaven National Laboratory near the turn of the century.)
But when they compared it with the lattice prediction, Dr. Keshavarzi said, there was no discrepancy at all.
Rarely in physics does an experiment surpass the theory, but this is one of those times, Dr. Pitts said. “The attention is on the theoretical community,” he added. “The limelight is now on them.”
Dr. Binney said, “We are on the edge of our seats to see how this theory discussion pans out.” Physicists expect to better understand the g-2 prediction by 2025.
Gordan Krnjaic, a theoretical particle physicist at Fermilab, noted that if the experimental disagreement with theory persisted, it would be “the first smoking-gun laboratory evidence of new physics,” he said. “And it might well be the first time that we’ve broken the Standard Model.”
While the two camps of theory hash it out, experimentalists will hone their g-2 measurement further. They have more than double the amount of data left to sift through, and once that’s included, their precision will improve by another factor of two. “The future is very bright,” said Graziano Venanzoni, a physicist at the University of Liverpool and one leader of the Muon g-2 experiment, at a public news briefing about the results.
The latest result moves physicists one step closer to a Standard Model showdown. But even if new physics is confirmed to be out there, more work will be needed to figure out what that actually is. The discovery that the known laws of nature are incomplete would lay the foundation for a new generation of experiments, Dr. Keshavarzi said, because it would tell physicists where to look.
“Physicists get really excited when theory and experiment do not agree with each other,” said Elena Pinetti, a theoretical physicist at Fermilab who was not involved in the work. “That’s when we really can learn something new.”
For Dr. Pitts, who has spent nearly 30 years pushing the bounds of the Standard Model, proof of new physics would be both a celebratory milestone and a reminder of all that is left to do. “On one hand it’s going to be, Have a toast and celebrate a success, a real breakthrough,” he said. “But then it’s going to be back to work. What are the next ideas that we can get to work on?”
Katrina Miller is a science reporting fellow for The Times. She recently earned her Ph.D. in particle physics from the University of Chicago. More about Katrina Miller
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/10/science/physics-muons-g2-fermilab.html
NASA Seeks a Nuclear-Powered Rocket to Get to Mars in Half the Time
By Kenneth Chang
Published July 26, 2023Updated July 27, 2023
In less than four years, NASA could be testing a nuclear rocket in space.
The space agency and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, announced on Wednesday that Lockheed Martin had been selected to design, build and test a propulsion system that could one day speed astronauts on a trip to Mars.
BWX Technologies, based in Lynchburg, Va., will build the nuclear fission reactor at the heart of the engine.
The $499 million program is named DRACO, short for the Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Operations.
An illustration of Lockheed Martin’s proposed nuclear-powered spacecraft.Credit...Lockheed Martin
What if a spacecraft could get to Mars in half the time it currently takes?
Every 26 months or so, Mars and Earth are close enough for a shorter journey between the worlds. But even then it is a pretty long trip, lasting seven to nine months. For most of the time, the spacecraft is just coasting through space.
But if the spacecraft could continue accelerating through the first half of the journey and then start slowing down again, the travel time could be slashed. Current rocket engines, which typically rely on the combustion of a fuel like hydrogen or methane with oxygen, are not efficient enough to accomplish that; there is not enough room in the spacecraft to carry that much propellant.
But nuclear reactions, generating energy from the splitting of uranium atoms, are much more efficient.
The DRACO engine would consist of a nuclear reactor that would heat hydrogen from a chilly minus 420 degrees Fahrenheit to a toasty 4,400 degrees, with the hot gas shooting from a nozzle to generate thrust. Greater fuel efficiency could speed up journeys to Mars, reducing the amount of time astronauts spend exposed to the treacherous environment of deep space.
Nuclear propulsion could also have uses closer to home, which is why DARPA is investing in the project. The technology may allow rapid maneuvers of military satellites in orbit around Earth.
Nuclear propulsion for space is not a new idea. In the 1950s and 1960s, Project Orion — financed by NASA, the Air Force and the Advanced Research Projects Agency — contemplated using the explosions of atomic bombs to accelerate spacecraft.
At the same time, NASA and other agencies also undertook Project Rover and Project NERVA, efforts that aimed to develop nuclear-thermal engines similar in concept to those now being pursued by the DRACO program. A series of 23 reactors were built and tested, but none were ever launched to space. Until the end of this program in 1973, NASA had contemplated using nuclear reactors to propel space probes to Jupiter, Saturn and beyond, as well as to provide power at a lunar base.
“The technical capabilities, including early safety protocols, remain viable today,” Tabitha Dodson, the DRACO project manager, said in a news briefing on Wednesday.
A key difference between NERVA and DRACO is that NERVA used weapons-grade uranium for its reactors, while DRACO will use a less-enriched form of uranium.
The reactor would not be turned on until it reached space, part of the precautions to minimize the possibility of a radioactive accident on Earth.
“DRACO has already done all of our preliminary analyses across the entire spectrum of possibilities for accidents and found that we’re all the way down in the low probability and all the way down in the teeny tiny amount of release,” Dr. Dodson said.
The DRACO development is to culminate with a flight test of the nuclear-thermal engine. The launch is currently scheduled for late 2026 or early 2027.
The demonstration spacecraft would most likely orbit at an altitude between 435 and 1,240 miles, Dr. Dodson said. That is high enough to ensure that it stays in orbit for more than 300 years, or long enough for radioactive elements in the reactor fuel to decay to safe levels, she said.
A correction was made on
July 28, 2023
:
Using information from a news conference, an earlier version of this article misstated when a flight test of a nuclear-thermal engine could occur. The launch is scheduled for late 2026 or early 2027, not late 2025 or early 2026.
Kenneth Chang has been at The Times since 2000, writing about physics, geology, chemistry, and the planets. Before becoming a science writer, he was a graduate student whose research involved the control of chaos. More about Kenneth Chang
-
The Kobo Writing Life team is excited to announce our latest Live Q&A. We'll be chatting with USA Today best selling author Zoe York on Thursday October 28th.From 12:00 PM-1:00 PM EST, we’ll be discussing her publishing journey, navigating the ups and downs of indie publishing, and her course, Romancing Your Brand.If you can’t make the takeover, feel free to comment on this post with your questions and we can ask them for you!
-
We're excited to share the news with you!
South Side Home Movie Project Awarded $195,000 ACLS Sustaining Public Engagement GrantThe South Side Home Movie Project, based at University of Chicago’s Arts + Public Life, has received an ACLS Sustaining Public Engagement Grant, as part of a $3.5 million responsive funding program made possible by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH)’s Sustaining the Humanities through the American Rescue Plan (SHARP) initiative. The ACLS Sustaining Public Engagement Grants are designed to repair the damage done to publicly engaged humanities projects and programs by the social and economic disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The South Side Home Movie Project (SSHMP) has been awarded $195,000 for the project Restoring Connections: The South Side Home Movie Project and Cultural Preservation in Chicago, which will recover vital connections to local home movie donor families through the preservation and digitization of their films, recording of their oral histories, and activation of their home movies across multiple public platforms. Additionally, it will re-engage the neighbors and partner organizations whose critical role as community archivists was abruptly halted due to the pandemic, and support students whose customized cataloging work within SSHMP was suspended. The members of the principal project team at the University of Chicago are Dr. Jacqueline Stewart, Director of SSHMP, Director (on leave) of Arts + Public Life and Professor of Cinema + Media Studies, Dr. Adrienne Brown, Interim Director of Arts + Public Life and Associate Professor of English, Justin Williams, SSHMP Archivist and Project Manager, and Sabrina Craig, SSHMP Assistant Director of External Engagement.
“The Covid pandemic disproportionately impacted elder Black and Brown communities, robbing us of our friends and neighbors, vital local repositories of memory and artifact. And the lockdowns and campus closures brought our critical film preservation and community-engaged research work to a standstill,” says Dr. Stewart. “Our priority now is the preservation of these fragile films and the collection of memories and descriptive data from those most impacted by the pandemic.”
“The heart of our work is the relationships we cultivate with our film donors, their families, and our community,” says Dr. Brown. “This tremendous support from ACLS will help us reconnect in person through public programs, watch parties, oral history sessions and community cataloging workshops with the families, neighbors, students and partner organizations we’ve missed so much.”
The South Side Home Movie Project is one of 24 grantees, representing outstanding public programs based at a variety of public and private institutions from 18 states and Puerto Rico. Awarded programs have demonstrated a deep commitment to the co-creation of knowledge with diverse communities outside of academia and promising approaches to addressing the most pressing issues our society faces today.
“The National Endowment for the Humanities is grateful to the American Council of Learned Societies for administering American Rescue Plan funding to speed economic recovery within the higher education sector,” said NEH Chair Shelly C. Lowe (Navajo). “Our colleges and universities are important centers for public humanities, with immense potential to serve their communities through educational resources and public programs that reach broad audiences. These ARP awards will expand public access to new information and discoveries in the humanities, and foster greater collaboration between academic institutions and community partners.”
“ACLS is proud to support these outstanding examples of publicly engaged, community-centered scholarship,” said ACLS President Joy Connolly. “Direct engagement with communities beyond the walls of academia is essential to the continued creation of knowledge for the public good. At the same time, these programs will help in expanding our definitions of humanistic scholarship and in contributing to solutions for a brighter future for all.”
The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 appropriated supplemental funding to the NEH to provide emergency relief to cultural organizations and educational institutions and organizations working in the humanities that have been adversely affected by the coronavirus pandemic. The Act recognizes that the humanities sector is an essential component of economic and civic life in the United States.
#SHARP #NEHRecoveryThoughts to Black Cinema in the USA, aka The BlackWoodblack thespians in hollywood Single Status Update from 02/23/2022 by richardmurray - AALBC.com’s Discussion Forumspotential outdated films Single Status Update from 01/21/2022 by richardmurray - AALBC.com’s Discussion ForumsCarib gld- the film called the last race film Single Status Update from 03/17/2022 by richardmurray - AALBC.com’s Discussion Forumsuniversity press of HBCU Single Status Update from 04/07/2022 by richardmurray - AALBC.com’s Discussion Forums
