My apologies, Jim, you are absolutely correct! No excuses for the
dismal conversion.

This is why NASA probes keep hitting what they shouldn't, by not
converting European instruments' measures into US.

NASA recently begged off converting all its activities to metric for
global compatibility in space, as they say it would cost too much,
but the cost cited amounted to about the price of the Mars lander
that had a metric radar altimeter, and US software, with no chance of
ever finding ground level on that planet.

However, ignoring my obvious folly for the moment, this looks even
better for selling water to the Moon, UNLESS of course the LRO does
find ice deposits in the Polar craters..... ......

GO METRIC NASA!

Jan

On 30 Jun 2009, at 11:29, james brown wrote:

> Most ion drives do not spend much power on heating, Just enough to
> ionize it, but mostly it uses extrema charges to accelerate the
> gas. The MET uses electricity to supper heat a gas way beyond what
> can be done chemically, but it keeps it just below ionizing.
>
> A Kg = 2.2 pounds. Your Moon water cost do not make sense, $50,000/
> # would work out to $110,000/Kg not 23,000/Kg.
>
> Jim Brown
>
> From: EOS Mars Program <eos.mars.program@ btinternet. com>
> To: NEAmines@yahoogroup s.com
> Sent: Monday, June 29, 2009 1:04:41 PM
> Subject: Re: [NEAmines] Heat Differentials and more
>
> Ueli, Jim,
>
> That's OK then! Was just looking for a suitable backup system.
>
> By the way, I am uncovering more and more electrothermal- powered
> missions, the latest being NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.
>
> http://www.nasa. gov/mission_ pages/LRO/ main/index. html
>
> http://lro.gsfc. nasa.gov/
>
> http://lcross. arc.nasa. gov/resources/ LaunchPreview. ppt
>
> http://www.nasa. gov/pdf/360020ma in_LRO_LCROSS_ presskit2. pdf
>
> From the press-kit, I garner these stats for the Orbiter itself
> (excluding primary launch vehicle's fuel and mass etc):
>
> Solar Array Area: 13.68 sq/m
>
> Solar Array Output: 685 watts
>
> Watts/Square Meter = 50
>
> Orbiter Mass: 1018 kg
>
> Fuel Mass: 898 Kg
>
> Mass Ratio: Fuel/Orbiter = 1:1.3
>
> NASA's figures for the cost of water transported to the Moon $50,000/
> pound (about $23,000/Kg), clearly another market here.
>
> NASA seem very cagey about the precise details of the ion-drives.
> This mission was also launched on Russian-made rocket motors.
>
> Jan
>
> On 29 Jun 2009, at 16:37, Ueli Scheuermeier wrote:
>
> > Jan, as far as I understand you've just reinvented the "solar
> > dynamic" electricity source.
> >
> > Ueli
> >
> > --- On Mon, 6/29/09, EOS Mars
> > Program<eos. mars.program@ btinternet. com> wrote:
> >
> > From: EOS Mars Program <eos.mars.program@ btinternet. com>
> > Subject: [NEAmines] Heat Differentials
> > To: NEAmines@yahoogroup s.com
> > Date: Monday, June 29, 2009, 3:28 PM
> >
> > A thought about how one could use the temperature differential
> > between sunside and nightside on a spacecraft.
> >
> > If an external sunside heat collector contained a volatile liquid
> > that could be superheated to pass into a turbine generator in the
> > bowels of the craft, and the output cooled by radiators on the
> > nightside, power could still be generated if the solar panels had to
> > be furled during a solar flare episode.
> >
> > Or am I missing something here?
> >
> > Jan