Alongside the ExtraOrdinary Technology Conference hosted by Tesla Tech, this year’s Natural Philosophy Alliance (NPA) Conference will have a variety of speakers on the philosophy of science as it broadens the boundaries of conventional thinking when they meet July 25-28 in Albuquerque, New Mexico, U.S. The scheduled list of speakers is here.
The 2012 John Chappell Memorial Paper is “What Is Cold Fusion and Why Should You Care?” to be presented Friday, July 27 by NPA-member Dr. Edmund Storms, a veteran cold fusion researcher based in Santa Fe, New Mexico who recently released the paper with co-author Brian Scanlan. [source] A text is posted on the NPA website here.
Storms has recently presented a new idea naming the nuclear active environment (NAE) as a crack or fissure between atoms near the surface of the metallic lattice hosting the cold fusion reaction, also called low-energy nuclear reaction (LENR). The idea is described in the paper “Explaining LENR“, soon-to-be published in the forthcoming Journal of Condensed Matter Nuclear Science Vol. 9. The unassuming title belies a heap of paradigm-changing notions as Storms narrows the possibilities for modeling the cold fusion reaction by using experimental results to exclude contemporary theories that do not uphold the twenty-three years of empirical data. [.pdf]
Formulated after a complete survey of the field, his recipe for the NAE derives from the commonalities of all observable data from over two decades of experiments. Unusual topologies are a feature of each cell design that successfully measured excess heat or nuclear products.
Storms' NAE supposes the regular atomic array of a metallic matrix is cracked and filled with hydrogen and electrons in this artist rendition.Storms believes it is these cracks, as well as the tiny spaces between thin-films, nano-particles, and co-deposition tendrils, where hydrogen nuclei and electrons can become trapped. When applied power in the form of heat, an electromagnetic field, or laser light, reaches just-the-right vibrational frequency for the stacked column of material, resonance, a characteristic of sympathetic vibration, instigates a “nuclear mechanism”, and the heat-generating reaction ensues.
In naming the NAE, Storms does not hypothesize on the nature of the nuclear mechanism, only that resonance turns it on. His goal is to give a recipe to start the reaction on-demand, so experiments and commercial products can be designed optimally, as opposed to the hit-or-miss successes so far.
When a definitive how-to for creating the cold fusion reaction is eventually published, the world will have the opportunity for a new age of green energy technology utilizing optimally designed generators that unlock the clean and safe power inherent in the fusion of hydrogen from water, causing a transformation of human culture far greater than even the digital revolution.
Artist's rendition of a crack stacked with hydrogen and electrons.
Peter Gluck, a long-time researcher in the field, asked Storms to respond to questions about his new idea and Cold Fusion Now posted their exchange here.
Currently, Storms is testing the recipe for creating the NAE at Kiva Labs in Santa Fe, with encouraging results. He will continue to test the hypothesis throughout the year, seeing if he can generate the effect on-demand, the determining factor in whether the idea has merit or not.
Cold Fusion Now’s Ruby Carat will attend the NPA conference to video Storms’ presentation and interview him afterwards about his research.
The NPA conference will be held at the Marriott Pyramid North in Albuquerque, NM alongside the ExtraOrdinary Technology Conference hosted by TeslaTech. More information about this particular event can be found at their site here.
What is Cold Fusion and Why Should You Care? by Edmund Storms and Brian Scanlan [.pdf] An earlier version of the paper was published by Cold Fusion Now in March here.
Explaining LENR by Edmund Storms soon-to-be published by Journal of Condensed Matter Nuclear Science Vol. 9 2012 pre-print [.pdf]
Journal of Condensed Matter Nuclear SciencePublications
Explaining LENR: Answering Peter Gluck posted by Ruby Carat June 11, 2012
2012 ExtraOrdinary Technology Conference sponsored by TeslaTech Home
“Almost limitless, clean power…” Yes, it is cold fusion!
The March 27, 2009 episode of Brink, a weekly show on the Science Channel, featured an update on the 2009 results of nuclear particle detection by the SPAWAR group at the American Chemical Society meeting that year. Read about the news on ScienceDaily.com.
Yes, it’s an OLD video, but for those of us new to the scene, it’s excavating the history.
Speaking from Washington, D.C., nuclear physicist Dwight Williams, Senior Science Advisor for the Department of Energy and a contributor to the show, gives the news cautiously, but open-mindedly.
He says of the broader mainstream science community, “All the jurors are still out.”
There is undeniable evidence that conclusively establishes the existence of the Fleischmann-Pons Effect (FPE), the production of excess heat when hydrogen reacts with a small piece of metal.
New designs for commercial hot-water boilers and steam heaters now in development use a powder made of nickel and hydrogen gas to create the same effect.
“If you think that the excess heat effect is not real, you’re being oblivious to data,” said Dr. Robert Duncan, Vice Chancellor for Research at University of Missouri in a recent talk at National Instruments.
This is the breakthrough for which the world’s been waiting.
Left: Euthydemos II – c.190-171 BC – Nickel didrachm 24mm diameter, 7g. Apollo bust / tripod monogram to left “Of King Euthydemos” Right: Agathokles – c.171-160 BC – Nickel drachm 19mm diameter, 3.3g. Dionysos bust / Panther touching vine monogram behind “Of King Agathokles” [Source]
Three rulers in the Bactrian kingdom were first to issue nickel coins in the first century AD. Two of the coins are pictured at the top. The coins were 25% nickel and 75% copper alloy, just like today’s U.S. nickel coin. The source of the ancient nickel is unknown.
Let’s surrender our Nickels to our Senators and Representatives, sending a message regarding the coming shift in the energy paradigm. —Paul Maher
Send a link to your reps along with coin image to Cold Fusion Now for posting.
Print a few coins to a page saying
1.25 grams of nickel can make energy equivalent to 5 barrels of oil!
LENR/Cold Fusion Works!
to post on bulletin boards around your neighborhood.
Cold Fusion Now has a particular interest in numismatics. Author John Francisco is an ancient coin collector whose specialty is the Pythagorean coins of Magna Graecia. His research on ancient coins is regularly published in The Celator magazine. [visit]
Personally, my favorite is the ancient electrum from Lydia and Ionia, some of the first coins ever minted, but more recently, I’ve been snagging nickels.
While in Florida last winter, I met Steve Schor at the Hollywood Coin Club. [visit] Steve is a huge resource on coins from every age. His breadth of knowledge commands the whole club be asking him “What’s up with this coin?”
Of course I give him the cold fusion now rundown – and he goes for it!
I had a table at a coin show last October 2011 in Hollywood, Florida, and here’s a photo showing the portion dedicated to clean energy. Notice Edmund Storms‘ The Science of Low Energy Nuclear Reaction, .pdfs of the 2011 MIT CF/LANR Colloquium, and Cold Fusion Now stickers.
Steve borrowed my copy of Storms’ The Science of, but luckily, I got it back.
Cold Fusion Now represents at the Hollywood Coin Show in Hollywood, Florida last October 2011.
Yes, there are plenty of coin collectors in the South Florida area who will not be surprised when technology is released thanks to this event.
Steve Schor, former engineer and coin collector, just compiled a list of “all nickel” coins. I can’t believe how many there have been. If you’ve got any of these coins, take a picture and send it to me, cause I collect pictures of nickels, too!
Schor’s file has been re-formatted and v.2 of Pure Nickel Coins is available as Excel spreadsheet [.xls] or exported to [.pdf]. Note: weight is in grams.
Look at all that power – in your pocket!
If you have any questions about these coins, email Steve here.
“Since 1926 there have been over 200 observations of intense heat release in palladium when it is loaded well beyond its equilibrium limit with deuterium. Very careful work at two national laboratories, namely the Naval Research Laboratory in the United States, and at ENEA, the National Energy Laboratory of Italy, and at many other laboratories around the world, clearly indicate that these extreme ‘excess’ heat releases are in fact real, despite earlier claims to the contrary, and I will discuss why these experiments have proven to be so difficult to repeat. These heat releases are anomalous, since we do not yet have a clear understanding of the physical process that is responsible for these often extreme levels of heat release. These effects have been referred to as ‘cold fusion’ and ‘low-energy nuclear reactions’ in the past, but these names imply an understanding of the physical origin of these anomalous effects that in fact does not yet exist. Hence the term ‘Anomalous Heat Effect (AHE).
View this video to see Dr. Robert Duncan discussing a series of experiments that we are conducting within the Sidney Kimmel Institute for Nuclear Renaissance at the University of Missouri that are designed to elucidate the physical mechanism that is responsible for the AHE.
Looks like alot of young people in the audience, too!
Quotes from Robert Duncan in The Mystery of Cold Fusion:
“I like to call it AHE Anomalous Heat Effect.”
From a typical 0.3 gram palladium cathode, there was regularly “heat release of about 50,000 Joules, and occasionally heat releases of over one megajoule. This clearly cannot be described by conventional chemical origins.”
“If you think that the excess heat effect is not real, you’re being oblivious to data.”
“But, I have no idea, conclusively, what’s causing it. Some propose it’s fusion. Some propose it’s a low energy nuclear reaction involving electron-weak electron capture, or something like that. There’ve been other proposals that are even broader.”
“I know it’s real. I know I don’t understand it. And that fascinates me.”
“When you see something that defies everything you think you know, that should be very motivating.”
“You don’t say, ‘I can’t study it because I don’t understand it’, you study it because you want to understand it.”
“You have to be sensitive to empirical surprise. That’s the only thing that’s improved science through history. That’s the only thing that continues to improve science today.”
The Sidney Kimmel Institute for Nuclear Renaissance is planning neutron scattering experiments for the hydrogen and deuterium system, and x-ray scattering experiments in the palladium lattice; doing both simultaneously.
“Are these anomalous effects happening in the lattice itself, or is this an effect occurring say, in the voids, that may have concentrated packets of material?”
They are trying anything that will help them understand the anomalous heat effect and understand what’s going on.
“I love the saying here: National Instruments doesn’t judge, they measure.”
“A nanogram of conclusive data is worth a ton of conjecture.”
“Superconductivity above room-temperature should be considered as empirical evidence that our understanding of physics remains incomplete. It is simply too convenient and scientifically counter-productive to dismiss all claims that don’t agree with what we currently think.”
“The scientific method is the only thing we have, and the only thing we need; that’s what got us from the Wright flyer to Apollo 11 in just sixty-six years.”
“Julian Schwinger shared the Nobel prize with Richard Feynman and Sin-Itiro Tomonaga for Quantum Electrodynamics (QED), and he had a theory that this was proton-deuterium fusion, not DD fusion, but since he was pursuing something that had been pronounced a pariah science – watch out when all the scientists in the world agree on something – but since his ideas were being forwarded after they had been so thoroughly discredited at the end of 1989, the American Institute of Physics (AIP) refused to review his [Julian Schwinger] papers for publication.”
“Now it’s certainly fair to accept his paper, review it, and if you find tragic flaws or real problems in the paper, in logic or in data analysis, to reject it. Journalists do that all the time. That’s what journalists should do. I referee for Physical Review Letters, that’s the way it should be. But the fact that the AIP said this is in an area that we are so thoroughly convinced that this is wrong, we won’t even review it, was in my opinion, wrong.”
“That infuriated Julian Schwinger, and he resigned from the American Physical Society because of that.”
“These empirical results that don’t fit our current picture of the way we think things should be, are an opportunity to challenge the way we think, not a reason to object it as bad, junk science.”
“There exists a huge gap exists between a new scientific discovery and useful engineered systems.”
“We should not speculate wildly, in my opinion, we should manage expectations.”
“Science is the tool to understand.”
“I don’t know if this will have any impact on energy production, I think it has the potential to. In fact, maybe within a year or two, these other engineered systems that are being promoted in Greece and Italy may show that there is a viable energy opportunity, maybe not.”
“When people ask me about Rossi’s work from Italy, or this company in Greece, that are saying that they’re going to put out HVAC units based on low-energy nuclear reactions, they ask me my opinion, I say, the beauty of it is, my opinion in insignificant.”
“They are saying they are going to put this on the market. There is even talk of selling them through major retailers. If they provide products to the market, and it doesn’t work as advertised, it’s all going to be damaged goods and returned stock.”
“The point is, my opinion doesn’t matter. If they hit the market within the next year or so, let’s see whether they work. If they work as advertised, that’s significant, and if they don’t, well that’s significant too.”
“I don’t really need to take a scientific position in something that’s at the endgame of market delivery, as they claim to be.”
“Research funding needs to become much less dependent on common assumptions and common wisdom.”
“…become much more courageous in general I am certainly delighted to see really visionary places, like many universities, many national labs, many industries like National Instruments taking that objective view …”
“If we ever get to the point where we’re told it’s a pariah science and we can’t go there, that’s very detrimental to the future of science.”
Speaking about cold fusion, he said “It’s one of the most interesting things I’ve ever seen.”
Q&A follows, with many more GREAT quotes, though the audio goes in and out. The video ends abruptly, in mid-sentence.
Related Links
Robert Duncan interview on Ca$h Flow: “Public investment means public ownership” by Ruby Carat February 6, 2011
Political Support for Cold Fusion in an Election Year by Ruby Carat May 6, 2012
In Potential Advantages and Impacts of LENR Generators of Thermal and Electrical Power and Energy published in May/June 2012 Infinite Energy #103 [.pdf version], Professor David J. Nagel describes the impact that clean drinking water produced by cold fusion, also called low-energy nuclear reactions (LENR) would have on human health:
Production of Clean Water
“Humans need water on a frequent basis to sustain life. Roughly one billion people on earth do not have good drinking water now. The possibility of being able to produce drinkable water from dirty rivers and the seas by using the heat from LENR would be momentous.” –David J. Nagel
Cleaning dirty water and de-salinization of ocean water on small and large scales both become possible with cold fusion technology, and hot, clean water produced from small, portable generators could affect the health of a billion people world-wide.
Nagel is a Professor at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. and a founder of NuCat, a company that holds workshops and seminars on cold fusion for scientists, researchers, and potential investors. [visit] Making the case to businesses that they can profit with affordable LENR-based hot-water boilers, he goes on to say:
“Favorable pricing of LENR generators for such countries could conceivably contribute significantly to world peace. The situation might be similar to the current sales of medicines for AIDS to poor countries at reduced prices. Rich countries will not soon give poor countries a large fraction of their wealth. However, they could provide some of the energy needed for development and local wealth production at discounted prices, while still making money from manufacturing LENR energy generators. This is an historic opportunity. –David J. Nagel
But the real winners are those suffering with conditions caused by dirty water:
Global Medical Impacts The availability of water free of pathogens and parasites to a very large number of people should lead to dramatic reductions of the incidence of many diseases. The savings of lives, human suffering and costs of medical assistance, where it is available, might greatly outweigh the costs of buying and using LENR generators. The better availability of electricity would improve both the diagnostic and therapeutic sides of clinical medicine.” –David J. Nagel
Coal-mining company Massey Energy leaves behind dirty legacy for people and wildlife in the U.S.That may be a policy of enlightened self-interest on the part of “rich countries”, but just who needs clean water? Just about everybody.
In the U.S., there are people whose water is combustible because of pollutants from nearby hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, for gas. Suzy Williamswrote a song about it in response to Gasland which documents this atrocity.
But what kind of difference can clean water make in the lives of poor people around the world? The hardship that lack of access to clean water brings to one in seven around the globe forfeits a tremendous human capital. According to Water.org [visit],
Women around the world spend 200 million hours every day collecting water and every 20 seconds a child dies from a water-born pathogen.
Cold fusion commercial products for domestic use now in research and development phase are small and portable. A 10 kilowatt steam-heat generator has a core the size of a tin of mints, requiring only a few grams of nickel powder and pico-grams of hydrogen gas to operate. These relatively simple devices can be made affordably for communities in need.
The benefits of clean water from cold fusion was highlighted in another article published in the December 1996/January 1997 Infinite Energy magazine issue #11 [visit], this one written by researcher and author Jed Rothwell. In it, he commented on Everyday Killers, a series of articles in the New York Times about the myriad of problems created by lack of access to clean water and mosquito nets. [download .pdf]
Here are some excerpts from that article showing cold fusion researchers have been thinking about the revolutionary benefits of this newly emerging technology for a long time:
It is good to be reminded why cold fusion is so important. The New York Times recently published a two-part series on third world health problems titled “Everyday Killers,” by Nicholas D. Kristof:
Malaria Makes a Comeback. And is More Deadly Than Ever, January 8, 1997
For Third World, Water Is Still Deadly Drink, January 9, 1997
… Almost all of water borne diseases could be eliminated by boiling the water used for cooking and drinking and by cooking foods more thoroughly. Better hygiene would also eliminate them, but boiling will work. Unfortunately for a family of four in India, the kerosene required to boil the water costs about $4 per month. Many poor families earn less than $20 per month, so this is much more than they can afford.
Oil companies have removed more than $400 billion of wealth out of the Niger River Delta, and the waters are still used for defecating, bathing, fishing and garbage.Cold fusion might ameliorate this problem by giving people cheap energy to boil drinking water and cook food. If a high-temperature cold fusion device could be made as cheaply as a kerosene burner or electric stove, it could save millions of lives every year. Boiling water is a workaround. It is not as effective as proper sanitation. As the article explains, “billions of people in the third world don’t have access even to a decent pit latrine.” In other words, in many parts of the world shovels would do more good than either kerosene or cold fusion. Latrines or septic systems would be a great benefit on land with good drainage and percolation. Concrete lined cesspools can be effective. The next step — to water pipes, sewers, and waste treatment plants — costs far more than poor communities can afford.
The Times listed some statistics for the most common water borne diseases in the 1997 article:
Deaths per Year
Diarrhea
3,100,000
Schistosmiasis
200,000
Trypanosomiasis
130,000
Intestinal Helminth Infection
1001000
TOTAL
3,530.000
Sources: World Health Organization. American Medical Association, and the Encyclopedia of Medicine.
Whether you use kerosene or cold fusion, boiling drinking water is a stopgap solution to the problem. It depends on the initiative of individuals. A mother might conscientiously boil drinking water, but when she is not around the children may not bother. It is far better and more efficient to secure a source of pure water for the whole neighborhood or village, and to drain off sewage.
On the other hand, the ad-hoc one-at-a-time method of boiling water is good because it allows individuals to solve the problem on their own, immediately, without depending on community action. It fits in well with the “micro-loan” model third world assistance programs, which were pioneered by organizations like Oxfam.
…
Ignorance Is Often the Real Problem
Ignorance causes much of the suffering. Children have no idea that filth causes disease. The Times article opens with a scene familiar to anyone who has traveled in the third world, although it is unthinkable to Americans and Europeans:
Children like the Bhagwani boys scamper about barefoot on the
narrow muddy paths that wind through the labyrinth of a slum here,
squatting and relieving themselves as the need arises, as casual about
the filth as the bedraggled rats that nose about in the raw sewage
trickling beside the paths.
Adults realize that this causes disease, but they are not convinced of the fact enough to discipline their children, or to dig proper latrines. In some urban slums there is not enough room, but that is not a problem in rural villages, yet in many of them water-born diseases are endemic. Many crowded Japanese towns and villages today have no running water or sewer systems. (At least, they still do not in rural Yamaguchi, where I often spend my summer vacation.) Houses are equipped with concrete cesspools only, which were emptied by hand until the 1950s. Yet there has been no water-born disease in these villages in modern times.
…
Cold Fusion No Panacea, but Better than Alternatives
…Technology does not help people automatically, just by existing.
..The biggest advantage would be that individual people will decide for themselves to buy the reactor. People will not have to wait for corrupt governments or power companies to serve their needs. They will be able to solve their own problems, just as they do today with micro-loans. “ –Jed Rothwell excerpts from Everyday Killers
Recently, I met with veteran cold fusion researcher Dr. Melvin Miles [visit] and his colleague Dr. Iraj Parchamazad, Chairman of the Chemistry Department at University of LaVerne in LaVerne, California [visit].
An electrochemist who worked for the Navy, as well as a professor of chemistry at University of LaVerne, the now “retired” Dr. Miles continues to work on palladium-deuterium (Pd-D) electrolytic cells as he has for twenty-three years. He was the first to correlate excess heat with the production of helium, confirming the nuclear origin of the reaction. He is an expert in measuring heat, called calorimetry, as well as measuring the tiny amounts of helium produced by these cells.
I wanted to ask Dr. Miles about what he’s learned about calorimetry over the past two decades and I was lucky enough to interview Dr. Parchamazad about his latest work using palladium nano-particles baked into zeolites and exposed to deuterium gas D2O, with which he’s had a 10 out of 10 success rate in generating excess heat.
And a slide from Miles’ presentation at the American Chemical Society Meeting in 2007, a calculation showing that if we took all the deuterium atoms in the ocean and fused them into helium, creating energy according to Albert Einstein’s E= mc2, the fuel would burn 13 billion years: Slide from Miles' presentation at National Meeting American Chemical Society 2010
The Chief Scientist of NASA and the Chief Scientist NASA Langley Porter Research Institute move forward with the energetics of LENR – cold fusion as the solution to problems like global warming, transportation, energy, and NASA space missions planned yet unrealized.
NASA has a broad prerogative, their mission is to:
Protect the Earth
Develop a permanent extraterrestrial human presence
Enable commercial ventures to advance into space
The science of LENR will give us electricity without generators and controlled heat without a carbon signature. Overpopulation, global warming, and environmental damage are the greatest dangers to Earth. Converting to LENR power and human expansion into space is the solution.
The energetics of LENR will enable a new generation of launch vehicles and platforms that bring payload costs down from thousands per pound to dollars per pound. The compact size of LENR power, abundance of LENR fuels, and safe clean operation allows ease of use for space colonies.
The wide range and ease of availabity of LENR technology, 3D- Printing technology, advanced robotics, and the abundance of natural resources will allow private sector interests to thrive in space without a standard profit motive. Humanity as a space faring race will develop new economic models.
NASA Names Waleed Abdalati As Agency’s New Chief Scientist (nasa)
The NASA Office of Chief Scientist was discontinued in 2005 and reinstated in 2011.
NASA Administrator Charles Bolden has named Waleed Abdalati the agency’s chief scientist, effective Jan. 3, 2011. He is currently on leave from his position as director of the University of Colorado’s Earth Science and Observation Center, which carries out research and education activities on the use of remote sensing observations to understand the Earth.
His research has focused on the use of satellites and aircraft to understand how and why Earth’s ice cover is changing, and what those changes mean for life on our planet.
His appointment as Chief Scientist marks a return to NASA for Dr. Abdalati, where he worked from 1996-2008. From 2004-2008, he was head of the Cryospheric Sciences Branch at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., where he supervised a group of scientists who carried out research in the development and analysis of remote sensing observations to study the behavior of ice sheets, sea ice, and glaciers.
From 2000-2004, he managed NASA’s Cryospheric Sciences Program at NASA Headquarters, managing the agency’s interests and research investments in cryospheric research, and serving as program scientist on the ICESat and RADARSAT missions.
From 1996-2000, Dr. Abdalati was a researcher at Goddard in the Oceans and Ice Branch, where he analyzed satellite and aircraft measurements of glaciers and ice sheets to assess their contributions to sea level rise. He also served as deputy project scientist for NASA’s Ice Cloud and land Elevation Satellite (ICESat).
In the mid 1980s, before returning to graduate school, he worked as an engineer in the aerospace industry, designing, analyzing and testing components of various spacecraft and submarine systems.
Dr. Abdalati has received various awards and recognition, most notably the NASA Exceptional Service Medal and The Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers from the White House.
“The Chief Scientist, located in the Office of the Administrator, serves as the principal advisor to the NASA Administrator in science issues and as interface to the national and international science community, ensuring that NASA research programs are widely regarded as scientifically and technologically well founded and are appropriate for their intended applications.“
Goal 1: Provide oversight to assure that NASA funds only the most exemplary and meritorious science to enable NASA to achieve its mission.
Goal 2: Lead strategic planning for new and revolutionary research directions for NASA.
Goal 3: Maintain and foster communication links with the scientific and technical communities at large, including other Federal science agencies, academic, industrial, international partners, and the general public.
Goal 4: Act to encourage cooperation and synergy among the science programs and between science programs and other NASA programs.
Goal 5: Lead and manage the Generate Knowledge cross-cutting process.
Goal 6: Lead and manage the Communicate Knowledge cross-cutting process.
Dr. Waleed Abdalati, recently appointed NASA Chief Scientist, addressed the Science Committee and described his background in Earth Science, research on glaciers and ice sheets, remote sensing, and managing the cryospheric sciences branch at GSFC.
Dr. Abdalati stressed that he accepted the position in the hopes of making a difference and being useful as an advisor to the Administrator. He noted that Mr. Bolden had also expressed an interest in employing a Chief Scientist to address the complex relationships among the agencies. The functions of the new office are meant to be free from the burdens of implementation in order to take a broad agency view, and to offer a different perspective across directorates and centers. The Chief Scientist will also identify where activities span directorates, and where these activities may be leveraged, and also “orphan science” such as life and microgravity sciences, which now resides within ESMD, to address the role of science in exploration.
The Chief Scientist will provide advocacy on behalf of science in general, through a philosophical approach. The office should be perceived as an additional avenue for communication, not an opportunity for an end-run. The main goals are to maximize science return for investment of resources; the objective is to put NASA science at the forefront. As the space program is transitioning, there is an opportunity to highlight this.
Authors note: Many managers cite rising costs of launch platforms as problematic. Read the full NASA Advisory Council Science Committee meeting notes for a deeper understanding.
“Scientists to hold bake sale for NASA”(MSNBC News) Tech article by Clara Mskovitz, June 8, 2012
In his fiscal year 2013 budget proposal, President Obama has requested $17.7 billion for NASA. The 2013 budget proposal submitted would cut funding for NASA’s planetary science projects by about $300 million.
Chief Scientist at NASA Langley
The Chief Scientist at NASA Langley is Dennis Bushnell; a bit of his bio, career, and recent history of actions is worth noting.
Bio: (nasa) Dennis M. Bushnell is the Chief Scientist at the NASA Langley Research Center where researchers are focusing on some of the biggest technical challenges of our time; global climate change, access to space and revolutions in airplanes and the air transportation system.
During his more than four decades at NASA, Dennis served the Gemini, Apollo, Viking and space shuttle programs. He invented and developed the riblet for speeding airflow across surfaces, an advance that led to turbulent drag reduction in aeronautics technology. He had six patents and has authored more than 250 publications and major presentations often on the future of technology and the impact it will have on our society.
He has received awards from professional groups, governmental agencies and academia, including the NASA Exceptional Scientific Achievement and Outstanding Leadership Medals and Distinguished Research Scientist Awards. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, and a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and the Royal Aeronautical Society.
Career: (link)Responsible for Technical Oversight and Advanced Program formulation for a major NASA Research Center with technical emphasis in the areas of Atmospheric Sciences and Structures, Materials, Acoustics, Flight Electronics/Control/Software, Instruments, Aerodynamics, Aerothermodynamics, Hypersonic Air breathing Propulsion, Computational Sciences and Systems Optimization for Aeronautics, Spacecraft, Exploration and Space Access.
Forty-nine years experience as: Research Scientist, Section Head, Branch Head, Associate Division Chief and Chief Scientist.
Author of 252 publications/major presentations and 340 invited lectures/seminars, Member of National Academy of Engineering, Selected as Fellow of ASME, AIAA and the Royal Aeronautical Society, 6 patents, AIAA Sperry and Fluid and Plasma Dynamics Awards , AIAA Dryden Lectureship, Royal Aeronautical Society Lanchester, Swire and Wilber and Orville Wright Lectures, ICAS Guggenheim Lecture, Israel Von Karman Lecture, USAF/NASP Gene Zara Award, NASA Exceptional Scientific Achievement and Outstanding Leadership Medals and Distinguished Research Scientist Award, ST Presidential Rank Award,9 NASA Special Achievement and 11 Group Achievement Awards, University of Connecticut Outstanding Engineering Alumni, Academy of Engineers ,Pi Tau Sigma and Hamilton Awards, Univ. of Va. Engineering Achievement Award , service on numerous National and International Technical Panels and Committees and consultant to National and International organizations.
DOD related committee/consulting assignments include USAF Rocket Propulsion Laboratory, BMDC, ONR, Intelligence Community/STIC, AFOSR, NRAC, NRC,WL, LLL, HASC, NUWC, DARPA, AGARD, ARL,IAT, AEDC, JANNAF, NAVSEA, Air Force 2025,AFSOC,Sandia ,SAB, Army War College ,ACOM Joint Futures ,SOCOM,TRADOC,SEALS,JFCOM,IDA,NDU,DSB and Army After Next.
Reviewer for 40 Journals and Organizations, Editor, Volume 123 of AIAA Progress Series “Viscous Drag Reduction in Boundary Layers.” Responsible for invention/ development of “Riblet” approach to Turbulent Drag Reduction, High Speed “Quiet Tunnels” for Flight-Applicable Boundary Layer Transition Research, Advanced Computational Approaches for Laminar Flow Control and Advanced Hypervelocity Air-breathing and Aeronautical Concepts with revolutionary performance potential.
Contributions to National Programs include Sprint, HSCT/SST, FASTSHIP, Gemini, Apollo, RAM, Viking, X15, F-18E/F [patent holder for the “fix” to the wing drop problem],Shuttle, NASP, Submarine/Torpedo Technology ,Americas’ Cup Racers, Navy Rail Gun, MAGLEV Trains and Planetary Exploration.
B.S. in M.E. degree from University of Connecticut with Highest Honors, Distinction, University Scholar (1963), M.S. degree in M.E. from University of Virginia (1967).U.S. Govt. ST
Recent History of Actions
“For Bushnell, Green Is Global, Personal”(nasa)by Jim Hodges 03.21.08
Statements by Bushnell
“All of these things indicate that by 2100, we could be looking at an average temperature increase 6 to 14 degrees Centigrade,” adds Bushnell, Langley’s chief scientist. “At those temperatures, beyond 2100 all of the ice will melt and the oceans beyond 2100 could come up 75 to 80 meters, enough to drown the homes of some 2 ½ billion people globally.”
“We would like to incite brainstorming on the part of the entire field,” Bushnell says. “I am soliciting, the (center) is soliciting any and all ideas, thoughts, comments about climate and energy. We want people to intuit, find, seek, identify, hunt an assembly of concepts of green energy generation, storage, conservation and transmission – the entire spectrum of approaches. We’re looking for ideas.”
“There’s some thinking on the field that the next administration may take climate and energy far more seriously,” Bushnell says. “And so we’re involved in an effort at a very low level to do a ‘what-if-the-boss-asks’ planning exercise.
“In other words, if the White House or the next administrator asks what could Langley do for energy, warming or whatever, it’s nice to have an answer.”
“So, it’s sometimes good to work ‘what-if-the-boss-asks’ before he asks it. This is called due diligence homework.”
“LENR the Realism and Outlook”(nasa) by Dennis Bushnell, Chief Scientist NASA Langley Research Institute.
Commercialization of Asteroids for Expansion into Space
“Extraterrestrial Mining Could Reap Riches & Spur Exploration” by Leonard David, SPACE.com (read)
“We talk about asteroids as a source of palladium and platinum and rare metals.” says Peter Diamondis of Planetary Resources Inc. “They’re also a source of … the things we value as humans… air water; that which keeps us alive. Asteroids are primarily a resource for our life as we expand into space.”
“Water sourced from asteroids will greatly enable the large-scale exploration of the solar system. Using the resources of space to expand into space is what will enable that bright future that we all dream of.” Eric Anderson, Co- founder.
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Planetary Resources Inc.
X Prize’s Peter Diamandis, Space Adventures’ Eric Anderson, NASA astronaut Tom Jones, and Mars mission manager Chris Lewicki, backed by visionary investors James Cameron, Larry Page, Ross Perot want to develop our Solar System’s natural resources.
Electrical current without generators using cheap abundant safe nuclear dense LENR fuels will enable next generation space-planes to use magnetic controlled plasma drives with a thrust magnitudes greater than chemical (400X). Mag Lev Launch will reduce costs and exhaust pollutants.
Plasma Rockets
“Plasma Propulsion in Space” by Eric J. Lerner, The Industrial Physicists magazine (pdf)
Rocketry: A comparative analysis
“PROPULSION SYSTEMS” A PRINCIPLES OF OPERATION OF ROCKET ENGINES (link)
Mag Lev Launch
The same electricity will enable mag lev launch platforms on the Earth, asteroids, moon, and Mars.
Alongside the ExtraOrdinary Technology Conference hosted by Tesla Tech, this year’s Natural Philosophy Alliance (NPA) Conference will have a variety of speakers on the philosophy of science as it broadens the boundaries of conventional thinking when they meet July 25-28 in Albuquerque, New Mexico, U.S. The scheduled list of speakers is here. 
The 2012 John Chappell Memorial Paper is “What Is Cold Fusion and Why Should You Care?” to be presented Friday, July 27 by NPA-member Dr. Edmund Storms, a veteran cold fusion researcher based in Santa Fe, New Mexico who recently released the paper with co-author Brian Scanlan. [source] A text is posted on the NPA website here.
