20160920 Magellan Space City Designer Planet Simulation

Re: 20160920 Magellan Space City Designer Planet Simulation

Postby tahanson43206 » Mon Mar 27, 2017 5:16 pm

20170327 Reference #1 Page lx

On this day in 1520, the Magellan Expedition continued sailing South along the East Coast of Brazil, heading toward Puerto San Julian

Begin Quotation from Page lx:
31 March 1520: The fleet enters Puerto San Julian (in 49 degrees 30 minutes South)
End Quotation.

The next landfall is reported as 49 degrees 30 minutes South, on March 31st. Google Earth reports this location as Puerto San Julian at S49 degrees 18 minutes.

The Expedition record of 49 degrees 30 minutes south does not correspond to the GPS coordinates reported today. The difference may be accounted for by the limitations of the mechanical navigation instruments of the day.

According to records of the voyage, the state of mind of some members of the five ship's crews was unsettled during this period.

***
Since the purpose of this thread is to consider alternative futures for humans expanding away from Earth, and since the technology of atom assemblers has been introduced previously as a logical and attractive way for a community away from Earth to maintain a high technology while at the same time distributing the means of production equitably across the population, I would like to focus today on the topic of fabrication of iron and iron alloy tools.

While it seems possible that it will be possible to form strong chemical bonds during the atom assembly process, it may turn out to be more efficient to assemble the atoms for a structure, such as a knife blade or a hammer head, and then use traditional procedures of heating and cooling (and perhaps compression operations) to improve the strength of the structures. I would expect it would take a month to assemble either of these structures.

(th)
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Re: 20160920 Magellan Space City Designer Planet Simulation

Postby tahanson43206 » Mon Apr 03, 2017 2:08 pm

20170403 Reference #1 Page lx

On this day in 1520, the Magellan Expedition has reached Puerto San Julian, and a mutiny has just occurred.

Begin Quotation from Page lx:
31 March 1520: The fleet enters Puerto San Julian (in 49 degrees 30 minutes South), where it remains for five months, until 24 August. Here the encounters with the Patagonia giants and the mutiny take place (107-88)
End Quotation.

From the account of Antonio Pigafetta we have (on page 12) (Item [25])
Begin Quotation:
Leaving there, we finally reached forty-nine and on-half degrees toward the Antarctic Pole [107].77 We passed two months there without seeing any people [109].
End Quotation.

Mr. Pigafetta's account (apparently) does not include selected unpleasant events, which are recorded elsewhere.

From the summary on Page lx:
Begin Quotation:
1 April 1520: During the night between 1-2 April, Juan de Cartagena attempts to kill the master of the San Antonio, Juan de Elorriaga, and putin chains Alvara de Mesquita. Gaspar de Quesada and Juan Sebastian del Cano take possession of the Concepcion and Luis de Mendoza of the Victoria. Magellan suppresses the mutiny. A court martial is held and forty men are found guilty and condemned to death, including Gaspar de Quesada.
End Quotation.

From the complement of crew of 239, as recorded 5 May 1519, Magellan was now down to under 200, if all the planned executions were carried out.
***
Since the purpose of this thread is to consider alternative futures for humans expanding away from Earth, and since the technology of atom assemblers has been introduced previously as a logical and attractive way for a community away from Earth to maintain a high technology while at the same time distributing the means of production equitably across the population, I would like to focus today on the topic of fabrication of a complex object.

Somewhat arbitrarily, today's object is a gasoline powered weedeater.

http://www.searspartsdirect.com/model-n ... 3820.html8

The link above shows a machine sold by Sears: Model #FL20C TYPE 2 WEEDEATER Line Trimmers/Weedwackers, Gas

The web site presentation includes diagrams of the power head and the drive shaft assemblies.

There are a significant number of separate parts. From the stand point of an economy based upon atom assemblers which operate at the rate of biological structures such as trees, the manufacture of such a machine might most reasonably be approached in emulation of the distributed manufacturing system that was used to create this machine in the late 20th century.

A project leader would accept a commission to supply one of these devices, and that person would collect all of the digital files needed to fabricate all the components.

The project leader would then solicit participants in the project, to make components. In order for the manufacture to complete in the optimum amount of time, the project leader would employ software to optimize the process to accomplish the task in the minimum amount of time. It seems likely that manufacture of the cylinder (Item #6) would consume the most time, so that prepare a Gantt Chart for the project, with the cylinder as the long leg. The remaining components would be collected into sets whose total length did not exceed the cylinder line. The objective of this phase would be to achieve a plan that employed the minimum number of atom assemblers. A complication is the size of the atom assemblers which a particular individual might own, because the size would determine the parts that could be allocated.

In the end, the project leader would have a set of specifications ready to contract out to participants who respond to the Request for Participation message.

I am going to make a guess that the cylinder would take a year to assemble, but the crankcase assembly (Item #12) would be a close second.

Thus, a customer for one of these machines would expect to wait a year, and I am guessing that payment would be expected to accumulate in an escrow account during the assembly process, since all of the participants will have given up earning opportunities to take on this commission. In other words, the buyer would be expected to pay for the machine time expended in manufacture of the machine, whether or not the process runs to completion. A secondary market for insurance can be expected to develop to cover potential losses that might occur.

In an economy such as this, the concept of "mass manufacture" might still exist, but a group that decides to invest in equipment to manufacture large numbers of items would (no doubt) think long and hard about the potential sales opportunity available to them.

*** As a follow up, a neighbor provided an old Ryobi 13 cc weedeater, model 700r. I am planning to disassemble it, with a view to expanding upon the discussion of the Sears weed eater, which was based upon the web site image.

(th)
Last edited by tahanson43206 on Mon Apr 17, 2017 2:18 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: 20160920 Magellan Space City Designer Planet Simulation

Postby tahanson43206 » Mon Apr 10, 2017 3:10 pm

Re: 20160920 Magellan Space City Designer Planet Simulation
20170410 Reference #1 Page lx

On this day in 1520, the Magellan Expedition has begun to settle into a wait for favorable weather at Puerto San Julian

Begin Quotation from Page lx:
31 March 1520: The fleet enters Puerto San Julian (in 49 degrees 30 minutes South), where it remains for five months, until 24 August. Here the encounters with the Patagonia giants and the mutiny take place (107-88)
End Quotation.

From the account of Antonio Pigafetta we have (on page 12) (Item [25])
Begin Quotation:
One day we suddenly saw a naked man of giant stature on the shore of the port, dancing, singing, and throwing dust on his head[110]
End Quotation.
***

Since the purpose of this thread is to consider alternative futures for humans expanding away from Earth, and since the technology of atom assemblers has been introduced previously as a logical and attractive way for a community away from Earth to maintain a high technology while at the same time distributing the means of production equitably across the population, I would like to focus today on the topic of fabrication of a complex object.

A neighbor provided an old Ryobi 31 cc weedeater, model 700r. I am planning to disassemble it, with a view to expanding upon the discussion of the Sears weed eater, which was based upon the web site image.

In approaching this object, I find myself more than a little daunted by the challenge facing a hypothetical atom assembler project manager in some future time and place.

The machine can be divided into two major sections. The power head is the more complex of the two components. The tool shaft is the larger of the two.

The tool shaft includes a metal tube through which (I am guessing) a wire cable presumably transfers power to the plastic whip mechanism at the foot of the tool.

The metal tube might be fabricated with a curve similar to the one to be seen in the Ryobi example, but it seems more likely that the tube could be fabricated as a long straight piece, and then bent into the final form. It would be my guess that a great number of similar decisions will be required as the visualization of recreation of the Ryobi whip using atom assemblers proceeds.

2017/04/11 Addendum .... since the Ryobi weedeater is a gasoline powered machine (in this case a 2-cycle design), it needs both gasoline and oil for lubrication.

In an economy based upon atom assemblers, production of long chains of hydrocarbons might be achieved by adding hydrogen atoms and carbon atoms to chains assembled in tunnels. Input to the assembly tunnels would be streams of carbon and hydrogen atoms. In order for the production system to be practical, there would be a lot of these tunnels. Output would fall (if in a gravity field) into a collection container.

Machines like these could certainly be used today, on Earth.

(th)
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Re: 20160920 Magellan Space City Designer Planet Simulation

Postby tahanson43206 » Mon Apr 17, 2017 2:24 pm

Re: 20160920 Magellan Space City Designer Planet Simulation
20170417 Reference #1 Page lx

On this day in 1520, the Magellan Expedition continued a wait for favorable weather at Puerto San Julian.

Begin Quotation from Page lx:
31 March 1520: The fleet enters Puerto San Julian (in 49 degrees 30 minutes South), where it remains for five months, until 24 August. Here the encounters with the Patagonia giants and the mutiny take place (107-88)
End Quotation.

Because a mutiny occurred on April 1, and 40 men were condemned to death, I would have to assume the state of mind of the crew was unsettled during this period.

Because the Santiago was lost on the 3rd of May, I'm assuming it must have been dispatched to search for a passage to the Pacific Ocean around this time.

***
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Re: 20160920 Magellan Space City Designer Planet Simulation

Postby tahanson43206 » Tue Apr 25, 2017 12:08 am

20170424 Reference #1 Page lx

On this day in 1520, the Magellan Expedition continued a wait for favorable weather at Puerto San Julian.

Begin Quotation from Page lx:
31 March 1520: The fleet enters Puerto San Julian (in 49 degrees 30 minutes South), where it remains for five months, until 24 August. Here the encounters with the Patagonia giants and the mutiny take place (107-88)
End Quotation.

Because the Santiago was lost on the 3rd of May, I'm assuming it must have been dispatched to search for a passage to the Pacific Ocean around this time.

Antonio Pigafetta does not (apparently) leave a written record of the two months from arrival at the port where they waited out the Southern winter. His account resumes with an account of the appearance of a native:
Begin Quotation from entry [25] on Page 12:
We passed two months there without seeing any people [109]. One day we suddenly saw a naked man of giant stature on the shore of the port, dancing, singing, and throwing dust on his head [110].
End Quotation.

In entry [25] while the expedition was travelling South toward the winter port, Pagafetta reported:
Begin Quotation:
... we encountered two islands full of geese and seawolves [99]. 75 Truly, the great number of these geese cannot be told; in one hour we loaded the five ships [with them] [100].
End Quotation.

I wonder if the geese were loaded while still alive, which would insure their preservation.

It seems reasonable to suppose as well, that the crew would have supplemented their diet with fishing, but the only fisherman I am sure of is Pigafetta himself.

***
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Re: 20160920 Magellan Space City Designer Planet Simulation

Postby tahanson43206 » Mon May 01, 2017 1:10 pm

Re: 20160920 Magellan Space City Designer Planet Simulation
20170501 Reference #1 Page lx

On this day in 1520, the Magellan Expedition continued a wait for favorable weather at Puerto San Julian.

Begin Quotation from Page lx:
31 March 1520: The fleet enters Puerto San Julian (in 49 degrees 30 minutes South), where it remains for five months, until 24 August. Here the encounters with the Patagonia giants and the mutiny take place (107-88)
End Quotation.

Because the Santiago was lost on the 3rd of May, I'm assuming it must have been dispatched to search for a passage to the Pacific Ocean around this time.

This message covers the period from 1520 through today in 2017, and on to an indeterminate future time, perhaps 300 years out.

While the Magellan expedition spends the next several months waiting out the Southern winter, SpaceX has just completed another successful launch and landing of the first stage on land.

The vision of an alternate future I'd like to bring to consideration today is a Novella in the March/April 2017 issue of Analog Science Fiction and Fact, by John Alfred Taylor

The story is entitled: "Plaisir D'Amour". It is set in a space going mining vessel with a permanent crew of about 300 people. Taylor has departed from conventional wisdom about such expeditions by assuming the environment will be WITHOUT artificial gravity (except for a scientific laboratory for starting plant growth), and genetic engineering of human embryos to eliminate unnecessary legs.

Taylor's vessel is carefully constructed. It holds up fairly well to my critical eye to this point, although I admit to some skepticism about the genetic engineering idea.

What I find particularly interesting is the care Taylor has devoted to the design and maintenance of the social environment. The crew of the vessel is only slightly larger than the Magellan expedition when it left Spain. In Magellan's time I am guessing that most crew members were selected for appropriate skills, education and attitudes of the time, but the several mutinies that occurred certainly suggest (to me at least) that the psychological environment for the crew was not a significant consideration. I suppose it might be argued that the religious setting of the time might be considered a "psychological environment", but if so, it my view it wasn't particularly successful.

Taylor's description of the skill sets of the crew of the mining vessel is remarkably detailed, as is his study of the learning environment for children born aboard the vessel. Interestingly, Taylor postulates more than one such microgravity environment, so that there is the possibility of exchange of personnel between the communities, and thus increased chances of genetic and social diversity.

(th)
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Re: 20160920 Magellan Space City Designer Planet Simulation

Postby tahanson43206 » Mon May 08, 2017 9:10 pm

Re: 20160920 Magellan Space City Designer Planet Simulation
20170508 Reference #1 Page lx

On this day in 1520, the Magellan Expedition continued a wait for favorable weather at Puerto San Julian. However, the Santiago was lost on the 3rd of May.

The life of a seaman in the 16th Century was difficult. A bit of a glimpse of what that life might have been like is provided by this article:

http://www.newworldexploration.com/expl ... th-century

***
The text on this web page add details to the picture of the life of the sailors on the Magellan expedition:
http://www.elizabethan-era.org.uk/ferdi ... -ships.htm

In this article, the fate of the Santiago was given as: "A storm destroyed the Santiago"

***
The web page here provides a bit more detail about the fate of the Santiago:
http://www.history.com/topics/explorati ... d-magellan

Begin Quotation:
Meanwhile Magellan had sent the Santiago to explore the route ahead, where it was shipwrecked during a terrible storm. The ship’s crewmembers were rescued and assigned out among the remaining ships.
End Quotation.

(th)
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Re: 20160920 Magellan Space City Designer Planet Simulation

Postby tahanson43206 » Mon May 15, 2017 3:52 pm

Re: 20160920 Magellan Space City Designer Planet Simulation
20170515 Reference #1 Page lx

On this day in 1520, the Magellan Expedition continued a wait for favorable weather at Puerto San Julian.

The Santiago was lost on May 3rd, so I would imagine the remaining crew of (about) 200 sailors was still sorting out the distribution of Santiago's crew among the remaining four vessels.

The voyage of exploration resumed on August 24, so there were three months of Southern wintry weather to endure.

***
My guess is that Magellan kept the crew busy from morning until night and quite possibly through the night as well.

I wonder how modern commanders attend to the same concerns, as they lead vessels on long cruises around the world. From anecdotal reports, I'm under the impression keeping everyone busy remains a useful management tool.

Looking forward, and with the International Space Station as a guide, it seems reasonable to suppose that keeping crew busy will not be difficult, with a bit of planning, and perhaps with some consideration of the personalities that would be chosen for today's crews.

(th)
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Re: 20160920 Magellan Space City Designer Planet Simulation

Postby tahanson43206 » Mon May 22, 2017 7:29 pm

Re: 20160920 Magellan Space City Designer Planet Simulation
20170522 Reference #1 Page lx

On this day in 1520, the Magellan Expedition continued a wait for favorable weather at Puerto San Julian.

The Santiago was lost on May 3rd, so I would imagine the remaining crew of (about) 200 sailors was still sorting out the distribution of Santiago's crew among the remaining four vessels.

The voyage of exploration resumed on August 24, so there were three months of Southern wintry weather to endure.

***
Google provides a "Quick Fact" about the port where the expedition spent the next three months:
Begin Quotation:
Puerto San Julián is a natural harbour in Patagonia in the Santa Cruz Province of Argentina located at 49°18′S 67°43′W. In the days of sailing ships it formed a stopping point, 180 km south of Puerto Deseado.Wikipedia
End Quotation.

I wondered what the weather might have been like in Magellan's time. It is likely that the expedition log books would have recorded the conditions that the crew endured during the layover, but assuming the weather is comparable today to what it was then, we have this report, from https://www.windfinder.com/webcams/puerto_san_julian

Wind: 10 kts 2 degrees Centigrade, Sky Clear

Data based on our forecast model SUNRISE
9:05 SUNSET
17:50 LOCAL TIME
12:20 am (UTC -3) ELEVATION
62 m

The following link reports there is a replica of the Victoria at Puerto San Julian.
http://www.globeholidays.net/South_Amer ... ebCam1.htm

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Repli ... 6577?hl=en

This photo of the replica was uploaded to Google Maps by Sergio Miranda November of 2016.
https://plus.google.com/photos/photo/10 ... 6449777650

The terrain is revealed in adjacent photos.

The gallery includes a view of the interior of the Victoria.

It turns out that the gallery includes multiple views of the interior of the Victoria, as well as the exterior and the surroundings.

My impression is that this entire exhibit was completed between 2005 and 2010.

The many visitors who have uploaded images of the Victoria exhibit have certainly added greatly to the detail available about this location, and the ship and its crew.

*** If anyone is interested in contributing to this 500 years later review of the Magellan expedition, please use private email here on the Forum to suggest additions.

I am particularly interested in detail about the stay in Peurto San Julian, which certainly looks like uninspiring terrain based upon the photographs referenced above.

The crew of about 200 must have found ways to keep busy, but Antonio Pigafetta's account does not pick up until later in the stay, when a native Patagonian appeared.

A likeness which I presume to be of the Pagagonian is included in the exhibit on the "Victoria".

(th)

(th)
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Re: 20160920 Magellan Space City Designer Planet Simulation

Postby tahanson43206 » Mon May 29, 2017 2:11 pm

Re: 20160920 Magellan Space City Designer Planet Simulation
20170529 Reference #1 Page lx

On this day in 1520, the Magellan Expedition continued a wait for favorable weather at Puerto San Julian.

1The voyage of exploration resumed on August 24, so there were three months of Southern wintry weather to endure.

***
Google provides a "Quick Fact" about the port where the expedition spent the next three months:
Begin Quotation:
Puerto San Julián is a natural harbour in Patagonia in the Santa Cruz Province of Argentina located at 49°18′S 67°43′W. In the days of sailing ships it formed a stopping point, 180 km south of Puerto Deseado.Wikipedia
End Quotation.

I wondered what the weather might have been like in Magellan's time. It is likely that the expedition log books would have recorded the conditions that the crew endured during the layover, but assuming the weather is comparable today to what it was then, we have this report, from https://www.windfinder.com/webcams/puerto_san_julian

***
Wind and weather webcams
Puerto San Julián
Maps
11kts
North
6°C
Broken
Data based on our forecast model SUNRISE 9:11 SUNSET 17:45 LOCAL TIME
11:06 (UTC -3) ELEVATION 62 m

For reference, temperatures are just above freezing.

I'm assuming the crew of the expedition would be spending most of their time below decks, but since those were hardy folk, they might have kept busy in the open air.

Google Earth offers a ground view of Puerto San Julian, including a visit to the Magellan Expedition Memorial display of a replica of the Victoria.

The coordinates shown for the drive towards the replica are given as 49 degrees 18 minutes 39.33 seconds South 67 degrees 42 minutes 57.01 seconds West

The date of the visit to the site is given as (c) 2010.

(th)
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