Readit NewsTrue, but wouldn't the deceleration burn be putting much more compression onto the near-empty rocket than the landing?
They just made it work slightly better enough to keep Zap on the seed-round investor gravy train.
Z-pinch/Zap is so far away from break even it's not even funny, and they're nowhere near close to capturing enough energy from high-energy neutrons to even power itself. Basically right now it's a 99.99% useful energy loss in their whole system.
And it will stay that way. Just need to keep making pretty photos to keep the investors ignorant.
Notice how they polished the fuck out of all their equipment? Make it shiny.
A quick caveat/clarification: It's only true if you're pushing the system over the 100°C mark. Otherwise a volume of liquid water--with its greater latent heat-capacity--will outclass the same volume of sand.
Water's heat-capacity is 4.186 J/g°C, while estimates for sand run towards ~0.830 J/g°C. If we also assume the sand is 1.6x denser, then our below-boiling water still comes out ahead at ~3.15x the joules per volume.
There are hints [0] this system tops out around 600°C.
They have to be registered with the state department of motor vehicles.
Either charge them a differentially higher vehicle registration fee, or ban them outright.
Another front is questioning whether car insurance rates reflect the real legal liability that drivers of these vehicles incur?
If they truly kill kids then shouldn't their car insurance rates be exorbitantly higher?
But, IMHO, the legal minimum liability insurance policy is way too low. A serious car accident could easily cause millions in personal injury damage. Most US states require only ~$50k personal injury coverage.
http://www.gcmap.com/mapui?P=KSEA-RJAA&MS=wls&DU=mi&E=60&EV=...
https://www.boeing.com/commercial/aeromagazine/articles/qtr_...
- about 0.375kWh to produce 1kg of LN2
- about 0.056kWh to boil 1kg of LN2
So you get 15% efficiency; though you have “waste cold” in the exhaust you could recover if you wanted, eg, to run a Sterling engine. You still have a 220K temperature differential after boiling to gas versus ambient.