Alternative Technology

Airborne Wind Turbine Could Revolutionize Wind Power | EarthTechling

2011-11-28T12:04:00.000Z

Cool stuff.

Airborne Wind Turbine Could Revolutionize Wind Power | EarthTechling

Potential order-of-magnitude enhancement of wind farm power density via counter-rotating vertical-axis wind turbine arrays

2011-08-10T10:35:00.000+01:00

Fascinating paper using turbines to funnel wind to each other. By using several vertical turbines they manage to get more power per square meter ( the limiting factor for how much power we can get is how much land area we are willing to throw at using it).

Sky wind turbines

2010-06-06T23:49:00.001+01:00

More high altitude wind turbines.

nifty ladder mill paper.

2010-05-28T14:36:00.002+01:00

The Laddermill work in progress -

Bill gates on high altitude wind power

2010-04-29T22:05:00.000+01:00

Bill Gates of all people has been making some intereasting incursions to the global engergy crisis [here]

Nesta more funding.

2010-02-17T22:53:00.000Z

Thank you for considering NESTA Investments as a potential investor in your business. We are looking to work with ambitious entrepreneurs running early stage companies that are targeting large profitable markets.

In order for us to determine whether we are the right investor for you we have developed strict criteria for investing. Please consider the criteria carefully before submitting a business proposal.

BRITISH BUSINESS ANGELS ASSOCIATION

http://www.bbaa.org.uk/

Yes its a crazy idea but it should work

2010-01-29T15:56:00.001Z

Odd week,
I've found a few patents which overlap quite a lot with what I'm thinking about, that was a bit of a down moment.

On the plus side I had a great meeting with Derek Taylor a lecturer from the OU who has been doing a broad range of eco projects and has done some fascinating work on using buildings to augment wind turbines. He definitely had his head on the right way and had some fantastic ideas to help push things on. His big suggestion was using a normal wind turbine during the proof of concept phase to be comparable. He also suggested trying the idea out in water and thinking about keeping the turbine at normal turbine heights before trying to go high ( and get all the aircraft problems sorted). I liked him very sane. It was he who made the crazy but workable statement. He also counciled against relying on anometer data. Putting a real load on the turbine produces different result.

While we were chatting Godfrey Boyle the new professor turned up and also said he thought the idea was original but not with out merit. Definitly worth pursing in more detail. They both made a couple of offers which I'm not going to hold them to but the idea of getting a student to do some CFD work as floated. So in the end very very encouraging.

In the afternoon Dominc the Technology transfer office came over. He is all set up to do part 2 of the RCUK competition ( deadline mid march ) and told me the OU can cover patents but you need to fill in the form and wait for the OU to think about it and really have a reason for doing it (i.e exploitation in mind). I told him the simple patent was out of the question and I need to think of something more sophisticated and detailed - perhaps when I've finished the next round of development.

After that I discovered Dominc is a manic iPhone user so we ended up having a great chat. Turns out the OU's biggest patentors are the biologists.

So what now - well no response from the airship people ( I think they have guessed I'm mad) but perhaps the existence of the previous patents means I can talk to people more freely.

I said to D. that I could go for writing the paper with the results and not jepodieze the patent with the research paper.

Am I crazy

2010-01-26T15:33:00.000Z

I've just emailed an OU lecturer Derek Taylor with the whole aerostat idea and I hope he doesn't think I'm too crazy.

On the good news front I've got a return email from Theo Botha, Head of Sales a Blade Dynamics.

I've also got a response from Siobhan Dunn from Lindstradtech.

My big worry is how much to tell them. How open should I be.

PRT for Perimeter Center

2010-01-25T21:31:00.000Z

It is with some delight I found this link (here), it looks like the people at GRTA finally got the idea. I was a big proponent ( read PRT bore ) while I worked at GRTA and it looks like now Ultra have a working system they managed to get more cities interested.

I always believed this,
once we have a successful modern working system other cites will see the advantages and have a track record they can get funds against.
Once one city has a succesful PRT system then we will see other PRT systems begin to compete.

I believe the logic for PRT is in escapable.

royalsociety Brian-Mercer-Feasibility-Awards

2010-01-13T15:26:00.000Z

he Brian Mercer Feasibility Awards were established by the Society in 2001 as the result of a generous bequest received from the late Dr Brian Mercer. Dr Mercer was an enthusiastic inventor and entrepreneur and these awards aim to encourage these qualities in the next generation of scientists. Six of the awards are being supported by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and one award specifically in the general field of electrotechnology is being supported by the ERA Foundation.

The Mercer Feasibility Awards provide initial support to test the feasibility of a project, enabling holders to investigate the technical and economical feasibility of commercialising an aspect of their scientific research, possibly in conjunction with a third party.

If the idea or concept is at an later stage of development you should apply for the Brian Mercer Award for Innovation which provides funding for individuals or groups to develop an already proven concept or prototype in the general area of the built environment, clean technology, energy and nanoscience/nanotechnology through to the creation of a near-market product for commercial exploitation, ie to a stage where an approach for venture capital becomes a reality.

Subjects Covered:

Built environment, clean technology, energy and nanoscience/nanotechnology. One award will be specifically in the general field of electrotechnology (including telecommunications and IT systems), and this award is being supported by the ERA Foundation.

Eligibility: The Mercer Feasibility awards are open to applicants of any nationality who have a PhD (or are of equivalent standing in their profession) and who hold a substantive post in such an establishment and will be in post at the host organisation for at least the duration of the project. The project must be commenced within three months of the date of notification.

Length of Tenure: Awards are not expected to exceed 12 months in duration.

Value of Grant:

Up to £30,000 (this figure includes VAT where applicable).

Many be some one likes me

2009-12-07T11:55:00.000Z

I got word from RCUK
"Thank you for submitting this. I will await your TTOs email.

Kind Regards,"
And I got word from the TTO that he sent it in this morning.

So how far do I expect this to go ? Not that far to be honest. I've presented this idea to a room full of MBA and it got zero responses and they responded more positivity in later an exercise to an idea which was fundamentally a perpetual motion machine.

Still I couldn't let an opportunity like this go by.

I don't want to cross my fingers on this. I shouldn't have to hope to chance that a potential solution to global warming should get a far hearing. I think this is the best one page I could do on this and while I feel sorry about getting the timing wrong I feel the idea is worthy enough to survive with out me.

Apology

2009-12-06T00:27:00.000Z

I was planing to enter a new wind turbine idea into an RCUK business plan competition. I thought the deadline was the 12 but it turns out it was the 4th ( friday). Unfortunately the OU's TTO office wasn't in that day ( it was a Friday )
So I had to send it in any way and emailed the TTO. I'm hoping for the best. But I do feel like I've let the eco side down terrifically.
Both Mike and Ruth ( who read the one page I had to deliver ) said it sounded good. I really didn't want to do much with it until I had the PHD but the RCUK business plan competition was too go to miss.

Why we don't have fuel cells really

2009-11-18T10:37:00.002Z

'The major shortcoming associated with platinum is that the cost of using it in a 100kW electric engine is more than the total cost of a 100kW gasoline engine. Furthermore only 3 million 100kW vehicles can be manufactured using the present annual world production of platinum, which is enough for less than one-twentieth of the present annual global production of vehicles.'

I never knew this was the limit on fuel cells. I knew platinum was used but I thought as a catalyst that it was used in small quantities. The big win here is the search for longer life batteries for laptops as an intermediate before an automotive use.

Me thinks the solar tumble dryer is good idea.

2009-10-31T21:12:00.002Z

I've been wondering about the solar tumble dryer and perhaps it would have a bigger effect than I thought.

If only Americans would hang their laundry out to dry – and commit 16 other acts of environmental kindness – they could slash US carbon dioxide emissions by 7.4 per cent by 2019.

"This study is the best estimate we have to date of how effectively behavioural change could cut US greenhouse gas emissions," says Ruth Rettie, who leadsProject Charm, a group based at Kingston University in London that investigates ways in which people's behaviour could be influenced.

"Everyday household practices – for example tumble drying or using air conditioning – are resistant to change because they are embedded in conceptions of comfort and convenience," says Rettie. "But with the right combination of policy tools and social marketing, interventions can result in major behaviour changes."

check out original paper.

http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2009/10/23/0908738106

$1billion for clean energy technology

2009-10-31T21:02:00.002Z

"Billionaire financier and philanthropist George Soros has pledged to invest more than $1bn (£625m) of his own money in clean energytechnology to tackle climate change. Speaking in Copenhagen on Saturday evening, the Hungarian-born Soros also announced the foundation of the Climate Policy Initiative, which he will fund with $10m annually for the next decade."

Makes you wonder how this money is going to go. If you believe we must survive then we we must have new generation technology ( or clean up technology ) so someone would make a huge sum out of this.

Space notions

2009-10-21T22:47:00.003+01:00

There has been talk about a mission to an asteroid. The problem is getting there and back in a space ship no bigger than a large transit van. OK astronauts can handle this for a week on the moon mission or in orbit but for the months that it would take to get to an asteroid or mars.

OK so my solution is to reinvent the old skylab trick.

Once the upper stage has been used up, instead of discarding it the command module ( or equivalent) disconnects turns around then docs with the now empty tank. The final stage is now emptied, flushed and the pressurised. The astronauts now enter the final stage using the the command module as the life support.

Certain elements are pre-installed (electrical wiring ) but other elements are installed from the the command module ( canvas walls )- good occupational therapy. This space would be without windows and would be minimal in terms of shielding (crew might sleep in the command module behind a wall of water). So not perfect but certainly much less cramped than the command module.

On reaching the asteroid, the crew then retreat to the command module finally throw the final stage away.

Problems ? Practically no deep space shielding as mentioned and you have to use more fuel doing course corrections.

2009-09-08T12:06:00.001+01:00

The ETI is a unique public-private partnership that is seeking to accelerate the deployment response to the UK’s renewable energy and CO2 reduction targets.

We are funded 50:50 by the Government and Industry Members who, as the ETI’s Executive Board, decide which projects are commissioned and how funds are awarded. There are currently 6 Core Industry Members who each commit up to £5million per annum, matched by the UK Government.

The ETI has agreed a unique flexible funding framework with the European Commission that allows a variable mix of public and private funding. Projects may be co-funded with project participants, giving flexibility in access to Arising Intellectual Property to reflect contributions in cash and in kind. We may also fund 100 per cent of project costs, or directly procure services at market rates, varying the mix of ETI public and private funds to allow for profit. Projects outside the European Economic Area countries can also be funded.

We aim to fund a relatively small number of large-scale projects in the £5million to £25million range. Projects are funded via a set of agreed deliverables, and an agreed budget and timeframe. Payments of actual costs, within budget, are made based on milestones achieved and accepted by the ETI.

We may also decide to conduct, contract or procure specific research, development or demonstration which is not considered appropriate to be chosen as a research project, under the umbrella of the Flexible Research Programme (FRP

Ceramic printing

2009-08-30T12:07:00.003+01:00

I'm a big fan of rapid prototyping.

I realised there could be quite a large market out there for a system to build ceramics on demand. I was wondering how it could be done and found this artical on it.

Its quite a good one about low level deal of how to do it. All I need is somone out there to set up an online company like Ponoko offering as a process.

2009-08-20T00:18:00.000+01:00

Help with new technology ventures from UCL - http://www.cselondon.com/newventurelinks.htm

wonderful wind powered machines.

2009-08-13T23:42:00.001+01:00

Just had to get this one.

intreasting winturbine observation of the day

2009-04-27T22:06:00.002+01:00

from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_turbines

'The tall towers and blades up to 90 meters long are difficult to transport. Transportation can now cost 20% of equipment costs'.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_profile_power_law

from this a wind turbine running at 2000 meters might get 10 times the wind speed i.e 1000 times the power is this right. The numbers say so but what about the decrease in pressure. 2000 meters it he top of the boundary layer were the logarithmic flow is.

Meeting with Godfey Boyle

2009-03-28T20:46:00.000Z

Hard to meet one of you presonal heros but I did.

Really nice guy and a mac user to. I told him about the new windturbine idea and he said hewould put me in touch with someone who might beable to help.

This could be it.

Vert Cool battery tech.

2009-03-28T20:04:00.005Z

Three interesting papers are emerging at the moment they are high on my I so wish they get exploited list ( I've often thought that someone should put a capacitor in line with a battery on a hybrid vehicle. The idea is when you break you can re-generate energy ( slow the vehicle down while putting power back into the battery). The limit I understand is that the amount of charge (current)you can put into a battery ( remember it takes over night to recharge your mobile phone). So it's not perfect. Equally you have problems with the amount of torque you can put out from an electric motor. The idea is to have a capacitor which is better a soaking up power but has a limited density(it can do it quickly but can't store much). On the plus side you do get maximum torque from a standstill (one of the reasons for using them on electric trains). You also don't get such a limited power range so you don't need gearing.

It looks like someone called Rubloff have come up with a much better idea. Making a capacitor which could store a lot of power as well as being able to deliver it up quickly.

I also heard about a way of doing ultra fast charging on normal batteries here. A guy called Byoungwoo Kang and Gerbrand Ceder have shown how to make a lithium battery which can be discharged in 10-20 seconds. If you could make a large battery you could charge in 60-120 seconds that would completely change hybrid and more importantly pure electric car designs. Not to mention storing power from wind turbines. Kang and Ceder day - yes I'd have it if they managed to build a commercial battery.

2009-03-14T21:05:00.001Z

Mr b was talking about a machine when I had an idear. You can store wind energy by compressing air and pumping it underground. The problem is when you release the air cools and does not realease as much energy as was put in. A Stirling engine needs a hot and cold sink.what stops cold being -50 and hot being room temp. Thus the cooling becomes a source of energy not a waste.

I did it anyway

2009-02-19T09:44:00.005Z

I did a miniture solar dryer as an experiment. Shipping costs are quite extreme but its coming all the way from New Zealand!.

Inspired looked around for UK version and found this link to acrylic cutting bending people. This is a bit closer to my original design.

Open source solar tumble dryer

2009-02-17T23:24:00.002Z

Gear generator

I need something to convert .plt into something illustrator can read.

Bike Bus

2008-12-15T00:24:00.000Z

more comments later when I charm down.

Hybrids

2008-11-12T20:58:00.003Z

I had the idea of combing a supercapacitor and a normal battery together. My original argument was that the it's hard to absorb all the energy in braking and deliver all the energy for good acceleration from a normal (lead-acid or NiMH) battery.

This is why (I believe) that they have combined petrol/electric engines ( think electric turbo charge). Rather than have a tiny petrol motor power a battery which drives a electric motor which powers the wheels completely.

The super-capacitor would help absorb and delver the big bursts of powers and then trickle the power into the battery.

Next time I'll write the idea down.

More for windfarms..

2008-11-12T20:52:00.002Z

Interesting article in New Scientist

"The upshot of this is that until now wind farms have only been built where there is no aviation radar nearby. That's not too much of a problem in the wide open spaces of the US and continental Europe, but is more limiting for a small island like Britain. Forty wind farm projects that would have generated up to 6 gigawatts of power - representing £12 billion of investment in renewable energy - have been refused planning permission for this reason."

If there was some kind of alternate bladeless wind turbine then it might have a lot more placement opportunities (£12 billion worth).

Author ship in scientific papers

2008-08-09T14:02:00.002+01:00

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg14719906.000-always-give-credit-where-its-due.html

I quite like the idea that papers should have X and Y for authors and X with Y when Y contributes indirectly to the ideas of the paper. For example supervisors, lab managers would be withs if they didn't strongly participate in the writing process.

Bikes and moving walk ways.

2008-06-02T09:57:00.002+01:00

I was rocking the baby off to sleep and had an odd thought.

People have been thinking about moving walk ways since the paris exhibition in 1898? The problem is getting people on and off. If you keep a constant speed then the speed you run at is walking pace, any faster and you have to run to get on. Other systems change speed so you get faster in the middle but then you get people getting closer to each other when the system slows down and then people trip over each other at the end.

I realised that with a bike and a very narrow ( 30cm, 3000mm, 1 ft) wide moving walk way you could run bikes but not people. Unlike people if the bike is running slower then the moving walk way then the wheels would run backwards slightly until you where accelerated to the running speed.

Finally and most importantly you can use momentum on a bike

If your going along at say 30mph on a bike then run on to static ground (say the belt ends) then the bike's momentum will continue on.This is something pedestrians don't have. This gives two advantages firstly you can just end your moving walkway at high speed and not really worry about people bunching up - the momentum will carry them away just give space to widen out the path.

Secondly if you have 10m segments then if a segment stops ( needs repair) then the cyclist will just continue with momentum decaying until the next segment starts.

So with this you can run a system with stations at intervals. Where cyclists just run onto a side path then pull on to an open area to peel off. No changes of speed should make the moving walkway simpler.

I have seen short moving walkways for cyclists in Holland to go up small hills. I'm thinking here of something much longer ( 1-10miles/Km) and potentially much faster. Going up hill is really good, but the ability to make a long high speed 'super cycleway' backbone. A cycle equivalent of a motorway is what intrigues me.

I wonder how much energy it takes to run a moving walkway? Is this better and more safe than being pulled by a ski-lift like rope? We don't have assistants on escalators/moving walkways could this be extended to cyclists? The trump system appears to need no attendants this is also in the ground.

Censored by BBC

2008-01-07T21:13:00.000Z

I found this news item with a request for your ideas. Most of the ideas on the discussion board were frankly either rubbish or just moaning so I deciced to post some good ones ( just off the top of my head) The BBC will only accept 500 characters and only 2 posts per hour. So I thought I would put them all hear.

Central locking for houses (single button keyfob that beeps/lock ALL the doors and windows of your house are closed & locked)
Device that sets up hundreds of accounts so you can fill on line discussion boards with the same dull message (eg bring down this dull, badly dressed, politically biased government) again and again.
A device that filters out unrelated whinging and moaning from discussion boards.
A mixture between solar cloche and a clothes dryer so you can leave cloths outside to dry without having to make green house gases to get convenient drying.
A gadget that would be an interface to all other gadgets that would simplify their use.(my family cannot make the DVD player play)
A gadget that would interface with our programable thermostat that would make it simple to program ( another CO2 saving).
A gadget that would eliminate having hundreds of user ids and passwords for lots of websites ( like this one) without having the security compromise of having the same pass word for all of them.
A visa card with my picture on that would email/text me every-time money was spent on the card.
Computer controlled taxi’s on special routes to solve both global warming and congestion ( like the new system at terminal 5 Heathrow opening this year)
A device that knows your where you are in a city and can summon a taxi to your position. The taxi would be routed by a central computer and statnav to share part or all of your route ( if possible) with 2-3 strangers to reduce the cost/CO2.
A diesel based electric hybrid as alternative power train for taxis.
A gadget that would identify you and only you on line together with your age. Must have for all child centric websites or any e-commerce.
A Drop box (in only) chained outside your house big enough to accept large parcels/objects in standard sizes which digitally signs a electronic receipt to say they have been delivered. ( I hate having to wait in for stuff to be delivered after convience of ordering on internet)
An invisible or semi invisible wind turbine to keep the 4x4 county toffs from objecting to every wind farm proposed within 100 miles of them.
Mandatory solar panels for all council sponsored swimming pools (average pool heating costs of £180,000 per year should be cut in half + CO2) ( the solar panel is the gadet)
A device that shows when/where and how much electricity is being used in the home and by what outlet. Interfaces with other
A decent electronic book ( bookpod?)
Earrings or head set that reminds you of peoples names.
A device that measures both your movement and guesses at the calorific value of your food intake that indicates what you have to do to stop from getting obese. Or just a general device that constantly monitors your body and indicates all kinds of behaviors and sympotms such as stress.
A way of controlling your tv/dvd/video etc by gesture ( hand up palm open for stop/quite) so you don’t have to keep hunting for remote controls.
Ski lift like devices for the big hills ( they have them for ‘sporty’ people to go skiing why not help the port commuter cyclist).

Mechanical computer

2007-10-19T21:59:00.000+01:00

I was reading about Charles Babbage. Clearly the problem is that he wanted to use 10 digits to be the basis for computation. I was wondering if it was possible to build a mechanical computer but it would be based on binary NOT 10 digits.

I can't find anything on the intenet about it - strange, people have tried to rebuild the Babbage machine but not try to create a one with the benift of hindsight.

Airships

2007-09-18T09:12:00.000+01:00

I had a good time watching Hindeburg last night. Most of the focus was on the use of hydrogen as the gas for the balloon.

I have always wondered if you could mix expensive non flamable helium with cheap light flamable hydrogen. I did a seach on the internet and found that someone mentioned a 60/40 mix of helium to hydrogen worked well but this was on an home hobbyist website so it is unclear if they did any experiments on the viable range of ratios. I presume it depends what you mean by flamable. Still reducing the cost of helium by 40% sounds like a good saving. I wonder to what extent hydrogen would differentially leak out more than helium through the skin to. There was lots of chatter about helium being a fossil resorce to ( i.e it will run out at some point).

I made a list of the things I would like to see in my ideal airship design.

1. Helium hydrogen mix - Hydrogen can carry 30% more load per unit volume than helium so I guess the mix would be 10-20% more than helium.

2. Heat the non flamable mix with heat from the engines again we make the system a bit more like a hot air balloon. A small saving but we where going to throw the heat away anyway.

3. Meathane balder(s). Meathan is also lighter than air. I think a bladder would be less weight than a tank ( I could be wrong). Perhaps it would be a mix of cold tank with escaping methane boiling off. Makes you wonder if you could run a stiling engine with the cold part on the semi cryogentic fule tank.

4. Make the shape more likely to generate lift from forward movement. This way you can get the airship to sink when you stop. Needs clever software to make the right shape when pressureised in the envelope.

5. Like the Goodyear airships mount pivoted (or ducted) engines this way you can use them for short bursts to not only to push you up at lift off but also pull you down on landing.

6. Lots of new materials like Kevlar,Mylar and Carbon fiber.

Finally the huge crews for landing are a poor thing operationally. Perhaps we need to have a metal rope lowered from the airship and the tower to have a number of electromagnatic 'arms'. The rope goes near the arms and is held by a strong magnetic force. Once fixed the airship winches its self down until low enough for a crew member to affix a number of more conventional ropes.

Naturally the big question with a modern airship is what to do with it. Slower than an aircraft or helicoper, with difficulties in high wind. For me the natural thing to do is to take advantage of the high wind forces and use the airship as an aerostat wind turbine. The obvious think to look at is moving large hevey objects around - things beyond the lifting range of a helicoper. Some thing I think others have though of before.

Swimming pool solar hearting.

2007-08-14T09:15:00.000+01:00

One of the things I do find it quite irritating is technological ignorance. For example there was an item on the radio recently saying that many public swimming pools in the UK were going to have to reduce their opening times due to the rising cost of gas to heat them. I heard quotes of 50,000 to 100,000 pounds to heat a swimming pool for a year.

Now want I found irritating was that people kept bleating 'well with the rise in cost of fuel want can we do there is "NO OTHER ALTERNATIVE" except to close the swimming pool down to save money.

Such nonsense. For 10,000 they could get quite a large thermal solar panel installed. Having had experience with these things (we had one in the old house) I can promise that they could easily save about %50 of the heating costs over the year. So no only would they make the saving back in the first year they could also make a significant contribution to halting global warming.

You might think with that kind of incentive they might have heard of this off the self technology but no they have not.

Makes you wonder how stupid the people that run swimming pools really are ?

like i said ignorance of the huge spectrum of possibilities can be very annoying for me.

Well the aggravation is now lost to the the ether

VIRGIN EARTH CHALLENGE

2007-04-19T15:11:00.000+01:00

I found this link on half bakery. VIRGIN EARTH CHALLENGE it does sound quite cool. Makes you wonde what the rules are
Link: go . I was looking around thinking about harnessing the aerostat turbines in very remote locations to compress air and then condense it. If I read the diagrams right by compressing to 100 atm at about room temperature the C02 will condense out as a liquid. Assuming this can be pumped off and the expanding air used to assist the compression of the incoming air ( lets get 20% of the energy we put in back ). Then perhaps we could use the power of the wind to extract out liquid C02 that we could then pump down wells or down to the bottom of the ocean ( so looks like I want to run this on a ship or platform teathered out in the ocean).

Wickpedia has some other possibly better C02 mittigation possiblies. ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_dioxide )

Another BBC Horizon Rant.

2007-04-10T23:37:00.000+01:00

I was really looking forward to watching this and I was terribly disappointed. I mean it took 50 minuets to say we might find it profitable to go back to the moon by mining (some how in some way we won’t describe) for helium three. Oh and someone is selling property on the moon but we don’t know if this is legal or not or at least we don’t want to explore this any further. Oh and someone we found is spending his retirement driving around and eating and looking for gifted moon rock, but we are going to leave it at that. All the assertions where put up with out any journalistic attempt to balance them about opposing views. What about the people who say we should not go back to the moon, what about the scientists who say we should go back but using robots not people and save money and do real science?

Ok a program like this is a good excuse to do a couple of interviews and then use lots of free historic NASA shots for a cheap program but at least you could use Google and try to get some of the exciting and interesting ideas and issues. Here are a few examples to demonstrate how you manage to make an exciting idea and turn it in to a turgid boring school report. Did you read ‘Return the Moon’?

LunaCorp – want to do private exploration to look for water on mars by having a robot people form earth can learn to drive for a mile or two from earth.

Groups like space-frontier are groups of concerned citizens who are spearheading the new developments in economically viable permanent human settlements on the moon. Where are the developments coming from the private and volunteer sector not NASA or Government?

Private companies have already begun to make advances on the beginnings of private space travel would they go out to the moon ( good chance to recyle interviews and stock footage from old Horizon missed).

Some studies have shown that moon dust will be incredibly dangerous to long term occupation – what about astronauts surviving the trip only to die of silicosis of the lungs in later life?

Why exactly did you not share with use the outline of the method used to make water? Its like watching a magician who promises to revel the secret of how its done and then says ‘no showing you how the trick is done it will put you off’. If you where filming a murder mystery would you edit out the exposition in front of all the suspects with the detective saying ‘the murderer was very clever, and I don’t want to talk down to you or patronize you so I I’m not going to tell you did it or how or even why’?

One of the worst Horizons and most missed opportunities in a long time. You could have done a lot better job for a lot less money.

email with life expectancy

2007-04-03T13:51:00.000+01:00

back on the simple but useful front. I was wondering about a life time for email.

After spam my inbox gets full of invitations. I don't want to get rid of them until the event is over but then I generally forget to delete them leving me with a large inbox.

Perhaps email should have an 'expected lifetime' after which it would invite the web browser to automatically refile its self into a paste events folder. the past events folder could be a trash or timed trash( delete in 14 months).

So every time I quick or opened my mail a dilog would appear to say 'hay' you have 6 passed events in your email inbox do you want me to automatically refile them?(yes please/no thanks).

So to make his work you also need a box that says.
'I noticed you have a date in your email. Would you like to me to make this email a timed email so that everyone will get an automatic notice to refile after the date is advanced ? ( yes please/no thanks).

google blogger failures

2007-04-03T13:47:00.000+01:00

I have been having a problem recently - I created a new blog with google but I cannot upgrade my old blogs ( like this one ) to log in via my google account. I have tried all kinds of solutions but I just don't get the pages that the help system tells me I must use to change things. I also tried inviting my self to join up to edit the account but that does not work eiher.

I'm currently stuck using another browser to log in to edit these ones and using my copy of safari to do the new ones.

the only current plan is to copy the contents and delete the old blog and create a new copy ( !) a lot of work to stay current with google.

Well I logged into day( 19th april 2007 ) and have been forced to upgrade to new blogger. The good news is that they sorted this problem out wonderfull.

Ambent memory machine

2006-09-26T13:32:00.000+01:00

I have had a suspicion for a while now that people in offices spend a great deal of time chasing people up for things they have agreed to do. For example we have sold the old electric car but the electric car people forgot to tell us and didn’t post the cheque out. So working in an office becomes stressful due to the amount of time you have to spend contacting people to remind them of things they should be able to carry out them selves. Naturally it goes both ways, how often does some one ask you do to something and it doesn’t make it to you todo list. So much of the important stuff for me comes out of seeing someone informally in the corridor and being asked ‘yes just send and email to this guy and that guy and it should be fine’ or ‘have you looked at X’ All important stuff but you never have a thing on you to keep a note and you think you can remember.

I do remember that Microsoft had a project to record everything you did ( that’s so Microsoft huh). It might be useful to have an ipod which could record all your conversations ( passing and other wise), but the key bit would be to have an indexing system which would do the index of tasks/jobs from the audio system.

A truly intelligent system would keep an eye on how long tasks can take so you would be reminded promise something when you can’t deliver. The other aspect would be to have a central store of tasks which could be fed from different media.

For example imagine this meta system plugged into your email. If you emailed asking
‘would you mind doing…. Z‘ then the machine would take that as a request and make a note to remind both you and the recipient of task Z’ . Equally if the machine spots a text or email with ‘do you know or where is’ in the text it might make a note that some kind of task was being requested.

The key would be to have a sensitive reminder system. One which responded to your actions and needs. Perhaps I need reminding but If I dismiss a lot perhaps the reminder should wait a bit longer before the task needs to be done. Perhaps you need an ambient way to keep an idea or how many jobs you need to do a flock of flies which orbit with assorted tasks.

I’m not sure exactly what the technology is. We have fragments of it – automatic reminder systems and so on but nothing that does the whole job.

Logo matching database.

2006-09-16T21:16:00.000+01:00

Strange discovery of the day. Despite all the image processing gurus best efforts I can’t find a searchable online database of on line logos. There is a non searchable one at http://www.goodlogo.com/ but nothing which would look by description or find a similar match

BBC NEWS | Education | Lecturers stage march over pay

2006-06-01T13:48:00.000+01:00

BBC NEWS | Education | Lecturers stage march over pay

I was talking Alan the other day and came up with a proposal for the lectures.

I think they are hurting the wrong people. After all the students have zero buying power and have no influence on the government ( after all if they had power then they would have stopped the introduction of topup fees).

Not there is one group with has a direct line to Government and that is the Human resources departments of all the main big corporations.

To bring these departments on board I belive the University lectures should take the long view.

I belive that the University lectures should mark everyone and either fail them ( about 1% of student fails) or they should give them a first.

This would reduce the marking load on Lectures ( all they have to ask them selves is "is this a fail No, the its a first"). More importantly it would get the Students on the side of the lectures ( who's going to turn down a first).

Finally it would put the pressure on the HR departments to actually do work. If instead of creaming off the applicants with top marks HR staff actually had to read the CVs/Resumes sent in then I feel they would quickly put pressure on the corporations to put pressure (in the long term) on parliament. Perhaps Lectures should combine this with charging the employer for any references written.

After all what academic benefit does giving a grade give to a student? Students either get a grasp of the subject or they don't. These fine levels of grades don't add to anything to detail understanding of a subject, so why do it.

NASA - Good News and a Puzzle

2006-05-27T23:26:00.000+01:00

NASA - Good News and a Puzzle

sounds like the Ozone hole is on the mend! cool!

Voteing

2006-05-27T23:10:00.000+01:00

I've often said that thinking about putting things on computers helps people think about something even without building it.

I heard a radio program a few years ago with one guy saying 'why don't we have computer screens to vote with'. The answer was 'ah well how would you spoil your vote?'.

Infact this was just a way of saying people need a method to 'vote' without voting for a candidate.

My proposal is that there should be a 'non of the above' tick on all vote ballots ( paper or otherwise). The reason for this is that if non of the candidates is any good ( or its a stitch up with only one candidate to vote for). Then the public can 'request' that alternative candidates are sort. At this point a new election is organized non of the previous candidates or possibly parties are permitted to enter.

This way politicians can tell the difference between dissatisfaction of all parties and general apathy and plain clumsyness.

Map of Amazon just about done

2006-05-22T23:14:00.000+01:00

I've just about completed the work on my Amazon map. [here]

This is an interative java applet that lets the visitor 'zoom' into the website and fly down through the number of catagories into the books. The catagories are sizes by the number of books in that catagory. I'm now looking into ways to promote the web page - any suggestions.

cocaine

2006-05-22T23:05:00.000+01:00

incresting bit on BBC news about Drugs in the UK. [here]

I've wondered if there has ever been any natural diseases/parasites for cocoa plants. You would think if governments where determined to hold back the increase in drugs usage they might be keen to promote/use/distribute the above mentioned items.

Mac Geekery - Now You See It...

2006-03-10T10:47:00.000Z

Mac Geekery - Now You See It...is almost right.
If you want to make things visible in OS X this is the way to do it.

/Developer/Tools/./SetFile -a vi fileOrFoldernameHere

then open fileOrFoldernameHere - will make it visible

/Developer/Tools/./SetFile -a VI ileOrFoldernameHere

in capitals will make it invisible.

Exteame gabrage collection via shader language.

2006-03-01T13:43:00.000Z

Perhaps I was too tired but I think I saw a way to implement a conservative garbage collector in the Shader language of a graphics card. I quite like the notion that the GC could run in parallel using the video card memory to processes the reachablity function in parallel over multiple CPUS.

definitely on the hardware hack of the day list.

But has anyone done it yet ?

>It's a cool idea, and there's been chat about it, but AFAIK nobody has
>done it yet.

>Nick B

garbage collection is a comptuer science term which describes the way unused of memory are automatically reused. Currently most software( windows apps) use manual garbage collection which requires the 100+ team of programers to precisly track where memory is being used. Failure to get it 100% right is the most common source of software bugs.

On the Bus in L.A.

2006-02-25T23:10:00.000Z

On the Bus in L.A.. Total Experience: Total Experience examines and comments on the emerging practice of experience design: the systematic product of experiences to alter individuals' and groups' perceptions, cognition, understanding, and action.

While I was working at GRTA(GA) I was told the latest metro buses ( second hand) cost about $750,000 = I was quite amazed. I calculated that for the same cost you could by more seats in stretched limousines.

We where looking for ways to encourage more public transit use in Atlanta and I playfully suggested that while no one it Atlanta would willingly get the bus ( if they could afford it ) everyone would be willing to take ( and share ) the limousines to work:-)

I also promoted access to the internet with a wireless Internet internally on the longer distance commute busses as a way of expanding the usage out to a larger community.

While financially you get more for you money (capital/pollution and running costs ) in stretched limousines, the big counter cost was in driver time. One thing GRTA did do was implement a minibus share system. A group of people could get a minibus and share the driving ( eliminating the driver cost). I still think it would have done better with shared limousines.

Solar Dryer

2006-02-24T12:39:00.000Z

The solar dyer concept emerged from a dream I once had.

In the dream I was showing ruth a glass box and getting to guess what it was. The box was about the size of a washing machine. It was glass with curved vertical edges*.

The top was a glass lid which would lift up. The back and bottom of the box where mat black plates. One part of the front was a small solar cell.

In the glass box was a large wire drum on the inside.

Ruth still could not guess what it was for. The glass box had a thick padlock and cable attached. There where some small holes in the top and bottom for ventilation.

Ruth could not guess so I put some damp cloths in, then she guessed.

The idea was that the glass box sits outside in the garden near the house in some front facing location. The solar cell turns a small motor like a slow second hand of a clock ( one rotation every few minuets ). If the sun shines then the glass box is heated. This helps to dry the cloths quickly. If the box gets too hot then perhaps a solar cell also powers a fan to extract out the heat.

why not use a cloths line ?

I asked Ruth about it? Firstly convenience a tumble dryer is fire and forget. You don't have to go out if it looks like rain. Nothing ends sticking on it. You just load the dryer up and pick it up when dry. Secondly and far more importantly Ruth feels that cloths come from the cloths line like stiff cardboard. This is most important for washable nappies ( of which we have a lot).

What troubles me about a tumble dryer is the electricity needed to run it ( plus the noise a bit).

I belive a solar cloths dryer would be convenient enough ( ok you have to go outside ) to make a general eco back up to a normal tumble dryer. Perhaps this would fall between markets. Most green people like the hair shirt ( and cloths line )approach. Most convenience people hate anything green. Best way to check would be to make one and sell it. I'm on the look out for garden cloches.

*not totally relevant to a working version.

Ipod with blue tooth.

2006-02-09T22:25:00.000Z

Simple but obvious one.

I'm sure Apple will design an Ipod which has a blue tooth connection. This way your music can both be down loaded from your computer to your pod and you can transmit muisc live to a blue tooth head set.

Headless Book company.

2006-02-09T10:28:00.000Z

I've been reading about the use of 'the wisdom of crowds'. Apprently if you get a lot of people to view the weight of a animal at an agricultural show the average of the whole crowd is more accurate than any individual guess.

Another way of doing this is to establish a 'futures' market in that prediction. For example one has been done on the outcome of elections and who wins what at the Hollywood Oscars - which is more accurate apparently than doing a pole.

I like the notion that a flock/crowd can be collectively smart.

I've been wondering what would happen if a large company used its collective intelligence to figure out what the best next product to produce was.

I imagine something like an intranet web application. It would display several alternative products. A bonus ( money ) would be then used to trade on what the company would invest in next.

For example imagine a large publishing company or a small one with a number of 'external content consultants'. They have twenty or so books they want to decided how much effort to put effort (marketing and preordering so on) into. They set up a collective market (via internal intranet) and then on the basis of the results assign efforts/budgets accordingly.

It makes sense if you have read 'the wisdom of crowds'.

I like the idea that eventually the company is run collectivity ( but no one in the company knows it). The company executives are just dead meat.

Ban the bulb and text generators

2006-01-23T15:42:00.000Z

I noticed a nice use of a blog for campaigning on http://www.banthebulb.org. This is a web blog campaigning for energy efficient light bulbs (very good idea in my opinion).

I've been thinking that I might get back into my self appointed roll as evangalist for Personal Rapid Transit. http://faculty.washington.edu/jbs/itrans/ .

While looking at the banthebulb I noticed a link to WriteToThem.com which had this advice for campaigns. "Do not give people text to paste into their messages.

Spamming lots of representatives with near-identical messages is definitely bad behavior in our book. Please be aware that if you do this, most of the duplicate messages will be filtered out automatically and will never get to the representatives. We will let all the people who sent identikit messages know that their messages have been blocked, and we will tell them that it is because you broke our terms and conditions."

Makes me wonder if I could create a PHP generator which would generate large numbers of messages which people could cut and paste and add there own text/details too. Would the real people that read them smell a rat? Still I think most people have bit of writers block and something which might suggest what they might want to rewrite in there own words might not come a miss. Still I like the idea of building the PRT post generator.

id cards

2006-01-21T23:22:00.000Z

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/talking_point/4625971.stm I was checking
out the BBC website and hit the conversation on ID cards.

One of the reasons for ID'cs is identity fraud. Question How does a
physical thing like an ID card help with online identity fraud ?

If the government wants to stop identity fraud they should try this.

Set up a central website for on line Idenities. A huge repository of
PGP digital signature net. Give away free the software to let
websites check if you are you ( in the UK ) so that this becomes a
popular way of checking.

As pointed out the French don't seem to have any less identity fraud
( on line ) than we do.

Microwave

2006-01-20T22:15:00.000Z

One day someone will invent a microwave which will be linned with a box. This box will be easily removed ( from the front). You could then take this inner box out of the microwave and dish wash it.

who says I never think of useful things ?

aero spike.

2006-01-16T21:04:00.000Z

While sketching I wondered what would happen if you built a solid
rocket booster that had an aero-spike ( an inside out rocket engine ).

One of the advantages of an aero spike engine is that the engine does
not loose efficiency as the external air pressure changes. A 'normal'
rocket engine like the space shuttle engines looses efficiency (
specific impulse ) between ground level and vacuum. The aero spike is
designed to maintain efficiency at all heights.

The kinds of engines which are commonly transfer between sea level
pressure and vacuum are solid rocket boosters. These are the boosters
which are very common on many space rockets ( space shuttle/Ariane).

The idea was that you build a solid rocket booster with a aero spike engine.

Nasa got there first
http://www.nasa.gov/missions/research/aerospike_rocket.html

So I want that but bigger.

more info
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerospike_engine

http://www.orbitalvector.com/Orbital%20Travel/Aerospike%20Rockets/Aerospike%20Rockets.htm

Excellent detailed info.

http://www.aerospaceweb.org/design/aerospike/main.shtml

jet pack - not rocket science

2006-01-15T23:33:00.000Z

I remember that there was an article in the new scientist about the
return or the jet pack.

The core argument of the article was that the kinds of jet packs you
might have seen where powered by the decomposition of hydrogen
peroxide. The argument was that the 60 second flight time was mostly
a function of poor efficiency of the hydrogen peroxide fuel.

The reason for using hydrogen per oxide fuel was the safety ( non
toxicity ) of something which was so close to human flesh.

Clearly what was needed was something which is both safe ( or safer )
and yet more powerful.

I also remembered that Scale Composits makers of SpaceShipOne used
nitrous oxide ( laughing gas) and solid HTPB (rubber) propellant.
The big advantage of this is that the products are safe and can be
stored and used at room temperature. I hope that the NO/HTPB would
have a higher Specific impulse than the decomposition of hydrogen per
oxide ("The Isp of a LOX/HTPB hybrid motor is comparable to solid
propellant motors and LOX/kerosene rocket booster") ( see
http://www.spacedev.com/newsite/templates/subpage3.php?pid=185 )

Clearly the idea is that we should use a small hybrid rocket engine
on a rocket pack.

The combustion happens in side the rocket tube so I hope the reaction
would not have too extreme a hot exhaust. If not why not try to
figure out a way to handle it.

Fluorine Drive

2006-01-15T16:05:00.000Z

I was thinking about Space exploration (as
usual), when I noted an interesting article on
the Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocket_fuel

It mentions "The highest specific impulse
chemistry ever test-fired in a rocket engine was
lithium and fluorine, with hydrogen added to
improve the exhaust thermodynamics (making this a
tripropellant). The combination delivered 542
seconds (542 lbf·s/lb, 5.32 kN·s/kg, 5320 m/s)
specific impulse in a vacuum."

The specific impulse is a measure of propellant
performance hydrogen/oxygen has 460 seconds.
Due to the conditions small changes in specific
impulse give much bigger returns over the ratio
of IPS.

So why not use fluorine ? Well the rocket
exhaust is highly toxic. If you have to destroy
the rocket incase of emergency then you get even
more toxic elements.

One potential solution would be to forget
launching the whole rocket using whole
fluorine,lithium,hydrogen(FLH) propellant.

Why not launch a fluorine,lithium,hydrogen(FLH)
third stage on top of a normal
hydrogen/Kerosen/oxygen booster. The third stage
would then fire outside the earth's atmosphere
not polluting.

This would give quite a good insertion boost, but
ignores the problem of what happens if the
booster has to be (unfortunately) self destroyed ?

So this is my solution. Take off with the third
stage fuel of an inert lithium and fluorine
compound. Once safely in orbit the solar cells
are deployed (needed for the command space). The
solar cells power a small package which turns the
inter compound into the fuel. This runs for a
number of weeks until all the inert compound
turns into fuel.

When complete the crew are launched separately(
as per current NASA plan) the crew transfer to
mars transfer vehicle. The fluorine, lithium,
hydrogen(FLH) propellant is started up and the
crew go to Mars.

Confused ?

Let use an analgy - imagine if hydrogen and
oxygen where poisonous materials. Launch a third
stage to orbit full of water (the safe compound).
In orbit electrolyze the water back into hydrogen
and oxygen ( then cool it down and liquefy both
gases). A bit too much effort with non poisonous
fules.

Alternatives

a) While in orbit convert Oxygen to Ozone.
b) Use a space station to hold and process the ingredients before launch.

see http://www.braeunig.us/space/propel.htm for info

Sea Furnace

2006-01-14T22:45:00.000Z

People who know me know I am writing a book ( or books) for Barnaby called 'Lord Beardsmore'.

The original idea was that I expect Barnaby to match my levels of dyslexia . I wanted to write something which would be interesting for a dyslexic to read.

Part of this was a number of strongly visual technologies which serve as spaces for the adventure to continue. For example we have a fight scene on an airship. We have a chase on hydrofoil boats. Things are more complicated by the fact that the world is a slightly alternative version of the 1930's. This restricts how advanced the technology can be.

Last night I came up with the concept of a huge solar furnace. It was partly inspired by http://www.stirlingenergy.com/ and the Engergy innovations page at http://www.energyinnovations.com/tech.html

The solar furnace concept I have come up with is a large parabolic mirror. This mirror floats in a lake or a protected part of the ocean. One of the places I see this is Ceuta - an ocean city visited in the first book.

Imagine a huge bowel floating in water. The inside of the bowel is mirrored and focuses the sun's rays on to a central point. This point can either be a stirling engine generator or a very high temperature furnace. One problem with all solar furnaces is to make something which moves with the sun and does so cheaply enough. With the sea furnace buoyancy tanks fill with air or water to shift the center gravity of the furnace and so move the furnace its self.

While thinking about this I realized that if the central focus of the sun's rays where surrounded by secondary collectors then the air in the secondary collector would expand when heated by the sun moving off the center of the primary collector. The secondary collector would then be plumbed to the buoyancy tanks so that as the sun's rays moved for the central point then the appropriate buoyancy tank would fill with air. This would tilt the solar furnace back to the correct position to focus the rays of the sun on the primary collector.

I like this concept in that it has no moving parts - nothing to wear out and go wrong.

The sea furnaces ( or lake furnaces ) tend to heat Sun-salt ( 60% sodium nitrate and 40% saltpeter ). This creates a liquid salt at 565 C which can be stored ( in a hot tank) and used to generate steam later. The sun-salt can also be used to fuel chemical reactions. Direct high temperature heating would be used to smelt iron and other metals - the French Heliostat reaches 3800 degrees Centergrad ( hot hot hot ).

So In Beardsmore's 30's universe I like a huge array being used by the heavy industry in Ceuta. Makes you wonder what dangers you could get into. The dangers would be similar to the Man with the Golden gun and Sahara. Perhaps I can think of something better.

Wonderful link to a home page on heilostats - http://www.redrok.com/main.htm

Finally found a link to the french site http://www.imp.cnrs.fr/foursol/index.shtml

Solar Mirror Revelation!

2006-01-14T20:31:00.000Z

I have always wondered why people never put a couple of mirrors above
and below the solar cells. After all the Photo voltaic solar cells
are quite expensive per square meter. If the cost of reflective film
is cheap so why not improve the peak power output by using some cheap
mirrors ?

My musings have now been answered.

If the sunlight falls disproportionately onto a solar cell (parts
brighter than others) then the parts change their impedance. This
makes some parts of the cell absorb electricity while others
generate. You can get hot spots which then make the material 'brake
down'. This can damage the PV cell.

All explained at
http://www.redrok.com/up980301.htm

Practical Photovoltaics apparently explains why and introduces some
electronics to sort it out too.

You would think that the space people for whom cost is no problem but
weight is would see the advantages of having a double/triple the
power for no practically no increase in mass.

You can see why a thermal panel would benefit little from the use of
mirrors. The increase in heat would come at the hot point in the year
and the decrease ( in non direct sunlight ) would come at the lowest
point. If you where storing energy over the year ( few Danish systems
do system store ) then the over production in the summer is a
different matter.

still mystery solved.

Television show idea

2006-01-14T13:13:00.000Z

Last night I was thinking about television and public access to the
workings of science. This inspired a simple idea for a weekly TV show.

I remember a radio program about the cost being the prime driver for
television programming.

This is quite a simple one but certainly has a stronger visual quality.

Everyweek a number of scientists and interested parties come together
to discuss either a topical issue or some core question. Each speaker
get's an accompanyist , that is someone who sits behind them and
surfs the Internet for images/media while the speaker is talking. The
accompanyist is primed with a list of bookmarks from the speaker. The
speaker also has a laptop and can stuff while not speaking.

When the speaker speaks what ever is on his/her the accompanyist's
screen is projected on the the blue screen walls behind them.

The idea is provide a more visual program where the speakers talk but
they also provide links ( for watch and surf people at home). People
from home can also use online chat to project comment on the blue
screen. The people can ask questions or make quite on line comments.
These comments are moderated and then put to the screen space behind
them.

Perhaps the programs home page provides a explainometer - A slider on
a webpage which anyone at home can turn. Far left means can you
explain that and far right means go faster. The sum of all the
viewers explainometers are used to control a meter. This meter can be
used by the speakers to judge how much they are leaving the public
behind or how much they can assume as general knowledge.

Perhaps I will add a few sketches and send it to Jenny's sister.

Presenting science

2006-01-13T23:48:00.000Z

I often think that we have lost the ability to present science. For
many people science is like magic. The one thing people want to know
when magic is performed is 'how is it done?' When arts graduates
present science the impression is that it is boring and the public
must be protected at all times from anything complex.

Imagine what would be more frustrating than a show which had
magicians promising to reveal their secrets and then just before they
show the trick getting cut off by presenters because 'The
complexities might put people off'. After all television is not here
to make people feel stupid is it?

I think what makes a book like 'A Brief History of Time' is that yes
we might not understand it but that's not the issue. At least you
have tried to broaden your universe by attempting to understand it.
Remember more people bought books about Physics ( the Breif History
of Time by Hawkings ) than bought books about Sex ( Sex by Maddona).

I will rant about this issue again and again until I am not heard.
sheep

Horizon disapointment

2006-01-13T23:26:00.000Z

I watched http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/tvradio/programmes/horizon/space.shtml and was slightly disappointed. Perhaps I am getting old but Horizon used to be really cool.

This Horizon was about space Torisum and tried to identify the history of space flight by talking about the history of space tourism. This was ok but the program totally ignored Dennis Tito.
http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/missions/tito_crew_postflight_010516.html

The implication from the program was that all this space tourism was pie in the sky and the entrepreneurs involved where naive. The lack of reference to Tito made the whole program look very cheap and amateurishly put together.

Nothing on the BBC web page does not give a way of giving any feedback.