X-Ray Mag Issue #54 May 2013. X-Ray Mag Issue #54: Fill & Download for Free

No, but it'd be fun to watch you try!Let's say for the sake of argument that we need to provide Mars a magnetic field which is the same strength as that of the Earth, in order to make it safe from ionising radiation.The magnetic field of Earth is a dipole field, and has a field strength of around 30 microTeslas at the Earth's surface.What is the energy stored in the magnetic field of the Earth?Well, the magnetic field produced by a dipole moment [math]\mathbf{m}[/math] is approximately:[math]\displaystyle \mathbf{B}(r) \approx - \frac{\mu_0\mathbf{m}}{4 \pi r^3} \tag*{}[/math]In order to have a magnetic field of 30 microtesla at the surface of the Earth, that requires a magnetic dipole moment of:[math]\displaystyle ||\mathbf{m}|| \approx 7.8\times 10^{22} \text{A m}^2\tag*{}[/math]The energy stored in a magnetic field is given by:[math]\displaystyle U_{mag} = \int \frac{B^2}{2 \mu_0} \mathrm d V\tag*{}[/math]Here the integral sums up the magnetic energy density over the entirety of space outside the magnetic dipole (i.e. outside the core, which has a radius [math]R_c[/math]).Plugging in our dipole field, and assuming that it is isotropic (so that [math]\mathrm dV = 4\pi r^2 \mathrm d r[/math]), we have:[math]\displaystyle U_{mag} = \frac{4\pi \mu_0^2 m^2}{2 \mu_0 \times 16 \pi^2} \int_{R_c}^\infty \frac{\mathrm d r}{r^4} \tag*{}[/math]This is just a polynomial integral, so we recall:[math]\displaystyle \int_a^\infty \frac{\mathrm d x}{x^4} = \left[ \frac{-1}{3 x^3} \right]^\infty_{a} = 0 [/math][math][/math][math]+ \frac{1}{3 a^3} \tag*{}[/math]Hence, we have the energy stored inside the Earth's magnetic field to be:[math]\displaystyle U_{mag} = \frac{\mu_0 m^2}{24 \pi R_c^3} \tag*{}[/math]The Earth's dipole moment originates from a radius of around 1000km, giving a total energy in the Earth's magnetic field to be:[math]\displaystyle U_{mag} \approx 10^{20} \text{J} \tag*{}[/math]This is obviously a pretty rough estimate — we assumed the field was a perfect dipole field all the way down to the Earth's inner core, and that the non-radial terms in the dipole field were negligible, but it turns out that [math]10^{20}[/math]J is actually a pretty darned good first estimate.Ok, so let’s assume that's more or less the energy we need to provide in order to build our Martian magnetic field, as a decent first estimate.What about this X-Ray laser that's going to power it?The world's most powerful X-ray laser is the European X-Ray Free Electron Laser (XFEL). Its peak power output is a whopping ~5 Gigawatts — however it can only sustain this in bursts of 50 femtoseconds (this is actually a good thing for the science they're using it for!)The device is capable of producing 27,000 bursts per second, giving an average power output of the beam to be….[math]\displaystyle \bar{P} = \frac{27000 \times \text{energy per pulse}}{1 second} \approx 10 W \tag*{}[/math]Huh. That's…not very powerful.Oddly enough, the second most powerful laser (the LCLS at SLAC) is more powerful!That is, its peak brightness is much, much, much lower — but they can do many more pulses (1 million) per second, so the average power output is higher![math]\displaystyle \bar{P}_{LCLS} = 100 W \tag*{}[/math]Yeah, X-ray lasers are not very good for sustained power output! If you want incredibly short, incredibly powerful bursts — they're excellent.But sustained power transfer? Yeah, they're not great.The most powerful laser in terms of sustained laser output is the 'Bivoj' laser (formally, the DiPOLE 100) jointly developed in the UK for a team in the Czech Republic, but it still only has a power output of 1kw — but it is a near-infrared, not X-ray laser. That means its mechanism for producing the coherent beam is very different, as will be discussed later!Let's assume that you've somehow managed to mount the LCLS equipment onto a spaceborne platform, and are firing it at Mars — how long would you have to fire it to provide the energy to build a suitable magnetic field?[math]\displaystyle \tau = \frac{U_{mag}}{\bar{P}} = \frac{10^{20} \text{J}}{100 \text{J/s}} \approx 10^{18} \text{s} \tag*{}[/math]In years:[math]\displaystyle \tau = 31 \text{billion years} \tag*{}[/math]That's double the current age of the universe!Even if you used the DiPOLE laser, it would take 3 billion years!Oh — did I forget to mention how LCLS is powered?LCLS is powered using the Stanford Linear Accelerator (SLAC), a 3 kilometer long particle accelerator.So yeah, you need to find a way to move a whole city into space, in order to power your giant laser (which again, would take twice the age of the universe to complete).That particle accelerator is also pretty inefficient at producing X-rays — hell, it uses 200,000 gallons of water for cooling per day! Just moving that much water around is going to use significantly more than the 100W you're getting out of the laser, let alone the horrific inefficiencies in the beam production!All of that needs to somehow be floating above Mars, in order for this plan to work.And that's assuming 100% of the input energy goes into making a magnetic field.And that is not going to happen!For a start, if you just set up a magnetic field, it will immediately begin to decay and collapse — you need to actually kickstart the mechanism which produces that field.For that, you to heat the core a long way before it gets to the point where it can sustain a magnetic dynamo (we think, the dynamo mechanism is still fairly poorly understood), so for that we'd need to heat the entire planet of Mars up. And heating up the entire core of a planet requires far more energy than setting up a magnetic field!Assuming a core radius of ~600km (about half Earth's), and a required temperature change, we see that the thermal energy we need to sustain a B field is:[math]\displaystyle U_{th} = M c \Delta T = \frac{4 \pi R^3 \rho}{3} c \Delta T \approx 10^{23}\text{J} \tag*{}[/math]That's around 1000 times more energy than the magnetic field alone required — and assumed only heating the core, not the rest of Mars itself.Remember, your X-Rays aren't going to penetrate that far into the crust (remember, bones block X-rays — thats why X-ray scans work!), so you're going to need to dump a whole lot of energy into the crust before you even begin to make a dent into the core…So that's going to add, say, another 1000 billion years or so to your timeline (rocks are quite hard to heat up, and there's a lot of rocks on Mars!) and as the rocks heat up, they’re going to radiate energy back into space, cooling down Mars, and wasting your efforts!Plus, of course, since the dynamo effect which drives the Earth's magnetic field is still poorly understood (though magnificent strides have been made over the past few years), there's no guarantee that “just throw heat at the problem” will actually do anything!Maybe this heating method doesn't set up the correct convection currents in the core to drive the dynamo?(Oh, yeah, you need to set up convection currents, which of course, requires more energy!)We could also mention the whole issue of ablation (you're firing laser into rock — which is literally a proposed method of powering rockets in the future, because it melts the rock, and fires high energy gas off the surface!) That's going to attenuate your beam, reducing the power which is being introduced to your system.Oh, and since we're talking about creating these magnetic fields over billions of years, let's not forget the changes that our sun is going to make over that time period — it's going to enter into a Red Giant phase in a few billion years, at which point the “safe” magnetic field becomes distinctly non-safe any more!Simply put, setting up a magnetic field on Mars requires a mind-boggling amount of energy.Even if you could directly create a magnetic field by firing a laser at Mars, and didn't care that it would immediately decay, the most powerful laser on Earth would still take billions of years to produce a 'safe' magnetic field. Of course, that assumes that the decay rate is slower than [math]100[/math] watts — if it’s any more, then the field decays faster than you can create it!If you wanted to set up a dynamo driving the magnetic field, that would take more than 1000 times longer — trillions of years, if you assume that you also perfectly insulate Mars, to prevent the heat from radiating away.Lasers are very, very good at producing insane intensities over very short pulse periods. They're not so good for transferring large amounts of sustained power.So no, no you cannot do this.Not unless you can invent a magical laser which is thousands upon thousands of times more powerful than anything we can even dream of now, mount it (and it's presumably enormous power source) on a space rocket, and be prepared to melt half the surface of the planet at the same time!So, as I said at the top, this would be fun to watch, no doubt. But effective? Not in the slightest!

Idiot management in a corporate setting.Let me introduce you to “Pretty close cock-ups”. AKA PCC. Not to be confused with Portland Community College although one of their sociopaths at the Rock creek campus was a special kind of nut job idiot. (Guys name was Forest and taught classes in the acft technician program, THAT guy is a story in itself, I should have filed a report with the FAA on that wack job!)Anyway,, First paragraph and already off on a tangent! Focus laddie,, Focus!So lets talk about PCC. I worked there off & on with multiple layoffs for 6 years.A bit of backstory. Got of the military, already had completed a Mechanical science degree for aviation course requirements. (CCAF) and nearly completed mgmt studies & liberal arts degree but got out instead. So I worked a year for a trucking company as a mechanic and then started applying at PCC. I wanted to enhance my aerospace career. Seemed like a natural fit and they had at THAT time generous allowance for college classes.Took forever to get a job. Turns out convicts were more attractive for the tax write offs. So I was amazed when I finally DID get hired to see who I was working with. It was sobering! Dont let me totally bad mouth the entire company. There WAS some amazing staff and brilliant engineers. I have much respect for many of them and still cherish my working relationships with many of them.I also had the most productive period in my entire employment history on team #6 under Dave Coates as mgr. Often working with Pratt & Whitney as well as GE Engineers on cost + development projects. It was a wonderful experiment where some fwd thinkers decided that people who do the job everyday, had the best hands on knowledge to solve problems. I was on a development team that halved the hours per part for several fan frames and combustor cases. Like this…That should be a #7347 for GE, if not its something similar. Thats a Vis/Dim inspector checking quality control. Chances are thats my old dept. Cross white complex up the street from the main plant. (Around SE 62nd and Johnson Creek). So while I was there I became certified as Radiology (Xray tech) Liquid Penetrant 1 & 2 (Zyglo) Eddy current, Mag particle. Plasma arc operator. Rework specialist, Production grinder, Weld mapping and documentation, Xray film darkroom, Sandblast operator, and was training in X ray reader and Welder. I also NEARLY completed my degree in Investment casting technology, but they cancelled most of the education programs.That covers most of the upside & positives. The aviation business was cyclical. Ups and downs. They brought in mgrs who were rewarded handsomely for “Aggressive cost cutting measures” which meant slashing budgets everywhere and especially staff. Killed morale.So before we get to the engineering part and design faults, lets look at the mentality during this slide towards mediocrity and idiocy. My final college class I was able to take was intro to chemistry. The instructor was the lead scientist for the R& D dept. Brilliant guy, albeit slightly nuts. Prior to the downsizing and cost cutting they came to him & his team and asked what would it take to make PCC R&D cutting edge and world leader? Being a smart group of people they helped design and build the worlds LEADING R&D laboratory in the basement of what was the corporate center.This is one of the other campus building but like this only taller,So, MILLIONS of dollars were invested! Millions! $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$So what did they do? The corporate weenies laid off ALL the scientists and technicians and gutted the R& D lab. GONE! Stripped bare! The head scientist told us he had nearly completed decades of research on how to build defect free castings. 98% there. They laid him off. He INCINERATED his research. All of the documation. All of it! (in one of his brand new casting furnaces in a bit of irony)So during one of the coffee talks we had with the Corporate idiots (Mark Donegan you can kiss my A$$!) We had very outspoken folks and they challenged them in these meetings. The answer was,, We can purchase the technology on the open market!Now let me explain, I was a stockholder as well, so was my father. I still have the annual stock reports where they proclaimed they were the worlds #1 leader in investment casting technology! We led the world in innovation yet now… what?? Were number #3?? Who is going to sell us tech we invented? So when asked they said they were going to covert the R&D lab to rentable office space.Based on the millions they invested earlier, that is THE most expensive office space in the entire metro area by the foot. I will add, eventually they figured out Mike should be asked about that research and by that time he had retired to his hazelnut orchard in Molalla. I have first hand accounts he told them to F**k off and S**k his D**k.So legions of highly skilled technicians, scientists, engineers all scattered. Some just gave up after multiple layoffs, Some just quit. But they lost tons of what is called “Tribal knowledge” Average was staff with 8–15 yrs experience.So, to get to actual building designs besides the above screw up, Here is an example. I worked on another team for the Boeing 777 project. At that time it was the worlds largest fan frame engine and all sorts of brilliant engineering went into that program. PCC was poised to cash in on multiple revenue streams with that acft. We again led the world with the BIGGEST one piece investment casting. There was challenges! To give you some idea,, here is a typical previous casting…(Pretty sure I once worked with that guy)Now, I had a hard time finding the exact picture but I am pretty sure this is it,,Or this…Anyway HUGE right?? There was 2 issues. Both highly amusing! see these are on what is called a manipulator fixture? This allows large parts which are made out of Stainless steel, to be moved on pallets, rotated and angled into different positions. (Grinding, Welding, Xray, inspection, Sandblast, cleaning, Zyglo etc)So I had a friend, Don W, owned a place called VanFab. He built these fixtures on contract. Well with a bigger casting, we need bigger fixtures! So Don got the contract (Which was nice because he could afford to come purchase products from my side business, Vintage motorcycles,, gotta work the angles!) So Don made the new fixtures and delivered to the loading docks. He could see instantly the problem.He hurriedly offloaded, got them signed for and ran to his truck and left. By the time he got home back to his shop up in Washington, the phone was ringing off the hook. “Come back and pick these up!”Don was smart. They wanted him to fix the problem for free. No way Jose! He built them to an approved print and delivered on premises. Now pay me!So the problem???? The fixtures were too large to get INTO the buildings! The doors were too small!! He did sign a new contract, and modified the existing fixtures so they could be disassembled and assembled to fit INTO the building.Pay up! (Very bad planning to order stuff you cant fit into your building!)So the brilliance does not end there! There was a bottle neck. We also had a Rolls Royce project too, plus the added production of the GE products meant we needed more radiology-X ray cabinets.Now,, because of the radiation, it is VERY complicated to build an X ray cabinet.I couldnt find a picture online but its a cement block structure and about 30 feet tall and has multiple air powered doors that open and close. Lined with lead and cement the amount of radiation to X ray a thick THICK stainless casting is tremendous. It would nuke a human into next week if you were inside that cabinet. So there is complicated computer that sets up the shots, zaps the part with radiation and exposes the film.In aviation, EVERY part has to pass 100% Xray and NDT inspection. (Non Destructive Testing, I am certed in multiple levels of this). It all has to be documented and certified 6 ways from Sunday.So, they built 4 more cabinets when I was there. As I said, these are very complicated devices with multiple federal, state and other govt licenses and certifications before they can be operational.So whats the problem now?????????? Hah! are you ready?? (Please don't spit your coffee on the computer screen. Safety first!) Can you handle the truth? Maybe you cant handle the truth?The X ray cabinet doors were too small! That's right, the parts wouldn't fit! The manipulators sure as hell wont fit! They just spent a bazillion dollars and its not ever going to work! Brilliant eh?? The contractors, they dont give a damn. They build it to the prints and you gotta pay.Bad planning on your part does NOT constitute an emergency on ours!So I could go on,, there was YEARS of these kinds of mistakes and a regular basis! I worked for a short stint in the Clackamas plants maintenance dept, I wanted something other than production work. A very smart old guy,, (ALWAYS talk to the old guys!) So he told me in the 30 years he worked there it was a constant problem. New mgmt comes in full of piss & vinegar with their brilliant ideas and want to change everything. THEY know best! Now if you look at it historically and research this, you will find they did things that way years back. It got changed and now you want to change it back.NONSENSE! Our idea is original! We have the best ideas! So you change over a big section of production to the new idea. It works for some things but there is problems. FNG moves on, so we get another FNG with his own brilliant ideas. He wants to scrap it all and go with this OTHER system! But, we used to have that and here was the problems! NONSENSE! And the cycle continues! Over and over again! Now in the middle you COULD try and maybe incorporate what worked and get rid of what does not and maybe just try all the workable ideas but while I was there, and the old guys tell me that never happened so I doubt it ever will.So the smart money was to take that layoff, start a contracting company servicing these brilliant ideas and get paid top dollar installing new systems and removing the old ones. Have warehouse space and then sell them back their own equipment a few years later when the rotation of idiot mgr FNG happens.For years now,, PCC has tons of job openings and they struggle to find new hires. Want to know why?? Because again, the bean counters are at it again. Instead of paying a fair wage, the pay is well below market average. They have a hard time retaining qualified staff, the best and brightest got burned and wont come back and they just keep plugging away with low rent wages and people lacking skills.As long as the stocks perform right?? Corporate guys get paid, they dont care. While I was there, Inflation had grown, housing costs had tripled but our wages had been stagnant for a decade with no cost of living adjustments. Multiple unions were attempted to vote in, I dont know anymore, but they fire and retaliate against rabble rousers who speak up for fair wages and benefits. Workplace safety has gone down as well. Here is one of many attempts at fair wages and working conditions.So whats the problem??? When I worked there in the 1990s the average wages were $13.00 per hr, I was making $16.00 and I worked a LOT of overtime to make up the difference so being certified in so many skills, I got a lot of overtime. Many of us did. The generous education benefits went away,. Stock shares went away, Medical and dental went to hell. But comparable jobs for Boeing, P&W, GE and many other similar jobs all paid much more. The same job I did was at a minimum of $25 per hr elsewhere.I got sick of it. Now some years back, PCC lied and tried to say average wages were $18–20 per hr. Only Welders and a few techs made that, Many depts were filled with temp workers at low wages. But they talked the county in a multi million dollar tax break as part of a economic incentive to pay decent wages.They LIED! But they still got that multi million dollar break. I testified against it. It was fun to watch the corporate lawyers shoot eye daggers at me during the county hearing. I was promised by commissioner Schrader she would review it and make sure it translated into the jobs promised.Want to take a guess if it did?? I think any normal human would figure this out.It used to be a great company, It used to be a great place to work, full of opportunity. I know guys who started on the low end of manufacturing who got their degrees and became engineers. But the greedy bastards gutted what was once the PNW leading tech and manufacturing business. What the founders worked so hard to build. When they retired,, the new broom sweeps clean and the place went to hell in a handbasket. Kiss my A$$ Mark Donegan!Addendum,,, : The old Corporate center & R& D lab??? This used to be at the Clackamas location across from the Clackamas small parts campus. The bean counters moved downtown to Johns landing in a snazzy office suite so they wouldn't have to look at the unwashed masses and grubby employees. Eventually they moved again and I heard to the East coast or something? Ooops! Berkshire Hathaway bought the entire corporation, so technically it is outside the PNW, But the local regional HQ is still down off Macadam near Johns landing.So they SOLD it!!! It sat vacant for years, some small beans tenants here and there, and then finally was sold to the State of Oregon and is now one of the State Crime labs as well as the State medical examiners office. So I guess it paid off after all and beats sitting vacant, If you ever go to Costco in Clackamas, swing by and take a look, Its right across from the main parking lot. Look for the small PCC signs and the State of Oregon signs. Enjoy a Chicken bake or Polish dog from the food court and stare at was once one the worlds leading technology centers. Full of dead stiffs waiting for an autopsy and State crime fighters! I toured it when I worked for the state briefly, The gun crimes dept was super cool but the whole place was sure a trip down memory lane. None of the state employees could believe I used to work there or were even aware of the buildings history.So it would be interesting to hear from current staff, whats going on these days? I still have the old seniority lists of the old employees. Give a holler if you are working there now or used to!Better yet, tell your own stories! To all the folks I used to work with, Hope you are doing well and happy and healthy!