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To: Onelifetogive
I was thinking the same thing. I want to know the voltage drop.

BTW, in the good old days when the USA actually developed new technology and used experiments to perfect it rather than computer simulations, I worked with a group who tested reentry materials, primarily for the MX missile system reentry vehicle but also the space shuttle leading edge surfaces. We used to fire a 10 mega Watt arc gun at the target. It was an air plasma jet fired into a supersonic evacuation stream. The target was placed in the path, instrumented with calorimeters and we set up high speed cameras to record data.

The noise, the shock wave, the plasma jet was real cool, even if it only lasted for about five seconds at a time. The problem was twofold, generating a reservoir of low pressure tanks (giant vacuum system) large enough to maintain a supersonic evacuation stream with a two foot opening, and storing enough power to maintain a 10 mega Watt power delivery. There were several thousand deep cycle batteries cabled together in both series and parallel to supply the power with the cables coming out of the buss being internally water cooled. They were like fire hoses.

Facilities like that are few and far between these days.
29 posted on 07/29/2005 2:51:47 PM PDT by Final Authority
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To: Final Authority

Sound like you had a great time.


36 posted on 07/29/2005 2:57:40 PM PDT by Major_Risktaker
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