Could Windbots be the answer? ( NASA Looking into New Concept of Space and Planetary Exploration)

NASA is experimenting with a notion for robotic gliding devices that could cruise in the atmospheres of other planets, including gas giants like Jupiter. These robotic devices will not have wings nor hot-air balloons to stay aloft. NASA are flirting with the idea of using air turbulence to produce influence to make the floating robots stay airborne. The airborne devices are to be called Windbots.

These new type of robotic probes might be something like space travelling Cubsats, but these particular Windbots will be designed to remain within the fringes of a planet’s stratosphere. This will enable all sorts of exploration and monitoring of planetary gases, gravity and so many other things.

Plants that Gas giants lie Jupiter and Saturn have no solid floor upon which to land and sometimes the gravity getting closer to the core would be enormous. This would crush most types of probe that descend too close to the inner regions of such planets.

NASA’s scientists are looking at things like certain plant seeds that start to rotate when they fall, thus creating lift and allowing the seed to stay airborne for long periods at a time. Such natural designs could be used on windbots. Finding a consistent and light source of energy seems paramount. For this; planetary winds, temperature change and planetary magnetic pull could be used. Maybe small copters with rudders or something akin to a fly.

Even planets like Venus might benefit from Windbots because the surface is too hot and trapped under cloud cover. One might imagine small windbots or even larger manned ones too. Perhaps windbot fleets on some planets with stations high in the sky.

Margaret Thatcher's political end (Poll Tax Riots London 1990)

She was one of the best though she was a person with many faults. I think Maggie deserves recognition because she was a true patriot and many did admire her greatly.

Well, I would not mind betting that there are a lot of people shouting "No Way" But then there will be as many applauding. When I was 18 years of age, Margaret Thatcher became Prime Minister of United Kingdom and she gave the country a blooming big kick up the arse. The trouble was, I don't think she always knew when to stop kicking and many of us imagined we had bottoms that were constantly smarting. The reason I have picked Margaret Thatcher for praise is because I am  now 53 and I own my house because of her. I did not appreciate it at the time. I thought she was as hard as nails, which she was.

I worked in the Royal Mail (Post Office) throughout the 1980s decade and it seemed to be a rather turbulent time. I remember the unemployment and the clashes with the unions, most notably the miners strike. Everyone that confronted her was swept aside and I was one of the young who thought she was too harsh.

As much as it pains me to say this, I believe she got more right then she got wrong. I can visualise myself as a young man in his twenties - full of high ideas and morals - being disgusted with this older me, who is writing this. But if I could, I would like to reach down that time corridor and grab myself by the collar. I'd spit. "You are so full of Bull - you know nothing and she will do you right in years to come." She did, and to be fair on Maggie, she is one I did not appreciate at the time. I think a lot of us secretly miss her. Sometimes undesirable elements took the country on and I could not have wished such enemies upon a more formidable opponent. (I almost felt sorry for them)

If I could make one complaint to Margaret Thatcher it would be:

Why did you steam roller through the Pole Tax without properly reviewing such things. It could have been a good idea if you had taken the many variables of income into the equation. You really did drop the ball on that one and then it was the old; "And you to Brutus" from most of your ministers. It all stemmed from the Pole tax - I'm certain it did. You could have had a few more years, but for that.

No doubt, Mrs Thatcher would still hear none of this.

It is believed that the Poll tax signified the beginning of the end for Margaret Thatcher. She had stood her ground on many issues over 11 years and won. This, the hated Poll tax, was one she would loose, but only after her ministers manoeuvred her into quitting a short time later on other issues. However, the Poll tax was the original cause that began to really spiral out of control for her.

It is thought that the riot in central London, with the countrywide opposition to the Community Charge (especially vehement in the North of England and Scotland) contributed to the downfall of Margaret Thatcher, who resigned as Prime Minister in November the same year, defending the tax when opinion polls were showing 2% support for it. The next Prime Minister, John Major, announced it would be abolished.

A Great Steampunk Adventure

Great Steampunk adventure set in an alternative British Empire with advanced steam driven machinery and airships. We follow the adventures of Captain Folkestone and his Martian accomplice, Sergeant Felix Hand. The British Empire is policing colonies on Mars and Venus in the year of 1882. It's a wonderful weird and wacky adventure of a retro sci-fi world from our past. An alternative British Empire in a bizarre space age. The image of Victorian machinery (iron and steam) in a space age dreamed of by people with futuristic imaginations of the late 19th and early 20th Century. H.G. Wells, Jules Verne, Edgar Rice Burrows type Sci-Fi. A story of ancient Dark Gods known to Martians and Venusians from their entwined pasts yet not to Humans who are new comers building empires and colonies upon both planets. The restless natives of these colonised worlds are resurrecting taboo old Gods. Those that must not be spoken of. Their aim (The Dark Gods) to destroy the alternative British Empire of 1882 and bring vengeance upon humanity. Only the dashing Captain Folkestone and Sergeant Hand can thwart the evil as they travel on a quest from Mars to Venus following leads where humanoid and reptillian Venusians dwell. Plus some work back on Earth, in London, by Scotland Yard’s Chief Inspector Ethan Slaughter as he searches among London's immigrant population of Chinese, Laskers, Martians and Venusian workers in a quest for secrets of the Dark Gods too.

Great adventure for all fans of Steampunk Sci-Fi where even Victorian London's back streets are awash with inter-planetary multi-cutralism. The whole story moves well with its wonderful alternative Victorian feel combined with retro steampowered machinery from a mythical, dreamed of, age.