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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>The mainstream press has had too little to say about Friday’s Taurus XL launcher failure.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><a href="http://news.cnet.com/8301-19514_3-20039222-239.html">http://news.cnet.com/8301-19514_3-20039222-239.html</a><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>This was very bad news for humanity as well as Orbital Sciences Corp. Humanity lost a satellite which is designed to study the spectrum of solar energy that penetrates aerosols, from which we could calculate the atmospheric temperature effects of various power generation schemes. Orbital Sciences Corp has now lost three of their last four launches, and the second one in a row for the Taurus, for the same problem: payload fairing failed to separate. This could drive their launch insurance prices beyond competitiveness.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>I was personally interested in the Glory mission because of something I have been wondering about for some time. We hear of the promise of solar concentrators which would run a Carnot cycle, such as the Sierra SunTower in southern California:<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sierra_SunTower">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sierra_SunTower</a><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concentrated_solar_power">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concentrated_solar_power</a><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>What I don’t know is how they are radiating away the waste heat from the Carnot cycle. Since this is out in the desert, they are not using evaporative cooling, or rather I sure don’t recall seeing a cooling tower when I was there. So they need to be radiating the heat by some other means, and from that I can calculate or estimate how much of that heat would be trapped by the atmosphere, and if so estimate from the Glory mission how much a particulate aerosol such as coal plant soot or volcanic ash would increase the amount of heat trapped by the atmosphere. The answer to this would determine if it is feasible to scale up solar towers.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>spike<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div></body></html>