This week, Elliot sat down with Dan for the penultimate podcast of 2023, and what a week it was. We started with news about Voyager; at T+46 years from launch, any news tends to be bad, and the latest glitch has everyone worried. We also took a look at how close the OSIRIS-REx mission came to ending in disaster, all for want of consistent labels.
Elliot was charmed by a Cthulhu-like musical instrument, while Dan took a shine to a spark gap transmitter that’s probably on the FCC’s naughty list. Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishably from magic, and we looked at the laser made possible by the magician-in-chief himself, C.V. Raman. Why would you stuff a PSU full of iron filings? Probably for the same reason you’d print fake markings on a 6502 chip. We also took a look at the chemistry and history of superglue, a paper tape reader that could lop off your arm, and rocket gas stations in space.
Grab a copy for yourself if you want to listen offline.
Episode 248 Show Notes:
News:
- Voyager 1 In Trouble As Engineers Scramble To Debug Issue With Flight Data System
- Boeing 737 Pressurisation (site appears to be down at press time; hopefully it comes back up)
What’s that Sound?
- Guess the sound for a chance to win a Podcast T-shirt!
Interesting Hacks of the Week:
- The Trans-Harmonium Is A Strange Kind Of Radio-Musical Instrument
- Modern Spark Gap Transmitter Uses A Rotary Gap
- Homemade Raman Laser Is Shaken, Not Stirred
- Cheap Computer PSU Puts On Weight With Box Of Iron
- ThunderScan: The Wild 1980s Product That Turned A Printer Into A Scanner
- NASA Blames Probe Chute Failure On Wire Labels
Quick Hacks:
- Elliot’s Picks:
- Dan’s Picks:
Can’t-Miss Articles:
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