There has to be a better way to make titanium
Titanium is an amazing material. How can we make it cheap and abundant?
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ORCA ZODE
Challenges
Our applied science garage sale. Cool topic areas we never ended up using for anything. Hopefully they can find a good home...
Making batteries more like bombs
What would it take to 100x the power density of electrochemical batteries?
A review of massively scalable enhanced rock weathering
How cheaply can it pull CO2 from the air?
Cargo airships could be big… but if they're too big they'll get ripped apart by turbulence
Exponential wind loading near the atmosphere’s length scale for turbulence might prevent airships from getting much longer than about 400m.
Laser growth of carbon fiber
We tried to use a cheap laser to grow carbon fiber directly from methane gas. It worked quickly and repeatably, but the carbon fiber wasn’t as strong as it’d need to be to make a good commercial product.
Beamed power for electric aviation
Microwave phased arrays seem to be a more realistic option than batteries or H2 for powering long-haul electric aviation. We still doubt anybody will build them.
Fertilizer from air plasma
Revisiting Soviet-era results showing efficient N2 oxidation in non-equilibrium plasmas. An intriguing approach to low-cost nitrate fertilizers without Haber-Bosch.
New frontiers for bright radiation
Powerful infrared lasers are getting extremely cheap. What should we use them for?
Bubbling ship exhaust into the ocean
When the obvious questions give stupid answers, it’s time to ask stupid questions