Draft:Original research/Technology

Technology is the making, usage, and knowledge of tools, machines, techniques, crafts, systems or methods of organization in order to solve a problem or perform a specific function.

It can also refer to the collection of such tools, machinery, and procedures. Technologies significantly affect human as well as other animal species' ability to control and adapt to their natural environments.

Technologies
In 1937, the American sociologist Read Bain wrote that "technology includes all tools, machines, utensils, weapons, instruments, housing, clothing, communicating and transporting devices and the skills by which we produce and use them." Bain's definition remains common among scholars today, especially social scientists.

Equally prominent is the definition of technology as applied science, especially among scientists and engineers, although most social scientists who study technology reject this definition.

The Merriam-Webster dictionary offers a definition of the term: "the practical application of knowledge especially in a particular area" and "a capability given by the practical application of knowledge".

Ursula Franklin, in her 1989 "Real World of Technology" lecture, gave another definition of the concept; it is "practice, the way we do things around here".

Bernard Stiegler, in Technics and Time, 1, defines technology in two ways: as "the pursuit of life by means other than life", and as "organized inorganic matter." ... Stiegler has more recently stated that biotechnology can no longer be defined as "organized inorganic matter," given that it is, rather, "the reorganization of the organic."

Technology can be most broadly defined as the entities, both material and immaterial, created by the application of mental and physical effort in order to achieve some value. In this usage, technology refers to tools and machines that may be used to solve real-world problems. It is a far-reaching term that may include simple tools, such as a crowbar or wooden spoon, or more complex machines, such as a space station or particle accelerator. Tools and machines need not be material; virtual technology, such as computer software and business methods, fall under this definition of technology.

Theoretical technology
Def. an "organization of knowledge for practical purposes" is called a technology.

"Usage notes


 * Adjectives often applied to "technology": assistive, automotive, biological, chemical, domestic, educational, environmental, geospatial, industrial, instructional, medical, microbial, military, nuclear, visual, advanced, sophisticated, high, modern, outdated, obsolete, simple, complex, medieval, ancient, safe, secure, effective, efficient, mechanical, electrical, electronic, emerging, alternative, appropriate, clean, disruptive."

Airplanes
The Gerard P. Kuiper Airborne Observatory (KAO) was a national facility operated by NASA to support research in infrared astronomy. The observation platform was a highly modified C-141A jet transport aircraft with a range of 6,000 nautical miles (11,000 km), capable of conducting research operations up to 48,000 feet (14 km). The KAO was based at the Ames Research Center, NAS Moffett Field, in Sunnyvale, California. It began operation in 1974 as a replacement for an earlier aircraft, the Galileo Observatory, a converted Convair CV-990 (N711NA).

The "Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy [(SOFIA) is] mounted onboard a Boeing 747SP. [...] SOFIA’s 2.7 m mirror and optimized telescope system combines the highest available spatial resolution with excellent sensitivity. SOFIA will operate in both celestial hemispheres for the next two decades."

It has an operating altitude of 12-14 km, 39,000-45,000 ft and a spatial resolution of 1-3" for 0.3 < λ < 15 µm, and λ/10" for λ > 15 µm.

Balloons
Original research/Balloons for astronomy Balloons provide a long-duration platform to study any atmosphere, the universe, the Sun, and the near-Earth and space environment above as much as 99.7 % of the Earth's atmosphere. Unlike a rocket where data are collected during a brief few minutes, balloons are able to stay aloft for much longer. Balloons for astronomy offer a low-cost, quick-response method for conducting scientific investigations. They are mobile, meaning they can be launched where the scientist needs to conduct the experiment, in as little as six months.

Clocks
An atomic clock is a clock device that uses an electronic transition frequency in the microwave, optical, or ultraviolet region of the electromagnetic spectrum of atoms as a frequency standard for its timekeeping element. Atomic clocks are the most accurate time and frequency standards known, and are used as primary standards for international time distribution services, to control the wave frequency of television broadcasts, and in global navigation satellite systems such as GPS.

The FOCS 1 continuous cold cesium fountain atomic clock at the top of the page started operating in 2004 at an uncertainty of one second in 30 million years. The clock is in Switzerland.

"For us who are convinced physicists, the distinction between past, present, and future is only an illusion, however persistent."

"Heraclitus argued that the primary feature of the universe is that it is always changing. Put into modern language, Parmenides believed the universe is the set of all moments at once. The entire history of the universe simply is."

The "“eternalist” or “block universe” view—thinking of space and time together as a single four-dimensional collection of events, rather than a three-dimensional world that evolves over time. Besides Parmenides and Einstein, this picture is shared by the Tralfamadorians, an alien race who appear in Kurt Vonnegut’s novel Slaughterhouse-Five. To a being from Tralfamadore, visiting the past is no harder than walking down the street."

"This “timeless” view of the universe goes against our usual thinking. We perceive our lives as unfolding. But it has adherents even in contemporary physics. The laws of nature, as we currently understand them, treat all moments as equally real. No one is picked out as special; the laws simply say how any moment relates to the previous one and to the next."

"Perhaps the most energetic and persistent advocate of the claim that time is illusory is the British physicist Julian Barbour. Impressively, Barbour has managed to do interesting research in physics for decades now without any academic position, publishing dozens of papers in respected journals. He has supported himself in part by translating technical papers from Russian to English—in his spare time, tirelessly investigating the idea that time does not exist, constructing theoretical models of classical and quantum gravity in which time plays no fundamental role."

What do "we mean by “time does not exist.” Even Parmenides or Barbour would acknowledge the existence of clocks, or of the concept of being late. At issue is whether each subsequent moment is brought into existence from the previous moment by the passage of time. Think of a movie, back in the days when most movies were projected from actual reels of film. You could watch the movie, see what happened and talk sensibly about how long the whole thing lasted. But you could also sneak into the projection room, assemble the reels of the film, and look at them all at once. The anti-time perspective says that the best way to think about the universe is, similarly, as a collection of the frames."

"Tim Maudlin, a philosopher, and Lee Smolin, a physicist, have argued vociferously that time is real, and that the passage of time plays what we might call a generative role: It indeed brings the future into existence. They think of time as an active player rather than a mere bookkeeping device."

"Maudlin’s novel approach focuses on the topology of spacetime itself—how different points in the universe are sewn together. Whereas traditional topology uses regions of space as fundamental building blocks, Maudlin takes worldlines (paths of particles through time) as the most basic object. From there, time evolution seems like a central feature of physics."

"Smolin, in contrast, has suggested that the laws of physics themselves are evolving with time. We wouldn’t notice this from moment to moment, but over cosmological time scales, the parameters we think of as fixed may eventually take on very different values."

"There is, perhaps, a judicious middle position between insisting on the centrality of time and denying its existence. Something can be real—actually existing, not merely illusory—and yet not be fundamental."

Detectors
Radiation detectors provide a signal that is converted to an electric current. The device is designed so that the current provided is proportional to the characteristics of the incident radiation.

There are detectors that provide a change in substance as the signal and these may be automated to provide an electric current or quantified proportional to the amount of new substance.

Diagrams
"SOFIA’s primary mirror, located near the bottom of the telescope, is 2.7 meters (almost 9 feet) across. The front surface, which is highly polished and then coated with Aluminum to ensure maximum reflectivity, is deeply concave (dished inward). Incoming light rays bounce off the curved surface and are all deflected inward at the same time they are reflected back up toward the front of the telescope."

"Before the light reaches the telescope’s front end, however, it is intercepted by a small secondary mirror (about .4 meters across) [labeled in the diagram on the right], which sends the light back down toward the center of the main mirror. About a meter above the center of the main mirror, a third mirror sends the light out through the side of the telescope, down a long tube which projects through the main aircraft bulkhead into the interior of the SOFIA aircraft. There, at the telescope’s focal point, the light will be recorded and analyzed by one of several different instruments."

Digital images
In the image at left is an aerial view of the Barringer Meteor Crater about 69 km east of Flagstaff, Arizona USA. Although similar to the aerial view of the Soudan crater, the Barringer Meteor Crater appears angular at the farthest ends rather than round.

Graphs
The "effect of time-variations in galactic cosmic rays on the rate of production of neutrons in the atmosphere [was studied using] a series of balloon and airplane observations of the [fast neutron] flux and spectrum of 1-10 MeV neutrons, in flights at high geomagnetic latitude, during [quiet times as well as during Forbush decreases, which are rapid decreases in the observed galactic cosmic rays following a coronal mass ejection (CME), and solar particle events for] the period of increasing solar modulation, 1965-1969. It also included latitude surveys in 1964-1965 and in 1968."

In the image on the right for Forbush decreases, data include GOES-15 X-rays, energetic particles, and magnetometer. Cosmic Rays from the Moscow station show a Forbush Decrease.

Laboratories
A laboratory is a construct you create so as to produce reproducible measurements.

Def. a room, building or institution equipped for scientific research, experimentation or analysis is called a laboratory.

Maps

 * Buried craters can be identified through drill coring, aerial electromagnetic resistivity imaging, and airborne gravity gradiometry.

At right is a "[r]ecent airborne geophysical surveys near Decorah, Iowa [which is] providing an unprecedented look at a 470- million-year-old meteorite crater concealed beneath bedrock and sediments."

"Capturing images of an ancient meteorite impact was a huge bonus," said Dr. Paul Bedrosian, a USGS geophysicist in Denver who is leading the effort to model the recently acquired geophysical data. "These findings highlight the range of applications that these geophysical methods can address."

"In 2008-09, geologists from the Iowa Department of Natural Resources' (Iowa DNR) Iowa Geological and Water Survey hypothesized what has become known as the Decorah Impact Structure. The scientists examined water well drill-cuttings and recognized a unique shale unit preserved only beneath and near the city of Decorah. The extent of the shale, which was deposited after the impact by an ancient seaway, defines a "nice circular basin" of 5.5 km width, according to Robert McKay, a geologist at the Iowa Geological Survey."

"Bevan French, a scientist the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, subsequently identified shocked quartz - considered strong evidence of an extra-terrestrial impact - in samples of sub-shale breccia from within the crater."

"The recent geophysical surveys include an airborne electromagnetic system, which is sensitive to how well rocks conduct electricity, and airborne gravity gradiometry, which measures subtle changes in rock density. The surveys both confirm the earlier work and provide a new view of the Decorah Impact Structure. Models of the electromagnetic data show a crater filled with electrically conductive shale and the underlying breccia, which is rock composed of broken fragments of rock cemented together by a fine-grained matrix."

"The shale is an ideal target and provides the electrical contrast that allows us to clearly image the geometry and internal structure of the crater," Bedrosian said.

Measurements
Original research/Measurements Def. any act of quantifying relative to a standard is called a measurement.

In the image on the right are three diverse technologies:
 * 1) a typical tape measure with both metric and US units is shown to measure
 * 2) two stamped US pennies, on a
 * 3) parquet flooring.

Musics
One such talented musician from Manipur who has used YouTube to share music to the world is June Neelu. The usage of free and open software itself translates into a counter hegemonic development against the dominant paradigm of the recording industry.

Orbital platforms
Skylab included an Apollo Telescope Mount, which was a multi-spectral solar observatory, ... Numerous scientific experiments were conducted aboard Skylab during its operational life, and crews were able to confirm the existence of coronal holes in the Sun. The Earth Resources Experiment Package (EREP), was used to view the Earth with sensors that recorded data in the visible, infrared, and microwave spectral regions.

Plasmas
The image in the center shows a blue glow in the surrounding air from emitted cyclotron particulate radiation.

At left is an image that shows the blue glow resulting from a beam of relativistic electrons as they slow down. This deceleration produces synchrotron light out of the beam line of the National Synchrotron Light Source.

Plasma cleaning involves the removal of impurities and contaminants from surfaces through the use of an energetic plasma created from gaseous species. Gases such as argon and oxygen, as well as mixtures such as air and hydrogen/nitrogen are used. The plasma is created by using high frequency voltages (typically kHz to >MHz) to ionise the low pressure gas (typically around 1/1000 atmospheric pressure), although atmospheric pressure plasmas are now also common.

Rockets on aircraft
The Pegasus is carried aloft below a carrier aircraft and launched at approximately 40,000 ft (12,000 m). The carrier aircraft provides flexibility to launch the rocket from anywhere rather than just a fixed pad. A high-altitude, winged flight launch also allows the rocket to avoid flight in the densest part of the atmosphere where a larger launch vehicle, carrying much more fuel, would be needed to overcome air friction and gravity.

The Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) is an orbiting ultraviolet space telescope launched on April 28, 2003 [at 12:00 UTC]. A Pegasus rocket placed the craft into a nearly circular orbit at an altitude of 697 km and an inclination to the Earth's equator of 29 degrees.

The Array of Low Energy X-ray Imaging Sensors (ALEXIS) X-ray telescopes feature curved mirrors whose multilayer coatings reflect and focus low-energy X-rays or extreme ultraviolet light the way optical telescopes focus visible light. ... The Launch was provided by the United States Air Force Space Test Program on a Pegasus Booster on April 25, 1993.

Shuttle payloads
The primary payload of mission STS-35 [December 1990] was ASTRO-1 ... The primary objectives were round-the-clock observations of the celestial sphere in ultraviolet and X-ray spectral wavelengths with the ASTRO-1 observatory, consisting of four telescopes: Hopkins Ultraviolet Telescope (HUT); Wisconsin Ultraviolet Photo-Polarimeter Experiment (WUPPE); Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (UIT), mounted on the Instrument Pointing System (IPS). The Instrument Pointing System consisted of a three-axis gimbal system mounted on a gimbal support structure connected to a Spacelab pallet at one end and the aft end of the payload at the other, a payload clamping system for support of the mounted experiment during launch and landing and a control system based on the inertial reference of a three-axis gyro package and operated by a gimbal-mounted microcomputer. The Broad Band X-Ray Telescope (BBXRT) and its Two-Axis Pointing System (TAPS) rounded out the instrument complement in the aft payload bay.

The Atmospheric Laboratory for Applications and Science (ATLAS-1) [(April 2, 1992) is] on Spacelab pallets mounted in orbiter's cargo bay. The non-deployable payload, equipped with 12 instruments from the United States, France, Germany, Belgium, Switzerland, The Netherlands and Japan, conducted studies in atmospheric chemistry, solar radiation, space plasma physics and ultraviolet astronomy. ATLAS-1 instruments were: Atmospheric Trace Molecule Spectroscopy (ATMOS); Grille Spectrometer; Millimeter Wave Atmospheric Sounder (MAS); Imaging Spectrometric Observatory (ISO); Atmospheric Lyman-Alpha Emissions (ALAE); Atmospheric Emissions Photometric Imager (AEPI); Space Experiments with Particle Accelerators (SEPAC); Active Cavity Radiometer (ACR); Measurement of Solar Constant (SOLCON); Solar Spectrum (SOLSPEC); Solar Ultraviolet Spectral Irradiance Monitor (SUSIM); and Far Ultraviolet Space Telescope (FAUST). Other payloads [aboard] included [the] Shuttle Solar Backscatter Ultraviolet (SSBUV) experiment.

The Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) is an international research effort that obtained digital elevation models on a near-global scale from 56° S to 60° N, to generate the most complete high-resolution digital topographic database of Earth prior to the release of the ASTER GDEM in 2009. SRTM consisted of a specially modified radar system that flew on board the Space Shuttle Endeavour during the 11-day STS-99 mission in February 2000, based on the older Spaceborne Imaging Radar-C/X-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SIR-C/X-SAR), previously used on the Shuttle in 1994. To acquire topographic (elevation) data, the SRTM payload was outfitted with two radar antennas. One antenna was located in the Shuttle's payload bay, the other – a critical change from the SIR-C/X-SAR, allowing single-pass interferometry – on the end of a 60-meter (200-foot) mast that extended from the payload bay once the Shuttle was in space. The technique employed is known as Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar.

"Spacelab 1 was the first Spacelab mission in orbit in the payload bay of the Space Shuttle (STS-9) between November 28 and December 8, 1983. An X-ray spectrometer, measuring 2-30 keV photons (although 2-80 keV was possible), was on the pallet. The primary science objective was to study detailed spectral features in cosmic sources and their temporal changes. The instrument was a gas scintillation proportional counter (GSPC) with ~ 180 cm2 area and energy resolution of 9% at 7 keV. The detector was collimated to a 4.5° (FWHM) FOV. There were 512 energy channels.

Spartan 1 was deployed from the Space Shuttle Discovery (STS-51G) on June 20, 1985, and retrieved 45.5 hours later. The X-ray detectors aboard the Spartan platform were sensitive to the energy range 1-12 keV. The instrument scanned its target with narrowly collimated (5' x 3°) GSPCs. There were 2 identical sets of counters, each having ~ 660 cm2 effective area. Counts were accumulated for 0.812 s into 128 energy channels. The energy resolution was 16% at 6 keV. During its 2 days of flight, Spartan-1 observed the Perseus cluster of galaxies and our galactic center region.

Sounding rockets
Additional technology used to benefit astronomy includes sounding rockets which may carry gamma-ray, X-ray, ultraviolet, and infrared detectors to high altitude to view individual sources and the background for each wavelength band observed.

A sounding rocket, sometimes called a research rocket, is an instrument-carrying rocket designed to take measurements and perform scientific experiments during its sub-orbital flight.

Sounding in the rocket context is equivalent to taking a measurement.

The rockets are used to carry instruments from 50 to 1500 km above the surface of the Earth, the altitude generally between weather balloons and satellites (the maximum altitude for balloons is about 40 km and the minimum for satellites is approximately 120 km). Certain sounding rockets, such as the Black Brant X and XII, have an apogee between 1000 and 1500 km; the maximum apogee of their class. ... NASA routinely flies the Terrier Mk 70 boosted Improved Orion lifting 270 - 450 kg payloads into the exoatmospheric region between 100 and 200 km.

A common sounding rocket consists of a solid-fuel rocket motor and a science payload. The freefall part of the flight is an elliptic trajectory with vertical major axis allowing the payload to appear to hover near its apogee. The average flight time is less than 30 minutes, usually between five and 20 minutes. The rocket consumes its fuel on the first stage of the rising part of the flight, then separates and falls away, leaving the payload to complete the arc and return to the ground under a parachute.

Sounding rockets are advantageous for some research due to their low cost, short lead time (sometimes less than six months) and their ability to conduct research in areas inaccessible to either balloons or satellites. They are also used as test beds for equipment that will be used in more expensive and risky orbital spaceflight missions. The smaller size of a sounding rocket also makes launching from temporary sites possible allowing for field studies at remote locations, even in the middle of the ocean, if fired from a ship.

The Vertikal sounding rocket is one of many sounding rockets used by Russia and formerly by the Soviet Union, in addition to satellites, as part of an extensive solar ultraviolet and X-ray astronomy research effort. Vertikal 1 [center image] carried a Polish instrument for X-ray examinations of the Sun. Vertikal 1 and 2 studied solar radiation in the wavelength range 0.1 nm to 150.0 nm with regard to X-ray emission of the quiet Sun and solar X-ray bursts.

Space cannons
Bull's ultimate goal was to fire a payload into space from a gun, and many have suggested that the ballistics study was offered simply to gain funding. While the speed was not nearly enough to reach orbit (less than half of the 9000 m/s delta-v required to reach Low Earth Orbit), it was a major achievement at much lower cost than most ballistic missile programs.

The Super High Altitude Research Project (Super HARP, SHARP) was a U.S. government project conducting research into the firing of high-velocity projectiles high into the atmosphere using a two stage light gas gun, with the ultimate goal of propelling satellites into Earth orbit. Design work on the prototype space gun began as early as 1985 at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California and became operational in December 1992. It is the largest gas gun in the world.

The large g-force experienced by a ballistic projectile would likely mean that a space gun would be incapable of safely launching humans or delicate instruments, rather being restricted to freight or ruggedized satellites.

Atmospheric drag also makes it more difficult to control the trajectory of any projectile launched, subjects the projectile to extremely high forces, and causes severe energy losses that may not be easily overcome.

The lower troposphere is the densest layer of the atmosphere, and some of these issues may be mitigated by using a space gun with a "gun barrel" reaching above it (e.g. a gun emplacement on a mountaintop).

A space gun, by itself, is generally not capable of placing objects into stable orbit around the planet, unless the objects are able to perform course corrections after launch.

Space harpoons
"The U.S. government tracks 500,000 chunks and bits of space junk as they hurtle around Earth. Some 20,000 of these objects are larger than a softball."

A "test of the experimental RemoveDEBRIS satellite [in the image on the right shows the prongs of the harpoon exposed on the back of a square solar panel after] it unleashes a harpoon at a piece of solar panel, held out on a 1.5-meter boom."

"This is RemoveDEBRIS’ most demanding experiment and the fact that it was a success is testament to all involved."

"In 2009, a derelict Russian satellite slammed into a functional Iridium telecommunication satellite at 26,000 mph, resulting in an estimated 200,000 bits of debris. In 2007, the Chinese launched a missile at an old weather satellite, spraying shrapnel into Earth's orbit."

Stone structures
An observation post, temporary or fixed, is any pre-selected position from which observations are to be made - this may include very temporary installations or even an airborne aircraft.

Telescopes
"22-m radio telescope for mm and cm radio waves. Located at the foot of mount Koshka (Cat) in Katsiveli (near Simeiz). Belongs to the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory, the Department of Radioastronomy."

"RT-22 operation is supported by control system, consisting of two encoders with accuracy about 3 arcsec (rms), personal computer, CAMAC, quartz time standard, electric engines and other needed equipment and software. The fast RT-22 movement is supported by 2 engines with 20 kW power each, they are used for rapid change of the pointing or to move RT-22 from one source to another. 2 kW engines are used for tracking of the source."

"Diameter: 22 m. Surface tolerance: 0.25 mm. Wavelength limit: 2 mm."

"The radiotelescope is able to observe only single circular polarization which can be selected by investigator. Radiotelescope has a feed horn which allows to observe at the wavelength 13 and 3.6 cm simultaneously. The radiotelescope operation is supported by a control system, which consists of two encoders with accuracy of positioning 3 arcsec (rms), computer IBM-486, CAMAC, quartz time standard, electric engines and other equipment and software. 2 engines with 20 kW power each provide the fast radiotelescope motion and they are used for rapid change of the pointing or for radiotelescope motion from one source to another. Another two 2 kW engines are used for slow tracking of the source."

"The control system of the radiotelescope provides the possibility to point the antenna and to track observed source in two regimes: autonomous and automatic. Operator sets the coordinates of the targeted source using keyboard of the computer when the system works in autonomous regime. All modes of the radiotelescope operation: antenna motion, radiometer readings, data recording are given from the special host computer in automatic regime."

"The radiotelescope doesn't have a cover sheet (radome). Low frequencies equipment and recording system are located in the laboratory building in 30 meters apart from the radiotelescope."

Hypotheses

 * 1) Technology is an opportunity to use materials or thinking and conceiving in the abstract to alter the course of events so that life forms having such facility can survive.