h a l f b a k e r yPlease listen carefully, as our opinions have changed.
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While it is waiting to be released, may we pet it? |
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Yes, but there's a charge for that which is discounted if you book in advance. |
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The Flug comes with a drink and a small packet of chips. I know. I ordered it. |
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Obviously, Flug will become standard on all motor vehicles, large and small, in a variety of colours and opacities: CLEAR for repairing a car windshield broken yet again by foreign objects tossed from the lead truck's improperly-secured load; WHITE to replace doors kicked-out of ambulances and prisoner transports; ibid BLACK/BLUE for cop cruiser doors. |
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And then what happens when the Flug pops out? Is there a reserve flug? |
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Some author, and I'm blanking on which, had neutrally buoyant balloons filled with glue floating around a space habitat. If there was a leak, the balloons would naturally drift to the hole, where the vacuum would pop them, and the glue would seal it. |
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Which, come to think of it, is also pretty much how platelets work. Reminds me of this. |
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If it wasn’t Clarke it was one of his cohort and timeline; Anderson, Sturgeon, Simak, Niven? I recall an astronaut doing a spacewalk to locate the fountain of escaping air from the microscopic pinhole, and using some kludge to plug it. Flug it, rather. |
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But the size of the leak is critical. Something the size of a door heading for a door-sized hole to plug it would probably take out a few passengers on its way. |
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No - The Flug is about the size of a ping pong ball but expands exponentially nano seconds before reaching the gap. |
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//the practical application// - what does that mean? These are unknown terms on the halfbakery (by me anyway) - you need The Sensible/Practical Bakery for those type of proposals. |
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// There's as much joy for me to learn of real ways to instantly seal a hull breach as there is for you to imagine using a giant wad of chewing gum.// |
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Those are both highly appealing and will occupy my thoughts for many would-otherwise-be-boring hours. Thank you |
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Okay, it works. A ping-pong size ball of flug is drawn to a pinhole or a larger opening. It ‘knows’ when to solidify or else it would squeeze through entirely and disappear into the void, leaving the hole. |
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As it’s hardening in contact with the hull it fills the hole and as it takes a bit of time to harden it leaves a nice flattened flug plug inside, but OUTSIDE! Each ‘repair’ leaves a sharp spindle, a knitting needle, or a spike coming out of the hull where the repair happened. A few of these any your craft starts looking like a porcupine. Dangerous to navigate on a spacewalk. Good otherwise, though. |
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Now the Boeing windscreens are going to need a similar product - perhaps of a more transparent nature. (see BBC news link) |
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