Warning: Parameter 1 to wp_default_scripts() expected to be a reference, value given in /www/htdocs/w00cfc41/blog/wordpress/wp-includes/plugin.php on line 580
powermarble « Rabenschwinges Cavern blog

Posts Tagged ‘powermarble’

Twenty days

Posted by - Thursday, November 24th, 2011

Twenty days since my last post.

I´ve been busy with a lot of things, and finally found time again to keep you updated.

One of the worst things that happened was the theft of one of our Dasharen linking books. It happened two weeks ago, when B.P. brought some linking books to a conference. When he packed together after it had ended, he found the book missing.

So, someone who has access to our conferences must have taken it – unfortunately, nearly all of the expedition members took part in this particular presentation.

Further investigations pending.

About Dasharen: Tom Woods and Shane Kennett have devised a theory about the “big blast” that happened some months ago, when our powermarble experiment exploded rather spectacularly. They suspect the strange electromagnetic fields to be responsible for the energy fluctuation that caused the explosion. So, we  have to be careful with bringing energy devices to this age in the future…

Ah, by the way: I´ve brought some unexpected guests to Afelahn without even noticing.

We were watching animal life in Risoahl, our giant bamboo age, and somehow they must have gotten into one of the bags I had my equipment in.

When I had returned to Afelahn, I heard some chirping sounds – at first, I thought the source of the noise to be outside of the base. But when I moved, I could make out it actually was inside… an unsettling feeling, you know, especially because the creatures in Afelahn I´ve met yet are not very pretty or pleasant. (e.g. the lobsterpede).

Only after I found bite marks on a sandwich I had left on my desk in my office, I knew it had to be some kind of rodent.

Now, I´ve searched through the whole base, but didn´t find anything, albeit hearing these noises from time to time. A least it seems to be smaller than a rat, according to the bite marks… maybe some kind of mouse? Where could it be hiding?

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Oh, how time flies…

Posted by - Wednesday, October 19th, 2011

It’s just two days I made my previous post, and so much has happened! The same day, another bunch of new expedition members arrived, more than 25 people eager to work with us.

They are badly needed, we work on various ages already, and our teams are far-scattered.

Now the expedition consists of more than 80 people.
B.P. held a little speech yesterday in front of the staff in Kurat hood, and suggested, that maybe it was time to move to another, bigger place – Asheten mansion is big, but there isn’t infinite space.

Surprisingly, he approached me after the speech and asked, if I could house some of the expedition members in my base in Afelahn.

I told him, that I haven’t planned it to have bedrooms, kitchens or bath rooms, it is planned to be a working place, not a place for living, after all.
He asked me to think over it.

I’m not sure… the layout of the home base doesn’t allow much comfort.
On the other hand, it would be nice to have company here while working on different projects – and even a bedroom of my own. We’ll see.

Speaking of Afelahn – work has speeded up amazingly. We are almost done with the power room, and have added three more rooms, all of them in one day.
The first is a staircase that leads to a first floor, through a door in Lab I.
Shouldn’t have brought the artwork here so soon, it’s covered in dust right now…

I think, wooden stairs would fit best here.
The second room, at the first floor, is a “waiting room”. Here people can wait and relax, while I’m working in my office (the third room, connected to the waiting room with a small stairway.)
I plan to have some couches, carpets and plants here.

And my office – this will be my own, personal space for writing and stuff. I’ve thought of breaking through the floor and adding a glass floor, so I can watch the garage from up here – not so sure about that, though, because I’m suffering from vertigo, and I don’t know if I could ever be fully relaxed while sitting on a see-through floor…

Maybe I’ll use the idea for a different room.

I plan to excavate another room near the power room – some kind of control room, where I – or someone who is keen with engineering – can control and adjust the machinery and power grid system of the base.

The powermarble is a enormously powerful energy source, that opens a lot of possibilites for future additions to the base.

I’m so amazed to see it all come to fruition – all the work, all the planning and learning – now everyone can see our accomplishments!
Well, not everyone, yet. I’ve decided to postpone the opening of Afelahn to the public – there is a lot of work still to be done, and I want to be sure everyone enjoys the stay (and is safe from any dangers).

Gosh, I just realized I haven’t provided any KI-shot yet… let me see, what I can show you.

There, another of my lamp designs, used for example in the link-in (or entry) room:

Tags: , , , , , ,
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Power room

Posted by - Monday, October 17th, 2011

Finally, after many delays, we have finished excavating the power room.

It is the highest room at the moment, reaching up to the surface of Afelahn, to lead any kinetic energy of a possible explosion outwards.

Tom Woods, Shane Kennett and Carla Mastrelli led a team that installed the power marble in its encasement. The inner part is covered by nara, the hardest  artificial stone the D’ni have invented. On the outside a massive concrete layer has been added for additional safety.

The room will have a heavy blast door, as planned.

Now, all that’s left to power the base, are the wirings and control computers.

It´s amazing, what they were able to accomplish – a neat mixture of surface and D’ni technology. I do hope, it doesn’t blow up, though.

I have some more KI-shots for you. The first two are of lamp designs I used in the garage:

They are rather huge, as you can see.

Then, I added some artwork to make the base a little bit more friendly – it’s not a Picasso, but for a first try on canvas it´s not that bad imho:

There was another, big earthquake in Dasharen. Nobody of the expedition was there, but the seismographs recorded it.
Maybe the quakes are the reason, Dasharen was deserted and left alone – maybe the D’ni who lived there had enough of the constant danger and went to live in a more – convenient age.

Ah, and I forgot: two nights ago, someone again tried to break into one of the sheds at Asheten mansion. But this time, the lock – one of the secure ones we installed after the last incident – didn’t give way. So they – whoever they were – gave up and left.

Unfortunately, the video data isn’t good, you can only see dark silhouettes. But now we know, they are humans, not Bahro. They wore boots and trousers of surface design, so they aren’t D’ni either (unless D’ni trying to fool us by dressing like us… unlikely, yes, but possible.)

The question is – are they other explorers? Members of our own expedition? Looters?

I suggested to let guards patrol the area – without weapons of course, the only guns we have are the hunting rifles Noemi and Clint brought, and we don´t want to start a war down here.
But whoever they are, they won’t be successful again.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Powermarble – solution

Posted by - Friday, July 15th, 2011

We finally have found a working solution to our powermarble safety problem. If you haven´t followed my previous posts: to set up an energy source for Afelahn, we have experimented with the so called D’ni powermarbles, equipment related to fire marbles, which store a lot of energy and release it much faster.

We had big security concerns, because an explosion could be fatal to anyone present in the complex. Now we have deduced, that a containment case formed like a drop would suit it best. It will be built out of different layers of D’ni materials, the outermost of which will consist of Nara. On the upside of the case, there will be a pressure control valve, that leads any possible kinetic energy of an explosion outwards of the complex.

We think, that these security measures finally are sufficient to guarantee everyones safety and health while visiting Afelahn.

I promised you to post about the “unknown ages” – here you are, information about “Unknown age 01″:
It is a wet, foggy place, covered by a huge swamp. The fog is so dense, you can´t see very far – animals call in the distance, we weren´t able to see them yet, but they sound scary enough. It is one of the approved ages of the D’ni, so we assume it is safe, but will have to do more research on it before allowing people to visit.

And – as a small bonus for you, because you had to wait for so long for another post – a small riddle:
The first to answer it correctly will get an entry on a new subpage.

What am I:
I am not sad, but crying silently all my life, I have no feet but stand, until one day I’ll fall.

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Update on Nifehrehn

Posted by - Tuesday, June 21st, 2011

After two more days of searching the vicinity of the Nifehrehn outpost, we´ve come to the conclusion, that Quaxo hasn´t visited the age yet. We didn´t find anything – no footprints, no cloth, no scientific equipment. So I guess, he is busy at the moment, and not in danger. We will stop our searches for now, until we have more information. Hope, we are right.

The other big news is what we call “The Big Blast of Dasharen”. Well, I´ve reported about the powermarble experiment in Dasharen, and how well it went… seems that I was too optimistic. Two days ago, a major explosion destroyed not only the powermarble, but the encasement as well. The sensors Tom Woods had installed to monitor the marble recorded an extreme energy peak shortly before the explosion, then they too ceased to work (and to exist…)

If this explosion would have happened in Afelahn, I think the base would be rubble by now. The powermarbles are even more dangerous than I´ve feared… how can we make the power room safe enough?

Someone asked: “You wrote about “Unknown age 07″, what about 01 to 06? Any information on them?”
Yeah, there is information on them. I´ll gather it over the next days and give you summaries about what we know.

Tags: , , , , , ,
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Nifehrehn search

Posted by - Friday, June 17th, 2011

We did a thorough search in Nifehrehn, to look for any signs of Quaxo. The age did everything it could to kill us… it was extremely cold, with stormy weather and heavy snowfall. We searched in teams, in a radius of about 2 miles around the outpost. Didn´t find anything or anybody. I really hope, he is just on vacation or something… wouldn´t have survived for a long time out there.
It´s scary, how people vanish in this age… first the three D’ni survivors whose journals we had found, now this.

For the first time, we watched one of the huge predators of the age. A mammal with long, white fur, four legs, and a long beak with razor sharp teeth. It didn´t see us, just walked around in some distance, sniffing around on the ground.
I definetly recommend carrying a gun when visiting the age, at least when you plan to leave the outpost.

Meanwhile, Tom Woods and Shane Kennett have built a prototype power device, based on the power marble technology used by the D’ni.
They brought the parts to Dasharens surface, assembled them and activated the device.
We had decided to test it in Dasharen, because there is not much to be damaged, at least on the surface – mostly deserted area.
The power device worked flawlessly for some time – further tests will be necessary, but we are cautiously optimistic.

Tags: , , , , , , ,
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Classified

Posted by - Wednesday, June 15th, 2011

I have two news, one good, one bad.
The good news: we have managed to open the jammed door in “Unknown age 07″.
The bad news: What we found there is not to be published (yet). The expeditions leaders agreed to classify any further information about the age and what we found there – I disagree, but I respect the decision. Believe me, when I say, that they didn´t take the matter easy.

Work in Afelahn is progressing – we now have some interesting designs for the power marble-generator, and for the room containing the generator (I´m calling it a “power room” – I know, it´s not elegant english, but it fits my needs best.). We plan to do the excavation work during the next two weeks.

Meanwhile, I´ve finished my Alitnee egg-project. The eggs I´ve prepared will be displayed in Afelahn, there are some beautiful eggshells waiting to be seen!
Added signs to the doorways in Afelahn, so orientiation shouldn´t be a problem for future visitors.

By the way: I´m planning the release of Afelahn – still work to do, but I think, I can let people in approximately in one or two months. The age will change frequently, so I guess, sooner is better than later.

Still no news from Quaxo regarding the Nifehrehn project. I´m honestly concerned now, didn´t read anything from him since weeks – I think, we should look for him in Nifehrehn. Hope he´s allright.

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Energy sources

Posted by - Tuesday, May 10th, 2011

Tom Woods and I are working on powering Afelahn properly. At the moment, the only energy sources are the few firemarbles for the light, and a small generator for electricity. But it won´t be long, that I will need much more energy for different purposes.
So we sat together the other day, and discussed, what to do. The most promising variant of power source would be a D’ni power marble.
These are, according to DPWR, “a special type of firemarble which explode when struck, releasing all of their energy at once, rather than glowing softly like normal firemarbles do. They were invented by the D’ni as a way to power heavy machinery”.
Other sources, like geothermal, water or wind energy aren´t feasible in the age or would be difficult to install.
So, I will likely have to cut out a “generator room” for a D’ni power device.
The only problem with power marbles is, that they are rather dangerous. They store so much energy, that they can easily explode… So we´ll have to take serious precautions to prevent my working space from annihilation. Maybe some heavy door for the generator room? And I had the idea of making the generator room higher than normal, so that possible kinetic energy from an explosion would have more room to disperse.
Will have to sort that out.

Another topic:
I started to gather eggs from Alitnee. Learned to empty and clean them BEFORE bringing them to Afelahn (the foul stench of the first batch still is smellable – Yuck!)

They come in various sizes, from a centimeter to double the size of a chickens egg. And the colors are rather beautiful. I plan to install some kind of display case to show the prettiest ones.

Tags: , , , , , ,
Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments »