The Unwanted Blog

Had some fog Monday AM.

I’ve had a few more printed off. The future of this enterprise may be determined in part by the success of the Lockheed LS-200 sale on eBay… if it’s a dismal failure (currently standing at a whopping five bucks), then I’ll have some neat art, end of story. Otherwise, I *may* try to market *some* of these.

Right now, they are all-kinds-of-awesome-wallpaper. If you are interested, though, send me an email.

The large prints are on 24X36 paper.

Some illustrations from an Aerojet presentation to NASA-MSFC, July 1963, on nuclear lunar logistics. The original was a microfiche, explaining the blurriness. Note that the illustration of the engine is the same one I posted a few days back, but with notations.

Most of the programs that I backed up before taking the computer into the shop have re-loaded and operate without any observable difficulty. But a few are being troublesome… one being “Paint Shop Pro Ultimate Photo X2.” This is one I use daily for processing photos and fixing drawings and such, but the re-loaded version simply refuses to run, claiming that the configuration is wrong or some damned thing. It kindly suggests that I re-install the program… something I’d be happy to do if I could only find it. And after a day of digging, it’s nowhere to be found. I’m looking right at the paper user’s guide, but the disk itself has vanished like a fart in the wind. Best Buy, where I bought it, suggested that the proper course of action would be to buy another copy. Grrrrr.

Anyone have a copy they’d be willing to loan me for a day?

I got my computer back yesterday. With the hard drive clean and unspoiled, unsullied by things like “data” and “programs,” I’ve been dumping a lot of stuff back onto it, including drivers and whatnot. This process includes a lot of tests to makle sure things are back up and running… such as making sure the scanner works again. My scanner has an adapter for slides and negatives; for giggles I tried it with some microfilm and microfiche that I have. Results were… variable. For example, here’s an example of a scan from microfilm, a diagram of the WWII German BMW 109-028 turboprop. This was a project for a very large engine appropriate for large aircraft such as bombers. Apart from some scratches due to the film itself being scratched up, it’s not too bad.

On the other hand, scanning microfiche was not as successful. The fiche images are smaller than the film images, and I guess the scanner just doesn’t have the resolving power to really get this stuff. For being approximately 11X17, this portion of a foldout drawing of a North American Aviation Space Shuttle fyback booster is a bit blurry.

Some days ago - Wednesday, I think - I was driving north from Ogden when I saw this US Army Blackhawk chopper sitting on the ground not far off the road. This was at the northern end of the Brigham City airport. It looked then, as it looks in these photos, like the left landing gear leg had collapsed, or it had landed in a hole. But when it took off, the landing gear seemed to be fine. This was the same day that the Coast guard chopper had crashed way off to the south, so I presume it was there for the search & rescue operations.

For those interested in donating (it’ll make you wash cleaner, live longer, improve your chances of salvation and make you - finally - attractive to the opposite sex… or the same sex, if that’s what you’re into), there’s a bonus. I will reciprocate with a “mystery gift” for donations over $20, which I’ll change daily. This’ll be something that’s not avialable otherwise (with filesize limitations, as it’s emailed). Yesterday it was a sizable NERVA rocket blueprint.

Here is a high-quality blueprint of the Lockheed LS-200-5 space shuttle concept from 1970, Lockheed Missiles & Space Company drawing SKS 100023. This shows an inboard profile and a rear view of the one-and-a-half stage shuttle concept also known as the “Star Clipper.”

The blueprint is a high-resolution, high-quality print from a restored digital file, measuring 9.5 inches high by 36 inches wide. It will look great framed and hanging on a wall. Shipped rolled in a tube.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=250592635617

I stumbled across this. If you’re like me, it’s hilarious. If not, then not.

Earliest serious attempt at doing an engineering design of a nuclear rocket that I’ve come across is a 1947 North American Aviation study. This study included not only a NERVA-style nuclear thermal rocket but also a hydrogen-filled V-2-shaped launch vehicle capable of single-stage to orbit operations, and a two-stage nuclear ramjet vehicle (a predecessor to Project Pluto).

The nuclear rocket was not designed to the same level of detail as the later NERVA, and was in many details quite vague, but it is nevertheless quite obviously the ancestor of NERVA.

For more info on this engine and the other vehicles studied by NAA in 1947, be sure to check out issue V2N2 of Aerospace Projects Review.