Mar 172024
 

Giggity:

And…

 

Said it before: this is some sci-fi stuff right here.

 

From one perspective, this was another failure. The booster failed at the end… it had difficulty with engine restart for the final landing burn and either kerploded just before hitting the water, or smacked into the water going *real* fast. Starship itself broke apart during entry. So both recoverable stages failed to demonstrate recoverability. But it *did* achieve the low orbit that was intended. It demonstrated the ability to serve as an expendable launch vehicle. An incredibly capable expendable launch vehicle, much more powerful than even the Saturn V. It could start throwing massive payloads into orbit even while attempting to perfect recovery. Large numbers of Starlinks, of course… but also large numbers of, say, Brilliant Pebbles, or tanks of water, or rolls of sheet aluminum and beam builders and PV arrays.

 

 Posted by at 5:08 pm
Feb 242024
 

Fortunate is the man who has this coffee table. Fabulously wealthy is he if he has a woman who looks at that table and thinks “that’s awesome, I picked the right guy.”

 

It’s a spectacular piece, and I kinda really want one. However… before I’d plunk down money I don’t have for this sort of thing, I’d demand some improvements. From a distance it looks great, but in the closeup shots you can see the pretty strong layer lines. This appears to have been filament-printed, and little effort seems to have been made to smooth out a lot of it. But as a prototype, it’s fantastic.

 

It’s also interesting to point out that with 6 years worth of Star Trek to choose from, the stuff people *really* seem to like, to the point they’ll spend time, money and effort on, is the TOS and TNG stuff. A similar coffee table using the 1701D bridge? I can definitely see it. Ops from DS9? Meh. Bridges of NX-01 or Voyager? *Maaaaybe.* Kelvinverse Enterprise bridge? Unlikely. STD or SNW bridges? Literally no.

A lot of that is because the TOS and TNG designs were brilliant, while the later ones have been kinda bleh. But also, TOS and TNG are beloved. The shows themselves inspire interest in the designs. nuTrek inspire little more than dismay and fatigue.

I’d be interested to see a kickstarter for a production run of these, with the layer issues dealt with. Pretty sure it’d be far beyond my means, but I’d wish ’em well.

 Posted by at 4:33 pm
Feb 202024
 

In 1992 NASA had a flurry of PR about the “First Lunar Outpost” concept which would see the US return to the moon using large lunar landers launched by a single Saturn V derived heavy lifter. A fair deal of concept art was released; much of it used the relatively new technology of computer generated imagery. Five of these images recently appeared on ebay as 16X20 prints; what the heck, I went ahead and bought them. They arrived today and I was pleasantly surprised at the production quality. They weren’t simply printouts glued to cheap foamcore, but instead are very glossy, hard plastic bonded to higher quality foamcore.

I believe I’ll have these professionally scanned and made available to APR Patrons/subscribers.

 Posted by at 3:46 pm
Jan 262024
 

Styropyro takes a an off the shelf 2 kilowatt fiber laser welder/rust remover and makes it a long range laser sniper weapon. There are a  number of issues… the mount is rickety and there’s no scope, primarily. But it’s remarkably capable, burning holes relatively quickly through steel plate and cinderblocks.

 

This would seem to indicate that a refined version with a better mount, better aim and a much faster reaction time/slew rate would serve as a dandy anti-drone system, easily mounted to something like a Hummer, small truck or as an add-on to armored vehicles. If one kid out in the boonies can do this on a YouTuber budget, I’m left to wonder why the Russian military *hasn’t* done it on a large scale.

 

 Posted by at 7:41 pm
Jan 222024
 

With all the little publications I’ve written and illustrated, and all the years of blogging ABSOLUTELY BRILLIANT political opinions and the like, it seems that at least *one* of my efforts will go down through the ages: my design for the Orion Battleship. We know to a fair certainty that such a craft was designed in the early 1960s, and that a mockup the size of a car was built; we know some of the components and features of that design. But other than that… we don’t know much. The overall size and configuration are unknown. So, fifteen years ago when I was working on an article for Aerospace Projects Review about large Orion vehicles, I went ahead and made a speculative reconstruction design. I did my best with what was available… and in the years since, nothing seems to have come out to refute the design. I do not contend that the design is an accurate reconstruction; I was never able to get in touch with anyone who knew the Battleship design first-hand to confirm my reconstruction. I could well be *badly* wrong, especially since the descriptions of the original design tend to be second-hand. One day we might find out for sure.

But in the years since I showed my design to the world, I’ve seen it recreated here and there. It seems to be the accepted Actual Design.

Huh.

Behold:

That second video uses a model based on my design, more renders of which are HERE.

Shipbucket:

A purchasable 3D printed, lower fidelity copy of my design on Etsy:

 

My renders – unimpressive even by 2009 standards – even made it into meme format:

If you want to see the Orion Battleship as I designed it in its original format, check out Aerospace Projects Review issue V2N2.

 Posted by at 12:41 am
Dec 182023
 

Movie and TV remakes are often garbage. But covers of songs? Sometimes the remake is a triumph. Some examples:

 

“My Body Is A Cage” by Arcade Fire, then covered by Peter Gabriel.

“Smooth Criminal” by Michael Jackson… then perfected by Alien Ant Farm.

 

“Hurt” by Nine Inch Nails. It was good… but what Johnny Cash did with it is astonishing.

 

“Tainted Love” by Gloria Jones from 1964 was utterly eclipsed by “Soft Cell’s” 1981 cover.

 

Cylon and Garfunkel’s “Sound of Silence” is peak 60’s pretentiousness. But Disturbed’s remake kicks substantial ass.

 

David Bowie’s “Heroes” is OK. Peter Gabriels’ cover gives it emotional depth wholly lacking in the original.

 

And… what the heck. “All Along The Watchtower” by Bob Dyna was meh, the Jimi Hendrix cover was pretty good, but Bear McCreary reworked it into the best season-ending cliffhanger music ever.

 

 

 

 Posted by at 4:03 am
Dec 022023
 

On one hand, the utility of this ad for selling Chevy’s seems limited. After all, it doesn’t tell you much about how they perform or what they cost, though there is the suggestion that they can last a long time. On the other hand, the nature of the ad is such that people will be talking about it (and they are), and any publicity is good publicity. On that latter score it’s a remarkably effective ad, very effectively mastering the “holiday tearjerker” trope. If this *doesn’t* work you up a little, I can only assume that “Jurassic Bark” left you unmoved and the Iron Giant’s final “Suuupermannn” was met with a shrug.

 

 Posted by at 4:31 pm
Nov 182023
 

The second Starship/Superheavy launched today. Vastly more successful than the first flight, but both stages were still destroyed.

This sort of thing would be unacceptable for a modern NASA launch system… but it was common in early launch vehicle development. Atlas and Titan kerploded with regularity. This sort of thing is not desirable, but it is a natural part of the learning process.

Scott Manley has done an analysis of the video and has some good suggestions about what happened with the booster. There would seem likely to be some serious issues with slosh and propellant hammer effects, caused by the sudden deceleration and flip maneuver. These are resolvable.

But beyond the technical issues and successes… this flight was simply *gorgeous.*

 

 

 

 Posted by at 4:24 pm
Nov 042023
 

Several models of the Starship Enterprise were built for the original “Star Trek” series. The most famous is the 11-foot model which was used for most of the effects shots, and *amazingly* managed to survive long enough to end up in the hands of the National Air and Space Museum. But before the 11-footer was a 3-footer. This was made early on, and was solid wood with no lighting; still, it was used in a number of shots. This model stayed in the hands of Gene Roddenberry, modified to rest on a mike stand bolted to a wooden base. This model was lent to the first special effects house during the production of the aborted “Star Trek Phase II” series in the mid-70’s… and then it vanished. Whether it was stolen, misplaced or lost has not been clear, but Roddenberry considered it to be stolen. Stuff like this that disappears stands a good chance of never being seen again. Witness many of the models made for “2001: A Space Odyssey.”

But then, the “Aries Ib” model for “2001” was found a few years ago. And as it turns out, that 3-foot Enterprise was recently found. It was in a storage unit, purchased by someone who buys such things at auction. The new owner then put it on ebay with a starting price of a mere $1000. And then Star Trek fandom found out about it and has been going nuts. The Roddenberry estate contacted the seller and the auction has been pulled.

News was revealed here:

https://www.therpf.com/forums/threads/red-alert-lost-3-ft-tos-enterprise-found.354596/

The current seller has broken no laws… it seems he just bought an abandoned storage unit. But the Enterprise remains stolen property and should be returned to the Roddenberry estate. Still… it sure seems like the seller aught to be compensated for finding this thing, even if he didn’t really know quite what he had. It’s in pretty rough shape, as can be expected. With luck it’ll receive some sort of restoration, though arguments can be made for exactly how far that should go. It should definitely be cleaned up. It’s drooping and cracked; that should be fixed. But fixing the paint and decals? I don’t know about that. Perhaps it, unlike the NASM Enterprise, should retain the appearance of years. There are some “errors” that were there from the beginning, those should stay.

It is very unlikely that this will ever see an auction. But if it does, it’ll doubtless go for Lotto-levels  of cash.

The photos from the ebay listing:

 Posted by at 10:13 pm
Oct 242023
 

I guess this is kinda cool, a dress – at least the front side of one – composed of “scales” that can change from mirror-chrome to dull metallic on command. But even though it’s made of individual scales, it does not appear to be terribly flexible, and seems likely to be uncomfortable.

Still, if it could do more than just “shiny/matte,” but actually change colors, it seems like it might have a future. Specifically… plate *actual* steel scales with this material and make practical lamellar armor that can change color. That seems like it might be an interesting fashion for the future as society continues to get “enriched.” Shiny, perhaps even golden, armor when you’re out and about, and at the flick of a switch it turns matte black when the time comes to throw down.

Sure, here it seems to be pitched at the female market. But I suggest culturally appropriating the tech and making it the Must Have Man Product of the 2030’s.

 

 Posted by at 11:51 pm