Strategic Air & Space Museum panoramas

 aircraft, awesomeness, history, nukes, rockets, spacecraft  5 Responses »
Oct 182015
 

If you find yourself near Ashland, Nebraska, you could do far, far worse than giving this museum a visit.

2015-09-21 pano 1 2015-09-21 pano 2

It’s a shame that New York City got a Space Shuttle but this museum – or the USAF museum in Dayton – did not. Heck, Hill Aerospace Museum or Wings Over the Rockies would have been good locations. Why not locate such things closer to the *middle* of the country, on well traveled paths? New York City hardly needs new attractions, nor is it an important waypoint on the road from one side of the country to the other (while it might be between, say, Washington D.C. and Boston, I suspect few sane people are going to go *through*Manhattan to get from D. C. to Boston).

 Posted by at 8:17 pm

Have we detected a Dyson Swarm?

 awesomeness, Hmm..., news, science, spacecraft  3 Responses »
Oct 142015
 

Almost certainly not. Still, the data from the Kepler spacecraft suggests that a Dyson swarm (a *vast* number of spacecraft, space colonies and solar power satellites surrounding a star, so numerous that they intercept a measurable fraction of the light emitted from the star) *may* surround the main sequence F3 star KIC 8462852.  This star is 1480 light-years away in the constellation Lyra.

The less interesting explanation is that the star is surrounded by a substantial cloud of comets. The problem here is that it is an old star, and shouldn’t have such a cloud; in order to have a cloud like that at this age, it would have to have been gravitationally disturbed by a passing nearby star within the last few millenia or so. Not impossible, just statistically unlikely. Sadly, thought, probably a more likely explanation than an alien megastructure.

The official paper (which, perhaps wisely, doesn’t mention the idea of aliens) is available HERE.

The Popular Science article on the subject:

Have We Detected Megastructures Built By Aliens Around A Distant Star?

 Posted by at 8:01 pm

“Ground Control”

 art, awesomeness, history, photography, rockets, science, spacecraft, youtube  2 Responses »
Oct 122015
 

Someone took a number of NASA still photos from the Apollo program and animated them, creating a short movie. It’s not one hundred percent effective… no matter what tricks you play, a still photo of a human  is going to remain unconvincing as “video,” since humans are always in some form of chaotic motion. But on the whole it’s interesting.

 Posted by at 10:45 pm

“The Martian”

 art, awesomeness, blather, books, news, rockets, science, science fiction, spacecraft  5 Responses »
Oct 042015
 

Quick review: a damn fine flick. Sticks remarkably close to the book; the changes aren’t the usual sort of dreck that changes the meaning of the story, or adds needless characters, or any of that. The visual effects are largely flawless (though the gravity centrifuge was apparently static, unlike the USS Discovery’s centrifuge, with the result that in some scenes it’s pretty obvious that actors are walking “down” the floor). The science is pretty good, the acting is good, the dialog works. There are no villains; the drama comes from the situation, not mustache-twirling badguys or steaming morons.

 

“The Martian”

…

 Posted by at 8:48 pm

The 2001 File: Harry Lange and the Design of the Landmark Science Fiction Film

 art, books, history, news, science fiction, spacecraft  1 Response »
Sep 302015
 

Another heavily illustrated “2001” book is due out in November:

The 2001 File: Harry Lange  and the Design of the Landmark Science Fiction Film

Another book that *looks* promising ( I haven’t seen it myself), ut here’s the description:

The Holy Grail
Harry Lange’s complete unseen archive

This stunning tome is a previously unseen look behind-the-scenes at the making of this most legendary of science fiction classics. It is an in-depth examination of the complete, largely unpublished archive of art director Harry Lange’s designs, concepts, roughs and photographs.

Lange’s strikingly realistic designs created an extraordinary vision of the future. By releasing this unpublished archive and explaining its significance, the book takes the reader/viewer on a journey deep into the visual thinking behind 2001, for the first time ever – visual thought that might actually work.

The book is about the process, as well as the finished product. It examines how Harry Lange’s experience with NASA fed into the innovations of the film. It includes rejected designs, concepts and roughs, as well as the finished works. It reveals how the design team was obsessed with things that actually might work. The book illustrates several innovations that were science fiction in the 1960s but have since become science fact, including a ‘newspad’ designed by IBM, which bears an uncanny resemblance to today’s iPad. The remarkable designs for 2001 created a credible vision of the future.

ISBN: 978-0-9572610-2-0
336pp; Hardback; 600+ illustrations
290 x 245mm / 11.4 x 10 in.

According to Amazon, it’s due out in mid November… just in time for you to buy a few dozen copies for your friends for Saturnalia or Christmas or whatever. If’n you don’t see the standard Amazon ad link below, you should be able to get there through THIS TEXT LINK
.

The 2001 File: Harry Lange and the Design of the Landmark Science Fiction Film

 Posted by at 6:36 am

Conceptual Casaba Howitzer

 awesomeness, drawings, history, Hmm..., My Fiction, Nuclear Pulse Propulsion, nukes, Patreon, Pax Orionis, science, science fiction, spacecraft, weapons  20 Responses »
Sep 282015
 

I’ve been pondering the Casaba Howitzer weapon system for a decade now. When I re-issued Aerospace Projects Review V2N2 some years back I published a few images of what I thought it might look like; since then I’ve done some rethinking. As to the weapon itself, and exactly how it worked, and how well it worked… I’ve got no data, and no good idea of how to make it work, so that hasn’t changed. But the control systems for the weapon? Those have evolved in my thinking.

Here’s an overall view of my idea for a Casaba Howitzer preparing to fire:

Casaba

And here’s a layout drawing of the same:

PAX-0004 Casaba 1st gen-Model

Feel free to discuss.

The full-rez version of the layout drawing is available in the second Pax Orionis installment. If interested, check out the Pax Orionis Patreon.

becomeapatron

 Posted by at 7:50 am
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