Anybody know where I could get a copy of the CAD diagram (or similar) of the Space Launch System shown in the background of this image?
Jun 302015
Jun 292015
I’ve been pecking away at various aspects of Pax Orionis lately. Most of my writing has been involved with various aspects of the history leading up to The War. I could have started with the war first, and backfilled the history after, but it seems to me better to start at the beginning, work through the course of events leading to the war, and then staging the war with the world that the history gives.
Since the US fights the war with Orion ships, I figure it’s a good idea to figure out how many ships the US has, of what type, and what their capabilities are. Below is a very preliminary chart of the ships of the USSF and NASA in chronological and to scale. Names and numbers will likely change; the designs are currently in flux. The double vertical line at the right indicates the war, so the two craft introduced after that are post-war designs.
Jun 282015
Well, this isn’t so good. It’s not the usual sort of explosion, where there’s a very sudden fireball and the vehicle turns into confetti in a split second; this disaster seems to be stretched out over a few seconds. It kinda looks like there was a fuel or oxidizer dump from up front… perhaps the second stage. Also early on in the “anomaly” you can see something drop away from the vehicle. I wonder if perhaps that’s the Dragon capsule? The disaster was good and slow… *perhaps* the abort systems got the capsule away. But I’d imagine if that was the case the booster itself would have *promptly* turned into so much tinfoil.
UPDATE: A tweet from Elon Musk says that there was an “overpressure event” in the second stage LOX tank. Cause was “counterintuitive.”
Another angle:
Jun 272015
For APR Patrons, here’s what you now have available:
Documents: 2 General Electric reports on nuclear turbojets, *packed* with diagrams
Document: Mercury/Redstone booster recovery
Large diagram: 2 this time… “Long Tank Delta” space launch rocket and “Honest John” battlefield nuclear missile
CAD diagram: Convair “FISH,” 1958 configuration
If you’d like to access these and many others, or if you’d simply like to help the cause of recovering and making available forgotten aerospace ephemera such as this, please check out the APR Patreon page.
Jun 272015
An RCS Energia video describing a capsule that, it is claimed, will fly in 2021 atop the new Angara 5A rocket. Given that it’s in Russian, I don’t know what they’re going on about, but the video seems to be aimed at pointing out the advantages of stowable flat screens for the instruments.
Boy does it look familiar…
Jun 272015
SpaceX aims for another rocket landing experiment Sunday
10:21 a.m. EDT. If Sundays launch doesn’t go off, they can try again Monday at 9:58 a.m. EDT. The cargo is a Dragon capsule taking 4,000 pounds of supplies to the ISS.
Jun 252015
Should have posted this nearly a month ago, but…
The rewards for APR Patrons for May, 2015 are available (for the next few days, anyway, until I finally get the June rewards out). Included this month:
Document: An early 60’s NASA concept for a most unusual launch vehicle (which appears to have been scribbled on by Werner von Braun)
Document: Trident rocket motor manual
Document: Boeing arctic resource aircraft
Diagram: Convair VTOL tailsitter supersonic fighter
CAD diagram: Rockwell “Surprise Fighter” early stealthy design
If you’d like to access these and many other extras, please check out the APR Patreon page.
Jun 242015
I’m looking for a program (preferably free, of course) that I can use to not only simulate orbits, but determine the effects on those orbits of various propulsive maneuvers. This, as might be obvious, if to support Pax Orionis, so I can get the orbital mechanics of maneuvering in Earth-Moon space correct.
Back in my college days I did this sort of thing for fun using paper pencil and calculator. Because what’s more fun than working out how the gears of the universe actually turn, using your own brain? But here I think a computer system would be better purely for the interests of efficiency.
I don’t need anything fancy, just something I can use.
Jun 232015
New Horizons is starting to get imagery of Charon that shows it as a place rather than a dot. Additionally, Pluto itself is starting to come in to view.
New from NASA’s New Horizons: Increasing Variety on Pluto’s Close Approach Hemisphere, and a ‘Dark Pole’ on Charon
Jun 212015
Thought this might be of interest…
