An apparently official diagram of the “Ascension” nuclear pulse propelled starship from the upcoming Syfy series. The propulsion module doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.
Bonus: Spot the spelling error!
Dec 062014
Dec 052014
Just saw this, a mashup of “space scenes” from 35 different motion pictures:
[vimeo 113142476]
Once again… holy crap. Not as spectacular as “Wanderers,” but still, it’s pretty awesome.
Hollywood seems incapable of producing an uplifting space exploration/exploitation/colonization movie; space is either merely a setting for an otherwise conventional tale, or it’s just a plain horrible place. However: in the midst of depicting space as disease and danger wrapped in darkness and silence, the visual artists have managed to create some scenes of Just Plain Awesome. The sort of stuff I’d love to be able to incorporate into my crappy fiction (such as this attempt).
And while Hollywood seems unable or unwilling to produce pro-space stuff… the same cannot be said for a whole bunch of regular folks with editing software, some free time and some skill. YouTubers may not be the source of uplifting storytelling we need, but they’re what we got.
Consider two things:
1) A lot of extremely high-quality uplifting space stuff is produced by people working on essentially no budget
2) The Syfy network produces a few high-quality, high-budget shows & movies, and a whole lot of low-budget crap. Imagine if they took the gamble of spreading some of their low-budget plans to include the uplifting amateurs. How many episodes of “Wanderers” could be made for the cost of the next “Sharknado?”
[vimeo 108650530]
[youtube v2nJvAWPDtk]
Dec 052014
And Orion returned about four hours later:
[youtube rdwy-o-nxgQ]
With the worst official NASA commentary EVAR upon splashdown:
“America has driven a golden spike as it crosses a bridge to the future.”
Gah. Who writes this rubbish?
It was a success. Not really blowin’ the computer experts skirts up, though:
NASA’s most ambitious spacecraft ever is about as smart as your phone
The 2002-era processors were chosen because of their radiation resistance, which is not a bad idea considering where Orion is meant to go.
Dec 052014
After a 24 hour delay, Orion launched today:
[youtube iCanbuiSywg]
Now, the most important task for Orion: get some missions actually approved and funded.
Dec 032014
Currently up on eBay, a 1972 16X20 poster for the NASA Flight Crew Health Stabilization Program. This was a post-Apollo 14 program to keep astronauts from picking up infectious diseases immediately before launch. Somehow, I suspect that the program would not use this particular poster today.
Dec 022014
Spacecraft Bound for Pluto Set to Awake Nine Years After Launch
New Horizons has been in hibernation, but will – hopefully – on December 6. The Pluto flyby phase will begin in January, with the closest approach on July 14, 2015.
While this story is cool and epic, they’ve always got to dump cold water on it by point out reality:
No voyage like this has been conducted since the epic days of Voyager, and nothing like it is planned again.
Gah.
In a better world, half the money spent on Medicare would instead be devoted to mass producing and launching probes of this kind. Sigh.
Dec 012014
Sadly, not *that* Orion, but the space capsule NASA has been working on for a decade or so.
NASA’s 1st Deep-Space Capsule in 40 Years Ready for Launch Debut
It will launch – unmanned – atop a Delta IV Heavy and will mosey on up to an apogee of 3,600 miles… out in the Van Allen belts, and further than any manned (capable) spacecraft has traveled since the Apollo program ended.
Don’t get too excited about NASA having a new ride anytime soon, though. manned flights probably won’t happen until 2021 or thereabouts. By that point Dragon capsules should be making regular flights to the Bigelow stations, with the last flights to ISS to bolt on the kiloton-scale self destruct mechanism.
Nov 302014
One of the items that has fallen into my hands is a pretty good map of cape Kennedy as of 1969, showing USAF and NASA facilities:
I have posted the full-rez version over at the APR Patreon, available to all $1.50/month and greater patrons.
If you would like to access this item and support the cause of acquiring and sharing these pieces of aerospace history, please visit my Patreon page and consider contributing.
Nov 292014
Before “Voyager” meant “a flyby probe of the Outer Solar System,” it meant “an orbiter and lander for Mars.” It was, essentially, a bigger, more ambitious version of what became the Viking missions. big enough that the Saturn V was the launcher, sending two craft at a time.
A number of companies put in bids to design and build the spacecraft. Below are images of the TRW concept. The conical section is the capsule holding the lander; the propulsion section is derived from the Lunar Module descent stage.
Nov 262014
Numerous close-up camera views of the OSC Antares falling from the sky and going FOOM on October 28. Some are *really* quite remarkable.
[youtube UsvUVDTgPoI]