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]
Nov 262014
Nov 212014
In mid-December the Syfy channel will run a three-night miniseries called “Ascension.” The idea seems interesting enough… in 1963, with JFK freaking out that nuclear war was soon going to wipe out mankind, the US secretly launched a starship on a 100-year mission to another system. Little snippets have been shown of the show; of course it’s much more “human drama” (they’re 50 years into their mission and the first murder happens, there’s social trouble on board, lots of unrealistically sexy people having sex, etc.) than actual science fiction, but I was curious to see what the ship would be. until recently only a part of the ship had been visible int he available trailers, but Syfy has released some videos that show that it is in fact an Orion-type nuclear pulse vehicle. It’s a ship the size of the Empire State Building, and with decks laid out like in a skyscraper (a whole bunch of small decks stacked atop each other as opposed to a smaller number of really long decks, like on a cruise ship).
The science… well, she seems to be the science we’ve come to expect from Syfy, even though David Brin is the tech advisor. They’re fifty years into their mission, and the claim is that they are now at the point of no return… when in reality that point would have been very, very soon after the *beginning* of the mission. The ship also has gravity, oriented as in a skyscraper; this is done either by Magic Gravity Generators (1963? bah) or by having the ship *still* under a 1-g acceleration (after fifty years of that, ship time, they would have crossed the known universe thanks to the beauty of relativity… see HERE for the math), which seems to be the approach based on what Brin said.
So unless the imagery is inaccurate and it’s actually tumbling to generate G’s… well, there it is, I suppose. Some vids:
[youtube uXT0QGLh5c4]
[youtube AJqQ4OdPcAo]
[youtube MU4g6jJpx3M]
And some screenshots illustrating the ship:
A display model showing the ship. It’s not a precise match for the ship shown in space, though. 
A series of pullback shots, starting at a window up front.
Interior of the “good” part of the ship.
Two views of something that doesn’t look like the Ascension. Maybe the Soviet equivalent, bopping along out there? Or the Ascension 2, built circa 2014?
Because every starship needs to have a deck where people shovel stuff into furnaces. The Enterprise D had one. oh, sure, they never showed it, but that was only because the Federation is really good at covering up the grungier stuff. But there were *hundreds* of sweaty, meaty guys below the engineering deck shovelling dark matter pellets into the Enterprises boilers.
Looks like something to add to the Nuclear Pulse Propulsion book.
Nov 192014
The latest releases in the “US Projects” line (see the full library HERE):
USTP 02
Issue #02 of US Transport Projects, done in the same format as US Bomber Projects, USTP will cover flying vehicles designed to transport cargo, passengers and troops. Issue 02 includes:
- Jupiter Troop Transport: A 1956 Army concept for ballistically launched soldiers
- Catamaran 747: A NASA concept for a more efficient twin-fuselage 747
- Nuclear C-5A: A NASA concept for using the existing C-5 to demonstrate nuclear powered flight
- Boeing 765-076E: A recent design for a small supersonic transport
- Lockheed L-151: An early jetliner concept adding six turbojets to a Constellation
- AAFRL/Lockheed AMC-X: A recent design for a stealthy C-130 replacement
- Boeing Twin Hull Airship: A 1970’s design for a semi-buoyant cargo lifter
- Douglas D5.0-15A: A partially NASP-derived hypersonic jetliner
USTP #02 can be downloaded as a PDF file for only $4:
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USSP 01
Also available: issue #01 of US Spacecraft Projects. This series will present some of the wide range of manned and unmanned probes, stations, landers, spaceplanes and so on that have been designed over the decades. Issue #01 includes:
- General Dynamics 2-Man Space Taxi: A concept for the minimum possible manned spacecraft
- General Dynamics EMPIRE lander: one of the earliest designs for an excursion module to and from the surface of Mars
- Convair Landing Boat: Krafft Ehricke’s Atlas-launched spaceplane
- Zenith Star: the SDI laser battlestation experiment
- Northrop PROFAC: a flying gas station for spacecraft
- NASA Warp-drive spacecraft: a highly hypothetical concept for planning purposes
- Martin Direct Flight Apollo: lunar landing without the LEM
- Boeing DS-1 Satellite Interceptor: an early Dyna Soar with nuclear missiles
USSP #01 can be downloaded as a PDF file for only $4:
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Nov 182014
OK, now this is interesting:
Study Investigates How Men and Women Adapt Differently to Spaceflight
As it turns out, there are statistically important differences in how male and female bodies fall apart due to the negative effects of long-term zero gravity and radiation. Men get eye and ear troubles; women get cancer. Men’s immune systems suffer; women get more urinary tract infections.
One more reason to finally quite with the long term zero G stations and transition to useful artificial gravity systems.
Nov 172014
“On October 14, 1966, a “boilerplate” full Saturn V and Apollo spacecraft stack inside the Vehicle Assembly Building is rocked back and forth by employees pushing with their feet and pulling with a rope so that stability and stresses which might result from winds at the launch pad can be measured. During the test the escape tower at the top of the Saturn V broke off and fell, but no one was injured.”
[youtube PnsFFhKqXXo]
How tennis shoes and tug-of-war toppled the mighty Saturn V
Nov 132014
Take a moment away from looking at the new nekkid photos of Kim Kardashian to ponder this photo taken from the surface of a comet:
I’m a little confused about just what I’m seeing here.
Nov 132014
One thing the movie “Gravity” got right: when things exploded, they did so silently, unless Sandra Bullocks character was attached to it so that the sound could pass through her space suit. If her character couldn’t hear it, the audience couldn’t hear it. Of course, there was the musical score, which of course her character probably couldn’t hear (unless you assume that the stress of the situation has driven her nuts and now she has her own soundtrack playing in her head).
In February, a new Blu Ray of the film will be released that will have an audio track *without* the musical score. Instead there’ll be long patches of little more than Bullock’s character breathing and bumping around in her suit. I suspect that might get old after a while, but it might also be an interesting experience.
WB Releasing “Silent Space Version” of Alfonso Cuarón’s ‘Gravity’
Nov 082014
Now, this is really well done… a mashup of space exploration movie scenes, with the voiceover from the original teaser trailer for Interstellar. If someone could pull off a full movie about spaceflight as inspirational as this few minutes, they’d really have something.
Nov 072014
Virgin Galactic crash: worried passengers ask for refunds
According to the article, 24 of around 800 people who have put down deposits want their money back. That’s about 3%… fewer than I would’ve expected, honestly. Still, that’s a fair chunk of change.
Nov 062014
Two current projects…
