Sometime tomorrow, I’ll end availability on the Nuclear Pulse Starships, X-20, BoMi and BWB 11X17 booklets, as described and sold HERE. So if you want ’em, time runs short…
Mar 192014
Mar 132014
UPDATE: And so, the aloted time period ends, as does availability of these items. Huzzah.
I am making available, for a limited time, four bound volumes of large format diagrams. These are 11X17 line-drawing CAD diagrams produced by yours truly, bound in red pressboard report covers (why? because that’s classy, that’s why).
I had not planned on releasing these, but I had also not taken into account the fact that the IRS will very soon be demanding a sizable income tax check from me. Ooops. So, my sudden financial panic is your opportunity to get a limited edition item. They will be available until some time on Thursday, March 20. At which point they will be gone forever. Each one will be hand inscribed with the number of the edition (“#1 of 5” or “#4 of 7,” whatever the case may be), with the numbering done via order in which orders are received. Also with my hand-enscribbled initials. (Because who knows, I might be famous someday.)
What I have:
1) BoMi: the complete set of diagrams created for the “Bomber Missile” articles for Aerospace Projects Review issues V2N3 and V2N4, a total of about 45 pages. Includes the MX 2276 from 1955, up through the SR-126 studies from 1957, Brass Bell, Convairs RoBo, Super Hustler, FISH; and Boeing Model 728 studies, among others. $45
2) BWB: The complete set of diagrams created for the V1N3 APR article on Blended Wing Body aircraft, 29 pages. Contains many jetliner concepts, along with such oddities as the Lockheed CL-1201,a giant nuclear powered VTOL assault transport concept. $40
3) Model 2050E X-20 Dyna Soar: the diagrams from the not-yet released issue V3N4 APR article. These are the diagrams in their current state; some may change before I’m done with them. And some will not appear in the article. Includes not only the X-20, but also several proposed launch vehicles (including, I’m reasonably proud to say, the first publicly available accurate and detailed diagrams of the X-20 atop the Titan IIIc), layouts of test and operational versions of the DS with transstage, several small space stations designed expressly for DS servicing, and several high-energy transstage concepts. Also includes really quite good diagrams of the ASSET test vehicle and the X-37B spaceplane. 24 pages, $35
4) Nuclear Pulse Propulsion Starships: diagrams from my hopefully-forthcoming book on nuclear pulse propulsion. I really had not planned on releasing any of the diagrams prior to publication of the book, but what the heck: here are 14 pages showing several versions of the Enzmann Starship, the Dyson Starship, the BIS Daedalus, the Martin/Bond Worldships and the US Naval Academy “Longshot.” $30
Several of the X-20 and NPP diagrams have been formatted specifically for this release, and will not be otherwise released. And of course if I get mashed by a Mack truck or flattened by a meteorite, these diagram sets will be the only versions of these diagrams ever released. So, you know, there’s that…
Please note that since these are physical objects, postage is sadly required. There’s only two options for that… US and non-US. You only need to buy *one* “postage,” no matter how many of the diagram sets you buy.
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Mar 132014
Syfy’s Plan: More Space Operas, Less ‘Sharknado’
New Series coming along that promises… spaceships! It seems there has been a re-ordering of the brass at Syfy, with some new people that understand that the audience actually might *want* some quality space opera. Syfy is cutting back on the vast steaming pile of low budget “Megashark vs. UberTedKennedy” movies, and has signed off on the new miniseries “Ascension:”
Ascension takes place on a century-long space shuttle journey, where hundreds of men, women and children left Earth behind at the start of the Cold War. Nearly 50 years after their covert 1963 mission launched with the intention of colonizing a new world…
That’ll take some ‘splainin’. An Orion vessel, perhaps?
It’ll be nice to see some actual science fiction on Syfy again. All they have on now are fantasy crap, supernatural crap, Helix (which I’ve grown bored with) and… I dunno. Some other crap. Defiance was good, but it’s one 0f those series that lets whole geological epochs pass between seasons… it’s months before the next season starts and I’ve long since forgotten the first season.
Mar 122014
Someone pointed out that the artist who illustrated the “12-Man Space Station” presentation (available as Space Document 25 HERE) for McDonnell-Douglas in 1970 had a bit of a sense of humor, adding a Vulcan to the crew:
I can only assume that he’s the Morale Officer.
Mar 112014
I *believe* this may be Boeing, but I’m not sure. In any event, it depicts the roughly Manhattan-sized structure that was considered in the NASA SPS studies of the late 1970’s. The vast rectangle is covered with PV arrays; hanging off either end is a microwave energy transmitter.
The energy beam would be intercepted and turned into useful electricity at a vast terrestrial receiver station.
Mar 102014
The SP-100 was a 1980’s NASA/DoE/DARPA program to develop a space-based nuclear reactor capable of putting out 100 kilowatts of electrical power. A great deal of progress was made, and plans were in place to use on for space stations, interplanetary probes, military satellites and the like, but of course it was cancelled.
Mar 092014
In the late 70’s-early 80’s the Fusion Energy Foundation published the magazine “Fusion.” It, as the name suggests, had a number of articles on the politics and physics of nuclear fusion for power generation purposes, and a few on space propulsion. It also had a number of articles on directed energy weapons for strategic defense and forward-thinking by the likes of Krafft Ehricke on space colonization and industrialization. But it also had more than it’s share of loopy pseudo science stuff like intelligent design, anti-Einstein and even anti-Newton stuff. And… it was a Lyndon LaRouche publication. Wiki has a fairly extensive writeup on the Fusion Energy Foundation; it makes for interesting reading.
And it turns out that all, or at least a good chunk of, the FEF’s publications are available online as PDFs:
In the “Books” section you can download Winterberg’s “Physical Principles of Thermonuclear Explosive Devices,” which is not only a fun read for the pure physics, but also as supervillain fodder.
The mix of science and Cold War era LaRouchianism makes for a WTF-inducing experience. If you remember the early 80’s, or are interested in a time when people still dreamed of a nuclear powered future, you can lose days here.
Mar 072014
Here is a completely re-written stab at a one-page (well, slightly over) vignette about the Orion Battleship for “Nuclear Pulse Propulsion.” I’m still uncertain if I’ll include this sort of thing in the book… I doubt that these little story fragments would add much to a book that’s already over 400 pages. If y’all have opinions one way or the other, I’m open. This is a rough draft, so it’s perhaps not all that great.
I have used the “Calibre” program to convert the yarn from Word into several e-reader formats. I don’t now what’s popular, so if I missed an obvious and important one, let me know. Seems to me the way to go with self-publishing would be to produced three or four formats and sell a ZIP bundle with all of ’em. Shrug.
It seemed to be formatted ok on the Calibre e-reader emulator, but if there’s something screwy with any of ’em, let me know.
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Well, hummmph. Attempts at uploading the ereader formats failed… apparently WordPress has a problem with them for “security reasons.” So here, in fact, is a ZIP file with four formats: PDF, MOBI, EPUB and AZW3.
Mar 072014
Another nifty free flight of the Morpheus “lunar lander.” They need to launch this off the top of a SpaceX Grasshopper…
[youtube tdrSYP2gSbg]
Mar 032014
You know what sounds like a bad way to die? Drowning. What sounds even worse? Drowning in your own space suit, while on a spacewalk. That’s what almost happened to Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano on July 16, 2013, when 1 to 1.5 liters of water made its way into his helmet. By the time he made it into the airlock he was blind and couldn’t breathe through his nose, as the blob of water had covered them.
While a report has been released on the incident, investigation is apparently still ongoing:
In summary, the causes for this mishap evolved from (1) inorganic materials causing blockage of the drum holes in the EMU water separator resulting in water spilling into the vent loop; (2) the NASA team’s lack of knowledge regarding this particular failure mode; and (3) misdiagnosis of this suit failure when it initially occurred on EVA 22.
The source of the inorganic materials blocking the water separator drum holes had not been experienced during an EVA before and is still undergoing a concurrent investigation. The results of this investigationwill ultimately lead to resolution of this issue; however, since the concurrent investigation into the source of the debris is expected to continue for many months, the MIB does not yet have the required data to determine the root causes of the contamination source, which must ultimately be determined to prevent future mishaps.
Here’s a PDF of the report, with it’s snappy and catchy title:
International Space Station (ISS) EVA Suit
Water Intrusion
High Visibility Close Call
Note that this report is seriously redacted, with a *lot* of pages, illustrations and text, simply blacked out. I don’t suppose that the obscured portions might be recoverable as has happened with previous half-assed-redacted documents, since they have *got* to have learned their lesson about such things by now… but it’d still be interesting to see what NASA wants the public to not see. My guess would be stuff that would point towards legal liability. But also obscured are things like suit schematics; what could be the problem there? It’s not like the Russians or the Chinese don’t know how to make their own space suits.