Landing Legs for SpaceX

 awesomeness, projects, rockets, spacecraft  15 Responses »
Mar 032014
 

The news is a bit old, but what the heck:

SpaceX Adds Landing Legs to Falcon 9 Rocket for Next Launch, Elon Musk Says

The legs will be in place for the next Falcon 9 launch, but the rocket is planned to splash down in the ocean. SpaceX is doign a step-by-step development of a reusable Falcon 9 first stage, which is a prudent approach. It’s unclear if the Falcon 9 will try to “land” in the ocean, or just splash down. “Landing” it at sea would be a good way to put the system through its paces with less risk to on-shore facilities and people and critters and such.

spacex-falcon-9-landing-legs

falcon9-render

 Posted by at 11:19 am

“Private” manned Mars mission

 Hmm..., Meh., news, projects, rockets, spacecraft  5 Responses »
Mar 032014
 

Private Mars Flyby Mission in 2021 Needs NASA’s Help, Experts Tell Congress

The “Inspiration Mars Foundation,” founded by Dennis Tito (often claimed to be the first space tourist, but I believe Sultan bin Salman al Saud had him beat by a number of years), wants to send a private manned spacecraft on a flyby of Mars in 2021. But there’s a problem…

The private organization hopes the space agency will provide one of its giant Space Launch System rockets as well as an Orion deep-space capsule

Errrmmmm…

 Posted by at 11:09 am

A 1st Edition Copy of “Nuclear Pulse Propulsion”

 blather, books, drawings, history, news, Nuclear Pulse Propulsion, nukes, projects, rockets, science, science fiction, spacecraft  15 Responses »
Feb 272014
 

I printed out what I have on my NPP book, and it consumed pretty much most of a ream of paper (single sided only). A lot of the CAD diagrams haven’t yet been integrated… and a number aren’t done yet, so there’s yet more pages to print. This binder will be used to scribbling purposes… i always seem to be able to find slepping erorrs and the like easier on a written page than on-screen.

Just confirmation that the project remains underway. The final book will be a bit of a beast, especially if printed on good paper at this size or better.

Img_3705 Img_3696 Img_3697 Img_3698 Img_3699 Img_3700 Img_3701 Img_3702 Img_3703 Img_3704

In the master list of diagrams,green means finished, yellow means in progress, red means unstarted.NPP-00001 list-Model NPP-07002 20M-Model NPP-09001 helios-Model NPP-10001-3 daedalus 1st stage-Model NPP-16001-2 interplanetary-Model NPP-40001-2 world ship-ModelNPP-48001 British Rail-Model

 Posted by at 1:50 pm

UA-1205: 3

 art, books, drawings, history, rockets, spacecraft  8 Responses »
Feb 272014
 

And here’s the tail end f the UA-1205 motor, showing details of the thrust vector control system. On this motor, TVC was by fluid injection: a bit downstream of the throat there were a multitude of small injection ports in the nozzle. Valves would, on command open some and close most of the others, allowing pressurized N2O4 to be injected. The temperature increase would cause the fluid to flash to a gas, forming something like a “bubble” over the injection port; this would cause a disruption in the exhaust flow, causing the thrust vector to be shoved around. And thus, no moving parts needed in order to achieve the effect of a nozzle that can be slewed around. Of course, this was at the expense of a big tank of TVC fluid hanging off the side.

ua-1205 c

 Posted by at 11:36 am

Storytime: “Orion Battleship Intro”

 blather, books, history, My Fiction, Nuclear Pulse Propulsion, nukes, Pax Orionis, projects, rockets, russian empire, science fiction, spacecraft, weapons  5 Responses »
Feb 262014
 

So, a number of years ago I started working on “Nuclear Pulse Propulsion,” which was to be the End All Be All tome on this topic. Sometime into it, someone suggested that I take a page from Tom Clancy and add a little fictional vignette of a few paragraphs to the start of each chapter, to try to bring some aspect of the designs to life. It was a good idea, I thought, so I took a crack at it… and realized with my first attempt that it just wasn’t working. At least, not the way I was going about it. I started writing a yarn featuring the 4,000 ton “space battleship” pitched to the USAF. But several pages in, it became clear that I wasn’t doing well on keeping it to “a few paragraphs.” Also… it was getting fairly dire. Just as there are few stories you can tell about a Ohio-class boomer or a Minuteman III missile silo that feature them doing the jobs they were designed for, there seem few to tell about a spacecraft designed to fight an all-out nuclear war. And while, if written well, it could be an exciting yarn… it ain’t gonna be too damn cheerful, unless global annihilation is something you think is pretty awesome. So… I just sorta gave up on the idea.

 

In the past week or three I’ve gotten back into working on NPP, and dug up the Orion Battleship tale. And because why not, I’m posting a PDF of it. Keep in mind, this isn’t a polished piece. It’s not even a rough draft; it’s half a rough draft. There is no dialogue, there are no human characters. I had an end in mind, but just never got to it.

So, if’n yer interested in such things, HERE YA GO.

batlleship tale

 

And because I just got the plumbers bill for replacing the pressure tank and suddenly find myself in some need of cash…

 


Fiction Tip Jar



 Posted by at 11:46 am

UA-1205: 2

 drawings, history, rockets, spacecraft  No Responses »
Feb 262014
 

Another drawing of the United Tech UA-1205 solid rocket motor. This depicts the forward end of the motor including the closure, the igniter and the booster separation motor structure. Everything here could, with relatively little effort, be compared closely with the Space Shuttle Reusable Solid Rocket Motors. The RSRMs were entirely new designs, but the design concepts were by and large taken from the UA-1205.

Not depicted here are the thrust termination ports that the earliest motors had. These ports were a feature designed in due to the fact that the Titan IIIC was originally designed to be a manned launch vehicle (for the Dyna Soar program). In the event of an abort after launch, the ports would be blown out by way of externally mounted linear shaped charges; the ports would provide escape paths for the pressurized gas in the motors. These would not only provide thrust to counteract the thrust coming out the nozzle at the aft, but the sudden increase in port area would mean that the chamber pressure would plummet. And as chamber pressure plummeted, the propellant burn rate would also plummet. Combustion could have been completely stopped, depending upon conditions; in any event, the motors would cease to provide meaningful thrust in a split second and could be safely jettisoned… or the manned portion could eject without fear of being run over by the boosters.

ua-1205 b

 

 Posted by at 2:13 am

Space Stations And Mars Vehicles

 art, projects, rockets, spacecraft  No Responses »
Feb 222014
 

A bit of NASA art (same source, and likely same date, as THIS) depicting the late ’80’s Dual Keel Space Station configuration being used as a construction site for a Manned Mars vehicle. Considerable modification to the Station itself would be made to turn it into a functional assembly area. Note that it uses both photovoltaic and solar dynamic power sources.

mars station

 Posted by at 11:30 pm

Kate Upton in Zero-G

 awesomeness, blather, Hmm..., news, photography, spacecraft  10 Responses »
Feb 182014
 

Ummm. The best space news story of the day.

Kate Upton poses in zero gravity conditions wearing a tiny gold bikini for Sports Illustrated

Ahhhhrrrrrmmmm…
George-Takei-oh-my
Ahem.
There are, of course, photos at the link. There may be some photoshoppery afoot. But there is also a video. It looks like she was having a blast bouncing around inside the plane.
Well… maybe *this* sort of thing will inspire public interest in spaceflight….
 Posted by at 5:30 pm

US Bomber Projects #08, Large formats 01-03 and 04-06 Now Available

 aircraft, art, awesomeness, books, drawings, history, new products, news, nukes, projects, rockets, spacecraft, US Bomber Projects  No Responses »
Feb 162014
 

Now available:

Issue number 08 of US Bomber Projects is now available (for background, see HERE). This issue includes:

  • Boeing Model 464-27: a slightly-swept turboprop B-52 progenitor
  • Rockwell D645-6: A minimum-weight spanloader missile carrier
  • Martin Mach 4.25: A large, manned nuclear ramjet
  • Boeing Model 484-2-2: A swept-wing, slightly supersonic B-58 competitor
  • Douglas System 464L: A many-surfaced Dyna Soar spaceplane
  • Martin Model 223-8: a 1944 step on the road to the XB-48
  • Boeing Model 801-11A: A Mach 3.5 hydrogen fueled design of incredible range
  • Martin MAMBA: A mid-1960’s A-10-analog

USBP#08 can be downloaded as a PDF file for only $4:

——–

———

usbp08

—————————-

Brand new: larger format drawing collections

The CAD drawings created for USBP reformatted an rescaled for 11X17 collected in separate volumes. Drawings have in some cases been corrected, improved and added to.

USBP 11X17 01-03 collects the diagrams created for issues 01, 02 and 03, including:

Rockwell D 645-1; NAA 1495-25 PAMSS; Boeing Model 701-273-0; Convair B-58-C-1; Lockheed CL-2102-2; Lockheed Model 195-A-13; Martin Model 223-1; Boeing Model 444 A; Rockwell D 645-1: LH2; NAA High Performance Penetrator; Boeing Model 701-273-1; Lockheed GL-232; Boeing Space Sortie; Martin Model 223-2; Boeing Model 461; Northrop Low Altitude Penetrator; Rockwell D 645-4A; Lockheed System 464L; Convair Mach 4 “Rollover;” Boeing Model 701-273-3; Boeing HSCT Model 1080-854; Martin Model 223-3; Boeing Model 462

USBP11x17-01-03 can be downloaded as a PDF file for only $10:

——–

———

usbp11x17-01-03

————————-

USBP 11X17 04-06 collects the diagrams created for issues 04, 05 and 06, including:

McDonnell System 464L; Lockheed-Martin Falcon; Lockheed Senior Peg; Boeing Mobile Missile Carrier; Boeing Model 701-273-4; Lockheed Cruise Missile Carrier; Boeing Model 462-5; Martin Model 223-4; McDonnell-Douglas ATB; McDonnell-Douglas/Boeing DF-9; Boeing Model 701-273-5; Fairchild N-9; Martin Model 223-5; Rockwell D645-5;North American 464L; Boeing Model 464-17; Boeing Model 464-18; Convair WS-125A; Martin MX-2092; GD AMPSS; Republic System 464L; Martin Model 223-6; Boeing Model 701-273-6; Martin Water-Based Attack Aircraft

USBP11x17-04-06 can be downloaded as a PDF file for only $10:

——–

———

usbp11x17-04-06

 Posted by at 12:25 pm
 Older Entries  Newer Entries