The James Webb Space Telescope recently took a shot of deep space, showing a multitude of galaxies lensed *spectacularly.* Full-rez version at the link.
https://esawebb.org/images/potm2303a/
That view is *littered* with lensing, especially on the right.
In 1983 “Science Digest” ran an article that 13-year-old me lost his tiny little mind over. Illustrated by Rick Sternbach, designer of, among other Star Trek vehicles and artifacts, the USS Voyager, it described a series of possible means of interstellar travel. While the physics and engineering of some of them have proven dodgy in the years since (the Bussard ramjet has serious problems with the proposed magnetic fiend, the Enzmann starship has turned out to not be as well thought out as many had assumed, etc.), it remains a tantalizing glimpse of what might be. The article has been scanned in full color and made available to APR Patrons/subscribers at the above-$10 level.
If you would like to help fund the acquisition and preservation of such things, along with getting high quality scans for yourself, please consider signing on either for the APR Patreon or the APR Monthly Historical Documents Program. Back issues are available for purchase by patrons and subscribers.
The rewards for April, 2023, have been released. They include:
Document: *Partial* Martin report on the M329 Mach 2 jet seaplane bomber
Document: “Flexible Wing Manned Test Vehicle, Final Program Report,” Ryan, December 1961. report on the development of the “Rogallo Wing” test vehicle.
Document: “10 Jahre TKF/J-90 Vorentwicklung,” conference paper from 1983 from Messerschmitt-Bolkow-Blohm Gmbh describing (in German) the development of advanced fighter jets
Large Format: “NASA’s Space Launch System,” poster with detailed diagrams of the Block 1 and Block 1B SLS
CAD Diagram: B-1B weapons loads. This diagram was created and intended for my “US Supersonic Bomber Projects Volume 1” but had to be cut for space reasons. This includes gravity bombers, cruise missile sand the Vought T-22 “Assault Breaker.”
If you would like to help fund the acquisition and preservation of such things, along with getting high quality scans for yourself, please consider signing on either for the APR Patreon or the APR Monthly Historical Documents Program. Back issues are available for purchase by patrons and subscribers.
Well, it got off the pad. That’s good. But at least six of the engines didn’t seem to be burning, and the whole stack started tumbling just before stage sep… and then the stages didn’t sep.
But it got not just off the pad, but away from the pad, and made it a good way toward first stage burnout before things went sideways. So… a qualified woohoo.
EDIT: Just saw a different launch angle: It clawed its way off the pad at something of an angle. The thrust vector seems to have been off from the beginning; SpaceX is probably lucky they didn’t lose the pad.
Seems relevant:
Nailed it.. 😂 pic.twitter.com/FC5wo1eppH
— Buitengebieden (@buitengebieden) April 20, 2023
Six of the 33 engines weren’t running:
Potato starch was used to create bricks from simulated Martian soil. 55 kilos of dehydrated taters resulted in about 200 bricks. Many thousands would be needed to make something the size of a house, so that’s a lot of po-tay-toes. Boil ’em, mash ’em, stick ’em in a Martian brick production facility.
But that wasn’t the weird part of the report: blood and urine were also studied as binding agents for the bricks. Bleah.
They’ve got FAA approval:
If it goes to plan, as soon as 7AM Texas time on Monday Starship/Superheavy will launch. The booster will splash down 30+ kilometers from the Texas coast in the Gulf of Mexico; Starship will climb to 235 kilometers, get into *almost* a circular orbit, and re-enter and bellyflop into the Pacific 225 kilometers north of Oahu. Of course the chances of everything going right are probably low; I would not be surprised to see an enthusiastic unassembly early in the flight (though hopefully far enough away to not tear up the launch site). If it claws its way off the pad, it’ll be the most powerful rocket ever launched.
With the state of the world, and especially with the plethora of mysterious “accidents” happening to industrial facilities around the country, I expect to see things not go quite to plan. I hope to be be proven wrong.
Ever since the early sixties there have been ideas about “inspector” spacecraft that would check out other satellites. This would be done to see just what some foreign satellite actually was…r econ, communications, navigation, weapons platform. But actually doing it has not but done too often… at least, it hasn’t been *shown.* But here are the results of one commercial satellite – the Worldview-3 earth observer – looking at a Landsat from a range of about 100 kilometers. The imagery is remarkably clear.
You’ve probably seen artists’ renderings of #Landsat satellites in orbit… but how about an *actual image* of a satellite in orbit?
Thanks to Maxar, we now have images of Landsat 8 orbiting Earth from the WorldView-3 satellite.
Enjoy! 🛰️ pic.twitter.com/YFeQlHVV7t
— NASA Landsat Program (@NASA_Landsat) April 3, 2023
Season three of “Star Trek Picard” has been an astonishing breath of fresh “Star Trek.” After four dismal years of “Discovery” insulting the fandom and crapping on the legacy, and two hideous seasons of “Picard” that took a steamer on the character of “Picard,” season three, under new management, has really turned things around. And the latest episode goes so far as to wipe out the Discovery production design aesthetic.
There is a visit to the Star fleet Museum, showing a number of of ships on display. These include the Defiant from Deep Space Nine, Janeway’s Voyager, the NCC-1701-A Enterprise, the HMS Bounty whale hauler… and the USS New Jersey. This is a never before seen, probably never before mentioned ship. Which makes sense; doubtless Star Fleet has lots of ships worthy of keeping that never showed up in any prior episode or movie. But what makes the scene really special: all of these ships are, so far as I can tell, *exactly* what they should be in terms of design. The Bounty looks like a Klingon vessel from Star trek III and IV, not one of those gibberish ships from Discovery. The Enterprise, Voyager, Defiant are all quite correct. And the New Jersey? Take a look:
That’s a *proper* TOS-era Connie-class. Not like the sad spectacle of “Pikes” Enterprise from STD/SNW.
And there’s the fact that Worf looks like a Trek Klingon, not a nuTrek Klingork.
So, yeah. Picard ends with this season. But the powers that be will be *really* missing out if they don’t follow this up with a series that spins off of Picard Season Three… same production crew, same production aesthetic, same writers, same producers. They finally found people to work on Trek who actually *like* Trek.
I’ve added some more things to my eBay: “Dynascott.” There are some new cyanotypes, some books, a piece of vintage NASA test equipment that I bought *years* ago to serve as a prop for The Alternate History Movie That Shall Not Be Named. Some cyanotypes I’ve had before; the photos are of the *actual* prints I’m selling. I have more cyanotypes and a lot more books to add soon, but this gets the ball rolling. I’ve included Buy It Now for them.
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And some old listings that are still up:
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Not every idea pans out.
In a world where SpaceX is doing it’s thing, other small launcher companies had damned well better have a *really* good idea. And while dropping an expendable rocket from a 747 might have been neato-keen in the 1990’s… right now it looks kinda dumb. Sure, the ability to launch from anywhere with a big enough airport is nice… but it doesn’t seem to be enough.
