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.
This is a “cut scene” from a video game (“Star Wars: Squadrons”) and is a few years old… but it’s the best official non-“Rogue One” Star Wars that has come out since Disney bought the franchise.
Huh.
In short, a volcano on Venus seemed to be active from 1990 to 1992. It could be that the mountain simply slumped, but more likely it that it blarped up some lava.
So if you decide to go for a hike on Venus, add “volcano” to the list of things to be careful of.
This would make Venus the third world in this solar system to have active volcanoes, after Earth and Io. But some form of geological activity is much more common, with ice geysers all over the place out among the larger moons.
From three days ago, the only news source Google seemed to find:
Russia, it seems, isn’t paying its bills, so Kazakhstan sent in the repo men. Apparently. The bulk of the story is behind a paywall.
I will be posting some more cyanotype blueprints to ebay in the coming days. These were made from old transparencies I’d had made prior to the move from Utah. But I also hope to have some “brand new” cyanotypes in the near-ish future. The transparent film remains astonishingly elusive; two separate companies are trying to obtain it… and have been for a few months now. Every other print shop in the area has flat refused to try. A print shop a few hundred miles away made a few transparencies for me a few months back; I just sent them files to have a few more made. With luck they’ll come through. I have a *bunch* more I’d like to have done. Here are what I recently sent off:
Martin XB-51. The original print was 1/40 scale; this blueprint will be 1/72 scale.
The Avro “Arrow” structural layout.
Two sheets from NASA illustrating the Saturn V. One sheet is very likely more interesting than the other, so what I might end up doing is ebaying the two sheets and cataloging just the one.
The US-1205 and UA-1207 solid rocket motors for the Titan IIIC and IIIM, respectively. I have the originals of these framed and hanging on my wall; conveniently, they fit in off-the-shelf 11.75X36 panorama frames that you can get at Hobby Lobby and the like. I will probably tinker with some of the other blueprints that are *close* to this size to massage them to fit into that frame. Because as awesome as the prints are on their own, they’re spectacular framed.
I have also sent a revised version of my SR-71 CAD diagrams to be re-printed. The first print’s lines came in too light/fine. Live and learn…
Short response: eat me.
Longer response: let’s take a look at what this idea is, shall we?
But Dr Pamela Conrad of the Carnegie Institution of Science said the focus should shift away from seeking to exploit discoveries.
Speaking ahead of a panel event on Saturday on the ethics of space exploration at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) meeting in Washington DC, she said: “If we were willing to seize that as not just a possibility, but an imperative then oddly enough, the Star Trek series and culture becomes a prime directive for how we could explore space: seeking not to interfere.”
In the Star Trek series, the Prime Directive, or General Order 1, of Starfleet Command sets out that the Starfleet should not interfere with the social, cultural or technological development of any other planet.
Conrad said that rather than setting out to own or take resources from space, humans should endeavour to be “gentle explorers”.
Tell me you’ve never actually watched Star Trek without telling me you’ve never actually watched Star Trek. The Prime Directive – which they broke all the freakin’ time – said not to interfere with the development of an intelligent species. but strip mining moons and asteroids? Hell, yes? Starfleet and the United Federation of planets were *all* about resource extraction. Hell, they were in favor of the damned Genesis Device which would completely pave over entire solar systems to build brand new ones with shiny new planets. Because of course they were: the UFP weren’t stupid.
Oh, but it gets worse. So much worse:
What’s more, he said Indigenous people had deep connections with bodies such as the moon.
“Part of that connection is inherent to the culture and the way of living and way of knowing,” he said, adding any damage to such bodies was therefore a concern.
As a result, Neilson said those working on space missions, such as the Nasa Artemis programme – which seeks to establish a long-term presence on the moon and eventually send humans to Mars – should engage with Indigenous people in advance.
Haha no. Why the frak should NASA give a damn what a bunch of ignorant boobs who think the Moon is a space fairy think? When they build their own rockets, then they, too, can have a say.
Around a week ago I read yet another article about how cloning the woolly mammoth was right around the corner. Well, maybe. But what stuck with me were some of the comments: the scientists were “playing God,” and the mammoths being extinct were part of “Gods plan” and that it was wrong to try to upend that. Well, here’s the thing: if one assumes God exists, then humans de-exticting the mammoth would either:
1) Also be part of Gods plan
2) Be proof that God ain’t so great; mere humans can reverse what a supposed omnipotent being did.
So if some “indigenous group” thinks the moon is some neato-keen religious symbol that should not be tinkered with, and the United States and China race to pave the place with mines and solar panels… maybe those indigenous groups need to rethink their religion.
Leaving the future of humanity in the hands of people who are stuck in the past is not just dumb, it’s criminal.
The United Federation of Planets didn’t screw with primitives. But they also didn’t put primitives on the Federation council.
A program progress film from 1959 describing the US Army’s “Saturn” rocket. This would soon be transferred to NASA, eventually becoming the Saturn I (then Ib). The basic layout of the first stage would remain, but the upper stages would change utterly; as shown here, they are derivatives of the Titan ICBM. Note that the first stage is shown being recovered. This feature lasted a surprising length of time, with components being built into the early NASA Saturns. The idea was that the stages would be parachute recovered with solid rocket motors firing at the last second to cushion splashdown. The motor firing would be set off by a trigger that would be released from the booster to dangle some distance below. As soon as the trigger hit the water, it would signal the motors to fire. The stage would splash down soft enough to be recovered, but it was assumed it’d be damaged beyond refurbishment. The idea was to examine the stage to see how it did, and introduce incremental improvements until *eventually* it was able to be recovered intact enough for cost effective refurbishment and reuse.
I have a *pile* of books to sell; the first of them are now on ebay. More will be added as I get around to it…
I’m selling the blueprints I’ve recently made. I can sign ’em if the buyer wants, front or back…
It’s time to post my first batch of cyanotypes to ebay. But I ran into a conundrum… how should I categorize them? I started entering the first one, the Sat Ib, as “collectible-historical memorabilia-astronauts & space travel-etc” but then I realized that these were made by me over the last few weeks. The *sources* for the blueprints are of course historical, but the actual items themselves are brand new, hand made “art” items. Suggestions?
