Heavy Lifters: A New Contender Emerges

 Hmm..., news, projects, rockets, spacecraft  22 Responses »
Mar 232018
 

China is Working on a Rocket as Powerful as the Saturn V, Could Launch by 2030

The Chinese seem to be proceeding *real* slowly on their space program, but who can say what their real goals are. They used to kinda suck at space launchers, but the Clintons saw to that; Chinas ability to successfully orbit sizable payloads has certainly improved. And now that SpaceX, Blue Origin and maybe – just possibly – even NASA may soon have heavy lifters of their own, it makes sense that the Chinese will want one as well. He who controls the heavens controls the future, after all.

Seems the Chinese hope to conduct a main engine test for the CZ-9 later this year.

Chang Zheng-9 (Long March 9)

The Chang Zheng-9 (CZ-9, or Long March 9) is a super heavy-lift launch vehicle intended for future manned lunar landing and deep space exploration missions. The launch vehicle is described as a large rocket roughly 100 m in length and 8 to 9 m in diameter, assisted by two or four 3 m diameter solid rocket boosters, with a lift-off thrust of 5,200 to 5,500 tonnes. The launcher will be capable of delivering 130 tonnes of payload to Low Earth Orbit (LEO), exactly the same as the heavier Block 2 version of the NASA Space Launch System (SLS).

If the artists impression is accurate, the CZ-9 is clearly from the same train of thought that produced the SLS. Which means that it’ll probably cost something like the SLS, adjusted for Chinese costs rather than NASA bureaucracy. Which would be fine in normal times, but we seem to be heading into a whole new era… SpaceX and Blue Origin pull it off, or even just one of them, rockets like the CZ-9 will look *really* outdated.

 Posted by at 10:12 pm

Does it suck?

 art, Hmm..., models, projects, rockets, spacecraft, US Spacecraft Projects  9 Responses »
Mar 162018
 

I think I’m pretty good at 2D drafting and at 3D CAD modeling for 3D printing and such. But I’ve very little experience with texture mapping and rendering for “art.” But while modeling the JPL interstellar precursor spacecraft for the next issue of USSP, it occurred to me that the model didn’t look half bad just with basic coloring of the parts. While this may work for spacecraft, I don’t imagine it’d be all that wonderful for aircraft.

The JPL spacecraft was to be propelled by a bank of 40 ion engines. I tried to simulate that with lights in the engines, but that did some *wacky* stuff… light shining *through* solid objects, not casting shadows, all kinds of stuff that Just Ain’t Right. I don’t suppose my ancient copy of Rhinoceros 3D is really meant for that sort of thing. So I simulated the ion engine exhaust with simple transparent cylinders. Not the greatest but… does it look like it’s doing the job?

UPDATE: A better version. See comments for process.

 Posted by at 12:44 am

Here’s what you need to know about SLS

 AARRRGH, Crazy, Forward!, Gah., Hmm..., news, projects, rockets, spacecraft, ಠ_ಠ  42 Responses »
Mar 042018
 

What I do know is that SLS is certain to get delayed again. By 2025 we will have paid close to $50 billion for SLS and Orion, and the best we can hope for is a single manned mission. And that one mission will have taken 21 years to go from concept to launch.

Ye gods.

Elon Musk is – probably optimistically – suggesting that the even-more-capable BFR will not only fly before 2025, not only fly people before 2025, but will fly people to *Mars* by 2025. BFR began development approximately 2012, and prototype bits of it are hoped to fly next year. BFR is an all-new giant vehicle using all-new engines and structures. SLS is a kludge of the 1970’s-vintage Shuttle external tank, main engines and solid rocket boosters with an upper stage derived from Delta and Centaur, launching from an existing but modified facility. NASA *should* have been able to slap SLS together in a handful of years.

 Posted by at 2:40 am

APR Patreon rewards, February, 2018

 aircraft, awesomeness, drawings, history, Nuclear Pulse Propulsion, nukes, Patreon, projects, rockets, spacecraft  2 Responses »
Feb 272018
 

Rewards have been issued to APR Patreon patrons for February, 2018. This month, the diagram is a 1/40 scale B-52B diagram. Normally the diagrams are sent out at full 300 dpi (with 125 dpi for the $1.25 patrons), but at 300 dpi the diagram is simply Way Too Big at over 40,000 pixels wide. Most image viewing programs will simply go “nope”and refuse to even try to display such images. so this month the image is sent out at 200 dpi (still slightly over 30,000 pixels wide), and 83 dpi for the $1.25 patrons. The 83 dpi version is also included for the higher level patrons for easier viewing.

Also: the documents this month include a United Aircraft paper on advanced future space propulsion systems as seen from 1969, and a January 1953 Douglas Aircraft design study for the DC-8. The CAD diagram this month is the Ganswindt Weltenfahrzeug… a truly terrible design for a spaceship from 1899. Terrible though it may be, it one of the first designs that is clearly in the Project Orion family tree…

If you are interested in helping to preserve (and get copies of) this sort of thing, consider signing up for the APR Patreon.

 

patreon-200

 Posted by at 2:36 pm

Prufrock and SpaceX

 art, awesomeness, blather, rockets, spacecraft, youtube  No Responses »
Feb 222018
 

Quite  number of years ago, AIG ran a commercial that starts off showing rockets failing and ending up with astronauts on the moon. A recitation of bits from T.S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” covers it. The poem itself is a dismal tale of a cowardly paper-pusher, but everything edited together like this comes together really well to illustrate the message of the commercial, “The greatest risk is not taking one.”

It was good in its time, and I felt it personally very affecting. But imagine it redone *now.* Now, you wouldn’t need to splice together old Apollo and ICBM footage to go from fail to spectacular success… everything you need would come from SpaceX.

 

 

 Posted by at 6:27 pm
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