NASA nuclear fusion rocket

 history, models, nukes, projects, rockets, science, spacecraft  6 Responses »
Aug 242016
 

An early/mid 1960’s concept model of an interplanetary spacecraft using a nuclear fusion powerplant. Back then there was a LOT of faith in the idea of fusion reactors being just around the corner. One very obvious design flaw? No radiators. Any internal-fusion system (or internal-fission, for that matter) would need *vast* radiator surface area.

Details on the photo are unavailable. I originally downloaded this image from the GRIN (Great Images in NASA) website, which has now been closed in favor of a Flickr account that is difficult to search. Feh. If you want the full-rez version *another* Flickr account has it HERE.

GPN-2009-00027

 Posted by at 5:12 pm

Flutter at a glance

 AARRRGH, aircraft, awesomeness, history, models, projects, youtube  3 Responses »
Aug 242016
 

A NASA-Langley film from decades ago, a collection of quick clips from wind tunnel tests. These show models designed to bend and flex somewhat like their larger real-world kin, and then they are massively overstressed to the point of failure. If doing a spit-take was a real thing rather than a Hollywood trope, I woulda spit-took at about 1:20, when a Boeing 2707-100 supersonic transport model is shown being turned into a damn porpoise in the wind tunnel (instead, I just blurted out “holy shee-it” and laughed for a while). About 15 seconds later it (or a model similar to it) is turned into so much confetti. I assume the wind tunnel had some sort of shrapnel-filter to keep the junk from being sucked into the blades…

 

 

 

 Posted by at 2:17 am

Enterprise Restoration

 art, awesomeness, history, models, science fiction, spacecraft  5 Responses »
Aug 012016
 

This video shows the effort the National Air & Space Museum went to to restore the original USS Enterprise model. Damn if that doesn’t look like one hell of a job!

 

Tucked away inside the video were brief glimpses of some CAD diagrams of the Enterprise used for determining the paint scheme. I’d *love* to see these in full!

ncc1701color

 Posted by at 5:09 pm

No, that’s *not* a Geodetic Satellite Model

 art, history, Hmm..., models, nukes, projects, spacecraft  6 Responses »
Jul 202016
 

Bonham’s just wrapped up another one of their “no you can’t afford these” space history memorabilia auctions. Among the interesting stuff I looked at, sighed over and wished I lived in a world where somehow I was rich enough to afford, there was this item:

Lot 75
GEODETIC SATELLITE MODEL

The other items listed all have their sales prices listed (like the $269,000 Sputnik model… yow), but this item seems to still only have it’s estimated price of  $1500-$2500. My guess is that that means it didn’t sell. And if it didn’t, maybe it’s because it was advertised as being something far less interesting than it actually is. Consider: the description goes thus:

GEODETIC SATELLITE MODEL

Large scale model of a Geodetic Satellite. 37½ inch tall plexiglass pole topped with 16½ inch tall conical satellite with ten 21 inch long folding blue panels.

Employed by the United States Navy, the GeoSat was an Earth observation satellite launched in 1985. The goal of the GeoSat mission was to provide information on the marine gravity field.

Which, yeah, I guess that’s nice, but it’s not really one of the more exciting satellites out there. By the way, here is a geodetic satellite rendering:

And here is the model that was up for auction:

sp-100 model

Are there similarities? Sure. But you know what that model *isn’t* a model of? A geodetic satellite. It’s a model of this:

Yup. That there is the business end of an SP-100 space nuclear reactor.

Now, I don’t know that the model is *really* anything special… the payload it’s attached to is dreadfully small and dull. It’s not like it’s attached to a neutral particle beam weapon or something similarly intriguing, and the SP-100 was hardly a classified program. But still a nuclear reactor powered spacecraft has *got* to be more interesting than a geodetic satellite, yes?

See also:

SP-100 art

 This is what happens when people and institutions do not contract with me to vet all their aerospace stuff. Reasonable rates, people!
 Posted by at 4:27 pm

Anybody know this NASP?

 aircraft, history, models, spacecraft  4 Responses »
Jul 012016
 

A photo of a McDonnell Douglas X-30 NASP display model that has seen better days. Has anyone seen another copy of this model, or art depicting the same configuration? The tails on both sides are missing, so reconstruction without references would be at best speculation.

broken nasp

The configuration seems fairly generic. McD released a lot of art on the NASP back in the day, along with the vaguely-related “Orient Express” idea for a hypersonic transport. While the NASP and the OE were *not* the same vehicle, they were meant to at least share some similar technologies, but the aerodynamics was something that differed substantially, for example, here’s a McD Orient Express model in the National Air and Space Museum:

The two clearly come from the same line of thinking, but the NASP has a much deeper fuselage. This makes sense… going to orbit as an SSTO requires stuffing as much fuel as possible into the fuselage, and the relatively flat HST has a less efficient volumetric efficiency.

 Posted by at 12:44 pm

An unusual request: XF-90

 aircraft, drawings, history, Hmm..., models  5 Responses »
Jun 182016
 

I’m looking for good diagrams of the Lockheed XF-90, especially cross-sections of the fuselage. Here’s where it gets a little weird: I need to be able to accurately 3D CAD model the XF-90… but it’s not for an XF-90 kit.

More later (of course, the first to provide such diagrams gets the full lowdown on what’s up).

 Posted by at 12:32 pm
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