A 1988 NASA film (supposedly silent, but you can hear something like a film projector) showing footage of astronauts moving around on Skylab and the Shuttle. It shows just how relatively *vast* Skylab was compared to Shuttle and Spacelab (and by extension ISS). Space hotels would, I think, be wise to include at least one large volume like this. Transhab/Bigelow style inflatable modules would be just the thing.
[youtube sxKR0Ozeq08]
A slab of Rhodochrosite on display at the natural history museum in D.C.:
This mineral is not found in too many places on Earth… one really good (now played out) mine in Colorado, China, and where this one came from, Argentina. The Colorado crystals were typically rhomboid cubes, making great gems, but the Argentine stuff is more like what you see here. Rather than clear and flawless, it’s layered. But it also can be pretty enormous… this is a slice of stalactites (or stalagmites, unclear), which means there was a cave jam-packed with this stuff until someone came through and sawed it all apart.
By far the best collection of the stuff is in the Denver museum of natural history (or whatever it’s called these days). There is a sizable *wall* covered with gem-quality rhodochrosite crystals, one one truly enormous cube of the stuff.
Now it’s the “TravelNevada.com Reno National Championship Air Races and Air Show Presented by Breitling.”
Ugh.
So… TN.comRNCARaASPbB. Just rolls off the tongue. Or would it be TNdcRNCARaASPbB?
I certainly understand the need to sell naming rights in order to gin up some cash… but this seems a bit much.
One of the more unconventional Space Shuttle concepts was this minor Grumman concept from 1971. Similar to the Lockheed STAR Clipper stage-and-one-half design, this design featured a fully reusable rocket powered spaceplane with expendable propellant tanks. Unlike the STAR Clipper, the Grumman design had four unattached tanks and a non-lifting body wing-body orbiter.
A short while ago a Well Known Science Fiction Author contacted me about the possibility of getting a diagram created to illustrate a novel he’s working on. Done! I’m uncertain of the propriety of giving out details, so I’ll leave it with once it’s public most of y’all will go “well, sure, that one makes sense.” I understand the book is about a year-ish from publication.
I actually got paid for my work. Woo!
Anybody else???
PayPal seems to be slacking off on sending me email notifications of incoming orders. So if you order a download and don’t hear from me within (handwave) 12 hours or so, send me an email message and I’ll get you taken care of.
Holy crap! This has to be one of the most awesome things I’ve ever seen… photography so fast you can watch *light* move in slow motion! The equivalent of a *trillion* frames per second; the camera has a time resolution of 2 *picoseconds,* which is as long as it takes light to travel 0.6 *millimeters.*
[youtube Y_9vd4HWlVA]
Watching a pulse of light bouncing around inside a Coke bottle (2:57 to 3:28) is just plain remarkable.
In the eloquent words of a few of the YouTube commenters…
Now this is a dandy idea.
http://theoatmeal.com/blog/tesla_museum
Or:
http://www.indiegogo.com/teslamuseum
In short… Tesla’s old laboratory Wardenclyffe is up for sale. For $1.6 million it can be purchased, and potentially turned into a Tesla museum… which apparently the US currently has none of.
Ouch.
Because, sure, what the world needs right now are jihadis with crappy unstable nukes.