May 102015
 

Electric ‘hypercar’ Toroidion 1MW boasts 1,341 horsepower

And it’s cheap, too… it’ll go for between $1,500,000 and $3,500,000 each.

Even though batteries aren’t fundamentally much better than they were a generation ago, electric cars do seem to be becoming more practical (of course, a multi-million-dollar “hypercar” ain’t exactly the best example of “practical”).

The claim is that this car would be able to win the 24 hour Le Mans race. Assuming this isn’t the worst form of hyperbolic propaganda, some means mus be in place to make recharging the battery, or swapping it out, relatively quick and easy.

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Note: I noticed when I logged in to post this that I haven’t posted anything in a few days. Friday morning I witnessed a small event on the road  that just depressed the hell out of me. Every now and then I am reminded that my decision to permanently “trap” my cats indoors and not let them roam outdoors was the right one.

 Posted by at 1:21 am
May 072015
 

I’ve uploaded the fourth of four parts of the ISS Mass Properties Databook which provides a pretty complete overview of the ISS and all its major components, including layout diagrams of all the modules and whatnot. This is available for all APR Patreon patrons at $4/month level and above.

Check HERE to sign up. Many, many other aerospace goodies also available.

 Posted by at 10:26 pm
May 072015
 

I’ve probably mentioned once or twice my love of the movie “Jurassic Park.” Like “Star Wars” a decade and a half earlier, JP was a game changer… prior to this, a dinosaur seen on screen was either stop motion or a dude in a rubber suit. But the reveal of the CGI brachiosaurus early in JP changed for all time how dinosaurs would be presented. That scene is high on my list of all-time most emotionally affecting scenes in movie history. Aiding the emotional impact was how the character of Alan Grant responded… just like any fan-of-dinosaurs kid would, with uncontained glee followed by collapsing. And the final kicker was the masterful score by John Williams.

Here, at last, you can see the aft end of that scene with the music as it was meant to be heard!  Crank it up!

Let’s hope that “Jurassic World” lives up to its heritage. I can’t honestly see it surpassing or even approaching JP in impact, though. Not JW’s fault… it’s just that it is now long since past time when seeing a realistic dinosaur on screen is a revelation of the first order.

 Posted by at 4:56 pm
May 072015
 

For a number of years, downloadable items have been made available through password protected directories at up-ship.com/blog. I am now in the process of switching over to using dropbox.com; this seems to make the downloading process a bit easier (and makes the uploading process a lot easier). So far I’ve transferred all of the US Bomber/Transport/Spacecraft and Launch Vehicle Projects files over (including the 11X17 specials) as well as American Nuclear Explosive Devices #1. Some testing has shown that it works well. If you’ve found the previous downloading system cumbersome, now might be a good time to try out the new system with some new USBP’s. It’s my goal to transfer *everything* over to this system… APR’s, drawings, documents. But I’m hoping for some feedback first in case there are any issues.

 Posted by at 2:30 pm
May 062015
 

70 mph speed limit doesn’t lead to drivers going faster, study finds

A number of chunks of interstate in Utah were raised from 65 to 70 mph in December. Four month in, studies have shown that the average speed on the road has increased a paltry 2 mph, and no increase in speed-relate fatalities. The consensus seems to be that drivers were already going faster than 70… but the speed they were going at was pretty much the speed they wanted to go at, so raising the speed limit didn’t make it easier for people to go faster because they were already going as fast as they wanted to.

Now, compare this to *your* local government:

When UDOT raised the speed limit in December, part of the reasoning was that motorists were already driving 70 mph.

“People are driving the speeds that they’re most comfortable driving at,” UDOT spokesman John Gleason said. … The Utah Highway Patrol initially opposed the increase but now maintains a stance of enforcing the posted limit.

Compare and contrast with states, counties and municipalities that set up speed traps specifically to raise funds through tickets.

 Posted by at 11:10 am
May 062015
 

Not really sure that this necessarily will work as a series rather than a miniseries, but maybe…

Syfy & Amblin Will Turn Brave New World Into A TV Series

Given some of the Not Suitable For Children material in Brave new World, it would seem more appropriate for someplace like HBO or Showtime, but I suppose Syfy might be able to pull it off. In a sense I guess it’s a good fit… Syfy claims to want to recapture Actual Science Fiction, which BNW would do… but BNW also permits Syfy to retail a lot of the seemingly shallow titillation that Syfy seems to love to wallow in.

Of course, with Syfy’s recent history, the advanced society shown in BNW will turn out not to be the dominate culture on Earth, with small “reservations” for those who don’t want to play along, but instead it will actually be an underground rat-maze of an experiment being secretly conducted by a dark cabal of shadowy government agents and eeeeeeeevil corporations.

 Posted by at 8:31 am
May 062015
 

Past week or more has looked like rain, every day. But when  the opportunity actually presents itself, all that has actually happened is some wind and a slight spattering or rain, not the gullywashers that the sky promises.

The panoramas below are mostly scaled down to 10% full size.

WP_20150504_014 20pc WP_20150505_029 20pc WP_20150505_031 20pc2015-05-05 pano 1 20pc

2015-05-02 pano 8 2015-05-02 pano 6 2015-05-02 pano 5 2015-05-02 pano 3 2015-05-02 pano 2

 Posted by at 7:44 am
May 062015
 

Looks like it was a successful test. It also looks like one *hell* of a ride. The test occurs about 16 minutes into the video:

The finned cylinder aft of the capsule turns out to not only be a very effective aerodynamic stabilizer, it turns out to be *vital.* As soon as the capsule separates from the stabilizer… wow. I’m sure there are adrenaline junkies who’d pay good money for this ride.

 Posted by at 7:15 am
May 052015
 

A blog reader passed along this view of a piece of early LEM art, hoping to see a higher resolution version. Can anyone help?

LEM

Bonus points if you recognize where the blog reader saw this…

 Posted by at 11:15 pm