Let’s do better than PETA

 Crazy, critters, dumbassery, Forward!, Meh., news, politics, ಠ_ಠ  No Responses »
Dec 052018
 

The whackadoodle scolds at PETA want to change language to suit their political ends:

 

They want to reduce “speciesism” by taking a common idiom that mentions an animal or animal-derived food product and replacing it with a non-animal or non-animal food product. Well… two sides can play that game.

“A piece of cake” = “A piece of bacon”

“Easy as pie” = “Easy as cheese”

“Cut the mustard” = “cut the steak”

“Icing on the cake” = “cheese on the burger”

I admit, these don’t exactly roll off the tongue. What’s better?

 

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 Posted by at 11:11 am

Star Raker: Not Small

 aircraft, awesomeness, history, Hmm..., models, projects, rockets, spacecraft, US Launch Vehicle Projects  No Responses »
Dec 042018
 

As previously mentioned, I’m tapping away at a CAD model of the Star Raker for the primary purpose of diagrams & art for the next issue of US Launch Vehicle Projects, and the secondary goal of a model kit. The plan at this time is to produce the Star Raker as a 1/288 scale model. That’s a slightly unusual scale; most launch vehicle models are in 1/144 or even 1/72 scale. But the Star Raker… she was huge. It was a horizontal takeoff airbreathing single stage spaceplane designed not to resupply a  space station or any such trivial task, but to deliver to low Earth orbit the raw materials with which to build solar power satellites. it’s payload would have been small by the reckoning of most SPS launchers, which tended to have megapound-class payload capacities, but it still would have rivaled the Saturn V. To do that with a winged vehicle meant that its wings were vast, spanning 375 feet.

Here is a basic render of the model as it currently stand. the overlaid grid shows how big the 1/288 kit will be: each grid is one inch. You would not feel ashamed to have this sit on your desk or bookshelf.

My goal with this model is to have a relative *few* bits of extra details. Cockpit and landing gear would be tiny and pretty much infeasible at this scale, and there were no underslung weapons or gun turret or any such thing. Consequently the part count should be low. The model is being designed for the best simplicity possible in order to keep the price as low as feasible. A model kit is as yet not a sure thing. So if you know anyone who might be interested, let them know.

Something I think might look good, once the USLP project is done, is to continue with the diagramming and go into some detail and produce a large-format print of some kind, either cyanotype or mylar…

 Posted by at 8:16 pm

PDF Review: “Neptun,” the German Heavy Lift Launch Vehicle

 history, Nuclear Pulse Propulsion, nukes, Patreon, projects, rockets, spacecraft  No Responses »
Dec 042018
 

In the late 1960’s H.H. Koelle of the Technische University Institut Fuer Raumfahrttechnik in Berlin devoted considerable effort to studying a reusable heavy lift launch vehicle. A good, well-illustrated report was put out in 1968 covering the design:

Entwurfskriterien fur groBe wiederverwendbare Tragersysteme (Design Criteria for Large Reusable Space Transportation Systems)

Note that the Neptun was *gigantic.* It was a two-stage ballistically recovered design, unusual in that rather than being circular in cross-section it was hexagonal. The individual propellant tanks were each the size of or bigger than the S-IC first stage of the Saturn V.

 

 

 

A number of payloads were proposed. One was a sub-orbital intercontinental passenger transport, The passenger “capsule” would land separate from the Neptun itself.

One of the more interesting payloads contemplated was a large Orion nuclear pulse vehicle, transported in two pieces (propulsion module in one launch and payload/pulse units in the other). Presumably this would be a NASA Orion hitching a ride on a West German booster; I suspect politics would have negated the likelihood of the West Germans developing a mass production line for nuclear explosives.

 

This fusion-powered interplanetary spacecraft is also a NASA design, dating from the early 1960’s.

Support the APR Patreon to help bring more of this sort of thing to light!

 

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 Posted by at 6:29 pm

Successful THIRD launch and recovery of a Falcon 9

 art, awesomeness, news, rockets, spacecraft, youtube  No Responses »
Dec 032018
 

SpaceX just launched and recovered a Falcon 9 booster for the third time, after previous launches in May and August. Additionally, the upper stage has reached the intended orbit and will begin spitting out its payload of 64 small satellites. Most famous of these is the infamous “Orbital Reflector,” an “art project” designed to annoy astronomers.

Remember when recovering a rocket *once* was big news?

 Posted by at 11:52 am

Saturn S-IV & Dyna Soar

 art, history, projects, rockets, spacecraft  No Responses »
Dec 032018
 

A magazine ad from 1963 showing the S-IV stage and the X-20 Dyna Soar. The Dyna Soar is shown without its adapter section and Transtage, indicating that it is approaching re-entry (note that it is shown with the canopy heat shield still in place). The Saturn S-IV stage, used on a few Saturn I launches, was smaller than the S-IVB that was used on later Saturn Ib and Saturn V launches, and used six RL-10 rocket engines instead of the S-IVB’s single J-2. Also note the three prominent “ullage rockets” sticking out from the base of the stage. These were small solid rocket motors that would impart a slight forward acceleration to the stage prior to the ignition of the RL-10’s. The acceleration would be high enough and last long enough to settle the propellants into the rears of the tanks. Otherwise the liquid propellants would float around in microgravity and might very well not feed properly into the plumbing system; if a turbopump swallowed a large bubble of gas rather than liquid, it could be destroyed.

The Saturn I/S-IV never launched an actual Apollo CSM, but only boilerplate test articles. Interestingly, the BP-16 test article, launched May 25, 1965, stayed in orbit until July 8, 1989.

 Posted by at 12:43 am

Coming up: Ultima Thule

 awesomeness, news, nukes, science, spacecraft  No Responses »
Dec 032018
 

On January 1, the New Horizons probe will pass by the small asteroid 2014 MU69 “Ultima Thule” at a distance of something like 2,200 miles. Given the extremely limited propulsion capabilities of the little probe – just some reaction control thrusters – I remain amazed that in the vastness of space the spacecraft will be able to come that close to an object of interest.

12 years after launch, New Horizons probe zeroes in on mysterious Ultima Thule

 Posted by at 12:12 am

In praise of “Rough Riders”

 art, awesomeness, blather, history  No Responses »
Dec 022018
 

“War is an argument. Best way to end the argument is to kill the other fella.”

In July of 1997, TNT aired the two-part miniseries “Rough Riders” about Theodore Roosevelts troops, their training and combat in the Spanish-American War. It was one of those minor blips in the history of television that was *far* better than it had any right to be. Why? Partially the story, but a lot of it has to do with the director and co-writer: John Milius. If you don’t know who that is… firstly, what the frak. Secondly: he wrote/directed the original “Conan the Barbarian,” “The Wind and the Lion,” and “Red Dawn.” (The original, not the neutered remake.) The man knows how to make a damned entertaining red-blooded show.

The cast is filled with names that just put a smile on your face when you think about them acting together in a war movie. Sam Elliot plays an Arizona sheriff; Tom Berenger, complete with a set of impressive dentures, chews up the scenery and Roosevelt. R. Lee Fricken’ Ermey plays Secretary of State John Hay; Dale Dye (you might not recognize the name, but you *will* recognize the face from many movies and the voice from many military documentaries) plays General Leonard Wood. Gary Busey is an old Confederate officer, often quite entertainingly bonkers.

“Rough Riders” is that rare Hollywood product that does not wallow in America-bashing, even though the imperialism that was behind the Spanish-American War would certainly seem to merit it. No, “Rough Riders” is proudly patriotic. The American soldiery and leaders are shown to be flawed and venal and corrupt and incompetent from time to time, and yet they are on the whole shown to be good people, proud of what they are doing and why. Some of their motives are suspect by modern standards: George Hamilton plays William Randolph Hearst, the media mogul who almost single-handedly started the war for the purposes of increasing newspaper sales;  quintet of New York rich boys are enthusiastic about going to war for the specific purpose of covering themselves in glory. But at the end of the 19th century, I imagine that sort of thing would have been far more common than it was post-World War One, when people*finally* began to figure out that war really kinda sucks and is less about glory and more about avoiding getting your face blown off.

Berenger clearly had a ball playing Roosevelt, and it’s sad that there was never a followup to this. While a miniseries or three about Roosevelts time as President might not be as immediately obvious as his time in the military, it would have been fun to see him leading the construction of the Panama Canal.

I pull out the DVD every couple years and re-watch it. It’s highly recommended.

 Posted by at 9:32 pm

“Consent Videos”

 blather, Hmm..., politics  No Responses »
Dec 022018
 

This is hardly a surprising development:

CONSENT MATTERS Women are being asked to record ‘consent videos’ before sex by men who are afraid they’ll be accused of rape or assault

The idea is obvious. The fact that such videos will likely prove futile is less obvious, but still true. The only way a “consent video” could truly fill the purpose of proving that an encounter was indeed entirely consensual would be if the video covered the entire event not just from beginning to end, but beyond. The likelihood of this being agreed upon seems low. However, I suspect the future will hold both technological and cultural shifts that will make this sort of thing a reality: 24/7 nonstop recording of your entire life. The failed “Google Glass” experiment might have served as an early test of a camera that you would wear at all times and record your entire life. Sure, that sounds pretty creepy… but I consider that such a thing may well be as inevitable as mandatory autonomous cars in certain areas. But then… the “Deep Fakes” AI-created videos of the future will take a giant dump on this, as fake videos will be easily produced showing someone giving consent when they didn’t, and assaults happening that didn’t.

Of course, there is a better answer: keep it in your pants until there is sufficient trust int he relationship that a “consent video” wouldn’t be needed. Heck, if I thought chances were reasonable that someone would file a fraudulent assault complaint against me, I’d stay a minimum of ten yards away from ’em at all times. But hell, let’s face it: AIDS and the threat of *death* didn’t make that happen. It seems that the Mike Pence Rule, long mocked by many on the Left and so difficult to put into practice for so many men, would be advisable.

This sort of thing will only help speed along development of fully functional Marylin Monrobots.

 

 Posted by at 7:08 pm
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