Incoming from the depths of space…

 awesomeness, Hmm..., news, science, spacecraft  No Responses »
Jun 212021
 

Now this is interesting:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_UN271

2014 UN271 is a trans-Neptunian object on a cometary-like orbit from the Oort cloud. It is currently approaching the Sun at a distance of 20.2 AU (3.02 billion km) and will reach its perihelion of 10.9 AU (just outside of Saturn‘s orbit) in January 2031. Announced in June 2021, it was discovered by astronomers Pedro Bernardinelli and Gary Bernstein in archival images from the Dark Energy Survey.[1] When first imaged in October 2014, the object was 29 AU (4.3 billion km) from the Sun and almost as far as Neptune‘s orbit.

2014 UN271‘s absolute magnitude of 7.8[2] suggests the body could be in the range of a 100 km in diameter. However, if there is undetected cometary activity[6] from supervolatiles such as CO and CO2, it could be significantly smaller. Cometary activity has previously been observed as far as 25.8 AU (3.86 billion km) from the Sun on a few comets, for example C/2010 U3 (Boattini).[7]

2014 UN271 took around 1.5 million years to complete half an orbit from its furthest distance of 40,000 AU (0.6 ly) in the Oort cloud.[4] It will come to perihelion (closest approach to the Sun) around 20 January 2031 at a distance of 10.95 AU[5] which is just outside of Saturn’s orbit. The outbound orbital period will be approximately 3.5 million years with an aphelion distance of about 55,000 AU (0.9 ly).[4] The object is only very loosely bound to the Sun.

Basically a *gigantic* comet will come within the orbit of Saturn in nine and a half years. Time enough for SpaceX to build and launch a flyby probe?

Doubtful that this will be something visible even with sizable “personal” telescopes, but it’d certainly be interesting to see such a thing up close. It’s the size of a “dwarf planet” and has spent the bulk of its existence far from any star.

 Posted by at 8:41 am

The purpose of modern education

 AARRRGH, art, Hmm..., politics, Worldwreckers, ಠ_ಠ  No Responses »
Jun 202021
 

Used to be, readin’, writin’, ‘rithmatic. Many complained – not without cause –  that it was a machine that only served to prepare kids for a lifetime of drudgery in industry. But now it often doesn’t even seem to do that; instead, the focus seems to be on instilling a sense of worthlessness and guilt and failure and fatigue. The worldwreckers want anything but kids who are enthused and proud and well educated in science and math and skeptical thinking.

One bonus of the world grinding to a halt to deal with the CommiePox has been that a lot of parents have seen what nonsense their kids are getting fed at school thanks to a lot of schooling having been done via Zoom. As schools return to normal a lot of that will end… but with luck a lot of kids will record their teachers and the insane political indoctrination that goes on. There is a debate on the legality of recording a teacher in a classroom, and it seems to vary from state to state; but if a teacher is promoting vicious ideologies like socialism or critical race theory or creationism in a public school classroom, then a good argument can be made that the law is an ass. If a teach was physically abusing students, who would really file charges if a student recorded that?

Woke Elementary

 Posted by at 5:14 pm

Someone went ahead and built my “fanpacks”

 aircraft, awesomeness, Hmm..., My Fiction, science fiction, youtube  No Responses »
Jun 202021
 

Many long years ago I wrote a sci-fi story titled “Mass Disappearance,” a little bit of space opera that was the first of the “Zaneverse” scribblings I wrote. I posted it hereabouts free for the downloading; go ahead and take a look, either to be entertained by some high quality science fiction, or by some craptacular dreck, depending on your point of view.

Anyway, at a certain point in the story a few characters use “fanpacks” to get around. These devices generated a small bit of discussion in the comments. And as it turns out, someone went ahead and built something quite like them. Larger, fewer blades, non-stowable… but recognizable in terms of purpose and functionality.

 Posted by at 2:21 am

“Mastering the Transatmosphere”

 aircraft, art, history, Monthly Historical Documents Program, Patreon, projects, spacecraft  No Responses »
Jun 192021
 

The June 1986 issue of “Air Force Magazine” had a cover article about the next big thing for the Air Force… aerospaceplanes capable of attaining orbit. Those who have been paying attention since 1986 might have noticed a dearth of aerospaceplanes, but at least the article has some spiffy cover art, along with interior art of what it claims is a 1965 McDonnell Douglas aerospaceplane. Two problems, though… McDonnell Douglass didn’t exist until 1967, and the art sure looks more like an SST to me. Shrug.

Anyway, I’ve uploaded a 300DPI scan of the article (and two ads… one depicting what appears to be a neutral particle beam space weapon, the other for a series of space-based nuclear powerplants) to the 2021-06 APR Extras folder on Dropbox, available to all APR patrons and subscribers.

 Posted by at 2:49 am

Who did this sound like a good idea to?

 AARRRGH, Crazy, dumbassery, Forward!, Gah., news, politics, russian empire, youtube, ಠ_ಠ  No Responses »
Jun 192021
 

Biden gave Putin a list of high-priority targets for Russian hackers to take down. How did *anyone* think that was a good idea?

1: It comes off as weakness: “Please don’t attack us!” Thus inviting attack.

2: A list of stuff Biden thinks shoudl be off limits not only points out vulnerabilities, it’s the wrong frikken’ message. Instead of “please don’t attack these,” which implies that it’s ok to attack *other* entities, the message should be “we will respond in a way that seems good to us. Remember that you hare highly economically dependent upon things like pipelines. It sure would be a shame if the software controlling your pipelines causes an explosion. Again.”

 Posted by at 2:32 am

Heartwarming story for today

 AARRRGH, Crazy, news, ಠ_ಠ  No Responses »
Jun 172021
 

Man accused of shooting catalytic converter thief, dragging body behind truck in Lakewood

Someone stole from the wrong guy:

According to court documents, Michael Scott Campbell told police he was sleeping in his Ford F-150 around 3:45 a.m. Saturday when he was woken up by someone attempting to saw the catalytic converter off his truck.
 
Campbell told police he saw two legs sticking out from under the truck when he opened the passenger door and fired “straight down” at the suspected thief. Campbell said he then fired two more shots at the man, according to court documents.

The man attempted to get into his vehicle but collapsed, court documents say. Campbell told police he then tied the man to the ball hitch of the F-150. Campbell said he dragged the man into a nearby field and left him.

No heroes in this story. Also, no real victims. Campbell *clearly* went buggo.  But the thief was… well, a thief. Such people are a burden on society. That one more is gone is…

 Posted by at 11:48 pm
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