The YouTube channel “Found and Explained” just released a video on the 4,000 ton Orion Battleship, with the model used based on my reconstruction from issue V2N2 of “Aerospace Projects Review.” The video was sponsored by a “Star Trek” video game, so there are a *lot* of Star Trek references in the video.
For more information on the project, including blueprints, be sure to check out issue v2N2.
A Boeing concept from 1983 for an Orbital Transfer Vehicle. This vehicle would change the orbit of the payload not only propulsively, but by using aerodynamic drag to slow the vehicle at perigee. When returning a payload from geosynchronous orbit, it would dive into the upper atmosphere and use aerodynamic lift and drag to slow into a much lower orbit, with propulsive adjustments to put it into a circular orbit for rendezvous with a space Shuttle for recovery or servicing. This particular design was inflatable (creating a lifting body akin to a stretched-out “ASSET” shape) and used an extendable/stowable nozzle. Note that it is entering “upside down” so that the lift forces generated are trying to force it *closer* to Earth, rather than trying to bounce off the atmosphere.
Orbital velocities at geosynchronous are slower than in low Earth orbit… about half the speed. So a relatively small change in velocity at geosynchronous will turn the circular orbit into a sharply elliptical one, with a perigee close to Earth. But that velocity at perigee is much faster than circular orbit velocity, so shedding speed using “free” aerodynamic forces makes sense… if you can pull it off.
What do you want to bet there’s a dart board in the Kremlin for making these sort of determinations? I will also accept Ouija board.
YouTube is filled to overflowing with “fan edits” of this or that movie, or fan-made videos showing spaceships from Star Wars, Star Trek, Babylon 5, Battlestar Gallactica, etc. The quality of these vary greatly. Lots are *terrible.* But every now and then, you get THIS:
It’s a reworking of the “launch” scene from Star Trek VI. The original was fine, but this is *way* better. And note that the artist didn’t decide to redesign the Enterprise or Spacedock; he respected the canon.
Watch in amusement as these two witness “The Exorcist” for the first time. This is one of the most “Nope, I’m out” flicks ever made, and both recoiling in horror and laughing yourself fuzzy are appropriate and allowable responses.
Currently on ebay is an aluminum model of a lifting body. The rear of the vehicle is that of the M1 or M2, but the nose is distinctly conical. The lack of useful volume leads me to think that if this is a legit wind tunnel model (rather than something someone just knocked out at a machine shop for giggles), then it’s not a design for a manned vehicle, either test or operational space logistics. Rather it would be something like:
1) A basic subscale research vehicle like ASSET
2) A concept for a maneuverable entry vehicle for a military system. An ICBM warhead, perhaps designed to glide either for range extension, to avoid incoming ABMs, or to maneuver to avoid tracking systems and come in from unexpected directions.
3) Or it’s just a vague, generic “let’s look at everything” shape.
The nose of the model does not inspire a great deal of confidence… it looks a bit unfinished, with some sharp-ish corners that don’t seem like they should be there.
If anyone knows better, by all means speak up…
There are few facts as yet. Chief among the missing facts are the identity of the attacker and what his motives were. I suspect that those little details will determine if this becomes Big News or just sorta fades away.
Option A, this becomes Big News: the attacker will prove to be a whacko right winger
Option B, this fades away: the attacker will prove to be a left winger, or a drugged-up nut.
In either event: expect there to be a drive to further increase the security of government officials and their families. This security will doubtless extend to armed guards… armed with the sort of weapons that Speaker Pelosi would use the power of government to prevent *you* from having with which to defend your own family against hammer-wielding nuts.
UPDATE:
Well, here we go…
David Depape is a Berkeley resident. What are Depape’s politics and was he on social media? On a blog and website, he was fixated on censorship and made anti-Semitic comments. In one post, he ranted about government attempts to control information, calling for the arrest of journalists from prominent news organizations. Online records give Depape’s age as 42.
OK. In some ways, this guys *screams* Left Wing Nut… lives in Berkeley, sells hemp jewelry, hangs out with nudism activists. On the other hand, his views are straight out of Hollywood Central Casting for a Right Wing Nut… ranting about the Jews, Qanon, Covid conspiracies, Commies, Trump support, etc. There’s enough here to paint him as a Far Right Extremist, and so I expect that’ll be the narrative going forward. This story should thus now become Big News. Just in time for the election, as it happens.
I honestly have no idea what the future of Twitter and other online sewers holds… other than some glorious chaos.
A source with knowledge of the matter told FOX Business that Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal, CFO Ned Segal, and Vijaya Gadde, head of legal policy, trust, and safety were fired. Musk had accused the three of misleading him and investors over the number of fake accounts on the platform.
Womp-womp.
I would expect to see a series of glitches. Musk has promised to can 75% of the Twitter workforce; I would be unsurprised if they try to sabotage the system on their way out the door. Of course, it is entirely possible that that 75% is made up entirely of B-Arkers, hired not to actually build the code of the app, provide tech support or run the required hardware, but to fill quotas and determine “policies.” The kind of people who banned Trump but kept terrorist groups from Jihadis to Antifa, don’t need to remain in their current position.
Further Third Worldification of American cities…
You’d think they’d at least try to clean up the area around the White House. Maybe even try to mask the damage caused by the anti-Trump insurrectionists several years ago. Nope.
Konstantin Vorontsov, deputy director of the Russian foreign ministry’s department for non-proliferation and arms control, told the United Nations that the United States and its allies were trying to use space to enforce Western dominance.
“Quasi-civilian infrastructure may be a legitimate target for a retaliatory strike,” Vorontsov told the United Nations First Committee…
It is impossible to know how much of that is bluster and how much is legitimate threat. It is the sort of risk that the DoD has known about for decades, every few years running some program or other to develop low-cost fast-reaction satellite launch capabilities in the event that a surge in replacement satellites (communications, recon, navigation) is needed. These studies blow a bunch of money, chew up a great many man-years, then get cancelled, resulting in paper and incomplete hardware. It may soon prove that the repeated lack of followthrough over a span of decades just might have been a mistake. SpaceX could doubtless throw up a number of replacements satellites, given time… but there would still be a span of likely months with a gap in capabilities. And who knows if there are warehouses of replacement satellites ready to go in the first place.
Bonus round: an attack on space infrastructure could be legitimately seen as an act of war. Loss of space superiority would be disastrous in case a full blown war breaks out, so a strike on satellites could easily result in a full retaliation.
Neato!
Remember just a few years ago, when the worst thing we had to worry about was mean tweets? Ah, good times.