@60sRefugee@spacey.space
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60sRefugee

@60sRefugee@spacey.space

Old fart, retired

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

nyrath, to random
@nyrath@spacey.space avatar

Perhaps Space Mastodon can help me.

The image below is from Artificial Satellites of the Earth (1958)

I have a memory of seeing that image back in the 1960s, but I'm pretty sure I saw it in color. But the various image search engines are coming up empty.

Does any one else know where I can find the color version?

https://dreamsofspace.blogspot.com/2018/11/artificial-satellites-1958.html

60sRefugee,
@60sRefugee@spacey.space avatar

@nyrath Google Image Search returned this:
https://dreamsofspace.blogspot.com/2018/11/

galaxy_map, to random
@galaxy_map@mastodon.social avatar

Sad but I guess not surprising. Star Trek producer says that the franchise is not concerned about science and just pads out the dialog with random technobabble.

And cuttingly adds "And who cares…Who really cares?"

https://www.giantfreakinrobot.com/ent/star-trek-producer-writers-science.html

60sRefugee,
@60sRefugee@spacey.space avatar

@galaxy_map When writers, directors and producers presume that science fiction is garbage, and that they can crank out any random trash and the fanbois will lap it up, they then express surprise when they crash their franchises.

nyrath, to random
@nyrath@spacey.space avatar

APR: 3D Printed Aerospace/Nuclear subjects

https://www.aerospaceprojectsreview.com/blog/?p=5399

60sRefugee,
@60sRefugee@spacey.space avatar

@Madagascar_Sky @nyrath @jstevenyork Telescopes and comsats? You're not thinking big enough. Space launch on this scale could support mass emigration to Mars or a manned research base in the Saturn system.

60sRefugee,
@60sRefugee@spacey.space avatar

@nyrath @Madagascar_Sky @jstevenyork Any proposals to build a gas-core nuclear reactor on a purely experimental basis?

nyrath, to random
@nyrath@spacey.space avatar

The Lunacy of Artemis

https://idlewords.com/2024/5/the_lunacy_of_artemis.htm

60sRefugee,
@60sRefugee@spacey.space avatar

@nyrath I'm puzzled by the assertion that a fully refueled in LEO Starship can barely make the trip from NRHO to the lunar surface and back. I thought I'd heard that a refueled Starship could make a round trip to the lunar surface from LEO to reentry and landing on Earth. What's the delta-V budget of the stage?

nyrath, to random
@nyrath@spacey.space avatar

@StefanEJones

A blast from the past. Did you ever see that 1979 TV show "Salvage-1" ?

https://web.archive.org/web/20040915102728/http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Launchpad/9782/salestes.html

60sRefugee,
@60sRefugee@spacey.space avatar

@StefanEJones @nyrath IIRC, in the pilot movie the ship made a round trip to the moon by using a dangerous keep-below-1ºK metastable fuel. In the series they replaced it with conventional LH2/LO2 and only did orbital or ground-to-ground flights.

nyrath, to random
@nyrath@spacey.space avatar

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/05/robot-dogs-armed-with-ai-targeting-rifles-undergo-us-marines-special-ops-evaluation/

60sRefugee,
@60sRefugee@spacey.space avatar

@nyrath @Dandelion The extinction of the entire species? "That's a fourth-quarter problem".

60sRefugee,
@60sRefugee@spacey.space avatar

@nyrath HOW many cartoons have we watched about what happens when you give a robot a gun??

nyrath, to random
@nyrath@spacey.space avatar

Spaceplanes: why we need them, why they have failed, and how they can succeed

https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4791/1

60sRefugee,
@60sRefugee@spacey.space avatar

@nyrath Okay, my criticisms: (1) "Rockets are terribly inefficient and expensive." The way the military/aerospace contractor paradigm built them, yes. Equivalent to using aircraft carriers as cargo ships. As long ago as the 1970s proponents of "Big Dumb Boosters" pointed out that if you ignored efficiency- squeezing the last iota of performance out of a rocket- and instead focused on minimum construction and operating cost, cost to orbit could be dropped by an order of magnitude.

60sRefugee,
@60sRefugee@spacey.space avatar

@nyrath Criticisms (2a) "Spaceplane" is covering three or so different concepts here:
I. A gliding reentry vehicle boosted by conventional rocket like the X-37b; convenient for recovery but no real savings in cost.
II. Airplane-shaped rocket stages- 1, 2, or 3-stage designs going back to Von Braun's Ferry Rocket. Increased dry mass, developmental risk associated with weight overruns, and unknown unknowns with high speed and altitude aerodynamics. Includes drop-tank versions like the Shuttle.

60sRefugee,
@60sRefugee@spacey.space avatar

@nyrath Criticisms (2b)
III. What the paper writer is envisioning: aerospace vehicles that uses ramjet/scramjet air breathing for a significant part of their performance, like the long-proposed Skylon. VERY difficult to build (21st century and we still haven't done it), and possibly strong limitations on vehicle size and hence resulting payload.

60sRefugee,
@60sRefugee@spacey.space avatar

@nyrath Criticisms (3) Like the early 20th century focus on dirigibles aka "airships" following a false paradigm of extending naval traditions to the air, spaceplanes try to extend the paradigm of aeronautics to orbital launch. Reusable VTO&L concepts being dismissed until SpaceX.

nyrath, to random
@nyrath@spacey.space avatar

Because of Burnside's Zeroth Law of space combat:

Science fiction fans relate more to human beings than to silicon chips.

https://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/crew.php#gottahavecrew

image/jpeg

60sRefugee,
@60sRefugee@spacey.space avatar

@nyrath @shig Or every artificial intelligence story back to "Frankenstein" warning us about creating untrustworthy devices with their own agency:

Dandelion, to random
@Dandelion@stormwaltz.net avatar

Wargaming is presently streaming Canadian Vice Admiral Angus Topshee playing World of Warships from aboard HMCS Vancouver.

60sRefugee,
@60sRefugee@spacey.space avatar

@nyrath @cerebrate @Dandelion I think whether carriers are favored over dreadnoughts depends on how miniaturized antiship weapons are. If only a big ship can carry enough firepower to destroy another big ship, you have battleships. If gunboats or fighters carry weapons that can mission kill a capitol ship, you disperse those in swarms launched from a base carrier.

nyrath, to random
@nyrath@spacey.space avatar

https://hackaday.com/2024/04/25/the-myth-of-propellantless-space-propulsion-refuses-to-die/

60sRefugee,
@60sRefugee@spacey.space avatar

@nyrath @green_bens On the other hand that's not a lot of mass equivalent.

Hcobb, to random
@Hcobb@spacey.space avatar

The first rule of Space Vikings is that ships are faster than information.
Otherwise you're battling not raiding.

60sRefugee,
@60sRefugee@spacey.space avatar

@nyrath @Hcobb @eldadoinquieto @Robert_Brandt @isaackuo @peterdrake I'd rather the walls were covered with cables, conduits and pipes than hide them all behind false ceilings and panels that would give cover to alien infestations.

60sRefugee, to random
@60sRefugee@spacey.space avatar

@nyrath Hey Winchell, on the subject of books from one's youth did you ever run across "The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs" by Anthony Ravielli. https://archive.org/details/risefallofdinosa0000unse
It is a perfect illustration of the pre-Dinosaur Renaissance paradigm of dinosaurs, complete with bowed reptilian legs, swamp dwelling sauropods, upright theropods, and mammals eating all their eggs as the cause of extinction.
Utterly out of date of course but a fun look at the past of the past.

bruces, to random
@bruces@mastodon.social avatar

*Handy cosmic-engineering tips there, I'll keep those in mind for my next half-billion years

https://arstechnica.com/science/2024/04/a-survival-guide-for-the-end-of-the-solar-system/

60sRefugee,
@60sRefugee@spacey.space avatar

@michael_w_busch @bruces @nyrath A really advanced civilization could mine the sun's core for helium and fuse that into material for building megastructures.

nyrath, (edited ) to random
@nyrath@spacey.space avatar

#CosmicStories blog post by @Tiylaya

Gone (but not forgotten?)

While some science fiction imagines humanity alone in the universe, other stories imagine that life just like our own is plentiful outside our Solar System. One common thread in such stories is the idea of precursor civilisations - ancient races that lived, died and passed out of general knowledge long before humanity took to the stars.

#startrekdiscovery

https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/sci/physics/research/astro/people/stanway/sciencefiction/cosmicstories/gone_but_not

60sRefugee,
@60sRefugee@spacey.space avatar

@jynersolives @nyrath @Tiylaya Interesting take on the Fermi Paradox: It's taken most of the existence of the universe to get life as complex as today's, so probably nowhere in the universe has a significant jump start on us.

nyrath, to random
@nyrath@spacey.space avatar

The space shuttle was revolutionary for its time. What went wrong?

https://www.cnn.com/2024/04/05/world/nasa-space-shuttle-columbia-what-happened-scn/index.html

60sRefugee,
@60sRefugee@spacey.space avatar

@nyrath I'd say primarily the engines. It was the first time NASA tried to develop a reusable LH2-fueled engine, and unlike the successful J-2 engines used on the Saturn, the Shuttle's engines were a never-ending headache that wrecked any hope of maintaining a robust flight schedule. Given that engine reusability was indispensable to making the concept work, they maybe should have demonstrated engine reliability on the ground before even giving the program the go-ahead.

nyrath, to random
@nyrath@spacey.space avatar

Integrated NTP Vehicle Radiation Design (PDF report)

The development of a nuclear thermal propulsion stage requires consideration for radiation emitted from the nuclear reactor core. Applying shielding mass is an effective mitigating solution, but a better alternative is to incorporate some mitigation strategies into the propulsion

https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search?q=20180002053&reportNumber=M18-6543

60sRefugee,
@60sRefugee@spacey.space avatar

@nyrath Plus, if tankage radius is significantly more than engine cluster radius, tapering rear of tanks so last of propellent provides maximum shielding. (And why does that illustration have separate tanks like a chemical rocket?)

KimPerales, to random
@KimPerales@toad.social avatar

The more you know...

#Boeing had come under the spell of a seductive new theory of “knowledge” possessed by a skilled & experienced workforce as essentially not worth the ⬆️HC costs. CEO McNerney purged the veterans into early retirement. He called longtime engineers & skilled machinists -those who cared too much about the integrity of the planes & not enough about the stock price were “phenomenally talented assholes"-ostracized them into leaving the co-.

#CorporateGreed https://prospect.org/infrastructure/transportation/2024-03-28-suicide-mission-boeing/

60sRefugee,
@60sRefugee@spacey.space avatar

@KimPerales See my earlier comment about equity investment firms buying the life-support providers for space colonies.

davidho, to random
@davidho@mastodon.world avatar

It's "ocean", not "oceans". Thank you for coming to my TED Talk.

60sRefugee,
@60sRefugee@spacey.space avatar

@swope @davidho @nyrath They would have to have a balanced rain-evaporation ratio, or else the rain deficient ones would become dead seas. A rain-surplus basin would expand either until it reached equilibrium or else overflowed.

nyrath, to random
@nyrath@spacey.space avatar

From Dr. Philip Metzger. The culmination of 27 years’ work.

How to design a rocket to land on the Lunar surface WITHOUT the damn engine exhaust excavating a big hole and causing a ship-destroying crash.

Erosion rate of lunar soil under a landing rocket, part 1: identifying the rate-limiting physics

Erosion rate of lunar soil under a landing rocket, part 2: benchmarking and predictions

https://arxiv.org/abs/2403.18583

https://arxiv.org/abs/2403.18584

60sRefugee,
@60sRefugee@spacey.space avatar

@isaackuo @tarheel @nyrath @tkinias Some mega-economy of scale rocket proposals used water launch and landing, if only because out at sea was the only practical place to launch a rocket with the takeoff thrust of a couple of tactical nukes.

mightyspaceman, to space
@mightyspaceman@aus.social avatar

Why Spacecraft Are Using These Crazy Routes To The Moon - Weak Stability and Ballistic Capture - Scott Manley
https://youtu.be/WVrWcbyOmxY

60sRefugee,
@60sRefugee@spacey.space avatar

@mightyspaceman I can't help but feel that these clever trajectories would be moot if we simply had a cheap heavylift booster that could launch spacecraft with robust transtages that could take the direct Hohmann route. Starship we're calling you!

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