nyrath

nyrath, 1 month ago to random

New Moon: Lutecia in orbit

https://www.artstation.com/artwork/9xLWN

nyrath, 1 month ago to random

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

nyrath, 3 months ago to random

The Scarcity of the Long Term

The chief hurdle in constructing a Death Star is not the energy, materials, or even knowledge needed. It’s the long time needed. A society can change their mind mid-way over centuries, and simply move on. The galaxy is likely strewn with abandoned Half-a-Death Stars.

https://kk.org/thetechnium/the-scarcity-of-the-long-term/

nyrath, 9 months ago to traveller

Traveller: Society in Decline or Post Apocalyptic?

http://twilightgm.blogspot.com/2023/08/traveller-society-in-decline-or-post.html

#Traveller #travellerrpg

nyrath, 2 months ago to random

Online calculator for plotting scifi interstellar trips. An aid for Mongoose #TTRPG 2300 AD

https://starscanner.six51.com/

nyrath, 8 months ago (edited 8 months ago) to random

Ways for scifi artists to jazz up their combat starship art.

Military Insignia: https://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/symbols.php#id--Military_Insignia

Heraldry: https://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/spacesuits.php#heraldry

Dazzle camouflage: https://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/spacewardefense.php#cammo

#AtomicRockets #SpaceShip #SciFiArt #CombatStarship

nyrath, 5 months ago to random

I found these on the hellsite.
I despise AI art, but I will grudgingly admit the concept is interesting.

image/jpeg

nyrath, 7 months ago to random

Somebody asked if the spaceships in Star Wars and Star Trek were extravagantly huge.

Obviously, but can it be quantified?

Can a set of rules-of-thumb approximations can be made? If one can decide on, say, the mass of a habitat module in terms of module mass per crewmember, or the volume per crew, then the max crew or minimum habitat size can be guesstimated. The same for engines, phaser banks, or TIE fighter hangars.

Probably not possible.

notes here

https://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/advdesign.php#id--Calculating_Volume_and_Mass

nyrath, 5 months ago to random

Plastic model of the dreaded Project Pluto nightmare missile

https://fantastic-plastic.com/project-pluto-slam---catalog.html

nyrath, 7 months ago to Fate

Well, this made me happy. I was purchasing supplements for the #FATE #TTRPG called the FATE Space Toolkit.

As I read it, I found it very scientifically accurate. Further, as I read it I found a couple of bits that seemed familiar.

All was explained when I came to the bibliography. Among the erudite sources was a reference to my Atomic Rockets website. This brought a smile to my face. The purpose of my site is to help authors, I'm always glad when it does.

nyrath, 7 months ago to random

My Atomic Rockets articles are built from association of related facts.

My morning reading just gave me a new article.

Ever since Asimov's Foundation a scifi staple is the Decline and Fall of the Galactic Empire. And the birth of the next Empire out of the ashes of the Long Night dark ages.

So I have a section on recovery from the dark ages. Trying to bootstrap your way back to high tech infrastructure. Including insurance that will shorten the long night

1/

https://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/futurehistory.php#lngnightinsur

nyrath, 9 months ago to traveller

Interstellar Trade Relations

Ron Garrita analyzes interstellar trading between worlds of differing technology levels in the Traveller TTRPG

http://twilightgm.blogspot.com/2023/08/trade-relations.html

#Traveller #InterstellarTrade

nyrath, 7 months ago to blender

#Blender art by CinnabarSeven

Weapon platform is carrying a rail gun

https://linktr.ee/cinnabarseven

nyrath, 9 months ago to SpaceForce

US Space Force creates 1st unit dedicated to targeting adversary satellites

https://www.space.com/space-force-1st-targeting-squadron

#USSpaceForce #SpaceForce

nyrath, 2 months ago to random

nyrath, 8 months ago to random

Science and #TravellerRPG master @rob_attirag has a new article about how obsessive-compulsive scientific accuracy should take a back seat to game play and plot hooks.

http://twilightgm.blogspot.com/2023/09/credibility-kills.html#c2160077651109338776

nyrath, 10 months ago to random

Scifi Mastodon, please come to my aid!

I am trying to compile a list of vintage scifi stories that feature Andean Indians able to breath the rarefied atmosphere of the planet Mars.

This is of course impossible, but was a popular motif in scifi back around the 1950s. I seem to remember it appearing in an Arthur C. Clarke science fact book, then appearing in several stories by other authors. But I can't remember the titles or authors.

I think one was Crucifixus Etiam, by Walter Miller Jr.

nyrath, 7 months ago to random

Can Galactic Empires Realistically Exist?

https://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/empiredyn.php#id--Can_Galactic_Empires_Exist?

#AtomicRockets

nyrath, 7 months ago to random

A 20th century society on a ringworld

https://therestlesstechnophile.com/2023/08/06/a-20th-century-society-on-a-ringworld/

#RingWorld

nyrath, 3 months ago to random

High-level radioactive waste disposal (1974)

Contains a short discussion on using the Space Shuttle to send radioactive wastes into deep space

https://www.osti.gov/biblio/4313401

Click on the green "View Conference" button to download PDF report

nyrath, 4 months ago to random

How Scientists are Grappling With the Challenges of Sex and Reproduction in Space

It's more complicated than you think.

https://www.ign.com/articles/can-humans-make-babies-in-space-scientists-are-increasingly-determined-to-find-out

nyrath, 8 months ago (edited 8 months ago) to random

Your scifi world building idea for the day: mega scrap town

Brain storming sessions like this are why I miss Google Plus

https://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/starshipowner.php#shipbreakers

#MegaScrapTown

nyrath, 5 months ago (edited 5 months ago) to random

Tetrahedral spacecraft attitude jet configuration. Invented by Hollister David

https://web.archive.org/web/20120225145607/https://clowder.net/hop/tetships/tetships.html

#AtomicRockets #SpaceShip #RCS

nyrath, 8 months ago to random

In Lester Del Rey's scifi novel Nerves (about a nuclear power plant), the workers are called "atom-jacks", presumably a neologism based on "steeplejack". Jack is an ancient term for person.

In Michael McCollum's Gibraltar Stars is the term "vacuum-jack" for a construction worker in space.

Can you think of any other jacks?

nyrath, 5 months ago to TimeTravel

Young physicist ‘squares the numbers’ on time travel

Paradox-free time travel is theoretically possible, according to the mathematical modelling of a prodigious University of Queensland undergraduate student

https://www.uq.edu.au/news/article/2020/09/young-physicist-squares-numbers%E2%80%99-time-travel

#TimeTravel