notes.husk.org

"For the next eight weeks I would call, e-mail, and generally hassle various contacts at multiple..."

Sat, 20 Apr 2013 01:29:44 +0100

“For the next eight weeks I would call, e-mail, and generally hassle various contacts at multiple agencies in a seemingly vain effort to see, with my own eyes, the only satellite that NASA has built but never launched.”

- Bill Donahue: Who Killed The Deep Space Climate Observatory? for Popular Science, 2011.

british technology postage stamp by maraid on Flickr.

Wed, 03 Apr 2013 00:34:05 +0100

british technology postage stamp by maraid on Flickr.

"Orion works by the (seemingly insane, but actually quite effective) method of throwing nuclear bombs..."

Thu, 22 Nov 2012 04:14:28 +0000

“Orion works by the (seemingly insane, but actually quite effective) method of throwing nuclear bombs behind the spacecraft and having it ride the blasts. The hot gasses from the detonations hit a heavy pusher plate at the back of the ship and drive it forward. NSWR [nuclear salt water rocket] is similar, but it instead uses a solution of fissionables in salt water that spontaneously explodes as it leaves the rocket nozzle. Both systems cleverly shift the propulsive reaction outside the spacecraft, eliminating the need to deal with most of the heat it produces and allowing it to be made much more energetic.”

- Memphet’ran on spacebattles.com, as featured by Sarah Pavis, guest editing kottke.org.

I’d heard of Orion, but not nuclear salt water rockets, which get impressive performance:

One design would generate 13 meganewtons of thrust at 66 km/s exhaust velocity (compared to ~4.5 km/s exhaust velocity for the best chemical rockets of today). Another design would achieve much higher exhaust velocities (4,700 km/s) and use 2,700 tonnes of highly enriched Uranium salts in water to propel a 300 tonne spacecraft up to 3.6% of the speed of light.

Of course, there are slight drawbacks to using these things in a biosphere:

a NSWR would eject massive quantities of superheated steam, still containing fissioning nuclear salts. Terrestrial testing might be subject to reasonable objections; as one physicist wrote, “Writing the environmental impact statement for such tests […] might present an interesting problem …”

National Radio Quiet Zone (via)

Sat, 22 Sep 2012 01:25:32 +0100

National Radio Quiet Zone (via)

The Lunar Ranging Retroreflector, as placed on the Moon by...

Fri, 11 May 2012 04:18:47 +0100

The Lunar Ranging Retroreflector, as placed on the Moon by Apollo 15:

The Laser Ranging Retroreflector experiment has produced many important measurements. These include an improved knowledge of the Moon’s orbit and the rate at which the Moon is receding from Earth (currently 3.8 centimeters per year) and of variations in the rotation of the Moon. These variations in rotation are related to the distribution of mass inside the Moon and imply the existence of a small core, with a radius of less than 350 kilometers.

victortsu, via: NASA channeling David Hockney, via Ethel...

Wed, 25 Apr 2012 07:15:00 +0100

victortsu, via:

NASA channeling David Hockney, via Ethel Baraona.

I hadn’t thought about the connection between Hockney’s “joiners” and NASA composites before, so seeing it brought up made me wonder. It turns out the artist’s first works using that medium were around 1970, so a few years after the Surveyor images seen here. The majority of works in the composites section of his site date from around 1982, well after the first round of planetary surveys.

Nonetheless, it’s an interesting topic to muse on.

NASA Ad by bustbright on Flickr. Ad Agency: S.G. Stackig, Inc.

Sun, 15 Apr 2012 18:49:46 +0100

NASA Ad by bustbright on Flickr.

Ad Agency: S.G. Stackig, Inc.

Endpages “Real Book of Stars” by Calsidyrose on...

Sat, 14 Apr 2012 02:36:25 +0100

Endpages “Real Book of Stars” by Calsidyrose on Flickr.

An advert for the Burroughs 205 Computer, designed...

Tue, 10 Apr 2012 01:48:00 +0100

An advert for the Burroughs 205 Computer, designed by Campbell-Ewald Company, posted to Flickr by bustbright.

Oscar Hermitte: Urban Stargazing (via): The Urban Stargazing...

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 01:07:00 +0100

The Big Dipper (with Ursa Major)

The Mosquito (with crane)

Oscar Hermitte: Urban Stargazing (via):

The Urban Stargazing project focuses on bringing back the stars in the city sky by recreating existing constellations and adding new ones, narrating old and contemporary myths about London. Twelve groups of stars have been installed at different locations in the city, and can only be observed by the naked eye at night time.

Or: if you go to certain open spaces in London, and stand in the right spot, you can see new, special “constellations” that don’t exist anywhere else, designed for the city sky (as pictured above, and it’s worth enlarging the images).

How it’s done:

Each constellation is a triangulated struture made out of clear ø 0.6mm nylon line, ø 0.2mm polyethylene braid, ø 0.75mm fibre optic and a solar powered LED. During the day, the battery is being recharged by the solar panel and the circuit switches ON the LED when it is dark enough to observe stars.
In order to have the constellation in the air, the team uses a telescopic catapult to fix the structure on top of trees.

It’s well worth reading the pages on this one, so you get the idea.