FYI, the sim in the picture is property of the National Air and Space Museum, but is on loan and displayed at the US Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, AL. It’s minus the big electronics box on top though.

You sir, are my favorite!

His family came over LONG before WWII. and he pronounced it “Miller.” And remember, the Nazi party was a political party, like Republicans or Democrats. Not everyone that was a party member was an anti-semitic prick just like not all Republicans are right wing nut jobs or Democrats aren’t all socialist hippies. Many…

If you read the Skylab post earlier this week, Mueller was also the guy that drew the sketch that was the feature image. “GEM” in the bottom right are his initials.

A little late, but here you go!

FYI, the original sketch of the title image is pencil on paper, and is about 2 feet square. It currently lives in a frame on display next to the Skylab Orbital Workshop engineering mock up at the US Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, AL. If I remember, I’ll update the post with a pic before I leave work today.

Rutan Varieze

Curiosity is already nuclear powered! You just need an uprated RTG! Easy-peasy...

Going to have to call “shennanigans” on the Ed White entry. While he was a badass, the details of the story as printed are clearly those of Alexei Leonov, the cosmonaut who was the first person to perform an EVA.

This makes sense to me, thank you!

Cool find! But I doubt they’ve been used. They’re too pristine. They undergo some interesting color changes when they’ve been... utilized. That still leaves them as a possible piece that flew as one of a few spares. You’d have to check the flight manifest against the serial number to know for sure... and I’m too lazy…

So I guess I’m missing what qualifies this as teleportation? A photon still has to travel down the length of a cable from an emitter to a sensor. That makes it a transmission like any other. Is it that the quantum state is “blank” or not readable until it arrives at the sensor that makes it teleportation?

I don’t suffer from nostalgia often. But now, I hate all of you!

Didn’t know about the atmospheric thrust tests for VASMIR engines. I was under the impression that they still suffered from electrical arcing. It has admittedly been some time since I followed up on it.

And while we all would love to see other formats of spacecraft, this is the best option. However, it isn’t “your grandpa’s spaceship.” A whole slew of new technologies and materials are integrated in to the Orion. So while it may have traditional propulsion, it’s materials, systems and structures are far beyond what…

Interesting idea, but a linear accelerator is nice only in theory. You’ve got to get your craft to orbital or escape velocity while avoiding two things: 1: vaporizing your spacecraft because you’ve hit 17,500 mph in-atmosphere 2: turning your crew into greasy spots on their seat backs because you had to accelerate too…

Actually, NASA has created a number of Mars mission profiles since the 1960’s. What they haven’t had is the budget to execute any of them. Do the science and making the plan is the (relatively) easy part. Convincing Congress to give you the money is the hard part.

On a related note, Neil Armstrong and Dave Scott ran into the scenario the MASTIF was designed for during Gemini 8. They began a tumbling spin when one of their maneuvering thrusters didn’t shut off as intended during a docking attempt with an Agena Target Vehicle. Armstrong got it under control quickly, but utilized…

Good point! There’s some similar motion in an old imax movie when they swap out Hubble’s solar arrays and use the orbiter’s RCS to push the old panels away from the vehicles.

FYI, the white segmented panel with the tear is not a solar panel, but one of the stations radiators. They work to adjust temp by exposing them to more or less sunlight to absorb or release heat in the anhydrous ammonia that flows through the system. Makes me wonder how they’re not bleeding ammonia. I suppose there…