Category Archives: Models

Hovering Vehicle Tilt Control, Part Zero

Posted on Wed, 2009-11-25 by gravityloss

Someone was asking on ARocket about where to start with building a differentially throttled hovering vehicle. Lots of advice were given by various people. I’ll show some stuff I quickly sketched back in 2007 with Simulink. It’s such an easy … Continue reading →

Posted in Homebuilt, Models, Motivation, RLV:s, Spacecraft, Suborbital | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Asteroid Threats in Context

Posted on Fri, 2009-09-18 by gravityloss

id Software’s upcoming game Rage uses asteroid Apophis as the scene setter for a post apocalyptic world. (id is part of Zenimax now, which also owns Bethesda, who did Fallout, a similar scene but done with nuclear weapons…) Is this … Continue reading →

Posted in Journalism, Models, Motivation, NASA | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Economics and the Price of Nature

Posted on Thu, 2009-09-10 by gravityloss

Assume a glacier that provides summer water for a billion people. What is its value, if it is destroyed by global warming? Since it currently provides services for free, it could be calculated as zero, according to some. Hence, a … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate, Demotivation, Energy, Global, idiocracy, Journalism, Models, Nature, Science Links | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Experts on the Internet, X-33, Gigaprograms and Real Progress

Posted on Fri, 2009-06-26 by gravityloss

Experts on the Internet A lot of internet discussion is ignorant speculation, rumor spreading, ranting and flaming. But that’s not all. The freedom and self-organizing nature of enables massive diversity. Newsgroups, mailing lists, IRC, forums, Twitter – and sometimes there’s … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Demotivation, idiocracy, industry, Journalism, meta, Models, Motivation, NASA, RLV:s, Science Links, Spacecraft, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 9 Comments

First big thing

Posted on Wed, 2009-06-17 by gravityloss

I think it’s Doug Cooke, presenting NASA things to the panel: Key exploration objectives slide: 2. To ensure sustainability, development and operations costs must be minimized Oh my. Next thing: [these things] “drives you to heavy lift”. Excuse me? EDIT: … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, industry, Models, NASA, RLV:s, Science Links, Spacecraft, Uncategorized | Tagged | Leave a comment

Augustine Panel First Hearing

Posted on Wed, 2009-06-17 by gravityloss

Ongoing. Norm Augustine You can stream NASA TV with VLC, just paste this link into it: http://www.nasa.gov/55644main_NASATV_Windows.asx

Posted in Architecture, Depot, Models, NASA, RLV:s, Science Links, Spacecraft, Suborbital | Leave a comment

Air France Flight 447

Posted on Wed, 2009-06-03 by gravityloss

2009-06-01 Air France flight 447 crashed with over 200 passengers on board in the Central Atlantic. At this early point it seems the failure was initiated by severe turbulence. Wings have been known to snap off because of very strong … Continue reading →

Posted in industry, Models, Science Links, Transportation | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Merry Christmas

Posted on Mon, 2008-12-22 by gravityloss

This is something I’ve been toying with for a while. A homebuilt single seater. Must be under 300 kg and stall under 20 m/s to enter ultralight regulations in Finland. A HKS 700 engine with 44 kW power would be … Continue reading →

Posted in airplane, Homebuilt, meta, Models, Motivation | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

FLEX – Flexible Exploration Architecture

Posted on Fri, 2008-11-21 by gravityloss

I wrote this architecture proposal, FLEX, a few years ago. It analyzes NASA’s approach that the ESAS study picked and notices how most of the mass in a lunar exploration stack in LEO is actually liquid oxygen. By using a … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Depot, industry, ISRU, Lunar, Models, Motivation, NASA, RLV:s, Spacecraft | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 17 Comments

Pump Power

Posted on Mon, 2008-11-10 by gravityloss

There’s been some discussion of pump power. It is extremely easy to calculate it when using SI units. A flow front in a tube has a power: W power, F force, v speed. The force is Where A is cross … Continue reading →

Posted in Models, Motivation, Science Links, Uncategorized | Tagged , | Leave a comment