Category Archives: NASA

Various re-entry vehicle shapes in a low speed wind tunnel

Posted on Sun, 2010-11-07 by gravityloss

Or another excuse for testing video embedding again… It seems tumbling is quite common, which is not a nice thig.

Posted in airplane, NASA, RLV:s, Spacecraft, Suborbital | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Running in lunar gravity

Posted on Tue, 2010-11-02 by gravityloss

You can simulate lunar gravity quite easily on Earth – just suspend a man from his center of gravity and put him on a very inclined plane. Hilarity will ensue. Sigh, embedding broke again for no reason…. I never expected … Continue reading →

Posted in Humor, Lunar, NASA, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Airbags, parachutes, Rogallo wings and all that

Posted on Sun, 2010-10-17 by gravityloss

NASA of the sixties reminds me of the Armadillo Aerospace of today. Drop tests, I think an F-111 model and various parachute, parawing and Rogallo wing things. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDyGMPHFteE] Airbags, landing rockets, landing gears (Dyna-Soar like rig) [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Ia5iWRg4wE&feature=related] Thank you NASA … Continue reading →

Posted in Design, NASA, RLV:s, Spacecraft | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Rockwell X-33 Pictures!

Posted on Thu, 2010-09-23 by gravityloss

From NASA Langley – they did wind tunnel tests on a model. Lots more pictures of various aerospace projects there too, some of them are quite weird. Thanks to Secret Projects forum for the info! Naturally since Rockwell built the … Continue reading →

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Humans Fast, Machines Slow

Posted on Thu, 2010-09-09 by gravityloss

Detach a small capsule with the humans that goes directly to the surface (with only days of life support) and leave the untended craft to do multi-pass aerobraking Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Colonization, Depot, engines, ESA, Global, industry, ISRU, JAXA, Lunar, Models, Motivation, NASA, RLV:s, Science Links, Spacecraft, Transportation | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

There's No Such Thing As A Reasonable Price Launch

Posted on Tue, 2010-08-31 by gravityloss

All these people had to get paid. Even when there wasn’t a launch. Well, to be exact: until the money was spent and there weren’t gonna be any more launches, which was a few years from this photo. From the … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Demotivation, industry, Launchers, NASA, RLV:s | 4 Comments

A Proposed US On-Orbit Propellant Transfer System

Posted on Tue, 2010-04-13 by gravityloss

For the ISS. The shuttle would transfer unused hypergolics to the ISS propulsion module. ATV as well. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISS_Propulsion_Module It was canceled and instead Progress and ATV are used directly for most boosting. Nevertheless the technology could be useful in developing … Continue reading →

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Far Away, Yet So Close

Posted on Tue, 2010-03-02 by gravityloss

He who controls the [Earth-Moon Lagrange points/Phobos/Deimos/Lunar North Pole], controls the solar system. Why? Because in space, it is not the tyranny of distance that sets the rules – it’s delta vee instead. Since there’s no resistance, traveling large distances … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Colonization, ISRU, Lunar, Motivation, NASA | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

NASA's Rejuvenation

Posted on Wed, 2010-02-10 by gravityloss

I do appreciate that the model is so different from Apollo that it takes time and thought to understand what it is about; I did not see it at first myself — but once I got past my preconceptions, I … Continue reading →

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

NASA Fails to Renew

Posted on Thu, 2010-01-28 by gravityloss

NASA’s plans to return astronauts to the moon are dead. So are the rockets being designed to take them there — that is, if President Barack Obama gets his way. Sayeth Orlando Sentinel. Haven’t followed NASA’s latest movements. The Augustine … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Demotivation, industry, Lunar, NASA, RLV:s, Spacecraft | Tagged , , | Leave a comment