Category Archives: Spacecraft

Minus 2D Boom Rendezvous

Posted on Thu, 2009-12-03 by gravityloss

I always had a different idea compared to the one Jon and Kirk posted, (Kirk Sorensen is now a contributor at Jon Goff’s place, I’m afraid having such top men in the same place might cause a awesomity criticality event). … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Depot, industry, RLV:s, Spacecraft, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

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

Dual Propellant Expander

Posted on Thu, 2009-11-12 by gravityloss

Or what you are going to call it, an unrealized proposal from Aerojet around 1984. PDF Found on NTRS. The idea was to have two turbopumps (like on SSME), but instead operate on the expander cycle. Two heat exchangers, two … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Depot, engines, industry, ISRU, Lunar, NASA, RLV:s, Spacecraft, Transportation | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Jeff Greason

Posted on Thu, 2009-11-05 by gravityloss

The Man. On Space Review. [EDIT: About a month ago, but I only just read it.] This is just excellent. So many things I agree with, that go against the stupid myths of spaceflight and space policy. If you read … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Colonization, Depot, ESA, industry, JAXA, Motivation, NASA, RLV:s, Spacecraft | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

JAXA's HTV

Posted on Fri, 2009-09-11 by gravityloss

It’s in orbit currently. Status updates on spaceflight now and an NSF forum thread. There’s some technical material on NSF L2 about the HTV, for anyone there. Hope all goes well. This is also exciting, if everything works, there are … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, JAXA, Motivation, Spacecraft | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Delta IV Manrating

Posted on Thu, 2009-08-13 by gravityloss

Skimming the document (thanks NSF, Florida Today). Cute how a launch without an upper stage at all in the heavy configuration works out for ISS (burn SM fuel for orbit):

Posted in Architecture, Depot, Lunar, NASA, Spacecraft | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Reality and Future

Posted on Tue, 2009-08-11 by gravityloss

Jeff Greason is a rational person who simply gets it. It is mind boggling how completely opposite from someone like Mike Griffin he is. See Jeff’s presentation with the Augustine Panel. Paraphrasing, “we could go to Mars with Ares V … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Demotivation, Depot, ESA, Global, industry, ISRU, Lunar, Motivation, NASA, RLV:s, Spacecraft | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

Flexible Path for NASA Exploration

Posted on Sat, 2009-08-01 by gravityloss

Haven’t read it yet, but I wrote about something similar (and not in name only) a few years back.

Posted in Architecture, Depot, NASA, Spacecraft | 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

Augustine Panel Session 1, comment 3

Posted on Wed, 2009-06-17 by gravityloss

It seems ULA finally got out in the public with their opinion on how long and what it would take to launch manned stuff or Orion with their rockets. It only took four years, laboring under threatening and suppression.  What … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, industry, NASA, RLV:s, Spacecraft | Tagged , , , , , , | 3 Comments