'munk Bombs

Chipmunk on top of the world, surveying you as a source of nuts.

Just checking out the launch. What's up with you?

Tower Truths

I owe much to this tower, this Empire State Building. If not for it, I would not be in New Gondolin. So here's to you, the Original Tower (OT):

LADEE to space. To the moon, in fact.

Their bombs

Operation Sailor Hat was a military experiment to see the effects of 500 tons of explosives - without the now (1965) recognized issues of radiation. A wicked lot of TNT, stacked in cool domes. Like Brutalist igloos of DOOM.

For what purpose? Better means to wage war. For, as any Soviet would tell you, or anybody from Central and South America, or Asia, or the Middle East, the USA is always waging war, with their tanks and their bombs.

Enough! No more war and killing! Let us come together as Comrades!

Let us build groovy peace rockets and travel to the stars!

Let us live in peace and fraternity, and sorority! It will be groovy.

Also, too, here's what 500 tons of TNT exploding looks like:

 

 Awesome!

What's next in Rockets

Sadly, or not, it's private enterprise - IN SPACE! Above is SpaceX's Falcon, which is already supplying the ISS, using this nifty little ship:

The Dragon! The Dragon has made a few trips to the ISS (just splashed down a few days ago) to deliver supplies and take back trash/experiments. It's automated to date, but is entirely ready to deliver people to space as well.

SpaceX is frankly awesome. They're working on their next rocket, which could revolutionize human access to space (in terms of cost - but this is a major barrier):

Here's a test launch. Check out the legs:

This rocket is designed to blast off, reach space, deliver its cargo, then fly back to Earth and land vertically, on those legs. This is the revolutionary part - the reusable rocket. Long a goal, and the original idea behind the Space Shuttle - check out this prototype from the 60's that never had a chance thanks to Nixon and Vietnam:

The rocket itself was not reusable, but this design was far more efficient than the Shuttle design that we finally got.

Anyways, SpaceX's Grasshopper is a reusable rocket, which greatly reduces the cost of any individual mission. Additionally, it can handle more cargo. Here's the cargo module, which would sit on top of the Grasshopper:

This is huge, relative to other rockets delivering stuff to space today.

Again, SpaceX seems like a kick ass success story, and their success will lead to more success. Good luck Elon!

Oh, and Branson's "Virgin Galactic"? Tourist trap only. Cool, but for rich thrillseekers and not much else.

To Date

 As always, click for big. This is, in the new, hip style, an infographic of every mission beyond Earth. You can see where we (humanity, meaning mostly the USA, USSR, and the EU) have collectively put our priorities, to date. My big takeaway is look how few missions to Saturn there have been, and yet one of them - Cassini - is incredible beyond belief. And still going!

Fret plenty, however, since as Russia has taken a nosedive, and America's looking to do the same, who knows how many future missions to space at all lie in our collective future. I fear perhaps we are on the edge of a rollback of human progress. Maybe China will save us all. Maybe not.

But, let us not worry about that now. Instead, behold, every single human rocket:

While impressive, collectively and each in their own way (think of the effort that went into every one), it's also mildly depressing. It takes so much effort to simply go the 60 or so miles (straight up) to get to the very edge of space. Alas! Such is the reality of living at the bottom of a gravity well.

And perhaps there's more hope for our future than I admit, at the moment. Private enterprise is blazing paths governments feared to tread. If the profit is there, and our infrastructure on Earth stays relatively stable, we might still have our space mining, asteroid living future. But then, it will be profit driven, and no doubt that asteroid will be owned by Yoyodyne or some such, and all the folks involved will be playing according to their dime. Which can be summarized in the Ferengi Rules of Acquisition, and not in any kind of Utopian Trek "What's money, man?" Directive. And so we'll simply export our Dystopia to space.

Alas!

T Minus 11:14, 11:13, 11:12...

These are scary days for the manned American space program. We are about to give up our access to space, and wait for private industry to get us back up there. Or Russians. I'm hoping for the Japanese or the Chinese since it seems without some breakthrough in technology, only a nationalistic based space race will get us into collective gear.

There's a lot of development in the private sector, and NASA will now act more like a venture capitalist/philanthropist, providing grants, funding, and for the best options, large purchases of services. And over many years I'm quite confident private space vehicles will be the norm, and far cheaper to build and fly than the current Shuttle. And I'm sure someone, someday well into the future, will make a go for an asteroid, since if one were able to capture a good size asteroid you would have more metal and other minerals than has ever been used by humanity, ever and for all of time. You'd be beyond rich. But that's well down the road.

Alas, since we seem to be motivated by greed and fear, then a good old profit motive/fear of the other doing it first will work, I'm sure, eventually. It's just a question of, how soon?

Could be years. And we - America - will be grounded on Earth. Sad state of affairs since Apollo and my childhood dreams of how freaking 2011 would be. But, we've got iPhones and iPads, so I guess it's all not so bad...

Also, and by way of apology, sorry! I'm in the final stages of the construction of my mountain Fastness, or Redoubt, if you will. New Gondolin rises! And soon shall be my abode. Till then, I remain, your's in Redshirtedness.

'Bout Time!

I've come to realize that I will never have a flying car, as so often promised to me in the 1970's;

I've come to accept this, and I'm OK with it.

However, in lieu of this flying car, AND my serene acceptance of lack of said flying car, I would like a rocket pack, similar to but not necessarily the same as, this one.

Thanks in advance!

Redshirt