I like the little feet that pop out of the bottom.
Not a single science fiction artist since the dawn of science fiction envisaged spaceships would be as ugly and as basic as that.
The dream
Reality
Romalar
3833
Once they get to flying more than a mile up, it will have fins, heat shielding, and a complete upper section above the fuel tank. It’s ultimately supposed to look something like this:
CraigM
3834
Yeah aerodynamic and styling elements are only relevant once you reach a higher speed. For this test the vectored thrust is providing all the stability, gimbal, and control.
In the so you think you’ve got what it takes to be an Astronaut dept. Listening to interview of this guy by his former SEAL CO, He is ridiculously humble and his story is amazing.
jpinard
3838
Way cool. Thanks for posting that!
But I am confused a bit. Our sun produces Helium and Hydrogen, so shouldn’t there be a category for “normal star”?
Not Hydrogen, but there is a little green sliver in Helium, that will be our sun’s contribution to the next generation when it dies.
The hydrogen in the sun all came from the Big Bang. The sun fuses that hydrogen into helium, which will be released into the larger universe when the sun dies (hence the small green bar under He) but the overwhelming bulk of helium in the universe was formed at a particular point as the universe cooled after the big bang (hence the much larger blue section).
Also, thanks to @sillhouette for sharing that graphic, I’m snagging it to use in future Astro classes. Nucleosynthesis is always a tricky thing for intro students to get their head around.
Beryllium and Boron were the ones which surprised me, I had to look this up
Also noteworthy that the dark gray color just indicates “not naturally occurring.” The original has that in the legend, but for some reason this version doesn’t.
Romalar
3843
Just came across new research on a new (to me, at least) carbon source that NASA has been studying from its SOFIA airborne observatory. This kind of red giant appears to be able to throw off significant amounts during stellar fluctuations late in their sequence.
This rehearsal is happening tomorrow:
We seem to be finding that water is pretty common out there. I know for a long time we assumed water was rare.
antlers
3847
The Expanse certainly did…
One of the implications of this is that Ceres probably formed as a planetesimal in the outer Solar System (beyond the “frost line”) and migrated to the asteroid belt in the days when the giant planets were moving around.
We’ve discovered water is a lot more plentiful in the galaxy. The trick is finding it where it’s not frozen solid for eternity.
RichVR
3850
Damn. That’s a lot of damage. It’ll be out of service for some time.
