How does the Most Kerbal Spaceship Ever fly through the race course? And Can I put a probe on Eve inside of a week? These questions and more get answered on last night's livestream... Also I drink beer.
This week NASA announced the winners of its space suit contract for ISS and Artemis - Axiom Space and Collins Aerospace. Unlike traditional space suit contracts this isn't to buy the suits, but to rent them for specific missions, outsourcing the responsibilities after NASA's internal development program repeatedly failed to deliver a final product.
NASA's xEMU program was supposed to be developing the space suit for Lunar surface operations, but despite lots of innovative research the project never managed to deliver a suit that could proceed to testing and operation. With the Artemis program already setting schedules the suit requirements looked like one of the big blockers after the Launch vehicle and lander.
Follow me on Twitter for more updates:
https://twitter.com/DJSnM
I have a discord server where I regularly turn up:
https://discord.gg/zStmKbM
If you really like what I do you can support me directly through Patreon
https://www.patreon.com/scottmanley
...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cs2QmUKivl8
Starting with the footage I break things down and talk about what I see in slow motion and frame by frame. Original video by USLaunchReport.com https://youtu.be/_BgJEXQkjNQ
Still waiting on storyful to respond to my licensing request.
...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ye0EOENUw0c
Spacechem is a chemistry themed puzzle game where you 'program' reactors to make them perform chemical reactions to solve problems. The actual game mechanics are more akin to programming, but for science nerds like me this is one of the best puzzle games out there.
It's available on steam or from http://www.spacechemthegame.com/
...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IbQRsd2ECys
You know I've heard it's Bad luck to be superstitious, so let's just ignore the number right?
Rocketlab's latest mission was called 'Pics or it Didn't Happen' and we didn't get pictures of it reaching orbit. Instead the video cut out and the second stage fell back to earth, likely breaking up due to reentry forces. Very little information is available right now, but this covers what we know.
...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayYgPdk0VVc
I get asked why specific impulse is measured in seconds, and why many of the equations using the value have a factor of 'g' in them - the factor is used as a conversion so that engineers working in different units can all correctly agree on the value of specific impulse.
...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnisTeYLLgs
NASA's Double Asteroid Redirect Test (DART) mission finished yesterday in a spectacular crash into the Asteroid Dimorphos
Follow me on Twitter for more updates:
https://twitter.com/DJSnM
I have a discord server where I regularly turn up:
https://discord.gg/zStmKbM
If you really like what I do you can support me directly through Patreon
https://www.patreon.com/scottmanley
...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hg4DiOmKlVM
In advance of the DM-2 Flight carrying crew to the ISS using the first privately designed and built spacecraft SpaceX have released a cut down version of the Dragon simulator which allows you to fly the docking sequence with the ISS. While this is only a cut down version of a full Dragon 2 simulation, it does give you a chance to see how the user interface design is radically different from existing space vehicles.
It also gives you a chance to fly recklessly around a simulated ISS, since they won't let you do that in real life.
https://iss-sim.spacex.com/
...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pp4CTN6-kzQ
For many Julian Gollop is best known as the creator of the XCom series of games. However in 1985, years before the inception of XCom he created 'Chaos' one of the finest games released for any 8bit system, so good it still stands up today. I lost many hours to this game, playing against up to 7 other friends for dominance over the realm.
Chaos Reborn is a remake with much greater scope, modernised graphics and proper online play (no more making your friends look away as you make your moves). It's looking extremely promising and I can't wait for this to be developed beyond the prototype
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1206403106/chaos-reborn-from-the-creator-of-the-original-x-co?ref=scottm
Thanks to UnstableVoltage who hooked me up with access to the game, you can view it from his side here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZoJo2jlk18
And, if you want to see the original game in action, there's an Epic AI battle with wizards from Lord Of The Rings, Harry Potter, Arthurian Legend and Wizard of Oz - who will win?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XrAWD3rAzs
...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02j58JHWDCw