Its said that Modern aircraft have four dimensions – span, length, height, and politics. The TSR.2 was a world-beating jet bomber, which “got the first three right”, but ultimately fell foul of the last one. In 1957 British aviation was flying high, it was producing the most advanced jets in …
How China is taking on the world in space
This chart shows a recent survey of satellites and space junk in Low Earth Orbit, listed by the country responsible for creating it. The third country might surprise you: China has left almost as much debris as America or Russia, despite having a much shorter history in space. In fact, …
The search for Planet X / Planet 9 / Nibiru
It’s the end of the world as we know it… again. In the last few weeks the tabloids and conspiracy theorists have been busy with another dire prediction that Nibiru aka Planet X and Planet 9 will trigger earthquakes, floods and generally the end of the world, this time it …
How do spacecraft navigate in space ?
How does a space probe like Voyager 2, which was launched in 1977, visit the 4 outer planets and travel over 17 billion kilometres over 40 years with almost next to nothing in the way of fuel. By the time Voyager 2 had reached Neptune, it had swung by Jupiter, …
V Bombers – Vulcan, Victor & Valiant – The Last British Bombers
It took just 11 years to go from the first flight of the Lancaster Bomber in 1941 to the first flight of the VX770, the prototype Vulcan bomber in 1952. Yet the difference between them could hardly be greater, the Vulcan along with the Victor and Valiant was a new …
Ultra High Speed Cameras – How do you film a tank shell in flight or a Nuclear bomb test?
In my last video I looked railguns, now whilst I was reviewing the footage I started wondering how they filmed the projectiles in flight. These were not a typical high-speed cameras shots like a bullet hitting a target, for example, these track the projectile from the barrel and down the …
Electromagnetic Railguns – The U.S Military’s future Superguns – 200 mile range Mach 7 projectiles
‘Velocitas Eradico’– sounds like the sort of thing Harry Potter would say when fighting Voldemort, which would be quite apt as the translation of ‘Velocitas Eradico’ is “quickly get rid” or in the vernacular ‘Speed Kills’ and is the motto for the no less futuristic US Navy Electromagnetic Railgun project. …
Evel Knievel and The Reusable X-3 Volksrocket
In the last year or so, its become almost commonplace to see SpaceX & Blue origin bringing rockets back after a launch for refurbishment and reuse. This has been the goal for billionaires Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos backed with NASA knowledge for well over a decade now. But over …
Animal Astronauts – The Space Races Unwitting Pioneers
Everyone remembers Yuri Gagarin the first man in space but before his famous flight, there had been many more living space pioneers who didn’t really have any choice about being strapped into an experimental rocket. Animal Astronauts – The Space Race’s Unwitting Pioneers The tidal wave of propaganda generated by Sputnik …
How Did NASA Lose a Mars Space Probe Because of Maths?
For all the knowledge of the thousands of scientists and engineers in the space industry, sometimes the old adage “The best-laid plans of mice and men” can equally be applied to their efforts. This was certainly the case on the Mars Climate Orbiter mission of 1999 and this would go …