Been rehashing the episodes of The Expanse, since I own them now. Taking them in sequence from the first to the most recent, the 12th 13th of Season 2. Liking the characters more and wondering how far the SyFy channel will take the show.
Like as far as the the sixth novel, Babylon’s Ashes, which I just finished? It’s about the Belters war against Earth and Mars. Pretty good. No spoilers here. Wondering what’s next in the novel series, more on the colonized solar systems, I presume.
This Matthew McConaughey space story is a good one, discounting the time talk which gets a little mystical at, uh, times. And confusing. But if you just roll with the punches, it carries you along nicely. Even the almost three hours passes swiftly.
Loved the school principal and teacher emphasizing the rewriting of textbooks to eliminate the Apollo missions, including the landings on the moon. Settled science and politics, as it were. For the good of the people, don’t you know.
Comments Off on Interstellar
Posted in Flickers, Science/Engineering, Space
Tagged Interstellar, Matthew McConaughey
Roughly a year after watching the first season of this syfy concoction, I have embarked on season 2. It has three more episodes than 1.
The graphics, the hardware and the CGI are still cool. And the actors the same—even to the introduction of Bobby Draper, who is comelier than my mind’s eye view of her from the books, but that’s show biz.
Still worth the pittance it costs, $2.99 per 40-minute episode. And I see that it is making enough money from its 600,000 fans to go into production for a season 3. All to the good.
Science fiction maven Jerry Pournelle says reports of Chinese orbital success with the fuel-free electromagnetic spacecraft drive rank up there with the importance of Sputnik 1 in its day.
Others have their doubts about anything the ChiComs claim and that, despite tentative NASA ground confirmation of the EM drive’s usefulness, it’s any more than a new cold fusion hoax. Stay tuned.
Via Instapundit.
Posted in Blogosphere, Science/Engineering, Space
“The results of NASA’s tests on the ‘impossible’ EM Drive have been leaked, and they reveal that the controversial propulsion system really does work, and is capable of generating impressive thrust in a vacuum, even after error measurements have been accounted for.”
This is propulsion without fuel. Mars in 70 days instead of 18 months. No bulky fuel tanks marring the design of your space vehicle. Moreover, no explosive fuel to worry about. Leaving the problem of shielding from cosmic rays to be resolved, but with considerable new incentive to do so.
Via Instapundit.
Posted in Blogosphere, Science/Engineering, Space
Tagged EM Drive, EM Propulsion, goodbye rocket fuel, Mars in 70 days
This the landing, the fifth landing from the edge of space of this Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin booster, in a successful test of the crew capsule’s escape system. Watch it all here, scroll down to the video and begin it at 50:51.
Nice to know engineering work continues near Van Horn in West Texas without the mud-slinging and biased journalism of the presidential fandango. Should be said that our little Barry Hussein stimulated these private rocket ventures by forcing NASA to help them out while getting out of the way.
As anti-Semitism becomes more prevalent and vicious at U.S. colleges and universities it’s easy to see it everywhere even when it isnt there. Thus you have to wonder about the SpaceX explosion yesterday in Florida.
That Falcon 9 that blew up on the pad, supposedly running an engine test of some sort, despite its payload already being in place atop the stack, destroyed an Israeli-made satellite belonging to Facebook. The sat was intended to improve Internet reception via smartphones in rural Africa.
The Times of Israel, whose initial reports carried no hint of terrorism, said the loss of the $200 million sat would be a major blow to the country’s space industries. Facebook merely vowed to soldier on.
UPDATE: Here’s an early, conspiracy-theory explanation. The Falcon 9 suffered a drone attack. The official investigation is going to take lots of time.
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