552nd ACW Bids Farewell to First AWACS

The right-side nose landing gear door of E-3 Sentry 75-0560 bears the names of current and former 552nd Air Control Wing members after a divestment signing event at Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma, March 31, 2023. This E-3 Sentry is the first aircraft to be divested. -USAF

 

DMAFB

Aircraft 0560 is the first E-3 Sentry Airborne Warning Air Control System aircraft to retire from the fleet this year. As part of the FY23 President’s Budget Request, the Department of the Air Force announced its intent to divest 13 E-3 AWACS aircraft and redirect funding to procure and field a replacement.

YF-15A.

AMES-Dryden Flight Research Facility.

Edwards AFB, California.

NASA.

April 1988.

 

Allocated civil registration N835NA in July 2001.

The US Navy had begun planning a replacement for the F-4 Phantom II in the fleet air defense role almost as soon as the latter entered service, but found itself ordered by then-Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara to join the TFX program. The subsequent F-111B was a failure in every fashion except for its AWG-9 fire control system, paired with the AIM-54 Phoenix very-long range missile. It was subsequently cancelled and the competition reopened for a new fighter, but Grumman had anticipated the cancellation and responded with a new design.

 

The subsequent F-14A Tomcat, last of the famous Grumman “Cat” series of US Navy fighters, first flew in December 1970 and was placed in production. It used the same variable-sweep wing concept of the F-111B and its AWG-9 system, but the Tomcat was much sleeker and lighter. The F-14 was provided with a plethora of weapons, including the Phoenix, long-range AIM-7 Sparrow, short-range AIM-9 Sidewinder, and an internal M61A1 Vulcan 20mm gatling cannon. This was due to the Vietnam experience, in which Navy F-4s found themselves badly in need of internal armament. Despite its large size, it also proved itself an excellent dogfighter.

 

The only real drawback to the Tomcat proved to be its powerplant, which it also shared with the F-111B: the Pratt and Whitney TF30. The TF30 was found to be prone to compressor stalls and explosions; more F-14s would be lost to engine problems than any other cause during its career, including combat. The Tomcat was also fitted with the TARPS camera pod beginning in 1981, allowing the RA-5C Vigilante and RF-8G Crusader dedicated recon aircraft to be retired. In addition to the aircraft produced for the US Navy, 79 of an order of 100 aircraft were delivered to Iran before the Islamic Revolution of 1979.

 

The Tomcat entered service in September 1974 and first saw action covering the evacuation of Saigon in 1975, though it was not involved in combat. The Tomcat’s first combat is conjectural: it is known that Iranian F-14s saw extensive service in the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq War, and that Iranian Tomcats achieved a number of kills; the only F-14 ace was Iranian. The first American combat with the F-14 came in September 1981, when two F-14As shot down a pair of Libyan Su-22 Fitters over the Gulf of Sidra. The Tomcat would add another two kills to its record in 1987, two Libyan MiG-23s once more over the Gulf of Sidra.

 

The high losses due to problems with the TF30 (fully 84 Tomcats would be lost to this problem over the course of its career) led to the Navy ordering the F-14A+ variant during the war. The A+, redesignated F-14B in 1991, incorporated all wartime refits and most importantly, General Electric F110 turbofans. Among the refits was the replacement of the early A’s simple undernose IR sensor with a TISEO long-range camera system, allowing the F-14’s pilot to identify targets visually beyond the range of unaided human eyesight.

 

The majority of F-14As were upgraded to B standard, along with 67 new-build aircraft. A mix of F-14As and Bs would see action during the First Gulf War, though only a single kill was scored by Tomcats.. Subsequent to this conflict, the Navy ordered the F-14D variant, with completely updated avionics and electronics, a combination IRST/TISEO sensor, replacement of the AWG-9 with the APG-71 radar, and a “glass” cockpit. Though the Navy had intended to upgrade the entire fleet to D standard, less than 50 F-14Ds ever entered service (including 37 new-builds), due to the increasing age of the design.

 

Ironically, the US Navy’s Tomcat swan song came not as a fighter, but a bomber. To cover the retirement of the A-6 Intruder and A-7 Corsair II from the fleet, the F-14’s latent bomb capability was finally used, allowing the “Bombcat” to carry precision guided weapons, and, after 2001, the GPS-guided JDAM series. By the time of the Afghanistan and Second Gulf Wars, the F-14 was already slated for replacement by the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, and the Tomcat would be used mainly in the strike role, though TARPS reconnaissance sorties were also flown. The much-loved F-14 Tomcat was finally retired from US Navy service in September 2006, ending 36 years of operations. The aircraft remains in service with the Iranian Revolutionary Air Force.

 

I didn't originally upload this picture, because I thought it was a mockup rather than an actual F-14. Apparently, however, it is an actual Tomcat, or what's left of one: Bureau Number 162607. This aircraft's complete squadron history is unknown at this time; it did, at least for a time, fly with VF-32 ("Swordsmen") aboard the USS Enterprise (CVN-65) before it was retired in 1999. 162607 was scrapped, except for its nose section, which was acquired by the Yanks Air Museum around 2010.

 

Yanks has restored the nose of 162607 as Lt. Pete "Maverick" Mitchell and Lt. (jg) Nick "Goose" Bradshaw's F-14 from the movie "Top Gun." Of the four Tomcats known to have been used in the movie, 162607 wasn't one of them--the only survivor of the four aircraft is 160694, the aircraft Maverick and Merlin flew in the last big dogfight; it is exhibited aboard the USS Lexington in Corpus Christi, Texas. Still, given the immortal popularity of "Top Gun," especially among my Gen-X bunch, Yanks certainly turns some heads when people see Maverick and Goose's names on the canopy frame.

Roll-Lift SBL900 Gantry Houston Texas

Object Details: After imaging the Sun one afternoon a few weeks ago I was able to catch the Lunar 'X' & Lunar 'V' (shown at the link attached here:

www.flickr.com/photos/homcavobservatory/51212338570/ ).

 

Having a few extra minutes that evening I decided to shoot a couple of short video clips along the rest of the lunar terminator. Since I tend to image with multiple cameras simultaneously, as can be seen in the attached composite, I also took a few quick stills using a 'wider-field' scope simply as a reference as to overall location.

 

Image Details: Taken by Jay Edwards at the HomCav Observatory on the evening of May 18th, 2021; the top shows a three panel mosaic of the terminator along a 6 day old waxing crescent moon and at bottom is a 'full disk' reference image. The mosaic was shot using a vintage 1970, 8-inch, f/7 Criterion newtonian reflector and a ZWO ASI290MC with a lum filter - connected at prime focus while the reference image was taken using an ED80T CF (i.e. an 80MM, f/6 carbon-fiber, triplet apochromatic refractor) connected to a 0.8x Televue focal reducer / field flattener and an unmodded Canon 700D DSLR. The 80mm apo. was piggybacked on the 8-inch, along with an 80MM f/5 Celestron 'short-tube' doublet (for guiding when imaging DSOs) as well as a few other items (e.g. a CCD & wide-field camera lens, etc.) and these optics were tracked using a Losmandy G-11 mount running a Gemini 2 control system.

 

I have labeled the locations of the Lunar 'X' & 'V' as well as one of my favorite 'geologic' lunar features that, although not perfectly lit, I thought appears somewhat decently in this phase of illumination, 'Vallis Alpes' (Latin for The 'Alpine Valley'). Unlike the 'X' & 'V' which result from pareidolia, the Alpine Valley is a 166 km (103 mi.) long, 10km (6 mi.) wide graben (i.e. a physically depressed section of the moon's crust between parallel faults).

 

The video clips with the ASI290MC on the 8-inch were controlled by SharpCap Pro, while the individual frames taken with the DSLR on the 80MM apo. were sequenced with AstroPhotographyTool (APT). Processed using a combination of AutoStakkert, Registax & PaintShopPro, as presented here the luminance / lightness channels have been extracted, the entire composite has been reduced to 2 x that of HD resolution (approx. 1/2's the original size).

 

A shot using the same 8-inch Criterion & ASI290MC camera showing additional lighting on the Alpine Valley region during a first quarter moon back in 2019 can be found at the link attached here:

 

www.flickr.com/photos/homcavobservatory/48070020973/in/al...

+++ DISCLAIMER +++

Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based on authentic facts. BEWARE!

  

Some background:

In Autumn 1946, the Saab company began internal studies aimed at developing a replacement aircraft for the Saab B 18/S 18 as Sweden's standard attack aircraft. In 1948, Saab was formally approached by the Swedish Government with a request to investigate the development of a turbojet-powered strike aircraft to replace a series of 1940s vintage attack, reconnaissance and night-fighter aircraft then in the Flygvapnet: the B 18/S 18, J 21R/A 21R and J 30 (de Havilland Mosquito).

 

On 20 December 1948, a phase one contract for the design and mock-up of the proposed aircraft was issued. The requirements laid out by the Swedish Air Force were demanding: it had to be able to attack anywhere along Sweden's 2,000 km (1,245 miles) of coastline within one hour of launch from a central location. It had to be capable of being launched in any weather conditions and at day or night. In response, Saab elected to develop a twin-seat aircraft with a low-mounted wing, and equipped with advanced electronics.

 

On 3 November 1952, the first prototype conducted its first flight. A small batch of prototypes completed design and evaluation trials with series production of the newly designated Saab 32 Lansen beginning in 1953. The first production A 32A Lansen attack aircraft were delivered to the Swedish Air Force and proceeded through to mid 1958, at which point manufacturing activity switched to the other two variants of the Lansen, the J 32B and S 32C. These two models differed substantially from the first, the J 32 B being fitted with a new, more powerful engine for greater flight performance along with new navigation and fire control systems. On 7 January 1957, the first J 32 B Lansen conducted its maiden flight; on 26 Match 1957, the first S 32C Lansen performed its first flight. Production of the Lansen continued until May 1960.

 

The A 32 Lansen was Sweden's last purpose-built attack aircraft. This was the ground attack and maritime strike version. It replaced Saab B 18 and was later replaced by Viggen. In the years 1955-58 287 were delivered to the Swedish air force. This version had four 20 mm guns in the nose, covered by shutters. The shutters were opened upon "safety off", but had to be closed by command. Empty casings were kept from the air intakes by a pair of small plates under the nose. As they then impacted the external fuel tank, its nose was covered in neoprene to protect it.

 

The radar used in the A 32A was designated PS-431/A, actually of French design but built in Sweden. Instrumented ranges were 8, 20, 80 and 160 km. The radar gave the A 32 a true all-weather capability and was also used to aim the indigenous RB 04 anti-ship missiles.

As these aircraft always operated in groups, and as an economy measure only about 25% of them were given radars, Typically, only these leader aircraft had navigators aboard and marked the target with illumination flares, while the others, only operated by a single pilot, carried out the actual attack with bombs or missiles.

 

The replacement of the A 32A formally began in June 1971, the more advanced Saab 37 Viggen being slowly used to take over its attack responsibilities. The last A 32A was retired from active service in 1978. Accidents destroyed a third of all Lansens during 25 years of service.

 

As the type was gradually being replaced by more modern types, the versatile Saab 32 still continued to be operated into the late 1990s as target tugs and electronic warfare platforms, a total of 20 J 32Bs were converted for these duties into J 32D and Es. By 2010, at least two Lansens were still operational, having the sole task of taking high altitude air samples for research purposes in collaboration with the Swedish Radiation Safety Authority; one of these collected volcanic ash samples in mid 2010. By 2012, a total of three Lansens reportedly remained in active service.

  

General characteristics:

Crew: two

Length: 14.94 m (49 ft 0 in)

Wingspan: 13.0 m (42 ft 8 in)

Height: 4.65 m (15 ft 3 in)

Wing area: 37.4 m² (402.6 ft²)

Empty weight: 7,438 kg (16,383 lb)

Max. takeoff weight: 13,600 kg (29,955 lb)

 

Powerplant:

1× Svenska Flygmotor RM5A afterburning turbojet

(a Rolls Royce Avon Mk.21/21A outfitted with an indigenous afterburner),

delivering 3,460 kp dry and 4,700 kp with afterburning

 

Performance:

Maximum speed: 1,125 km/h (700 mph)/Mach 0.91

Never-exceed speed: 1.200 km/h (745 mph)

Cruising speed: Mach 0.8

Range with internal fuel only: 1.850 km (1,150 mi)

Service ceiling: 14,000 m (45,800 ft)

Rate of climb: 60 m/s (11,800 ft/min)

 

Armament:

4× 20 mm cannon with 180 rounds per gun (7 s of firing) in the lower nose section

A total of thirteen external hardpoints for a wide variety of up to 3.000 kg ordnance,

including a pair of Rb04 anti-ship missiles, unguided missiles and bombs of different calibers,

and special loads like a BOZ 3 chaff dispenser pod.

  

The kit and its assembly:

This is another contribution for the “Old Kit Group Build” running at whatifmodelers.com in late 2016. I had this project on the agenda for a long time, even kit and decals stashed away, but this was now a good occasion to start it.

 

The basis is the venerable Saab 32 Heller kit, since 1982 the only available 1:72 IP model of the Lansen – just recently Hobby Boss and Tarangus presented their own kits in 1:48 and 1:72.

The kit offers parts for an A 32A attack aircraft and optional parts for an S 32C recce aircraft (a J 32B interceptor and its derivatives needs some detail mods at the exhaust and under the nose).

 

This old kit has good detail, but it comes with then-state-of-the-art raised panel lines, some flash and election marks. Fit varies a lot – while the wing/fuselage intersection matches perfectly, the fuselage halves needed a lot of attention and serious bodywork. The optional lower nose section for the A and C variants is also not without trouble: the part fits, but the seams run right along the middle of the air intake channels, a pretty delicate solution. Overall, the kit builds well without major issues. But it’s a shame that it comes ”clean”, some of the exotic Swedish ordnance (e. g. the unique Rb04 missiles or the conformal under-fuselage tank) would have been a nice addition.

 

The Heller kit was basically built OOB as an A 32A attack aircraft, just with a few enhancements and additions. These include lowered flaps for a more lively presentation (no aftermarket parts, just a mod of the kit itself), extended air intake walls (inside, with simple styrene sheet), some new antennae and emergency fuel valves under the tail section, and twelve pylons under the wings with a dozen heavy unguided missiles. The latter come from an Airfix/Heller A-1 Skyraider and the pylons (four bigger ones, which can also hold heavier ordnance, plus eight smaller hardpoints for light loads only like 120 kg iron bombs or unguided missiles) were scratched from styrene sheet. Instead of the characteristic conformal belly tank, I installed a large, central pylon for a camera pod. After all, this aircraft flies for a test institution.

  

Painting and markings:

This is the whiffy and more interesting part. The paint scheme on this Lansen is based on an illustration that has been around for ages and which pops up every now and then in literature and online - always without any further information:

 

img.wp.scn.ru/camms/ar/171/pics/90_4.jpg

 

AFAIK the illustration was created in the GDR by an artist with the family name "Römer", probably in the Seventies. What I could find out is that the aircraft is s/n 32209, and that it was sold to the USA for private use (as a target tug) in flying condition, and the machine served, in an all-grey livery, until 1989. The only vague proof for the the odd and disruptive three-tone-scheme I found is a blurred picture of FC/29 still in Swedish service, but with a totally weathered camouflage, a nose probe and with one wing upper surface painted black while the other appears white. But the machine seems to have existed in the profile's guise, or something similar.

 

The scheme looks pretty experimental, though, and camouflage trials were actually carried out with the Lansen in the early Sixties and eventually led to the green/blue scheme that was adopted for the type and later for the Saab 35, too. The aircraft’s operator, the Försökscentralen (The Swedish Air Force’s research and test institution, with its traditional tactical code “FC” instead of the usual unit number on the fuselage), supports the machine’s trials role further.

 

Anyway, this scheme here, probably inspired by the USAF’s SEA scheme, rather looks like an early study for what would later become the unique "Fields & Meadows" splinter scheme, made famous by the Viggen in the Seventies? All these leads suggest a relatively tight, potential time frame for this aircraft in the late Sixties/very early Seventies.

 

Because there’s only a port side profile available of “FC/29”, the rest of the scheme had to be guessed – and for the first time I created a digital four-side view for the task. Since there’s no reference, I guesstimated the tones: The light green is Humbrol 150 (Forest Green, FS 34127) later shaded with Humbrol 80 (Grass Green). Humbrol 91 (Black Green, ~RLM70) was used for the for the dark, bluish green. Finally the brown tone was mixed with Humbrol 29 and RLM 79 (Sandgelb, from the Modelmaster Authentics range) plus a bit of Humbrol 62 (Leather) for an orange-ish, sandy tan tone, so that it does not look too much like USAF FS 30219.

The underside was painted with RLM 76 (Humbrol 247), a tone that IMHO comes very close to the dull Blågrå tone of Swedish military aircraft since WWII.

 

The cockpit interior was painted, according to pictures of the real aircraft, in a greenish grey – I used RLM 02 for the standard surfaces and Humbrol 111 for the dashboards and other instrument panels.

 

The silver wing leading edges were created with decal sheet, not painted - a clean and convenient solution.

 

The landing gear wells als well as the flaps’ interior became Aluminum (Humbrol 56), while the landing gear struts became dark green (Humbrol 30), a detail seen on some real life Saab 32s. The unguided missiles were – typical for the Swedish Air Force – painted as training rounds in light green (Humbrol 120, FS 34227).

 

Most markings come from an RBD Studio aftermarket sheet (excellent stuff!), puzzled together from various aircraft and with the benefit of additional stencils, since the OOB sheet is pretty minimalistic. To make matters worse, the OOB sheet was printed off-register, so that almost nothing with 2 colors or more could be used.

The cool thing about the RBD Studio sheet is, though, that it actually allows to create the “29” from the inspiring profile! The orange nose band, a typical marking for fighters operated by the Försökscentralen, was scratched from decal sheet.

One detail that is certainly not correct is the squadron emblem on the air intake - it is shown in the inspiring profile, so I chose something that comes visually close, F15's emblem.

 

Only light panel shading was done, more for the dramatic effect than true weathering. Finally, the kit was sealed with matt acrylic varnish.

  

A relatively simple build, without major donations or transplantations. “FC/29” - fictional or not - turned out to be quite colorful, I am positively surprised.

Its high contrast camouflage proves to be quite effective in the beauty pics, and the green ordnance as well as the bright markings are nice contrasts. Looks very different from "normal" Saab 32s, especially from the all-green fighters.

 

This will certainly not the last Saab 32 I’ll build, it’s a very impressive and elegant aircraft!

Having not seen clear skies here in upstate, NY for quite some time I thought I'd take a first look at processing a few quick shots I captured back on September 20th of this year's Harvest Moon.

 

Object Details: The attached shows both 'full disk' images as well as 'close-ups' of the area surrounding the rayed crater Tycho.

 

Although the crater itself is very conspicuous at the bottom of the full disk images, it's extensive ray system is probably it's best known feature. Very prominent during a full moon, they are probably best seen in the negative brightness channel image at upper right. Resulting from a (relatively) recent impact 108 million years ago, Tycho is 85 km (53 mi) in diameter. Being about 4,800 m (15,700 ft or ~ 3 mi.) in depth, it's central peaks rise 1,600 m (5,200 ft or nearly a mile) above the crater floor.

 

Image Details: The images that make up the attached composite were taken by Jay Edwards at the HomCav Observatory between the 01:39 and 03:06 September 21, 2021 (UT date & time).

 

The full disk image at top left, utilized a Canon 700D controlled by APT & connected to an ED80T CF (i.e. an Orion 80mm, f/6 carbon-fiber triplet apochromatic refractor), and a 0.8X Televue field flattener / focal reducer as is a stack of 17 'lights-only' frames shot at 1/1000 sec and ISO 100. Shown at top right is this image that has had it's brightness channel extracted and then negated, a technique meant to emphasize fine detail.

 

The shots of Tycho are stacks of selected frames from short video clips taken with an ASI290MC 'planetary camera / auto-guider' controlled by SharpCap Pro on a vintage 1970, 8-inch, f/7 Criterion newtonian reflector using both luminance and infrared filters (all other things held equal, the infrared wavelengths tend to be less affected by the atmospheric distortions associated with bad seeing conditions).

 

As noted at center is a one-shot-color version of each, and since humans tend to see detail in an image via it's brightness & contrast (as opposed to it's color) variations, at left the brightness channel has been extracted from the OSCs, and like the full disk image above it, at right the brightness channel extractions have been negated in an attempt to bring out additional detail.

 

Both of these scopes were mounted on and tracked by a Losmandy G-11 running a Gemini 2 control system and the images were processed using a combination of AS3, Registax & PaintShopPro. As presented here in the HD composite the full disk images have been reduced to one third their original resolution while the close-ups have been reduced down to one-half their original size and all are presented as 8 bits per channel.

 

Wishing clear, dark & calm skies to all; and of course, a very Happy, Healthy, Safe & Prosperous New Year !!!

+++ DISCLAIMER +++

Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based on historical facts. BEWARE!

  

Some background:

Clarence L. "Kelly" Johnson, vice president of engineering and research at Lockheed's Skunk Works, visited USAF air bases across South Korea in November 1951 to speak with fighter pilots about what they wanted and needed in a fighter aircraft. At the time, the American pilots were confronting the MiG-15 with North American F-86 Sabres, and many felt that the MiGs were superior to the larger and more complex American design. The pilots requested a small and simple aircraft with excellent performance, especially high speed and altitude capabilities. Armed with this information, Johnson immediately started the design of such an aircraft on his return to the United States.

 

Work started in March 1952. In order to achieve the desired performance, Lockheed chose a small and simple aircraft, weighing in at 12,000 lb (5,400 kg) with a single powerful engine. The engine chosen was the new General Electric J79 turbojet, an engine of dramatically improved performance in comparison with contemporary designs. The small L-246 design remained essentially identical to the Model 083 Starfighter as eventually delivered.

 

Johnson presented the design to the Air Force on 5 November 1952, and work progressed quickly, with a mock-up ready for inspection at the end of April, and work starting on two prototypes that summer. The first prototype was completed by early 1954 and first flew on 4 March at Edwards AFB. The total time from contract to first flight was less than one year.

 

The first YF-104A flew on 17 February 1956 and, with the other 16 trial aircraft, were soon carrying out equipment evaluation and flight tests. Lockheed made several improvements to the aircraft throughout the testing period, including strengthening the airframe, adding a ventral fin to improve directional stability at supersonic speed, and installing a boundary layer control system (BLCS) to reduce landing speed. Problems were encountered with the J79 afterburner; further delays were caused by the need to add AIM-9 Sidewinder air-to-air missiles. On 28 January 1958, the first production F-104A to enter service was delivered.

 

Even though the F-104 saw only limited use by the USAF, later versions, tailored to a fighter bomber role and intended for overseas sales, were more prolific. This was in particular the F-104G, which became the Starfighter's main version, a total of 1,127 F-104Gs were produced under license by Canadair and a consortium of European companies that included Messerschmitt/MBB, Fiat, Fokker, and SABCA.

 

The F-104G differed considerably from earlier versions. It featured strengthened fuselage, wing, and empennage structures; a larger vertical fin with fully powered rudder as used on the earlier two-seat versions; fully powered brakes, new anti-skid system, and larger tires; revised flaps for improved combat maneuvering; a larger braking chute. Upgraded avionics included an Autonetics NASARR F15A-41B multi-mode radar with air-to-air, ground-mapping, contour-mapping, and terrain-avoidance modes, as well as the Litton LN-3 Inertial Navigation System, the first on a production fighter.

 

Germany was among the first foreign operators of the F-104G variant. As a side note, a widespread misconception was and still is that the "G" explicitly stood for "Germany". But that was not the case and pure incidence, it was just the next free letter, even though Germany had a major influence on the aircraft's concept and equipment. The German Air Force and Navy used a large number of F-104G aircraft for interception, reconnaissance and fighter bomber roles. In total, Germany operated 916 Starfighters, becoming the type's biggest operator in the world. Beyond the single seat fighter bombers, Germany also bought and initially 30 F-104F two-seat aircraft and then 137 TF-104G trainers. Most went to the Luftwaffe and a total of 151 Starfighters was allocated to the Marineflieger units.

 

The introduction of this highly technical aircraft type to a newly reformed German air force was fraught with problems. Many were of technical nature, but there were other sources of problems, too. For instance, after WWII, many pilots and ground crews had settled into civilian jobs and had not kept pace with military and technological developments. Newly recruited/re-activated pilots were just being sent on short "refresher" courses in slow and benign-handling first-generation jet aircraft or trained on piston-driven types. Ground crews were similarly employed with minimal training and experience, which was one consequence of a conscripted military with high turnover of service personnel. Operating in poor northwest European weather conditions (vastly unlike the fair-weather training conditions at Luke AFB in Arizona) and flying low at high speed over hilly terrain, a great many Starfighter accidents were attributed to controlled flight into terrain (CFIT). German Air Force and Navy losses with the type totaled 110 pilots, around half of them naval officers.

 

One general contributing factor to the high attrition rate was the operational assignment of the F-104 in German service: it was mainly used as a (nuclear strike) fighter-bomber, flying at low altitude underneath enemy radar and using landscape clutter as passive radar defense, as opposed to the original design of a high-speed, high-altitude fighter/interceptor. In addition to the different and demanding mission profiles, the installation of additional avionic equipment in the F-104G version, such as the inertial navigation system, added distraction to the pilot and additional weight that further hampered the flying abilities of the plane. In contemporary German magazine articles highlighting the Starfighter safety problems, the aircraft was portrayed as "overburdened" with technology, which was considered a latent overstrain on the aircrews. Furthermore, many losses in naval service were attributed to the Starfighter’s lack of safety margin through a twin-engine design like the contemporary Blackburn Buccaneer, which had been the German navy air arm’s favored type. But due to political reasons (primarily the outlook to produce the Starfighter in Southern Germany in license), the Marine had to accept and make do with the Starfighter, even if it was totally unsuited for the air arm's mission profile.

 

Erich Hartmann, the world's top-scoring fighter ace from WWII, commanded one of Germany's first (post-war) jet fighter-equipped squadrons and deemed the F-104 to be an unsafe aircraft with poor handling characteristics for aerial combat. To the dismay of his superiors, Hartmann judged the fighter unfit for Luftwaffe use even before its introduction.

In 1966 Johannes Steinhoff took over command of the Luftwaffe and grounded the entire Luftwaffe and Bundesmarine F-104 fleet until he was satisfied that the persistent problems had been resolved or at least reduced to an acceptable level. One measure to improve the situation was that some Starfighters were modified to carry a flight data recorder or "black box" which could give an indication of the probable cause of an accident. In later years, the German Starfighters’ safety record improved, although a new problem of structural failure of the wings emerged: original fatigue calculations had not taken into account the high number of g-force loading cycles that the German F-104 fleet was experiencing through their mission profiles, and many airframes were returned to the depot for wing replacement or outright retirement.

 

The German F-104Gs served primarily in the strike role as part of the Western nuclear deterrent strategy, some of these dedicated nuclear strike Starfighters even had their M61 gun replaced by an additional fuel tank for deeper penetration missions. However, some units close to the German borders, e.g. Jagdgeschwader (JG) 71 in Wittmundhafen (East Frisia) as well as JG 74 in Neuburg (Bavaria), operated the Starfighter as a true interceptor on QRA duty. From 1980 onwards, these dedicated F-104Gs received a new air superiority camouflage, consisting of three shades of grey in an integral wraparound scheme, together with smaller, subdued national markings. This livery was officially called “Norm 82” and unofficially “Alberich”, after the secretive guardian of the Nibelung's treasure. A similar wraparound paint scheme, tailored to low-level operations and consisting of two greens and black (called Norm 83), was soon applied to the fighter bombers and the RF-104 fleet, too, as well as to the Luftwaffe’s young Tornado IDS fleet.

 

However, the Luftwaffe’s F-104Gs were at that time already about to be gradually replaced, esp. in the interceptor role, by the more capable and reliable F-4F Phantom II, a process that lasted well into the mid-Eighties due to a lagging modernization program for the Phantoms. The Luftwaffe’s fighter bombers and recce Starfighters were replaced by the MRCA Tornado and RF-4E Phantoms. In naval service the Starfighters soldiered on for a little longer until they were also replaced by the MRCA Tornado – eventually, the Marineflieger units received a two engine aircraft type that was suitable for their kind of missions.

 

In the course of the ongoing withdrawal, a lot of German aircraft with sufficiently enough flying hours left were transferred to other NATO partners like Norway, Greece, Turkey and Italy, and two were sold to the NASA. One specific Starfighter was furthermore modified into a CCV (Control-Configured Vehicle) experimental aircraft under control of the German Industry, paving the way to aerodynamically unstable aircraft like the Eurofighter/Typhoon. The last operational German F-104 made its farewell flight on 22. Mai 1991, and the type’s final flight worldwide was in Italy in October 2004.

  

General characteristics:

Crew: 1

Length: 54 ft 8 in (16.66 m)

Wingspan: 21 ft 9 in (6.63 m)

Height: 13 ft 6 in (4.11 m)

Wing area: 196.1 ft² (18.22 m²)

Airfoil: Biconvex 3.36 % root and tip

Empty weight: 14,000 lb (6,350 kg)

Max takeoff weight: 29,027 lb (13,166 kg)

 

Powerplant:

1× General Electric J79 afterburning turbojet,

10,000 lbf (44 kN) thrust dry, 15,600 lbf (69 kN) with afterburner

 

Performance:

Maximum speed: 1,528 mph (2,459 km/h, 1,328 kn)

Maximum speed: Mach 2

Combat range: 420 mi (680 km, 360 nmi)

Ferry range: 1,630 mi (2,620 km, 1,420 nmi)

Service ceiling: 50,000 ft (15,000 m)

Rate of climb: 48,000 ft/min (240 m/s) initially

Lift-to-drag: 9.2

Wing loading: 105 lb/ft² (510 kg/m²)

Thrust/weight: 0.54 with max. takeoff weight (0.76 loaded)

 

Armament:

1× 20 mm (0.787 in) M61A1 Vulcan six-barreled Gatling cannon, 725 rounds

7× hardpoints with a capacity of 4,000 lb (1,800 kg), including up to four AIM-9 Sidewinder, (nuclear)

bombs, guided and unguided missiles, or other stores like drop tanks or recce pods

  

The kit and its assembly:

A relatively simple what-if project – based on the question how a German F-104 interceptor might have looked like, had it been operated for a longer time to see the Luftwaffe’s low-viz era from 1981 onwards. In service, the Luftwaffe F-104Gs started in NMF and then carried the Norm 64 scheme, the well-known splinter scheme in grey and olive drab. Towards the end of their career the fighter bombers and recce planes received the Norm 83 wraparound scheme in green and black, but by that time no dedicated interceptors were operational anymore, so I stretched the background story a little.

 

The model is the very nice Italeri F-104G/S model, which is based on the ESCI molds from the Eighties, but it comes with recessed engravings and an extra sprue that contains additional drop tanks and an Orpheus camera pod. The kit also includes a pair of Sidewinders with launch rails for the wing tips as well as the ventral “catamaran” twin rail, which was frequently used by German Starfighters because the wing tips were almost constantly occupied with tanks.

Fit and detail is good – the kit is IMHO very good value for the money. There are just some light sinkholes on the fuselage behind the locator pins, the fit of the separate tail section is mediocre and calls for PSR, and the thin and very clear canopy is just a single piece – for open display, you have to cut it by yourself.

 

Since the model would become a standard Luftwaffe F-104G, just with a fictional livery, the kit was built OOB. The only change I made are drooped flaps, and the air brakes were mounted in open position.

The ordnance (wing tip tanks plus the ventral missiles) was taken from the kit, reflecting the typical German interceptor configuration: the wing tips were frequently occupied with tanks, sometimes even together with another pair of drop tanks under the wings, so that any missile had to go under the fuselage. The instructions for the ventral catamaran launch rails are BTW wrong – they tell the builder to mount the launch rails onto the twin carrier upside down! Correctly, the carrier’s curvature should lie flush on the fuselage, with no distance at all. When mounted as proposed, the Sidewinders come very close to the ground and the whole installation looks pretty goofy! I slightly modified the catamaran launch rail with some thin styrene profile strips as spacers, and the missiles themselves, AIM-9Bs, were replaced with more modern and delicate AIM-9Js from a Hasegawa air-to-air weapons set. Around the hull, some small blade antennae, a dorsal rotating warning light and an angle-of-attack sensor were added.

  

Painting and markings:

The exotic livery is what defined this what-if build, and the paint scheme was actually inspired by a real world benchmark: some Dornier Do-28D Skyservants of the German Marineflieger received, late in their career, a wraparound scheme in three shades of grey, namely RAL 7030 (Steingrau), 7000 (Fehgrau) and 7012 (Basaltgrau). I thought that this would work pretty well for an F-104G interceptor that operates at medium to high altitudes, certainly better than the relatively dark Norm 64 splinter scheme or the Norm 83 low-altitude pattern.

 

The camouflage pattern was simply adopted from the Starfighter’s Norm 83 scheme, just the colors were exchanged. The kit was painted with acrylic paints from Revell, since the authentic tones were readily available, namely 75, 57 and 77. As a disrupting detail I gave the wing tip tanks the old Norm 64 colors: uniform Gelboliv from above (RAL 6014, Revell 42), Silbergrau underneath (RAL 7001, Humbrol’s 127 comes pretty close), and bright RAL 2005 dayglo orange markings, the latter created with TL Modellbau decal sheet material for clean edges and an even finish.

The cockpit interior was painted in standard medium grey (Humbrol 140, Dark Gull Grey), the landing gear including the wells became aluminum (Humbrol 56), the interior of the air intakes was painted with bright matt aluminum metallizer (Humbrol 27001) with black anti-icing devices in the edges and the shock cones. The radome was painted with very light grey (Humbrol 196, RAL 7035), the dark green anti-glare panel is a decal from the OOB sheet.

 

The model received a standard black ink washing and some panel post-shading (with Testors 2133 Russian Fulcrum Grey, Humbrol 128 FS 36320 and Humbrol 156 FS 36173) in an attempt to even out the very different shades of grey. The result does not look bad, pretty worn and weathered (like many German Starfighters), even though the paint scheme reminds a lot of the Hellenic "Ghost" scheme from the late F-4Es and the current F-16s?

 

The decals for the subdued Luftwaffe markings were puzzled together from various sources. The stencils were mostly taken from the kit’s exhaustive and sharply printed sheet. Tactical codes (“26+40” is in the real Starfighter range, but this specific code was AFAIK never allocated), iron crosses and the small JG 71 emblems come from TL Modellbau aftermarket sheets. Finally, after some light soot stains around the gun port, the afterburner and some air outlets along the fuselage with graphite, the model was sealed with matt acrylic varnish.

  

A simple affair, since the (nice) kit was built OOB and the only really fictional aspect of this model is its livery. But the resulting aircraft looks good, the all-grey wraparound scheme suits the slender F-104 well and makes an interceptor role quite believable. Would probably also look good on a German Eurofighter? Certainly more interesting than the real world all-blue-grey scheme.

In the beauty pics the scheme also appears to be quite effective over open water, too, so that the application to the Marineflieger Do-28Ds made sense. However, for the real-world Starfighter, this idea came a couple of years too late.

Object Details: Having gotten a break in the weather yesterday I thought I'd take advantage of it to try to capture a few quick shots of two enormous sunspot groups currently facing Earth. Although the seeing was poor (2 out of 5), given the fact that each of the cores of these groups is itself larger than the entire Earth, a fair amount of detail was still visible (for size comparison, an image of Earth scaled to the size of the close-up shots has been added below center).

 

The attached composite shows how the Sun appeared from approximately 16:00 to 17:00 UT on October 28, 2021 from the RoR observatory I built at my home here in upstate, NY. As can bee seen Active Region 2981 has just rotated onto the visible side, while AR 2887 lies near center. Both areas are surrounded by a great deal of plage (i.e. brighter, hotter areas of the surface often associated with large active regions), and as is typical, this is most easily seen when sunspot groups are nearer the limb (as in AR 2891's current position).

 

It should be noted that AR 2887 released an X1 class solar flare yesterday at 15:35 UT, accompanied by an associated Coronal Mass Ejection. As would be expected given it's somewhat central location on the disk, this CME appears to be Earth directed and a G3 geomagnetic storm may result. As detailed in the graph at bottom center, the Sun appears to be headed toward it's next solar maximum a bit earlier than expected, and with possibly a higher peak than originally anticipated.

 

With spring and fall being somewhat preferential for auroral displays, as can be seen at center, 18 years ago today, when near the solar maximum of Cycle 23, our area was treated to one of the best auroral display I have ever witnessed. With the geomagnetic storm lasting more than two days the images at center were taken from my back yard with a simple Canon A40 point-and-shoot camera on a tripod as the sky was enveloped horizon-to-horizon with a variety of auroral structures in ever-changing colors and hues.

(a slightly higher resolution of this auroral composite can be found at the link attached here: www.flickr.com/photos/homcavobservatory/48982448196/in/al... )

 

Image Details: Taken by Jay Edwards at the HomCav Observatory, the full disk image is simply meant for reference as to the location of the active regions and is a single-frame shot using an Orion ED80T CF (i.e. an 80MM, f/6, carbon-fiber, trplet, apochromatic refractor) connected to a 0.8X Televue field flattener / focal reducer and an unmodded Canon 700D (t5i) DSLR with an over-the-aperature Kendrik whie-light solar filter.

 

The close-ups were shot using a vintage 1970, 8-inch, f/7, Criterion newtonian reflector connected at prime focus to a ZWO ASI290MC 'planetary camera / autoguider. The 8-inch used a homemade off-axis Baader (visual grade) material 'over-the-aperture' white-light solar filter, in addition to a luminance filter (at top) and an ultraviolet filter (at bottom) on the ASI290MC. With the 80MM apo. riding piggyback on the 8-inch newt., these scopes were tracked using a Losmandy G-11 mount running a Gemini 2 control system.

 

The DSLR was controlled by AstrophotographyTool (APT), while SharpCap Pro was used for the ASI290MC, whose video clips were then stacked and processed using a combination of Registax & PaintShopPro. Although I have yet to examine or process most of the video clips, in addition to the Lum & UV shown here, I was able to get a few quick shots using Infrared & Methane filters on the 8-inch (in combination with the over-the-aperture white-light filter of course).

 

With the current solar cycle expected to reach a maximum between Nov. 2024 & Mar. 2026, with sometime around July 2025 being the best prediction at this point in time, it will be interesting to see what the next few years may bring ! As quoted from one of my favorite sci-fi trilogies that I first read so many years ago (Dune, Dune Messiah & Children Of Dune) 'The sleeper must awaken ! ' :)

 

Happy Halloween To All !!!

 

Similar composites using various filters can be found at the links attached below:

 

Solar:

 

www.flickr.com/photos/homcavobservatory/51319924807/

 

www.flickr.com/photos/homcavobservatory/50815383151/

 

www.flickr.com/photos/homcavobservatory/50657578913/

 

www.flickr.com/photos/homcavobservatory/51027134346/

 

www.flickr.com/photos/homcavobservatory/51295865404/

 

Saturn:

 

www.flickr.com/photos/homcavobservatory/51489515877/

 

www.flickr.com/photos/homcavobservatory/51417055085/

 

www.flickr.com/photos/homcavobservatory/51345118465/

 

www.flickr.com/photos/homcavobservatory/51316298333/

 

www.flickr.com/photos/homcavobservatory/50347485511/

 

www.flickr.com/photos/homcavobservatory/50088602376/

 

www.flickr.com/photos/homcavobservatory/51007634042/

 

Jupiter:

 

www.flickr.com/photos/homcavobservatory/51489515877/

 

www.flickr.com/photos/homcavobservatory/51405393195/

 

www.flickr.com/photos/homcavobservatory/51335239208/

 

www.flickr.com/photos/homcavobservatory/50303645602/

 

www.flickr.com/photos/homcavobservatory/50052655691/

 

www.flickr.com/photos/homcavobservatory/50123276377/

 

www.flickr.com/photos/homcavobservatory/50185470067/

 

www.flickr.com/photos/homcavobservatory/50993968018/

 

www.flickr.com/photos/homcavobservatory/51090643939/

 

Mars:

 

www.flickr.com/photos/homcavobservatory/50425593297/

 

www.flickr.com/photos/homcavobservatory/50594729106/

 

www.flickr.com/photos/homcavobservatory/50069773341/

 

www.flickr.com/photos/homcavobservatory/50223682613/

 

General Dynamics F-16C Fighting Falcon of the 77th Fighter Squadron "Gamblers" from Shaw AFB participating in Red Flag 15-4 exercises at Nellis AFB. The 20th Fighter Wing (composed of the 55th, 77th and 79th Fighter Squadrons) specializes in the Suppression of Enemy Air Defences (SEAD) role, also known as "Wild Weasel." This ordnance loadout reflects that mission: AIM-9X and AIM-120 and AN/ALQ-184 jammer to jam and destroy airborne targets, and the AGM-88 High-speed Anti-Radiation Missile (HARM) to take out ground radar control systems.

E2 - Hawkeye : Airborne early Warning & Control System

San Diego, California

I have been lost in Photoshop. I was having ideas in Lightroom and they led to edits and on to Photoshop CS and from there they are stretching out towards some notion of motion pictures. I have not used this Film Temperature Control System. I have been calling a film cooker. It looks superb and it comes with a three pin U.K. Plug fitted ready for accurate simmering film into tender toner and sharpish shadows and might fine highlights.

 

I have used two fonts to give °CineStill a look as it has in the packaging.

 

I forget to mention the soundtrack. Two tracks from those provided by my editing service with no composers and players listed. I have edited tracks individually and together. All errors on me and all praise to unknown originators of music. I wish that I had some names to praise.

 

© PHH Sykes 2023

phhsykes@gmail.com

  

CineStill TCS-1000 - Temperature Control System - UK Plug

analoguewonderland.co.uk/products/cinestill-tcs-1000-temp...

 

°CS "TEMPERATURE CONTROL SYSTEM", TCS-1000 IMMERSION CIRCULATOR THERMOSTAT FOR MIXING CHEMISTRY AND PRECISION FILM PROCESSING, 120V ONLY

cinestillfilm.com/products/tcs-temperature-control-system...

 

Object Details: The planet Jupiter as it appeared on May 25, 2018 at 22:45 EDT. With an equatorial diameter of approximately 143,000 km (89,000 miles) Jupiter is over 11 times the diameter of Earth. At the time of this image it was 663.6 million km (412.3 million miles) from Earth and spanned 44.4 arc-seconds in our sky (by comparison the moon appears approximately 30 arc-minutes in diameter (i.e. over 40 times larger)). Residing in the constellation of Libra, it shined at magnitude -2.5, and being about 2 weeks past it's opposition on May 9th, was 99.9% illuminated.

 

Image Details: Taken by Jay Edwards at the HomCav Observatory using a (circa. 1970) 8-inch, f/7 Criterion newtonian reflector and a 3X Televue barlow connected to a ZWO ASI290MC planetary camera / auto-guider. This optical setup was tracked on a Losmandy G-11 mount running a Gemini 2 control system. The attached is a stack of selected frames from a relatively short video clip. Given the limited number of frames used and the fact that Jupiter was less than 30 degrees above the horizon at the time this was shot, I was fairly pleased with the result. Having just purchased the camera the previous month, I'm looking forward to trying it once again on Jupiter next year as I learn to better utilize it's capabilities.

The US Navy had begun planning a replacement for the F-4 Phantom II in the fleet air defense role almost as soon as the latter entered service, but found itself ordered by then-Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara to join the TFX program. The subsequent F-111B was a failure in every fashion except for its AWG-9 fire control system, paired with the AIM-54 Phoenix very-long range missile. It was subsequently cancelled and the competition reopened for a new fighter, but Grumman had anticipated the cancellation and responded with a new design.

 

The subsequent F-14A Tomcat, last of the famous Grumman “Cat” series of US Navy fighters, first flew in December 1970 and was placed in production. It used the same variable-sweep wing concept of the F-111B and its AWG-9 system, but the Tomcat was much sleeker and lighter. The F-14 was provided with a plethora of weapons, including the Phoenix, long-range AIM-7 Sparrow, short-range AIM-9 Sidewinder, and an internal M61A1 Vulcan 20mm gatling cannon. This was due to the Vietnam experience, in which Navy F-4s found themselves badly in need of internal armament. Despite its large size, it also proved itself an excellent dogfighter.

 

The only real drawback to the Tomcat proved to be its powerplant, which it also shared with the F-111B: the Pratt and Whitney TF30. The TF30 was found to be prone to compressor stalls and explosions; more F-14s would be lost to engine problems than any other cause during its career, including combat. The Tomcat was also fitted with the TARPS camera pod beginning in 1981, allowing the RA-5C Vigilante and RF-8G Crusader dedicated recon aircraft to be retired. In addition to the aircraft produced for the US Navy, 79 of an order of 100 aircraft were delivered to Iran before the Islamic Revolution of 1979.

 

The Tomcat entered service in September 1974 and first saw action covering the evacuation of Saigon in 1975, though it was not involved in combat. The Tomcat’s first combat is conjectural: it is known that Iranian F-14s saw extensive service in the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq War, and that Iranian Tomcats achieved a number of kills; the only F-14 ace was Iranian. The first American combat with the F-14 came in September 1981, when two F-14As shot down a pair of Libyan Su-22 Fitters over the Gulf of Sidra. The Tomcat would add another two kills to its record in 1987, two Libyan MiG-23s once more over the Gulf of Sidra.

 

The high losses due to problems with the TF30 (fully 84 Tomcats would be lost to this problem over the course of its career) led to the Navy ordering the F-14A+ variant during the war. The A+, redesignated F-14B in 1991, incorporated all wartime refits and most importantly, General Electric F110 turbofans. Among the refits was the replacement of the early A’s simple undernose IR sensor with a TISEO long-range camera system, allowing the F-14’s pilot to identify targets visually beyond the range of unaided human eyesight.

 

The majority of F-14As were upgraded to B standard, along with 67 new-build aircraft. A mix of F-14As and Bs would see action during the First Gulf War, though only a single kill was scored by Tomcats.. Subsequent to this conflict, the Navy ordered the F-14D variant, with completely updated avionics and electronics, a combination IRST/TISEO sensor, replacement of the AWG-9 with the APG-71 radar, and a “glass” cockpit. Though the Navy had intended to upgrade the entire fleet to D standard, less than 50 F-14Ds ever entered service (including 37 new-builds), due to the increasing age of the design.

 

Ironically, the US Navy’s Tomcat swan song came not as a fighter, but a bomber. To cover the retirement of the A-6 Intruder and A-7 Corsair II from the fleet, the F-14’s latent bomb capability was finally used, allowing the “Bombcat” to carry precision guided weapons, and, after 2001, the GPS-guided JDAM series. By the time of the Afghanistan and Second Gulf Wars, the F-14 was already slated for replacement by the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, and the Tomcat would be used mainly in the strike role, though TARPS reconnaissance sorties were also flown. The much-loved F-14 Tomcat was finally retired from US Navy service in September 2006, ending 36 years of operations. The aircraft remains in service with the Iranian Revolutionary Air Force.

 

This rather plain looking F-14 is BuNo 158626, probably photographed right after arrival at NAS Miramar, California, to join VF-124 ("Gunfighters"). At the time, as indicated by the large numbers of F-4 Phantom IIs in the background, VF-124 was just starting to get Tomcats; there is also a F-8 in the background as well. 158626 would serve with VF-124 for most of its career, though it apparently also flew with the Naval Air Weapons Test Center at NAS Patuxent River, Virginia for at least a period of time. As an older F-14, it would be transferred to VF-201 ("Hunters") at NAS Dallas, Texas, where it finished its career; 158626 was retired in 1990 and was later scrapped.

 

Given its lack of tail markings and general clean appearance, 158626 might have just arrived from the Grumman factory, either in late 1975 or early 1976. Dad never visited Miramar, so I don't know who took this photograph.

 

(Disclaimer: I found this picture among other photos in my dad’s slides. I’m not sure who took them; some of them may be his. If any of these pictures are yours or you know who took them, let me know and I will remove them from Flickr, unless I have permission to let them remain. These photos are historical artifacts, in many cases of aircraft long since gone to the scrapyard, so I feel they deserve to be shared to the public at large—to honor the men and women who flew and maintained them.)

AKSM-32100D is a trolleybus with a transistorized control system based on IGBT modules and an AC induction motor, equipped with accumulators based on lithium-iron-phosphate batteries with a reserve of autonomous travel up to 30 kilometers. Unlike base model AKSM-32100, it is equipped with a 150 kW traction motor. The first three ones were delivered to Ulyanovsk, Russia at the end of 2015. In 2016-2019 St. Petersburg received 35 ones, others were delivered to Belarus cities (5 to Grodno, 4 to Gomel, 4 to Vitebsk). In 2021, they were delivered to Belarus capital Minsk (25 ones) and Vratsa (9). In December 2021, three more restyled trolleybuses came to Grodno to operate the new route 24.

 

АКСМ-32100D trolleybuses are produced by the Belarus company Belkommunmash (BKM; Производственное Объединение «Белкоммунмаш», БКМ). BKM was organized in 1973 on the basis of the streetcar and trolleybus repair shop under the Ministry of Municipal Economy of the Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic. During the first two decades the plant was repairing trolleybuses and streetcars of Minsk. After USSR breakage the independent Belarus got a strong incentive to develop its own vehicles production. Therefore a few articulated trolleybuses YMZ T1 (ЮМЗ Т1) were assembled at the plant in 1993 from engineering sets of Yuzhny Machine Building Plant of Ukraine. The enterprise also modernized trolleybuses of the ZIU models 100 - 101 produced by the Engels Electric Transportation Plant (later CJSC "TrolZa") in Engels, Saratov region of Russia. Later the company started to develop its own trolleybus models, the first model AKSM 201 (АКСМ 201) appeared in 1996, followed by models 213, 221, 321 (as in foto) and 333. Since 2000 the production of streetcars started: AKSM-1M, AKSM-60102. In 2016, the production of electric buses has been organized. Today the BKM Holding (ОАО «Управляющая компания холдинга «Белкоммунмаш» - ОАО «УКХ «БКМ) is the leading industrial enterprise in Belarus in the field of production and overhaul of rolling stock of urban electric transport.

Professionally matted & framed McDonnell Douglas artist’s concept of the Skylab cluster in earth orbit. Signed by the first manned crew, composed of Charles “Pete” Conrad, Joseph Kerwin & Paul Weitz, along with Robert Crippen, Skylab support crew member.

Please find attached the last of the four quick images I took last Tuesday evening while re-aligning our scopes.

 

Object Details: Moving south down the terminator (to the southern limb) from the previous three images linked here:

 

Plato & The Alpine Valley: www.flickr.com/photos/homcavobservatory/48070020973/

 

and here:

 

Eratosthenes & The Apennine Mountians - www.flickr.com/photos/homcavobservatory/48073693577/ )

 

and here:

 

Ptolemaeus, Alphonsus, Arzacnel & The Straight Wall - www.flickr.com/photos/homcavobservatory/48082951766/ )

  

we find the two prominent craters, Tycho (above left of center) & Clavius (left of center).

 

Both are Located in the region known as the southern lunar highlands with Tycho being ~ 85 km (~ 53 mi) in diameter with a depth of ~ 4,800 meters (~ 15,700 ft.) and is a one of the brightest craters on the moon. When the moon is near it's full phase, it's It extensive ray system appears to cross the entire visible lunar surface

 

(an example of which can be found in the image linked here - www.flickr.com/photos/homcavobservatory/25370759009/in/al... .

 

Tycho is a relatively young crater, being estimated to be 'only' approximately 108 million years old.

 

By contrast, Clavius, the second largest crater on the visible side of the moon, is approximately ~ 225 km (~ 140 mi) in diameter, ~ 3500 meters (~ 11,500 ft) deep and is thought to have been formed about 4 billion years ago. It's floor is marked with a distinctive chain of smaller craters starting in the south and curving northward in a counterclockwise direction in ever diminishing sizes. Given it's substantial size Clavius is actually visible to the eye without the use of optical aid, while the entire region is a fascinating sight in binoculars or any telescope.

 

In addition to these prominent craters, the image shows a wide pattern of streaks (eject blanket material ?) extending in a widening pattern from left to right, most evident in the upper right quarter of the frame.

 

Image Details: The attached was taken by Jay Edwards at the HomCav Observatory in Main, NY on the evening of June 11, 2019 using a (vintage 1970) 8-inch, f/7 Criterion newtonian reflector connected in prime focus mode to a ZWO ASI290MC planetary camera / auto-guider. This scope was tracked on a Losmandy G-11 mount running a Gemini 2 control system. The image is the result of a stack of the best 60 percent of the frames from a short video clip.

A NATO E-3A Sentry Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) aircraft sits on the tarmac in Konya, Turkey.

Since October 2016, NATO aircraft have flown over 1,000 mission hours in support of the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS. These AWACS aircraft fly from a base in Konya, Turkey, and help manage the busy airspace in Iraq and Syria. Allies decided to provide AWACS support to the Global Coalition in July 2016.

The US Navy had begun planning a replacement for the F-4 Phantom II in the fleet air defense role almost as soon as the latter entered service, but found itself ordered by then-Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara to join the TFX program. The subsequent F-111B was a failure in every fashion except for its AWG-9 fire control system, paired with the AIM-54 Phoenix very-long range missile. It was subsequently cancelled and the competition reopened for a new fighter, but Grumman had anticipated the cancellation and responded with a new design.

 

The subsequent F-14A Tomcat, last of the famous Grumman “Cat” series of US Navy fighters, first flew in December 1970 and was placed in production. It used the same variable-sweep wing concept of the F-111B and its AWG-9 system, but the Tomcat was much sleeker and lighter. The F-14 was provided with a plethora of weapons, including the Phoenix, long-range AIM-7 Sparrow, short-range AIM-9 Sidewinder, and an internal M61A1 Vulcan 20mm gatling cannon. This was due to the Vietnam experience, in which Navy F-4s found themselves badly in need of internal armament. Despite its large size, it also proved itself an excellent dogfighter.

 

The only real drawback to the Tomcat proved to be its powerplant, which it also shared with the F-111B: the Pratt and Whitney TF30. The TF30 was found to be prone to compressor stalls and explosions; more F-14s would be lost to engine problems than any other cause during its career, including combat. The Tomcat was also fitted with the TARPS camera pod beginning in 1981, allowing the RA-5C Vigilante and RF-8G Crusader dedicated recon aircraft to be retired. In addition to the aircraft produced for the US Navy, 79 of an order of 100 aircraft were delivered to Iran before the Islamic Revolution of 1979.

 

The Tomcat entered service in September 1974 and first saw action covering the evacuation of Saigon in 1975, though it was not involved in combat. The Tomcat’s first combat is conjectural: it is known that Iranian F-14s saw extensive service in the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq War, and that Iranian Tomcats achieved a number of kills; the only F-14 ace was Iranian. The first American combat with the F-14 came in September 1981, when two F-14As shot down a pair of Libyan Su-22 Fitters over the Gulf of Sidra. The Tomcat would add another two kills to its record in 1987, two Libyan MiG-23s once more over the Gulf of Sidra.

 

The high losses due to problems with the TF30 (fully 84 Tomcats would be lost to this problem over the course of its career) led to the Navy ordering the F-14A+ variant during the war. The A+, redesignated F-14B in 1991, incorporated all wartime refits and most importantly, General Electric F110 turbofans. Among the refits was the replacement of the early A’s simple undernose IR sensor with a TISEO long-range camera system, allowing the F-14’s pilot to identify targets visually beyond the range of unaided human eyesight.

 

The majority of F-14As were upgraded to B standard, along with 67 new-build aircraft. A mix of F-14As and Bs would see action during the First Gulf War, though only a single kill was scored by Tomcats.. Subsequent to this conflict, the Navy ordered the F-14D variant, with completely updated avionics and electronics, a combination IRST/TISEO sensor, replacement of the AWG-9 with the APG-71 radar, and a “glass” cockpit. Though the Navy had intended to upgrade the entire fleet to D standard, less than 50 F-14Ds ever entered service (including 37 new-builds), due to the increasing age of the design.

 

Ironically, the US Navy’s Tomcat swan song came not as a fighter, but a bomber. To cover the retirement of the A-6 Intruder and A-7 Corsair II from the fleet, the F-14’s latent bomb capability was finally used, allowing the “Bombcat” to carry precision guided weapons, and, after 2001, the GPS-guided JDAM series. By the time of the Afghanistan and Second Gulf Wars, the F-14 was already slated for replacement by the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, and the Tomcat would be used mainly in the strike role, though TARPS reconnaissance sorties were also flown. The much-loved F-14 Tomcat was finally retired from US Navy service in September 2006, ending 36 years of operations. The aircraft remains in service with the Iranian Revolutionary Air Force.

 

Some aircraft do not have extensive histories, and F-14A Bureau Number 158623 is one of them. One of the early A models, it was delivered in 1973 to VF-124 ("Gunfighters"), the Navy's F-14 Fleet Replacement Squadron at NAS Miramar, California. It remained there, training new Tomcat crews and participating in the Top Gun program, until 1993, when 158623 was sent up the coast to NAS Point Mugu. There, it was used as a testbed for F-14B and F-14D systems, until it was retired around 2006. 158623 was slated for preservation and made a gate guard at the Point Mugu Missile Park, anchoring one end of the park with a F-4S on the other end.

 

158623 recently got a repaint, and looks exquisite in the colors of VX-30, Point Mugu's resident squadron. It is displayed with dummy AIM-7 Sparrows and ACMI instrumentation pods, and was certainly worth the trip down to Point Mugu!

I have been lost in Photoshop. I was having ideas in Lightroom and they led to edits and on to Photoshop CS and from there they are stretching out towards some notion of motion pictures. I have not used this Film Temperature Control System. I have been calling a film cooker. It looks superb and it comes with a three pin U.K. Plug fitted ready for accurate simmering film into tender toner and sharpish shadows and might fine highlights.

 

I have used two fonts to give °CineStill a look as it has in the packaging.

 

I forget to mention the soundtrack. Two tracks from those provided by my editing service with no composers and players listed. I have edited tracks individually and together. All errors on me and all praise to unknown originators of music. I wish that I had some names to praise.

 

© PHH Sykes 2023

phhsykes@gmail.com

  

CineStill TCS-1000 - Temperature Control System - UK Plug

analoguewonderland.co.uk/products/cinestill-tcs-1000-temp...

 

°CS "TEMPERATURE CONTROL SYSTEM", TCS-1000 IMMERSION CIRCULATOR THERMOSTAT FOR MIXING CHEMISTRY AND PRECISION FILM PROCESSING, 120V ONLY

cinestillfilm.com/products/tcs-temperature-control-system...

 

+++ DISCLAIMER +++

Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based historical facts. BEWARE!

  

Some background:

The Douglas F3D Skyknight (later designated F-10 Skyknight) was a United States twin-engined, mid-wing jet fighter aircraft manufactured by the Douglas Aircraft Company in El Segundo, California. The F3D was designed as a carrier-based all-weather night fighter and saw service with the United States Navy and United States Marine Corps. The mission of the F3D-2 was to search out and destroy enemy aircraft at night.

 

The F3D was not intended to be a typical sleek and nimble dogfighter, but as a standoff night fighter, packing a powerful radar system and a second crew member. It originated in 1945 with a US Navy requirement for a jet-powered, radar-equipped, carrier-based night fighter. The Douglas team led by Ed Heinemann designed around the bulky air intercept radar systems of the time, with side-by-side seating for the pilot and radar operator. The result was an aircraft with a wide, deep, and roomy fuselage. Instead of ejection seats, an escape tunnel was used.

 

As a night fighter that was not expected to be as fast as smaller daylight fighters, the expectation was to have a stable platform for its radar system and the four 20 mm cannon mounted in the lower fuselage. The F3D was, however, able to outturn a MiG-15 in an inside circle. The fire control system in the F3D-1 was the Westinghouse AN/APQ-35.

The AN/APQ-35 was advanced for the time, a combination of three different radars, each performing separate functions: an AN/APS-21 search radar, an AN/APG-26 tracking radar, both located in the nose, and an AN/APS-28 tail warning radar. The complexity of this vacuum tube-based radar system, which was produced before the advent of semiconductor electronics, required intensive maintenance to keep it operating properly.

 

The F3D Skyknight was never produced in great numbers but it did achieve many firsts in its role as a night fighter over Korea. While it never achieved the fame of the North American F-86 Sabre, it did down several Soviet-built MiG-15s as a night fighter over Korea with only one air-to-air loss of its own against a Chinese MiG-15 on the night of 29 May 1953.

 

In the years after the Korean War, the F3D was gradually replaced by more powerful aircraft with better radar systems. The F3D's career was not over though; its stability and spacious fuselage made it easily adaptable to other roles. The Skyknight played an important role in the development of the radar-guided AIM-7 Sparrow missile in the 1950s which led to further guided air-to-air missile developments.

In 1954, the F3D-2M was the first U.S. Navy jet aircraft to be fitted with an operational air-to-air missile: the Sparrow I,an all weather day/night BVR missile that used beam riding guidance for the aircrew to control the flight of the missile. Only 38 aircraft (12 F3D-1Ms, and 16 F3D-2Ms) were modified to use the missiles, though.

 

One of the F3D's main flaws, which it shared with many early jet aircraft, was its lack of power and performance. Douglas tried to mend this through a radical redesign: The resulting F3D-3 was the designation assigned to a swept-winged version (36° sweep at quarter chord) of the Skyknight. It was originally to be powered by the J46 turbojet, rated at 4.080 lbf for takeoff, which was under development but suffered serious trouble.

 

This led to the cancellation of the J46, and calculated performance of the F3D-3 with the substitute J34 was deemed insufficient. As an alternative the aircraft had to be modified to carry two larger and longer J47-GE-2 engines, which also powered the USN's FJ-2 "Fury" fighter.

This engine's thrust of 6.000 pounds-force (27 kN) at 7,950 rpm appeared sufficient for the heavy, swept-wing aircraft, and in 1954 an order for 287 production F3D-3s was issued, right time to upgrade the new type with the Sparrow I.

 

While the F3D-3's outline resembled that of its straight wing predecessors, a lot of structural changes had to be made to accommodate the shifted main wing spar, and the heavy radar equipment also took its toll: the gross weight climbed by more than 3 tons, and as a result much of the gained performance through the stronger engines and the swept wings was eaten away.

 

Maximum internal fuel load was 1.350 US gallons, plus a further 300 in underwing drop tanks. Overall wing surface remained the same, but the swept wing surfaces reduced the wing span.

In the end, thrust-to-weight ratio was only marginally improved and in fact, the F3D-3 had a lower rate of climb than the F3D-2, its top speed at height was only marginally higher, and stall speed climbed by more than 30 mph, making carrier landings more complicated.

 

It's equipment was also the same - the AN/APQ-35 was still fitted, but mainly because the large radar dish offered the largest detection range of any carrier-borne type of that time, and better radars that could match this performance were still under construction. Anyway, the F3D-3 was able to carry Sparrow I from the start, and this would soon be upgraded to Sparrow III (which became the AIM-7), and it showed much better flight characteristics at medium altitude.

 

Despite the ,many shortcomings the "new" aircraft represented an overall improvement over the F3D-2 and was accepted for service. Production of the F3D-3 started in 1955, but technology advanced quickly and a serious competitor with supersonic capability appeared with the McDonnell F3H Demon and the F4D Skyray - much more potent aircraft that the USN immediately preferred to the slow F3Ds. As a consequence, the production contract was cut down to only 102 aircraft.

 

But it came even worse: production of the swept wing Skyknight already ceased after 18 months and 71 completed airframes. Ironically, the F3D-3's successor, the F3H and its J40 engine, turned out to be more capricious than expected, which delayed the Demon's service introduction and seriously hampered its performance, so that the F3D-3 kept its all weather/night fighter role until 1960, and was eventually taken out of service in 1964 when the first F-4 Phantom II fighters appeared in USN service.

 

In 1962 all F3D versions were re-designated into F-10, the swept wing F3D-3 became the F-10C. The straight wing versions were used as trainers and also served as an electronic warfare platform into the Vietnam War as a precursor to the EA-6A Intruder and EA-6B Prowler, while the swept-wing fighters were completely retired as their performance and mission equipment had been outdated. The last F-10C flew in 1965.

  

General characteristics

Crew: two

Length: 49 ft (14.96 m)

Wingspan: 42 feet 5 inches (12.95 m)

Height: 16 ft 1 in (4.90 m)

Wing area: 400 ft² (37.16 m²)

Empty weight: 19.800 lb (8.989 kg)

Loaded weight: 28,843 lb (13.095 kg)

Max. takeoff weight: 34.000 lb (15.436 kg)

 

Powerplant:

2× General Electric J47-GE-2 turbojets, each rated at 6.000 lbf (26,7 kN) each

 

Performance

Maximum speed: 630 mph (1.014 km/h) at sea level, 515 mph (829 km/h) t (6,095 m)

Cruise speed: 515 mph (829 km/h) at 40,000 feet

Stall speed: 128 mph (206 km/h)

Range: 890 mi (1.433 km) with internal fuel; 1,374 mi, 2,212 km with 2× 300 gal (1.136 l) tanks

Service ceiling: 43.000 ft (13.025 m)

Rate of climb: 2,640 ft/min (13,3 m/s)

Wing loading: 53.4 lb/ft² (383 kg/m²)

Thrust/weight: 0.353

 

Armament

4× 20 mm Hispano-Suiza M2 cannon, 200 rpg, in the lower nose

Four underwing hardpoints inboard of the wing folding points for up to 4.000 lb (1.816 kg)

ordnance, including AIM-7 Sparrow air-to-air missiles, 11.75 in (29.8cm) Tiny Tim rockets, two

150 or 300 US gal drop tanks or bombs of up to 2.000 lb (900 kg) caliber, plus four hardpoints

under each outer wing for a total of eight 5" HVARs or eight pods with six 2 3/4" FFARs each

  

The kit and its assembly:

Another project which had been on the list for some years now but finally entered the hardware stage. The F3D itself is already a more or less forgotten aircraft, and there are only a few kits available - there has been a vacu kit, the Matchbox offering and lately kits in 1:72 and 1:48 by Sword.

 

The swept wing F3D-3 remained on the drawing board, but would have been a very attractive evolution of the tubby Skyknight. In fact, the swept surfaces resemble those of the A3D/B-66 a Iot, and this was the spark that started the attempt to build this aircraft as a model through a kitbash.

 

This model is basically the Matchbox F3D coupled with wings from an Italeri B-66, even though, being much bigger, these had to be modified.

 

The whole new tail is based on B-66 material. The fin's chord was shortened, though, and a new leading edge (with its beautiful curvature) had to be sculpted from 2C putty. The vertical stabilizers also come from the B-66, its span was adjusted to the Skyknight's and a new root intersection was created from styrene and putty, so that a cross-shaped tail could be realized.

The tail radar dish was retained, even though sketches show the F3D-3 without it.

 

The wings were take 1:1 from the B-66 and match well. They just had to be shortened, I set the cut at maybe 5mm outwards of the engine pods' attachment points. They needed some re-engraving for the inner flaps, as these would touch the F3D-3's engines when lowered, but shape, depth and size are very good for the conversion.

 

On the fuselage, the wings' original "attachment bays" had to be filled, and the new wings needed a new position much further forward, directly behind the cockpit, in order to keep the CoG.

 

One big issue would be the main landing gear. On the straight wing aircraft it retracts outwards, and I kept this arrangement. No detail of the exact landing gear well position was available to me, so I used the Matchbox parts as stencils and placed the new wells as much aft as possible, cutting out new openings from the B-66 wings.

The OOB landing gear was retained, but I added some structure to the landing gear wells with plastic blister material - not to be realistic, just for the effect. A lot of lead was added in the kit's nose section, making sure it actually stands on the front wheel.

 

The Matchbox Skyknight basically offers no real problems, even though the air intake design leaves, by tendency some ugly seams and even gaps. I slightly pimped the cockpit with headrests, additional gauges and a gunsight, as well as two (half) pilot figures. I did not plan to present the opened cockpit and the bulbous windows do not allow a clear view onto the inside anyway, so this job was only basically done. In fact, the pilots don't have a lower body at all...

 

Ordnance comprises of four Sparrow III - the Sparrow I with its pointed nose could have been an option, too, but I think at the time of 1960 the early version was already phased out?

   

Painting and markings:

This was supposed to become a typical USN service aircraft of the 60ies, so a grey/white livery was predetermined. I had built an EF-10B many years ago from the Matchbox kit, and the grey/white guise suits the Whale well - and here it would look even better, with the new, elegant wings.

 

For easy painting I used semi matt white from the rattle can on the lower sides (painting the landing gear at the same time!), and then added FS 36440 (Light Gull Grey, Humbrol 129) with a brush to the upper sides. The radar nose became semi matt black (with some weathering), while the RHAWS dish was kept in tan (Humbrol 71).

 

In order to emphasize the landing gear and the respective wells I added a red rim to the covers.

The cockpit interior was painted in dark grey - another factor which made adding too many details there futile, too...

 

The aircraft's individual marking were to be authentic, and not flamboyant. In the mid 50ies the USN machines were not as colorful as in the Vietnam War era, that just started towards the 60ies.

 

The markings I used come primarily from an Emhar F3H Demon, which features no less than four(!) markings, all with different colors. I settled for a machine of VF-61 "Jolly Rogers", which operated from the USS Saratoga primarily in the Mediterranean from 1958 on - and shortly thereafter the unit was disbanded.

 

I took some of the Demon markings and modified them with very similar but somewhat more discrete markings from VMF-323, which flew FJ-4 at the time - both squadrons marked their aircraft with yellow diamonds on black background, and I had some leftover decals from a respective Xtradecal sheet in the stash.

  

IMHO a good result with the B-66 donation parts, even though I am not totally happy with the fin - it could have been more slender at the top, and with a longer, more elegant spine fillet, but for that the B-66 fin was just too thick. Anyway, I am not certain if anyone has ever built this aircraft? I would not call the F3D-3 elegant or beautiful, but the swept wings underline the fuselage's almost perfect teardrop shape, and the thing reminds a lot of the later Grumman A-6 Intruder?

With the lightweight aluminium front and rear axles from the BMW M3/M4 models, forged 19-inch aluminium wheels with mixed-size tyres, M Servotronic steering with two settings and suitably effective M compound brakes, the new BMW M2 Coupe has raised the bar once again in the compact high-performance sports car segment when it comes to driving dynamics. The electronically controlled Active M Differential, which optimises traction and directional stability, also plays a significant role here. And even greater driving pleasure is on the cards when the Dynamic Stability Control system’s M Dynamic Mode (MDM) is activated. MDM allows wheel slip and therefore moderate, controlled drifts on the track.

  

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Object Details: The attached image is centered on the prominent crater Tycho. A 'relatively young' 108 million years old, it is 85 km (53 mi) in diameter. Being about 4,800 m (15,700 ft or ~ 3 mi.) in depth, it's central peaks rise 1,600 m (5,200 ft or nearly a mile) above the crater floor.

 

Shown here in a pseudo 'mineral moon' manner (i.e. with the saturation greatly increased), in certain circumstances the colors can be representative of the minerals present. In the case of the moon, often the blue hues indicating those areas rich in titanium-bearing minerals, pinks in aluminum-rich feldspars, while orange & purples show iron and titanium poor regions. A wider field example using this type of technique can be found at the link attached here: - www.flickr.com/photos/homcavobservatory/44002665955/

 

When showing Tycho telescopically to family and friends who are not very versed in astronomy, they frequently inquire as to the nature of the rays. I often use the metaphor of throwing a rock into a mud puddle, adding an audible 'SPLAT !' ;) .

 

Image Details: Taken by Jay Edwards at the HomCav Observatory on the evening of March 8, 2020, it was imaged using a vintage 1970 8-inch, f/7 Criterion newtonian reflector connected to a ZWO ASI290MC planetary camera / auto-guider at prime focus. Since the seeing ranged from bad to poor (1 to 2 out of 5) it is a short stack of the best 20 percent of the frames extracted from a 90 second video clip. This setup was mounted on a Losmandy G-11 running a Gemini 2 control system and had an ED80T CF (i.e. an 80MM, f/6 carbon-fiber triplet apochromatic refractor) mounted piggyback. The latter instrument being used for 'full disk' lunar images, like the one of the full moon from the following night (referenced below) and found at the attached link:

www.flickr.com/photos/homcavobservatory/49659990916/

 

Processed using a combination of AS3, Registax, PI & PSP, as presented here it has been cropped to HD resolution and the bit depth has been lowered to 8 bits per channel.

 

Being the largest of the year, I was hoping to get the opportunity to image the moon when it was full on the following evening, March 9th. However with the weather forecast seemingly questionable, just in case, I thought I should take advantage of the clear skies on the 8th. In retrospect, as shown at the link above, although I was able to catch it briefly with the 80MM apo. when full, I did not get the chance that night to also image it with the 8-inch.

 

As such, I am glad I took the time to do so on the 8th (when it was 'only' 99.3 % full); and after shooting the attached image of Tycho, also managed to capture a few clips of other nearby areas. Currently processing the other images, I am hoping to create a mosaic showing the 0.7 Percent 'terminator' visible on March 8th (assuming, of course, I could even tell which 0.7 % of the limb was not basking in the sun at the time ;) ) !

 

Happy Equinox To All !

ex-GN 2313

Snow Train 1982

 

Great Northern 2313, later Montana Western 31, is the oldest surviving Electro-Motive Co. (EMC) gas-electric rail motorcar, which reduced operating costs by 50 percent over the steam-locomotive trains it replaced. This 32-ton car features a Winton gasoline engine and General Electric generator and traction motors and the first major use of Hermann Lemp's control system (developed when he was at General Electric), which controlled the electrical and mechanical parts of the power train with a single lever and kept them in balance.

 

From 1925 to 1939, this motorcar operated on the Great Northern between Marcus, Washington, and South Nelson, British Columbia. After it was sold to the Montana Western Railway, it ran between Valier and Conrad, Montana. In 1966, the car was donated to the Mid-Continent Railway Museum.

 

Designated as ASME Historical Landmark No. 229 in 2003.

  

The US Navy had begun planning a replacement for the F-4 Phantom II in the fleet air defense role almost as soon as the latter entered service, but found itself ordered by then-Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara to join the TFX program. The subsequent F-111B was a failure in every fashion except for its AWG-9 fire control system, paired with the AIM-54 Phoenix very-long range missile. It was subsequently cancelled and the competition reopened for a new fighter, but Grumman had anticipated the cancellation and responded with a new design.

 

The subsequent F-14A Tomcat, last of the famous Grumman “Cat” series of US Navy fighters, first flew in December 1970 and was placed in production. It used the same variable-sweep wing concept of the F-111B and its AWG-9 system, but the Tomcat was much sleeker and lighter. The F-14 was provided with a plethora of weapons, including the Phoenix, long-range AIM-7 Sparrow, short-range AIM-9 Sidewinder, and an internal M61A1 Vulcan 20mm gatling cannon. This was due to the Vietnam experience, in which Navy F-4s found themselves badly in need of internal armament. Despite its large size, it also proved itself an excellent dogfighter.

 

The only real drawback to the Tomcat proved to be its powerplant, which it also shared with the F-111B: the Pratt and Whitney TF30. The TF30 was found to be prone to compressor stalls and explosions; more F-14s would be lost to engine problems than any other cause during its career, including combat. The Tomcat was also fitted with the TARPS camera pod beginning in 1981, allowing the RA-5C Vigilante and RF-8G Crusader dedicated recon aircraft to be retired. In addition to the aircraft produced for the US Navy, 79 of an order of 100 aircraft were delivered to Iran before the Islamic Revolution of 1979.

 

The Tomcat entered service in September 1974 and first saw action covering the evacuation of Saigon in 1975, though it was not involved in combat. The Tomcat’s first combat is conjectural: it is known that Iranian F-14s saw extensive service in the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq War, and that Iranian Tomcats achieved a number of kills; the only F-14 ace was Iranian. The first American combat with the F-14 came in September 1981, when two F-14As shot down a pair of Libyan Su-22 Fitters over the Gulf of Sidra. The Tomcat would add another two kills to its record in 1987, two Libyan MiG-23s once more over the Gulf of Sidra.

 

The high losses due to problems with the TF30 (fully 84 Tomcats would be lost to this problem over the course of its career) led to the Navy ordering the F-14A+ variant during the war. The A+, redesignated F-14B in 1991, incorporated all wartime refits and most importantly, General Electric F110 turbofans. Among the refits was the replacement of the early A’s simple undernose IR sensor with a TISEO long-range camera system, allowing the F-14’s pilot to identify targets visually beyond the range of unaided human eyesight.

 

The majority of F-14As were upgraded to B standard, along with 67 new-build aircraft. A mix of F-14As and Bs would see action during the First Gulf War, though only a single kill was scored by Tomcats.. Subsequent to this conflict, the Navy ordered the F-14D variant, with completely updated avionics and electronics, a combination IRST/TISEO sensor, replacement of the AWG-9 with the APG-71 radar, and a “glass” cockpit. Though the Navy had intended to upgrade the entire fleet to D standard, less than 50 F-14Ds ever entered service (including 37 new-builds), due to the increasing age of the design.

 

Ironically, the US Navy’s Tomcat swan song came not as a fighter, but a bomber. To cover the retirement of the A-6 Intruder and A-7 Corsair II from the fleet, the F-14’s latent bomb capability was finally used, allowing the “Bombcat” to carry precision guided weapons, and, after 2001, the GPS-guided JDAM series. By the time of the Afghanistan and Second Gulf Wars, the F-14 was already slated for replacement by the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, and the Tomcat would be used mainly in the strike role, though TARPS reconnaissance sorties were also flown. The much-loved F-14 Tomcat was finally retired from US Navy service in September 2006, ending 36 years of operations. The aircraft remains in service with the Iranian Revolutionary Air Force.

 

BuNo 164601 is one of the last Tomcats ever built, fourth from last on the production line. It was initially assigned to the F-14 Fleet Replacement Squadron (FRS), VF-124 ("Gunfighters") at NAS Miramar, California, from 1992 to 2002. With the need for Tomcats in the front lines in the Second Gulf War (Operation Iraqi Freedom), 164601 was transferred to VF-31, the appropriately named "Tomcatters," aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72). She was painted in full colors as the CAG's "boss" aircraft, and flew at least 19 combat missions during the American drive on Baghdad, coming under fire several times, including evading a SAM. After its Iraq service, 164601 was sent back to FRS duties, this time with VF-101 ("Grim Reapers") at NAS Oceana, Virginia. With the drawdown of Tomcat operations, 164601 was retired in 2010 and made her final flight to the Castle Air Museum.

 

For a museum on a former USAF base, Castle has a large number of Navy aircraft, and it was quite a surprise to find a F-14D on display there. 164601 still wears her full-color VF-101 markings, and looks fast just standing still. The fact that she served aboard the Lincoln was an interesting factoid--I had just seen the Lincoln only a few days before in San Diego.

The defensive armament was changed to two 20-mm cannon in the tail. The A-5 fire control system that had taken so long to develop was finally fitted. The A-5 fire control system (FCS) was much better than the discarded B-4 system of earlier versions and could automatically detect and track pursuing aircraft and aim and fire the 20-mm cannon. The earlier B-4 system could, at best, spray machine gun fire in the general direction of an attacking plane with little prospect of scoring a hit.

 

In this image, two B-47Es (B-47E-100-BW, Serial Number: 52-560 and B-47E-100-BW, Serial Number: 52-568) of the 1st Bombardment Squadron of the 9th Bombardment Wing stationed at Mountain Home AFB, Idaho, fly a long-range training mission. By 1956, the USAF had 28 wings of B-47 bombers and five wings of RB-47 reconnaissance aircraft. The Stratojet was the first line of the US strategic nuclear deterrent, often operating from forward bases in the UK, Morocco, Spain, Alaska, Greenland, and Guam. The B-47s were often set up on “one-third” alert, with a third operational aircraft available sitting on hardstands or an alert ramp adjacent to the runway, loaded with fuel and nuclear weapons, crews on standby, ready to attack the USSR at short notice. Crews were trained to perform Minimum Interval Take Offs (MITO), one bomber following another into the air at intervals of as little as 15 seconds to launch as fast as possible. MITO could be hazardous, as the bombers left wingtip vortices and general turbulence behind them. The first-generation turbojet engines, fitted with water-injection systems, also created the Stratojet’s characteristic dense black smoke trail.

The highlight of the late summer bank holiday weekend was that of 1952 Roberts-built Coronation tramcar 304 making a much-anticipated return to the Blackpool Promenade, the result of a years' work by Brian Lyndop to jump through all the necessary hoops such as electricial safety, engineering assesments and training due to the different control system inside this tram, as well as type training for the drivers (of which several drivers gave up their own free time to train up to drive this tram). 304 starred on TV in Channel 4's 'Salvage Squad' program where it underwent a full restoration back to original condition, and was originally one of 25 from this class of graceful tram built by Charles Roberts & Co between 1952-1954 (this being built in 1952) for use along the promenade. What makes this tram special is that it still retains its original VAMBAC control system (Variable Automatic Multinotch Braking and Acceleration Control) which was a British development of an American design which had been used in trams such as, I believe, the PCC cars in San Francisco - and worthy of note is that the equipment from 304 went on show for the Festival of Britain in 1951... whilst I am not sure how the system actually works, the concept was to provide smoother acceleration and braking all through just a single control lever. The problem though was that the system required lots of ventilation, and open vents to electrical systems beside a west-facing seafront isn't a particularly good combination - sand and water would enter the mechanism and would short circuit on the acceleration side, whilst at other times there were issues with the brakes not working (though this might have been caused more by something else, read on...). The Coronation trams (or 'Spivs' as the platform staff called them) had four motors instead of the usual two seen on other trams - these were not just to haul around the exceptionally heavy tramcar around (each tram weighed in at a staggering 20 Tons), but also to provide enough power for good acceleration and a good top speed - the problem though was that this could never really be utilised because the trams got caught behind the previous service (the original idea had been to replace Balloons with these on a higher frequency service - sounds familiar to modern day bus route planning)... the other problem with the four motors was how thirsy they were on the electricity; many time they would draw so much current they would trip the breakers in the substations, rendering a whole section of the tramway (and therefore any trams on it) dead and immobile. The heavy body led to several axles fracturing in addition to wheelsets breaking (these being rubber-sandwiched sets and so needed specialist attention and more frequent maintenance), whilst the roofs were prone to leaking - 304 was the very first Coronation delivered, and it was even said at the time that the roof was leaking even whilst it was being taken off the low-loader on delivery.

To cut down on their weight, the steel panels of the trams (which, it should be noted, were built by a company more familiar with railway wagons) were replaced by aluminium ones, and I believe there may have been upward-facing skylights which were panelled over too, whilst the heavyweight batteries providing backup power to the VAMBAC system were removed entirely to save further weight... the problem with this idea was that the batteries kept the system ticking over when the tram was on a neutral section of unpowered track (a neutral section being the divide between the overhead power coming from different substations), and by removing them the VAMBAC system reset everytime the tram went through a neutral section; what this meant was that if the tram went through the section whilst braking, the system reset and the brakes came off regardless of the position of the control lever - to get the brakes to work again, the control lever had to put back to position 0 and then put back ninto the braking positions: in some cases there simply wasn't enough time to do this, and on other occasions the driver was unaware of this and so the tram was reported as having a full brake failure. All of these problems led to most trams losing their VAMBAC controls in about 1963-65 in favour of more traditional Z-type controllers salvaged from English Electric Railcoaches, the converted Coronations being referred to as "Z Cars". In 1968 the class were renumbered, and 304 became 641 (the series was 641-664) but by this time were already being withdrawn and some of them scrapped; by 1971 only 660, 641 and 663 remained (the latter two having gone off to museums whilst 660 had been preserved by Blackpool Transport). 313 had been the first to be scrapped, in 1965 and so never saw itself renumbered. The last Coronation ran in normal service in 1975.

 

The Coronations were by far the most luxurious trams on the Blackpool system, but were also by far the most expensive. due to problems with the control system and specialised equipment, repair bills went through the roof; meanwhile the debt to buy these trams in the first place was still not even paid off when the entire class had been withdrawn from service! And all the problems associated with these trams brought the system to its knees and almost saw it off. However, the class had still remained popular with passengers and so forward-thinking preservation groups managed to save representatives from the group so future generations could enjoy their good looks and smooth ride.

 

304 was stored at Blackpool until 1975 when it was moved to the National Tramway Museum store at Clay Cross. Later it moved to Burtonwood after being acquired by the Merseyside Tramcar Preservation Society for use on a possible heritage tramway in Bewsey, Warrington. No progress was made and in 1984 the MTPS decided to concentrate resources on their preserved Liverpool trams and No. 304 passed to the Lancastrian Transport Group.

 

It was moved to the St.Helens Transport Museum in 1986 and restoration work started in 1993. This involved underframe overhaul, new flooring and a complete rewiring, partly funded by the Fylde Tramway Society. Work stalled following access restrictions at the St. Helens site but in 2002 the tram was selected as a project to feature in Channel 4's "Salvage Squad" series.

 

No. 304 returned to Blackpool Transport's depot in June 2002 for an intensive period of restoration work that culminated in the tram returning to the Promenade rails on 6th January 2003 for the finale of the Salvage Squad filming. The programme was broadcast on 17th February 2003 and was watched by over 2.5 million viewers.

 

In this photo, 304 is posed on the passing loop at the Fleetwood ferry terminal, back on the tramway for the very first time in several years in revenue-earning service on Heritage special services; alongside is English Electric Balloon 701 which has gained its Routemaster livery which it worse for the 1991 and 1992 seasons after it received a refubishment - both are running the final daytime Heritage service to close down the 2014 season, this being the late afternoon trip to Fleetwood and back.

Object Details: M56 (aka NGC 6779) is a globular cluster lying 33,000 light-years from Earth that contains 80,000 stars packed into a space 'only' 84 light-years in diameter. Consisting of a mass approximately 230,00 times that of our Sun, it's stars are about 13.7 billion years old (approximately 3 times the age of our Sun).

 

Per Nasa, '...The cluster has relatively few elements heavier than hydrogen and helium, typically a sign of stars that were born early in the Universe’s history, before many of the elements in existence today were formed in significant quantities. Astronomers have found that the majority of clusters with this type of chemical makeup lie along a plane in the Milky Way’s halo. This suggests that such clusters were captured from a satellite galaxy, rather than being the oldest members of the Milky Way's globular cluster system as had been previously thought.'

 

Following an retrograde orbit around the Milky Way, it has been suggested that the remaining core of the dwarf galaxy which contained originally M56, and which was long ago absorbed by the Milky Way, is in fact the massive globular cluster Omega Centauri.

 

M56 can be found lying in the constellation Lyra near the Cygnus border. It glows at magnitude 8.3 and spans 8.8 arc-minutes in our sky (however like many objects, visually, it may appear significantly smaller). Best viewed in the Northern Hemisphere during summer; without a very bright core it can be a challenge in binoculars, appears as a round fuzzy ball in a smaller scope and visually requires a moderate size instrument (e.g. an 8-inch) to resolve into individual stars.

 

Earlier that day I was fortunate to catch the massive sunspot AR2835 as it was rotating off the visible surface of our Sun. Miniscule in comparison to size of the cluster M56, or for that matter to the gigantic stars which are contained therein,

as can be seen in the image at the link attached below, it is still enormous when compared to the size of the pale blue dot that we call Earth !

 

www.flickr.com/photos/homcavobservatory/51295865404/

 

Image Details: The attached is a relatively short stack of 20 one-minute exposures at ISO1600. The data were captured on the evening of July 4, 2021 by Jay Edwards at the HomCav Observatory in Maine, NY using an 8-inch, f/7 Criterion newtonian reflector connected to an unmodded Canon 700D (t5i) at prime focus with the camera controlled by AstroPhotographyTool (APT).

 

Since I tend to shoot simultaneously using twin unmodded Canon 700D (t5i) DSLRs, I also took wide-field images using an 80mm f/6 carbon-fiber triplet apochromatic refractor (i.e. an Orion ED80T CF) connected to a Televue 0.8X field flattener / focal reducer and a twin identical unmodded Canon 700D; but have yet to examine those shots.

 

The 80mm was piggybacked on the 8-inch, along with an 80MM f/5 Celestron 'short-tube' doublet (for guiding) as well as a few other items (e.g. a CCD & wide-field camera lens, etc.). These optics were tracked using a Losmandy G-11 mount running a Gemini 2 control system and guided using PHD2 to control a ZWO ASI290MC planetary camera / auto-guider in the afore-mentioned 80mm doublet.

 

Processed using a combination of PixInsight and PaintShopPro, as presented here the image is nearly 'full frame', having only had the edges cropped slightly & it's vertical edges cropped to match an HD format. It was then re-sized down to HD resolution and the bit depth was lowered to 8 bits per channel.

 

Given the relatively short 20 minute exposure, I was fairly pleased with the result and am looking forward to seeing what the wide-field images may show.

 

Wishing clear, calm, & dark skies to all !

Fangruida: human landing on Mars 10 cutting-edge technology

 

[Fangruida- human landing on Mars 10 innovative and sophisticated technologies]

 

Aerospace Science and space science and technology major innovation of the most critical of sophisticated technology R & D project

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Aerospace Science Space Science and Technology on behalf of the world's most cutting-edge leader in high technology, materials, mechatronics, information and communication, energy, biomedical, marine, aviation aerospace, microelectronics, computer, automation, intelligent biochips, use of nuclear energy, light mechanical and electrical integration, astrophysics, celestial chemistry, astrophysics and so a series of geological science and technology. Especially after the moon landing, the further development of mankind to Mars and other planets into the powerful offensive, the world's major powers eager to Daxian hand of God, increase investment, vigorously develop new sophisticated technology projects for space to space. Satellite, space station, the new spacecraft, the new space suits, the new radiation protection materials, intelligent materials, new manufacturing technology, communications technology, computer technology, detector technology, rover, rover technology, biomedical technology, and so one after another, is expected to greater breakthroughs and leaps. For example, rocket technology, spacecraft design, large power spacecraft, spacesuits design improvements, radiation multifunctional composite materials, life health care technology and space medicine, prevention against microgravity microgravity applicable drugs, tracking control technology, landing and return technology. Mars lander and returned safely to Earth as a top priority. Secondly, Mars, the Moon base and the use of transforming Mars, the Moon and other development will follow. Whether the former or the latter, are the modern aerospace science, space science basic research, applied basic research and applied research in the major cutting-edge technology. These major cutting-edge technology research and innovation, not only for human landing on Mars and the safe return of great significance, but for the entire space science, impact immeasurable universe sciences, earth sciences and human life. Here the most critical of the most important research projects of several sophisticated technology research and development as well as its core technology brief. Limit non-scientific techniques include non-technical limits of technology, the key lies in technology research and development of technology maturity, advanced technology, innovative, practical, reliable, practical application, business value and investment costs, and not simply like the idea mature technology achievements, difficult to put into things. This is the high-tech research and development, testing, prototype, test application testing, until the outcome of industrialization. Especially in aerospace technology, advanced, novelty, practicality, reliability, economy, maturity, commercial value and so on. For technical and research purely science fiction and the like may be irrelevant depth, but not as aerospace engineering and technology practice. Otherwise, Mars will become a dream fantasy, and even into settling crashed out of danger.

 

Regardless of the moon or Mars, many technical difficulties, especially a human landing on Mars and return safely to Earth, technical difficulties mainly in the following aspects. (Transformation of Mars and the Moon and other planets and detect other livable technology more complex and difficult, at this stage it is difficult to achieve and therefore not discussed in detail in this study). In fact, Mars will be the safe return of a full set of technology, space science, aerospace crucial scientific research development, its significance is not confined to Mars simply a return to scientific value, great commercial value, can not be measure.

1. Powered rocket, the spacecraft overall structural design not be too complex large, otherwise, the safety factor to reduce the risk of failure accidents. Fusion rocket engine main problem to be solved is the high-temperature materials and fuel ignition chamber (reaction chamber temperatures of up to tens of millions of supreme billion degrees), fissile class rocket engine whose essence is the miniaturization of nuclear reactors, and placed on the rocket. Nuclear rocket engine fuel as an energy source, with liquid hydrogen, liquid helium, liquid ammonia working fluid. Nuclear rocket engine mounted in the thrust chamber of the reactor, cooling nozzle, the working fluid delivery and control systems and other components. This engine due to nuclear radiation protection, exhaust pollution, reactor control and efficient heat exchanger design and other issues unresolved. Electrothermal rocket engine utilizing heat energy (resistance heating or electric arc heating) working medium (hydrogen, amines, hydrazine ), vaporized; nozzle expansion accelerated after discharged from the spout to generate thrust. Static rocket engine working fluid (mercury, cesium, hydrogen, etc.) from the tank enter the ionization chamber is formed thrust ionized into a plasma jet. Electric rocket engines with a high specific impulse (700-2500 sec), extremely long life (can be repeated thousands of times a starter, a total of up to thousands of hours of work). But the thrust of less than 100N. This engine is only available for spacecraft attitude control, station-keeping and the like. One nuclear - power rocket design is as follows: Firstly, the reactor heats water to make it into steam, and then the high-speed steam ejected, push the rocket. Nuclear rocket using hydrogen as working substance may be a better solution, it is one of the most commonly used liquid hydrogen rocket fuel rocket carrying liquid hydrogen virtually no technical difficulties. Heating hydrogen nuclear reactor, as long as it eventually reaches or exceeds current jet velocity hydrogen rocket engine jet speed, the same weight of the rocket will be able to work longer, it can accelerate the Rockets faster. Here there are only two problems: First, the final weight includes the weight of the rocket in nuclear reactors, so it must be as light as possible. Ultra-small nuclear reactor has been able to achieve. Furthermore, if used in outer space, we can not consider the problem of radioactive residues, simply to just one proton hydrogen nuclei are less likely to produce induced radioactivity, thus shielding layer can be made thinner, injected hydrogen gas can flow directly through the reactor core, it is not easy to solve, and that is how to get back at high speed heated gas is ejected.

  

Rocket engine with a nuclear fission reactor, based on the heating liquid hydrogen propellant, rather than igniting flammable propellant

High-speed heavy rocket is a major cutting-edge technology. After all, space flight and aircraft carriers, submarines, nuclear reactors differ greatly from the one hand, the use of traditional fuels, on the one hand can be nuclear reactor technology. From the control, for security reasons, the use of nuclear power rocket technology, safe and reliable overriding indicators. Nuclear atomic energy in line with the norms and rules of outer space. For the immature fetal abdominal hatchery technology, and resolutely reject use. This is the most significant development of nuclear-powered rocket principle.

Nuclear-powered spaceship for Use of nuclear power are three kinds:

The first method: no water or air space such media can not be used propeller must use jet approach. Reactor nuclear fission or fusion to produce a lot of heat, we will propellant (such as liquid hydrogen) injection, the rapid expansion of the propellant will be heated and then discharged from the engine speed tail thrust. This method is most readily available.

The second method: nuclear reactor will have a lot of fast-moving ions, these energetic particles moving very fast, so you can use a magnetic field to control their ejection direction. This principle ion rocket similar to the tail of the rocket ejected from the high-speed mobile ions, so that the recoil movement of a rocket. The advantage of this approach is to promote the unusually large ratio, without carrying any medium, continued strong. Ion engine, which is commonly referred to as "electric rocket", the principle is not complicated, the propellant is ionized particles,

Plasma Engine

Electromagnetic acceleration, high-speed spray. From the development trend, the US research scope covers almost all types of electric thrusters, but mainly to the development of ion engines, NASA in which to play the most active intake technology and preparedness plans. "

The third method: the use of nuclear explosions. It is a bold and crazy way, no longer is the use of a controlled nuclear reaction, but to use nuclear explosions to drive the ship, this is not an engine, and it is called a nuclear pulse rocket. This spacecraft will carry a lot of low-yield atomic bombs out one behind, and then detonated, followed by a spacecraft propulsion installation disk, absorbing the blast pushing the spacecraft forward. This was in 1955 to Orion (Project Orion) name of the project, originally planned to bring two thousand atomic bombs, Orion later fetal nuclear thermal rocket. Its principle is mounted on a small rocket reactor, the reactor utilizing thermal energy generated by the propellant is heated to a high temperature, high pressure and high temperature of the propellant from the high-speed spray nozzle, a tremendous impetus.

  

Common nuclear fission technologies, including nuclear pulse rocket engines, nuclear rockets, nuclear thermal rocket and nuclear stamping rockets to nuclear thermal rocket, for example, the size of its land-based nuclear power plant reactor structure than the much smaller, more uranium-235 purity requirements high, reaching more than 90%, at the request of the high specific impulse engine core temperature will reach about 3000K, require excellent high temperature properties of materials.

  

Research and test new IT technologies and new products and new technology and new materials, new equipment, things are difficult, design is the most important part, especially in the overall design, technical solutions, technical route, technical process, technical and economic particularly significant. The overall design is defective, technology there are loopholes in the program, will be a major technical route deviation, but also directly related to the success of research trials. so, any time, under any circumstances, a good grasp of the overall control of design, technical design, is essential. otherwise, a done deal, it is difficult save. aerospace technology research and product development is true.

  

3, high-performance nuclear rocket

Nuclear rocket nuclear fission and fusion energy can rocket rocket two categories. Nuclear fission and fusion produce heat, radiation and shock waves and other large amounts of energy, but here they are contemplated for use as a thermal energy rocket.

Uranium and other heavy elements, under certain conditions, will split their nuclei, called nuclear fission reaction. The atomic bomb is the result of nuclear fission reactions. Nuclear fission reaction to release energy, is a million times more chemical rocket propellant combustion energy. Therefore, nuclear fission energy is a high-performance rocket rockets. Since it requires much less propellant than chemical rockets can, so to its own weight is much lighter than chemical rockets energy. For the same quality of the rocket, the rocket payload of nuclear fission energy is much greater than the chemical energy of the rocket. Just nuclear fission energy rocket is still in the works. 

Use of nuclear fission energy as the energy of the rocket, called the atomic rockets. It is to make hydrogen or other inert gas working fluid through the reactor, the hydrogen after the heating temperature quickly rose to 2000 ℃, and then into the nozzle, high-speed spray to produce thrust. 

A vision plan is to use liquid hydrogen working fluid, in operation, the liquid hydrogen tank in the liquid hydrogen pump is withdrawn through the catheter and the engine cooling jacket and liquid hydrogen into hydrogen gas, hydrogen gas turbine-driven, locally expansion. Then by nuclear fission reactors, nuclear fission reactions absorb heat released, a sharp rise in temperature, and finally into the nozzle, the rapid expansion of high-speed spray. Calculations show that the amount of atomic payload rockets, rocket high chemical energy than 5-8 times.

Hydrogen and other light elements, under certain conditions, their nuclei convergent synthesis of new heavy nuclei, and release a lot of energy, called nuclear fusion reaction, also called thermonuclear reaction. 

Using energy generated by the fusion reaction for energy rocket, called fusion energy rocket or nuclear thermal rockets. But it is also not only take advantage of controlled nuclear fusion reaction to manufacture hydrogen bombs, rockets and controlled nuclear fusion reaction needs still studying it.

Of course there are various research and development of rocket technology and technical solutions to try.

It is envisaged that the rocket deuterium, an isotope of hydrogen with deuterium nuclear fusion reaction of helium nuclei, protons and neutrons, and release huge amounts of energy, just polymerized ionized helium to temperatures up to 100 million degrees the plasma, and then nozzle expansion, high-speed ejection, the exhaust speed of up to 15,000 km / sec, atomic energy is 1800 times the rocket, the rocket is the chemical energy of 3700 times.

 

Nuclear rocket engine fuel as an energy source, with liquid hydrogen, liquid helium, liquid ammonia working fluid. Nuclear rocket engine mounted in the thrust chamber of the reactor, cooling nozzle, the working fluid delivery and control systems and other components. In a nuclear reactor, nuclear energy into heat to heat the working fluid, the working fluid is heated after expansion nozzle to accelerate to the speed of 6500 ~ 11,000 m / sec from the discharge orifice to produce thrust. Nuclear rocket engine specific impulse (250 to 1000 seconds) long life, but the technology is complex, apply only to long-term spacecraft. This engine due to nuclear radiation protection, exhaust pollution, reactor control and efficient heat exchanger design and other issues not resolved, is still in the midst of trials. Nuclear rocket technology is cutting-edge aerospace science technology, centralized many professional and technical sciences and aerospace, nuclear physics, nuclear chemistry, materials science, the long term future ___-- wide width. The United States, Russia and Europe, China, India, Japan, Britain, Brazil and other countries in this regard have studies, in particular the United States and Russia led the way, impressive. Of course, at this stage of nuclear rocket technology, technology development there are still many difficulties. Fully formed, still to be. But humanity marching to the universe, nuclear reactor applications is essential.

  

Outer Space Treaty (International Convention on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space) ****

Use of Nuclear Power Sources in Outer Space Principle 15

General Assembly,

Having considered the report of its thirty-fifth session of the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space and the Commission of 16 nuclear

It can be attached in principle on the use of nuclear power sources in outer space of the text of its report, 17

Recognize that nuclear power sources due to small size, long life and other characteristics, especially suitable for use even necessary

For some missions in outer space,

Recognizing also that the use of nuclear power sources in outer space should focus on the possible use of nuclear power sources

Those uses,

Recognizing also that the use of nuclear power sources should include or probabilistic risk analysis is complete security in outer space

Full evaluation is based, in particular, the public should focus on reducing accidental exposure to harmful radiation or radioactive material risk

risk,

Recognizing the need to a set of principles containing goals and guidelines in this regard to ensure the safety of outer space makes

With nuclear power sources,

Affirming that this set principles apply exclusively on space objects for non-power generation, which is generally characteristic

Mission systems and implementation of nuclear power sources in outer space on similar principles and used by,

Recognizing this need to refer to a new set of principles for future nuclear power applications and internationally for radiological protection

The new proposal will be revised

By the following principles on the use of nuclear power sources in outer space.

Principle 1. Applicability of international law

Involving the use of nuclear power sources in outer space activities should be carried out in accordance with international law, especially the "UN

Principles of the Charter "and" States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies Activities

Treaty "3

.

2. The principle terms

1. For the purpose of these principles, "launching State" and "launching State ......" two words mean, in related

Principles related to a time of nuclear power sources in space objects exercises jurisdiction and control of the country.

2. For the purpose of principle 9, wherein the definition of the term "launching State" as contained in that principle.

3. For the purposes of principle 3, the terms "foreseeable" and "all possible" two words are used to describe the actual hair

The overall likelihood of students that it is considered for safety analysis is credible possibilities for a class of things

Member or circumstances. "General concept of defense in depth" when the term applies to nuclear power sources in outer space refers to various settings

Count form and space operations replace or supplement the operation of the system in order to prevent system failures or mitigate thereafter

"Official Records of the General Assembly, Forty-seventh Session, Supplement No. 20" 16 (A / 47/20).

17 Ibid., Annex.

38

fruit. To achieve this purpose is not necessarily required for each individual member has redundant safety systems. Given space

Use and special requirements of various space missions, impossible to any particular set of systems or features can be specified as

Necessary to achieve this purpose. For the purpose of Principle 3 (d) of paragraph 2, "made critical" does not include

Including such as zero-power testing which are fundamental to ensuring system safety required.

Principle 3. Guidelines and criteria for safe use

To minimize the risk of radioactive material in space and the number involved, nuclear power sources in outer space

Use should be limited to non-nuclear power sources in space missions can not reasonably be performed

1. General goals for radiation protection and nuclear safety

(A) States launching space objects with nuclear power sources on board shall endeavor to protect individuals, populations and the biosphere

From radiation hazards. The design and use of space objects with nuclear power sources on board shall ensure that risk with confidence

Harm in the foreseeable operational or accidental circumstances, paragraph 1 (b) and (c) to define acceptable water

level.

Such design and use shall also ensure that radioactive material does not reliably significant contamination of outer space.

(B) the normal operation of nuclear power sources in space objects, including from paragraph 2 (b) as defined in foot

High enough to return to the track, shall be subject to appropriate anti-radiation recommended by the International Commission on Radiological Protection of the public

Protection goals. During such normal operation there shall be no significant radiation exposure;

(C) To limit exposure in accidents, the design and construction of nuclear power source systems shall take into account the international

Relevant and generally accepted radiological protection guidelines.

In addition to the probability of accidents with potentially serious radiological consequences is extremely low, the nuclear power source

Design systems shall be safely irradiated limited limited geographical area, for the individual radiation dose should be

Limited to no more than a year 1mSv primary dose limits. Allows the use of irradiation year for some years 5mSv deputy agent

Quantity limit, but the average over a lifetime effective dose equivalent annual dose not exceed the principal limit 1mSv

degree.

Should make these conditions occur with potentially serious radiological consequences of the probability of the system design is very

small.

Criteria mentioned in this paragraph Future modifications should be applied as soon as possible;

(D) general concept of defense in depth should be based on the design, construction and operation of systems important for safety. root

According to this concept, foreseeable safety-related failures or malfunctions must be capable of automatic action may be

Or procedures to correct or offset.

It should ensure that essential safety system reliability, inter alia, to make way for these systems

Component redundancy, physical separation, functional isolation and adequate independence.

It should also take other measures to increase the level of safety.

2. The nuclear reactor

(A) nuclear reactor can be used to:

39

(I) On interplanetary missions;

(Ii) the second high enough orbit paragraph (b) as defined;

(Iii) low-Earth orbit, with the proviso that after their mission is complete enough to be kept in a nuclear reactor

High on the track;

(B) sufficiently high orbit the orbital lifetime is long enough to make the decay of fission products to approximately actinides

Element active track. The sufficiently high orbit must be such that existing and future outer space missions of crisis

Risk and danger of collision with other space objects to a minimum. In determining the height of the sufficiently high orbit when

It should also take into account the destroyed reactor components before re-entering the Earth's atmosphere have to go through the required decay time

between.

(C) only 235 nuclear reactors with highly enriched uranium fuel. The design shall take into account the fission and

Activation of radioactive decay products.

(D) nuclear reactors have reached their operating orbit or interplanetary trajectory can not be made critical state

state.

(E) nuclear reactor design and construction shall ensure that, before reaching the operating orbit during all possible events

Can not become critical state, including rocket explosion, re-entry, impact on ground or water, submersion

In water or water intruding into the core.

(F) a significant reduction in satellites with nuclear reactors to operate on a lifetime less than in the sufficiently high orbit orbit

For the period (including during operation into the sufficiently high orbit) the possibility of failure, there should be a very

Reliable operating system, in order to ensure an effective and controlled disposal of the reactor.

3. Radioisotope generators

(A) interplanetary missions and other spacecraft out of Earth's gravitational field tasks using radioactive isotopes

Su generator. As they are stored after completion of their mission in high orbit, the Earth can also be used

track. We are required to make the final treatment under any circumstances.

(B) Radioisotope generators shall be protected closed systems, design and construction of the system should

Ensure that in the foreseeable conditions of the track to withstand the heat and aerodynamic forces of re-entry in the upper atmosphere, orbit

Conditions including highly elliptical or hyperbolic orbits when relevant. Upon impact, the containment system and the occurrence of parity

Physical morpheme shall ensure that no radioactive material is scattered into the environment so you can complete a recovery operation

Clear all radioactive impact area.

Principle 4. Safety Assessment

1. When launching State emission consistent with the principles defined in paragraphs 1, prior to the launch in applicable under the

Designed, constructed or manufactured the nuclear power sources, or will operate the space object person, or from whose territory or facility

Transmits the object will be to ensure a thorough and comprehensive safety assessment. This assessment shall cover

All relevant stages of space mission and shall deal with all systems involved, including the means of launching, the space level

Taiwan, nuclear power source and its equipment and the means of control and communication between ground and space.

2. This assessment shall respect the principle of 3 contained in the guidelines and criteria for safe use.

40

3. The principle of States in the Exploration and Use, including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies Outer Space Activities Article

Results of about 11, this safety assessment should be published prior to each transmit simultaneously to the extent feasible

Note by the approximate intended time of launch, and shall notify the Secretary-General of the United Nations, how to be issued

This safety assessment before the shot to get the results as soon as possible.

Principle 5. Notification of re-entry

1. Any State launching a space object with nuclear power sources in space objects that failed to produce discharge

When radioactive substances dangerous to return to the earth, it shall promptly notify the country concerned. Notice shall be in the following format:

(A) System parameters:

(I) Name of launching State, including which may be contacted in the event of an accident to Request

Information or assistance to obtain the relevant authorities address;

(Ii) International title;

(Iii) Date and territory or location of launch;

(Iv) the information needed to make the best prediction of orbit lifetime, trajectory and impact region;

(V) General function of spacecraft;

(B) information on the radiological risk of nuclear power source:

(I) the type of power source: radioisotopes / reactor;

(Ii) the fuel could fall into the ground and may be affected by the physical state of contaminated and / or activated components, the number of

The amount and general radiological characteristics. The term "fuel" refers to as a source of heat or power of nuclear material.

This information shall also be sent to the Secretary-General of the United Nations.

2. Once you know the failure, the launching State shall provide information on the compliance with the above format. Information should as far as possible

To be updated frequently, and in the dense layers of the Earth's atmosphere is expected to return to a time when close to the best increase

Frequency of new data, so that the international community understand the situation and will have sufficient time to plan for any deemed necessary

National contingency measures.

3. It should also be at the same frequency of the latest information available to the Secretary-General of the United Nations.

Principle 6. consultation

5 According to the national principles provide information shall, as far as reasonably practicable, other countries

Requirements to obtain further information or consultations promptly reply.

Principle 7. Assistance to States

1. Upon receipt of expected with nuclear power sources on space objects and their components will return through the Earth's atmosphere

After know that all countries possessing space monitoring and tracking facilities, in the spirit of international cooperation, as soon as possible to

The Secretary-General of the United Nations and the countries they may have made space objects carrying nuclear power sources

A fault related information, so that the States may be affected to assess the situation and take any

It is considered to be the necessary precautions.

41

2. In carrying space objects with nuclear power sources back to the Earth's atmosphere after its components:

(A) launching State shall be requested by the affected countries to quickly provide the necessary assistance to eliminate actual

And possible effects, including nuclear power sources to assist in identifying locations hit the Earth's surface, to detect the re substance

Quality and recovery or cleanup activities.

(B) All countries with relevant technical capabilities other than the launching State, and with such technical capabilities

International organizations shall, where possible, in accordance with the requirements of the affected countries to provide the necessary co

help.

When according to the above (a) and subparagraph (b) to provide assistance, should take into account the special needs of developing countries.

Principle 8. Responsibility

In accordance with the States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies activities, including the principles of Article

About Article, States shall bear international responsibility for their use of nuclear power sources in outer space relates to the activities

Whether such activities are carried on by governmental agencies or non-governmental entities, and shall bear international responsibility to ensure that this

Such activities undertaken by the country in line with the principles of the Treaty and the recommendations contained therein. If it involves the use of nuclear power sources

Activities in outer space by an international organization, should be done by the international organizations and States to participate in the organization

Undertakes to comply with the principles of the Treaty and the recommendations contained in these responsibilities.

Principle 9. Liability and Compensation

1. In accordance with the principle of States in the Exploration and Use, including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies Outer Space Activities Article

And the Convention on International Liability for Damage Caused by Space Objects covenant of Article 7

Provisions, which launches or on behalf of the State

Each State launching a space object and each State from which territory or facility a space object is launched

Kinds of space object or damage caused by components shall bear international liability. This fully applies to this

Kind of space object carrying a nuclear power source case. Two or more States jointly launch a space object,

Each launching State shall in accordance with the above Article of the Convention for any damages jointly and severally liable.

2. Such countries under the aforesaid Convention shall bear the damages shall be in accordance with international law and fair and reasonable

The principles set out in order to provide for damages to make a claim on behalf of its natural or juridical persons, national or

International organizations to restore to the state before the occurrence of the damage.

3. For the purposes of this principle, compensation should be made to include reimbursement of the duly substantiated expenses for search, recovery and clean

Cost management work, including the cost of providing assistance to third parties.

10. The principle of dispute settlement

Since the implementation of these principles will lead to any dispute in accordance with the provisions of the UN Charter, by negotiation or

Other established procedures to resolve the peaceful settlement of disputes.

 

Here quoted the important provisions of the United Nations concerning the use of outer space for peaceful nuclear research and international conventions, the main emphasis on the Peaceful Uses of provisions related constraints .2 the use of nuclear rockets in outer space nuclear studies, etc., can cause greater attention in nuclear power nuclear rocket ship nuclear research, manufacture, use and other aspects of the mandatory hard indicators. this scientists, engineering and technical experts are also important constraints and requirements. as IAEA supervision and management as very important.

 

2. radiation. Space radiation is one of the greatest threats to the safety of the astronauts, including X-rays, γ-rays, cosmic rays and high-speed solar particles. Better than aluminum protective effect of high polymer composite materials.

3. Air. Perhaps the oxygen needed to rely on oxidation-reduction reaction of hydrogen and ilmenite production of water, followed by water electrolysis to generate oxygen. Mars oxygen necessary for survival but also from the decomposition of water, electrolytically separating water molecules of oxygen and hydrogen, this oxygen equipment has been successfully used in the International Space Station. Oxygen is released into the air to sustain life, the hydrogen system into the water system.

4. The issue of food waste recycling. At present, the International Space Station on the use of dehumidifiers, sucked moisture in the air to be purified, and then changed back to drinkable water. The astronauts' urine and sweat recycling. 5. water. The spacecraft and the space station on purification system also makes urine and other liquids can be purified utilization. 6. microgravity. In microgravity or weightlessness long-term space travel, if protective measures shall not be treated, the astronauts will be muscle atrophy, bone softening health. 7. contact. 8. Insulation, 9 energy. Any space exploration are inseparable from the energy battery is a new super hybrid energy storage device, the asymmetric lead-acid batteries and supercapacitors in the same compound within the system - and the so-called inside, no additional separate electronic control unit, this is an optimal combination. The traditional lead-acid battery PbO2 monomer is a positive electrode plate and a negative electrode plate spongy Pb composition, not a super cell. : Silicon solar cells, multi-compound thin film solar cells, multi-layer polymer-modified electrode solar cells, nano-crystalline solar cells, batteries and super class. For example, the solar aircraft .10. To protect the health and life safety and security systems. Lysophosphatidic acid LPA is a growth factor-like lipid mediators, the researchers found that this substance can on apoptosis after radiation injury and animal cells was inhibited. Stable lysophosphatidic acid analogs having the hematopoietic system and gastrointestinal tract caused by acute radiation sickness protection, knockout experiments show that lysophosphatidic acid receptors is an important foundation for the protection of radiation injury. In addition to work under high pressure, the astronauts face a number of health threats, including motion sickness, bacterial infections, blindness space, as well as psychological problems, including toxic dust. In the weightless environment of space, the astronaut's body will be like in preadolescents, as the emergence of various changes.

Plantar molt

After the environment to adapt to zero gravity, the astronaut's body will be some strange changes. Weightlessness cause fluid flow around the main flow torso and head, causing the astronauts facial swelling and inflammation, such as nasal congestion. During long-term stay in space

 

Bone and muscle loss

Most people weightlessness caused by the impact may be known bone and muscle degeneration. In addition, the calcium bones become very fragile and prone to fracture, which is why some of the astronauts after landing need on a stretcher.

Space Blindness

Space Blindness refers astronaut decreased vision.

Solar storms and radiation is one of the biggest challenges facing the long-term space flight. Since losing the protection of Earth's magnetic field, astronauts suffer far more than normal levels of radiation. The cumulative amount of radiation exposure in low earth orbit them exceeded by workers close to nuclear reactors, thereby increasing the risk of cancer.

Prolonged space flight can cause a series of psychological problems, including depression or mood swings, vulnerability, anxiety and fear, as well as other sequelae. We are familiar with the biology of the Earth, the Earth biochemistry, biophysics, after all, the Earth is very different astrophysics, celestial chemistry, biophysics and astrophysics, biochemistry and other celestial bodies. Therefore, you must be familiar with and adapt to these differences and changes.

 

Osteoporosis and its complications ranked first in the space of disease risk.

  

Long-term health risks associated with flying Topics

  

The degree of influence long-term biological effects of radiation in human flight can withstand the radiation and the maximum limit of accumulated radiation on physiology, pathology and genetics.

 

Physiological effects of weightlessness including: long-term bone loss and a return flight after the maximum extent and severity of the continued deterioration of other pathological problems induced by the; maximum flexibility and severity of possible long-term Flight Center in vascular function.

 

Long-term risk of disease due to the high risk of flight stress, microbial variation, decreased immune function, leading to infections

 

Radiation hazards and protection

    

1) radiation medicine, biology and pathway effects Features

  

Radiation protection for interplanetary flight, since the lack of protective effect of Earth's magnetic field, and by the irradiation time is longer, the possibility of increased radiation hazard.

       

Analysis of space flight medical problems that may occur, loss of appetite topped the list, sleep disorders, fatigue and insomnia, in addition, space sickness, musculoskeletal system problems, eye problems, infections problems, skin problems and cardiovascular problems

  

---------------------------------------------------------

  

Development of diagnostic techniques in orbit, the development of the volume of power consumption, features a wide range of diagnostic techniques, such as applied research of ultrasound diagnostic techniques in the abdominal thoracic trauma, bone, ligament damage, dental / sinus infections and other complications and integrated;

 

Actively explore in orbit disposal of medical technology, weightlessness surgical methods, development of special surgical instruments, the role of narcotic drugs and the like.

  

——————————————————————————————-

 

However, space technology itself is integrated with the use of the most advanced technology, its challenging technical reserves and periodic demanding

 

With the continuous development of science and technology, space agencies plan a manned landing on the moon and Mars, space exploration emergency medicine current concern.

 

Space sickness

  

In the weightless environment of space, in the weightless environment of space, surgery may be extremely difficult and risky.

  

Robot surgeons

 

Space disease in three days after entering the space started to ease, although individual astronauts might subsequently relapse. January 2015 NASA declared working on a fast, anti-nausea and nasal sprays. In addition, due to the zero-gravity environment, and anti-nausea drugs can only be administered by injection or transdermal patches manner.

        

Manned spaceflight in the 21st century is the era of interplanetary flight, aerospace medicine is closely watched era is the era of China's manned space flourish. Only the central issue, and grasp the opportunity to open up a new world of human survival and development.

 

Various emergency contingency measures in special circumstances. Invisible accident risk prevention. Enhancing drugs and other screening methods immunity aerospace medicine and tissue engineering a microgravity environment. Drug mixture of APS, ginseng polysaccharides, Ganoderma lucidum polysaccharides, polysaccharides and Lentinan, from other compounds. Drug development space syndrome drug, chemical structure modification will be an important part.

These issues are very sensitive, cutting-edge technology is a major difficulty landing on Mars. Countries in the world, especially the world's major space powers in the country strategies and technical research, the results of all kinds continue to emerge. United States, Russia, China, Europe, India, Japan and other countries is different. United States, Russia extraordinary strength. Many patented technology and health, and most belong to the top-secret technology. Especially in aerospace engineering and technological achievements is different from the general scientific literature, practical, commercial, industrial great, especially the performance of patents, know-how, technical drawings, engineering design and other aspects. Present Mars and return safely to Earth, the first manned, significance, everything is hard in the beginning, especially the first person to land on Mars This Mars for Human Sciences Research Mars, the moon, the earth, the solar system and the universe, life and other significant. Its far greater than the value of direct investments and business interests.

 

In addition, it is the development of new materials, suitable for deep space operations universe, life, and other detection, wider field.

Many aerospace materials, continuous research and development of materials are key areas of aerospace development, including material rocket, the spacecraft materials, the suit materials, radiation materials, materials and equipment, instruments, materials and so on biochemistry.

Temperature metal-based compound with a metal matrix composite body with a more primordial higher temperature strength, creep resistance, impact resistance, thermal fatigue and other excellent high temperature performance.

In B, C, SiC fiber reinforced Ti3Al, TiAl, Ni3Al intermetallic matrix composites, etc.

W Fiber Reinforced with nickel-based, iron-based alloys as well as SiC, TiB2, Si3N4 and BN particle reinforced metal matrix composites

High temperature service conditions require the development of ceramic and carbon-based composite materials, etc., not in this eleven Cheung said.

  

Fuel storage

  

In order to survive in space, people need many things: food, oxygen, shelter, and, perhaps most importantly, fuel. The initial quality Mars mission somewhere around 80 percent of the space launch humans will be propellant. The fuel amount of storage space is very difficult.

  

This difference in low Earth orbit cause liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen - rocket fuel - vaporization.

Hydrogen is particularly likely to leak out, resulting in a loss of about 4% per month.

  

When you want to get people to Mars speed to minimize exposure to weightlessness and space radiation hazards

 

Mars

 

Landings on the Martian surface, they realized that they reached the limit. The rapid expansion of the thin Martian atmosphere can not be very large parachute, such as those that will need to be large enough to slow down, carry human spacecraft.

Therefore, the parachute strong mass ratio, high temperature resistance, Bing shot performance and other aspects of textile materials used have special requirements, in order to make a parachute can be used in rockets, missiles, Yu arrows spacecraft and other spacecraft recovery, it is necessary to improve the canopy heat resistance, a high melting point polymeric fiber fabric used, the metal fabric, ceramic fiber fabrics, and other devices.

  

Super rigid parachute to help slow the landing vehicle.

Spacecraft entered the Martian atmosphere at 24,000 km / h. Even after slowing parachute or inflatable, it will be very

  

Once we have the protection of the Earth magnetic field, the solar radiation will accumulate in the body, a huge explosion threw the spacecraft may potentially lethal doses of radiation astronauts.

  

In addition to radiation, the biggest challenge is manned trip to Mars microgravity, as previously described.

  

The moon is sterile. Mars is another case entirely.

 

With dust treatment measures.

  

Arid Martian environment to create a super-tiny dust particles flying around the Earth for billions of years.

 

Apollo moon dust encountered. Ultra-sharp and abrasive lunar dust was named something that can clog the basic functions of mechanical damage. High chloride salt, which can cause thyroid problems in people.

 

*** Mars geological structure and geological structure of the moon, water on Mars geology, geology of the Moon is very important, because he, like the Earth's geology is related to many important issues. Water, the first element of life, air, temperature, and complex geological formations are geological structure. Cosmic geology research methods, mainly through a variety of detection equipment equipped with a space probe, celestial observations of atmospheric composition, composition and distribution of temperature, pressure, wind speed, vertical structure, composition of the solar wind, the water, the surface topography and Zoning, topsoil the composition and characteristics of the component surface of the rock, type and distribution, stratigraphic sequence, structural system and the internal shell structure.

 

Mars internal situation only rely on its surface condition of large amounts of data and related information inferred. It is generally believed that the core radius of 1700 km of high-density material composition; outsourcing a layer of lava, it is denser than the Earth's mantle some; outermost layer is a thin crust. Compared to other terrestrial planets, the lower the density of Mars, which indicates that the Martian core of iron (magnesium and iron sulfide) with may contain more sulfur. Like Mercury and the Moon, Mars and lack active plate movement; there is no indication that the crust of Mars occurred can cause translational events like the Earth like so many of folded mountains. Since there is no lateral movement in the earth's crust under the giant hot zone relative to the ground in a stationary state. Slight stress coupled with the ground, resulting in Tharis bumps and huge volcano. For the geological structure of Mars is very important, which is why repeated explorations and studies of Martian geological reasons.

  

Earth's surface

 

Each detector component landing site soil analysis:

 

Element weight percent

Viking 1

Oxygen 40-45

Si 18-25

Iron 12-15

K 8

Calcium 3-5

Magnesium 3-6

S 2-5

Aluminum 2-5

Cesium 0.1-0.5

Core

Mars is about half the radius of the core radius, in addition to the primary iron further comprises 15 to 17% of the sulfur content of lighter elements is also twice the Earth, so the low melting point, so that the core portion of a liquid, such as outside the Earth nuclear.

 

Mantle

Nuclear outer coating silicate mantle.

 

Crust

The outermost layer of the crust.

Crustal thickness obtained, the original thickness of the low north 40 km south plateau 70 kilometers thick, an average of 50 kilometers, at least 80 km Tharsis plateau and the Antarctic Plateau, and in the impact basin is thin, as only about 10 kilometers Greece plains.

  

Canyon of Mars there are two categories: outflow channels (outflow channel) and tree valley (valley network). The former is very large, it can be 100 km wide, over 2000 km long, streamlined, mainly in the younger Northern Hemisphere, such as the plain around Tyre Chris Canyon and Canyon jam.

 

In addition, the volcanic activity sometimes lava formation lava channels (lava channel); crustal stress generated by fissures, faults, forming numerous parallel extending grooves (fossa), such as around the huge Tharsis volcanic plateau radially distributed numerous grooves, which can again lead to volcanic activity.

  

Presumably, Mars has an iron as the main component of the nucleus, and contains sulfur, magnesium and other light elements, the nuclear share of Mars, the Earth should be relatively small. The outer core is covered with a thick layer of magnesium-rich silicate mantle, the surface of rocky crust. The density of Earth-like planets Mars is the lowest, only 3.93g / cc.

Hierarchy

  

The crust

  

Lunar core

The average density of the Moon is 3.3464 g / cc, the solar system satellites second highest (after Aiou). However, there are few clues mean lunar core is small, only about 350 km radius or less [2]. The core of the moon is only about 20% the size of the moon, the moon's interior has a solid, iron-rich core diameter of about 240 kilometers (150 miles); in addition there is a liquid core, mainly composed of iron outer core, about 330 km in diameter (205 miles), and for the first time compared with the core of the Earth, considered as the earth's outer core, like sulfur and oxygen may have lighter elements [4].

 

Chemical elements on the lunar surface constituted in accordance with its abundance as follows: oxygen (O), silicon (Si), iron (Fe), magnesium (Mg), calcium (Ca), aluminum (Al), manganese (Mn), titanium ( Ti). The most abundant is oxygen, silicon and iron. The oxygen content is estimated to be 42% (by weight). Carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) only traces seem to exist only in trace amounts deposited in the solar wind brings.

 

Lunar Prospector from the measured neutron spectra, the hydrogen (H) mainly in the lunar poles [2].

 

Element content (%)

Oxygen 42%

Silicon 21%

Iron 13%

Calcium 8%

Aluminum 7%

Magnesium 6%

Other 3%

 

Lunar surface relative content of each element (% by weight)

  

Moon geological history is an important event in recent global magma ocean crystallization. The specific depth is not clear, but some studies have shown that at least a depth of about 500 kilometers or more.

 

Lunar landscape

Lunar landscape can be described as impact craters and ejecta, some volcanoes, hills, lava-filled depressions.

  

Regolith

TABLE bear the asteroid and comets billions of years of bombardment. Over time, the impact of these processes have already broken into fine-grained surface rock debris, called regolith. Young mare area, regolith thickness of about 2 meters, while the oldest dated land, regolith thickness of up to 20 meters. Through the analysis of lunar soil components, in particular the isotopic composition changes can determine the period of solar activity. Solar wind gases possible future lunar base is useful because oxygen, hydrogen (water), carbon and nitrogen is not only essential to life, but also may be useful for fuel production. Lunar soil constituents may also be as a future source of energy.

Here, repeatedly stressed that the geological structure and geological structure of celestial bodies, the Earth, Moon, Mars, or that this human existence and development of biological life forms is very important, especially in a series of data Martian geological structure geological structure is directly related to human landing Mars and the successful transformation of Mars or not. for example, water, liquid water, water, oxygen, synthesis, must not be taken lightly.

  

____________________________________________________________----

 

Mars landing 10 Technology

 

Aerospace Science and space science and technology major innovation of the most critical of sophisticated technology R & D project

  

[

"1" rocket propulsion technology ion fusion nuclear pulse propulsion rocket powered high-speed heavy rocket technology, space nuclear reactors spacecraft] brought big problems reflected in the nuclear reaction, nuclear radiation on spacecraft launch, control, brakes and other impact.

In particular, for the future of nuclear power spacecraft, the need to solve the nuclear reactor design, manufacture, control, cooling, radiation shielding, exhaust pollution, high thermoelectric conversion efficiency and a series of technical problems.

In particular, nuclear reactors produce radiation on astronauts' health will pose a great threat, which requires the spacecraft to be nuclear radiation shielding to ensure astronaut and ship the goods from radiation and heat from the reactor influence, but this will greatly increase the weight of the detector.

Space nuclear process applications, nuclear reaction decay is not a problem, but in a vacuum, ultra-low temperature environment, the nuclear reaction materials, energy transport materials have very high demands.

Space facing the reality of a nuclear reactor cooling cooling problems. To prevent problems with the reactor, "Washington" aircraft carrier to take four heavy protective measures for the radiation enclosed in the warship. These four measures are: the fuel itself, fuel storage pressure vessel, reactor shell and the hull. US Navy fuel all metal fuel, designed to take the impact resistance of the war, does not release fission product can withstand more than 50 times the gravity of the impact load; product of nuclear fission reactor fuel will never enter loop cooling water. The third layer of protection is specially designed and manufactured the reactor shell. The fourth layer is a very strong anti-impact combat ship, the reactor is arranged in the center of the ship, very safe. Engage in a reactor can only be loaded up to the aircraft, so as to drive the motor, and then drive the propeller. That is the core advantage of the heat generated by the heated gas flow, high temperature high pressure gas discharge backward, thereby generating thrust.

  

.

  

After installation AMPS1000 type nuclear power plant, a nuclear fuel assembly: He is a core member of the nuclear fuel chain reaction. Usually made into uranium dioxide, of which only a few percent uranium-235, and most of it is not directly involved in the nuclear fission of uranium 238. The uranium dioxide sintered into cylindrical pieces, into a stainless steel or a zirconium alloy do metal tubes called fuel rods or the original, then the number of fuel rods loaded metal cylinder in an orderly composition of the fuel assembly, and finally put a lot of vertical distribution of fuel assemblies in the reactor.

 

Nuclear reactor pressure vessel is a housing for containing nuclear fuel and reactor internals, for producing high-quality high-strength steel is made to withstand the pressure of dozens MPa. Import and export of the coolant in the pressure vessel.

 

The top of the pressure vessel closure, and can be used to accommodate the fixed control rod drive mechanism, pressure vessel head has a semi-circular, flat-topped.

 

Roof bolt: used to connect the locking pressure vessel head, so that the cylinder to form a completely sealed container.

  

Neutron Source: Plug in nuclear reactors can provide sufficient neutron, nuclear fuel ignition, to start to enhance the role of nuclear reactors and nuclear power. Neutron source generally composed of radium, polonium, beryllium, antimony production. Neutron source and neutron fission reactors are fast neutron, can not cause fission of uranium 235, in order to slow down, we need to moderator ---- full of pure water in a nuclear reactor. Aircraft carriers, submarines use nuclear reactor control has proven more successful.

 

Rod: has a strong ability to absorb neutrons, driven by the control rod drive mechanism, can move up and down in a nuclear reactor control rods within the nuclear fuel used to start, shut down the nuclear reactor, and maintain, regulate reactor power. Hafnium control rods in general, silver, indium, cadmium and other metals production.

 

Control rod drive mechanism: He is the executive body of nuclear reactors operating system and security protection systems, in strict accordance with requirements of the system or its operator control rod drives do move up and down in a nuclear reactor, nuclear reactor for power control. In a crisis situation, you also can quickly control rods fully inserted into the reactor in order to achieve the purpose of the emergency shutdown

 

Upper and lower support plate: used to secure the fuel assembly. High temperature and pressure inside the reactor is filled with pure water (so called pressurized water reactors), on the one hand he was passing through a nuclear reactor core, cooling the nuclear fuel, to act as a coolant, on the other hand it accumulates in the pressure vessel in play moderated neutrons role, acting as moderator.

  

Water quality monitoring sampling system:

Adding chemical system: under normal circumstances, for adding hydrazine, hydrogen, pH control agents to the primary coolant system, the main purpose is to remove and reduce coolant oxygen, high oxygen water suppression equipment wall corrosion (usually at a high temperature oxygen with hydrogen, especially at low temperatures during startup of a nuclear reactor with added hydrazine oxygen); when the nuclear reactor control rods stuck for some reason can not shutdown time by the the system can inject the nuclear reactor neutron absorber (such as boric acid solution), emergency shutdown, in order to ensure the safety of nuclear submarines.

 

Water system: a loop inside the water will be reduced at work, such as water sampling and analysis, equipment leaks, because the shutdown process cooling water and reduction of thermal expansion and contraction.

 

Equipment cooling water system:

Pressure safety systems: pressure reactor primary coolant system may change rapidly for some reason, the need for effective control. And in severe burn nuclear fuel rods, resulting in a core melt accident, it is necessary to promptly increase the pressure. Turn the regulator measures the electric, heating and cooling water. If necessary, also temporary startup booster pump.

 

Residual Heat Removal System: reactor scram may be due to an accident, such as when the primary coolant system of the steam generator heat exchanger tube is damaged, it must be urgently closed reactors.

 

Safety Injection System: The main components of this system is the high-pressure injection pump.

 

Radioactive waste treatment systems:

 

Decontamination Systems: for the removal of radioactive deposits equipment, valves, pipes and accessories, and other surfaces.

 

Europe, the United States and Russia and other countries related to aircraft carriers, submarines, icebreakers, nuclear-powered research aircraft, there are lots of achievements use of nuclear energy, it is worth analysis. However, nuclear reactor technology, rocket ships and the former are very different, therefore, requires special attention and innovative research. Must adopt a new new design techniques, otherwise, fall into the stereotype, it will avail, nothing even cause harm Aerospace.

 

[ "2" spacecraft structure]

 

[ "3"] radiation technology is the use of deep-sea sedimentation fabric fabrics deepwater technology development precipitated silver metal fibers or fiber lint and other materials and micronaire value between 4.1 to 4.3 fibers made from blends. For radiation protection field, it greatly enhances the effects of radiation and service life of clothing. Radiation resistant fiber) radiation resistant fiber - fiber polyimide polyimide fibers

60 years the United States has successfully developed polyimide fibers, it has highlighted the high temperature, radiation-resistant, fire-retardant properties.

 

[ "4" cosmic radiation resistant clothing design multifunctional anti-aging, wear underwear] ① comfort layer: astronauts can not wash clothes in a long flight, a lot of sebum, perspiration, etc. will contaminate underwear, so use soft, absorbent and breathable cotton knitwear making.

 

② warm layer: at ambient temperature range is not the case, warm layer to maintain a comfortable temperature environment. Choose warm and good thermal resistance large, soft, lightweight material, such as synthetic fibers, flakes, wool and silk and so on.

 

③ ventilation and cooling clothes clothes

Spacesuit

In astronaut body heat is too high, water-cooled ventilation clothing and clothing to a different way of heat. If the body heat production more than 350 kcal / h (ventilated clothes can not meet the cooling requirements, then that is cooled by a water-cooled suit. Ventilating clothing and water-cooled multi-use compression clothing, durable, flexible plastic tubing, such as polyvinyl chloride pipe or nylon film.

 

④ airtight limiting layer:

 

⑤ insulation: astronaut during extravehicular activities, from hot or cold insulation protection. It multilayer aluminized polyester film or a polyimide film and sandwiched between layers of nonwoven fabric to be made.

 

⑥ protective cover layer: the outermost layer of the suit is to require fire, heat and anti-space radiation on various factors (micrometeorites, cosmic rays, etc.) on the human body. Most of this layer with aluminized fabric.

New space suits using a special radiation shielding material, double design.

And also supporting spacesuit helmet, gloves, boots and so on.

  

[ "5" space - Aerospace biomedical technology, space, special use of rescue medication Space mental health care systems in space without damage restful sleep positions - drugs, simple space emergency medical system

]

[ "6" landing control technology, alternate control technology, high-performance multi-purpose landing deceleration device (parachute)]

 

[ "7" Mars truck, unitary Mars spacecraft solar energy battery super multi-legged (rounds) intelligent robot] multifunction remote sensing instruments on Mars, Mars and more intelligent giant telescope

 

[8 <> Mars warehouse activities, automatic Mars lander - Automatic start off cabin

]

[ "9" Mars - spacecraft docking control system, return to the system design]

 

Space flight secondary emergency life - support system

  

Spacecraft automatic, manual, semi-automatic operation control, remote control switch system

 

Automatic return spacecraft systems, backup design, the spacecraft automatic control operating system modular blocks of]

 

[10 lunar tracking control system

 

Martian dust storms, pollution prevention, anti-corrosion and other special conditions thereof

 

Electric light aircraft, Mars lander, Mars, living spaces, living spaces Mars, Mars entry capsule, compatible utilization technology, plant cultivation techniques, nutrition space - space soil]

 

Aerospace technology, space technology a lot, a lot of cutting-edge technology. Human landing on Mars technology bear the brunt. The main merge the human landing on Mars 10 cutting-edge technology, in fact, these 10 cutting-edge technology, covering a wide range, focused, and is the key to key technologies. They actually shows overall trends and technology Aerospace Science and Technology space technology. Human triumph Mars and safe return of 10 cutting-edge technology is bound to innovation. Moreover, in order to explore the human Venus, Jupiter satellites and the solar system, the Milky Way and other future development of science and laid the foundation guarantee. But also for the transformation of human to Mars, the Moon and other planets livable provides strong technical support. Aerospace Science and Technology which is a major support system.

 

Preparation of oxygen, water, synthesis, temperature, radiation, critical force confrontation. Regardless of the moon or Mars, survive three elements bear the brunt.

 

Chemical formula: H₂O

 

Formula: H-O-H (OH bond between two angle 104.5 °).

 

Molecular Weight: 18.016

 

Chemical Experiment: water electrolysis. Formula: 2H₂O = energized = 2H₂ ↑ + O₂ ↑ (decomposition)

 

Molecules: a hydrogen atom, an oxygen atom.

  

Ionization of water: the presence of pure water ionization equilibrium following: H₂O == == H⁺ + OH⁻ reversible or irreversible H₂O + H₂O = = H₃O⁺ + OH⁻.

 

NOTE: "H₃O⁺" hydronium ions, for simplicity, often abbreviated as H⁺, more accurate to say the H9O4⁺, the amount of hydrogen ion concentration in pure water material is 10⁻⁷mol / L.

 

Electrolysis of water:

 

Water at DC, decomposition to produce hydrogen and oxygen, this method is industrially prepared pure hydrogen and oxygen 2H₂O = 2H₂ ↑ + O₂ ↑.

 

. Hydration Reaction:

 

Water with an alkaline active metal oxides, as well as some of the most acidic oxide hydration reaction of unsaturated hydrocarbons.

 

Na₂O + H₂O = 2NaOH

 

CaO + H₂O = Ca (OH) ₂

 

SO₃ + H₂O = H₂SO₄

 

P₂O₅ + 3H₂O = 2H₃PO₄ molecular structure

 

CH₂ = CH₂ + H₂O ← → C₂H₅OH

  

6. The diameter of the order of magnitude of 10 water molecules negative power of ten, the water is generally believed that a diameter of 2 to 3 this organization. water

 

7. Water ionization:

 

In the water, almost no water molecules ionized to generate ions.

 

H₂O ← → H⁺ + OH⁻

 

Heating potassium chlorate or potassium permanganate preparation of oxygen

  

Pressurized at low temperatures, the air into a liquid, and then evaporated, since the boiling point of liquid nitrogen is -196 deg.] C, lower than the boiling point of liquid oxygen (-183 ℃), so the liquid nitrogen evaporated from the first air, remaining the main liquid oxygen.

Of course, the development of research in space there is a great difference, even more special preparation harsh environments on Earth and synthetic water and oxygen, over the need for more technological breakthroughs.

The main component of air oxygen and nitrogen. The use of oxygen and nitrogen with

Taking a moment during this rainy day to do a quick processing of another of the lunar images I took earlier this week (while my favorite movie Blazing Saddles provides the background entertainment - Authentic Frontier Gibberish - REVEREND !!! ;) .

 

Object Details: Please find attached a link to a quick shot of the Apennine mountain range, ending in the prominent crater Eratosthenes at lower left. For reference, Eratosthenes. is 59 km ( ~ 37 mi) in diameter and has a depth of 3.6 km (2.2 mi); while the Apennine mountain range extends for approx. 595 km (370 mi) and contains more than 300 peaks - the highest of which rises 5400 meters (nearly 18,000 ft) above the surrounding terrain.

 

Image Details: The attached was taken by Jay Edwards at the HomCav Observatory in Main, NY on the evening of June 11, 2019 using a (vintage 1970) 8-inch, f/7 Criterion newtonian reflector connected in prime focus mode to a ZWO ASI290MC planetary camera / auto-guider. This scope was tracked on a Losmandy G-11 mount running a Gemini 2 control system. The image is the result of a stack of the best 60 percent of the frames from a short video clip. Other images taken that evening can be found at the following links -

 

Plato & The Alpine Valley:

 

www.flickr.com/photos/homcavobservatory/48070020973/

 

Time-laspe of Jupiter:

 

www.flickr.com/photos/homcavobservatory/48059027006/

 

Saturn (our 1st image of the year):

 

www.flickr.com/photos/homcavobservatory/48064519238/

Object Details: Please find attached the third of four lunar images I took early last week when the moon was in it's 1st quarter phase. Continuing to move south along the terminator from the previous two images linked here:

 

Plato & The Alpine Valley: www.flickr.com/photos/homcavobservatory/48070020973/

 

and here:

 

Eratosthenes & The Apennine Mountians - www.flickr.com/photos/homcavobservatory/48073693577/ )

 

can be found three craters that appear to somewhat overlap. They are (from top to bottom (& larger to smaller): Ptolemaeus (154 km (~ 96 mi) in dia), Alphonsus (119 km ( ~ 74 mi.) in dia.) & Arzanchel ( (96 km ( ~ 60 mi) in dia.) .

 

In addition to the lower left of Arzanchel can be seen 'The Straight Wall'. Alsop know as Rupes Recta it is a liner fault 110 km ( ~ 68 mi) in length, whose width varies from 2 to 3 km (~ 1.2 to ~ 1.8 mi) & height from 240 to 300 meters (~ 650 to ~ 980 ft) . Although it appears as a cliff, it is actually a slope and makes a wonderful sight when the moon is near this phase,

 

Image Details: The attached was taken by Jay Edwards at the HomCav Observatory in Main, NY on the evening of June 11, 2019 using a (vintage 1970) 8-inch, f/7 Criterion newtonian reflector connected in prime focus mode to a ZWO ASI290MC planetary camera / auto-guider. This scope was tracked on a Losmandy G-11 mount running a Gemini 2 control system. The image is the result of a stack of the best 60 percent of the frames from a short video clip.

As the world entered the supersonic age, the US Air Force had to assume that the Soviet Union was designing jet bombers. The subsonic interceptors then in service, such as the F-89 Scorpion, would not be adequate. Accordingly, the USAF issued a requirement in 1949 for what was simply called the “1954 Interceptor,” as that was the expected in-service date. Unlike earlier aircraft, however, the new aircraft would be designed around the fire control computer (the Hughes MX-1179) and would incorporate all-missile armament.

 

Of 18 proposals sent to the USAF, the service chose Convair’s Project MX-1554 in late 1951. This proposal incorporated then radical delta wings, a powerful Wright J67 turbojet, and an internal missile bay that was also equipped with rockets, along with the MX-1179 fire control system. Problems arose with both the engine and fire control system, however, and the USAF decided to go ahead with production of what was now the F-102A Delta Dagger, the third aircraft of the Century Series of fighters in the 1950s. The F-102A was considered as interim until the more advanced F-102B could come online later; emphasis was getting a supersonic interceptor into service as soon as possible, even if it used a less powerful Pratt and Whitney J57 and a simpler M-9 fire control computer. The first YF-102 flew in October 1953.

 

It was a failure. The YF-102 could not even reach supersonic speeds, its ceiling was below that of even the F-89, and the prototype crashed only a week after its first flight. Convair went back to the drawing board, this time using the recently discovered area rule principle, changing the fuselage from a conventional round shape to a more streamlined “coke bottle,” lengthening and narrowing the nose, and adding shock blisters around the engine. The redesigned YF-102A flew in December 1954, and was able to meet the USAF’s requirements, though it was still slower and had a lower ceiling than the USAF would have liked. Since the F-102A was again only supposed to serve as an interim for the F-102B, which would later become the F-106 Delta Dart, the USAF was willing to overlook the shortfall in performance. The first F-102 entered service in 1956.

 

In service, the “Deuce,” as it became known, got mixed reviews. The fire control system was improved with an infrared turret forward of the cockpit, and it had comparatively heavy armament in the form of four AIM-4 Falcons and 24 rockets carried in the weapons bay doors. The aircraft were also re-winged with a more efficient design in 1957. Later F-102s had the rockets removed to allow carriage of two AIM-24 Nuclear Falcons.

 

All this aside, the delta winged design proved to be tricky to get used to, and the F-102 suffered a high accident rate. TF-102A conversion aircraft were built, which involved a radical redesign of the Delta Dagger from the intakes forward, as the TF-102 had side-by-side seating. This adversely affected performance, giving the TF-102 its moniker of “Pig.” Nonetheless, the F-102 was to perform yeoman service throughout the late 1950s and 1960s as an interceptor, supplementing the earlier F-101 Voodoo and its replacement, the F-106. As the Delta Dart entered service, more and more F-102s were relegated to Air National Guard units, where the Deuce would serve until 1976.

 

F-102s would see wartime service as well. As North Vietnam had a number of Ilyushin Il-28 Beagles in service, F-102s were deployed in detachments to USAF bases in South Vietnam to guard against a surprise attack. These aircraft were drawn from both active duty units and Air National Guard units under Operation Constant Guard. As the Il-28 threat never materialized, the F-102s were used as escorts for USAF missions in Laos or EB-66 jammer aircraft supporting Rolling Thunder sorties. In this capacity, the F-102 would see at least one air-to-air combat with MiG-21s, but came off second best with the loss of aircraft and pilot. Other F-102s were used as ground support aircraft, a role to which the Deuce was completely unsuited, for a brief time and with poor results—though the F-102’s infrared sensors gave it all-weather capability that at that time was matched only by the F-4D Phantom II.

 

Truly lacking a role, the F-102 detachments were withdrawn from Southeast Asia in 1968. F-102s were exported to Turkey and Greece in the mid-1960s, and these were used in the 1974 Cyprus Crisis; none were reported lost on either side, though rumors persist of Turkish F-102s either shooting down or being shot down by Greek F-5A Freedom Fighters.

 

All F-102s, foreign and domestic, were withdrawn from service by 1979. In the US, nearly all were converted to QF-102 drones and expended as targets, ending in 1986. Of approximately 900 Delta Daggers produced, at least 35 remain today in museums.

 

This "Pig," TF-102A 54-1354, had a quiet career, serving with only two units. It flew with the Air Force Flight Test Center at Eglin AFB, Florida, from around 1955 to 1967, then was relegated to the 147th Fighter-Interceptor Group (Texas ANG) at Ellington Field. It was only with the 147th for two years before it was retired in 1969 and scrapped a year later. As one of only a few TF-102s assigned to the 147th FIG, there is a good chance the unit's most famous pilot flew it--1st Lieutenant and future President George W. Bush. Given the batch of slides it was found with, this was probably taken at Ellington.

 

(Disclaimer: I found this picture among other photos in my dad’s slides. I’m not sure who took them; some of them may be his. If any of these pictures are yours or you know who took them, let me know and I will remove them from Flickr, unless I have permission to let them remain. These photos are historical artifacts, in many cases of aircraft long since gone to the scrapyard, so I feel they deserve to be shared to the public at large—to honor the men and women who flew and maintained them.)

Having purchased an IDAS dual narrowband Oxygen III / Sulfur II filter to complement my IDAS Hydrogen / OIII filter, I thought I would extract the H-alpha, OIII & SII data from the raw images and render my first image using this data in a combination of narrowband palettes.

 

Object Details: The Eagle Nebula (Messier 16 / NGC 6611) is a diffuse emission nebula in the constellation of Serpens. A star forming region located about 7000 light-years from Earth, it spans approximately 70 light-years in diameter along it's longest dimension. Visible in binoculars and a spectacular sight in larger telescopes. Although the extensive nebulosity is obvious in images, visually the embedded star cluster is dominate and the nebula can be greatly enhanced via the use of a proper filter. The center of the nebula contains huge columns of interstellar hydrogen gas and dust which were made famous in the Hubble 'Pillars of Creation' image (visible near the center of the attached image). Recent evidence indicates these pillars may actually have been destroyed by a supernova 8 to 9 thousand years ago, however the light confirming the event (i.e. the supernova's shock-wave destroying the columns) is not scheduled to reach Earth for another 1000 years (keep watching ;) ).

 

Image Details: Taken by Jay Edwards from the scope field of Cherry Springs State Park in PA during both CSSP's 2023 summer star party in June & the Black Forest Star Party held there in September. The image utilized an Orion ED80T CF (i.e. an 80mm, f/6 carbon-fiber, triplet apochromatic refractor) connected to a Televue 0.8x field flattener / focal reducer with both a dual band IDAS Hydrogen-alpha / Oxygen III and a Oxygen III / Sulfur II filters and an ASI2600MC Pro camera running at -10 degrees centigrade and controlled by an ASIair running on an IPad Air. Guided by an ASI290MC autoguider / planetary camera in an Orion 60mm, f/4 guide scope; they ride on a Losmandy G-11 mount running a Gemini 2 control system.

 

Having been also imaging other objects using this setup during these star parties, given the time available, the attached is a rendering in a combination of narrowband pallets and consists of 3 hours of Hydrogen-alpha, 4 hours of Oxygen-III and 1 hour of Sulfur-II data. Processed in a combination of PixInisght and PaintShopPro and show here the bit depth lowered to 8 bits per channel.

 

Given that this was my first attempt to combine data from both dual band filters I was fairly pleased with the result and am looking forward to processing the data from the other objects I imaged using this same equipment during these star parties.

 

An image of this object using only the H-alpha & OIII data and rendered in somewhat of a more traditional palette can be found at the link attached here:

www.flickr.com/photos/homcavobservatory/53317140708/

 

Wishing a Merry Christmas to all & to all a clear night ! ;)

 

–––

Crosspost by Koinup - original here

 

location: MALANDI

MALANDI has undergone some major changes to support "Never give up Japan" project.

Please have a visit and share a message for Japan! ^_^

+++ DISCLAIMER +++

Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based historical facts. BEWARE!

 

Some background:

The HAL Ajeet II (Sanskrit: अजित, for Invincible or Unconquerable) was a development of the British Folland Gnat fighter that was built under license in India by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited.

 

The Indian Air Force (IAF) operated the Folland Gnat light jet fighter from 1958, with over 200 aircraft being license built by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL). The aircraft proved successful in combat in both the 1965 and the 1971 War with Pakistan, both in the low-level air superiority role and for short range ground attack missions, while being cheap to build and operate. It had unreliable systems, though, particularly the control system, and was difficult to maintain.

 

The Indian Air Force therefore issued a requirement for an improved Gnat in 1972. Although the original requirement called for an interceptor, it was later modified to include a secondary ground-attack role.

The aircraft was given the name "Ajeet" and the changes from the original Gnat were considerable.

 

They included:

- Improvements to the hydraulics and control systems (these had been a source of difficulties in the Gnat).

- Fitting of improved Martin-Baker GF4 ejection seats.

- Upgraded avionics.

- The addition of slab tail control surfaces.

- Improvements to the landing gear.

- Additional internal fuel capacity with "wet wings" to free the original pair of underwing pylons for weapons.

- Installation of two more underwing hardpoints.

 

Hindustan Aeronautics Limited modified the final two Gnats on the production line as prototypes for the Ajeet, with the first one flying on 6 March 1975, with the second following on 5 November. Testing proved successful of the Ajeet, and it became the first production aircraft flew on 30 September 1976. Visually, the Ajeet appeared similar to the Gnat, with the presence of two extra hardpoints being the only obvious distinguishing features from the older aircraft.

 

The Ajeet entered service with the IAF in 1977, but this was not the end of the Gnat/Ajeet's development potential. A HAL project for a trainer based on the Ajeet was begun, leading to the initial flight of a prototype in 1982. Unfortunately this aircraft was lost in a crash later that year. A second prototype flew the following year, followed by a third. But a lack of government interest and the imminent phase-out of the aircraft meant no more examples were produced.

 

Another, more radical Gnat derivate was more successful, the supersonic Ajeet II. The development of this aircraft started in 1978, and while the Ajeet II outwardly looked very much like its 1st generation kin, it was an almost completely different aircraft.

 

Basic idea had been to get the Ajeet up to the performance of the Northrop F-5A Freedom Fighter - with major focus on speed and overall better performance. It was soon clear that the original, the single HAL/Bristol Siddeley Orpheus 701-01 turbojet with 20.0 kN (4,500 lbf) of thrust would not suffice. Consequently, HAL engineers worked on the internal structure of the Gnat/Ajeet to cramp two smaller Rolls Royce Viper engines with indigenous afterburners into the fuselage.

 

At full power the small aircraft was now powered with almost twice as much power, but modifications were considerable, including new air intakes with shock cones and new ducts, which necessitated a lower location of the Aden cannons under the intakes instead of their flanks.

 

The rear fuselage had to be widened and lengthened accordingly, and the wings were also completely new, with a thinner profile, less depth and a higher sweep at quarter chord. The wing area was ~30% bigger than before and also offered an increased internal space for fuel.

 

The elongated forward fuselage was used for an additional fuel tank as well as more sophisticated avionics - including a RP-21 radar that was also installed in the license-built Indian MiG-21. The new systems allowed the use of R-3S 'Atoll') AAMs (of Soviet or Chinese origin) or French Matra Magic AAMs, four of which could be carried under the wings.

 

The development of the engines was protracted, though, especially the afterburner went through a lot of teething troubles, so that development aircraft had to get by without th extra performance punch. The first Ajeet II prototype flew in 1984 and the type was ready for service in 1986 and adopted by two fighter squadrons which started to retire the 1st generation Gnats and also some Hunters. Anyway, upon commissioning it was already clear that the Ajeet II would not have a bright future, as the classic gun fighter had become more and more obsolete.

 

Nevertheless, the Ajeet II was built in 36 specimen (plus two prototypes and two static airframes) and proved to be a formidable air combat opponent at low to medium altitude. It could easily outmaneuver more powerful aircraft like the MiG-21, and the afterburner improved acceleration as well as rate of climb considerably. Its guided missile armament also meant that it could engage at longer ranges and did not have to rely on its cannons alone. The Ajeet II's ground attack capabilities were improved through a higher ordnance payload (3.000 lb vs. 2.000 lb of the Ajeet I)

 

But the light fighter concept was soon outdated. The Ajeet I was retired in 1991 and, unlike the IAF Gnats, never saw combat. The Ajeet II was kept in service only a little longer, and its retirement started in 1994. The remaining machines were concentrated in one single squadron, but this, too, was disbanded soon and switched to the MiG-29. The last Ajeet II flew in late 1997.

 

General characteristics:

Crew: 1

Length: 10,54 m (34 ft 6 2/3 in)

Wingspan: 8,57 m (28 ft 1 in)

Height: 2.80 m (9 ft 3 in)

Wing area: 16.4 m² (177 ft²)

Aspect ratio: 3.56

Empty weight: 3,100 kg (6,830 lb)

Loaded weight: 5,440 kg (11,990 lb)

Max. takeoff weight: 5,500 kg (12,100 lb)

 

Powerplant:

2× Rolls-Royce Viper 601-22 turbojets, rated at 3,750 lbf (16.7 kN) dry

and 4,500 lbf (20.0 kN) with afterburner

 

Performance:

Maximum speed: 1,152 km/h (622 knots, 716 mph) at sea level

Range: 1,150 km (621 nmi, 715 mi)

Service ceiling: 45,000 ft (13,720 m)

Wing loading: 331 kg/m² (67.8 lb/ft²)

Rate of clim: 12,150 ft/min (61.7 m/s)

 

Armament:

2× 30 mm ADEN cannons with 90 rounds each

Up to 3.000 lb (1.360 kg) of external stores on four underwing hardpoints

 

The kit and its assembly:

Well, this whiffy Gnat/Ajeet was actually born through an incomplete Matchbox kit that I bought in a lot a while ago. It lacked decals, but also the canopy... Vacu replacements are available, but I rather put the kit on the conversion list, potentially into a single seater.

 

Since I'd have to improvise and modify the fuselage anyway, I decided to take the idea further ans create a "supersonic Gnat". Folland actually had such designs on the drawing board, but I do not think that the company considered a twin jet layout? That idea struck me when I held a PM Model F-5A in my hands and looked at the small J85 engine nozzles. Could that...?

 

From there things evolved, a bit like what Fiat did with the G.91 that was turned into the G.91Y. I wanted the Gnat to become bigger, also in order to justify the two engines and the wider tail. Therefore I cut the fuselage in front of the air intakes and behind the wings and inserted plugs, each ~6mm. Not much, but it helps. I also found new wings and stabilizers in the scrap box: from a Revell Fiat G.91. More slender, more sweep, and a slightly bigger span so that the overall proportions were kept. A good addition to the sleek Gnat/Ajeet. The fin was left OOB.

 

Another personal addition is the radar nose - I found the Gnat trainer's nose to be rather pointed and long, and the radome (IIRC from an F-4E!) was more Ajeet-style, even though of different shape and suggesting a radar dish underneath.

 

The new canopy is a donation from a Mastercraft (ex KP/Kopro) LWS Iskra trainer. Even though the Ajeet II is a single seater I used the Iskra’s two-seater option in order to fill the gap above the Gnat's second seat. I just cut the Iskra canopy in two parts and used the rear half as a fuselage/spine plug – fit was pretty good.

 

The fuselage extension and the new tail section necessitated massive putty work, but the result is surprisingly organic and retains the Ajeet's profile - the whif factor is rather subtle. ^^

 

The landing gear was taken OOB, the cockpit interior was improvised after the fuselage was more or less finished with parts from the original kit, plus an extra dashboard.

 

Painting and markings:

Surely this was to become an Indian Air Force aircraft, and for the paint scheme I took inspiration from the manifold IAF MiG-21s and the garish combat training markings of Indian aircraft.

 

The scheme is inspired by MiG-21MF "C2776" of IAF 26 Sqn "Warriors“ and “C2283” of 3 Sqn “Cobras”: a basically all-grey aircraft, with added camouflage on the upper side, plus bright fin colors.

 

The camouflage consists of Humbrol 127 (FS 36375) for the lower surfaces and in some areas where it would show through the added paint: a basic coat of Humbrol 108 (a murky, dark olive drab) with large mottles in a mix of Humbrol 62 and a bit of 80 (Sand and Grass Green). Rather odd, but when you look at the pics (esp. in flight) this seems to be very effective!

 

The fin decoration actually comes from an ESCI Harrier GR.3 (RAF 4 Sqn flash), roundels and other markings were puzzled together, among others, from the Iskra donation kit.

 

The cockpit interior was kept in a very dark grey while the landing gear and the air intakes are Aluminum.

 

A small project, literally, and a subtle one. While this aircraft looks a lot like a simple IAF Ajeet, there's actually hardly anything left from the original aircraft! And the paint scheme is spectacular - India has a lot to offer! :)

23-Apr-2024 15:30

Ilford FP4+ rated @ EI 64

 

Ebony 45SU

Schneider 120mm f/5.6 Makro-Symmar HM

XTOL 1+1 for 10 mins (N) @ 20C

Stearman Press SP645 Tank

Pre-Wash 5 mins

Inversions first 30 sec then two every 60 sec

Two water Stop Baths - 1 min each

John Finch Alkali Fixer (1+4)

Clearing time 90 sec. Total fix time 3 minutes

Initial wash to remove fixer : 1 min

Washing : 10 mins with frequent water changes

Ilfotol : 1 ml in 500ml for 2 minutes

 

Front swing : Right 7 deg

 

Mid tone LV = 11

Highlight = 15

Shadow = 10

 

Filters : None

 

Bellows : 150mm (120mm lens) is 1.5 times more exposure required. 1/4 sec goes to 0.6 sec

 

Final LV=10

 

1 sec @ f22

190605-N-SS350-0007 GULF OF OMAN (June 5, 2019) Gunner’s Mate Seaman James Crouse, from Gloversville, N.Y., performs a maintenance check on the Mark 38 25mm gun control system aboard the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Bainbridge (DDG 96). Bainbridge is deployed to the U.S. 5th Fleet areas of operations in support of naval operations to ensure maritime stability and security in the Central Region, connecting the Mediterranean and Pacific through the Western Indian Ocean and three strategic choke points. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Jason Waite/Released)

Zinnia plants from the Veggie ground control system are being harvested in the Flight Equipment Development Laboratory in the Space Station Processing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Some of the zinnia flowers will be pressed in books. A similar zinnia harvest will be conducted by astronaut Scott Kelly on the International Space Station. Photo credit: NASA/Bill White

NASA image use policy.

 

The Space Shuttle orbiter is the spaceplane component of the Space Shuttle, a partially reusable orbital spacecraft system that was part of the discontinued Space Shuttle program. Operated from 1977 to 2011 by NASA, the U.S. space agency, this vehicle could carry astronauts and payloads into low Earth orbit, perform in-space operations, then re-enter the atmosphere and land as a glider, returning its crew and any on-board payload to the Earth.

Six orbiters were built for flight: Enterprise, Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, Atlantis, and Endeavour. All were built in Palmdale, California, by the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-based Rockwell International company. The first orbiter, Enterprise, made its maiden flight in 1977. An unpowered glider, it was carried by a modified Boeing 747 airliner called the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft and released for a series of atmospheric test flights and landings. Enterprise was partially disassembled and retired after completion of critical testing. The remaining orbiters were fully operational spacecraft, and were launched vertically as part of the Space Shuttle stack.

Columbia was the first space-worthy orbiter; it made its inaugural flight in 1981. Challenger, Discovery, and Atlantis followed in 1983, 1984, and 1985 respectively. In 1986, Challenger was destroyed in an accident shortly after its 10th launch. Endeavour was built as Challenger's successor, and was first launched in 1992. In 2003, Columbia was destroyed during re-entry, leaving just three remaining orbiters. Discovery completed its final flight on March 9, 2011, and Endeavour completed its final flight on June 1, 2011. Atlantis completed the final Shuttle flight, STS-135, on July 21, 2011.

In addition to their crews and payloads, the reusable orbiter carried most of the Space Shuttle System's liquid-propellant rocket system, but both the liquid hydrogen fuel and the liquid oxygen oxidizer for its three main rocket engines were fed from an external cryogenic propellant tank. Additionally, two reusable solid rocket boosters (SRBs) provided additional thrust for approximately the first two minutes of launch. The orbiters themselves did carry hypergolic propellants for their Reaction Control System (RCS) thrusters and Orbital Maneuvering System (OMS) engines.

  

Wikipedia: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle_orbiter" rel="noreferrer nofollow">en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle_orbiter</a>

When I image I often choose a primary target for the evening and have a secondary target in mind just in case I have a bit of time left over after imaging the primary. This was the case for the attached. After shooting various objects this fall (e.g. The Heart Nebula which I have yet to complete and process, or The Veil Nebula, a link to a composite of which is attached here:

www.flickr.com/photos/homcavobservatory/51551231638/ ) and finding I had a bit more time left some of those evenings, I used the Cave Nebula as my secondary target.

 

Object Details: The attached composite shows a variety of nebulae that reside along the border between the constellations of Cassiopeia and Cepheus. Most are relatively faint and are included in the catalog of 313 H II regions (i.e. emission nebulae) compiled by Stewart Sharpless and thus carry the designation Sh2-XXX.

 

In the case of those shown here, three also carry 'common' names reflective of their appearance. At center of this wide-field image is 'The Cave Nebula' (Sh2-155), at center left 'The Bubble Nebula' (Sh2-162) and at lower left can be seen 'The Lobster Claw Nebula' (Sh2-157). As noted in the annotated text, a few other Sh2 objects are also visible in this field-of-view (e.g. Sh2-161, 158, 159 & 154).

 

Being regions of ionized hydrogen, they glow in the red portion of the visible spectrum and are best represented in 'true color' by the upper left image (HOO) which utilizes the Hydrogen-alpha filter for the red channel, and the Oxygen III filter as both green and blue channels (since the H-alpha wavelength lies in the red, while the O III wavelength lies between green and blue wavelengths in the visible spectrum). At lower right is a version using the famous SHO (Sulfur II, Hydrogen-alpha, Oxygen III) 'Hubble palette'. The field-of-view of the attached frames span approximately 6 1/2 degrees horizonally by x 4 1/2 degrees vertically in our sky (as a comparison your fist held at arm's length spans approximately 10 degrees horizontally).

 

The Cave Nebula itself spans about 1 degree by 1/2 degree in our sky, and lying about 2400 light-years from Earth, is actually about 35 light-years in diameter. The Lobster Claw Nebula is about 400 light-years across and is just over 11,000 light-years distant while The Bubble Nebula is also just over 11,000 light-years away, with the spherical bubble itself being about 7 light-years in diameter (a couple images of The Bubble Nebula I took back in 2013 can be found at the link attached here -

www.flickr.com/photos/homcavobservatory/10619807955/in/al... ).

 

Image Details: Being probably the longest total integration time I have yet to shoot for a single FOV, the attached is a stack of eighty-eight five-minute exposures totaling 7 hours & 20 minutes (excluding the dark & flat calibration times of course).

As stated in the annotations on the composite, they were taken using a very old 55mm focal length SLR (i.e. film-based) camera lens stopped down to f/4 and attached to a monochrome Starlight Xpress MX-716 CCD utilizing H-alpha, OII and SII narrowband filters.

 

The optics were tracked on a Losmandy G-11 running a Gemini 2 control system and guided by PHD2 using a ZWO ASI290MC auto-guider / planetary camera in an 80MM, f/5 Celestron 'short-tube' refractor. Processed using a combination of PixInsight, Maxim/DL & PaintShopPro, as shown here the color images have been resized down to 75 percent of their original size. The monochrome (H-alpha) image at center was processed using PixInsight & PaintShopPro and since humans tend to see detail in an image via the brightness and contrast (as opposed to the color), I have left it at it's full (albeit limited) resolution. After compositing and annotation, the entire composite's bit depth has been reduced to 8 bits per channel and is presented here in an HD format.

 

As is often the case these days, I was also shooting the attached simultaneously using twin unmodded Canon 700D DSLRs on an 80mm, f/6 apo. and an 8-inch, f/7 Criterion newt. with the apo & the camera lens / CCD both piggybacked on the 8-inch.

 

Given the optics & camera used for the attached, and the inherent under-sampling from such a combination, I was fairly pleased with the results. Although shot with uncooled cameras I'm looking forward to seeing how The Cave Nebula images taken with the DSLRs through the 80MM apo. & 8-inch newt. turn out.

 

Wishing clear, dark & calm skies to all !

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry watches a NATO Airborne Warning and Control Systems aircraft do a flyover of the National Stadium in Warsaw, Poland, on July 8, 2016, after joining President Obama at the NATO Summit. [State Department Photo/Public Domain]

“PREPARING FOR REENTRY--Following separation of the command module from the service module, the reaction control system engines are ignited to turn the command module with the thickest part of the aft heat shield forward. The command module speed builds up to almost 25,000 miles an hour as it enters the earth’s atmosphere at an altitude of about 400,000 feet (76 miles). Apollo spacecraft command service modules are produced by North American’s Space Division, Downey, Calif., for NASA’s Manned Spacecraft Center.”

 

Note the 'vertical' orientation of the negative pitch thrusters (shown firing) in the far left attitude depiction of the capsule, this being the Block I design of the Command Module.

 

In color, at the wonderful "HACK THE MOON" website, albeit with an incorrect description...unless it was indeed resurrected for Apollo 8:

 

wehackthemoon.com/sites/default/files/styles/hero_extra_l...

 

A Boeing E-3 Sentry flying at the Thunder Over the Heartland Air Show at Topeka Regional Airport (aka Forbes Field)

This E-3 is equipped with that Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS). This E-3 is stationed at 552nd Air Control Wing at Tinker AFB, Oklahoma.

Aircraft Registration: 75-0557

Topeka, Kansas

Sunday afternoon 27 June 2021

Object Details: The movement of the 'false nucleus' of Comet 46P/Wirtanen against the background stars as it appeared over a period of eight minutes of elapsed time on the evening of December 4, 2018.

 

Image Details: An mp4 file containing a short time-lapse sequence of ten thirty-second exposures taken by Jay Edwards at the HomCav Observatory in Maine, NY using an 8-inch, f/7 Criterion newtonian reflector and an unmodded Canon 700D DSLR. This scope was tracked using a Losmandy G-11 mount running a Gemini 2 control system, which in turn was autoguided using PHD2 with a ZWO ASI290MC planetary camera / autoguider in an 80mm f/6 Celestron 'short-tube' piggybacked on the 8-inch. Since the size of the comet's coma was too large for the focal length of this scope (i.e. the FOV was too small to contain the entire coma's apparent size - which was larger than that of the full moon at the time); that evening I was mainly focused on imaging the comet using a wide-field scope (a link to which is attached below). However, since the 80mm apo. used for the wide-field shot was piggybacked on the 8-inch, and I had an second identical camera attached to the 8-inch, the images for the attached time-lapse took little additional effort to obtain. If weather permits I hope to take a longer time-lapsed sequence of this object in the future and process the images in a more aesthetically pleasing manner. The link to wide-field image referenced above is attached here - www.flickr.com/photos/homcavobservatory/45487295394/

Note: A second animated sequence taken (thru high clouds) during the comet's perihelion on Dec. 12th can be found at the link attached here: www.flickr.com/photos/homcavobservatory/46293890592/

Object Details: The attached shows galaxy M106 (aka NGC 4258), a spiral located approximately 20 to 25 million light-years from Earth, as well as the smaller NGC 4248 which can be seen to it's lower left.

 

M106 contains about 400 billion stars and has a diameter of 135,000 light-years. It is one of the closest examples of a Seyfert galaxy - i.e. a galaxy (nearly always a spiral) where huge amounts of dust and gas are feeding an extremely active supermassive black hole at the center. Spanning nearly 19 arc-minutes in length, over half the apparent diameter of the full moon, it glows at magnitude 9.1 & can be found in the constellation of Canes Venatici.

 

Image Details: Image Details: The attached was taken by Jay Edwards at the HomCav Observatory on the evening of March 26, 2019 using an 8-inch, f/7 Criterion newtonian reflector and a Canon 700D DSLR tracked on a Losmandy G-11 mount running a Gemini 2 control system. This in turn was guided using PHD2 to control a ZWO ASI290MC planetary camera / auto-guider in an 80mm f/6 Celestron 'short-tube' refractor.

 

Although it is a stack totaling only 45 minutes of exposure (not including darks, flats & bias frames) and therefore contains much more noise than desired, I was fairly pleased with the result and am looking forward to trying a longer exposure in the future.

 

Processed using Deep Sky Stacker, PixInsight and PaintShopPro, as presented here it has been cropped slightly, resized down to HD resolution and the bit depth has been lowered to 8 bits per channel.

As an aerospace engineer, I am on a team that is developing algorithms for the flight control system on the Space Launch System (SLS), NASA's new heavy-lift launch vehicle that will allow future explorers to travel farther into our solar system than ever before. That system is the "brain" of the vehicle, designed to steer it along the path to its destination in orbit. Our team has spent months working with engineers at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center to turn their F-18 fighter jet into a working test bed for those algorithms.

 

We have 18 test cases for the F-18 test series, each simulating some off-nominal conditions, like higher thrust than anticipated or the presence of wind gusts, to see if the flight control algorithm responds as we designed it to do. The tests might reveal something we hadn't thought about in our algorithm, which we can go back and modify as necessary.

 

I've always had in interest in NASA, and working on a fast-paced project like this that will actually fly and that will benefit SLS in the future is really cool. I'm really lucky to be a part of it and to work with some of the most talented engineers in the NASA community.

 

My advice to students is to find an activity outside of your classes that allows you to apply what you’re learning to real things -- be it research, a club or a hobby. The practical knowledge will enable you to learn more effectively in lectures, will help you decide whether you’re going into the right field and will prepare you for the work you’ll be doing after you graduate.

 

Image credit: NASA/MSFC

 

Original image:

www.nasa.gov/exploration/systems/sls/i-am-building-sls-gi...

 

More "I Am Building SLS" profiles:

www.flickr.com/photos/nasamarshall/sets/72157644513255476/

 

More about SLS:

www.nasa.gov/exploration/systems/sls/index.html

 

Space Launch System Flickr photoset:

www.flickr.com/photos/28634332@N05/sets/72157627559536895/

 

_______________________________

These official NASA photographs are being made available for publication by news organizations and/or for personal use printing by the subject(s) of the photographs. The photographs may not be used in materials, advertisements, products, or promotions that in any way suggest approval or endorsement by NASA. All Images used must be credited. For information on usage rights please visit: www.nasa.gov/audience/formedia/features/MP_Photo_Guidelin...

 

Grampian Dee

 

General

IMO: 9599470

Name: GRAMPIAN DEE

MMSI: 235091304

Vessel Type: STANDBY SAFETY VESSEL

Gross Tonnage: 1343

Summer DWT: 690 t

Build: 2012

Flag: UNITED KINGDOM

Home port: ABERDEEN

 

Dimensions

LOA 50.70 metres

LBP 40.40 metres

Breadth Moulded 13.00 metres

Draft Loaded / Depth 4.3 metres / 6.0 metres

 

Tonnage

GRT 1130 Tonnes

NRT 398 Tonnes

DWT 690 Tonnes

 

Capacities/Cranes

 

Fuel Oil (MGO) / Connection 300 m³

Fresh Water / Connection 150 m³

Ballast Water Approx 350 m³

Oil Based Mud / Connection N/A

Brine / Connection N/A

DMA (Base Fluid) / Connection N/A

Dry Bulk(s) / Connection N/A

Deck Area Approx 120 m² (Steel Deck)

Deck Loading 3 Tonnes per metre²

Deck Crane # 1 Heila 1.5T @ 15 Metres (3t @ 10m)

Deck Crane # 2 N/A

Deck Crane # 3 N/A

Winch Option - Buoy Recovery System fitted

Wire Reel N/A

Deck Tuggers N/A

 

Engines/Thrusters/Aux

Main Engine(s) MAK 6M20 (2133 BHP)

Propeller(s) 1 x CPP

Bow Thruster(s) HRP Azimuth @ 500BHP

Stern Thruster(s) N/A

Rudder Systems / Type Fishtail HP Rudder

Aux Engines 2 x Cat @ 547kW per unit

Shaft PTO’s 1 x PTO from Main Engine

 

Emergency Generators 1 x Emer Genset @ 365 kW

 

Control Systems/Dynamic Positioning

Control Positions Fwd, Aft, Port & Stbd

 

Full Manual Control Fwd & Aft consoles

 

Integrated Joystick Control Coverteam Joystick System

 

Joystick Control Aft, Port and Starboard consoles

 

Dynamic Positioning System N/A

 

Fan Beam Laser N/A

 

DGPS # 1 N/A

 

DGPS # 2 N/A

 

Hydro Acoustic Pos Ref # 1 N/A

 

Hydro Acoustic Pos Ref # 2 N/A

 

Vertical Taut Wire N/A

 

Rescue/Emergency Response Equipment

Daughter Craft Davit # 1 NED DECK MARINE Heave Compensated

 

Daughter Craft Delta Phantom 10.25 metre (Diesel)

 

Daughter Craft Davit # 2 Option

 

Daughter Craft Option

 

Fast Rescue Craft Davit # 1 NED DECK MARINE Heave Compensated

 

Fast Rescue Craft 1 x Avon SR 6.4 15 Man (Petrol)

Dacon Scoop Fitted

 

Dacon Rescue Crane Heila Telescopic Boom crane 1.5t@15m

 

Cosalt Rescue Basket Fitted & Launched from aft deck

 

Jason Cradles Frames Fitted

 

Winch Area Located on Aft Main Deck

 

Emergency Towing Capability Towing Hook Fitted

 

Dispersant Tanks 2 x 5 Tonne Tanks below Main Deck

 

Dispersant Spray Booms Fully outfitted Port & Starboard

 

Searchlights 4 x IBAK Kiel Fwd, Port, Stbd & Aft

 

Navigation/Communication Equipment

Radar(s) (Fwd) Furuno 2817 ARPA Furuno 2837 ARPA

 

Radar Rptr (Aft) Hatteland

 

ECDIS Microplot ECDIS

 

PLB System N/A

 

DGPS(s) Furuno DGPS 90

 

Gyro(s) Anschutz S22 Gyro

 

Autopilot Anschutz NP 60

 

Magnetic Comp Gillie 2000

 

Echo Sounder FE 700 ES

 

Digital Depth Recorder FE 720

 

Navtex Furuno NX 700 Navtex

 

Sat Comms Inmarsat C Felcon, Fleet 77 CapSat (A3)

 

MF/HF Radio Furuno FS 2570 C (A3)

 

UHF 3 x UHF Units

 

VHF (Fwd) FM8800 GMDSS VHF, ICOM ICM 401E

 

VHF (Aft) FM8800 GMDSS VHF, ICOM ICM 401E

 

Helo Radio ICOM IC A110

 

AIS Jotrun AIS TR 2500

 

VHF Direction Finder Taiyo TDL 1550

 

Doppler Log Furuno DS 80

 

SSAS Furuno Felcom

 

Portable VHF 3 x Jotrun GMDSS

 

Portable VHF 6 x ENTEL HT 640 VHF

 

Portable UHF 3 x ENTEL HT 880 UHF

 

Portable UHF 2 x Kenwood UHF

 

Sonic Helmets 4 x Sonic Helmets Mk 10

 

Smartpatch Phone ICOM PS1

 

Crew Facilities

 

Crew Cabins 15 Man Single Berth cabins c/w en suite facilites

Recreation & Leisure 1 Messroom, 2 Lounges

Leisure 1x Sauna, 1x Gym, 1x Ship's Office

U.S. Air Force Fact Sheet

 

E-3 SENTRY (AWACS)

 

E-3 Sentry celebrates 30 years in Air Force's fleet

  

Mission

The E-3 Sentry is an airborne warning and control system, or AWACS, aircraft with an integrated command and control battle management, or C2BM, surveillance, target detection, and tracking platform. The aircraft provides an accurate, real-time picture of the battlespace to the Joint Air Operations Center. AWACS provides situational awareness of friendly, neutral and hostile activity, command and control of an area of responsibility, battle management of theater forces, all-altitude and all-weather surveillance of the battle space, and early warning of enemy actions during joint, allied, and coalition operations.

 

Features

The E-3 Sentry is a modified Boeing 707/320 commercial airframe with a rotating radar dome. The dome is 30 feet (9.1 meters) in diameter, six feet (1.8 meters) thick, and is held 11 feet (3.33 meters) above the fuselage by two struts. It contains a radar subsystem that permits surveillance from the Earth's surface up into the stratosphere, over land or water. The radar has a range of more than 250 miles (375.5 kilometers). The radar combined with an identification friend or foe, or IFF, subsystem can look down to detect, identify and track enemy and friendly low-flying aircraft by eliminating ground clutter returns that confuse other radar systems.

 

Major subsystems in the E-3 are avionics, navigation, communications, sensors (radar and passive detection) and identification tools (IFF/SIF). The mission suite includes consoles that display computer-processed data in graphic and tabular format on video screens. Mission crew members perform surveillance, identification, weapons control, battle management and communications functions.

 

The radar and computer subsystems on the E-3 Sentry can gather and present broad and detailed battlefield information. This includes position and tracking information on enemy aircraft and ships, and location and status of friendly aircraft and naval vessels. The information can be sent to major command and control centers in rear areas or aboard ships. In time of crisis, this data can also be forwarded to the president and secretary of defense.

 

In support of air-to-ground operations, the Sentry can provide direct information needed for interdiction, reconnaissance, airlift and close-air support for friendly ground forces. It can also provide information for commanders of air operations to gain and maintain control of the air battle.

 

As an air defense system, E-3s can detect, identify and track airborne enemy forces far from the boundaries of the United States or NATO countries. It can direct fighter-interceptor aircraft to these enemy targets. Experience has proven that the E-3 Sentry can respond quickly and effectively to a crisis and support worldwide military deployment operations.

 

AWACS may be employed alone or horizontally integrated in combination with other C2BM and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance elements of the Theater Air Control System. It supports decentralized execution of the air tasking order/air combat order. The system provides the ability to find, fix, track and target airborne or maritime threats and to detect, locate and ID emitters. It has the ability to detect threats and control assets below and beyond the coverage of ground-based command and control or C2, and can exchange data with other C2 systems and shooters via datalinks.

 

With its mobility as an airborne warning and control system, the Sentry has a greater chance of surviving in warfare than a fixed, ground-based radar system. Among other things, the Sentry's flight path can quickly be changed according to mission and survival requirements. The E-3 can fly a mission profile approximately 8 hours without refueling. Its range and on-station time can be increased through in-flight refueling and the use of an on-board crew rest area.

 

Background

Engineering, test and evaluation began on the first E-3 Sentry in October 1975. In March 1977 the 552nd Airborne Warning and Control Wing (now 552nd Air Control Wing, Tinker Air Force Base, Okla.), received the first E-3s.

 

There are 32 aircraft in the U.S. inventory. Air Combat Command has 27 E-3s at Tinker. Pacific Air Forces has four E-3 Sentries at Kadena AB, Japan and Elmendorf AFB, Alaska. There is also one test aircraft at the Boeing Aircraft Company in Seattle.

 

NATO has 17 E-3A's and support equipment. The first E-3 was delivered to NATO in January 1982. The United Kingdom has seven E-3s, France has four, and Saudi Arabia has five. Japan has four AWACS built on the Boeing 767 airframe.

 

As proven in operations Desert Storm, Allied Force, Enduring Freedom, Iraqi Freedom, and Odyssey Dawn/Unified Protector the E-3 Sentry is the world's premier C2BM aircraft. AWACS aircraft and crews were instrumental to the successful completion of operations Northern and Southern Watch, and are still engaged in operations Noble Eagle and Enduring Freedom. They provide radar surveillance and control in addition to providing senior leadership with time-critical information on the actions of enemy forces. The E-3 has also deployed to support humanitarian relief operations in the U.S. following Hurricanes Rita and Katrina, coordinating rescue efforts between military and civilian authorities.

 

The data collection capability of the E-3 radar and computer subsystems allowed an entire air war to be recorded for the first time in the history of aerial warfare.

 

In March 1996, the Air Force activated the 513th Air Control Group, an AWACS Reserve Associate Program unit which performs duties on active-duty aircraft.

 

During the spring of 1999, the first AWACS aircraft went through the Radar System Improvement Program. RSIP is a joint U.S./NATO development program that involved a major hardware and software intensive modification to the existing radar system. Installation of RSIP enhanced the operational capability of the E-3 radar electronic counter-measures and has improved the system's reliability, maintainability and availability.

 

The AWACS modernization program, Block 40/45, is currently underway. Bock 40/45 represents a revolutionary change for AWACS and worldwide Joint Command and Control, Battle Management, and Wide Area Surveillance. It is the most significant counter-air battle management improvement in Combat Air Forces tactical Command and Control history. The Block 40/45 Mission Computer and Display upgrade replaces current 1970 vintage mission computing and displays with a true open system and commercial off-the-shelf hardware and software, giving AWACS crews the modern computing tools needed to perform, and vastly improve mission capability. Estimated fleet upgrades completion in ~2020.

 

General Characteristics

Primary Function: Airborne battle management, command and control

Contractor: Boeing Aerospace Co.

Power Plant: Four Pratt and Whitney TF33-PW-100A turbofan engines

Thrust: 20,500 pounds each engine at sea level

Rotodome: 30 feet in diameter (9.1 meters), 6 feet thick (1.8 meters), mounted 11 feet (3.33 meters) above fuselage

Wingspan: 145 feet, 9 inches (44.4 meters)

Length: 152 feet, 11 inches (46.6 meters)

Height: 41 feet, 9 inches (13 meters)

Weight: 205,000 pounds (zero fuel) (92,986 kilograms)

Maximum Takeoff Weight: 325,000 pounds (147,418 kilograms)

Fuel Capacity: 21,000 gallons (79,494 liters)

Speed: optimum cruise 360 mph (Mach 0.48)

Range: more than 5,000 nautical miles (9,250 kilometers)

Ceiling: Above 29,000 feet (8,788 meters)

Crew: Flight crew of four plus mission crew of 13-19 specialists (mission crew size varies according to mission)

Unit Cost: $270 million (fiscal 98 constant dollars)

Initial operating capability: April 1978

Inventory: Active force, 32 (1 test); Reserve, 0; Guard, 0

  

Point of Contact

Air Combat Command, Public Affairs Office; 130 Andrews St., Suite 202; Langley AFB, VA 23665-1987; DSN 574-5007 or 757-764-5007; e-mail: accpa.operations@langley.af.mil

 

www.af.mil/information/factsheets/factsheet.asp?fsID=98