Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

ToughSF @toughsf.bsky.social · 17h

The Mark V Special Operations Craft is a 25m long boat that can cross 900+ km and reach 100 km/h on water, powered by 2x MTU TE94 engines that add up to 4570 horsepower.
Problems with the original design included delivering 20g shocks to occupants when riding over waves at high speed.

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ToughSF @toughsf.bsky.social · 18h

It's possible that each big nozzle has many smaller engines clustered inside!

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ToughSF @toughsf.bsky.social · 18h

98% of coming up with good ideas is reading about the ideas that came before and how people arrived at them.

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ToughSF @toughsf.bsky.social · 18h

A neat realistic design described as a starship orbiting Proxima Centauri b.
#space #art by "ネオなまず"
www.pixiv.net/en/artworks/...

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ToughSF @toughsf.bsky.social · 18h

Combine smallsats with existing solar sails and you can get cheap planetary exploration that reaches Jupiter in 2 yrs, Saturn in 3 yrs:
arxiv.org/pdf/2303.14917
They can be thrown out of Earth's gravity well on a GTO rideshare, then use a Sundiver maneuver to achieve 5-10 AU/yr.

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ToughSF @toughsf.bsky.social · 18h

Coherent beam combining of 107 laser beams:
m.researching.cn/articles/OJd...
This is the essential technology that enables really high power lasers, using only existing kW-scale fiber/diode lasers to reach 0.1-1 MW power levels. Theoretically, it can be staged to 100 MW and beyond.

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ToughSF @toughsf.bsky.social · 19h

A planetary system forming with multiple gas giants and a huge ring of leftover dust blown out by the newly formed star in its center.
archive.org/details/SPIT...

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ToughSF @toughsf.bsky.social · 20h

I worked out this rocket's diameter to 30 meters. Scaling from the Falcon 9, it would carry 15,000 tons into LEO.
#space #art by T X
www.artstation.com/artwork/oJoavJ

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ToughSF @toughsf.bsky.social · 21h

"Outer Space" by Sander van den Berg is a magical experience.
The original (vimeo.com/40234826) is gone but the NASA version remains (youtu.be/vBe-onc4aic).

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Reposted by ToughSF

Daniel Pomarède @pomarede.bsky.social · 2d

#APOD Astronomy Picture of the Day

The Changing Ion Tail of Comet Lemmon

Credit: Victor Sabet & Julien De Winter
www.star.ucl.ac.uk/~apod/apod/a... 🧪🔭

Five shots side-by-side capturing Comet Lemmon at different times, illustrating how a comet tail might change. The ion tail of Comet C/2025 A6 (Lemmon) has been changing markedly, as detailed in the featured image sequenced over five days between September 25 and October 3 (left to right) from Texas, USA. On some days, the comet's ion tail was relatively more complex than other days. Reasons for tail changes include the rate of ejection of material from the comet's nucleus, the strength and complexity of the passing solar wind, and the rotation rate of the comet. Sometimes, over the course of a week, apparent differences even result from a change of perspective from the Earth. In general, a comet's ion tail will point away from the Sun, as gas expelled is pushed out by the Sun's wind. Comet Lemmon is still inbound and brightening, passing nearest the Earth on October 21 and nearest the Sun on November 8.

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ToughSF @toughsf.bsky.social · 2d

This got me thinking about it:
@tylerraiz.bsky.social
youtu.be/EPHnhiAXg84

Dragon and Blue Moon Mk1 as a Lunar Lander Combo

YouTube video by Raiz Space

youtu.be

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ToughSF @toughsf.bsky.social · 3d

F-35s and F/A-18s perform in humid air at the NAS Oceana Airshow:
www.reddit.com/r/aviation/c...
The result is some spectacular shots.

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ToughSF @toughsf.bsky.social · 3d

Mars scenes from McCall's 'Newer Worlds' gallery:
-Mars Arrival
-Another busy day on Mars (love the loader arms on the lander!)
-Mars Transfer Vehicle
#space #art
mccallstudios.com/newer-worlds/

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ToughSF @toughsf.bsky.social · 3d

TRW report on the APACHE laser:
apps.dtic.mil/sti/tr/pdf/A...
It combined the chemical laser technology from the ALPHA program with "nonlinear optical phase conjugation using stimulated Brillouin scattering" to create near-diffraction-limited quality beams for a space-based platform.

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ToughSF @toughsf.bsky.social · 3d

A record 33.1% efficiency from a tandem perovskite top cell with a silicon bottom cell:
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Flexible perovskite/silicon cells are also reaching 30% efficiency:
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

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ToughSF @toughsf.bsky.social · 3d

As you scale up a rocket, its mass ratio increases by a factor x^3/2. A huge enough design can reach SSTO levels of performance, like this Euclid ULLV concept for a 27m wide launcher with 20x STME engines, deliving 300 tons into orbit with 49 MN of thrust:
www.secretprojects.co.uk/threads/eucl...

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ToughSF @toughsf.bsky.social · 3d

Leaving the long rod behind for novel penetrators:
apps.dtic.mil/sti/tr/pdf/A...
Telescoping, segmented or tandem penetrators are more complicated but can punch through thicker or more advanced armor without increasing projectile weight or velocity.

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ToughSF @toughsf.bsky.social · 3d

Check out the 'SAVAGES' series, which features a highly realistic conflict that extends from Earth to Jupiter and plenty of hard-SF spaceship designs.
Here's the trailer:
youtu.be/NkF2zEzqWR4

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ToughSF @toughsf.bsky.social · 3d

The TPS-004 'GUNDIAL' tank, featuring lots of reactive armor modules, a huge gun in a circular turret and an additional twin-30mm turret on top.
#art by PAN SPATIAL Aerospace Concept Design.
www.artstation.com/artwork/QKB53L

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ToughSF @toughsf.bsky.social · 3d

The S1500 is the largest floating wind turbine ever launched.
It's 60m long, 40m in diameter and houses 12 turbine-generators in its annular duct, generating potentially 1.2 MWe travelling down a high voltage tether to the ground.
Belongs to Beijing SAWES Energy Technology Co.

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ToughSF @toughsf.bsky.social · 3d

A good introduction to nuclear thermal rockets, their rapid progress under project NERVA and why it's impossible to do something like that again today...
jordanwtaylor2.substack.com/p/light-the-...

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ToughSF @toughsf.bsky.social · 3d

This is the JSDF of 2140: a semi-autonomous warship constructed on the moon and escorting spacecraft with a 180mm railgun and multiple VLS cells.
Glowing hot radiator panels losing out to reflected sunlight is a nice touch.
#space #art by 篠乃丸＠綾香.
www.pixiv.net/en/artworks/...

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ToughSF @toughsf.bsky.social · 3d

SDI document detailing the High Endo-atmospheric Defense Interceptor (HEDI) upgrade to Brilliant Pebbles, and follow-up Ground-Based Free Electron Laser + Combat Mirror, Space-Based Laser and Orbital Particle Beam technologies for ICBM interception:
apps.dtic.mil/sti/pdfs/ADA...

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ToughSF @toughsf.bsky.social · 3d

Interesting description of a "Solar Photon Thruster", which is a variant on a solar sail with a second mirror to redirect light and therefore thrust in any direction:
apps.dtic.mil/sti/pdfs/ADA...
It's combined with a 'pole-sitting' statite concept.

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ToughSF @toughsf.bsky.social · 3d

The USS Montgomery is an Independence-class Littoral Combat Ship with a trimaran design. Here it is firing a Longbow Hellfire missile from a VLS cell at a land target for the first time:
youtu.be/i_6XHD86xc4
Multiple were launched and they struck within a second of each other.

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