USAF commercial mentions starships

a reply to: boomer135

Ain't that the truth. Wondering if she's ever gonna come back.

a reply to: Zaphod58


If or when. Lol

a reply to: boomer135

Yeah, that too. Haha. I bet they have made some serious progress though.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Yeah I tried to leave little clues in the post but I dunno if I left enough bread crumbs. I'm gunna leave it be and watch that angle of the thread unfold on its own.

*SIGH* I'm always the last to know anything...

a reply to: BASSPLYR

I don't see how airship to orbit really works. You need VELOCITY for orbit---orbits are only a little bit of UP, and a whole buttload of EAST. Airships can help with the UP.

But you'll still need to transport large masses of fuel and oxidizer and rocket yourself. Take a look at orbital rocket launches and see how soon they turn around to point going sideways. Yes, some of that huge stack of fuel is devoted to lifting itself and payload up, but plenty is devoted to getting speed for east.

I guess you could fly an airship up, motor to the equator, offload payload onto rocket docked to the station, etc, to get some energetic savings, but there are lots of practical engineering problems and things that could go wrong, and you'll still need something close to the size of conventional rockets anyway.


If you are connected to the air (and very light airships with nontrivial buoyancy can't help but be absolutely stuck to it), you go around the Earth every 24 hours unless you're flying with your motor on. If you're in orbit it's 90 minutes.

a reply to: Zaphod58

So that laser-guided adaptive optics for telescope----atmosphere is fluctuating, camera is stationary....

Reciprocity---atmosphere is (reasonably) stationary, but camera is fluctuating....

With or without phase-conjugate metamaterials?

originally posted by: boomer135

Later generals aid sitting in his office thinking "Hmmm...If only there was a new breakthrough in optics that could allow for cameras to never loose focus due to vibrations. Something that could auto focus super fast and stabilize the image better. "

As DC's usual spring thunderstorms interrupt another dreary day on the job he ponders the question while staring out his office window watching lightening crackle as rain drops collect on the window pane.

Funny you mention that. We do have an asset looking into that exact same thing....

This certainly picked my interest. Unless the aircraft is sitting on the ground shooting a hockey game i cannot see any practical application for fast autofocus?! Assuming the mission is planned ahead i cannot really see any real need for autofocus at all since target area and cruise altitude should allow that part of the equation to be removed. Unless a dive is used in order to create a "fake" weightless situation for camera stability, which i assume would be impractical at very high speed anyway. However, a brutal focal length combined with a very large optical front element could make manual set focus problematic but that would...eh, nah.

Please share any more details if you can?! :-)

Just thought I'd leave this right here.

a reply to: mbkennel

What your talking about with what I'm talking about combined with phased optical conjugation would make for one mean optic system that means business and can get the job done.

Very cool.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Oh I'll be listening. Better than coast to coast am.

a reply to: Zaphod58
I bet they sure have! Damn, it's raining again here.

a reply to: Zaphod58

How Awesome! I will listen to the show for the first time to hear this episode!

would something like this help take pictures if you were going super duper fast!

The Worlds fastest Camera

A joint venture by the University of Tokyo and Keio University, the new hardware uses a technology called Sequentially Timed All-optical Mapping Photography (STAMP). Its optical shutter shoots images consecutively in less than one-trillionth of a second at a resolution of 450 x 450 pixels. The researchers explain how it works:

Essentially, it does away with the need to repetitively acquire images, which means it can be up to 1000 times faster than usual high-speed cameras. It’s no looker or lightweight — it currently occupies a footprint about one square metre in size — but it is terribly fast

Original Source WSJ

originally posted by: Zaphod58
Just thought I'd leave this right here.

I am pleased to be the first to say that I am loving this show so far Zaph and applaud your contribution. I have a 2.5 year old running around wanting me to start races for him, is there a way to re-listen to these officially through an ATS platform or would I have to find it on Youtube or something?

a reply to: sputniksteve

Yeah. Good question. I'm missing out on the whole interview because my laptops sound card just blew out. And I don't have a smart phone. SO I'm really hoping there's a youtube uplink or something to watch the replay of this.

At least a transcription somewhere?

a reply to: BASSPLYR

So far you wouldn't have learned anything new apart from what you have read on here but it is cool to hear Zaphod talking about stuff we talk about. Mostly it is him discounting a lot of ideas that the others are suggesting Also dropping some knowledge on dem noobs.

It's a big download, but this should work for a week I was told.

Radio Show

originally posted by: lambchop
would something like this help take pictures if you were going super duper fast!

The Worlds fastest Camera

A joint venture by the University of Tokyo and Keio University, the new hardware uses a technology called Sequentially Timed All-optical Mapping Photography (STAMP). Its optical shutter shoots images consecutively in less than one-trillionth of a second at a resolution of 450 x 450 pixels. The researchers explain how it works:

Essentially, it does away with the need to repetitively acquire images, which means it can be up to 1000 times faster than usual high-speed cameras. It’s no looker or lightweight — it currently occupies a footprint about one square metre in size — but it is terribly fast

Original Source WSJ

Even video software such as this:
diydrones.com...

a reply to: sputniksteve

Since I can't listen whats he dismissed so far? Just curious.