#Tech Launch

[nasa]

Setting Sail to Travel Through Space: 5 Things to Know about our New Mission

Our Advanced Composite Solar Sail System will launch aboard Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket from the company’s Launch Complex 1 in Māhia, New Zealand no earlier than April 23, at 6 p.m. EDT. This mission will demonstrate the use of innovative materials and structures to deploy a next-generation solar sail from a CubeSat in low Earth orbit.

Here are five things to know about this upcoming mission:

1. Sailing on Sunshine

Solar sails use the pressure of sunlight for propulsion much like sailboats harness the wind, eliminating the need for rocket fuel after the spacecraft has launched. If all goes according to plan, this technology demonstration will help us test how the solar sail shape and design work in different orbits.

2. Small Package, Big Impact

The Advanced Composite Solar Sail System spacecraft is a CubeSat the size of a microwave, but when the package inside is fully unfurled, it will measure about 860 square feet (80 square meters) which is about the size of six parking spots. Once fully deployed, it will be the biggest, functional solar sail system – capable of controlled propulsion maneuvers – to be tested in space.

3. Second NASA Solar Sail in Space

If successful, the Advanced Composite Solar Sail System will be  the second NASA solar sail to deploy in space, and not only will it be much larger, but this system will also test navigation capabilities to change the spacecraft’s orbit. This will help us gather data for future missions with even larger sails.

4. BOOM: Stronger, Lighter Booms

Just like a sailboat mast supports its cloth sails, a solar sail has support beams called booms that provide structure. The Advanced Composite Solar Sail System mission’s primary objective is to deploy a new type of boom. These booms are made from flexible polymer and carbon fiber materials that are stiffer and 75% lighter than previous boom designs. They can also be flattened and rolled like a tape measure. Two booms spanning the diagonal of the square (23 feet or about 7 meters in length) could be rolled up and fit into the palm of your hand!

5. It’s a bird...it’s a plane...it’s our solar sail!

About one to two months after launch, the Advanced Composite Solar Sail System spacecraft will deploy its booms and unfurl its solar sail. Because of its large size and reflective material, the spacecraft may be visible from Earth with the naked eye if the lighting conditions and orientation are just right!

To learn more about this mission that will inform future space travel and expand our understanding of our Sun and solar system, visit https://www.nasa.gov/mission/acs3/.

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space!

[lilith-from-da-bible]

First digital fanart! Shout-out to EV3RSTØRM on YouTube for inspiring this drawing!

Guy that made the tech (EV3RSTØRM).

Guy that helped me understand it (Quickzanity)

[thisischeri]

iPhone 3GS, Apple, 2009

instagram: cheri.png

[2001hz]

Microsoft: Original Xbox launch special ad print in Official Xbox Magazine UK issue n°0 (2001)

[just-here-with-my-thoughts]

Bad Batch Season 3 Launch Party cupcakes and Mantell Mix ready to go!

[isalabells]

>> [Margo] seems to be such a tightly wound individual. So I was wondering if you could talk to us a little bit about the roots of her tension. Because she seems like there’s so much repression, she’s holding so much in, but she expresses it through little moments that mean volumes when they come from her.

In season 1, there is this really kind of dynamite scene between Molly Cobb and Margo. And it’s right after a sim goes wrong, and Molly storms out, and Margo says, ‘What are you doing in there?’ And essentially, Margo says, ‘No no no, you have to be perfect.’ There is no room for air because, you know, a guy can mess up and he’s gonna get ten more tries. A woman messes up once, and that’s, you know, you’re done. So I think to a certain degree what you are seeing is that [...] Margo has to play things close to the vest. Because she knows […] she can’t make a mistake. So I think in some ways what you are seeing is her tracking something, or maybe something flickering across her eyes where there’s a little bit of reaction, but then she’s gotta cover that. And I think what’s been kind of interesting is that you see for three seasons how that evolves, as she becomes more and more powerful, and also more and more seasoned. I think sometimes, too, another interesting thing is as you become more experienced, there are certain things that maybe you show a little bit more about what you think, because you’ve seen so much and there really isn’t someone that is above you anymore. But then, in season 4, because Margo’s kind of thrown back to the bottom of the pecking order, she really has to keep everything buttoned up. And I also think that’s because Margo’s playing the most intense game of chess. Literally her life is at stake. And I think once she’s been interrogated and then becomes part of Roscosmos, she just never knows how  the tectonic plates beneath her feet are shifting. I think that’s part of it, too – she doesn’t know how much of it is safe to share. She’s always been a very private person, but I think in season 4 it’s really– now I’m working for a woman who if you really cross her once, you’re gone. […] And that’s one of the reasons that I felt like it was so fun to play all of the scenes in episode 6, in the storage room. You get to see this picture of her, up close, where she’s not having to kind of mask what she thinks.

[avggendelmain]

Having like a transcendent experience from tennocon right now

[thecoffeelorian]

Crosshair only became "evil" because of his chip activation and the mindflayer machine, yet instead of discovering that machine's creation and restoring his reputation, he has to remain the "incurably evil monster" because...

CX-2's body type, movements, and mannerisms all scream that Tech might not be dead after all, yet instead of showing his face and proving that he needs help, he has to stay in the shadows because...

Echo had THE right idea all along by vocalizing his need to help the other Troopers; yet instead of acknowledging his good will and wishing him luck and safe travels, he has to be sighed at and accused of never being satisfied because...

Wrecker SHOULD have been given the chance to tell Crosshair all about his own chip activating and what it did to his emotions, yet he was relegated to armor delivery duty and not much else because...

Because...why, again...?

[hollowtones]

Watching the "Starfield" showcase thing and seeing individual mechanical or stylistic bits that make me go "oh this seems neat, oh this seems like it has potential" and then I remember it's a Bethesda game and I feel very cynical and sad. The bit about managing power levels in your ship made me want to play more "FTL", though.

[kitsoa]

The Dystopia That Made Trigun

Ya'll the problem with Triguns insanely long speculative sci-fi timeline is the conundrum of trying to imagine exactly how a dystopian Earth could get so bad that massive amounts of folks needed to yeet themselves blindly into space, but could become so advanced that they single-handedly solve the energy crisis and maybe confirm the existence of god at the same time.

I am not a very skilled dystopia engineer, and there are a lot of flavors but I'd like to think the revolution of Plants on Earth has the potential to alleviate a lot of the aggregators in a full (or seemingly imminent) societal collapse. I'm struggling to work ahead of late-stage capitalism doomer scenarios right now which maybe puts me at a century out. I'm placing Trigun's timeline at 5 centuries out, But the tech advancement can pause at like 3 centuries in since 2 of those are used for space travel before the Big Fall.

So let's hash this out together

Here's what advancements Project Seeds needs to launch:

bioengineering (prosthetics and augmentations)

cloning and gene editing capabilities

cryosleep technology

advanced space travel

gravity control

supercomputing

Here's the rough and estimated environmental factors to cause them to leave Earth:

Resource scarcity

Environmental decline (like global warming and loss of land, and mass extinction)

[speculative] imminent doom from societal factors [like nuclear war and geopolitical unrest]

We know based on the society formed on No Man's Land that capitalism is probably the most familiar and default system used by the immigrants. So we can assume that Project Seeds was created with wealthy benefactors at the helm not only looking for salvation but probably power and influence (cause capitalism gonna a capitalism)-- a true colonial expansion echo despite the optimism.

The Seeds Project strikes me as unaffiliated with a specific country or culture. JuLai and some of the ambiguous ethnicities and lingering languages suggest that it's multi-cultural with English being the primary influence. So it's not a state-sponsored project, but very likely independent-- another point to the wealthy benefactor line of thought. Despite that, those shuttles alone took decades to construct and governmental cooperation to launch so it couldn't have been a completely apolitical endeavor.

Then there's the population. The project's reach is insane, not just in talent, but passenger interest. I'm assuming children were not on board, so you are talking about countless able-bodied adults abandoning their lives knowingly for the promise of a better world. The environmental factors aside, the prep-time for the project had to have been decades in the making. That's a long time to keep the propaganda circling for the promise of better. That kind of interest fades as people age into different stages of life. (Depending on the scenarios we could be looking at a mass draft? Unlikely but very interesting). We know that the survivors of the Big Fall were not specifically tailored to create a society without the comforts they were bringing along or the government of No Man's Land would look a little more stable.

So, what kind of society could form such a vast space immigration project while simultaneously on the verge of collapse?

Well, a desperate one.

The logic follows that as the resources grow scarce and the inequality gaps create vast populations of suffering among disenfranchised people-- fascism rises, which broadly stymies innovation. It's a real roadblock to this scenario. So the jumpstart out of this would be either war or a scientific breakthrough-- or both. There's always going to be interest and innovation in DNA science as a part of the medical field. Even in heavy capitalism that is going to get a lot of money thrown at it. The only thing needed to create Plants is large leaps in gene editing and cloning.

I'll throw out a number, 50 years. We've got cloning and Jurassic Park stuff. Then boom. Angel Mummy discovery. Scientists create the First Entity. But at the same time, geopolitical tensions ramp up because of the destructive potential of this entity. (I mean the First Entity has the Drain ability, that's black hole powers. We're getting wars). But the Plants are developed off of that and the First Entity is destroyed in the Julai foreshadowing lab accident many years down the line. --We've solved the energy crisis and there is probably a huge boom in advancement-- probably those physic-defying advancements to boot. But we have our militaristic flashpoint in technological prosperity, all while the earth is raining hellfire, the cities are flooding, and mass extinction events are occurring. Enough to get Trillionaires with savior complexes to start making Project Seeds.

Aaaand they are probably funding the countless wars so people join the expedition.

Conclusion: Project Seeds is a corrupt colonial project manipulating the hopeful desperation of a beleaguered population, created by the ultra-wealthy to garner absolute control in a humanity reset.

Good thing Nai crashed the ships!

[bastardbvby]

hello my beloveds ive been mia but its because so many cool life things have been happening as i work on being an Influencer and i wanna share >:)

[nasa]

Moonbound: One Year Since Artemis I

On this day last year, the Artemis I rocket and spacecraft lit up the sky and embarked on the revolutionary mission to the Moon and back. The first integrated flight test of the rocket and spacecraft continued for 25.5 days, validating NASA’s deep exploration systems and setting the stage for humanity’s return to the lunar surface.

On Nov. 16, 2022, the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket met or exceeded all expectations during its debut launch on Artemis I. The twin solid rocket booster motors responsible for producing more than 7 million pounds of thrust at liftoff reached their performance target, helping SLS and the Orion spacecraft reach a speed of about 4,000 mph in just over two minutes before the boosters separated.

Quite a few payloads caught a ride aboard the Orion spacecraft on the Artemis I mission: In addition to a number of small scientific satellites called CubeSats, a manikin named Commander Moonikin Campos sat in the commander’s seat. A Snoopy doll served as a zero-gravity indicator — something that floats inside the spacecraft to demonstrate microgravity. 

During the mission, Orion performed two lunar flybys, coming within 80 miles of the lunar surface. At its farthest distance during the mission, Orion traveled nearly 270,000 miles from our home planet, more than 1,000 times farther than where the International Space Station orbits Earth. This surpassed the record for distance traveled by a spacecraft designed to carry humans, previously set during Apollo 13.

The Orion spacecraft arrived back home to planet Earth on Dec. 11, 2022. During re-entry, Orion endured temperatures about half as hot as the surface of the Sun at about 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit. Within about 20 minutes, Orion slowed from nearly 25,000 mph to about 20 mph for its parachute-assisted splashdown. 

Recovery teams successfully retrieved the spacecraft and delivered it back to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center for de-servicing operations, which included removing the payloads (like Snoopy and Commander Moonikin Campos) and analyzing the heat shield.  

With the Artemis I mission under our belt, we look ahead to Artemis II — our first crewed mission to the Moon in over 50 years. Four astronauts will fly around the Moon inside Orion, practicing piloting the spacecraft and validating the spacecraft’s life support systems. The Artemis II crew includes: NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, and CSA astronaut Jeremy Hansen. 

As we look ahead to Artemis II, we build upon the incredible success of the Artemis I mission and recognize the hard work and achievements of the entire Artemis team. Go Artemis!

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space!

[sagaduwyrm]

I just rewatched The Winter Soldier for the nth time and it's just such an amazing movie. The perfection of the weapons designed to 'stop threats before they can happen' shooting themselves down because they, and the philosophy they symbolize, are the real threat, and that Captain America, who uses a shield instead of a weapon, leads the charge against them. It messes me up every time.

[buttooti]

☆ Day Out! The Bad Batch Reusable Bag ☆

If you need them, they'll be there! Attach Lula on your bag and always have the batch with you in case you need them! ʕ ^ᴥ^ ʔ

Currently available for preorder on buttooti.com from today until September 29th! <33

[tatmanblue]

YPSat looks back to Earth from atop Ariane 6 by European Space Agency Via Flickr: An image of Earth acquired by the ESA Young Professionals Satellite payload, YPSat, attached to the upper stage of the inaugural Ariane 6 rocket, launched on 9 July 2024. The YPSat project represents the culmination of about two and a half years of dedication and hard work core team of about 30 Young Professionals from various ESA Establishments, Directorates and disciplines. Sacrificing their spare time, they shouldered the entire responsibility of designing, building and testing the payload before finally witnessing its successful launch. Learn more. Credits: ESA-YPSat

[poorvikasmartgadgets]

Vivo V40 Pro: The Ultimate Professional-Grade Smartphone

In the rapidly evolving world of smartphones, the Vivo V40 Pro stands out as a masterpiece of innovation and design. With its cutting-edge technology and professional-grade imaging capabilities, it’s a device that promises to redefine what we expect from a smartphone. Whether you're a photography enthusiast, a tech-savvy professional, or someone who demands the best in mobile technology, the Vivo V40 Pro has something to offer.

Professional-Grade Imaging with ZEISS Optics

The Vivo V40 Pro's exceptional imaging system, developed in collaboration with ZEISS, a name synonymous with high-quality optics. The ZEISS Multifocal Portrait and Telephoto Portrait Camera allow you to capture stunning portraits with remarkable detail and clarity. With the ZEISS Style Portrait feature, you can select from various professional bokeh effects, such as the Distagon, Sonnar, and Biotar, to bring out the best in your shots.

The Vivo V40 Pro is equipped with a 50 MP ZEISS Ultra Wide-Angle Camera and a 50 MP ZEISS OIS Main Camera, ensuring that every photo is sharp, vibrant, and rich in detail. Whether you're capturing expansive landscapes or intimate portraits, the V40 Pro's camera system delivers professional-grade results every time.

Sleek Design, Robust Durability

The Vivo V40 Pro isn't just about performance; it's also a design marvel. As India’s slimmest phone with a 5500mAh battery, it combines elegance with endurance. The 3D Curved Display enhances the phone’s visual appeal, while the IP68 Dust and Water Resistance ensures it can withstand the elements, making it both stylish and durable.

Available in Ganges Blue and Titanium Grey, the V40 Pro offers a choice of colors that are as sophisticated as they are unique. The Infinity Eye Camera Module Design adds a touch of luxury, making this smartphone not just a device but a statement.

Unmatched Performance with MediaTek Dimensity 9200+

Under the hood, the Vivo V40 Pro is powered by the MediaTek Dimensity 9200+ processor, a 4nm powerhouse that delivers flagship-grade performance. With an AnTuTu score of 1,590,000, this device is built to handle even the most demanding tasks with ease. Whether you're gaming, streaming, or multitasking, the V40 Pro ensures a smooth, lag-free experience.

The V40 Pro also features 12GB RAM with an additional 12GB of Extend RAM, giving you the freedom to run multiple apps simultaneously without any slowdown. With 512GB of internal storage, you'll have ample space for all your photos, videos, and apps.

Display and Sound: A Feast for the Senses

The Vivo V40 Pro's 1.5K Ultra Clear Sunlight Display is designed to impress, with a 120Hz refresh rate and 2800×1260 resolution that ensures vibrant, lifelike visuals. Whether you're watching videos, playing games, or simply browsing, the display remains clear and bright, even under direct sunlight.

For the first time in the V-series, the V40 Pro introduces dual stereo speakers, providing an immersive audio experience that complements its stunning visuals. Whether you're listening to music, watching movies, or playing games, the sound quality is rich, detailed, and truly immersive.

Advanced AI Features: Smarter and More Efficient

The Vivo V40 Pro is packed with advanced AI features designed to enhance your daily experience. The AI 3D Studio Lighting and AI Aura Light Portrait features ensure that your portraits look professional, even in challenging lighting conditions. The AI SuperLink and 360° Omnidirectional Antenna ensure that you're always connected, even in areas with weak signals.

With Funtouch OS 14, the V40 Pro offers a smooth, customizable user experience. From personalized lock screen styles to advanced multitasking capabilities, the V40 Pro is designed to adapt to your lifestyle, making every interaction seamless and intuitive.

Conclusion

The New Vivo V40 Pro smartphone has a professional-grade tool designed for those who demand the best. With its cutting-edge camera system, sleek design, robust performance, and advanced AI features, the V40 Pro is set to redefine the standards of mobile technology. Whether you're capturing stunning photos, enjoying immersive media, or staying connected on the go, the Vivo V40 Pro is the perfect companion for the modern professional.