Talk-Polywell.org

Reaction Engines appears to be doing quite well. The pre-cooler which is the truly novel piece enabling their revolutionary engine has been tested, and further studies have found the Skylon concept to be sound. It is a solid idea with many fundamental advantages over conventional chemical rocketry.

It is sad that aerospike engines remain virtually undeveloped after so many decades. Modern metallurgy and manufacturing are almost certainly capable of solving the issues at this point. A printed spike with integrated cooling channels looks like one option, and SpaceX would be well positioned to pursue this. Given their success with printed engines, I'd be surprised if they haven't at least given it some thought.

Carl White wrote:Was there something wrong with the thread I started a few days ago? Days without comments, then someone else posts the same article and off the discussion goes?

If people are ignoring what I post, just let me know and I'll stop.

I too had looked into this thread because I was hoping it was news regarding a reboot of the "Firefly" tv show. I was disappointed that it wasn't.





I had previously seen the news about Firefly competing with SpaceX and I thought your posting was stuff I had already read elsewhere. There was no offense intended towards you.

There is a limited run mini-series Firefly being considered but it is waiting on Nathan Fillion because of his Castle role, and Joss Whedon because of his involvement in Shield. They've both said they want to do it and apparently they even may bring Shepard Book and Wash back, which would place it before Serenity.

It was my understanding that Walsh, and the Shepherd were reluctant to continue on with the series as they had other projects in mind. Josh Whedon graciously let them out by killing them in the movie finale.

If you listen to the director's comments on the Firefly DVD set, Whedon was very direct that he killed off Shepard Book because he still hadn't decided what to do with the character, despite it was one of his favorites. Wash he killed off because the actor was a pain in the ass to work with, since he seldom knew his lines. Actors don't have a hard job. You'd think they'd come to the set prepared.

Joss made news some months back with this:

http://www.buzzfeed.com/ellievhall/no-b ... ss-is-boss

and there's this: http://insidetv.ew.com/2014/02/12/firef ... ed-series/

Carl White wrote:Was there something wrong with the thread I started a few days ago? Days without comments, then someone else posts the same article and off the discussion goes?

If people are ignoring what I post, just let me know and I'll stop.

Carl,
Think "Headline". "Firefly News". Quite alluring, no?

This is very nicely done:

http://www.fireflyspace.com/vehicles/firefly-b

I'm impressed with these folks. Like Elon Musk, Thomas Markusik is beginning with first principles and looking at how to build the most efficient rocket he can. Filament winding the casings and using self-pressurizing methane aerospikes is inspired, and he's building these so small they'll be very cheap to transport back for remanufacturing. I can't help but wonder if he doesn't plan to tail land them. Guess we'll find out.

http://www.fireflyspace.com/vehicles/firefly-b