ToughSF

ToughSF

@toughsf.bsky.social

Matterbeam. Author of the ToughSF blog. Original SuperNerd. Ex-Kurzgesagt Duck. Freelance writer. Discord https://discord.gg/nXvRPcE7uU

6,116 Followers 144 Following 3,368 Posts Joined May 2023
2 days ago
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A swarm of lightsail probes launched from the Moon ride a gigantic laser beam up to interstellar velocity.

The lunar surface is great because it allows the use of lasers without impedance or distortion.
#space #art by Matija Tomšić.
www.artstation.com/artwork/4NGdvq

38 8 0 1
3 days ago
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Gundam 00 features a world where burning fossil fuels has been supplanted by orbital rings beaming down solar power, supported by three elevators topped with huge habitats.
This has a destabilizing effect on Earth, leading to many wars.
Here's their first episode appearance:

40 10 0 0
3 days ago
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MDA/DoD test of a ballistic missile interception over Guam:
youtu.be/OlIogEAesU4
An SM-3 Block IIA got a direct hit with its exo-atmospheric KKV on a Medium Range Ballistic Missile launched mid-air by a C-17, under end-to-end guidance of an AN/TPY-6 radar for the first time.

15 2 0 0
3 days ago
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More concept art from Season 5 of the Expanse, detailing a Belter torpedo, a rescue drone with vacuum tent, a transprter and a UNN Watchtower satellite.
#space #art by Lee Fitzgerald.
www.artstation.com/artwork/Qn9vVd

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3 days ago
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Review and optimization of the many film cooling and internal circulation techniques for permitting turbine blades to operate far above their own melting points:
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

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4 days ago
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𝘙𝘦𝘫𝘰𝘪𝘤𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘌𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘩
Peter Elson’s stunning paintings for Kim Stanley Robinson’s 𝘔𝘢𝘳𝘴 trilogy depict a planet transformed by terraforming. But in the march issue of 𝘖𝘥𝘺𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘺, we ask whether it is planet Earth that is now most in need of terraforming.

58 8 2 1
4 days ago
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Orion nuclear pulse drives are powerful *despite* their design. The energy efficiency of the 10m diameter USAF design was just 0.78%, as the 1 kT pulse yield converted into 2 MN thrust at 3350s Isp.
www.projectrho.com/public_html/...

Animation @brianmcmanus.bsky.social: youtu.be/EVwlTsa9oMM

52 6 1 0
5 days ago
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DLR's Reusability Flight Experiment is a 400 kg, 2.7 m long flying testbed for hypersonic reentry and autonomous flight, launched to 130 km altitude by a VSB-30 Brazilian sounding rocket:
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
No parachute or landing gear, so it aims for crash ending.

22 7 0 0
5 days ago
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The Porsche 917 LH (Long Tail) was a lengthened version of the 917 that aimed for lower drag at high speeds.
It would achieve 386 km/h on the 6 km long Mulsanne Straight in 1971, using a 600 horsepower flat-12 engine.

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5 days ago
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Orion I, a transporter ship inspired by Syd Mead's work, done in Blender 3.6
#space #art by Isaiah.
www.artstation.com/artwork/x3nb5R

46 7 0 0
5 days ago
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DART's impactor shifted asteroid Dimorphos' velocity by 2.7 mm/s.
Based on an asteroid density of 1500 to 3300 kg/m^3, that means the momentum enhancement factor is 2.2-4.9x thanks to kinetic energy ejecting additional debris upon impact:
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

16 4 0 1
5 days ago
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France and the US are working on certifying the Rafale for refueling F/A-18s:
theaviationist.com/2025/05/17/r...
Testing is being done by the Flight Test Division of the Direction Générale de l’Armement and U.S. Navy’s Air Test and Evaluation Squadron VX-23.

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5 days ago
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Watch the smoke trail from the flares reveal the massive vortices and turbulent wake of the F-22 Raptor as it shows off its post-stall maneuverability:
youtu.be/xvQUwmP0eXE

12 1 0 0
5 days ago
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Concept art for a MU/TH/UR computer room, meant for Predator: Badlands.
#art by Sean Hargreaves
www.artstation.com/artwork/YG92o6

27 3 0 0
5 days ago
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Combining the output of many single fiber lasers into a single large beam is a reliable path towards high efficiency, high-quality easy to cool lasers scaling beyond 100 kW:
www.mdpi.com/2304-6732/8/...
Pulsed lasers can be combined too, but you also need to get the timing right.

18 4 2 1
5 days ago
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There's a nucleus at the center of atoms then a cloud of electrons all around.

But reality isn't so neat.

For example, the 'halo nucleus' with protons/neutrons sitting just a few femtometers outside the nucleus. It's usually a neutron halo that lasts for a few milliseconds.

11 1 0 0
5 days ago
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The "botanipunk" worldbuilding and tool concepts make for a very unique aesthetic here!
#art by @chromamoma.bsky.social for a personal project.
www.artstation.com/artwork/nJ9bZr

32 4 0 0
5 days ago
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Reducing the convergence ratio in hotspot ignition inertial confinement ratio by replacing the solid DT ice layer at the capsule wall with liquid DT:
firefusionpower.org/IAEA_2018_Li...
Lower ratios decrease intensity and implosion velocity requirements, but comes with complications.

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5 days ago
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The HC-130P/N "King" extended-range variant of the C-130 Hercules is dedicated to assisting Search And Rescue efforts, seen here refueling HH-60G Pave Hawk helicopters.
www.af.mil/About-Us/Fac...
It even got to serve as space flight support for NASA.

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5 days ago
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Plasmonic metasurfaces with ~100 nm features for converting light into electricity:
pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...
99% absorption from IR to UV is possible with multilayered W/SiC/SiO2, boosting traditional PV or building solar-thermoPV with 85% efficiency potential.

12 3 0 0
5 days ago
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The Titanic had hidden mounts for guns so it could be converted into an armed merchant ship, as required by British law.

Her sister ship HMS Olympic did get to serve as an armed troopship, got painted in dazzle camo, and sunk German submarine SM U-103 by ramming it.

26 3 0 1
5 days ago
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The 'Nexus Ship' created for Reikon Games. Perhaps that's a debris shield in front.
#space #art by Tim Zanconato.
www.artstation.com/artwork/mAeL1Z

31 6 0 0
5 days ago
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Out of the 63 countries with positive organic population growth in the world, 42 are in Africa.

Many of its cities have seen incredible expansion in the past decades, multiplying 10x, 30x or 90x over their size in 1950.

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5 days ago
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Returning 100 kB of data from Proxima Centauri, when you have only a 1 gram probe with 10 mW of power, is about a BILLION times more difficult than communicating with New Horizons past Pluto.

31 5 1 0
5 days ago
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Here is how the nuclear rocket engine will work:
youtu.be/eDNX65d-FBY
A NASA/AEC animation for a regeneratively cooled nuclear-thermal rocket with graphite-uranium core, from 1958.

17 1 0 0
5 days ago
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Under the overpass, in the glow of neon lights.
#art by Matvey Radkov.
www.artstation.com/artwork/4Nn1nW

14 3 0 0
6 days ago

Well, they lived several levels underground in the previous season, which is more than enough protection if they spend a good % of their time there.

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6 days ago
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According to the For All Mankind official 2004-2012 timeline, 'Iridium' has become the unobtanium that justifies the space economy, Mars habs above ground are protected by magnetic shielding and there's an interplanetary illegal immigration problem with stowaways:
youtu.be/sjQmbeoiMOM

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6 days ago
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6 days ago
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Quaia is an all-sky quasar map showing over 1.2 million active supermassive black holes detected by the Gaia mission:
iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3...
It's the catalog with the "largest total volume of the universe mapped".

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