Month: October 2019

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  This unusual-looking plane is called the Flying V, and it's a concept for a more efficient passenger airliner. [credit: Edwin Wallet/TU Delft ]

Dutch airline KLM turned 100 earlier this month and decided to give itself a birthday present: a shiny, sleek, futuristic-looking, sustainable aircraft. Or at least the possibility of one in 2040."This could be the next thing," says Dr. Roelf Vos, professor of Flight Performance and Propulsion at Delft University of Technology and the head researcher on the Flying V project. "It at least deserves some investigation."

The Flying V, touted in press releases as "revolutionary", is what is known as a blended wing body, or BWB, aircraft, which have no distinct wing and body structures like more conventional aircraft. The shape reduces drag, which means the plane needs less fuel to operate. TU Delft claims the Flying V will consume 20 percent less fuel than a similarly sized traditional aircraft. "These are estimates," cautions Vos. "We still have 5-10 years of research before we could test a full scale aircraft."

The design of the Flying V wasn't invented by Vos. Or even TU Delft or KLM; it was the idea of a Technical University of Berlin student Justus Benad, working on his thesis project at airplane maker Airbus. He tested a scale model in 2014 and Airbus patented the design, but didn't move further on the project. Vos saw the concept in a news article in 2015 and wondered if Benad's calculations were accurate. "I was skeptical," he said. He had two students review the concepts, one of whom went to Berlin to meet with Benad, and, together, they concluded the concept had potential.

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  Airstream is supplying Boeing with the Astrovan II as a transport to get astronauts to the CST-100 Starliner, once Boeing actually gets ready to launch one into space. [credit: Airstream ]

"Everything was better in the old days" can be an appealing sentiment, particularly in these trying times. It's not true, of course—everything wasn't better back in the day, and human memory is excellent at ignoring all the horrible, terrible bits and just hanging on to the happy ones. But that doesn't mean all progress is necessarily great, either. Exihibit A: Astrovan II, the new vehicle meant to transport NASA's astronauts to the launchpad of the still-not-ready CST-100 Starliner crewed capsule.

In the old days, when NASA still had its own crew-rated launch capability, those crews made the nine-mile journey to the launchpad in style. From 1984 until the end of the Space Shuttle program, that meant getting into a modified Airstream Excella RV, dubbed the Astrovan. Astronauts and Airstream have a fair amount of history—one of the company's distinctive shiny aluminum trailers was also used as the Mobile Quarantine Facility for the Apollo program. So when Boeing wanted a new transport for forthcoming NASA missions using the CST-100, it too turned to the Ohio-based manufacturer.

The result is Astrovan II, built on a modified Airstream Atlas Touring Coach, which itself begins life as a Mercedes-Benz Sprinter van chassis. "The original Astrovan played an important role in America’s Space Shuttle era. Many will remember seeing that familiar silver bullet exterior heading out to the launchpad at Kennedy Space Center. We’re excited for Astrovan II to continue Airstream’s part in helping put Americans into orbit," said Bob Wheeler, CEO and president of Airstream.

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  Jeff Bezos announces a team of US companies for NASA's Moon program. [credit: Trevor Mahlmann ]

On Tuesday, Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos announced that his company has a plan for NASA to return to the Moon by 2024. The company has assembled a proven team of US companies to design and build elements of a lunar landing system that will take humans from a high lunar orbit down to the Moon's surface.

"This is a national team for a national priority," said Bezos, announcing a partnership with three other companies—Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and Draper—to support NASA's Artemis Program.

Blue Origin will serve as the prime contractor, building the Blue Moon lunar lander as the "descent element" of the system to carry the mission down to the lunar surface. Bezos' company will also lead program management, systems engineering, and safety and mission assurance. Lockheed Martin will develop a reusable "ascent element" and lead crewed flight operations. Northrop Grumman will build the "transfer element," and Draper will lead descent guidance and provide flight avionics.

Enlarge (credit: Obsidian Entertainment)

Fallout Worlds is one of the best... ahem, sorry, I keep slipping with the name. This week's The Outer Worlds is a brand-new game, set in a brand-new universe, but in nearly every way that counts, it's a Fallout game.

For one, the team at Outer Worlds creators Obsidian Entertainment includes team members from the original Fallout's development. That team later stretched its "3D Fallout" wings in 2010 by making the revered Fallout: New Vegas. So much pedigree, plus a late-2018 trailer that looked Fallout as all get-out, set serious expectations for this week's game launch on Windows 10, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4.

Even if you were to start playing Outer Worlds oblivious to those facts, you wouldn't need long to feel a sense of déjà vu. The Bethesda series' trappings, for one, are all over this offline, single-player Obsidian game. Create a character with a wide range of combat and non-combat ratings—and make tough decisions on which of those abilities to spend the most points on. Then dive into a first-person RPG where the game teases a ridiculous number of options and strategies to proceed.