Tuesday, February 23, 2016


''Togetherness''

This article,  published in the December 1960 issue of Aerospace Magazine, describes safety procedures for the correct handling of the Boeing BOMARC air defense missile during air transport. The tone of the article is unusual for such a subject -' 'As this article goes to press, the safety record of Bomarc airlifts can be summed up in four words: so far, so good. You may recall, however, the optimist who jumped off the top of a New York office building. He was heard to yell the same thing as he passed the 20th floor: so far, so good''
The writer of the article, some guy named Thomas Pynchon, quit Boeing in 1962 and went on to become a novelist of some renown.

Aerospace Safety Magazine, 12/1960, USAF

http://www.vheissu.net/bio/eng_togetherness.htm

Saturday, November 21, 2015


''Fallout Chic''



The result of a research contract awarded to Rice University, Department of Architecture by the US Civil Defense agency. Five architects designed fallout shelters for industrial buildings. 

Industrial Architecture : Fallout Shelters (1963)


https://archive.org/details/industrialarchit00lacyrich

Friday, August 21, 2015


''What's THIS button for?''


''Declassified nuclear weapons employment manuals from the Cold War.''

Nuclear weapons employment manuals 


Monday, August 17, 2015


''I visualize a time when we will be to robots what dogs are to humans, and I'm rooting for the machines''




''The book begins with researches in robot modelling & design, in which different approaches in kinematical, dynamical and other design issues of mobile robots are discussed. Modelling is a first step in designing a new system; kinematics is the most basic study of how mechanical systems behave. In mobile robotics, we need to understand the mechanical behaviour of the robot both in order to design appropriate robots for tasks and to understand how to create control software for an instance of mobile robot hardware. This chapter presents different researches in design of various robot systems.''

Cutting Edge Robotics (2005)

https://archive.org/details/ost-engineering-cutting-edge-robotics

Monday, August 10, 2015


''Fear of Frying''


Published in 2006, some thirty years after the last Apollo mission-
''The primary threat to astronauts from space radiation is high-energy charged particles, such as electrons, protons, alpha and heavier particles, originating from galactic cosmic radiation (GCR), solar particle events (SPEs) and trapped radiation belts in Earth orbit. There is also the added threat of secondary neutrons generated as the space radiation interacts with atmosphere, soil and structural materials.[1] For Lunar exploration missions, the habitats and transfer vehicles are expected to provide shielding from standard background radiation. Unfortunately, the Lunar Extravehicular Activity (EVA) suit is not expected to afford such shielding.'' 
Oh well.

Active Solid State Dosimetry for Lunar EVA, NASA 2006

https://archive.org/details/nasa_techdoc_20060013413

Tuesday, July 28, 2015


''Spam in a can''


The problem of prolonged, autonomous human existence in a space suit

(USSR, 1966)

''The authors consider the feasibility of maintaining the thermal balance of a cosmonaut in a space suit utilizing only physiological perspiration. Two series of tests were conducted in a thermal pressure chamber to determine the degree of intensity of physiological heat control and the performance capacity and the general condition of an organism. On the basis of the experiments it is asserted that for a period of 3 to 4 hours a man in a space suit is able to dissipate by the evaporation of perspiration 200-220 kcal/hr of heat produced either internally or externally. Thermal load is decreased, the duration a man can withstand such condition is greatly increased.''

https://archive.org/details/nasa_techdoc_19670017246

Tuesday, July 21, 2015


''In time, those Unconscionable Maps no longer satisfied...''


''If we are to discuss the limitations of simulation, we must define what simulation is. The literature in the field is of limited usefulness in tying down exactly what the term describes. The more recent the document, the more likely it is that the author will quote several alternate definitions, reject them all and proceed to develop his own definition which is more general and less restricting than any of those given. The use of the term "simulation" seems to outgrow even the broadest definition. I will not attempt a precise definition, but as an alternate will suggest that the history of the development of simulation as we know it today may be a less rigorous, but more satisfying way to describe simulation. The origins of simulation are generally traced to the work of Von Neuman and Ulman in the late 1940's. They coined the term "Monte Carlo Analysis" to describe a technique whereby essentially deterministic problems, too expensive or complex to solve analytically, could be solved by treating them as stochastic problems.''

The trend in simulation (Computers and Automation- January 1968, page 44)

https://archive.org/details/bitsavers_computersA_9729690