Thursday 30 January 2014

JIMO goes to Ganymede



Sunday 26 January 2014

Tax Trick


This marvelous pencil chainsaw could help fill in tax forms in record time.


Saturday 4 January 2014

Satellite around a Desert Planet


Satellite around a Desert Planet with a Frozen Moon nearby, and a Red Star in the background.

Wednesday 25 December 2013

Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter (JIMO)




The Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter (JIMO) was a proposed spacecraft designed to explore the icy moons of Jupiter. The main target was Europa, the suspected ocean of which is one of the places where simple alien life is a possibility in the Solar System. Ganymede and Callisto, which are now thought to have liquid, salty oceans beneath their icy surfaces, were also targets of interest for the probe.

JIMO was to have a large number of revolutionary features. Throughout its main voyage to the Jupiter moons, it was to be propelled by an ion propulsion system via either the HiPEP or NEXIS engine, and powered by a small fission reactor. A Brayton power conversion system would convert reactor heat into electricity. Providing a thousand times the electrical output of conventional solar or RTG based power system, the reactor was expected to open up opportunities like flying a full scale ice-penetrating radar system and providing a strong, high-bandwidth data transmitter.



Sunday 22 December 2013

Mir Space Station (3D Model)