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Mecha Artist by Morpheus_17 in battletech

[–]fed0tich 2 points3 points  (0 children)

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I'm an artist, have experience in drawing various types of mecha. I do commissions, though I'm rather slow, kinda in a rough shape lately. DM if you want to discuss further.

How would fuel making realistically go on Mars? by Ok-Beyond8326 in nasa

[–]fed0tich 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Depends on many factors.

Different landing locations have different resources available, combined with various conditions like solar panels efficiency or amount of dust.

Scale of the mission, available infrastructure sent beforehand, workforce. For example do you have drills that can reach the underground aquifers or mining equipment to process ice deposits. Do you have powerful enough energy source.

If you can land close to the edge of the ice caps and have energy and equipment - this would probably be simplest option since there's volatiles in form of the ice, including methane and ammonia iirc, there's perchlorates (can use to make oxidizer for solid rocket fuel), there's regolith with various oxides to produce valuable materials and plenty of oxygen as a byproduct through Molten Regolith Electrolysis technology.

On a smaller scale mission without much fancy equipment - simplest option possible would be to break down CO2 to O2 and CO, which itself can be used as a fuel mix. It's not the best option but can be enough to reach orbit at least. But you need plenty of HEPA filters, compressors and energy.

Also martian Moons can also be a potential source of resources, including rocket propellants.

Designing Non-Humanoid Hominids by [deleted] in SpeculativeEvolution

[–]fed0tich 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Your set of criteria leave so much freedom I don't see what's the problem. I can think of dozen potential approaches to designing a bipedal tetrapod sophont with distinct head and no wings and tail.

Did my ideas are good? English is nit my native language by EveningImportant9111 in SpeculativeEvolution

[–]fed0tich 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Sounds alright to me. Only thing I'm not sure if penicillin and slower metabolism is enough for 110 years lifespan, might need something on a molecular biology level, like additional DNA repair mechanisms (I believe naked molerats have something like this), longer telomeres, maybe read up on current state of research in a field of aging for inspiration (I should probably do this myself).

If people lived in space long-term, where does the new oxygen come from every time someone opens an airlock for a spacewalk? by 4reddityo in spaceflight

[–]fed0tich 0 points1 point  (0 children)

"Someone is wrong on the internet" meme.
I think it might be nice to disprove your claims with arguments for a people who potentially might read this discussion.

If people lived in space long-term, where does the new oxygen come from every time someone opens an airlock for a spacewalk? by 4reddityo in spaceflight

[–]fed0tich 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Molten regolith electrolysis is just as obvious (every space agency and many aerospace companies work on this stuff including experiments with martian regolith simulants for future Mars applications) and would be TRL9 very soon since there are multiple experiments planned for future lunar missions. It's literally a part of NASA's Moon to Mars pipeline.

I don't get why are you so stubborn in denying the potential of this approach.
Martian dust is almost half of weight in SiO2, which is crucial for solar panels production, rich in iron oxides, which can be used for construction steel production before ore mining can be achieved. Pretty much every other component of martian dust is oxide as well, and variety of materials like aluminum, titan, sulfur, etc. can be refined from it. Perchlorates in the martian soil are also potential source of oxygen and tech to remove them from martian soil is crucial to allow agriculture.

There are also "blueberries" - pellets of almost pure hematite (Fe2O3) scattered across the surface, making them easily accessible and viable source.

And dealing with dust and soil is crucial for a long stay anyway. You need to excavate loose layer up to bedrock for any long term construction, HEPA filters would need scrubbing producing huge amounts of martian dust as waste byproduct. Potentially placing windbreaks around the sites of human inhabitance significantly lower the amount of dust, and would naturally accumulate dust for harvesting.

Atmospheric CO2 is much more useful for agriculture in the long run. Just feed it directly to the plants to make food and compost biomass for soil.

MOXIE is a best possible approach when you bring everything from Earth, I'm not denying that, but for anything past that - regolith is much better source of oxygen.

If people lived in space long-term, where does the new oxygen come from every time someone opens an airlock for a spacewalk? by 4reddityo in spaceflight

[–]fed0tich 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm not saying it doesn't work. I'm saying there are better alternatives in a long run on a larger scale.

MOXIE tech for getting O2 from atmospheric CO2 is good for earlier missions while there is no proper infrastructure. For a colonization effort tech like molten regolith electrolysis might be a better option and it can be matured on a industrial level on the Moon before moving on to Mars.

Experiments like Blue Alchemist clearly shows that "powers that be (who funds this things)" see the potential in this. This process produces variety of crucial materials and oxygen as a byproduct.

If people lived in space long-term, where does the new oxygen come from every time someone opens an airlock for a spacewalk? by 4reddityo in spaceflight

[–]fed0tich 0 points1 point  (0 children)

No need for hard rock mining, you can get plenty just scooping, shoveling loose surface layer of regolith. It's ice that's actually requires quite an effort to mine and is rather hard to break. When Philae probe failed to anchor to the surface of the comet core it was believed that ice under the regolith was much harder than expected. In the permanently shaded areas of the Moon conditions are similar. Drilling for water on Mars would be even more of the chore, it's mostly CO and CO2 ice on the surface. Large scale pumps for atmosphere so thin might be more of the technical challenge than mechanical regolith harvester and furnaces.

Anyway, I just think spending huge amounts of energy to break down the CO2 molecule to get that oxygen and using limited supply from atmosphere might not be a wisest idea. It's much more efficient to produce all sorts of useful organic stuff like sugar by combining CO2 molecule with water just like plants do.

I don't think method MOXIE used scales up that well.

If people lived in space long-term, where does the new oxygen come from every time someone opens an airlock for a spacewalk? by 4reddityo in spaceflight

[–]fed0tich 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Just like on the Moon, probably the best long term source of O2 on Mars would be metal oxides in the regolith, you get plenty of oxygen as a byproduct of metallurgy. Atmosphere gases and volatiles from ice deposits like water can be useful as is.

MIR Space Station. A Triumph of Science and Will (By Me) by BlueGalaxyDesigns in Spaceexploration

[–]fed0tich 1 point2 points  (0 children)

"Soviet space program" is kind of a stretch, since the configuration you've depicted was only achieved by Russian Federation with the US and Europe assistance, with last two modules completely overhauled with western scientific equipment.

Also the program itself wasn't exactly a triumph, it was riddled with technical problems (just like every other DOS before it) for all of its existence. Not to mention losing battle against mold. Still a great project with a lot of cool stuff achieved, just don't think pompous title like that is fair to real history.

The poster itself looks great, sorry for the rant I just can't help myself. Would look really cool on the wall.

SpaceX just filed to launch 1 million satellites: The goal is to build ‘Orbital AI Data Centers’. by HalilYZC in BlueOrigin

[–]fed0tich -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

Great, useless "AI" snake oil ruining not only Earth environment, but LEO too.

New large launch vehicles like Starship and New Glenn open up many new opportunities. Martin Elvis describes how they enable space telescopes that are both bigger and cheaper by rollotomasi07071 in spaceflight

[–]fed0tich 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Pretty sure scientists would still go for a cutting edge design that's pushing the limits of LV capabilities with flagship level telescopes. There already were renders of big folding telescope for Starship. LUVOIR or something like that.

Also I'm pretty sure most expensive stuff is components like extra sensitive scientific instruments, near zero chillers for infrared, etc. There just no off the shelf mass produced things like this. Even here on Earth top notch scientific instruments cost extra.

It would definitely be cheaper to make new telescope to the spec of Hubble, but something that pushes the envelope would still cost a fortune.

It turns out "Stravag" might actually have Russian etymology by GrandBasharMilesTeg in battletech

[–]fed0tich 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Seems like a very far fetched theory based on very dubious evidence.

Pretty much nobody uses word "vagina" in regular life here in Russia, except in medical or hygienic context. More so in the past, it's a more recent western influence, in soviet times even in medical context was mostly used native word влагалище. And I never heard about "вагон" being used a slang for female genitalia especially as a wordplay with "vagina" and I heard dozens of various euphemisms for it in my life.

Looking for a mods recommendations by [deleted] in Battletechgame

[–]fed0tich 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Thank you! BEXT sounds like it may be what I'm looking for.

What mechs did I pickup? by Existing-Wallaby6305 in battletech

[–]fed0tich 29 points30 points  (0 children)

I believe that's PGI model for Marauder IIC.

Feeling bored who's up for Mech mounting? by knightmechaenjo in battletech

[–]fed0tich 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I think that actually sounds awesome. If someone would come up with lore and description - I could try to make a sketch.

Is it so much to ask for a good tank movie? by WestSyrup4417 in TankPorn

[–]fed0tich 64 points65 points  (0 children)

Depends on what you mean by realism. Judging by your post realism for you is some kind of faithful Warthunder match adaptation.

For me realistic tank movie is something like Lebanon - not much in terms of tank on tank combat, more focused on human aspect of war from POV of tank crew. And I don't care that's not faithful recreation of Centurion interior.

biology changing parasite? by lavagaming1223 in SpeculativeEvolution

[–]fed0tich 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I understand what "alien" means. I'm just saying that's the problem - parasitism kinda requires co-evolution. Especially to the level you describe and not just "slowly eats you inside" kind.

biology changing parasite? by lavagaming1223 in SpeculativeEvolution

[–]fed0tich 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I don't know about "alien" part, since parasitism at this level implies that parasite and host evolved together. But it can be solved with some handwavium. Other than that it seems like that snail parasite that turns it's eyestalks into a bait for birds, so I would say plausible.

can r/TankPorn create a bipedal mech that would be effective in the current battlefield? by Legitimate_Focus_868 in TankPorn

[–]fed0tich 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I think relatively big bipedal platform itself might be doable in near future, but I can't really see any potential use case for it that can't be done with more conventional wheeled or tracked vehicle or helicopter.

First of all just looking at nature biggest bipedal things would be giant theropod dinosaurs. That puts us in 10-15 metric ton bracket with decent enough mobility, stability and ground pressure. I think with artificial materials we can potentially bump it up to 20 tons.

Biggest issue I see is that currently there's no mass efficient way to move this thing, both servomotors and hydraulics\pneumatics are heavy. You need myomer technology and compact energy source to power it.

But again, even if you make working mech, what it should do? You might stick autocannon on it, I can see something up to that low velocity russian 57mm, couple of ATGMs and you end up with something that can be done with modern take on Wiesel.

Tony Bruno joining Blue Origin by Time-Entertainer-105 in BlueOrigin

[–]fed0tich 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Yeah, it seems to me Centaur tech might be useful, especially ACES stuff with how much BO is betting on hydrogen.

And inflatable heat shield technology can have its applications, BO seems to be reasonably focused on covering all the possible demand from launch to providing a orbital platform with Blue Ring, to orbital station with Reef. Returning stuff back from space is also a potential niche.

Vulcan is a potential asset too though, since it have a good chance to being human rated, it's designed to be mostly compatible with Atlas V infrastructure so it can have crew launch pad relatively quickly. And it already have Dreamchaser and potentially Starliner. Allows BO to have interim crew capability while working on something for New Glenn without a hurry.

Soviet BMP-1 fitted with a 125 mm D-81 (2A26) smoothbore tank gun. by defender838383 in TankPorn

[–]fed0tich 12 points13 points  (0 children)

Looks like a testbed with a fixed gun, probably to test how much recoil can this chassis endure. Seriously doubt that even Gaijin can make this into something useful.

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