#high payload

[commercialvehicle1]

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[historyofguns]

The article "Convair B-58 Hustler — The Strategic Bomber Built to End the World" by Will Dabbs, MD, published in "The Armory Life," discusses the history and technical characteristics of the Convair B-58 Hustler, a Cold War-era strategic bomber designed for high-altitude, high-speed missions. Initially intended to perform a singular mission focused on nuclear delivery, the B-58 was engineered for speed and operated at Mach 2 and 70,000 feet. Despite its advanced design, including features like a delta wing and the use of four General Electric J79 engines, the aircraft faced limitations, such as vulnerability to surface-to-air missiles and challenging flight characteristics. The article details several engineering challenges, such as crew safety at high speeds, and mentions its operational history, highlighting it was never used in combat and was phased out due to the evolving nature of aerial threats. The piece emphasizes the B-58's role in America's nuclear triad and its iconic status as a technological marvel of its time.

[techdriveplay]

2024 Isuzu D-MAX LS-U+ – TDP Review

[lesbianbishounen]

getting back into ffxiv pvp for the first time since endwalker came out and maybe i just havent played enough of it yet but man crystalline conflict just does not do it for me. its not even that i dislike it its just that it usually just makes me go “man i miss playing splatoon”. meanwhile frontlines feels like im doing rabid wolf pack rp

[noohyah]

Is The 2019 GMC Sierra 3500HD Denali Dually 6.6L Duramax Diesel Right For You?

If you are looking for a heavy-duty truck that can handle any job, you might want to consider the 2019 GMC Sierra 3500HD Denali Dually 6.6L Duramax Diesel.  This truck is not only powerful and capable but also luxurious and comfortable.  It has a stunning exterior design, a spacious and refined interior, and a host of advanced features and technologies.  But is this truck right for you?  In this…

[nasa]

What We Learned from Flying a Helicopter on Mars

The Ingenuity Mars Helicopter made history – not only as the first aircraft to perform powered, controlled flight on another world – but also for exceeding expectations, pushing the limits, and setting the stage for future NASA aerial exploration of other worlds.

Built as a technology demonstration designed to perform up to five experimental test flights over 30 days, Ingenuity performed flight operations from the Martian surface for almost three years. The helicopter ended its mission on Jan. 25, 2024, after sustaining damage to its rotor blades during its 72nd flight.

So, what did we learn from this small but mighty helicopter?

We can fly rotorcraft in the thin atmosphere of other planets.

Ingenuity proved that powered, controlled flight is possible on other worlds when it took to the Martian skies for the first time on April 19, 2021.

Flying on planets like Mars is no easy feat: The Red Planet has a significantly lower gravity – one-third that of Earth’s – and an extremely thin atmosphere, with only 1% the pressure at the surface compared to our planet. This means there are relatively few air molecules with which Ingenuity’s two 4-foot-wide (1.2-meter-wide) rotor blades can interact to achieve flight.

Ingenuity performed several flights dedicated to understanding key aerodynamic effects and how they interact with the structure and control system of the helicopter, providing us with a treasure-trove of data on how aircraft fly in the Martian atmosphere.

Now, we can use this knowledge to directly improve performance and reduce risk on future planetary aerial vehicles.

Creative solutions and “ingenuity” kept the helicopter flying longer than expected.

Over an extended mission that lasted for almost 1,000 Martian days (more than 33 times longer than originally planned), Ingenuity was upgraded with the ability to autonomously choose landing sites in treacherous terrain, dealt with a dead sensor, dusted itself off after dust storms, operated from 48 different airfields, performed three emergency landings, and survived a frigid Martian winter.

Fun fact: To keep costs low, the helicopter contained many off-the-shelf-commercial parts from the smartphone industry - parts that had never been tested in deep space. Those parts also surpassed expectations, proving durable throughout Ingenuity’s extended mission, and can inform future budget-conscious hardware solutions.

There is value in adding an aerial dimension to interplanetary surface missions.

Ingenuity traveled to Mars on the belly of the Perseverance rover, which served as the communications relay for Ingenuity and, therefore, was its constant companion. The helicopter also proved itself a helpful scout to the rover.

After its initial five flights in 2021, Ingenuity transitioned to an “operations demonstration,” serving as Perseverance’s eyes in the sky as it scouted science targets, potential rover routes, and inaccessible features, while also capturing stereo images for digital elevation maps.

Airborne assets like Ingenuity unlock a new dimension of exploration on Mars that we did not yet have – providing more pixels per meter of resolution for imaging than an orbiter and exploring locations a rover cannot reach.

Tech demos can pay off big time.

Ingenuity was flown as a technology demonstration payload on the Mars 2020 mission, and was a high risk, high reward, low-cost endeavor that paid off big. The data collected by the helicopter will be analyzed for years to come and will benefit future Mars and other planetary missions.

Just as the Sojourner rover led to the MER-class (Spirit and Opportunity) rovers, and the MSL-class (Curiosity and Perseverance) rovers, the team believes Ingenuity’s success will lead to future fleets of aircraft at Mars.

In general, NASA’s Technology Demonstration Missions test and advance new technologies, and then transition those capabilities to NASA missions, industry, and other government agencies. Chosen technologies are thoroughly ground- and flight-tested in relevant operating environments — reducing risks to future flight missions, gaining operational heritage and continuing NASA’s long history as a technological leader.

You can fall in love with robots on another planet.

Following in the tracks of beloved Martian rovers, the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter built up a worldwide fanbase. The Ingenuity team and public awaited every single flight with anticipation, awe, humor, and hope.

Check out #ThanksIngenuity on social media to see what’s been said about the helicopter’s accomplishments.

Learn more about Ingenuity’s accomplishments here. And make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space!

[fadedtoneverland]

gamer boyfriend | j.yh

synopsis: yunho’s on an overwatch game with his best friends. despite wanting to get some good rounds in, his sexy girlfriend just had to come ruin his winning streak in the sexiest way possible

pairing: gamer boyfriend!yunho x fem!reader (ft. gamer!woosan)

theme: smut ❣︎

a/n: originally was gonna be a timestamp fic… but i made it too long 💔 enjoyyy~

cw: smut, cockwarming, hickeys and marking, unprotected sex (wrap it up!!), cumming inside, praise, slight exhibitionism, manhandling near the end

cockwarming gamer!yunho while he’s in a game with his friends…

your boyfriend just wanted to hang with his homies. get in a couple of good rounds on overwatch, and slowly climb up the ranks.

yunho’s fingers tapped furiously across his special LED keyboard, subtly glowing a rainbow hue underneath the keypads. his tongue stuck out in concentration, trying to deal with the enemy team ambushing their payload.

“this fuckin’ reaper is flanking me,” yunho murmured, his voice sounding almost too strained. “woo! i need some help here!”

“at your service, pookie~!” wooyoung chimed in cheerily, currently playing as mercy and diving in to save yunho’s doomfist.

“please never say pookie again, wooyoung.” san piped in the voice call, taking out some enemies from afar as hanzo.

the game was tense and high stakes, at least in the world of gamers. yunho narrowed all of the energy and hand-eye coordination skill he could trying to complete the task, determined to keep his and his friend’s clean win streak so far.

and yunho was pretty determined to complete this, almost… too determined.

and when he gets too determined on something, you just have to come ruin his peace.

“damn, yuyu. you must be locked in! you’re barely sayin’ anything.” wooyoung laughed while juking some of the enemy team players.

yunho strained a smile, acting like wooyoung could see it despite being on voice call. “yeah- that’s exactly it.”

he was mustering up every ounce of self-control to keep his voice from straining, considering the fact that his incredibly hot girlfriend was currently cockwarming him. straddling his lap and buried her face into the crook of his neck.

you chuckled naughtily when you faintly heard wooyoung’s comment from yunho’s headset, nuzzling even further into yunho’s neck.

“you’re doing so good, baby,” you whispered into his creamy skin, nipping at his neck and leaving blossoming marks. “just gotta make sure they don’t notice. make sure you win this game, yeah?”

yunho’s right hand practically clawed at his mouse, the other tapping the WASD keys furiously as he steeled his nerves to make sure he didn’t fucking lose it right then and there. you always that this way of swaying him even when he’s most composed, like a damn siren. he is but a weak man, and only for you.

and yunho could barely keep himself straight, not when your sweet pussy was clenching around his thick shaft so good that fireworks exploded behind his eyelids. your juices dripped down his balls, and he could feel every fucking second of it, barely resisting the urge to just fuck up into you.

too distracted, yunho took some damage from an ambushing genji, and barely recovered in time. san noticed too, and quirked an eyebrow from the other side.

“ayo get your head in the game, yuyu! you were so locked in earlier. we’re so close to finishing this thing!” san reminded, speeding up ahead to clear up the pathway for the payload.

“yeah, yunho.” you sighed quietly, the sound way too filthy against the shell of his ear.

“get your head in the game.”

yunho grit his teeth even harder, starting to get irritated that your cunt was costing him the game.

“i know,” yunho groaned into the mic. “just— more jittery than usual- i guess.. agh—“

“you good, man?” wooyoung chirped through the speaker. “you sound out of breath… are you sick or something?”

shit. they were onto him now. god, why couldn’t they play animal crossing. yunho felt like his entire dignity was on the line, and it pretty much was at the moment.

you clenched harder around him as he almost replied to wooyoung, and he barely got his voice straight. “shit— i’m fine… just- just really into this round right now.”

“mhm, sure man.” san sarcastically commented, but quickly focused back on his task.

this game was going well so far for yunho, even with his dick getting wet for the past ten minutes or so. but even when he managed to get his body under control, there was nothing he could do about that dirty mouth of yours.

“almost got caught, baby.. so naughty,” you sang softly into his ear, giggling like a damn minx. “it’s like you almost want them to figure out what’s happening, huh? you’d be into that, wouldn’t you?”

“shut the fuck up—“ yunho hissed to you, choking on a quiet moan when you ground down harder onto him in response, a sound the mic definitely picked up.

you could practically hear wooyoung raise an eyebrow at the sound, visualizing his flabbergasted face. “yunho, what the fuck was that?”

“nothing. sore throat.” yunho hashed out firmly, definitely getting distracted and not focusing on the payload that was getting mobbed. san and wooyoung were too locked in to further question it, but now we’re both very suspicious.

you giggled softly into his throat, rocking your hips harder and feeling the tip of his bulbous head nudging against your sweet spot continuously. clit grinding against his pelvis, and your increased ragged breathing, had yunho silently going feral.

“fuck, baby. so hard… so good..” you whined silently against his fair skin, biting softly. yunho ground his teeth together so hard he felt they were gonna shatter.

“are you gonna cum inside me, yuyu?”

“no— fuck no- i’m.. agh- i’m busy—“

too late. you rutted yourself harder and quicker onto him. the force has his chair squeaking, and yunho couldn’t take it anymore.

his hands left the keyboard and flew to your hips, which cost him the game, but he wasn’t thinking about that. with one hard, slick thrust, he buried himself to the hilt inside you and came hard. thick ropes of hot cum painting your insides white, and you shuddered at the feeling of his load filling you up.

yunho groaned loudly and slumped against the chair, pulling you down to caress your body. meanwhile, san and wooyoung were too busy raging about losing the game to even notice their friend just had the best nut in weeks.

“DUDE! we almost had it! what happened?!” san yelled through the mic, his staticky voice snapping yunho out of his post-orgasmic bliss.

yunho sat up, and brought the headset mic closed to his lips, voice now darkened. “i have to go.”

“what—!”

click. yunho muted himself.

with that, yunho visited you up in his arms, clawed his head set off, and threw you down onto his bed. a shocked gasp left your lips as you bounced on his mattress, and he quickly climbed on top of you.

the look in his eyes was downright filthy. he bit his lip and firmly grabbed your chin, making you look at him.

“you better strap in, cause i’m not gonna stop fucking you ‘till you soak my damn sheets.”

you gulped, a flicker of excitement in your eyes, finally getting what you’ve been craving.

“yes, sir.”

▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆

fadedtoneverland © 2025 | do not steal, modify or repost ANY of my work.

[endivinity]

Eight with Firefly! a bit generic on the prompt but also who cares

When this deathclaw opens its tail cover, the high concentration of irradiated glow delivers an almost-instant fatal payload of radiation to nearby organisms. If severed, its tail grows back within only months.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Ad-tech targeting is an existential threat

I'm on a 20+ city book tour for my new novel PICKS AND SHOVELS. Catch me TORONTO on SUNDAY (Feb 23) at Another Story Books, and in NYC on WEDNESDAY (26 Feb) with JOHN HODGMAN. More tour dates here.

The commercial surveillance industry is almost totally unregulated. Data brokers, ad-tech, and everyone in between – they harvest, store, analyze, sell and rent every intimate, sensitive, potentially compromising fact about your life.

Late last year, I testified at a Consumer Finance Protection Bureau hearing about a proposed new rule to kill off data brokers, who are the lynchpin of the industry:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/16/the-second-best-time-is-now/#the-point-of-a-system-is-what-it-does

The other witnesses were fascinating – and chilling, There was a lawyer from the AARP who explained how data-brokers would let you target ads to categories like "seniors with dementia." Then there was someone from the Pentagon, discussing how anyone could do an ad-buy targeting "people enlisted in the armed forces who have gambling problems." Sure, I thought, and you don't even need these explicit categories: if you served an ad to "people 25-40 with Ivy League/Big Ten law or political science degrees within 5 miles of Congress," you could serve an ad with a malicious payload to every Congressional staffer.

Now, that's just the data brokers. The real action is in ad-tech, a sector dominated by two giant companies, Meta and Google. These companies claim that they are better than the unregulated data-broker cowboys at the bottom of the food-chain. They say they're responsible wielders of unregulated monopoly surveillance power. Reader, they are not.

Meta has been repeatedly caught offering ad-targeting like "depressed teenagers" (great for your next incel recruiting drive):

https://www.technologyreview.com/2017/05/01/105987/is-facebook-targeting-ads-at-sad-teens/

And Google? They just keep on getting caught with both hands in the creepy commercial surveillance cookie-jar. Today, Wired's Dell Cameron and Dhruv Mehrotra report on a way to use Google to target people with chronic illnesses, people in financial distress, and national security "decision makers":

https://www.wired.com/story/google-dv360-banned-audience-segments-national-security/

Google doesn't offer these categories itself, they just allow data-brokers to assemble them and offer them for sale via Google. Just as it's possible to generate a target of "Congressional staffers" by using location and education data, it's possible to target people with chronic illnesses based on things like whether they regularly travel to clinics that treat HIV, asthma, chronic pain, etc.

Google claims that this violates their policies, and that they have best-of-breed technical measures to prevent this from happening, but when Wired asked how this data-broker was able to sell these audiences – including people in menopause, or with "chronic pain, fibromyalgia, psoriasis, arthritis, high cholesterol, and hypertension" – Google did not reply.

The data broker in the report also sold access to people based on which medications they took (including Ambien), people who abuse opioids or are recovering from opioid addiction, people with endocrine disorders, and "contractors with access to restricted US defense-related technologies."

It's easy to see how these categories could enable blackmail, spear-phishing, scams, malvertising, and many other crimes that threaten individuals, groups, and the nation as a whole. The US Office of Naval Intelligence has already published details of how "anonymous" people targeted by ads can be identified:

https://www.odni.gov/files/ODNI/documents/assessments/ODNI-Declassified-Report-on-CAI-January2022.pdf

The most amazing part is how the 33,000 targeting segments came to public light: an activist just pretended to be an ad buyer, and the data-broker sent him the whole package, no questions asked. Johnny Ryan is a brilliant Irish privacy activist with the Irish Council for Civil Liberties. He created a fake data analytics website for a company that wasn't registered anywhere, then sent out a sales query to a brokerage (the brokerage isn't identified in the piece, to prevent bad actors from using it to attack targeted categories of people).

Foreign states, including China – a favorite boogeyman of the US national security establishment – can buy Google's data and target users based on Google ad-tech stack. In the past, Chinese spies have used malvertising – serving targeted ads loaded with malware – to attack their adversaries. Chinese firms spend billions every year to target ads to Americans:

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/06/business/google-meta-temu-shein.html

Google and Meta have no meaningful checks to prevent anyone from establishing a shell company that buys and targets ads with their services, and the data-brokers that feed into those services are even less well-protected against fraud and other malicious act.

All of this is only possible because Congress has failed to act on privacy since 1988. That's the year that Congress passed the Video Privacy Protection Act, which bans video store clerks from telling the newspapers which VHS cassettes you have at home. That's also the last time Congress passed a federal consumer privacy law:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_Privacy_Protection_Act

The legislative history of the VPPA is telling: it was passed after a newspaper published the leaked video-rental history of a far-right judge named Robert Bork, whom Reagan hoped to elevate to the Supreme Court. Bork failed his Senate confirmation hearings, but not because of his video rentals (he actually had pretty good taste in movies). Rather, it was because he was a Nixonite criminal and virulent loudmouth racist whose record was strewn with the most disgusting nonsense imaginable).

But the leak of Bork's video-rental history gave Congress the cold grue. His video rental history wasn't embarrassing, but it sure seemed like Congress had some stuff in its video-rental records that they didn't want voters finding out about. They beat all land-speed records in making it a crime to tell anyone what kind of movies they (and we) were watching.

And that was it. For 37 years, Congress has completely failed to pass another consumer privacy law. Which is how we got here – to this moment where you can target ads to suicidal teens, gambling addicted soldiers in Minuteman silos, grannies with Alzheimer's, and every Congressional staffer on the Hill.

Some people think the problem with mass surveillance is a kind of machine-driven, automated mind-control ray. They believe the self-aggrandizing claims of tech bros to have finally perfected the elusive mind-control ray, using big data and machine learning.

But you don't need to accept these outlandish claims – which come from Big Tech's sales literature, wherein they boast to potential advertisers that surveillance ads are devastatingly effective – to understand how and why this is harmful. If you're struggling with opioid addiction and I target an ad to you for a fake cure or rehab center, I haven't brainwashed you – I've just tricked you. We don't have to believe in mind-control to believe that targeted lies can cause unlimited harms.

And those harms are indeed grave. Stein's Law predicts that "anything that can't go on forever eventually stops." Congress's failure on privacy has put us all at risk – including Congress. It's only a matter of time until the commercial surveillance industry is responsible for a massive leak, targeted phishing campaign, or a ghastly national security incident involving Congress. Perhaps then we will get action.

In the meantime, the coalition of people whose problems can be blamed on the failure to update privacy law continues to grow. That coalition includes protesters whose identities were served up to cops, teenagers who were tracked to out-of-state abortion clinics, people of color who were discriminated against in hiring and lending, and anyone who's been harassed with deepfake porn:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/12/06/privacy-first/#but-not-just-privacy

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2025/02/20/privacy-first-second-third/#malvertising

Image: Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg

CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en

[artfortytwo]

The IU-3 Billhook is, above all, a really bizarre mech. This was actually one of the first chassis designs produced by the PDR, a few months after they had already been facing down Purview teams, but it ain't your typical line mech. See, the Republic obviously can't outdo the Armory on quality or quantity in a straight up fight, so they got clever with these little bastards when a head on engagement was unavoidable. The first thing you'll notice is the giant tumorous growth of a shell hanging off the back. It's got a few minor hardpoints in it, along with a ton of reactive armor, enough to draw attention and make you assume it's a weakpoint that would cripple the machine if you took it out- but it's actually just an empty, detachable storage unit, only occasionally carrying some non-volatile supplies. The entire damn chassis is built like that, everything put in a weird place and disguised as something it isn't- even the joints have an annoyingly weird placement that makes maintenance a pain, but if that means offsetting the amount of bullets you have to pull out, I guess it's a win. Overall, it's substandard to even some outdated SP1 models, but with how cheap it is to build and how effective the gimmick can be, it sees a lot of use. That's just the thing, though, it's a gimmick. If the enemy knows what horseshit you're trying to pull, all you've done is bring a knife to a gun fight- so, usually, these things are the first units to see combat in any given conflict, and are outfitted for an alpha strike without regard to operating time or endurance. Single-shot weapons with fuck-off payloads, the works. On the high-mobility types that are built for repeated engagements, though, you've got a more standard loadout, and the storage unit gets filled to the brim with gyroscopes and reaction wheels alongside some crazy FCS that lets you get some damn good mileage out of the PD lasers in the antennae when you're up close.

i was having artblock trying to think of an idea and my friend said to me "hey, why don't you make a mech based on, i dunno, a snail?" and i told her "primrose pandora screamermod you are a fucking genius" and then spent 3 days making this thing along with the above flavor text for it. does this count as an oc, who knows but i'm posting it now because jegus dick it took a long ass time

[commercialvehicle1]

Tata Yodha 2.0 – The Ultimate Pickup Truck for Tough Terrain

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[cryptotheism]

The rectification of the world continued at a jolly pace. Biblical law established, humanity entered an era of unmatched happiness and prosperity. The earth was green, the cathedral roofs were high, and man sailed the stars, crucifix in hand.

Humanity decided they didn't need god anymore. His works were going swimmingly, so they all got together to give the old boy some rest. The vault of the firmament was cracked, and the armies of heaven were gunned down as they surged from the breach. The maw of hell gaped open to swallow the world, and was promptly fed a moons worth of nuclear payloads. Christ returned to earth one last time, just to flip humanity the bird and blow his brains out in protest.

With heaven silent, and hell glassed, reality collapsed in on itself. The nature of the work changed. See, now you could actually turn the world into an eternal paradise, but because of how Christ offed himself, you could only do it via suicide by firearm.

The priest-scientists of the new world got cracking. The wheel of souls was broken. Soon enough, just blowing your brains out wouldnt cut it. You had to take down some poor sucker first. Life for a life. That was easy. Problem was, the returns kept diminishing, and people kept getting reincarnated! Nowadays, the average Joe has to kill more than four hundred and thirty four people with an automatic weapon before he can eat the bullet himself.

So congrats on your confirmation! Welcome to the clergy.

[earlgreylatte]

STOP IT CUZ SPIDEYTORCH 3SOME?? YES PLEASE, I NEED IT 😭

YOU WERE SO QUICK ANON!! No I’m actually so happy other people see the vision!!

Like the Statue of Liberty is canonically their meetup spot, so I already knew a threesome has definitely happened there at the dead of night!! It’s high enough that no one is going to really see you going at it! It’s what the French would have wanted…

(Imagine seeing Johnny’s message to meet at the usual spot and just getting jumped by them; Peter’s mask is just rolled up so he can pepper your face with kisses as Johnny’s hands explore your body, warm enough for you to ignore the cold weather. You don’t bother taking off your costumes all the way, instead shifting or straight up ripping fabric until they can fully feel your softness—)

And say a drone or something does record your public indecency and leaks it, Johnny will have a private watch party—(this is canon)

Peter is more than willing to watch you and Johnny go at it, definitely has a whole album dedicated to you two; you and Johnny posing in lingerie, close ups of your fucked our expressions, etc

And for the Marvel Rivals fans, you three always work well together on the same team; staying on point and making quick work of the enemy team, but if even one of you is on the other team, then you three will be suspiciously absent for the whole match.

(While your teammates yell for you to get on the payload, you’re preoccupied getting spit roasted by Johnny and Peter on the other side of the map, with Johnny not at all worried about muffling his moans like Peter, who probably crushed the wall behind him if he’s getting head(—none of you having the heart to team up on the one on the rival team))

You definitely traumatized Ben when he went to look for his missing teammates—

Also off topic, but Johnny has definitely mounted you and said ‘prepare for the storm’ before entering you—-he will never live this moment down, especially if Peter’s there—

Both have probably used the hacker line, ‘I’m in’, on separate occasions—

[carsthatnevermadeitetc]

ELM Evolv demonstrator, 2024. Prodrive Advanced Technology and Astheimer Design have revealed a ‘last mile’ L7e category electric quadricycle prototype with a cubic load capacity rivalling mid-size vans. At 3,240mm long, 1,450mm wide, 2,150mm high and weighing 850kg with batteries, the compact Evolv can accommodates a 1.6m tall Euro pallet with a 300kg payload in the main load area. The secondary load area, accessible through rear ‘barn doors’, provides additional space for a 1.2m tall Euro pallet and 200kg payload. Prodrive and Astheimer has established a new company, ELM Mobility, to take the project into the production readiness phase. The vehicle, which has a 20kWh battery, will offer a 100 mile range with sales starting in 2028 at a target price of around £25,000.

ELM Mobility

[captain-price-unofficially]

The Ju-288C prototype. The Ju 288 offered a design that was larger, offered cabin pressurization for high altitude missions, had longer range, a much greater bomb payload, was even faster, and had improved defensive firepower. The design was intended to replace all the bombers then in Luftwaffe service.

[nasa]

All-Star Moments in Space Communications and Navigation

How do we get information from missions exploring the cosmos back to humans on Earth? Our space communications and navigation networks – the Near Space Network and the Deep Space Network – bring back science and exploration data daily.

Here are a few of our favorite moments from 2024.

1. Hip-Hop to Deep Space

The stars above and on Earth aligned as lyrics from the song “The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)” by hip-hop artist Missy Elliott were beamed to Venus via NASA’s Deep Space Network. Using a 34-meter (112-foot) wide Deep Space Station 13 (DSS-13) radio dish antenna, located at the network’s Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex in California, the song was sent at 10:05 a.m. PDT on Friday, July 12 and traveled about 158 million miles from Earth to Venus — the artist’s favorite planet. Coincidentally, the DSS-13 that sent the transmission is also nicknamed Venus!

NASA's PACE mission transmitting data to Earth through NASA's Near Space Network.

2. Lemme Upgrade You

Our Near Space Network, which supports communications for space-based missions within 1.2 million miles of Earth, is constantly enhancing its capabilities to support science and exploration missions. Last year, the network implemented DTN (Delay/Disruption Tolerant Networking), which provides robust protection of data traveling from extreme distances. NASA’s PACE (Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem) mission is the first operational science mission to leverage the network’s DTN capabilities. Since PACE’s launch, over 17 million bundles of data have been transmitted by the satellite and received by the network’s ground station.

A collage of the pet photos sent over laser links from Earth to LCRD and finally to ILLUMA-T (Integrated LCRD Low Earth Orbit User Modem and Amplifier Terminal) on the International Space Station. Animals submitted include cats, dogs, birds, chickens, cows, snakes, and pigs.

3. Who Doesn’t Love Pets?

Last year, we transmitted hundreds of pet photos and videos to the International Space Station, showcasing how laser communications can send more data at once than traditional methods. Imagery of cherished pets gathered from NASA astronauts and agency employees flowed from the mission ops center to the optical ground stations and then to the in-space Laser Communications Relay Demonstration (LCRD), which relayed the signal to a payload on the space station. This activity demonstrated how laser communications and high-rate DTN can benefit human spaceflight missions.

4K video footage was routed from the PC-12 aircraft to an optical ground station in Cleveland. From there, it was sent over an Earth-based network to NASA’s White Sands Test Facility in Las Cruces, New Mexico. The signals were then sent to NASA’s Laser Communications Relay Demonstration spacecraft and relayed to the ILLUMA-T payload on the International Space Station.

4. Now Streaming

A team of engineers transmitted 4K video footage from an aircraft to the International Space Station and back using laser communication signals. Historically, we have relied on radio waves to send information to and from space. Laser communications use infrared light to transmit 10 to 100 times more data than radio frequency systems. The flight tests were part of an agency initiative to stream high-bandwidth video and other data from deep space, enabling future human missions beyond low-Earth orbit.

The Near Space Network provides missions within 1.2 million miles of Earth with communications and navigation services.

5. New Year, New Relationships

At the very end of 2024, the Near Space Network announced multiple contract awards to enhance the network’s services portfolio. The network, which uses a blend of government and commercial assets to get data to and from spacecraft, will be able to support more missions observing our Earth and exploring the cosmos. These commercial assets, alongside the existing network, will also play a critical role in our Artemis campaign, which calls for long-term exploration of the Moon.

On Monday, Oct. 14, 2024, at 12:06 p.m. EDT, a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket carrying NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft lifts off from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

6. 3, 2, 1, Blast Off!

Together, the Near Space Network and the Deep Space Network supported the launch of Europa Clipper. The Near Space Network provided communications and navigation services to SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket, which launched this Jupiter-bound mission into space! After vehicle separation, the Deep Space Network acquired Europa Clipper’s signal and began full mission support. This is another example of how these networks work together seamlessly to ensure critical mission success.

Engineer Adam Gannon works on the development of Cognitive Engine-1 in the Cognitive Communications Lab at NASA’s Glenn Research Center.

7. Make Way for Next-Gen Tech

Our Technology Education Satellite program organizes collaborative missions that pair university students with researchers to evaluate how new technologies work on small satellites, also known as CubeSats. In 2024, cognitive communications technology, designed to enable autonomous space communications systems, was successfully tested in space on the Technology Educational Satellite 11 mission. Autonomous systems use technology reactive to their environment to implement updates during a spaceflight mission without needing human interaction post-launch.

A first: All six radio frequency antennas at the Madrid Deep Space Communication Complex, part of NASA’s Deep Space Network (DSN), carried out a test to receive data from the agency’s Voyager 1 spacecraft at the same time.

8. Six Are Better Than One

On April 20, 2024, all six radio frequency antennas at the Madrid Deep Space Communication Complex, part of our Deep Space Network, carried out a test to receive data from the agency’s Voyager 1 spacecraft at the same time. Combining the antennas’ receiving power, or arraying, lets the network collect the very faint signals from faraway spacecraft.

Here’s to another year connecting Earth and space.  

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