Welcome to Orbitals, a space zine for the best news, memes and materials this side of the Karman line. In this first issue, you'll see spotlights on projects, news from in the industry applications that we think you should download if you want to be up to date in the space industry and more.
This is an experiment in how we as Supernova Labs can communicate with you, our community and put you ahead of ourselves by sharing your stories and sharing our network to expand yours If you want to go fast, go alone If we want to go farther, lets go together
Supernova Labs has spent the past 10 years studying and surfing the internet to find the best of information about projects, about spaceplanes and about low earth orbit development, so we hope that you find any time that you spend reading our first zine useful and educational
There's plenty here to dive into. We hope you enjoy your stay. Signing off from Supernova Labs, home to the Dreamers.
Adam Paigge
Spotlight on Projects
The Flaming Brain Abides - A near orbital glider by Brian Walker. Brian is building an engineering proof of concept for a near orbital glider that has three modes of propulsion, jet, pulse jet and rocket engines to do VTOL launches using grasshopper legs. It features a tank sled system for launches and has even got to the point of a full fiberglass model. Brian also has many other projects such as a submarine project he built while in Fiji!
It's exciting to see so many people building and dreaming of their own suborbital and orbital vehicles. Especially this given the multiple modes of propulsion that offer redundancy and showcasing that engineering complexity does not necessitate reductions in functionality. Watch their video
Sierra Space CEO Retires
Tom Vice has announced his retirement from Sierra Space. This comes in advance of Sierra Space's maiden launch of the Dream Chaser spacecraft aboard the Vulcan rocket by ULA. However, this first launch has been pushed back from June last year to allow ULA to fly national security missions.
It's unsure what this will mean for the company as they lead up to their first launch. As the company may focus efforts on revenue generating activities. We hope that the next CEO will also prioritise spaceplanes as the company's primary mission, but we will also catalogue as much as we can about the Dreamchaser project to preserve its archive.
Sierra Space are also involved in Pathfinder orbital module development and also satellite design for the US military. But if you'd like to read more, here is the article from Space News.
Read more on their website
Apps for your cockpit
Indispensable apps for mission planning and navigation.
As part of Open Systems, we're developing the cockpit of the future with heads-up displays and all of the tools a spacefarer would need to navigate space, as well as the tools to find work and make money. That's the route to having a self-sustaining presence in space.
Below you'll find a selection of some of the best apps we've found over the years to track what's going on in the space industry as well as what's above your head in space.
We believe that with the apps below, they should give you a solid understanding and immersion in the day-to-day activities of the space industry, as well as the means to understand its history. So that one day when we've got multiple screens around us and the cockpit of our spacecraft, we'll understand the same interfaces and know how to work with the same information.
Heavens above
A celestial navigation system that catalogues space junk and plots paths in the sky overhead on a functional compass to better orient ground activities. They also have a feature for tracking the International Space Station as it passes overhead.
Next spaceflight
An app to track all space launches and deliver notifications with webcasts and a calendar of known launches into the future. Now a part of the NASA spaceflight family It's the first port of call for checking out launch information. NASA Space Flight also run 24-hour live streams of Starship development. You should check them out.
DeltaV map
In space travel you'll hear people talk about delta v a lot It's the primary measure of how much velocity you would need to gain or lose to move around the solar system and in this handy web app, you can see all of the Delta V changes you would need to change orbits and get to all the destinations in the solar system. Given you have enough fuel to get yourself there!! You know what they say? Shoot for the stars And if you miss, you'll die in the cold emptiness of space.��
Privateer's Wayfinder
You might remember Steve Wozniak as one of the co-founders of Apple. Well, this alongside his business partner, Moriba Jah, is a catalogue of space debris that orbits and also bounties for collection and disposal of the materials.
You can track individual pieces of debris but this is a key piece of mission planning software if we want to go up there and collect debris for ourselves. Where we can plan up our orbits and orbits or changes to collect as much debris as possible for the most amount of money and the least fuel.
Open Spaceplane Project Source Files.
Release 1
The open space plane project has released its first batch of open source files, cataloging over 7 years of research and development. In this open source drive you'll find design inspiration, work that supernova labs has done in house, as well as information on how other companies have built and are building spacecraft and aircraft As the necessary prerequisites to getting to a fully open source single stage to orbit (SSTO) spacecraft.
In this you will also find links to Supernova Labs' astronaut training for people to learn how to train as analog astronauts, external from any agency or private industry.
We believe that anybody should be able to get to space and we have given you the materials to get started with your training right now.
Videos worth watching.
Covering all those mechanics and skills you'll need as an astronaut
Mastering the complexity of spaceflight. [32:11]
In this video, brain truffle starts from first principles and works towards resolving all the orbits that any future spacefarer would need. It's quite maths-heavy, But if you can stick it out, you'll see that what it reveals is some of the most beautiful parts of orbital mechanics. It will leave you with an implicit understanding of how orbits are chosen and why.
It'll also introduce the concept of Lagrange points and how pathways between celestial bodies are navigated.
A brief history of spacesuits. [01:09:43]
In this video, DKIS Aerospace History catalogues the history of space suits, suit development, leading from the first pressure suits all the way up to the modern spacesuits we see today. It's a really fascinating look in how technology is developed and where it will go in the future.
If there's one thing that you're certainly going to need in space, it is a suit that can protect you if things go wrong. So understanding how they're designed and how they work is fundamental to understanding how to save yourself if needs be.
Babushka Buran, you must wrap up warm in these cold winter months.
This is the very first Orbitals zine release. If you know projects that you'd like to be featured, as well as any news that you think we should be covering, please send us an email. We will need help with writers and with stories.
