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Posts
Inflatable von Braun space stations: an idea worth revisiting?
Background Kepler’s SomniumAt the time of my writing this post, his sci-fi story was archived here in 1608 and Edward Everett Hale’s Brick Moon 1 from 1865...
Some Space Stations in Fiction and Reality
An earlier post in my teaching resources for a final year undergraduate project had a pretty helpful AI-generatedthanks to Claude table. This is a quick po...
online_textbooks
Final Year Project: Space Station Design
An introduction to multibody dynamics and the use of symbolic computation in modelling them.
Symbolic Computational Dynamics
An introduction to multibody dynamics and the use of symbolic computation in modelling them.
Computational Spacecraft Dynamics
An introduction to spacecraft dynamics modelling and simulation.
opinions
Howler
AIGrant Pitch
Moravec’s Paradox
Over lunch, I watched Chelsea Finn discuss Moravec’s Paradox with people across age and skills groups from kids to expert researchers. It is the idea that hu...
Inflatable Things
I have previously written about inflatable tubes as a means to realise a von Braun wheel. The idea of using inflatabes isn’t particularly new, but Saul Griff...
Graeber and Thiel
This is a summary towards a longer form essay that will eventually go into “Longer Form” writing
ISS Rendezvous (and some) Docking
I started thinking about how docking might work with an inflatable station such as the Goodyear one that I discussed here. I have been trying to think about ...
One of the best ISS videos I have seen.
Jared Owen has made a really cool animation that breaks down the ISS; I decided to watch this purely because it had a chapter on docking ports (thanks, YouTu...
The ISS’s Connector Mechanisms
In an earlier post, I linked to Jared Owen’s excellent video on space stations and that I would follow up with a summary of his chapter on docking ports.
Commercial Space Stations in development.
Scott Manley has made summarized the state of play with commercial space stations nicely below while offering insights on the Chinese Space Station and Stars...
Some notes on BEAM
Rajib Dasgupta’s 2016 interview as NASA BEAM (Bigelow Expandable Activity Module) project manager is quite informative for those interested in inflatable spa...
Weekend readings (4$^{th}$ and 5$^{th}$ January 2025)
Graeber opines on flying cars and technological stagnation, which is a good companion to my earlier post on his debate with Thiel.
Varoufakis’ and Graeber’s critique and visions of progress offer no solutions
These were some quick thoughts I shared with a friend after reading Varoufakis’ recent article on a Star Trek-inspired Utopia. This loosely links to my earli...
Reading List for Inflatable Space Stations
In preparing my WiP piece, I have been reading Hansen’s Spaceflight Revolution. This led me to find Berglund’s patent for the Hexagon Space Station. I a...
Reading Links
Couple of highlights from my online readings this week: I see the Henry Adams curve mentioned a lot; I think one of those posts led me to search a bit mor...
Low Friction Note Taking
I am a big fan of Obsidian- it is my note-taking tool of choice but my use has reduced since I started maintaining this blog. Nonetheless, I still host my no...
Nekoo et al. In-space collisions
These are some notes on the paper “Free-floating space manipulator impacting a floating object: Modeling and output SDRE controller design” by Nekoo et al.
publications
Lagrange’s equations for rocket-type variable mass systems
This paper discusses Lagrange’s equations for rocket-type variable mass systems.
Approximate solution to the angular speeds of a nearly-symmetric mass-varying cylindrical body
This paper presents an approximate solution to the angular speeds of a nearly-symmetric mass-varying cylindrical body.
Robotics and AI-enabled on-orbit operations with future generation of small satellites
This paper discusses robotics and AI-enabled on-orbit operations with future generation of small satellites.
Geometry of motion and nutation stability of free axisymmetric variable mass systems
This paper examines the geometry of motion and nutation stability in free axisymmetric variable mass systems.
Angular momentum of free variable mass systems is partially conserved
This paper demonstrates that angular momentum of free variable mass systems is partially conserved.
Towards Robotic On-Orbit Assembly of Large Space Telescopes: Mission Architectures, Concepts, and Analyses
This paper discusses mission architectures and concepts for robotic on-orbit assembly of large space telescopes.