iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

The X-24A, M2-F3 and HL-10: a line-up of NASA's wingless lifting body research craft. www.dvidshub.net/image/749813...

28316

MDAA's proposal for a ballistic missile defence ship based on the LPD-17 hull (San Antonio-class), sporting a 10m tall radar array and 288 VLS cells for ocean-spanning coverage. www.missiledefenseadvocacy.org/defense-syst...

1120

Is the M116 75mm howitzer the oldest artillery piece still in active service? 100 years ago, in 1927, it was standardized as "howitzer, pack, 75mm M1 on carriage M1". It was used in combat in 2010, and still serves as a ceremonial or anti-avalanche gun today.

080

Going on space walk will remain exhilarating for a very long time. But more and more people could experience it for themselves over the years. #space #art by mangamie. www.deviantart.com/mangamie/art...

0203

The RTL-2 military transport from 'Thunderbirds'. #art by matteline67 www.deviantart.com/matteline67/...

17810

Carl Zimmer @carlzimmer.com · 02/10/2026

Grumman's cats, from the Wildcat to the Tomcat. #art by DouglasCastleman www.deviantart.com/douglascastl...

1344

Reposted by ToughSF

Fascinating new review of what it takes for viruses to go airborne. Open access: journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

Diagram of the human airway, showing what determines airborne transmission of viruses during inhalation and exhalation.

0459

Saturn's Dragon Storm, detected in infrared by Cassini in 2004, possible re-emerging in 2006 as a 3500 km diameter storm that produced radio bursts from lightning up to 10,000x stronger than on Earth.

0251

The armor plate sloped at 80° is 83% lighter than a vertical plate while also being able to totally deflect a 1500 m/s APFSDS projectile: youtu.be/Y2UFijtunUc

0263

ToughSF @toughsf.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

The line of battle! An impressive hard scifi scene by Amos Tan. The radiator glow is understated but present. #space #art www.artstation.com/artwork/La5LBk

011614

Can BSky handle this image? It's the full NIAC poster for 'T-FINER', the thin-film sail using radically radioactive radioisotopes to deliver high dV over many years (640 km/s with Cf-254): custom.cvent.com/216E523D9344...

2313

ToughSF @toughsf.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

A duel mission to Uranus and Neptune, launched by a single SLS: ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/105... Each probe is ~6.5 tons, plus an Orion 50XL deep space maneuver stage , on a ΔVEGA gravity assist trajectory, arriving after 16 and 18 years respectively.

1225

The Mars Hoppers from For All Mankind have their own transport-crawlers. #space #art by Sean Hargreaves. www.artstation.com/artwork/yAb9qn

2373

Developing a monoclonal antibody with an actual direct bactericidal effect: pubs.acs.org/acscii/artic... Pse-MAB1 was able to destroy A. baumannii strains with no other assistance, in vivo, opening the way to treating more multi-drug resistant bacteria like it.

2101

Operation Hurricane in 1953 was the first British nuclear test. A 25 kT plutonium implosion device was detonated inside frigate HMS Plym in shallow waters (hence the dirty mud cloud), simulating a bomb smuggled by sea into a port facility. youtu.be/lpyKE-CfaaY

0141

The Hail Mary interstellar relativistic spaceship from Project Hail Mary. #space #art by Chris Kuhn. www.artstation.com/artwork/41XR2l

214334

PIDEC: using nuclear-driven excimer fluorescer gas a light source for a band-gap-matched photovoltaic panel, converting fission into electricity at 30-40% overall efficiency without a thermodynamic process. www.researchgate.net/publication/...

0145

Raising the acceleration of conventional particle accelerators by using THz radiation, and confining the radiation inside a gap between copper plates narrower than its own wavelength (!) to raise the energy density and accel gradient to several GV/m: news.mit.edu/2016/tableto...

191

CRONUS: a 250 We (4.42% efficiency at 1138 K) RTG launched aboard a Titan III capable of safe and intact reentry of the Strontium-TiO3 fuel from LEO. Here's the 402 page technical report: digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/m...

0100

Making cheaper Layered Double Hydroxide adsorbents as effective as Amidoxime Functionalised Polymers by doping them with lanthanides like Neodymium, able to pick out Uranium in seawater among 10 other dissolved elements with 400x its concentration: pubs.rsc.org/ya/article/2...

071

Concepts and production sketches for Alien, by Ron Cobb. #space #art Art featured in the book 'Colorvision'.

18018

JAXA's MMX mission wants to land on Phobos, collect samples and return them to Earth. It's entering the testing phase of its program: global.jaxa.jp/activity/pr/...

0294

2.58 TV/m acceleration gradients using Laser Plasma Wakefields confined in carbon nanotubes: www.researchgate.net/publication/... If staged properly, it would allow LHC's 13.6 TeV 27 km ring to be replaced by an accelerator that could fit in a typical bedroom.

1172

This was my introduction to @sadfrontier.bsky.social and I've been a massive fan since! Must watch with sound: youtu.be/ARQBz94QZMQ Putting the 'Hard' in HardSF.

1355

Another look at Sergio Botero's floating Venus colony concept, featuring airship convoys, wind-powered habitats and a mass driver that meets a low-orbit rotovator! #space #art sboterod.artstation.com/projects/3AdQJ

0387

Gauche CHN7 and CHN3: less performance than hypothetical cubic gauche nitrogen (cgN), but far more stable and more realistic 'rocket superfuels', especially in SRBs that exploit their >3000 kg/m^3 density: pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29793214/

071

Another study of adding MHD bypass to a turbojet finds that in addition to increasing the operating range up to Mach 7, it also drastically increases specific thrust at lower Mach numbers! ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citation...

0181

A neat set of diagrams comparing the effects of short laser pulses on materials, from nanoseconds to femtoseconds, timescales so short the target can't even conduct or radiate its energy before exploding: www.researchgate.net/publication/...

0274

Tycho Station emerging from Sol gate; an illustration done for The Expanse TTRPG. #space #art by G-Hamm www.artstation.com/artwork/L4Yog5

38310

The Convair 58-9 SST Concept, directly derived from the B-58 Hustler, would have been very unsuitable as a supersonic transport: -narrow fuselage limits seat number -podded engines cause high drag -uneconomical fuel consumption to cruise at Mach 2.4

2318

Brown Dwarf SDSS J0104+15 has a mass of 90 Jupiters and is 99.99% hydrogen (250x purer than the Sun), making it "the most metal-poor and highest mass substellar object known to-date": arxiv.org/abs/1702.02001

1184

MBDA's ASRAAM is an advanced short-range infrared missile. It can reach Mach 3, pull 50g turns, and has Lock-On-After-Launch and "over the shoulder" firing capabilities.

0121

Despite the impression they give, these space warship designs are fairly realistic: 40 km/s dV with MPD thrusters, 458 MW fusion reactors and different armor layers to deal with laser/kinetic/radiation damage. #space #art by Spm1082, www.deviantart.com/spm1082/art/...

27511

Liquid Pulsed Laser Propulsion is great in theory, as you could get the practicality of a liquid prop. thruster and the high Isp of laser ablation: www.mdpi.com/2226-4310/12... In reality, performance is abysmal with poor laser-to-kinetic efficiency and Isp decimated by splashing.

0130

RTX's Phantomstrike uses GaN power modules to create AESA radars below 68 kg in weight, with the same range of capabilities as a full-size fighter jet but can be packaged into helicopters, 'loyal wingman' UAVs or other small platforms: youtu.be/8Vf44cMQ6BU

0100

"Daedalus Watching", an impressive scene with inspiration from The Expanse and Rasmus Poulsen. #space #art by Alex Jessup. www.artstation.com/artwork/K3mbrW

111118

When Juno met Ganymede: agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.... The moon has a magnetosphere filled with H2+/H3+ ions sputtered off the water ice surface. Aurorae were detected on both the night and day sides, and have an effect on the distribution of radiation-darkened or bright patches.

0101

Gerard K. O'Neill is most known for the High Frontier, O'Neill cylinders and space colonization. But his business efforts were Geostar Corp.'s proto-GPS, and VSE International's maglev trains running down networks of vacuum tubes at up to 4000 km/h: airandspace.si.edu/stories/edit...

1256

The M1 Tank Test Bed: 3 crew in the front hull compartment, potentially upgraded with a Cummins XAP-1000 diesel engine, and an unmanned turret with 120mm M256 cannon and 44 round autoloader on top.

1171

A laser-guided magnetic grappling hook for use by astronauts. #space #art by Lars Sowig. www.artstation.com/artwork/L4a4nA

012225

Deep below glaciers and ice sheets is pressure-melted 0°C water, thriving with life. But where does it get its energy from? www.nature.com/articles/nge... Mechanochemical reactions at the surface of crushed silicate rocks in water release hydrogen, which feeds chemotrophic bacteria.

07118

A gallery of cutaway drawings! thecutawaycompany.com/gallery/

04215

Bell Aerospace conceptual artwork for future hovercraft, growing as large as Navy destroyers: www.secretprojects.co.uk/threads/bell...

1254

One of the airflow and vibration simulations done for SLS during ascent at the NASA Ames Research Center supercomputer: youtu.be/622JcfEl4uE

1482

Placing the Leopard 2A8 and the Leopard 2 A-RC 3.0 side-by-side makes clear just how much is saved by an autoloaded unmanned turret, even on the same hull. The vulnerable volume decreases by 30%, for example, with several tons of weight reduction.

1394

The UK Royal Aircraft Establishment XW626, a De Havilland DH-106 Comet C4 used as a testbed for radar and avionics equipment that serve aboard the Nimrod AEW3, an ill-fated program for a domestic AEW plane.

1140