There's no sound in space, you say? There's nothing to transmit sound, you say? Well you're (sort of) right, but that hasn't stopped people from listening. For instance, professors at the University of Iowa have posted sound recordings made by satellites and other spacecraft, recordings of everything from lightning on Saturn to the sound of the solar winds. Space is filled with all sorts of radiation, everything from radio waves to visible light and so on, and these recordings are made by translating these waves into audio.
Minimalist composer Terry Riley has even composed a string quartet performance based on these recordings, called Sun Rings
This dreadfully academic video explains the composition and some of the recordings. I'd skip ahead to about half way, or just skip it all together and just listen to these really beautiful sounds from Jupiter, via Nasa.
Caspian Sea Monster
Now that I'm both unemployed and out of school, I figured I should devote my time and this space to my hobby of amassing neat but completely useless e-junk.
So first up, this amazing, eerie soviet video of ekranoplans; ground effect planes/ships that fly just a few meters above the water, taking advantage of the ground effects that occur when a plane flies lower than its own wingspan. The video has a great drone soundtrack too, I can't stop watching it.
These things are some of the biggest planes ever built. The largest, dubbed the Caspian Sea Monster, was longer than a football field, could move over 1000 tonnes of cargo, and crossed the Caspian at speeds over 250mph. The soviets kept the project secret, so you can imagine the poor fishermen who undoubtedly found themselves in the path of these speeding behemoths. Keep in mind they never flew more than a few meters above the water.
The project ended sometime in the mid-nineties, and you can see a couple of abandoned ekranoplans in google earth at 42°52′50″N, 47°39′57″E
Commercial interest in ekranoplans continues, and several private companies apparently produce or plan to produce ekranoplans in the future. Interestingly, ekranoplans are considered a ship rather than a plane by international maritime regulations.
Ground effect is a complex phenomenon that involves the air underneath the wing and its relationship to the ground. If a plane has a wing span of twenty meters, then ground effect takes over when the plane flies lower than twenty meters. In regular aircraft, the effect allows for smooth landings, creating a pillow of air that dampens turbulence. It also reduces drag, so if you can fly low enough, you'll be able to fly further and faster using less fuel. And of course you'll be flying under enemy radar.
On the other end of the aviation spectrum, just last week WhiteKnightTwo flew for the first time in the California desert. This high altitude aircraft will launch SpaceShipTwo, the private spaceship that will carry space tourists into low Earth orbit. Check out Mojave Skies for a write up of last weeks test flight.
pic from Alan Radecki at Mojave Skies
So first up, this amazing, eerie soviet video of ekranoplans; ground effect planes/ships that fly just a few meters above the water, taking advantage of the ground effects that occur when a plane flies lower than its own wingspan. The video has a great drone soundtrack too, I can't stop watching it.
These things are some of the biggest planes ever built. The largest, dubbed the Caspian Sea Monster, was longer than a football field, could move over 1000 tonnes of cargo, and crossed the Caspian at speeds over 250mph. The soviets kept the project secret, so you can imagine the poor fishermen who undoubtedly found themselves in the path of these speeding behemoths. Keep in mind they never flew more than a few meters above the water.
The project ended sometime in the mid-nineties, and you can see a couple of abandoned ekranoplans in google earth at 42°52′50″N, 47°39′57″E
Commercial interest in ekranoplans continues, and several private companies apparently produce or plan to produce ekranoplans in the future. Interestingly, ekranoplans are considered a ship rather than a plane by international maritime regulations.
Ground effect is a complex phenomenon that involves the air underneath the wing and its relationship to the ground. If a plane has a wing span of twenty meters, then ground effect takes over when the plane flies lower than twenty meters. In regular aircraft, the effect allows for smooth landings, creating a pillow of air that dampens turbulence. It also reduces drag, so if you can fly low enough, you'll be able to fly further and faster using less fuel. And of course you'll be flying under enemy radar.
On the other end of the aviation spectrum, just last week WhiteKnightTwo flew for the first time in the California desert. This high altitude aircraft will launch SpaceShipTwo, the private spaceship that will carry space tourists into low Earth orbit. Check out Mojave Skies for a write up of last weeks test flight.
pic from Alan Radecki at Mojave Skies
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