One of my favorite animated television programs from my childhood in the 1980s is VOLTRON: DEFENDER OF THE UNIVERSE. The series follows the adventures of two teams of space explorers. The first team, the Voltron Lion Force, consists of five members — Keith, Lance, Pidge, Hunk and Princess Allura — each of whom flies a […]
Aircraft Parts and Attitude/Orientation Control
Courtesy of NASA’s Beginner’s Guide to Aeronautics, a website targeted to children… Parts of Airplane Aircraft Rotations Ailerons (Roll) Horizontal stabilizer / elevators (Pitch) Vertical stabilizer / rudder (Yaw)
Maneuvering a Space Shuttle Orbiter… in Orbit
Another quotation from the 2011 AIR & SPACE COLLECTOR’S EDITION: SPACE SHUTTLE 1981-2011 magazine. From page 84… “Maneuvering in orbit was governed by the reaction control system, which consisted of 44 thrusters on the nose and tail. Pitch, roll, and yaw were controlled by firing certain thrusters. Charlie Precourt, former chief of the astronaut corps, […]
Space Shuttle Reaction Control Jets From Inside the Shuttle
I’ve been skimming the Spring 2011 AIR & SPACE COLLECTOR’S EDITION: SPACE SHUTTLE 1981-2011 magazine. What I’ve found most interesting so far has been astronaut Andy Allen’s brief description of what the space shuttle orbiter’s reaction control jets are like to someone inside the orbiter. From page 69 of the magazine… “…I did some pretty aggressive maneuvering using the […]
Introduction to Blender 2.57 User Interface
Blender 2.57, the latest release of the open-source and free 3D modeling and animation application from the Blender Foundation, has undergone a variety of changes in its user interface. Rather than fully introduce Blender’s user interface, this blog will focus on some of the changes that have been made since recent prior releases. Below is the […]