You'll find an excellent example of hard-SF space combat in SAD:Frontier. youtu.be/gSePJj31iqk Here, the PFS-028 Bellerophon fends off a wave of missiles in orbit around Callisto.

A cozy view of a small rotating space cylinder. I don't think the artificial gravity is 1g, but many plants don't seem to mind. #space #art by garlic huang. www.artstation.com/artwork/146B82

A fun modernization of the "Land Battleship" concept. Here it's an amphibious carrier resting on four air cushions, each inflated by nuclear-driven turbines. There's also got lasers for defence and EM catapult-launched drones. #art by 北陵重工的票票. www.artstation.com/artwork/nJ5bR4

Despite its immense mass, the average density of the Sun is 1400 kg/m^3; just a little higher than water. Proxima Centauri however has a density of 47,100 kg/m^3. That's about 2.5x the density of tungsten!

Refining details on the Light Hugger "Void Transcendent" based off the lighthugger concept from Alastair Reynolds "Revelation Space" book series. #conceptart #scifiart #illustration #spaceart #vehicledesign

A 1.8 mm thick layer of aramid fibers backed up by carbon nanotubes can stop bullets: phys.org/news/2025-11... The trick is to use the carbon nanotubes to hold the polymer fibers together under load, leading to a dynamic strength of 10.3 GPa and toughness of 700 MJ/m^3.

Various sleek aircraft design by Encho Enchev. #art www.artstation.com/artwork/x34Aer

Using electron tomography and 3D density mapping to investigate the nanoscale structure of polyamide membranes and increase their desalination efficency by up to 40%: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... It's not actually membrane thickness but internal density distribution that matters!

The first successful conversion of thorium into uranium fuel was achieved by the Chinese TMSR-LF1 molten salt reactor: world-nuclear-news.org/articles/chi... 20% enriched U-235 surrounded by FLiBe, operating at 2 MWth, managed a 0.1 conversion ratio of Th-232 into U-233. Next step is 100 MWth.

Japanese Naval Railgun testing: www.twz.com/sea/railgun-... 40mm caliber darts were fired flat at metal targets at sea, and then at 45° for long range ballistics. The launcher is 8 tons, reaches 2.3 km/s from a 5 MJ capacitor bank and has an endurance of 200 shots. Translations:

The Soviet 1987 nuclear Mars mission: youtu.be/7vv3P2NYdOM It's a 200m long 428 ton ship assembled by 5x Energia launches, driven by two separate molten-lithium nuclear-electric thrusters. The full mission with return was 716 days for 4 crew.

A fusion-powered Neptune-orbiting spaceship with a very large antenna. I've translated the image. #space #art by ウェルト. www.pixiv.net/en/artworks/...

The Croatian M-95 Cobra, German EPLA VT1 and KM-MAN-MBB 8X8 EPLA truck: www.secretprojects.co.uk/threads/gira... These are all 'giraffe tank' concepts taken to the live demonstration stage.

Unprecedented 12% efficiency from Strontium-90 betavoltaic devices with supercooled silicon: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... However, that efficiency drops to 1.8% after 11 days of radiation damage to the devices, and operating at 80 Kelvin means impractical radiators are needed in space

Quaoar is a huge (1100 km diameter, half the size of Pluto) TNO with an orbit beyond 45 AU. Despite sitting at -229°C, it has evidence of past cryovolcanism and two separate dust rings that are somehow stable outside the classical Roche limit: arxiv.org/abs/2304.09237

The F-14D "Super Tomcat", the final variant with 120 kN thrust F110-Ge-400 engines, AN/APG-71 radar and a prominent IRST sensor. #art by Renderdock Studio. www.artstation.com/artwork/zxQgr4

New ice: www.nature.com/articles/s41... Ice XXI is the most recently discovered phase of water, occuring at room temperature but at a pressure of 1.6 GPa. It was formed by compressing and relaxing ice several times inside a diamond anvil.

Design study of a Nuclear-Electric probe for outer solar system missions, based on an upgraded 17.5 kWe Kilopower reactor and NEXT-C ion thrusters: ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citation... Average acceleration should be an anemic 8 *microgee* and it only delivers 10.3 km/s deltaV total.

Combined, the 33 Raptor engines here have a power of 126 GW. That's comparable to the output of all the natural gas powerplants in the US! youtu.be/0Fr1DzNL86Q

The S-1D, a proposed Saturn V upgrade that gave it an Atlas-style 1.5 stage that discarded 4x F-1 engines during its ascent. #space #art by BrickMack. www.deviantart.com/brickmack/ar...

Firing a rocket or scramjet-boosted shell out of a 16 inch naval gun to turn it into an anti-satellite weapon: apps.dtic.mil/sti/tr/pdf/A... Muzzle velocity is Mach 4.5, raised further until it can reach altitudes of 500-900 km, perhaps with the help of a 40g+ pop-up maneuver.

JWST's Near-Infrared Spectrograph is able to pick up the faint plasma torus surrounding Saturn, created by volatiles ejected from Enceladus: science.nasa.gov/asset/webb/e... And in that torus, it detects water, confirming again the presence of vast underground oceans.

The A-6A Intruder surrounded by the ordinance it could carry. These range from small 8.4 kg FFAR rockets to 907 kg Mk 84 bombs to (hidden in bags) nuclear weapons. It could nearly match the maximum payload of a B-29 Superfortress.

Pure delta: the A-12 Avenger II stealth attacker meant to replace the A-6 aboard US carriers. It would have had similar range and speed but much reduced payload (2.3 tons vs 8.2 tons). #art by WaveLabs www.artstation.com/artwork/d03m3A

Mercury's chaotic terrain features are not the result of planet-wide impact shockwaves but the much later evaporation of a volatile-rich underground layer, which created voids into which the surface collapsed: www.nature.com/articles/s41... There must have been impressive geysers 3.9GYa

If you want to show off your afterburning engines, do it at night! XB-1 footage from Boom Supersonic: youtu.be/e1MULz4dssA

Fantastic gas giant renders in very pretty colours. #space #art by Isaiah. www.artstation.com/artwork/gRWYee

Mankin's later space-based solar power concepts included this SolarDisc: nss.org/wp-content/u... It's a multi-km wide disc of thin-film PV generating 5 GW that it beams down as 5.8 GHz microwaves to a number of 4-8 km wide ground receivers depending on electrical needs.

The North American NAC-60 was essentially a scaled-up XB-70 Valkyrie, using the same engines and canards, but used as a supersonic passenger jet. It would reach Mach 2.65 with 187 passengers onboard, crossing >6000 km in just over 2h.

A recent update on Falling Frontier ( @stutterfox.bsky.social ) that includes some new art and in-game previews: store.steampowered.com/news/app/128...

Cutaway of the SEALION boat operated by SEALS/Special Boat Units: By @covertshores.bsky.social www.hisutton.com/SEALION%20an... It's a fully enclosed hull with stealth features, and submerge itself to become very hard to spot.

Ganymede may have three separate underground oceans sandwiched between layers of increasingly weird ice. #space #art by "Aidan's Art" www.artstation.com/artwork/Wml8GN

Trihydrogen Oxide (H3O) is nearly impossible to make and stabilize, but it's thought to exist as a layer around the cores of Uranus and Neptune. At 600 GPa and 7000 K, it's a stable metallic conductive compound that's nearly as dense as titanium and generates a magnetic field.

TotalEnergies infographic on Floating Storage Regasification Units, which are large ships that transport methane by liquefying it then pumping it back out as a gas:

Thrust Thursday #hibourverse #spaceship #scifi

Patent for the magnetically-focused liquid droplet radiator: www.osti.gov/biblio/865773 The idea is to use a magnet to draw in conductive magnets after being sprayed into space and use a much smaller, lighter collector. Over 5 kW/kg at just 500 K operating temp!

The Firefly Mk 7, an insanely powerful DHe3 fusion-propelled interstellar probe that needs to be cooled by radiators glowing at an incandescent 2700K. #space #art by Michel Lamontagne. www.deviantart.com/michel-lamon...

Railguns don't actually have an advantage over gasdynamic launchers, with only coilguns having the potential for >>3km/s velocities: www.osti.gov/servlets/pur... However very high launch pressure (>2000 bar) are needed for short barrels within the atmosphere, restricting efficiency.

Cassini NAC natural color view taken on 2011-04-25 19:34 UTC. Distance to Rhea: 2.23 million km Distance to Dione: 3.12 million km Distance to Enceladus: 2.98 million km Distance to Saturn: 2.75 million km Phase angle: 67 deg live.staticflickr.com/7257/7148482...

It looks like the latest Real Engineering (@brianmcmanus.bsky.social) video that I wrote is another success! youtu.be/8VLovd9bS5U They have their limitations, but container-sized 1 MW laser weapons are coming soon and they will have a profound impact on warfare in air and on ground.

Ship breakdown of the Leander-class destroyer sloop from The Sojourn (@thesojourn.bsky.social, @keepersdan.bsky.social): youtu.be/iszuFttwogM It's 143m long, comes with two prograde and retrograde engines and has many 10 inch gun turrets.

A conjunction of Galilean moons, rendered using textures derived from actual Voyager, Galileo and Cassini images. Wow! #space #art by John Wrbanek. www.artstation.com/artwork/nYxNkE

The Electric Space Cruiser, a fast planetary explorer with a 500 kWe nuclear turboelectric system driving 6000-12,000s Isp ion thrusters for 9 ton total mass. ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citation... It could reach Mercury in 1 year, and Jupiter or Saturn in 2 years.

The Hyundai-10000 floating crane can carry 10,000 ton loads using 180m tall booms and 16 winches driven by 4x2200 kW motors. www.vesselfinder.com/news/3590-Th... It's the largest in the world.

The current record for solar laser efficiency is 4.64% at 16.5 W output using Ce:Nd:YAG lasing rods: opg.optica.org/oe/fulltext.... The highest power output for solar-pumped Ce:Nd:YAG is 58 W with 2.62% efficiency opg.optica.org/oe/fulltext.... These are still tiny experiments (2.3 m^2 mirror)

"Supermirrors" exist. They're quarter-wavelength layers of optical materials (dielectric or crystalline) that can achieve a extreme reflectivity, sometimes beyond 99.9999%. www.rp-photonics.com/supermirrors... www.esa.int/ESA_Multimed...

Visiting an overheated lava planet with a small probe in a neat scene by Matej (Mativi) Ivicevic. #space #art www.artstation.com/artwork/XJ6BRw

ARACHNE is supposed to demonstrate an all-in-one solar panel, RF generator and antenna module in orbit for space-based solar power beaming in GEO. The launch is still scheduled for 2025... space.skyrocket.de/doc_sdat/ara...

The COIL chemical laser flew aboard YAL-1 but its need of hydrogen peroxide as an energy source was a seriously drawback: heavy, volatile and degraded over time. AGIL solves that by replacing it with explosive hydrogen azide and corrosive fluorine: spie.org/news/1133-ne...

Slow motion firing of the 50mm XM913 chaingun, a scaled-up and modernized version of Bushmaster's 35mm and 25mm cannons: youtu.be/Z1-P2sPqtV4 It's 300 kg, fires at 200 RPM and uses large (1.5 kg) XM1203 APFSDS and XM1204 airburst rounds.