https://theinfosphere.org/Möbius_Dick
There’s a french dub on youtube.
3 Likes
That one seems familiar.
All of those drawings were fodder for making things for my Major Matt Masons. I did make some things out of cardboard, but certainly imagined a lot more.
I had all of those “dolls” including Captain Laser and the two small aliens, two vehicles, and lots of accessories. And I had them up till last year. But it seems my sister tossed them out while I was in the hospital. If I really wanted to get rid of them, I would have gotten some money for them.
2 Likes
I thought something similar! 
2 Likes
Two articles of possible interest:
The 8 part series from Colliers Maazine (“Man will conquer space soon”) features fanciful illustrations and portentous commentary from various people including Werner von Braun. It is reproduced, in color, in the newsletter of AIAA Houston.-- beginning with the July/August 2012 Issue. This features Werner von Braun’s torus space station.
http://www.aiaahouston.org/newsletter/
Also of note Space Stations, a design study, which says
“The idea progressed slowly over the next fifty years, then accelerated. In 1923 Hermann Oberth elaborated on potential uses of space stations, noting that they could serve as platforms for scientific research, astronomical observations, and Earth-watch (ref. 9). In 1928 Guido von Pirquet considered a system of three stations, one in a near orbit, one more distant, and a transit station in an intermediate elliptical orbit to link the other two; he suggested that they might serve as refueling depots for deep space flights (ref. 10). The concept of a rotating wheel-shaped station was introduced in 1929 by Potocnik, writing as Hermann Noordung. He called his 30-m-diam station “Wohnrad” (living wheel)1 and suggested that it be placed in geosynchronous2 orbit (ref. 11). During World War II, space stations received some military study in Germany (ref. 12), and after the war the idea surfaced again in technical circles as a geosynchronous rotating-boom concept3 proposed by H. E. Ross in 1949 (ref. 13).
“The space-station idea was popularized in the United States by Wernher von Braun. In 1952 he updated Noordung’s wheel, increased the diameter to 76 m, and suggested a 1730-km orbit (ref. 14). At about the same time, Arthur C. Clarke published “Islands in the Sky,” a novel involving larger stations (ref. 15), and in 1961 Clarke (in another novel) suggested placing large stations at the Lagrangian libration points where they would maintain a fixed position relative to both the Earth and the Moon (ref. 16). In 1956 Darrell Romick advanced a more ambitious proposal — for a cylinder 1 km long and 300 m in diameter with hemispherical end-caps having a 500-m-diam rotating disc at one end to be inhabited by 20,000 people (ref. 17).
http://large.stanford.edu/courses/2016/ph240/martelaro2/docs/nasa-sp-413.pdf
On the one hand, they’re both wheels. On the other hand, they’re both components in larger systems-- and may serve different functions in these systems.
2 Likes
It may be that those posts are attachment points for a cable system that supports the inflatable roof. A little like those inflatable stadium domes. If they use a suspension bridge principle they could get away with being skinny, and since lunar gravity = g/6 they wouldnt have to be especially beefy
1 Like
All these replies are emblematic of why I choose this place, of all on the internet. This one is perfect. If I needed some kind of profile online it could probably just read “likes moebius and Moby Dick.”
3 Likes
also:
Forget all that, I just want to know where my libertarian-socialist utopia is.
https://www.marxists.org/archive/morris/works/1890/nowhere/index.htm
2 Likes
he obviously was an expert on Space AND Time.
I mean, the conversion of Westminster into a massive warehouse for dung appears to be progressing right on schedule.
1 Like
I was disappointed with the durability of the major Matt Mason dolls. It really didn’t take very long for the wire in the armature to break from metal fatigue.
I think one of mine had a “broken” arm.
There was the purplish a lien, that had a removeable glow in the dark head. Almost as soon as I got it, I wedged it in a lamp to get it fully glowing in the dark. And melted tge piece.
But to a large extent my playing with them was having them ride the various vehicles, including the jetpack, and creating (and imagining) buildings and accessories. So maybe I didn’t put much wear on the wires. It was a great time, the toys but also the space program.
You can always learn something new from reading. Love the fact that this author’s target is children. Teach them young and allow them to grow into a full strong healthy tree.
Nasa has an english translation of Potočnik’s work
the preface addresses von Braun’s use of Potočnik and Oberth.
1 Like
This topic was automatically closed after 5 days. New replies are no longer allowed.
