Aerospace Engineering — Posts

43 posts on "Aerospace Engineering" by Shlomo Strauss — bilingual writing on technology, science, and business.

• The Century-Old Space Mirror Plan Threatening the Night Sky — A new startup plans to launch space mirrors to provide sunlight at night, sparking severe concerns over light pollution and ecological disruption.
• The acoustic smartphone network defending Ukraine from drones — Ukraine uses thousands of old smartphones to detect drone acoustics, enabling cheap interceptions that shift the economic balance of warfare.
• Why rocket explosions on the launch pad keep happening — From cryogenic fuel physics to the New Glenn explosion, this piece explains the chain of failure modes that make every successful launch an engineering…
• NASA and Microchip to build space processors 100 times faster — NASA and Microchip are developing a radiation-resistant space chip 100 times faster than current models, with future uses for critical systems on Earth.
• Propeller Physics: From Mars Drones to Quiet Laptops — How atmospheric density and the speed of sound shape propeller design, from NASA's Mars drones to the silent cooling fans in laptop computers.
• Taiwan Shipwreck Outage Highlights Need for LEO Satellites — After a shipwreck severed an undersea cable in Taiwan, microwave tech provided temporary relief, highlighting the strategic need for LEO satellites.
• How NASA's 1989 VIEW Project Laid the Foundation for Modern VR — Although NASA's 1989 VIEW project failed its space goals, its optical and tracking innovations laid the groundwork for Nintendo, Oculus, and modern VR.
• How a Rare Helium Isotope Cools Quantum Computers — Helium-3, a rare isotope sourced from nuclear warheads and the Moon, is essential for cooling quantum computers to near absolute zero.
• How the Global Helium Crisis Threatens Advanced Technology — An Iranian attack on Qatari facilities and the depletion of US reserves have triggered a severe helium shortage, threatening chipmaking and MRI systems.
• The Challenges and Strategic Value of a Far Side Moon Base — Despite communication and terrain challenges, the Moon's far side offers vital resources like ice and helium-3, sparking a new geopolitical race.
• Amazon Challenges Starlink in the Race for In-Flight Wi-Fi — Amazon's new satellite internet solution for airplanes promises double the speed of Starlink and a significantly faster installation time.
• Antimatter transported for the first time in human history — A look at how CERN researchers transported antimatter in a purpose-built container, the physics behind its staggering cost, and its potential use in…
• The engineering behind the B-2 bomber's stealth and endurance — From its radar-absorbing iron-powder coating to a laser that detects contrail formation, this post breaks down the stealth and aerodynamic engineering of…
• MIRV missiles: the Cold War technology now launching commercial — A clear breakdown of how MIRV warheads actually work, why Iran's cluster munitions fall far short, and what links them to SpaceX's multi-satellite…
• Why Musk's controversial xAI moves may follow a familiar playbook — The Tesla-to-xAI money flows look like investor betrayal, but Musk's Solar City precedent suggests a ruthless rebuild strategy rather than a bailout.
• The physics behind launching and stopping jets on a carrier — From electromagnetic catapults powered by flywheels to glycol-cooled arresting gear, a clear breakdown of the advanced systems aboard the USS Gerald R.…
• Iron Beam: the engineering behind Israel's high-power laser defense — From ytterbium fiber bundles to real-time atmospheric correction, a clear-eyed look at how Iron Beam combines dozens of lasers into a single 100-kilowatt…
• WD-40's trade secret is not much of a secret — and it doesn't matter — WD-40's formula is publicly listed and easily replicated, yet smart branding and consumer habit have built a company worth over $3 billion.
• How a Japanese toilet maker became a key supplier to the chip — Toto's mastery of ceramic shrinkage, developed for luxury toilets, led to an electrostatic wafer-holding technology now in high demand as AI chip…
• Musk's AI empire: custom chips, space servers, and a closed-loop — From Dojo 3 supercomputers in orbit to xAI merging with SpaceX, the piece maps how Musk is assembling a self-contained AI pipeline that no competitor…
• The hidden damage trail of geomagnetic storms — Beyond the aurora's beauty, geomagnetic storms accelerate pipeline corrosion, collapsed Quebec's power grid in 1989, and destroyed 38 Starlink satellites…
• Sugar cane: from white sugar to jet fuel and nano-cellulose — The world's highest-yield crop produces far more than table sugar — its byproducts include bioplastics, sustainable aviation fuel, Lego pieces, and…
• How supersonic jet engines could power AI data centers — Boom is adapting its supersonic jet engine to generate electricity for data centers, potentially eliminating the water-cooling workaround that limits…
• Germanium: the element inside your phone, missiles, and quantum — A look at germanium's unique optical and electronic properties, its role in 5G, thermal imaging, and missiles, and the chalcogenide glass competing to…
• Gallium: the metal that melts in your hand and corrodes aircraft — A concise look at gallium's unusual properties, its role in power electronics and military radar, the complexity of refining it, and why China's dominance
• Small modular reactors and the case for a new nuclear age — From AI data centers to lunar bases, this post examines how small modular reactors work, why tech giants are betting on them, and what risks remain.
• Methane: from swamp gas to Saturn's moon and a crater that won't stop — A concise explainer on methane covering its biological origins, its role shaping Titan's landscape, and the Darvaza crater that has burned since 1971.
• Iodine: from table salt to spacecraft propellant — A weekly science digest covering iodine's role in the body, its energetic reaction with titanium, and its potential as a spacecraft propellant.
• Laminar flow and the Reynolds number: the physics behind a tap that — A look at laminar versus turbulent flow, the dimensionless Reynolds number that marks the boundary between them, and why it matters in pipelines, blood…
• Solid fuel and staging: the physics behind Iran's Sajjil ballistic — A clear explanation of solid-fuel propulsion, multi-stage rocket design, and the extreme engineering challenges that the Sajjil missile's unusual contrail
• The ring-wing aircraft and the physics of wingless edges — Wingtip vortices waste up to 40% of an aircraft's energy, and Lockheed's ring-wing concept offers a structural solution rooted in basic physics.
• Cherenkov radiation: when particles outrun light in water — A clear explanation of why nuclear reactor cores glow blue, and how the same physics underlies ship wakes and sonic booms.
• A server farm on the moon: bold engineering or a PR stunt? — Lonestar Data Holdings plans to launch the first lunar server farm aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9, though steep costs and technical limits raise doubts about…
• China's space solar panel plan: bold energy vision or engineering — China has announced plans for a kilometer-wide solar array in geostationary orbit that would beam energy to Earth via microwaves, though the engineering…
• How laser links between satellites cut Starlink's latency — Starlink's shift to inter-satellite laser links shortens data paths and slashes latency — demonstrated live when astronaut Sarah Gillis played a Star Wars
• The vapor cloud behind a supersonic jet: Prandtl-Glauert and — Flight near Mach 1 produces two unrelated phenomena — a sonic boom and a condensation cloud — and this post explains the physics behind each.
• Why titanium screws change color: the physics of electrochemical — A titanium dioxide layer formed by electrochemical redox produces a spectrum of colors through light interference, not changes in chemical composition.
• Vantablack: the material that absorbs 99.965% of visible light — A concise look at how carbon nanotubes make Vantablack so extraordinarily dark, its uses in telescopes and space, and the art-world controversy it sparked.
• Prada designed NASA's next moonwalking spacesuit — Italian fashion house Prada partnered with Axiom Space to design the spacesuit NASA astronauts will wear on the Artemis lunar mission in 2026.
• The Dzhanibekov Effect: Why Objects Flip in Zero Gravity — A phenomenon discovered accidentally in space in 1985 explains why a rotating object periodically flips 180 degrees when spinning on its intermediate axis.
• A handbag made of 99% air: NASA's aerogel enters the fashion world — Parisian fashion house Coperni unveiled a 33-gram handbag made from silica aerogel, the world's lightest solid material, originally developed by NASA for…
• Why a spinning apple hovers and then explodes: two physics principles — A levitating apple that suddenly bursts apart demonstrates how the Coandă effect spins an object to the point where centrifugal force tears it to pieces.
• Why a firework keeps burning underwater — A built-in oxidizer supplies oxygen independent of the surroundings, and combustion temperatures above 1,000 °C evaporate water faster than it can cool…