Kibble

I'm pretty sure that is a depiction of the Block IB "workhorse" configuration with the new Exploration Upper Stage.

One image from the document, as well as a link to the full thing is provided in the following article, however access to the document is limited to users with a payed account to the host site: http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2015/05/sls-team-working-thousands-pages-cdr-documentation/

The orange isn't paint, it's spray-on polyurethane foam insulation. Space Launch System was recently depicted in offical NASA paperwork leading up to the CDR in its correct unpainted orange form.

The boom on Kvant-1 isn't a magnetometer, it's the experimental Sofora girder, meant to hold exterior experiments, like Reflektor. Which, incidentally, would make a very nice antenna part!

Plants don't really have brains, or dense clusters of information-transferring cells do they?

I freaking love the Worm! Incidentally I also freaking love the Eighties.

But what about the true-colour photographs from the Jupiter system?

It looks like your rocket is aerodynamically unstable. A similar thing happened to one of my early rocket designs where at a certain altitude and velocity it would burn and explode! Messing around with stage proportions fixed it.

Beautiful!

Let's call it Ayatollah! It is awesome to say, and a dynamic title for a dynamic rocket.

The cluster of tanks did not decrease its performance by any significant account. Proton has been flying with a first stage like that for a long time. It also shared its rocket engine with Thor, amortizing the costs. A very effective evolution described by the legendary Ed Kyle, Saturn-Atlas-Centaur could out-perform Titan III independant of the Air Force.

Being pedantic really shouldn't be considered a bad thing! Knowing is good, and learning is better.

That really isn't relevant, I was talking about BE3! That's pretty sad. Why?

Could we still fly a rocket like Ares I? For formerly-named SLS we have have done QM1, static testing the five-segment boosters. With SLS, those 5-seg SRBs will be in active production. And for the upper stage, get this - 5m diameter cryogenic tanks in active production for Delta IV (and eventually Vulcan) powered by two BE3 rocket engines! Hydrogen fueled, built to air-start and restart, two 490 kN engines is enough to match J2X, but these engines are in production have actually flown on the New Shepard test vehicle!

I actually really really like Gravity.

Saturn V production was cancelled in 1968, before Apollo 11. Of the 15 Saturn Vs built, only one (SA514's) mission was actually cancelled, SA513 and SA515 were redesignated for Skylab and the Skylab backup, respectively. Honestly, cancelling Saturn V was the right choice. Cancelling the other Saturn, on the other paw, is one of the saddest things NASA has done.

The fact that it is powered by a nuclear reactor is the unrealistic part. Edited for entirety: Also the centrifuge section. In almost every study, slip-roll joints were considered much too difficult to integrate with despun sections, especially when both are meant to be habitable.

Hermes did exactly replicate Space Station's SAWs. But maybe my phrasing was a little unfair...

Saturn's moons do have beautiful names! Dione, Helene, Rhea, and my favorite Anthe.

All communities based around a special interest is bound to alienate people who do not share that interest. IMO there is too little materiel for this particular interest (hard science fiction) so when finally the media produces a new relevant artefact, it is hard not to judge harshly.

Oh right, since that rocket is lifting off from Mars ambient pressure, the plume should be way wider than shown! It should also be nearly transparent, because the fuel is almost nessecarily hypergolic. You are right about the lame landing site. But about the spacesuits, I was really discussing aesthetics. It simply doesn't say spacesuit when you look at it. At least Hermes shamelessly stole enough cues from Space Station to look like a real spacecraft. Even if it's completely unrealistic.

Shenzhou resembles, but is completely unique hardware from, Soyuz. Three of the five piloted missions of Shenzhou carried three Taikonauts.

Is there not a major planet in between Saturn and Neptune?

Satellites generally only cost a few dozen million dollars, unless they are probes designed specifically for one (usually science) mission.

I was excited when it was announced they were making a film of Andy Weir's The Martian. At the time, I hadn't read it, but I had heard the author did alot of homework to make the plot convincing - and an astronaut trying to survive stranded on Mars while back home we are scrambling to save him is an awesome story! Today I saw the trailer for the first time - the first look you got at the actual film. Well no need to be coy. What in Alekseyev's name is Mark Watney wearing? It's the most awful modern-science-fictiony non-spacesuit-looking joke of a costuming mistake I have ever seen! It looks more like a stormtrooper costume than any kind of real spacesuit, let alone one designed for extravehicular activity! That freaking armor chest-plate just screams fake. It's not just that it's unrealistic, it simply does not convince me that it was meant to be a spacesuit. They clearly did not take any inspiration from anything real! This bupkis costuming job does not bode well for this film's scientific "realism".