BWJC

I like science, tech, and games, but mostly space!
I also make music, so there's some of that?

[BWJC @immabed]

Why do super-chilled cryogenic propellants force short or instantaneous launch windows once fuelling has begun? Why do you have to fuel so close to launch? Why do regular cryogenic propellants not have the same restrictions? A thread. 1/20

[BWJC @immabed]

@jackywacky_3 Full credit to @wenchance for the renders and Hail Mary model, and to NASA for the incredible ISS model Chance used as a base for our modified ISS. I was gobsmacked the first time I saw the Hail Mary docked to the ISS, after holding it in my head for so long.

[BWJC @immabed]

@ChadDude301 Serious kudos to @wenchance for suggesting the 'quote' inclusions. They add so much life to the post!

[BWJC @immabed]

@Onemarsyboi @wenchance Obviously if you do make something of this, attribute us for the world and link to our material, mark it as based on Petrova '26, not canon to it, yada yada yada.

[BWJC @immabed]

@Onemarsyboi @wenchance @wenchance sort of played out the major plot points in his render series, but we intentionally left the plot vague. If you wanted to do your own interpretation that'd be pretty awesome! I'm sure me or Chance would be willing to answer any questions about the Hail Mary as well.

[BWJC @immabed]

Hope everyone enjoys! I never expected this to become a six month project, and I'm so glad to be getting it out to everyone.

Please let me know if you have any technical issues with the blog post. I've been squashing bugs the last few weeks but I may have missed something.

[BWJC @immabed]

What if we built the Hail Mary today?

That's the premise of me and @wenchance's Petrova '26. You've seen the ship, now for the details. It's a long post, so I'm doing a read-along in smaller parts.

Pt. 1 is the the lead up, the discovery of Astrophage:

https://t.co/RvMKAKTq61

[BWJC @immabed]

Me: Okay here's the final draft, let me know if anything is broken.
@wenchance: Looks good, but how about instead we add more things?
Me: 🙃

So how'd everyone else's evening go?

[BWJC @immabed]

Scope creep is a real problem that I'm not dealing with well. The TODO list grows as fast as I check things off on the Petrova '26 writeup, but it is really coming together. Home stretch!

[Chance Wen @wenchance]

Just a quick update for y’all:

Apologies for the infrequent posts - work’s been very hectic the past week

The #projecthailmary Petrova ‘26 work is still moving apace as I’ve been working on diagrams for @immabed‘s write up! (Teaser ⬇️)

Also expect more #phm P’26 scenes soon!

[BWJC @immabed]

I like how I was on the home stretch nearly three weeks ago, and am only now approaching the finish line. Last 20% really does take 80% of the time.

[BWJC @immabed]

The Petrova '26 write-up is complete. Should come out this week after a little more proof reading. @wenchance has cooked up several dozen new visuals for it. Since it's over 17k words, I'll be doing a 'read-along' with tweets linking to smaller portions every day or two.

[BWJC @immabed]

@TheLunarWar The plug nozzle is *sick*. French in all the right ways.

[BWJC @immabed]

@docm77 Just another day in large parts of North America!

[BWJC @immabed]

@wenchance The end of the story but not the end of the story telling! Everything from our earliest spitballs in Discord to now has really impressed me. Hell of a ship you've made, PHM chief architect.

[BWJC @immabed]

@smartereveryday @gigaparts @CNC_Kitchen Stefan is awesome, excited to see what you're doing with it!

[BWJC @immabed]

Despite reaching the same coast velocity of 0.91c, the Beetles' higher 5g acceleration cuts a full year off of the Hail Mary's Earth-relative travel time, which with its capped 1g acceleration is a full 14 years and 4 months.

[Chance Wen @wenchance]

Prior to its departure from Tau Ceti, the Hail Mary loads the Taumoeba payload into & then deploys the Beetles
Though the ship can return to Earth, sending the Beetles separately is a hedge that adds some mission redundancy
#projecthailmary #phm #hardsf #toughsf #scifi #blender3D

[BWJC @immabed]

@yukon_09 Yes! I have a far too long blog post coming very soon (hopefully). @wenchance will put some more renders together soon to help fill it out, but I think the text is *basically* done. I'm hoping within a couple weeks now. Design, assembly, timeline, and more!

[BWJC @immabed]

@__abysmal @wenchance There is a chance for the crew, at the beginning of the deceleration burn, to look ahead at this view through the airlock window. They would need a really good UV filter on the window though, as much of the originally visible light will have been blueshifted into harsh UV.

[BWJC @immabed]

@DJSnM @brian_lambert Movie timeline should be 0.984c with 1.5g plus coast (https://t.co/eO6KFn4zKV). The fix for Weir's messed up book calculations (to maintain 20:1 mass ratio) only ends up at ~0.9c.

[BWJC @immabed]

@diyevrepair @DJSnM @brian_lambert Yes, that is understood. Flight time according to Earth is necessarily no less than the ~12 years it takes light to travel between star systems.