CAUTION! These Piles Are Deadly

No!  Wash Your Filthy Minds Out!
Really, living in the gutter would be a step up for some of you.  No sniggering at the back there, for we are back on the subject both of S.L.A.M.  and 'Thunderbirds', futurologist Gerry Anderson's second-finest creation, after 'Torchy the Battery Boy' which was 'Captain Scarlet'.

Don't worry, Captain - sharks are our friends!

     Here an aside.  Just like the Ice Warriors, nobody ever calls The Mysterons "The Martians", do they?  Because it's painfully obvious that neither race originated on the Red Planet, especially not the unseen Mysterons.  If you are familiar with - sorry, an aside of an aside here - with that story by Arthur C. Clarke "The Sentinel', then you know an alien race place an artefact on the Moon, which stands silent sentry for  countless millenia until Hom. Sap. gets up there, noseys around, discovers it and blows it to bits.*

Ol' Art, apparently keeping his teeth in place.

     This wanton destruction will then notify whoever built the Sentinel that Hey!  Hom. Sap. has arrived on the interplanetary stage!  Conrad suspects similar for The Mysterons, only they weren't satisfied with putting artefacts on the Moon, oh no - they had to opt for Mars, because it's a lot harder to get to and explore.  If they arrive in the Solar System that old question of "Are we alone?" will get answered and that answer will be "No, but we'll wish we were."

The Green, Green Rings of Mars.

     I do apologise, we got waaaay off track there, which for newcomers might be a tad disconcerting, and for regulars probably just provokes a roll of the eyes.**
     Okay, what I wanted to talk about was - LITHIUM BATT - no, strike that - nuclear-powered avionics.  And if that wasn't a phrase, it is now.
     Recall, if you will, that harbinger of doom the Supersonic Low Altitude Missile, which was powered by an unshielded nuclear reactor that spewed out radioactive debris.  This is known as "Direct" nuclear power, which is far less complex - and yet far more dangerous! - than "Indirect".  Indirect requires sealed systems that prevent radioactive contamination of the environment, which in turn means a lot more equipment and a lot more mass.  Indirect also implies that you're going to be using said nuclear pile (you see where today's title comes from?) in a manned aircraft, which implies shielding to protect the crew from, oh, you know, dying.

It's all very interesting - if you can read Cyrillic

     The South Canadians and Sinisters both trialled nuclear reactor piles in aircraft, purely to test shielding in order to ensure aircrew didn't end up a load of glowing body-bags who needed lead coffins.  Funds were cut before an actual real aircraft propelled by a nuclear reactor ever got built, so whether the PLUTO lightweight reactor (as designed for SLAM) could have powered a bomber is a moot point.  We say 'bomber' here because only a very large airframe powered by multiple engines could have lofted the great mass involved; a fighter just couldn't hack it.
     I think that's quite enough of the Intro hogging things for today.  Tomorrow we will continue this theme with a lot more of -

These!

     Plus, why Jeff Tracy is, at heart, an evil swine.

A Bit Of Gloasting
Going from the near future to the rather distant past, Conrad would like to display a couple of maps from Mapset 4, "Official History of the War, Naval Operations", which goes with text Volume 4 of that same iteration.  Art?

Operations in the Adriatic

Operations in the North Sea.  General naval bimbling about, if you want to be technical.

     Once again, all the maps in the case are pristine and don't look to have been touched since 1928, which is a sad indictment on the mobile phone generation, or their grandparents, whichever criticism carries more 'oomph'.  The seller pointed out it's rare to get sets like this complete, since Some People buy up the map case and then sell off the individual maps for a huge profit, the unspeakable swines!  In fact, you might say <ahem> that they'd be making a pile ...

Not really, Art.  But we'll let it stand.

Blimey, we're at count.  Already?  But I feel so inspired!  Let's continue wiffling on, at least until the hunger pangs intervene.   

Spaceport Ahoy
If I were to mention that word above, "Spaceport", it would undoubtedly conjure up images of launch gantries at Cape Canaveral or the desolate splendour of Baikonur, of miles of asphalt blast aprons and concrete refuge bunkers.  Not this -

Mission Control looks a bit run-down

     This is Sutherland, of picturesque northern Scotland, where men are men and sheep are cold in winter.  Seriously, that above is probably taken in the two weeks of summer when the thermometer reluctantly climbs to as high as 5 or 60C, and in a bad winter the snows would cover than ruined whatnot.  Art?

Home to the Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders

     It seems that a couple of satellite manufacturers are positively salivating at the chance to launch small satellites from the peninsula, thanks to how they would orbit if launched from Sutherland.  Conrad is conflicted: it's an unspoilt bit of greenery, undeniably, and it would be a shame to sacrifice it to conglomerates whose eyes are full of £££***, and yet, and yet - "Space Command Sutherland" does have a compelling ring to it.

"Sutherland had seen significant development after the spaceport went into operation ..."

     I suppose we shall see in time.

Later, gentle readers!


*  Don't stand in judgement, it's one of Hom. Sap.'s defining characteristics - "What is it?  No idea!  Should we blow it up?  Yes, let's!"
**  Whilst still in their sockets.  Not being used like dice.
***  As would be The Treasury's.