Retro Arxiv

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A retro poster of a flat rectangular solar array in orbit sending a faint beam to a small receiving field on a half-lit Earth

1978DOE/ER-0023NASA Johnson Space Center and Marshall Space Flight Center, with DOE

Solar Power Satellites

The 1978 DOE/NASA baseline for a solar power satellite: a 5-by-10-kilometre array in geostationary orbit that beams 5 GW to the ground at 2.45 GHz, with its efficiency chain, microwave link, mass, launch fleet and construction scenario laid out for the environmental and economic studies that followed.

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A retro poster of a thin spoked wheel in black space with a large tilted mirror above its hub, and a small crescent Earth and Moon far away

1977NASA SP-413NASA Ames Research Center and Stanford University

Space Settlements

The 1975 Ames–Stanford summer study's design for a permanent community of 10,000 people in space: a 1.8-kilometre wheel at L5, spun at 1 rpm for Earth-normal gravity, shielded by lunar soil, and built from lunar materials, with a schedule, a cost estimate and a business case.

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A retro poster of a night-time desert covered in rows of identical radio dishes, all tilted toward one faint star ringed by ripples

1971NASA CR-114445NASA Ames Research Center and Stanford University

Project Cyclops

A 1971 NASA–Stanford summer study of what it would take to detect radio signals from another civilization: why microwaves, why the band between the hydrogen and hydroxyl lines, and a complete design and cost estimate for an expandable array of up to a thousand or more 100-metre dishes with a billion-channel signal processor.

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A retro poster of a small wingless craft gliding steeply down a dotted path toward a dry lakebed at dawn, with a low Sun on the left and long shadows on the cracked lakebed

1970NASA TM X-2101NASA Flight Research Center, with the U.S. Air Force Flight Test Center, Edwards, California

Lifting-Body Flight Research

The Edwards lifting-body team's 1970 report to the Space Shuttle community: what four years of flying the wingless M2-F2, HL-10 and X-24A showed about their lift and drag, stability, loads and handling, and how a vehicle with a lift-to-drag ratio near 3 can be glided steeply to a precise unpowered landing.

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The archive

Explore all 10 reports

1940s1 report 1950s2 reports 1960s3 reports 1970s4 reports

SubjectAerodynamics Atmospheric entry Propulsion Spaceflight Space science Habitats Energy

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1947 · NACAWing Plan Forms for High-Speed FlightR. T. Jones on why sweeping a wing back delays the drag rise near the speed of sound.1976 · NASA LangleyWing-Tip WingletsWhitcomb's small upturned tip surfaces that cut induced drag. Now on most airliners.1960s · NASA Flight Research CenterX-15 Hypersonic FlightWhat flying at more than six times the speed of sound taught about heating and control.1960s · NASA LangleyThe Flexible ParawingRogallo's folding fabric wing, studied for bringing spacecraft home and the ancestor of the hang glider.1972 · NASA Flight Research CenterDigital Fly-by-WireThe F-8 that first flew with a digital computer between the pilot's stick and the control surfaces.

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