Master Dex

It looks to me they slide into place like you say, although the mechanism itself makes me wonder. Without being properly rooting like modern wing designs I wonder how it can handle the shear stress put on the wings. I'm sure some OTEC can account for that though (like the mysterious space metal). Now the idea of some type of shape memory alloy like what we see with the YF-21 is certainly possible as well, just not what it looks like to me. There is a lot of real life research into materials that can make wings capable of changing shape to fit different flying conditions much like that of the YF-21.

And so I have watched episode 14. Fun episode. City 7 still separated from the fleet, and everyone basically trying to get along like normal despite. Gamlin really needs to relax some more, lol. He only doesn't like Fire Bomber music because he has a problem with Basara and is conflicted about Mylene. Also Fire Bomber seems to hit all demographics for their concerts, I have to say though, Basara is a great sport about it. More amazing Valk action from Milia again. Too bad we have to wait so long to see Max back in the cockpit again. I don't really have much to say for this episode there is pretty much not much to say but what you see with this one. Can't even think about anything to do for the science bit this week. I guess it is for next week.

I would say so yes, I'll get around to looking at that later tonight hopefully.

Neither Max or Milia would be the type to do that though. They'd apprehend and hold the vampires in a secure place, but they wouldn't coldly flush them. Like said before, this isn't Battlestar Galactica. They aren't the last surviving remnant of humanity, and therefore aren't that desperate. Even if the Protodeviln didn't learn about the spirita regeneration ability and didn't set up the farm project, they'd still attack the fleet to drain spirita like normal. So just by events playing out the fleet may have learned of Fire Bomber's music working to 'revive' people who had been drained. In other words, you are right that had they taken more initiative to deal with the Vamps then they might have had less troubles, but not necessarily derail the plot as it was, it would have been altered quite a bit, but it still could have played out in some way.

As long as the science is valid enough for a high explosion count I guess Michael Bay feels no wrong can be done, lol. It wasn't too difficult to include the picture really, but I felt it would help make the things I was saying seem a bit more real and give a truer sense of scale. The technology humanity has at their disposal in Macross is almost unfathomable. In Frontier a fold over 20 light years is referred to as short range, and the 12 to 16 range isn't considered very far 19 years earlier. Humanities technology level in Macross is impossible in that time frame for natural progression. Of course natural progression is not how they achieved that in the shows, it is all intervention based progression, primarily the ASS-1 crashing and Space War I. Despite the results of the two situations the future they've built is an amazing dream. To do these things if we never get any help from some other higher intelligence (like alien races we somehow meet), it could easily take us hundreds to thousands of years. This is one of the reasons I like Macross, it is truly fantastical, but at the same time it is fantastic. I would give a lot to see some of the things people in Macross probably take for granted given their advancement.

I didn't necessarily say it was brand new in 2040, just that that was 5 years earlier. I also noted the likelihood that experimental referred to a new version or something to that effect.

All right! I am caught up now, awesomeness. The show is heading into one of the more interesting parts now. City 7 has been stolen by the enemy who are trying to relocate it to their own fleet. Max is pretty resourceful as ever. The trans-location dropping a small rock from the exit coordinates is cool. I have to give props to the writers there for using such a small detail in how the fold drive works in the show for a vital plot point. Also Milia has rather dark humor, joking about dumping the entire population into space if they riot. I wouldn't be shocked though if there was an emergency contingency plan that called for that though. You can never be too careful really... The Fold boosters, first time we see them in a show (Macross Plus being an OVA/movie). I have an interesting observation, and I can use my well versed astronomy knowledge for this one. Apparently in 2045 the fold boosters are experimental and can't handle a long range fold as such (as noted they had a 50% chance of success, which despite Gamlin's emotional response, is in fact really good odds from a scientific angle). However only 5 years earlier in Plus we see fold boosters being used with no problems. I have two potential explanations for this: A, the show writers made a goof, or B, the distance City 7 was folded out was quite far indeed. B is more likely, allow me to explain. Macross Plus takes place mostly on Eden. In continuity Eden is a planet in the fictional Groombridge 1816 star system (also known as Helios apparently). This star system is in fact not real. I don't know why they chose to do this because there is however an actual star called Groombridge 1618 (there are other Groombridge stars, but that matches the numbers closest, and is unlikely a coincidence). Groombridge 1618 is a class K7V star, which to non Astronomy folk is a star a bit smaller than our sun (when I say bit I mean in cosmic terms). As it happens though it is theorized K class stars can be good for supporting life if a planet was in the right location, just as much as G class (our Sun is a class G2V star). This has little to do with the show, just some extra information for those that find it interesting. Anyway, We can assume that Groombridge 1816 from M+ is supposed to be around the same area as Groombridge 1618 for the simple similarity in the name. 1618 is about 15.8 light years away from Earth (which is pretty close to us in cosmic terms). Eden in the 1816 system is supposed to be about 11.7 light years from Earth. Closer, but not by much. I don't know why they didn't use the real one instead, the distance is almost the same to a space faring civilization with fold technology. Ok, it sounds like I am ranting on Macross Plus, but I do have a point. Max said the fold boosters can't handle trips "over such a long distance." The fact that the trip from Eden to Earth (11.7 ly distance or 15.8 if you like to use the real universe alternative) can be made with the fold boosters with no problems indicates a general idea for what a short range fold is, and for what the early fold boosters are rated. This means the distance City 7 was from Battle 7 was at least more than 20 light years, probably more. Given the rather good 50% odds (despite that the boosters burned out on fold out), it probably wasn't too much more of a distance given that City 7's mass seems to have a limit to how far it can go. It is rather interesting I think that while at first glance it seems an oversight of the writer's part that the fold boosters seem to be a bit unreliable 5 years after they are shown to work fine and yet are still experimental. However with some critical thinking and some extra information it all fits very well in canon. Though it is weird that after 5 years the boosters are still experimental. Perhaps a newer version that hadn't been bench marked yet. In which case while Diamond Force failed to reach City 7 in time, they did help in testing out the latest system. As crass as it may sound the Engineers designing those things will love them for that unintended bench mark test, and it might help explain why fold boosters later on seem to have less trouble. Worked out the kinks they did. As for the rest of the episode, always fun to see Milia in the cockpit again. I was chuckling as the enemies were trying to shoot at her but missing, they'll never hit her. She is way too good for them, lol. Also props for Basara saving the day just like how they would on Russian Space Station, lol (I laugh because it is a fun reference, but that movie has terrible science). To close out my post, here is a fun picture related to my Groombridge 1618 talk earlier taken using a handy program I have called Celestia: Click for spacey goodyness. This is me hovering just near Groombridge 1618, as you can see it doesn't look all that different from our sun, but it is actually a tad bit more orangish than ours, and it is smaller. Also for fun, if you notice the red markers nearby, that is where we are in relation to 1618. The markers are sitting directly on Earth 15.8 light years away. Small in terms of cosmic scale, but still very far away. The universe is vast indeed.

I have been extremely busy with school work and only just watched ep.11. By my count we should be getting to 14 this week? I'm not sure anymore. I'll watch some to catch up, if 14 is this weeks (someone let me know if I'm wrong) then I'll try to get a review in. I'll have to skip reviews for the episodes I wasn't around for, but I plan to be back again, hopefully continuing my either much loved or much annoying science segment, lol.

It would have to be a very sensitive radar. Spent casings would scatter quite a bit even coming from a moving battroid, let alone a movie aircraft. The tiny cross sections of the casings would make for barely a ping on a radar. They are more designed to pick up the reflection of larger cross sections such as aircraft. They never go into detail on the stealth systems in Macross though. While some valkyries have what appears to be similar plan form alignment like the F-22 (you see this mostly with the VF-22) others do not seem to have this but still are regarded as stealth. While there are certain materials that could do this I have my doubts that space metal is both highly durable and stealthy at the same time. I really wish we had more info on this surreptitious material from which all valkyries are made.

The old list also didn't have the VF-25 or 27 T-W figures because Marchy made it before those were released. So if it is to be amended, might as well add all known figures, heheh. Hmm.. one might think the VF-2SS would have even more power than the 25 being at a later year. However it is an alternate universe so maybe not. I'll have to wait and see what it is I suppose.

I didn't comment on all of this as I just hadn't visited the site in a while, but good to see it will be running again. Good to see you back as well March. M3 has always been the best way for me to totally geek out about the various engineering facts related to practically every Valkyrie in existence. I also rather enjoy that Thrust to Weight ratio chart.

I've just neglected this almost totally. Been really busy with school work. If I find the time, I'll try to catch up.

Maybe next time then, . Everything seems to be well squared off here. Good point too that the full thrust of even the YF-21 was enough to rip it apart. I remember seeing there were safe atmospheric values for the VF-25 and VF-27. In space this is irrelevant as long as you have the Inertial Damper thing to make the pilot not dead. I have a bit of a science nitpick though. A lot of people keep referencing burn up due to atmospheric friction. The classic burning through the atmosphere thing is in fact not caused by friction. This is a very very common mistake as most people just aren't aware though. It is actually that the high speeds causes the craft to violently compress air in front of them, heating it up. This is what causes the red glow and the burning effect. It is true that there is friction due to air resistance, but it isn't what is causing all that heat during re-entry. This is also why the feathering gimmicks of SpaceShipOne and SpaceShipTwo negates this, it keeps the air from compressing so much by changing the craft's surface area, therefore allowing it to re-enter without as much heat. The friction is there, but it doesn't do as much in reality. That being said, the VF-25 and VF-27 engines are pushing the craft at forces far greater than weight due to gravity, so maxing those in atmosphere is just death waiting to happen. QED.

Hah, I doubt that. Now if you really want me to explain why (though Seto seems to have the gist of it down), I can. I am an Aerospace Engineering student, this stuff is what I do. I rather not spend the time typing up the explanation (partly because Seto got the key points down). Suffice it to say if you put VF-25 engines on a VF-1 and tried to fly it, the forces would rip the plane to shreds. Possibly even burning shreds if the air in front of the plane were to violently compress to the levels it does when spacecraft re-enter the atmosphere (more so actually). The VF-25 airframe is designed to work with that thrust, the VF-1 was not.

I still haven't watched episode 11... yeah, school work and other projects getting to me. I'll try and get to it though.

So... did we do episode 11?

In fact there are thrusters on the VF-25 Gerwalk in the back area where the shield connects in fighter mode. They are under the backside piece and are very small. Considering the technological development of NUNS/Shinsei/LAI it is likely that despite size these small thrusters have a lot of power behind them.

You have a point for the jets. However we don't know if it was even Mars. I am skeptical to the terraforming still. Your mention of the scene from the last episode of SDFM is notable, but it could have been when that area was animated they forgot everything was supposed to be dead, or perhaps that was a lucky area that wasn't blasted (only about 70% of the planet was hit, which means a lot of water was hit I guess...). Though that does seem unlikely. The thing is, in the Reconstruction episode, Hikaru just found a flower which was a sign life was coming back after almost two years. Seems unlikely after that they realized they could reforest entire mountains in less than a year. I don't even know how you would do that, terraforming aside. Incidentally I'm going to go on a science bit here, even though it isn't related to an episode in general. Terraforming doesn't necessarily have to do with planting either, it is just that for Mars that is a necessity to increase oxygen levels. The biggest problems for Mars is it's low temperature due to thin atmosphere (itself due to lower gravity) and the planet's lack of a magnetic field to shield from cosmic radiation. The latter is likely caused by Mars' inner core solidifying millions (perhaps billions) of years ago due to cooling. We can raise the heat of Mars by (ironically) polluting it to raise greenhouse gases. In other words... global warming. Another way is to put a spacecraft near an asteroid to tug it over several years so it will impact Mars in the northern icecap (there are reasons for the northern over the southern but I won't get into that). This impact will melt the ice there and spread it out increasing carbon dioxide levels which will cause the same type of greenhouse gas effect. We will have to do more work to make the atmosphere cleaner for us but either way we have to dirty up the planet first to heat it up. The greenhouse gases could also increase air pressure. It would be to the point where you'd only need an oxygen mask to walk outside instead of a full space suit. Then you can work on the breathing bit. As for the magnetic field... I don't know if we can naturally restore that or not. However in the future I can see us being able to artificially generate a planet sized magnetic field to protect the planet. Would take a lot of power but planetary magnetic fields are actually pretty weak compared to some things we have done. They are just big. I have no doubt in the future, probably some hundred years ahead that living on Mars could be common place. My point to all this is that it seems unlikely that even if the UN Spacey could reforest entire mountains and as such set up forests on Mars in such a short time, I don't know if they could do all the other things (plants wouldn't survive very well in the cold temperatures, and the cosmic radiation will not be nice to them either). Now of course this doesn't mean that the writers of the show knew all this, so it certainly could be possible that Mars is completely terraformed in the context of Macross because they just decided that it is possible for them. So yeah, it could be that Gamlin was on Mars there in the show. I am just using my science bit to explain what it would really take. After all we don't know how terraforming processes have been advanced thanks to overtechnology.

Could be a large enclosure on Mars using holography to simulate Earth appearances like the colony fleets do. 30 years is too short for terraforming to have done anything so I'd guess this to be the case. Or the flashbacks are when he was elsewhere for whatever reason.

Ok then, Episode 10. I liked this episode, really did. Ray is an interesting character and we learn a bit about his past for the first time here. I know there is an M7 Plus short eventually that goes into detail with his friendship with Stephan and how both had a thing for Akiko but Ray backed off. I am watching the remastered episodes though and they don't have those so I have only seen that once. I don't remember if it was attached to this episode or later. Anyway, they say Ray vowed to never use a gun or fight again after he inadvertently caused Stephan to get killed. They don't label it but that could be classified as a type of Post Traumatic Stress disorder. In this case the trauma being the loss of his best friend. Luckily it seems meeting Basara and finding somthing new for him helped him get over a lot of that. They don't directly say, but Ray's secret friends that got Basara's Valkyrie out to the catapult were most likely friends he had from when he was in the Pink Pecker squadron. So special favors for him are no big deal. It isn't said how much of Ray's past Basara is privy too. He says he doesn't know anything and doesn't stick his nose into other people's past but he could be saying that because he believes it is Ray's business to tell people if he wants. Akiko clearly didn't think that way. Of course Basara might not really know. I think he does though because after everyone left the hospital room and just Ray and Basara are there, there seems to be a silence of understanding. Basara would never wonder why Ray didn't shoot. We know why Basara wouldn't but the reasoning is different. I got the impression he knew and his silence was sort of a way of saying he understood. On that note I figure Basara knows more about Ray because their friendship is more than just being band mates. I personally believe Ray is who taught Basara how to pilot a valkyrie. It isn't often stated but Basara is a truly exceptional pilot. Actually it is stated in this very episode, by Max himself. That is true acknowledgment there. Of course in true Max fashion he allows himself some self-gloating about the fact that he is still the best. Max will always be my favorite Macross character for traits like that. While Basara isn't as good as Max, he is still really good. This becomes even more apparent much later on in Dynamite 7 when we see him piloting a valkyrie with normal controls but using his acoustic guitar to nudge them and he is still able to fly well. That is some crazy skill! So Basara had to learn this skill somewhere, and Ray was a pilot. So it stands to reason that Ray is who taught Basara the basics at least. We also know that Ray is who gave Basara the VF-19. Hinted at in this episode was that it was a part of a secret operation known as Operation M. All of us who've seen the show before know what that is but since it wasn't elaborated on further I'll keep quiet on that for now. So we learn a lot about characters in this episode. Unfortunately as I said before, I couldn't find anything obvious or outstanding that I could talk about for my science bit this time. It rained again in City 7 but I talked about that already. For anyone though who thinks I overdo it with the science bit, I just like clarifying things and clearing misconceptions. I'm not really out to nitpick everything done wrong, it is an anime after all and not everything will be correct. If I wanted to be really annoying I'd talk nonstop about how all the valks and ships move around in space. 90% of sci-fi tends to not portray accurate movements in microgravity. However I don't talk about this because it would be futile and it is just a show. Hence why I only talk about various specific things I see in each individual episode. I have just as much fun noting something they did that was scientifically accurate as I do explaining why something is not. Finally, I'm a sucker for Totsugeki Love Heart, always good to hear that song. I do like Planet Dance (easily a victim of the aforementioned Planet Dance effect) but I'd listen to Totsugeki Love Heart over that any day.

Perhaps a bad pun on 'New' UN Spacey?

Ok, I cheated. Only Thursday night and I watched episode 10, but I like this one. I'll wait a day or so to post my stuff though. Big character episode, Ray mostly. I don't know if I have much to say for the science bit in this episode, so that may be a bit dry. Either way, I'll get to my review tomorrow.

Yeah, there can be only one Max.

Yeah, I've been saying it for months.

Ok, I just watched it. I'm not going to review every aspect, especially the Alice Holiday stuff because people did that already and all. I was thinking a lot about Pete's musing as questions about spiritia. I'm not going to talk about sound energy since we aren't there yet so I'll cover spiritia based only on the observed stuff so far. Now I am not a neurologist so can only say so much. It is a proven fact that music can change someone's mood. Here it seems to me that when the vamps were stealing Alice's spiritia she was getting more and more depressed to the point she didn't even feel like standing. Had that been pushed further I imagine a person would let themselves stop breathing and just die. Spiritia isn't a life force per say as we can live without it but without it we might not care to live. In this aspect spiritia kind of becomes a term with no clear definition. Now to go back on the brain chemistry bit, when certain songs are heard (there are also many other stimuli for this as well), our brain can emit various chemicals like horomones that can change how we feel, making us feel better or worse (music making you feel worse is a rarity and depends on your mood and tastes). It seems to me when spiritia is drained, the Protodeviln are robbing our brains of the ability to secrete these chemicals that can makes us feel better or even to feel anything. This is why the worst of those drained end up in catatonic states. They aren't dead, they have just lost the will to continue living. It isn't Fire Bomber's music necessarily that is helping them, but the reason their music works is because Basara strives to sing from his heart and not just to what is popular. That makes the difference here, even if it might not sell well initially. So in a sense what the protodeviln are feeding off isn't our life, but our brain chemistry, emotions, perhaps the nature of the soul. Of course we cannot yet quantify what exactly the soul is (like I said until we get to the subject of sound energy later I'm not going to cover that). I think that is why it is so hard to get a clear idea of just what spiritia is. I think to the protodeviln, it is just something they know they need and they can see we have it. They are from another universe where physics are different and they are energy (I know the show says another dimension but if you know the difference between universes and dimensions what I say really does make more sense). Here they are physical, and they don't know how to keep themselves alive or better yet, how keep their bodies working. So they noticed the difference others had and stole the difference. The fact that they have the ability to measure spiritia is more of a necessity than anything. They developed technology to do what they needed. What they are measuring is probably about the chemicals in the brain are affecting the body and all that. Now, I still want to mention the rain bit. They do have plants on board the ship, so they need rain. Obviously they have a reservoir of water, perhaps split into base elements and compressed as gas (water as a liquid is an incompressible fluid, splitting into gas to compress would make transportation easier). This water is also their drinking water, and every other use of water (remember my commentary on the resort ship's water supply?). The rain is mostly to keep up the plant life, and to resemble realistic Earth conditions. Any of the rain water not absorbed by plant life is probably drained through, cleaned, filtered, and reused for other water needs. Also I should note, that means even the water is finite. While you could stop places to find more water, more than likely they are recycling a lot of stuff. Some people balk at the idea of astronauts on the International Space Station recycling their urine and filtering the water out, but it does result in perfectly clean water. Whether you want to think of it or not, this is most likely happening. Though I imagine most people on the colony don't even realize it.