io9: Russia

Love Is Like a Rocket Smashing to Earth on a Steep Ballistic Reentry Course

Annalee Newitz — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 16:30:00 PDT

Nothing like the smoking ruins left behind after a rocket smashes to Earth on a fast, steep reentry course. I love this set of images showing the results of the Russian Soyuz rocket's return to Earth in April of this year. Recently uncovered by Dark Roasted Blend, the images show the rocket's burning tear through a field of grain, and then close in on the blackened husk of the reentry cone itself.

Imagine riding in that sucker down to Earth at like a zillion miles per hour.

There's something so poignant about this rocket's blistered skin. It's like this machine loved its human companions so much that it came back down to Earth just for them, even though it died in the process.

Soyuz Reentry Pictures [via Dark Roasted Blend]

In Soviet Russia, Space Opera Really Was Operatic

Charlie Jane Anders — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 12:04:00 PDT

Look at the Russian cover for Robert Heinlein's Stranger In A Strange Land: It's like one of Caravaggio's Bible scenes: lurid, fiery, over-the-top and awesome. It should surprise nobody that Heinlein and Philip K. Dick were fantastically popular in the U.S.S.R., with their sharp social commentary and crazy plot devices. The Russian Science Fiction page (in English, luckily) has a bunch of Heinlein and Dick covers, and we have a gallery of our favorites below.

Top image from Mark Bult. [Russian Science Fiction]

In Russia, the Flying Penises of Second Life Are Real

Annalee Newitz — Mon, 19 May 2008 17:30:00 PDT

Kiddies, I remember the days when flying penises could only attack public figures in virtual world Second Life. Who doesn't remember the day when virtual real estate mogul Anshe Chung, the richest lady in Second Life, was attacked during a virtual press conference by giant virtual penises (left)? Clearly, Russian protesters haven't forgotten. A group of pro-government rabble-rousers sent a peniscopter (right) into the air recently during an anti-Putin speech from former chess champ and political activist Victor Kasparov.

Over at Waxy.org, Andy Baio wonders if this was a tribute to the infamous Second Life protest, or if it's just that griefers all think alike.

I prefer to think it was the visionary act of cutting-edge futurists who were inspired by the amazing example of Second Life. Just proves that the real world is being affected by all that beautiful inventiveness in the virtual world. I mean, peniscopters! It's the kind of genius that we'd never be exposed to if we couldn't let our imaginations roam free in virtual worlds. I feel more liberated already. Now if only somebody would make a swarm of these things. We could call it . . . cockswarm. Thanks, Eliot!

Kasparov Griefed by Flying Penis [via Waxy]

Beware Giant Radioactive Turtles of the Soviet Era

Annalee Newitz — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 08:20:00 PDT

It's comforting to know that during the height of Reagan's Cold War in the 1980s, the Soviet Union was making movies that were just as cheesy as the ones you could see in the United States. When you see this clip of the scary, growling radioactive giant turtle from Мутанты (which means Mutant), you'll be forced to concede that the Soviet Union would not ever have lost the cheesy flick arms race. Especially if the cheesy movie war had been fought with giant monster movies. Alas, I don't speak Russian so I can't understand the dialog. But that didn't get in the way of my appreciation at all. I had a genuine moment of cross-cultural understanding. [English Russia] (Thanks, DieR!)

The Future Of Space Exploration?

Charlie Jane Anders — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 16:00:00 PDT

Black smoke belches out of a grinding old engine as it hauls Russia's latest Soyuz space capsule across a Kazakh wasteland, while armed guards keep watch. This mixture of high and low technology is probably the future of space exploration, as resources get scarcer and more small governments and independent operators get into the space game. More images of Soyuz in the wasteland, and its launch to the International Space Station, below.

Images by AP/Dmitry Lovetsky

Nuclear Missiles Are Rock Stars In Moscow

Charlie Jane Anders — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 11:40:23 PDT

Russians prepare to parade nuclear missiles through Red Square as part of the annual Victory Day celebrations. The procession of Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles, a scary Cold War tradition, ended after the Soviet Union fell, but now Russia is reviving it. Call it apocalyptic retro-futurist nostalgia. Or maybe just overcompensation. Either way, Russians will be screaming and maybe throwing their underwear at these shiny gray WMDs. A gallery of weapon-porn, after the jump.

Image from Getty Images

Russian Scifi Epic "Inhabited Island" Comes to Berlin

Kevin Kelly — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 16:00:41 PST

The long-awaited Russian scifi film Inhabited Island will screen in Berlin this week. This $40 million dollar epic is one of the most expensive films to come out of the Motherland. It's based on the 1971 Soviet novel called Prisoners of Power, written by the Strugatsky brothers, and follows amateur astronaut Maxim Kammerer after he lands on a planet based satirically on the U.S.S.R. The planet is peppered with mind-control towers that the government has disguised as a missile defense system. The newcomer destroys this network, but might have doomed its people and himself in the process. You can read an online version of the out of print (in English, anyhow) novel here. [Variety]

St. Petersburg Starts Process of Becoming a Domed City

LISA KATAYAMA — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 16:30:03 PST

It's not quite a glass-domed city yet, but St. Petersberg has taken the first steps towards that goal. British architecture firm Wilkinson Eyre, best known for the design of the Gateshead Millenium Bridge in Newcastle, unveiled a bold new plan to revamp the old market of St. Petersburg, Russia by putting it entirely under glass. Over the next few years they'll be putting a giant sheet of reinforced glass over Aprasin Dvor, a shopping district. A matching glass bridge will span the river. We've got some interesting facts about the project.

Here are some deets:
- A glazed crystalline glass tensegrity roof reflects weather conditions but keeps pedestrians dry.
- A new building on the Fontanka River will replace the decaying 60s Publishing House.
- A lightweight tensegrity footbridge will be built over the river. It'll look like a shiny cloud. Images by Wilkinson Eyre

Wilkinson Eyre Architects via Dezeen

The U.S. Needs A Space Race With China

charliejane — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 09:00:07 PST

China plans to launch 15 rockets, 17 satellites and a crewed spaceship during 2008. But that's not going to be enough to scare the United States into launching a new space race. And the U.S. really, really needs a new space race to get us to take space exploration seriously again.

China's ramped-up space plans (and its airbrushed moon porn) are definitely making the U.S. twitchy. The U.S. government refused to help with the launch of China's Chang'e lunar orbiter.) But the U.S. has mostly been laid-back, and a little condescending. Like this L.A. Times article that says "There's Room For China In Space." Really? No way. (Here's another one.) Even the fact that Russia, Western Europe and Japan have all launched their own robot probes isn't freaking Americans out yet. So let's hope China steps up its game, without doing anything too evil, like when China blew up a satellite and doubled the size of the debris field orbiting Earth. But a Chinese astronaut on Mars would be just the thing we need to jolt us out of our complacency.

Who knows when the U.S. would have put a dude on the moon if Russia hadn't put a dog in space back in 1957? The U.S. government is pretty stingy when it comes to science funding, but there's always money for war and coping with outside threats. Space funding dropped sharply in the 1990s, and now we're retiring our space shuttle fleet. The only recent increase in space funding was $300 million for defending U.S. satellites after China destroyed that weather satellite. It sucks that we need an outside competitor to make us take space exploration seriously again.But on the other hand, a little more competition could be healthy for everyone. Images by AP.

Diving Into the Russian Nuclear Sub Wreck

Annalee Newitz — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 07:00:16 PST

The Kursk was a Russian nuclear cruise missile submarine that was lost under mysterious circumstances involving some explosions in 2000. Here it is a year later, dredged up from the waters by a Dutch crew. Want to see the insides?

Thanks to Seth L, who pointed out these cool pictures in a comment thread about scary settings in scifi movies.

Kursk Wreck [English Russia]

Suicidal Russian Space Junk Plunges Into Earth's Atmosphere

Annalee Newitz — Mon, 24 Dec 2007 07:30:20 PST

Sturdy, car-sized space freighter Progress 26 was launched off the International Space Station on Saturday, filled to the brim with trash — basically, all the crap (literally and figuratively) the crew had been accumulating for weeks. Progress 27, another uncrewed freighter, will be arriving with fresh food and supplies from Earth for the ISS cosmonauts. No word on what will happen to the poop-packed Progress 26 once it's been launched from the ISS, but probably it will meet the same fate as its predecessor Progress 23 last March, which was programmed to burn itself up in our atmosphere. Russian Trash Ship [Space.com]

Siberian Doomsday Supercrater Finally Located

Kevin Kelly — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 13:20:34 PST

A team of scientists has finally located the impact crater from a "Doomsday" 1908 meteor strike that was one thousand times more powerful than the blast that leveled Hiroshima. You wouldn't think looking for something that size would be like trying to find a needle in a haystack, but it's gone undetected for nearly 100 years. Mainly because it was sneaky and hiding under a lake.

Crater From 1908 Russian Space Strike Found, Says Team [National Geographic]