Runaway to the Stars: Page 109 and 110
Posted on December 12, 2024 by Jay Eaton

FULL SIZE IMAGE

Talita is very excited to explain to you how the local megastructures work!

Reminder to get your questions in for the character AMAs (submit questions here). As I said I will probably do AMA responses for 2 weeks because I am hoping to finish chapter 6 pages by the end of this year, and thus stay about 3 chapters ahead of the pages on this website. For now, at least. I have attempted to time the release of pages on here to be done around the same time I am done drawing the book, so it'll slowly catch up to me the entire time. This is fine, sometimes I need to light a fire under my ass to get work done.

Transcript

LOG 3.1: The Launch Loop

Talita: The launch loop is an active structure maglev cable transport system. The upper rail is held 80 kilometers above Dirtball's surface by the momentum of dozens of rotor belts that circulate through the structure. The circulation transfers the weight of the structure onto magnetic bearings at the grounded ends, which support it.

Diagram of the end of the launch loop:

  • 30 km wide rail loop

  • radio dome

  • berm wall surrounding rail loop

  • magnetic bearings attached on each side of loop

  • loop access rails

  • ground access rail

Talita: In total, it's about 2,700 kilometers long and 80 kilometers tall, and the support rail width is about 60 meters. Quite large!

Diagram of a cross section of the launch loop rail:

  • central maglev rail

  • 2 maintenance cables and personnel maglev rails below main rail

  • 7 active support stands

  • support rails for stabilizing payload

Diagram of a cross section of an active support strand:

  • 5 rotors per strand

Talita: This megastructure was created as an upfront investment by a Tiiliitian mining company, and it paid for itself in ease of exporting billions of tons of metals, rare gases, and heavy water.

LOG 3.2: The Skyhook

Orbital Tether

Diagram:

  • counterweight

  • satellite body

  • 600 km tether

  • The hook, which may be swapped out to pick up different kinds of payloads.

  • orbital direction (path around planet)

  • spin direction (rotation of the entire structure)

Attachment Process

Diagram:

  • payload accelerates on launch loop rail to the speed of the passing attachment point

  • both traveling 3,800 m/s relative to surface

  • "basket" grapple points extend from hook

  • The RCS (reaction control system) positions baskets over “hitch” attachment points on the payload sled.

  • basket tightens

Diagram of Dirtball (aka Ixion III, Shikaviil III):

  • Path of satellite body: a circular orbit around Dirtball

  • Path of hook: A three-lobed path following around the path of the satellite body

Talita: Incoming payloads give some of their kinetic energy to the skyhook, which slows them down enough to be safely transferred to the loop’s rail, and the skyhook uses that borrowed kinetic energy to fling outgoing payloads into higher orbit.

Talita: The skyhook orbits Dirtball about every 2 hours, and the entire structure slowly spins as it does. The 600 kilometer tether extending from the satellite body passes 80 kilometers above the surface at 3 different points, most importantly over the rail of the launch loop. Payloads are put into support sleds with hitch spurs and are sent up the rail of the launch loop to accelerate up to 3,800 meters per second, the speed of the passing skyhook's attachment point.

Idrisah: It's so scary.

Talita: (visibly delighted) Everything in aerospace is!

Minor Store Update and 3D Talita

Posted on July 17, 2024 by Jay Eaton
Three postcard sized prints. The top has a centaur posing with silk dairy livestock, the middle has bug ferrets arguing over dinner table arrangements, and the bottom has polar avians hunting on a globe moss ice field.
A photo of assorted Runaway to the Stars themed stickers.

Some miniprints and assorted stickers are now available in the shop. I am sold out of the Shyam and Talita character sticker, sadly, but lots of new ones are available as one-offs.

I have also gotten down to last handful of my Talita pins, some of which have some enamel fill errors and resin dents that prevent me from selling them at full price. If you’re looking for a discount and don’t mind some superficial defects, check out the B and C-grade pins. They’re charmingly flawed, just like the lady herself.

In other news, as birthday present for myself this year I commissioned a low-poly Talita 3d model from incredibly talented artist Lazer-T (Tumblr, Twitter, Bluesky), who really went above and beyond with rigging her silly over-complicated design. Look at these turnarounds he did, they’re great:

There is also a Barbie doll nude version of her, since I wanted one for generic posing reference (and also, she looks cool with the stripes out).

This model has among other things: 8 total eyelids, adjustable pupil sizes, an antler slider with velvet stages, nostrils that open and close, and mane and face feathers that can puff out. Here’s an example of expressive animation, also done by Lazer-T!

[Silent animation of Talita looking away, then jolting in shock, blushing in embarrassment, and waving bashfully at the viewer.]

I’m not very experienced with manipulating armature in Blender myself (I’ve barely got a handle on hardscape modelling) but I’ve been having fun moving the model around and learning how to pose different parts and use shape keys. Below: me messing around with the file.

Ok, that’s all. I hope the turnaround gifs don’t make my homepage run like ass, if they do I’ll replace them with the still renders.

Shiny New Webcomic Site

Posted on April 12, 2024 by Jay Eaton

Hello everyone. If you got here from social media, you probably know about this comic already. I’ve been posting it to Patreon for quite a while, but it has always been my dream to contribute to the ecosystem of free-to-read webcomics that I spent the majority of my childhood voraciously reading while hunched over the computer past my bedtime. I had initially started working on the Official Book after signing it to publisher, though, and originally was only allowed to post a third of it online. But a couple years into working on it, I got permission to fling it out onto the internet in its entirety. So voila! Runaway to the Stars: Book 1, out in public, updating 3 times a week!

If you hadn’t heard about this comic, welcome! Runaway to the Stars is a worldbuilding project that I’ve been working on for over a decade. It started as an excuse to design some aliens and throw all my science fiction thoughts in the same vat, and eventually a book started to grow out of it like a fungus. If this comic intrigues you, there’s tons of additional artwork, writing, and short comics that can be found on my perpetual work-in-progress Neocities website and my ancient tumblr blog. There is quite a rabbit hole to go down, if you don’t mind some bespoke coding jank.

I’ve decided to not run sponsored banner ads because in recent years, internet advertising has become so aggressive and hostile to adblockers that frankly I’d rather not contribute. The random banner in the sidebar is a selection of projects I like and stuff I want to promote. If you hate looking at it, download uBlock origin and use the element zapper on it. It is your right.

That being said, to be pragmatic, the only reason the comic gets made as fast as it does is because I currently make enough income through my Patreon and store to not need a second job. If you like what you see and you’ve got money burning a hole in your pocket, consider tossing me a buck. Patreon supporters get the perk of reading the pages before they go public. As of posting there is a massive backlog of over one hundred twenty finished pages uploaded there, so if you want some instant gratification it’s a great time for it.

But regardless of anything, thank you so much for reading! I’m excited to share this comic with you, and I hope you’ll stick around for the ride. See you on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays!