Aerospace

Penguin poo (guano) stains, visible from space, have helped British scientists locate emperor penguin breeding colonies in Antarctica. Knowing their location provides a baseline for monitoring their response to environmental change. In a new study publis ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 2 2009 - 11:36am

Balloon Science In "Up"

Can you fly a house with balloons? The recent Pixar movie "Up" does, but it's animated. In the "Up" production notes, Steve May, the film's supervising technical director, writes "It was important to the film to have fa ...

Article - Alex "Sandy" Antunes - Jun 16 2009 - 3:21pm

Moon Settlement Design Blog Series: Introduction

Recently, I was asked to help around a group that was designing a settlement on the moon. As I worked with them, I found the work increasingly absorbing and I soon started researching some questions that sprang up from my though process, not necessarily re ...

Blog Post - Usman Anwer - Jul 21 2009 - 12:30pm

Moon Settlement Design Blog Series: Quantum Computers

To make sense, please read the Introduction entry first. Secondly, how do quantum computers work? Well, quantum computing is largely theoretical today. Although efforts have been made to make quantum computer and have been successful, a quantum computer of ...

Blog Post - Usman Anwer - Jul 21 2009 - 12:44pm

Moon Settlement Design Blog Series: Calculating Protective Glass Thickness

I was having a confusion in deciding how many layers of each material is to be used and the thickness of each layer. Well you need the materials- whatever they are- to perform two functions: a. Be tough to withstand colliding debris. b. Block out harmful ...

Blog Post - Usman Anwer - Jul 21 2009 - 12:52pm

Moon Settlement Design Blog Series: On Settlement Structure and Operations

Based on a number of queries on basic structure design, settlement protection, and settlement operations. Firstly, the entire colony does not need to be entirely of domes. Domes can be used for the living habitat for settlers, the forest, and for agricult ...

Blog Post - Usman Anwer - Jul 21 2009 - 12:55pm

NASA tapes over the wedding video

It's the typical husband/sports fan stereotype - he uses the wedding video tape accidentally to tape some classic football game, the wife finds out years later, sleeping on couch ensues. But this time it's a government program- NASA- and footage ...

Blog Post - Becky Jungbauer - Jul 16 2009 - 8:37am

The $8K TubeSat DIY Satellite

What would you do with 3/4 of a kilogram of gear in space? For the price of a Harley-Davidson Sportster 883, you can now go to space. InterOrbital Systems (IOS) has announced their TubeSat Personal Satellite Kit. This is 'complete', giving you th ...

Article - Alex "Sandy" Antunes - Aug 4 2009 - 9:39am

Driving Spirit (On Mars!)

One of the more exciting aspects of going 4-wheeling in the wilderness is the potential for getting stuck in the mud or hung up on a rock. It’s not so exciting if the 4-wheeler is a robot on Mars (actually, a 6-wheeler). There are websites that tell you ho ...

Article - Kimberly Tyree - Aug 12 2009 - 10:14am

Ares I-X test rocket built

Finally, for its any-time-after-October-31st launch, NASA has completed building the Ares I-X launch rocket. The Ares I-X is the first test-flight rocket built under NASA's Ares I developement programme aimed at building a launch system for human spa ...

Blog Post - Venkatram Harish ... - Aug 17 2009 - 5:58am