Aerospace

The Rocket Science Of The SpaceX Astronaut Launch

Two NASA astronauts, Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley, will make history by traveling to the International Space Station in a privately funded spacecraft, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon capsule. It will also be the first time astronauts have la ...

Article - The Conversation - May 27 2020 - 9:16am

A Sun Clock For 2020- It Can Predict Solar Cycle Activity With Surprising Precision

The math used to analyze cyclic phenomena like the ebb and flow of ocean tides has been applied to Sol, the star we orbit. While it can't do anything to flatten its irregularities, or the impacts it has on communications, temperature, and weather, the ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 15 2020 - 9:36am

ALMA's Stellar Egg Hunt Finds A Truly Newborn Star

The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile recently took a census of stellar eggs in the constellation Taurus and their evolution state in order to better understand how and when a stellar embryo transforms to a baby star deep inside ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 10 2020 - 10:43am

Will We Build Colonies That Float Over Venus Like Buckminster Fuller's "Cloud Nine"?

This idea dates back to the Russians in the early 1970s. The surface of Venus is far too hot, and the atmosphere too dense, for Earth life. However, our air is a lifting gas on Venus with about half the lifting power of helium on Earth. A habitat filled w ...

Article - Robert Walker - Sep 14 2020 - 2:07pm

Mercury Astronaut: John Glenn Orbits Earth 50 Years Ago

In the midst of CNN's non-stop coverage of a deceased singer whose biggest career hit was a cover of a Dolly Parton song, there may be a ray of rational sunlight shining down on a person worthy of our time; an accomplished military veteran, test pilot ...

Article - Hank Campbell - May 5 2021 - 4:14pm

60 Years Ago Today Alan Shepard Became The First American In Space- Where Will We Be In 60 More Years?

Today is May 5th, when modern Americans assuming this is the day of Mexican independence (it isn't) consume Mexican stuff like burritos and margaritas (those aren't Mexican) but what we should be celebrating is Mercury astronaut Alan Shepard goin ...

Article - Hank Campbell - May 6 2021 - 2:31pm

My Son Graduates High School In Two Weeks: JWST Has Been Delayed Longer Than He's Been Alive

NASA has told us that the James Webb Space Telescope, first funded in 1996 as a successor to the Hubble Space Telescope, will miss its launch date again. An astronomy site worries it's been delayed since 2014. It's worse than that. It started get ...

Article - Hank Campbell - May 18 2021 - 4:40pm

Curiosity Rover Seen Climbing Mount Mercou On Mars

The Mars Curiosity rover has been on the job since the summer of 2012, exploring Gale Crater on the red planet. It's slow going, it has driven only 25 kilometers to date.   But it can be fun to watch, like its ascent of Mount Mercou, a broad outcrop o ...

Article - News Staff - May 23 2021 - 1:44pm

Virgin Galactic Space Ship Two, VSS Unity Launch Context. Remember Burt Rutan.

V irgin Galactic has been working on Spaceship 2 for over a decade. It is a descendant of the Scaled composites Spaceship 1, a design by the legendary Burt Rutan which won the Ansari X prize in the early 2000’s. It will be carried to a height of 50,000 fe ...

Blog Post - Hontas Farmer - Jul 11 2021 - 10:53am

The Real Future Of Solar Power Is Space

If you believe solar power is ready for mass usage, you are likely an activist, in the industry, or one of the customers who really believes they are selling electricity back to the utility at the same price they are paying when they need it and it isn ...

Article - Hank Campbell - Jan 17 2022 - 5:28pm