Dreams of Other Worlds describes the unmanned space missions that have opened new windows on distant worlds. Spanning four decades of dramatic advances in astronomy and planetary science, this book tells the story of eleven iconic exploratory missions and how they have fundamentally transformed our scientific and cultural perspectives on the universe and our…
Everyones is saying we could find another planet blah blah blah. But, if we can t get close to most of the planets how are we supposed to explore them? So it s not worth it! I know everybody has the same reason problems on earth but, it s true if we can get in trillions of dollars in debt with other countries. Imagine how we could get in with ourselves. When…
The United States government is in huge debt and is adding to that every year with the deficit, which has prompted many to push for a more balanced budget. This raises the question: should revenue be increased or spending reduced? It seems that the answer is a little bit of both. Surely, this has its advantages and drawbacks, and it is very important to consider…
Sorry, folks. Although Tesla and SolarCity have roared in 2013, Elon Musk has no plans to take SpaceX to the public markets. There are plenty of reasons it doesn t really make sense to go public, anyway. The company has a time horizon well beyond the quarterly measuring stick carried by most financial analysts. Launch delayed? There goes the quarter! Besides…
The first earthling to orbit our planet was just two years old, plucked from the streets of Moscow barely more than a week before her historic launch. Her name was Laika. She was a terrier mutt and by all accounts a good dog. Her 1957 flight paved the way for space exploration back when scientists didn’t know if spaceflight was lethal for living things. Humans…
This portrait of Neil Armstrong was taken for the Apollo 11 space mission. When you think of explorers, the first name that might come to mind is Christopher Columbus. However, the world lost one of its greatest explorers when Neil Armstrong passed away on August 25, 2012. He was 82 years old. Instead of crossing an ocean in a large ship to explore an uncharted…
NASA s current mission to send an astronaut to Mars is driven by development of the Orion crew exploration vehicle. The capsule spacecraft is being designed to take humans back to the moon by 2020. In later years, by rendezvous with Mars-bound vehicles assembled in orbit, it may take the first humans to the Red Planet. These future possibilities are exciting…
Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield made history on Sunday when he filmed the first ever music video in space (fittingly, a cover of David Bowie s Space Oddity ). To commemorate his accomplishment, we ve dedicated this week s Music Monday to the most epic songs for space exploration. We curated the selection of songs you tweeted to us, and added in a few of our…
Ever since human beings first looked at the lights in the night sky, they have wanted to know what was out there. The renaissance brought many new advances like the telescope which made more precise astronomical observations possible. But the real advances came in the twentieth century. Early experiments with rockets eventually led to the first satellites and…
Spacecraft will have to have storage room for oxygen. Atmospheric pressure is necessary for life. Your body has pressure. The atmosphere has pressure. These pressures must be about the same for human beings to breathe. Since there is no atmosphere in space, there is no atmospheric pressure. In space there would be pressure outward from our bodies, but no pressure…
The United States was not built by those who waited and rested and wished to look behind them. This country was conquered by those who moved forward, and so will space. — President John F. Kennedy, 1962 In spite of the opinions of certain narrow-minded people, who would shut up the human race upon this globe, as within some magic circle which it must…
In 1947, on getting Independence from the British, the young nation decided to follow the democratic and secular path giving high importance to Science and Scientific Thinking. It was to the credit of the nation s early leaders that they encouraged eminent scientists and technologists to pursue the path of scientific discovery. This has now led the nation to…
Space Exploration requires public support. • Public support needs increasing for sustainable Exploration programs. • Several Space NGOs exist, their activities have little impact on public. • Non-Space NGOs have obtained major impact on the public. • Coordination of Space and Non-Space NGOs can improve the impact on the public. Space Exploration is a complex…
One of the bigger features that we are going to release very soon is exploration (together with “super-large worlds” and “procedural asteroids” – more details in a future blog post). We need your feedback and that’s why I am declassifying it prematurely :-) Exploration The exploration feature will add a practically infinite number of ships and stations to the…
Space exploration refers to outer space travel for the purpose of scientific research and observation. Until 1958 space exploration was considered purely a military venture, but in 1958, the United States Government launched the National Aeronautics and Space Act to regulate all activities that pertain to space exploration. The Beginning of Space Exploration…
Britannica Lists & Quizzes NASA Humans have made great strides in spaceflight and space exploration in the relatively short amount of time since such feats were first accomplished. Here we explore five of the most important and memorable moments in spaceflight history. 5First Satellite in Space NASA History Office On October 4, 1957, Sputnik 1 became…
Space exploration is not cheap, and developing first-of-a-kind spacecraft is too expensive for most nations to even consider. During the Apollo program, some questioned whether money spent on sending people to the moon would be better spent on education, fighting poverty and developing new medication. The space shuttle program had a total cost of $209 billion…
Design Space Explorer II (DSE) is a simple and easy-to-use design optimization utility that leverages a new exploration engine. DSE II is included with the Quartus® II software v14.1 and later. DSE II explores and reports the results of your optimization focus for a design. You can target design performance, area utilization, or power dissipation improvements…
Space exploration satellites are not really satellites at all; they are properly known as space probes. A satellite is defined as something that s orbiting something else, but space probes instead travel deep into the solar system. However, they are similar to orbiting satellites in design and function. On their journeys, space probes send back detailed pictures…
BEIJING — If the U.S.-Soviet space rivalry helped define the second half of the 20th century, China s drive to become a space superpower looks set to mark the first half of the 21st. In a mission dubbed Shenzhou-11, China launched two astronauts into orbit Monday from an isolated military launching pad in Inner Mongolia. Scientists from around the world traveled…
Do the following: a. Tell what radiation is. b. Describe the hazards of radiation to humans, the environment, and wildlife. Explain the difference between radiation exposure and contamination. In your explanation, discuss the nature and magnitude of radiation risks to humans from nuclear power, medical radiation (e.g., chest or dental X-ray), and background radiation…
Milestones in space exploration: yesterday, today and tomorrow April: A privately-financed mission is launched to Mir. May: The Shuttle crew (STS-101/2A.2a) delivers supplies, re-boosts and repairs the International Space Station. July 12: The Zvezda service module of the International Space Station reaches orbit. August: The first Progress cargo ship arrives…
Anyone who s found themselves beneath a spectacularly starry night sky has to wonder what s out there. That same person, though, might stare out at a dark ocean at night and ponder the very same thing. And yet the resources we ve committed to the vast, largely unexplored ocean is a mere fraction of what we ve invested in space exploration. Jacqueline Ronson…
The Hubble Space Telescope was designed to free astronomers of a limitation that has plagued them since the days of Galileo—Earth s atmosphere. Shifting air pockets in the atmosphere block and distort light, limiting the view from even the most powerful Earth-bound instruments. Orbital telescopes function as eyes in the sky that allow astronomers to peer farther…
