A solar tornado five times the size of the Earth.
The Russians are building nuclear powered engines for long range space travel, and announced today that they expect to have the first engine ready by 2017.
The Russians are building nuclear powered engines for long range space travel, and announced today that they expect to have the first engine ready by 2017.
The Russians are building nuclear powered engines for long range space travel, and announced today that they expect to have the first engine ready by 2017.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon, any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
The Statler Brothers – Flowers On The Wall
Europe’s ATV freighter has successfully docked with ISS.
Now available in hardback and paperback as well as ebook!
From the press release: In this ground-breaking new history of early America, historian Robert Zimmerman not only exposes the lie behind The New York Times 1619 Project that falsely claims slavery is central to the history of the United States, he also provides profound lessons about the nature of human societies, lessons important for Americans today as well as for all future settlers on Mars and elsewhere in space.
Conscious Choice: The origins of slavery in America and why it matters today and for our future in outer space, is a riveting page-turning story that documents how slavery slowly became pervasive in the southern British colonies of North America, colonies founded by a people and culture that not only did not allow slavery but in every way were hostile to the practice.
Conscious Choice does more however. In telling the tragic history of the Virginia colony and the rise of slavery there, Zimmerman lays out the proper path for creating healthy societies in places like the Moon and Mars.
“Zimmerman’s ground-breaking history provides every future generation the basic framework for establishing new societies on other worlds. We would be wise to heed what he says.” —Robert Zubrin, founder of founder of the Mars Society.
All editions are available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and all book vendors, with the ebook priced at $5.99 before discount. All editions can also be purchased direct from the ebook publisher, ebookit, in which case you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
Autographed printed copies are also available at discount directly from the author (hardback $29.95; paperback $14.95; Shipping cost for either: $6.00). Just send an email to zimmerman @ nasw dot org.
An expedition financed by Jeff Bezos, the founder of amazon.com, has found the rocket engines of the Apollo 11 Saturn 5 rocket.
An expedition financed by Jeff Bezos, the founder of amazon.com, has found the rocket engines of the Apollo 11 Saturn 5 rocket at the bottom of the Atlantic.
An expedition financed by Jeff Bezos, the founder of amazon.com, has found the rocket engines of the Apollo 11 Saturn 5 rocket at the bottom of the Atlantic.
“It may also be a plane wreck.”
Leaving Earth: Space Stations, Rival Superpowers, and the Quest for Interplanetary Travel, can be purchased as an ebook everywhere for only $3.99 (before discount) at amazon, Barnes & Noble, all ebook vendors, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit.
If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big oppressive tech companies and I get a bigger cut much sooner.
Winner of the 2003 Eugene M. Emme Award of the American Astronautical Society.
"Leaving Earth is one of the best and certainly the most comprehensive summary of our drive into space that I have ever read. It will be invaluable to future scholars because it will tell them how the next chapter of human history opened." -- Arthur C. Clarke
An incandescent light bulb, stored in a time capsule for one hundred years, still worked
An incandescent light bulb, stored in a time capsule for one hundred years, still worked!
I wonder: Did the EPA try to arrest anyone for using it?
An incandescent light bulb, stored in a time capsule for one hundred years, still worked!
I wonder: Did the EPA try to arrest anyone for using it?
Based on discoveries already made, astronomers now estimate there are probably more than a hundred habitable superEarths within 30 light years of the Sun.
Based on discoveries already made, astronomers now estimate there are probably more than a hundred habitable superEarths within 30 light years of the Sun.
Based on discoveries already made, astronomers now estimate there are probably more than a hundred habitable superEarths within 30 light years of the Sun.
Ringed clouds at the edge of space.
A strange lunar crater
Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter recently celebrated its 1000th day of imaging in orbit around the Moon, snapping images and cataloging the Moon’s geology.
Only a week before the science team posted a spectacular oblique view of Ryder Crater. The image is visible below the fold, along with a close-up of the crater’s strange hump-backed boulder-strewn floor.
» Read more
How to make a potato gun
“I’m very disappointed in the growing trend of students and others unwilling to engage in meaningful discussion,”
The EPA loses another court case, badly.
The Obama administration today announced strict new limits on carbon dioxide emissions from power plants.
We’re here to help you: The Obama administration today announced strict new limits on carbon dioxide emissions from power plants.
See this post for some perspective and context.
We’re here to help you: The Obama administration today announced strict new limits on carbon dioxide emissions from power plants.
See this post for some perspective and context.
A computer simulation suggests that the Earth normally has several asteroid-sized smaller moons in temporary orbit around it.
Fly me to the other moons! A computer simulation suggests that the Earth normally has several asteroid-sized smaller moons in temporary orbit around it.
Fly me to the other moons! A computer simulation suggests that the Earth normally has several asteroid-sized smaller moons in temporary orbit around it.
The first look at the ocean’s deepest bottom.
The first look at the ocean’s deepest bottom.
Cameron’s video reminds me of the surface of Venus as photographed by the Soviet Union’s Venera spacecraft in the 1970s and 1980s, flat and crushed by the heavy surface pressure.
The first look at the ocean’s deepest bottom.
Cameron’s video reminds me of the surface of Venus as photographed by the Soviet Union’s Venera spacecraft in the 1970s and 1980s, flat and crushed by the heavy surface pressure.
Two new skyscrapers being built in Milan are designed to allow trees to grow on the outside of every floor.
A vertical forest: Two new skyscrapers being built in Milan are designed to allow trees to grow on the outside of every floor.
A vertical forest: Two new skyscrapers being built in Milan are designed to allow trees to grow on the outside of every floor.
Win an Ipad by delving into the Hubble archive to discover a “hidden treasure.”
Global warming models wrong again
“a train wreck for the Obama administration.”
“A train wreck for the Obama administration.”
Trying to determine what the Supreme Court will rule on any issue by analyzing the questions they ask beforehand has generally been a poor predictor of their final decision. Sadly, we really won’t know what the Supreme Court will do until they do it.
Moreover, from my perspective it would be far better for Congress to repeal the law rather than have the court rule it unconstitutional. In the former it will be done by legislative action, backed by the voters. In the latter it would be the decision of nine unelected individuals, essentially expressing their personal opinions. In a true democracy the former is definitely preferred.
“A train wreck for the Obama administration.”
Trying to determine what the Supreme Court will rule on any issue by analyzing the questions they ask beforehand has generally been a poor predictor of their final decision. Sadly, we really won’t know what the Supreme Court will do until they do it.
Moreover, from my perspective it would be far better for Congress to repeal the law rather than have the court rule it unconstitutional. In the former it will be done by legislative action, backed by the voters. In the latter it would be the decision of nine unelected individuals, essentially expressing their personal opinions. In a true democracy the former is definitely preferred.
Pick a destination already!
A report issued today illustrates once again to me that those running our space program in both Congress and the Obama administration have a profound lack of common sense or basic intelligence:
The NASA Advisory Council (NAC) – a body that provides the NASA Administrator with counsel and advice on programs and issues of importance to the Agency – has insisted a human exploration plan, or at least a destination, should be selected as soon as possible.
This request specifically applies to the Space Launch System (SLS), the heavy-lift rocket mandated by Congress that will use the Orion capsule. SLS is also the same rocket system that is costing the taxpayers $3 billion per year, and is expected to cost between $18 to $60 billion total by the time it flies its first operational mission in about nine years. The advisory council also noted that
While the vehicle hardware development is now moving forward at full speed, specific destinations – or a roadmap – is still lacking from NASA’s exploration plan.
It took nine different committees plus a central committee formed from the original nine committees to come to this Earth-shattering conclusion.
To put it in plain English, Congress and the Obama administration have committed billions of taxpayer dollars to the construction of a rocket and manned capsule without ever putting much thought into the specific mission they want to send that rocket and capsule on.
» Read more
A toy company has designed building blocks that make it possible to combine multiple brands, from Legos to Tinkertoys.
A toy company has designed building blocks that make it possible to combine multiple building block brands, from Legos to Tinkertoys.
By downloading free designs and using a 3D printer, you could have your very own pieces to connect ten different brands of building toys to each other and construct even more elaborate contraptions and structures.
As the first commenter on the webpage noted, “This is the next singularity.”
A toy company has designed building blocks that make it possible to combine multiple building block brands, from Legos to Tinkertoys.
By downloading free designs and using a 3D printer, you could have your very own pieces to connect ten different brands of building toys to each other and construct even more elaborate contraptions and structures.
As the first commenter on the webpage noted, “This is the next singularity.”
Crossing the Wabash Cannonball Bridge
An evening pause: Driving across the Wabash Cannonball Bridge going from Indiana to Illinois. The bridge is single lane, with a wooden deck, and over a hundred years old.
What’s really cool is how the driver is able to drive while holding his camera overhead through his sun roof.
The first Russian weather satellite, launched in 1969, is about to burn up in the atmosphere.
Some history comes to Earth: The first Russian weather satellite, launched in 1969, is about to burn up in the atmosphere.
Not only that, but the U.S. research satellite Explorer 8, launched in 1960, is also about to come down.
Some history comes to Earth: The first Russian weather satellite, launched in 1969, is about to burn up in the atmosphere.
Not only that, but the U.S. research satellite Explorer 8, launched in 1960, is also about to come down.
Want a job designing and building spaceships? Scaled Composites is holding a jobs fair and open house at the Mohave Air and Space Port.
Want a job designing and building spaceships? Scaled Composites is holding a jobs fair and open house at the Mohave Air and Space Port.
Want a job designing and building spaceships? Scaled Composites is holding a jobs fair and open house at the Mohave Air and Space Port.
“This is my last election. After my election I have more flexibility.”
Guess who said it, and to whom: “This is my last election. After my election I have more flexibility.”
Guess who said it, and to whom: “This is my last election. After my election I have more flexibility.”
Liveblogging the Supreme Court’s Obamacare hearings.
Liveblogging the Supreme Court’s Obamacare hearings.
You can read the transcript of the hearing or listen to the audio here.
Liveblogging the Supreme Court’s Obamacare hearings.
You can read the transcript of the hearing or listen to the audio here.
Cameron has safely returned to the surface
Boeing vs Boeing.
The story describes how Boeing is considering upgrading the X-37B to become a manned ferry to ISS, thus putting it in direct competition with the company’s other manned capsule, the CST-100.
At the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics’s Space 2011 conference in November, Boeing’s Arthur Grantz revealed that the company is studying a new derivative of the Boeing/USAF X-37B. The new X-37C would be 65-80% larger than the current B version. Launched by an Atlas V rocket, X-37C could carry pressurized or unpressurized cargo or 5-6 astronauts. Grantz is chief engineer in charge of X-37 at the Boeing Space and Intelligence Systems Experimental Systems Group .
Hat tip to Clark Lindsey.
The story describes how Boeing is considering upgrading the X-37B to become a manned ferry to ISS, thus putting it in direct competition with the company’s other manned capsule, the CST-100.
At the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics’s Space 2011 conference in November, Boeing’s Arthur Grantz revealed that the company is studying a new derivative of the Boeing/USAF X-37B. The new X-37C would be 65-80% larger than the current B version. Launched by an Atlas V rocket, X-37C could carry pressurized or unpressurized cargo or 5-6 astronauts. Grantz is chief engineer in charge of X-37 at the Boeing Space and Intelligence Systems Experimental Systems Group .
Hat tip to Clark Lindsey.
James Cameron has set a new record for the deepest solo dive, a depth of 35,756 feet.1James Cameron has set a new record for the deepest solo dive, a depth of 35,756 feet.
James Cameron has set a new record for the deepest solo dive, a depth of 35,756 feet.
And he is still down there at this moment.
Hovering in what he’s called a vertical torpedo, Cameron is likely collecting data, specimens, and imagery unthinkable in 1960, when the only other explorers to reach Challenger Deep returned after seeing little more than the silt stirred up by their bathyscaphe. After as long as six hours in the trench, Cameron—best known for creating fictional worlds on film (Avatar, Titanic, The Abyss)—is to jettison steel weights attached to the sub and shoot back to the surface. Meanwhile, the expedition’s scientific support team awaits his return aboard the research ships Mermaid Sapphire and Barakuda, 7 miles (11 kilometers) up.
James Cameron has set a new record for the deepest solo dive, a depth of 35,756 feet.
And he is still down there at this moment.
Hovering in what he’s called a vertical torpedo, Cameron is likely collecting data, specimens, and imagery unthinkable in 1960, when the only other explorers to reach Challenger Deep returned after seeing little more than the silt stirred up by their bathyscaphe. After as long as six hours in the trench, Cameron—best known for creating fictional worlds on film (Avatar, Titanic, The Abyss)—is to jettison steel weights attached to the sub and shoot back to the surface. Meanwhile, the expedition’s scientific support team awaits his return aboard the research ships Mermaid Sapphire and Barakuda, 7 miles (11 kilometers) up.