Ten myths about Isaac Newton
Ten of the most common, debunked or confirmed myths about Isaac Newton.
These stories give us a feel for the person, the human, that is normally hidden by the superficial superlatives given to geniuses.
Tag: history
ISEE-3 might still be saved
It ain’t dead yet: The private group trying to resurrect ISEE-3 has not yet given up.
[T]he reboot team, led by editor Keith Cowing and entrepreneur Dennis Wingo, CEO of California-based Skycorp Incorporated, isn’t quite ready to give up. One of the project volunteers has suggested that perhaps the nitrogen isn’t actually gone. It may in fact still be there, but dissolved in with the hydrazine.
If that’s the case, Wingo says, ISEE-3 could potentially repressurize the propellant by powering up the tank heaters, raising the temperature up perhaps 10 degrees from the roughly 25 degrees C where it stands now. “If [the idea] has any merit, then we could turn the heaters on and drive at least some of the nitrogen out of solution. That would give us more pressure that just heating the tanks themselves,” Wingo says. “It’s not desperation,” he adds. “There is some good physics behind this.”
Their big problem is that they need to know more about how the nitrogen was stored on the spacecraft. They are asking for help from anyone who is willing to research the problem.
Buran moved to new exhibition location
After sitting in Gorky Park since 1995, the prototype of Russia’s space shuttle, Buran, was moved this past weekend to Moscow’s official outdoor exhibition center.
Back in 2003, when I was in Moscow interviewing people for Leaving Earth, my apartment was within walking distance of Gorky Park. I went over there to take a look. You could get to within a few feet of the prototype, which was sitting with no display signs or security other than a simple fence. It looked quite dilapidated (I would post the photographs I took but this was the last time I used my film camera, and they are all slides.)
The article above has some nice details describing the history of Buran, and why it only flew once. Definitely worth reading.
How beautiful we were.
An epitaph for American on its birthday.
And on its birthday, we should all make it a point to reread this document. Key quote:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
The history of Russia’s new Angara rocket.
The history and origin of Russia’s new Angara rocket.
A fascinating read, as it gives some of the office politics and back-fighting that surrounded the decision to pick the builder of this new rocket. For example, when the government picked the company Khrunichev to build the rocket,
[C]ritics charged that traditional Russian nepotism had played a role — at the time, a daughter and the son and law of the Russian president Boris Yeltsin worked for Khrunichev. As a consolation prize, RKK Energia was awarded the development of the second stage for the Angara rocket.
Later, in a move reminiscent to the space shuttle’s history (where the winning contractor eventually ended up using the basic design of their losing competitor), Khrunichev dumped the design they had used to win the contract and switched over to something almost identical to what Energia had proposed. And in the process, they cut Energia out of the deal entirely.
Images of the Soviet Union’s one flight space shuttle, damaged and destroyed by the collapse of the building roof in 2002 where it had been stored.
Images of the crushed remains of the Soviet Union’s one flight space shuttle, damaged and destroyed by the collapse of the building roof in 2002 where it had been stored.
Fifty-one fascinating historical pictures.
Fifty-one fascinating historical pictures.
I especially like the contrast between #26 and #41. And #18 is pretty wild also.
Why Japan (and Germany) really lost World War II.
Why Japan (and Germany) really lost World War II.
The article also illustrates with facts why Russia would have lost to the U.S. as well if we had fought them then, before they got the bomb.
Read it. The facts are quite astonishing. Moreover, I have read a number of histories of World War II from the perspective of the Japanese and the Germans, and in both cases their experience matches the facts laid out by this article: The depth of the U.S. manufacturing capability — created by freedom and property rights and small government — was beyond anything the Axis powers could match. As the war continued it overwhelmed them.
Want to own your own Apollo capsule from the 1960s?
Want to own your own Apollo capsule from the 1960s?
Apparently nobody wants to buy a spaceship, at least not for $200,000. St. Louis-based auction company Regency-Superior reported no bids on Wednesday for former Lt. Gov. Lonnie Hammargren’s 1960s Apollo Command Module Block 1 mock-up, which was a fixture in the retired neurosurgeon’s eclectic collection since he acquired it in the mid-1970s.
The capsule remains available still at the minimum price if you go to the auction house’s website.
A transcript of the phone conversation between Barack Obama and Dwight Eisenhower on the eve of the invasion of Normandy.
Heh: A transcript of the phone conversation between Barack Obama and Dwight Eisenhower on the eve of the invasion of Normandy.
The 70th anniversary of D-Day is Friday. Remember well a time when Americans stood unflinchingly for freedom.
Price increase on Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8
Just a note to highlight an upcoming price increase on the ebook edition of my first book, Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8. If you look at the top of the right column, you will see that as of July 1 the book’s price will go up from $5.99 to $9.99. This is a chance for my regular readers to get it at the lower price, while they can.
29 fascinating images.
#18 is the best, as it illustrates bluntly in one image the technological advances in just the past decade.