On July 14th, 2015, the New Horizons probe will fly by the (dwarf) planet Pluto, taking photos and readings of this far flung outlier of our solar system, and the most well-known of the Kuiper Belt objects. Here’s a nice video overview of the New Horizons mission, an interesting write-up by...
Space is big. Really big. You just won’t believe how vastly, hugely, mindbogglingly big it is. (Rest in peace, Douglas Adams). Now here’s a great two part video explaining the nature of and possible answers to the Fermi Paradox. Not only does the narrator have a smooth British accent, but...
SingularityHUB has a neat article on 8 predictions for the world of 2025. I think it would be pretty interesting to come back to this article in 10 years (if it exits…) and see what predictions came true. A $1,000 computer with the processing speed of a human brain might...
From PBS Digital Studio’s Crash Course web series comes Crash Course: Astronomy, hosted by famed astronomer Phil Plait. This is a fantastic little web series on astronomy, so go ahead and check it out! There are 6 episodes in the series so far, and you can see them all on...
Take a look at this fantastic 3D video demo by visual effects artist Lucas Green. He used pictures and footage from Cassini, Hubble, and other sources to create these breathtaking 3D rendered video effects. He explains on his blog how he created the visual effects. Wild! http://vimeo.com/111882554
NASA’s new Orion space capsule has successfully launched and landed in its first-ever test flight. On the morning of Friday, December 5th, at 7:05 am, a Delta IV Heavy rocketed the Orion space capsule 5,800 kilometers (that’s 5.8 megameters) into a high elliptical orbit. After some 5 hours, it then plunged back to...
This is big news–really big news. Normally, I would shrug off claims about viable fusion power within the next 10 years. But this claims is not coming from some crackpot nutcase. This claim comes from Lockheed Martin; and when Lockheed Martin claims to have made a break-through, people listen. According to...
Take a look at this amazing video of Earth, as filmed from the International Space Station! Truely epic. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dAHGvmT6v8#t=153
Looks like the folk at NASA’s Eagleworks are still hard at work on a possibly plausible faster-than-light system, generally known as an Alcubbierre drive, which is sort-of similar to the warp drive of Star Trek fame. If you have an hour to kill, take a look at this informative talk by NASA’s...
According to Elon Musk, SpaceX has its ambitious sights set on Mars — and has since the beginning. “The reason SpaceX was created was to accelerate development of rocket technology, all for the goal of establishing a self-sustaining, permanent base on Mars,” he revealed at the International Space Development Conference. Elon...
