A look at ‘The Last Man on the Moon’
The Time: 19.30 GMT Wednesday, June 4th 2014. The Place: London’s Science Museum. Silence and darkness is broken by the Houston skyline. At a livestock auction a white haired cowboy appraises the cattle stock before settling into a stadium seat at a Houston Rodeo Show. One by one the rodeo riders enter the stadium, holding …
Unsung heroes of the Apollo program
For years history has celebrated the crews of elite astronauts who rode fire to the Moon and the unique twelve who walked on its surface. To a lesser degree, the senior mission specialists working in Houston and in Florida were also lauded. But at its height during the Apollo program 400,000 people were involved in …
Zooniverse enables anyone to participate in science
The advent of faster, digital data capture and processing has been a boon in astronomy but created a problem of too much data to analyse with too few professional astronomers. In July 2007 University of Oxford based astronomer and BBC Sky at Night presenter Chris Lintott and a team of astronomers from the University of …
Taking a first look at ‘Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey’
“Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey” beams onto our television screens on March 9 across 10 U.S. networks, including FOX and National Geographic Channel, with a multi-network simulcast in the United States. Global releases will follow shortly after on National Geographic and FOX branded channels in 180 countries within a week of the U.S. premiere. Fronted by …
Bond’s Skylon to achieve dream of single-stage-to-orbit vehicle
In the UK’s Oxfordshire country-side, the legacy of British invention is being passed from Sir Frank Whittle to a new group of dedicated aerospace engineers and one man in particular; Alan Bond. The long held dream of UK spaceflight is coming closer to reality, and his dream could be a game-changer. Despite decades of lacklustre …
How the Skylon fleet would operate
A fleet of Skylon vehicles can operate from a spaceport. A Vehicle Loading Hall receives and processes payloads which are installed in the Skylon payload bay. Skylon is then towed to the spaceport’s Refuelling Apron. Liquid Oxygen and Liquid Hydrogen propellants are loaded through connections in the wheel wells. Skylon is towed to the runway for …
Mars One betting colonizing planet will be great television
Mars One is a non-profit foundation, co-founded by Bas Lansdorp and Arno Wielders, to establish a human presence on Mars. The prime difference Mars One has over similar peer programs is its unique strategy; this is a one way ticket for a permanent “homesteading” community in an apolitical and international long term plan, thus removing …
Scott Carpenter: A tribute to a curious but ordinary superman
One of only two remaining Mercury Program Astronauts from the 60’s, Scott Carpenter, sadly passed beyond the veil on Thursday, October 10, 2013 following a stroke in September. He was 88 years of age. Carpenter was one of the earliest pioneers in the infancy of the Space Age. He was the second American to cross …
Spacefest V: The ultimate party for space lovers
Recollections of Spacefest V “The past is prologue” as I once heard. A once politicised and technology based race to the Moon has yielded innumerable spin-off benefits and technology, but has also served as a prologue to many other events. The birth and rise of the new commercial space industry. International Space Agency cooperation with …