Saturday, November 30, 2019

Some spoilers follow ...

Here is my hot take on the latest episode of “For All Mankind.” President Teddy Kennedy has caused a sex scandal by having an affair with a White House staffer named Mary Jo Kopechne, whom he left to die in a submerged car in our timeline. (Question: Is she going to have an unexpected accident?)

In the meantime, Teddy’s FBI is trying to hunt down and expose gay people inside the space program.

Also, the current crew of the Jamestown lunar base is trapped on the moon and is slowly going stir crazy. This situation is Teddy’s fault as well. He awarded a contract for a crucial part of the Saturn V to an incompetent company in order to bribe a governor to support the Equal Rights Amendment. As a result, a Saturn V turned into a fireball on the pad, killing 12 people, including Gene Kranz. Failure is indeed an option when corruption rules the highest office in the land.

Tuesday, November 26, 2019

SpaceX's Starship provides an opportunity for NASA's Artemis program

Recently NASA announced that five more companies had been added to the Commercial Lunar Payload Services program (CLPS). One such company, SpaceX, has raised some eyebrows in aerospace circles because Elon Musk’s rocket business is offering the Starship as a lunar lander.

NASA is testing an alien-hunting, upside-down underwater rover in Antarctica. It's one of several plans to explore 2 ocean worlds for signs of life.
‘For All Mankind’ Portrays A World Where Feminism Travels To The Moon

What if the Soviet Union had reached the moon before America?

That’s the subject of “For All Mankind,” a new series from Ron Moore on Apple TV. The show suggests that if Russia had indeed reached the moon first, it would have triggered a space race into the 1970s, and subsequently provided a boost to the women’s movement.

Monday, November 18, 2019

How the flight of Apollo 12 created a great artist

The flight of Apollo 12, the second expedition to the lunar surface, is not as well known as the first mission to the moon, Apollo 11, or Apollo 13, the moon mission that almost didn’t make it home. But it did create one of the great artists of the space age.

Bloomberg’s candidacy is problematic

Whether or not Michael Bloomberg believes that science and space exploration are silly distractions from the “real issues” is beside the point. Rep. Fletcher may not believe that notion. She has not moved to defund the Europa Clipper and divert the money to flood control projects. Indeed, she has had little to say about space exploration at all. The absence of Culberson, space enthusiast, and the presence of Fletcher, at best indifferent to space exploration and its manifest benefits, is being keenly felt as debate rages over whether to adequately fund NASA’s Artemis program to return to the moon. Some House Democrats have expressed extreme reservations

Wednesday, November 13, 2019

Monday, November 11, 2019

Why Voyager 2's discoveries from interstellar space have scientists excited

Voyager 2, first launched in 1977, is the second human-made machine to have officially entered interstellar space. Her companion spacecraft, Voyager 1, accomplished the feat in 2013. The data being returned by both spacecraft – having passed beyond the heliosphere, past where solar winds still blow plasma outward from the sun – have scientists excited.

Thursday, November 07, 2019

NASA planned expedition to orbit Pluto won't settle whether it's a planet

Ever since the New Horizons space probe flew past Pluto, the once-designated ninth planet in the solar system has been a source of fascination for scientists and lay people alike. Pluto, which for most of the time since it was discovered in 1930 by Clyde Tombaugh, was just a dot that could be viewed only by telescopes, became a strange and unique world in 2015 when New Horizons sent images and data back to Earth over billions of miles.