Featured Posts
The Planetary Society Blog
7 Mar 2014, 19:52 UTC
For a town dependent on Stars, there are far too few people here who look up at the sky. But come this Sunday, March 9, the epic series of science, space and humanity will return: Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey. Why does it matter for Hollywood, specifically? I'll tell you why it will. And then why it should.
Why Cosmos should matter, especially to Hollywood
7 Mar 2014, 19:52 UTC
For a town dependent on Stars, there are far too few people here who look up at the sky. But come this Sunday, March 9, the epic series of science, space and humanity will return: Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey. Why does it matter for Hollywood, specifically? I'll tell you why it will. And then why it should.
Scientific American
7 Mar 2014, 18:50 UTC
A giant black hole may have hurled a star cluster toward us at record speed -- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com
Found: The Fastest-Approaching Object in the Universe
7 Mar 2014, 18:50 UTC
A giant black hole may have hurled a star cluster toward us at record speed -- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com
Astro Watch
7 Mar 2014, 17:50 UTC
The United Rocket and Space Corporation has been registered in Russia, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin wrote on Twitter on Thursday. “The United Rocket and Space Corporation has been registered! We are beginning a large-scale reform of the domestic space industry,” he wrote. In Desember 2013, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree establishing the United Rocket and Space Corporation (URSC) on the basis on the Research Institute of Space Instrument-making.In line with the decree that was published on the official Internet portal of legal information, a number of federal state unitary enterprises of the space sector were to be reformed as open joint-stock companies with 100 percent of their stock owned by the federal government. These stakes minus one share in each of them were to be transferred to the authorized capital of the United Rocket and Space Corporation.The company includes most companies and design bureaus, save for some defence companies. The corporation will consist of nine federal unitary enterprises to be turned into open joint-stock companies. The URSC's authorized capital will also include the shares of 13 other companies.United Rocket and Space Corporation plans to acquire a controlling interest in rocket-engine manufacturer Energia, of which the Russian ...
Russia Begins Large-Scale Reform of Space Industry Registering New Corporation
7 Mar 2014, 17:50 UTC
The United Rocket and Space Corporation has been registered in Russia, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin wrote on Twitter on Thursday. “The United Rocket and Space Corporation has been registered! We are beginning a large-scale reform of the domestic space industry,” he wrote. In Desember 2013, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree establishing the United Rocket and Space Corporation (URSC) on the basis on the Research Institute of Space Instrument-making.In line with the decree that was published on the official Internet portal of legal information, a number of federal state unitary enterprises of the space sector were to be reformed as open joint-stock companies with 100 percent of their stock owned by the federal government. These stakes minus one share in each of them were to be transferred to the authorized capital of the United Rocket and Space Corporation.The company includes most companies and design bureaus, save for some defence companies. The corporation will consist of nine federal unitary enterprises to be turned into open joint-stock companies. The URSC's authorized capital will also include the shares of 13 other companies.United Rocket and Space Corporation plans to acquire a controlling interest in rocket-engine manufacturer Energia, of which the Russian ...
Parabolic Arc
7 Mar 2014, 16:50 UTC
Space.com has an update on plans by Airbus (nee EADS Astrium) to develop a suborbital space plane, which has apparently not gotten to the scale model air drop stage of development: Europe’s biggest aerospace manufacturer, Airbus Group, plans to drop its scale-model prototype prototype Spaceplane from an altitude of 10,000 feet (3,048 meters) over Singapore […] Airbus Group space plane. (Credit: Airbus) Space.com has an update on plans by Airbus (nee EADS Astrium) to develop a suborbital space plane, which has apparently not gotten to the scale model air drop stage of development: Europe’s biggest aerospace manufacturer, Airbus Group, plans to drop its scale-model prototype prototype Spaceplane from an altitude of 10,000 feet (3,048 meters) over Singapore in May. If that trial goes well, another unpowered drop test — this time from 100,000 feet (30,480 m) — should follow next year, officials said. You can see concept photos of the European space plane here…. After years of saying nothing about the project, Airbus has revealed that this May a helicopter will hoist the scale model — which at 15 feet (4.6 m) long is one-quarter the size of the actual Spaceplane) — to about 10,000 feet, at which point it ...
Airbus to Drop Test Suborbital Space Plane
7 Mar 2014, 16:50 UTC
Space.com has an update on plans by Airbus (nee EADS Astrium) to develop a suborbital space plane, which has apparently not gotten to the scale model air drop stage of development: Europe’s biggest aerospace manufacturer, Airbus Group, plans to drop its scale-model prototype prototype Spaceplane from an altitude of 10,000 feet (3,048 meters) over Singapore […] Airbus Group space plane. (Credit: Airbus) Space.com has an update on plans by Airbus (nee EADS Astrium) to develop a suborbital space plane, which has apparently not gotten to the scale model air drop stage of development: Europe’s biggest aerospace manufacturer, Airbus Group, plans to drop its scale-model prototype prototype Spaceplane from an altitude of 10,000 feet (3,048 meters) over Singapore in May. If that trial goes well, another unpowered drop test — this time from 100,000 feet (30,480 m) — should follow next year, officials said. You can see concept photos of the European space plane here…. After years of saying nothing about the project, Airbus has revealed that this May a helicopter will hoist the scale model — which at 15 feet (4.6 m) long is one-quarter the size of the actual Spaceplane) — to about 10,000 feet, at which point it ...
Universe Today
7 Mar 2014, 14:58 UTC
Like anyone else who’s ever looked up at the night sky in any but the smallest cities, I’ve seen light pollution first-hand. Like anyone else even marginally involved in amateur astronomy, I know about the fight against light pollution. And I know that, what with new LED lights and everything, it’s not going to be easy. When, the other day, I was looking around for images demonstrating the effects of light pollution, it didn’t take me long to find some scary examples – the satellite images tracing human presence on Earth by its light pollution are rather unequivocal, and on Wikimedia Commons, there was an impressive image showing the same region of the night sky when viewed from a dark and from a lighter location: (...)Read the rest of See Light Pollution in Action (502 words) © MarkusPossel for Universe Today, 2014. | Permalink | No comment | Post tags: Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh
See Light Pollution in Action
7 Mar 2014, 14:58 UTC
Like anyone else who’s ever looked up at the night sky in any but the smallest cities, I’ve seen light pollution first-hand. Like anyone else even marginally involved in amateur astronomy, I know about the fight against light pollution. And I know that, what with new LED lights and everything, it’s not going to be easy. When, the other day, I was looking around for images demonstrating the effects of light pollution, it didn’t take me long to find some scary examples – the satellite images tracing human presence on Earth by its light pollution are rather unequivocal, and on Wikimedia Commons, there was an impressive image showing the same region of the night sky when viewed from a dark and from a lighter location: (...)Read the rest of See Light Pollution in Action (502 words) © MarkusPossel for Universe Today, 2014. | Permalink | No comment | Post tags: Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh
Centauri Dreams
7 Mar 2014, 14:20 UTC
Heath Rezabek, an Austin, TX-based librarian, futurist and long-term thinker, continues the chronicle of his evolving work on the Vessel project and its ramifications. Developed as a strategy for preserving our cultural and biological heritage, Vessel is inevitably a way to re-examine ourselves in new and startling ways. Science fiction offers a supple way to visualize what generations in the near and far future may draw from such archives, leading perhaps to created intelligences that grow by sampling our imagery, our artifacts, our mythologies. In the passage that follows, we meet an SF writer named Thea Ramer, and learn more about Dr. Kaasura, whose early work with Vessel points to synthetic minds, re-woven patterns of quantum reality and the development of Saudade-class starships. But let Heath explain… by Heath Rezabek This is the third installment in a continuing series of speculative fiction here on Centauri Dreams. Feedback from prior installments helps shape the themes and direction of subsequent entries, as we continue to explore a timeline in which comprehensive, resilient archives of Earth’s resources are developed through unexpected means. One organizing principle in my work on comprehensive archives is the fact that interplay and overlay of seemingly disconnected concepts can ...
Woven Light: Augmented Dreamstate
7 Mar 2014, 14:20 UTC
Heath Rezabek, an Austin, TX-based librarian, futurist and long-term thinker, continues the chronicle of his evolving work on the Vessel project and its ramifications. Developed as a strategy for preserving our cultural and biological heritage, Vessel is inevitably a way to re-examine ourselves in new and startling ways. Science fiction offers a supple way to visualize what generations in the near and far future may draw from such archives, leading perhaps to created intelligences that grow by sampling our imagery, our artifacts, our mythologies. In the passage that follows, we meet an SF writer named Thea Ramer, and learn more about Dr. Kaasura, whose early work with Vessel points to synthetic minds, re-woven patterns of quantum reality and the development of Saudade-class starships. But let Heath explain… by Heath Rezabek This is the third installment in a continuing series of speculative fiction here on Centauri Dreams. Feedback from prior installments helps shape the themes and direction of subsequent entries, as we continue to explore a timeline in which comprehensive, resilient archives of Earth’s resources are developed through unexpected means. One organizing principle in my work on comprehensive archives is the fact that interplay and overlay of seemingly disconnected concepts can ...
Space Exploration Network
7 Mar 2014, 12:00 UTC
NASA's Cassini spacecraft has conducted its 100th flyby of Titan, swooping down within 933 miles (1,500 kilometers) of the Saturn moon. This artist's concept shows a possible model of Titan's internal structure that incorporates data from NASA's Cassini spacecraft. Image credit: A. D. Fortes/UCL/STFC(Sen) - NASA's Cassini spacecraft has conducted its 100th flyby of Titan, swooping down within 933 miles (1,500 kilometres) of Saturn's largest moon. The large moon shares many Earth like characteristics including a thick atmosphere and surface liquids in the form of seas and rivers. It also rains on Titan. The surface liquid and rain are hydrocarbons such as methane and ethane. Each flyby gives us a little more knowledge of Titan and its striking similarities to our world. Even with its cold surface temperatures of minus 290 degrees Fahrenheit (94 kelvins), Titan is like early Earth in a deep freeze. Since arriving at Saturn in 2004, Cassini's radar instrument has identified remarkable surface features on Titan. The features include lakes and seas made of liquid methane and ethane, which are larger than North America's Great Lakes, and an extensive layer of liquid water deep beneath the surface. Organic molecules abound in Titan's atmosphere, formed from the ...
