Tag: Nasa

The hard working but unloved multi-stage rocket

If you've ever read about rocket technology, particularly the issues involved in how much fuel is needed to get somewhere, you quickly run into a stark reality.  The payload, the part of the rocket that you want to get somewhere, is inevitably a tiny portion of the size and weight of the rocket. The rest … Continue reading The hard working but unloved multi-stage rocket →

Will the age of science end?

A while back, I became interested in the history of science, particularly the early history, including people like Copernicus, Galileo, Newton, Johanne Kepler, Andreas Vesalius, and many others.  In reading about them, one of the things I was struck by was how small scale science was back then. In its beginnings, modern science was mostly … Continue reading Will the age of science end? →

The Dream Chaser: What the Space Shuttle should have been

This video shows the Dream Chaser spacecraft.  Similar to the old Space Shuttle, it glides down to Earth, although it's a much smaller vehicle, and would launch on top of a rocket rather than the dangerous side mount that the Shuttle used.  In many ways, it's what the Space Shuttle should have been, had it … Continue reading The Dream Chaser: What the Space Shuttle should have been →

The space age is in full swing, for robots

Yesterday I made the observation that it was much cheaper to transmit information than to travel to an interstellar destination, observing that sending a microscopic robot able to use raw materials in the destination system to bootstrap manufacture what it needs. The Leather Library pointed out that this applies as well to destinations in our solar … Continue reading The space age is in full swing, for robots →

Ask Ethan #20: Is the Mars One crew doomed? – Starts With A Bang

What Mars One is counting on is that they can safely land a heavier payload than ever before, that they can do it more precisely than ever before (as in, within just a few hundred meters of previous successful landings), and they can do it for only 12% of the projected costs, with a total … Continue reading Ask Ethan #20: Is the Mars One crew doomed? – Starts With A Bang →