Aerospace Science
The study of air and space flight, astronomy and the effect of flight on living organisms
Better Than Hubble—From the Ground
In the age of orbiting telescopes such as the Hubble and the not-yet-launched James Webb Space Telescope, it's worth giving a nod to the dramatic advances made in building ground-based telescopes.The board of trustees of the Carnegie Institution for Science just authorized the release of $59.2 mill...
May 18, 2010 |
By Mike Klesius
From Beyond
A new exhibition of awe-inspiring photos from the first 50 years of planetary exploration.
May 18, 2010 |
By The Editors
Using the Earth to study the Moon
Last week, the Science Team of the Mini-RF imaging radar experiment aboard the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) mission, met in Flagstaff, Arizona. We were there to conduct field studies of some interesting lunar analogs that occur in this area. Scientists study the planets through a variety of ...
May 15, 2010 |
By Paul D. Spudis
Plume Power
The space shuttle's exhaust trail makes for a lovely sight on an April morning.
May 11, 2010 |
By Michael Klesius
Exit Strategy
NASA’s new launch abort system just passed a major test. But what booster and capsule will use it?
May 06, 2010 |
By Michael Klesius
The Four Flavors of Lunar Water
The Moon is constantly bombarded by the solid debris of the Solar System. Comets, asteroids and interplanetary dust, all containing varying amounts of water, have pounded the lunar surface for billions of years. Yet until recently, the Moon was considered to be barren and bone-dry. Rock and soil...
May 02, 2010 |
By Paul D. Spudis
What Lies Beneath
You don't have to go to the moon to find out what it's made of.
May 2010 |
By Michael Klesius
Browsing the Webb
The James Webb Space Telescope just cleared its most significant milestone, the Mission Critical Design Review. This means that the orbiting infrared observatory, scheduled to launch on an Ariane 5 rocket no earlier than June 2014 into orbit around the sun, about a million miles from Earth, is expe...
April 29, 2010 |
By Mike Klesius
The Sun in Hi-Def
New hi-definition movies of the Sun, from NASA's recently launched Solar Dynamics Observatory. Mesmerizing.
April 23, 2010 |
By Tony Reichhardt
“We’ve been there before. Buzz has been there.”
During a carefully staged appearance at Kennedy Space Center yesterday, President Barack Obama rolled out his plans for the U. S. space program. Although there weren’t many surprises (the White House Office of Science and Technology, under the direction of John P. Holdren, had released a fact shee...
April 16, 2010 |
By Paul D. Spudis
NASA Lost its Way
As we survey the wreckage and ruin of yet another NASA “return to the Moon” program, the inevitable “what went wrong?” arguments play out. We’re in a much different place today than we were when Apollo 11 reached the Moon (and each year there are fewer of us alive who witnessed it). To some of us...
April 02, 2010 |
By Paul D. Spudis
Value for Cost: The Determinate Path
The report of the Augustine committee analyzes America’s space program through a very narrow prism. Much of their report argues that the existing program of record (more specifically, the Ares I and V launch system) is not affordable, a fact already apparent to most observers. Thus, the committee...
March 24, 2010 |
By Paul D. Spudis
HST + 3D + IMAX = Wow
Think the photo's impressive? Wait 'til you see the trailer for Hubble 3D, opening Friday in IMAX theaters.
March 15, 2010 |
By Tony Reichhardt
Stuck in Transit – Unchaining Ourselves From the Rocket Equation
Last fall, after much anticipation, the Augustine Committee presented us with their assessment of the future of space exploration. Its basic conclusion was that at currently envisioned budgets, the Program of Record (a.k.a. ESAS, Project Constellation) would not get us back to the Moon before many...
March 11, 2010 |
By Paul D. Spudis
Ice at the north pole of the Moon
Last year, India’s Chandrayaan-1 lunar orbiter spent eight months mapping the surface of the Moon. I had the honor of being the Principal Investigator of an experiment on that mission, the Mini-SAR imaging radar. The purpose of this experiment is to map and characterize the deposits within perman...
March 01, 2010 |
By Paul D. Spudis
Talismanic Thinking
Wild claims are being tossed about regarding the future U.S. space program. Recipes for success are touted and e-mailed around – concepts based more on wishful thinking than on solid science and engineering. My friend Rand Simberg refers to those who would replicate anew the means we devised to g...
February 27, 2010 |
By Paul D. Spudis
A Lunar Visionary
My good friend Klaus Heiss is resting in the hospital after recently suffering a stoke. Klaus is not widely known or familiar to many in the space community, but over the years, he has had a major impact on our national space program – a major player in both the Shuttle program and in helping to p...
February 23, 2010 |
By Paul D. Spudis
Bill Gordon, Father of the Arecibo Observatory
William Gordon, the Cornell University engineer who dreamed up the world's largest dish antenna, died this week at the age of 92. His recollections of the Arecibo Telescope's early days were included in a story that ran in our October 1997 issue, not long after the observatory was upgraded with new...
February 19, 2010 |
By Tony Reichhardt
Confusing the Means and the Ends
The release of the proposed NASA budget and new “direction” has led to an intense “cage fight” in the blogosphere over who has the best rocket and the best architecture. Many “New Space” advocates are ecstatic, viewing the cancellation of the Constellation program as vindication of their view that...
February 13, 2010 |
By Paul D. Spudis
