Spacecraft
Sub-orbital, orbital, lunar, interplanetary and interstellar vehicles designed to navigate space- Explore more »
Human spaceflight: What Value to Science? (Pt. 1)
There is a brief but vociferous debate about the value of human spaceflight over at Space Politics, under a discussion of the new NASA proposed budget. An often expressed opinion is that in general, humans contribute little to the scientific exploration of space. Indeed, my scientific colleagues ...
February 28, 2009 |
By Paul D. Spudis
Your flight to Titan is delayed
Jupiter’s moon Europa is a worthy target for exploration, so don’t get me wrong. It’s good news that NASA and the European Space Agency are going forward with plans for a dual-spacecraft mission to Europa, Ganymede and Jupiter's other moons in 2020. It just means we won’t see balloons flying over S...
February 27, 2009 |
By Tony Reichhardt
Another Strategic Plan Misfires
There seems to be no end of new “strategic plans” designed to “save” our nation’s space program from the purgatory of mediocrity. The latest entry into the strategic planning sweepstakes comes from the Baker Institute at Rice University. Originally, I had planned to say nothing about this report,...
February 20, 2009 |
By Paul D. Spudis
Two-Timer
Where do you take your next vacation after you’ve been to space? If you’re billionaire Charles Simonyi, you go back.
February 19, 2009 |
By Irene Klotz
The Strange Story of Lunar Magnetism
We’ve known since the beginning of the space age that the Moon has no global magnetic field. Before we returned samples from the Moon, this was thought to be well understood – compared to Earth, the Moon is a small body (1% the mass) and it rotates very slowly (almost 30 times slower). The large ...
February 08, 2009 |
By Paul D. Spudis
What Apollo was …. and wasn’t
Miles O’Brien, late of CNN, recently wrote a column reflecting on the accomplishment of the Apollo program and the space program since then. He believes that Apollo was a great leap forward in space, a capability and step from which we then walked away. O’Brien asks why the country has turned its...
January 25, 2009 |
By Paul D. Spudis
A Smashing Success
How the Ranger probes’ moon crashes helped pave the way for Apollo.
January 21, 2009 |
By Paul Hoversten
Radar mapping the Moon
The first images obtained by the Mini-SAR radar instrument aboard the Indian Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft, currently orbiting the Moon, were released yesterday. Although the spacecraft arrived last November, we are only now getting ready to map the poles of the Moon. The data released are test images...
January 17, 2009 |
By Paul D. Spudis
Space Goals – One more time
It would appear that we are in the midst of yet another attempt to define the goals and objectives of our national space program. This time, the National Academy of Sciences is conducting a study on the Rationale and Goals of the U. S. Civil Space Program. After completion, this study will no dou...
January 09, 2009 |
By Paul D. Spudis
A Cameraman on Mars
If you really want to know the planet, flip through Mike Malin’s photo album.
January 2009 |
By Andrew Chaikin
Red and The Robots
Red Whittaker’s rovers have already gone where no robot has gone before. Will one of them make it to the moon?
January 2009 |
By Geoffrey Little
Weightless Workouts
A new fitness machine on the space station brings astronaut exercise into the 21st century
December 31, 2008 |
By airspacemag.com
Moon water – again
The question, “Is there water on the Moon?” is still with us. Although water is not stable on the lunar surface in vacuum, the poles of the Moon contain deep craters whose floors are in permanent shadow. These dark areas are extremely cold – only about 50º above absolute zero. If a water molecul...
December 23, 2008 |
By Paul D. Spudis
Forty years ago, three men left for the Moon
Tomorrow marks the 40th anniversary of the launch of the Apollo 8 mission, America's first human mission to the Moon and by any measure, still a remarkable achievement. It’s difficult from our position so many years later to appreciate what a bold, giant leap this mission was, in some ways even gr...
December 20, 2008 |
By Paul D. Spudis
To Boldly Go
Sending Apollo 8 to the moon was a risky mix of cold war politics, bravery, and the faith of one man, George Low, in his engineers.
December 19, 2008 |
By Michael Klesius
The Vision for Space Exploration (VSE) and Project Constellation
There’s a huge hubbub in the press revolving around alleged “obstructionism” at NASA toward the Presidential Transition team. As this rather overwrought piece at the Orlando Sentinel has been posted and commented upon endlessly at several web sites, I do not propose to rehash it. Instead, I want ...
December 12, 2008 |
By Paul D. Spudis
A Decade of the International Space Station
The Space Shuttle Endeavour safely landed at Edwards yesterday, completing a highly successful 16-day mission to the International Space Station (ISS), which celebrated a decade of continuous operation last week. It’s common in my business of planetary science to complain about the ISS, how it suc...
December 01, 2008 |
By Paul D. Spudis
Another “Roadmap”
Considerable buzz was generated in space circles last week when The Planetary Society, the keepers of Carl Sagan’s flame, released a report that recommended a re-orientation of the Vision for Space Exploration. This report was based in part on the results of an invitation-only workshop held at Sta...
November 18, 2008 |
By Paul D. Spudis
Hitting a bull’s-eye on the Moon
I am in Bangalore, sitting awake in my hotel room at 4 am. Last night was a memorable and exciting experience. Chandrayaan-1, in lunar orbit since last Saturday, released its Moon Impact Probe (MIP), designed to descend and hit the Moon at high velocity, sending images and other data as it went. ...
November 15, 2008 |
By Paul D. Spudis
