I have a vehicle in my novel called a “Hopper.”
Damn you, Musk! Must you steal ALL my ideas??
www.syfy.com/syfywire/amazing-video-spacex-starhopper-test-hop-to-a-height-of-150-meters
Space Hopper Go!
October 10, 2019
Super-Earth! Um. Yay?
August 3, 2019
After completing its first year of observations in the southern sky, NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite has spotted some intriguing new exoplanets only 31 light-years away from Earth.
Um. “Only” 31 light years.
One planet is 22% larger than Earth, has a surface average of around 490ºF, and a year of just under 4 days.
Another is more than 6 times the size of Earth, is a balmy -64ºF, and a year of about 56 days.
But has liquid, and so might have life.
Don’t pack your bags yet….
— Read on www.cnn.com/2019/08/01/world/tess-nearby-super-earth-scn-trnd/index.html
The Trappist Family of Planets has a hard core!
August 2, 2019
In February of 2017, a team of European astronomers announced the discovery
of a seven-planet system orbiting the nearby star TRAPPIST-1. Aside from
the fact that all seven planets were rocky, there was the added bonus of
three of them orbiting within TRAPPIST-1’s habitable zone. Since that time,
multiple studies have been conducted to determine whether or not any of
these planets could be habitable.
What’s up with the boring names?
I propose we call them Liesl, Friedrich, Louisa, Kurt, Brigitta, Marta, and Gretl. The most habitable is Kurt, because he’s so magnetic.
But the star, of course, is Maria.
Buh-DUM-dum.
— Read on www.universal-sci.com/headlines/2018/5/5/one-of-the-trappist-1-planets-has-an-iron-core
One small step for (a) man…
July 20, 2019
Fifty years ago, human beings first stepped on the Moon.
It’s past time we went back. And stayed for good.
Martians and Humans? Dating is OFF
June 8, 2019
Martians should stop reproducing with Earth-humans.
You heard it here first. Mars doesn’t need women. Sorry.
Aliens are among us! Um, apparently…
April 30, 2019
Still, the fact that someone as highly educated as Chi wrote an entire book based on salvation by extraterrestrials could be a sign of how daunting our future is starting to look.
Or, conversely, how wack some Oxford dons really are…
Interstellar Travel Tech — oh, Really?
April 27, 2019
“It is time to venture beyond the known planets, on toward the stars.”
Yes, I agree, but I don’t see how any of the ideas in this article will help us achieve that goal. I think the problem is the reliance on conventional means of propulsion. Clearly some sort of bending of space/time is needed to leave the solar system faster than, say, a decade, let alone reach other star systems.
Dawn already used an ion engine (way too slow). The solar gravitational lens is neat but it won’t take us there physically. The “space-based laser” idea is funky but impractical.
Getting off Earth should help (Moon Base, Mars, somewhere else like Triton). Escaping our own planet’s gravity well takes way too much effort. But after that, it’s time to forget about rockets and start thinking of truly “wacked out” ideas.
For starters, Discover, how about dumping your absolutely awful page design? Yeesh, this page is hard to read.
— http://discovermagazine.com/2019/apr/new-technologies-could-let-us-explore-beyond-the-solar-system
First ever black hole image (not counting Disney)
April 10, 2019
“What we see is larger than the size of our entire Solar System,” he said.
“It has a mass 6.5 billion times that of the Sun. And it is one of the heaviest black holes that we think exists. It is an absolute monster, the heavyweight champion of black holes in the Universe.”
So this demonstrates two things.
One – Einstein was right (when wasn’t he, at this point).
Two – We need a Disney remake.
Calling Christopher Nolan!
Gateway now includes Canada, eh
April 3, 2019
Now that Trudeau has agreed to help out, if anything goes wrong we can always “Blame Canada!”
No, no, it’s a joke, alright, eh. Sorry, sorry.
On to Triton. With Trident. Finally.
March 29, 2019
We’ve learned a lot about Neptune’s largest moon, Triton, since it was first discovered in 1846. Some scientists believe it could be an “ocean world” with liquid water — and maybe even harbor life.
And now, pending approval, we might soon get our best glimpse yet. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory proposed on Tuesday [19 March 2019] at a conference in Texas to send a spacecraft called “Trident” to Triton — with the goal of sussing out whether it’s a habitable world.
A low-cost mission that would give us decent photos and even video of Triton, Io, and even Venus. Let’s do this.
M Thomas Apple Author Page 