Category: Science
NASA will look for Martian life with 2020 Rover.
NASA has chosen Jezero Crater as the landing site for its upcoming Mars 2020 rover mission after a five year search. The rover mission is scheduled to launch in July 2020 as NASA’s next step in exploration of the Red Planet. It will not only seek signs of ancient habitable conditions – and past microbial […]
Was ‘Oumuamua’ a light sail probe visiting the Solar System? Dr. Avi Loeb chats.
Dr. Avi Loeb of Harvard University (as well as the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics) does a little video about the background and science behind the oddness of the recent fly-through of the Oumuamua object, and why science suggests it might have been a solar sail probe of some sort on a fly-by.
How To Invent Everything by Ryan North (book review).
The basis of Ryan North’s book, ‘How To Invent Everything’ is transporting yourself into the past by a time machine but alas breaks down and you’re stuck there. No matter which century, this book is not so much a survival guide but the means to make where you are a better place and removing the […]
Goodbye Kepler, planet-hunter par excellence.
After nine years in deep space collecting data that indicate our sky to be filled with billions of hidden planets – more planets even than stars – NASA’s Kepler space telescope has run out of fuel needed for further science operations. NASA has decided to retire the spacecraft within its current, safe orbit, away from […]
NASA 1958 Onwards: Operation Manual by David Baker (book review).
Contrary to the title, ‘NASA 1958 Onwards: Operation Manual’, the USA’s interest in space flight goes back as far as 1915 when they formed a more informal National Advisory Committee For Aeronautics (NACA). It was also the US Navy who took this flying thing that the Wright brothers were doing more seriously. The nature of […]
Seeing Science: An Illustrated Guide To The Wonders Of The Universe by Iris Gottlieb (book review).
My first thoughts when I opened Iris Gottlieb’s book, ‘Seeing Science: An Illustrated Guide To The Wonders Of The Universe’ is that it was primarily for a junior audience. Nothing wrong with that. We often review books that might be useful for your sprogs. However, I would also include anyone who needs the concepts of […]
Fast, moves the robot legion.
Do you remember five years ago when robot manufacturer Boston Dynamics released those videos of their creation, Atlas, dangling from a cable and falling over, tumbling on banana skins and the like? Well, do you want to know what Moore’s Law looks like when applied to five years of incremental improvements in droid tech? Here’s […]
The Laser That’s Changing The World by Todd Neff (book review).
If you think lasers are only used in burglar alarms, then Todd Neff’s book, ‘The Laser That’s Changing The World’ will put you right. As the sub-title, ‘The Amazing Stories Behind Lidar From 3D Mapping To Self-Driving Cars’, we have quickly become accustomed to having lasers as part of our everyday life. If you don’t […]
Moon discovered in another solar system (yes: it’s the first exomoon).
Using NASA’s Hubble and Kepler space telescopes, astronomers have uncovered tantalising evidence of what could be the first discovery of a moon orbiting a planet outside our solar system. This moon candidate, which is 8,000 light-years from Earth in the Cygnus constellation, orbits a gas-giant planet that, in turn, orbits a star called Kepler-1625. Researchers […]
To the Moon and back with SpaceX (for a price).
SpaceX has signed the world’s first private passenger to fly around the Moon aboard its BFR launch vehicle (Big Falcon Rocket), what SpaceX describes as “an important step toward enabling access for everyday people who dream of travelling to space.” The lucky chap is Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa – who will travel with six to […]
