MetaFilter posts tagged with technology and Space

Exoplanet Hunter

Chinese Jet Pilot — Wed, 15 May 2013 14:28:43 -0800

"It was one of those things that was a gift to humanity... We’re all going to lose for sure." Kepler's career is over, but not before answering one of mankind's most profound questions.

belters expanse trajectory: working up the Epstein Drive

kliuless — Sun, 14 Apr 2013 23:11:41 -0800

How NASA brought the monstrous F-1 "moon rocket" engine back to life - "The story of young engineers who resurrected an engine nearly twice their age."

The question, though, is whether or not the practical side of the equation can balance the romantic. The Advanced Booster competition will run through 2015, at which point a winner will be chosen, solid or liquid. The F-1B could be the engine sending astronauts to Mars—or it could wind up as one more Wikipedia footnote.

also btw... -NASA's Space Launch System -NASA's Space Launch System Advanced Booster -Comparison of orbital rocket engines -Comparison of orbital launch systems oh and How NASA's Nuclear Rockets Will Take Us Way Beyond Mars &c. Almost 40,000 People Have Signed up to Go to Mars—One Way

Mars Eats Probes

Artw — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 11:42:48 -0800

Russian amateurs may have found the lost Mars 3 Lander.

Rise of the Earths

Artw — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 07:02:04 -0800

How Artists Once Imagined the Earth Would Look from Space

The Final Frontier

Artw — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 07:16:10 -0800

Astronomers Conduct First Remote Reconnaissance of Another Planetary System

Not because it was easy, but because it was hard

Artw — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 00:03:59 -0800

Apollo 40 years on: how the moon missions changed the world for ever

Looking for Some Waist Heat

cthuljew — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 17:31:38 -0800

A five-part series on the ultimate limit on technology, and how that limit could help us find other civilizations: 1 2 3 4 5 [via]

A New Kinda Satellite State

Chipmazing — Sun, 30 Sep 2012 18:41:46 -0800

The satellite man is typically young, with an entrepreneur’s zeal and a sense of adventure, often from the mercantile district of South Tehran, trained by colleagues in the black-market niche of satellite TV installation...

How to build a Dyson sphere in five (relatively) easy steps

Egg Shen — Fri, 07 Sep 2012 13:03:44 -0800

How to build a Dyson sphere in five (relatively) easy steps.

Curiouser and curiouser

egor83 — Sun, 05 Aug 2012 20:34:21 -0800

NASA commentary on Curiosity landing has just started, landing itself is expected two hours later, at 5:31 am UTC/10:31 pm PDT. Previously - awesome writeup by ddbeck

Second stage propulsion performing as expected.

egor83 — Tue, 22 May 2012 00:51:29 -0800

SpaceX's Falcon9 rocket carrying Dragon capsule to dock with the ISS, has launched successfully. Previous launch attempt on Saturday. See spacex tag for previous posts.

Private Space

egor83 — Fri, 18 May 2012 14:38:25 -0800

SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket carrying the Dragon cargo capsule is scheduled to launch at 8:55 am UTC on Saturday, May 19, 2012 - a little less than 12 hours from now. Live translation at spacex.com starting 1:15 AM Pacific / 4:15 AM Eastern / 08:15 UTC That would be the first time a privately designed spacecraft would try to dock to a space station. SpaceX's founder and CEO, Elon Musk, was also a co-founder of PayPal. Read more: Guardian, NPR, Wired

Kazakhstan and Beyond!

Artw — Thu, 17 May 2012 19:43:51 -0800

In Pictures: Star City and the Baikonur Cosmodrome

Sir, the possibility of successfully navigating an asteroid field is approximately 3720 to 1.

crunchland — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 12:26:46 -0800

A new Seattle-base company called Planetary Resources (twitter), created by several billionaires, apparently has a lofty goal in mind ... to bring a 500-ton asteroid to Earth by 2025, for the purposes of mining its resources. And according to a recently released report (pdf) by CalTech, it's not all that outlandish an idea.

Looking for life in all the wrong places

Brandon Blatcher — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 18:31:02 -0800

Any Sufficiently Advanced Civilization is Indistinguishable from Nature.

Apollo 18

Artw — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 14:57:17 -0800

Is Newt Gingrich’s plan for a moon mine science fiction? The technology may be in place, but is there any reason to go?

I Always Feel Like Somebody's Watching Me

Chinese Jet Pilot — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 11:33:27 -0800

The secretive NRO celebrated 50 years of spying from space with a one-day surprise public exhibition of a just-declassified KH-9 Hexagon "Big Bird" imaging satellite. Between 1963 and 1986, a constellation of KH-7 Gambit, KH-8 Gambit 3, and KH-9 Hexagon satellites, all revealed after a half-century of secrecy, returned high-resolution film exposures of Cold War targets from orbit by parachute.

"For those of us who dreamed of trips to Mars, the trouble with our times, as Paul Valery once said, is that the future is not what it used to be."

Fizz — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 04:22:16 -0800

When will our Martian future get here? [via: The Space Review]

High fashion

Artw — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 17:00:24 -0800

A space wardrobe - images of the National Air and Space Museum’s collection of spacesuits from throughout the history of American space exploration.

Touch the history of the Russian astronautics and missilery!

Artw — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 21:56:39 -0800

Astonishing photos of remnants of the Soviet Lunar program, via Jalopnik, who have more details.

High Frontier

Artw — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 10:49:35 -0800

“In all honesty, we don’t know when it’s coming back for sure” - The US Air Force's first launch of the X-37b reusable space vehicle has provoked much speculation, with some even wondering if the Pentagon is reviving Nazi space-bomber plans. But was the launch of spaceplane an attempt to mask the launch of another secret weapon?

Suborbital

Artw — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 13:04:13 -0800

Virgin Galactic unveils SpaceShipTwo

The Economist: The World in 2010

goodnewsfortheinsane — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 17:09:43 -0800

In 2010, Obama will have a miserable year, NATO may lose in Afghanistan, the UK gets a regime change, China needs to chill, India's factories will overtake its farms, Europe risks becoming an irrelevant museum, the stimulus will need an exit strategy, the G20 will see a challenge from the "G2", African football will unite Korea, conflict over natural resources will grow, Sarkozy will be unloved and unrivalled, the kids will come together to solve the world's problems (because their elders are unable), technology will grow ever more ubiquitous, we'll all charge our phones via USB, MBAs will be uncool, the Space Shuttle will be put to rest, and Somalia will be the worst country in the world. And so the Tens begin.

The Economist: The World in 2010. Previously: 2009, 2008, 2007. How did we do last time around? Guest contributions: President of the European Commission José Manuel Barroso lines up Europe's priorities President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev argues for dialogue and cooperation President of the Maldives Mohamed Nasheed wants his island nation to remain above water President of Indonesia Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono would like for Islam and the West to live in harmony President of South Africa Jacob Zuma says Africa should rise to the occasion Director-General of the World Health Organisation Margaret Chan predicts the development of the flu pandemic Managing director of the International Monetary Fund Dominique Strauss-Kahn explains how to prevent another crisis CEO of Yahoo! Carol Bartz believes business leaders should tap into the information flood Chairman of HSBC Stephen Green argues that the financial sector should welcome emerging economies CEO of Fiat Group and Chrysler Group Sergio Marchionne thinks greener cars require bolder action CEO/CTO of SpaceX Elon Musk says the private sector should handle space travel

5... 4... 3... 2... 1...

Artw — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 10:25:29 -0800

Scramjets are go!

Happy 40th anniversary, mankind.

sexyrobot — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 13:01:13 -0800

Moon Landing Tapes Found! All the videos you've seen of the first moon landing are crap. Remember, back in the day, video cameras and recorders were two different things. So it went like this: camera on moon sends footage to Australia, where it's recorded on tape (and then those tapes were lost), then downsized onto a smaller monitor, which is filmed by another video camera, uploaded to satellite, and disseminated around the world. America watches it on TV, cheers. Some of this footage is filmed off of a television onto 16mm film. This is what goes into the national archives. Crap. So, the original tapes have been found (spoiler: they never left Australia). So what, right? How good could they be, recorded back in the late 60's and all? Pretty darn good, apparently...seems recording heads were much better than the output available at the time (like playing a Blu-Ray disc on a B&W TV), and several recent projects have shown that it's possible to extract very high resolution data from these old analog tapes. How hi-rez? High enough to see Neil Armstrong's nipples get hard. (be sure to click on that picture) So when can we see this amazing footage? Probably soon.