Tagged With "NASA"

I like the idea of trying to keep some of this ecosystem prestine. But I suspect it will be the least visited national park in the world. And maybe that's for the best,

It seems impossible that it's over half a century since the first little grapefruit-sized satellites went up, and amazing that a program that seemed to move on constantly has become so dormant...as if personal computer development had rushed forward rapidly...and then stopped at Windows 95! I wonder what this will look like to historians in the distant future...

Thanks for the comment, PHeymont. Yes, it did seem thinks were working at warp speed in the 1960s, slowed down after that and have mostly come to a halt now. But there are still the great unmanned probes being launched (eg. Mars Rover), and the new Orion project promises to be quite exciting -- at least in its potential. It might be what takes man to Mars. I'd be happy just for a return to the moon. See how modern technology has changed the process of getting there.

I always thought that when rockets were fired from the launch pad, there were clouds of smoke to accompany it. I learned, on the tour, that a few seconds before launch a million gallons of water were released onto the launch pad to stop the heat of the rockets from melting the concrete base. So it was just creating some steam !

The water serves mostly as a sound buffer (those huge rockets are really loud!). But the massive flooding of water actually does dissipate some of the heat as well. I was really fascinated by this place, GarryRF!

Wow! Impressive!! looks like a great place to visit.

Well, you can't actually visit the planet Kepler 16b; it's not even in our solar system. But graphic artists at the National Aeronautical and Space Agency (NASA) have made up dream travel posters for several "exoplanets" (planets that orbit other...

Will a robot replace the pilot on your next flight?   No, this isn't a late-day April Fools' gag. Both NASA and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Administration (they started the Internet, remember...) are working on technologies for...

NASA's best known for its space missions, and bugs are best known for buzzing your barbecue and irritating hikers—but now we learn that bugs also slow down jetliners and increase fuel consumption. And NASA is doing something about it.  ...

  I recently had the chance to visit the Space Shuttle Endeavour , which is on exhibit at the California Science Center in Los Angeles.    There were 6 different shuttles as part of the Space Shuttle program (Enterprise, Columbia,...

Bathurst Island, at center of this NASA satellite photo, is new park site   Canada's Environment Minister, Leona Aglukkaq, announced a new bill last week, taking the first step to establishing Canada's 45th National Park in Canada's Arctic...

  The  Kennedy Space Center  is one of my favorite attractions in the United States. It highlights some of the greatest technological achievements of our species and is testament to one of the most significant advances of human...

Stephanie Kalina-Metzger shares a visit to Florida's 'Space Coast', with visits to the Kennedy Space Center and nearby Merritt Island.

I wonder how they'll psychologically profile the robotic drone pilots? I don't think commercial aviation is ready for pilotless planes. Most of us like to know that there's a human in there who can take control if the robot malfunctions in some way. Perhaps in a generation, that will change as travelers who are more used to machines become the #1 travel demographic.

Let me first confess that I still don't understand how these huge contraptions full of me and my fellow passengers can get off the ground and back down again. Every flight a miracle! But this discussion reminded me of an early 60s comedy routine in which the voice on the PA system says "Welcome to the world's first automated airplane. Nothing can go wrong go wrong go wrong..." I couldn't find it today, but I did find two hilarious routines featuring comments on airlines and air safety; I...

Today's NY Times has an interesting Op Ed article on pilotless plane issues by Patrick Smith, who is both a writer on aviation and an active commercial pilot. He takes issue with the idea that the pilot is redundant, and points out that the studies that suggest pilots only work 3 or 7 minutes at the controls only refer to "hands on wheel" time, and do not take into account the amount of time the pilot spends setting and monitoring the instruments and communicating with ground sites. He also...