Advertisement

You are browsing the archive for Humans in Space Archives - Page 2 of 10 - Martian Chronicles.

20 June 2010

Space-Based Solar Power: a solution to our burning need for energy

People burn things. This crude way to get energy has done wonders for us as a species, but I think it’s about time we moved on. It’s easy to forget how important burning stuff is in modern times because the burning is mostly hidden. Most of our electricity comes from burning coal and gas, but the furnaces are far away and instead of huddling around our campfire to cook and …

Read More >>

15 Comments/Trackbacks >>


15 June 2010

The Biological Singularity

If you’re a sci-fi reader, you are probably familiar with the idea of the “technological singularity“. For the uninitiated, the Singularity is the idea that computational power is increasing so rapidly that soon there will be genuine artificial intelligence that will far surpass humans. Essentially, once you have smarter-than-human computers, they will drive their own advancement and we will no longer be able to comprehend the technology. We can debate …

Read More >>

2 Comments/Trackbacks >>


12 June 2010

Ares 1-X vs Falcon 9: A Comparison

Well, I’ve been a bad space blogger, and didn’t write anything about the spectacular successful launch of  SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on June 4th. Considering the ongoing wailing and gnashing of teeth over the cancellation of Constellation in favor of using commercial rockets to send astronauts to the ISS, I thought it would be worth taking a look at how Falcon 9 compares with the Ares 1-X, which launched back …

Read More >>

7 Comments/Trackbacks >>


9 June 2010

Ice Caves on Mars!

Hey, guess what? There might be caves with ice in them on Mars! You should go check out my post about this cool new possibility over at Universe Today!

Read More >>

1 Comment/Trackback >>


3 June 2010

The Case for Mars: Autotuned

For me, none of the newer symphony of science videos can match the sheer catchy-ness of the original, but this one is about exploring Mars, so I can’t complain too much. Check the Symphony of Science page for other autotuned science-themed music videos.

Read More >>

No Comments/Trackbacks >>


20 May 2010

The "explorer" analogy and US spaceflight

The other day, the blog Sociological Images had a thought-provoking post about a Canadian ad campaign which invokes the idea of exploration and discovery to promote Canadian tourism. It got me thinking about one of the most common defenses of U.S. space exploration: that it is the natural next step for a nation founded on exploration to start exploring space. So, are we really a nation of explorers if all …

Read More >>

2 Comments/Trackbacks >>


18 May 2010

Big Pictures: Space Shuttle and Mount St. Helens

The Big Picture has been on a roll lately, with two sets of particular interest to planetary and space-types. First, is the feature on the final launch of the space shuttle Atlantis last week: Second, today is the 30th anniversary of the explosive eruption of Mount St. Helens, and there are some amazing photos that show the devastating power of a volcanic eruption:

Read More >>

No Comments/Trackbacks >>


2 May 2010

Carnival of Space 152

Welcome to The Martian Chronicles and the 152nd edition of the Carnival of Space! As always, we’ve got a great bunch of space-related posts from across the blogosphere, ranging from life on Mars to the age of the universe to Science Ninjas! I’ll get things started with a pair of posts from right here at The Martian Chronicles. A couple weeks ago I went on a cool geology field trip …

Read More >>

9 Comments/Trackbacks >>


19 April 2010

Incoming! Shuttle Re-Entry over the US!

Hello from El Paso! I just arrived at the conference hotel, and as I was checking my email, I learned from spaceweather.com that the space shuttle Discovery will be making a rare type of re-entry tomorrow morning that will take it right over the lower 48 states! Landing is scheduled for 8:48 am EDT, and it takes the shuttle about 35 minutes to traverse the path shown above. Observers in …

Read More >>

No Comments/Trackbacks >>


15 April 2010

Thoughts on Obama's Space Speech

In case you missed it, you can click here to watch Obama’s speech at NASA today and read the transcript here. Overall there were not a lot of surprises in this speech. NASA still gets a budget increase. The shuttle is still on-track for cancellation, the Constellation program is also going to be canceled, with transportation to and from the ISS to be provided by private companies. The ISS will …

Read More >>

5 Comments/Trackbacks >>