SONG: My Batteries
SONG: “My Batteries” [Download] . ARTIST: grant. SOURCE: Jacob Margolis’ Twitter feed, 13 Feb 2019, 3:30 AM “The last message they received…,” as used in […]
space exploration
China says they’re ready to put solar panels in orbit.
Not the kind on a self-sufficient satellite, but, as Nature tells us, the kind used to beam clean solar power back to Earth: The idea […]
A moment of silence for Opportunity.
The rover was sent on a 90-day mission. It kept operating on Mars for 15 years, 28 miles and 5,000 charge cycles. Today, NASA said […]
SONG: “2014 MU69 (Approach Me)”
SONG: “2014 MU₆₉ (Approach Me)” [Download] . ARTIST: grant. SOURCE: Science News, 30 Dec 2018-1 Jan 2019, “Live updates: New Horizons’ flyby of a distant […]
Science Art: RCA Lunar Communications by James Burns
Click to embiggen Phoning home from the next world over. This is how it looked half a century ago. You can find more James Burns […]
Science Art: A Plunge into Space, book cover, 1890.
Click to embiggen This is the cover of an early science fiction hit, Robert Cromie’s A Plunge into Space, which was in print from 1890 […]
Penguin choices: Either the scientist comes and makes you puke, or else your whole family’s poop gets photographed from space.
Science News gets the dirt on how we use space hardware to discover what penguins are eating: Because Adélie penguins cluster together at a predictable […]
A First Look at Ultima Thule
Science News gives us the latest on New Horizon’s flyby of Ultima Thule, giving us our closest look at the furthest object we’ve ever visited: […]
Science Art: Drawing of proposed Pig Capsule, Little Joe first shot
Click to embiggen NASA serves the ham in a tray. “Little Joe” was a test rocket named for a kind of craps roll – because […]
New Years with Ultima Thule – that’s far out.
Nature reports on the New Horizon space probe’s date for New Years – with Ultima Thule (formally, 2014 MU69), the most distant object visited by […]
It’s not quite “Please open the podbay doors, HAL,” but almost….
Buzzfeed reports on an unexpected personality clash with an AI on the International Space Station – an incident that could affect how similar synthetic companions […]
Spacecraft sniffer makes sure NASA’s missions come up roses.
Chemistry World introduces us to a particularly talented NASA veteran, George Aldrich – an expert smeller whose olfactory sensitivity ensures that bad smells don’t disrupt […]
Japan landed two bouncing rovers on an asteroid.
Space.com makes an announcement that sounds… more fun than usual. The Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency landed two rovers that hop (like fleas? like springtails? like […]
SONG: Taste the Wind
SONG: “Taste the Wind” [Download] . ARTIST: grant. SOURCE: Nature, 13 Aug 2018, “Spacecraft sets off to make humanity’s closest approach to the Sun”, as […]
Tasting the solar wind.
Nature reports on the Parker Solar Probe, a ship with a mission to closer than we’ve ever been to the Sun, even dipping into the […]