Category Archives: Space Travel

Ballooning on Venus

After their launch in 1984, the identical spacecraft Vega 1 and Vega 2 launched from a Russian Proton Rocket for their double mission of flying through the tail of Halley’s Comet and landing scientific payloads on the surface of Venus. In addition to a regular parachuted lander, the Vega spacecraft each carried a 22-kilogram balloon … Continue reading Ballooning on Venus Continue reading

Posted in Class, Space Travel, Terrestrials | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Ballooning on Venus

The Hubble’s Cooler Younger Sibling

Somewhat of an actual time machine, the telescope is probably the most well-known instrument of the field of astronomy. While the object itself is not a foreign concept, knowledge about specific telescopes is less common. In fact, aside from the Hubble, I probably could not have named one before this semester. Much to my surprise, […] Continue reading

Posted in Instruments, Space Travel | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on The Hubble’s Cooler Younger Sibling

Death by Black Hole

Unfortunately, astronomers and physicists are pretty sure you can’t just go through a black hole and pop out the other side – you will, in fact, die. The real question is, how exactly will you die? Continue reading

Posted in Class, Physics, Space Travel, Universe | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Death by Black Hole

Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster

On January 28th, 1986, the space shuttle Challenger broke apart 73 seconds into flight, killing all seven of its crew … More Continue reading

Posted in Space Travel | Tagged , | Comments Off on Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster

EmDrive

One of the greatest difficulties interstellar, or even just interplanetary, travel faces today is the problem of fuel storage. In order to accelerate to fast enough speeds to travel between planets in a reasonable amount of time, as well as to later decelerate, ships would need to hold a tremendous amount of fuel, which would […] Continue reading

Posted in Space Travel | Tagged , | Comments Off on EmDrive

EmDrive

One of the greatest difficulties interstellar, or even just interplanetary, travel faces today is the problem of fuel storage. In order to accelerate to fast enough speeds to travel between planets in a reasonable amount of time, as well as to later decelerate, ships would need to hold a tremendous amount of fuel, which would […] Continue reading

Posted in Space Travel | Tagged , | Comments Off on EmDrive

EmDrive

One of the greatest difficulties interstellar, or even just interplanetary, travel faces today is the problem of fuel storage. In order to accelerate to fast enough speeds to travel between planets in a reasonable amount of time, as well as to later decelerate, ships would need to hold a tremendous amount of fuel, which would […] Continue reading

Posted in Space Travel | Tagged , | Comments Off on EmDrive

Vanderbilt Aerospace

On the weekend of April 15th, the Vanderbilt Aerospace Design Lab (VADL) traveled to Huntsville, Alabama to compete in NASA’s Student Launch Initiative.  We competed against 40 other colleges and universities.  While in Huntsville, we participated in a rocket fair where we had the opportunity to showcase our rocket as well as learn about rockets […] Continue reading

Posted in Class, Space Travel | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Vanderbilt Aerospace

The Future of Humans on Mars

Humans inhabiting Mars has been a much debated topic amongst engineers, astronomers, and scientists for decades. Stories of manned missions to Mars can be found in film, books, and other forms of popular culture. The notion of colonizing Mars is often accompanied by the imminent doom of our home planet. However, in order for a […] Continue reading

Posted in Class, Space Travel | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on The Future of Humans on Mars

Bootstrapping Space Industry

In 2012, Philip Metzger and some of his colleagues from the Kennedy Space Center worked on a paper theorizing how we could “bootstrap” our way across the Solar System. The first step of their plan was to get materials to the Moon’s surface. From there, development of the industry would continue as the field of robotics has… Continue reading

Posted in Space Travel | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on Bootstrapping Space Industry