Category Archives: Space Travel

Dragonfly: Quadcopter on Titan

Posted on April 30, 2023 by willems49

After the recent rocket launch in preparation for the Artemis mission, I decided to look into the other space exploration projects currently underway. One that stuck out to me is the Dragonfly mission. After the landing of Huygens, a space probe sent from Cassini, in 2005, astronomers have desired a more advanced exploration of Titan. […] Continue reading →

Posted in Instruments, Moons, Space Travel | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Dragonfly: Quadcopter on Titan

What’s Next?

Posted on April 29, 2023 by alicebyrnes

While I’ve always been vaguely interested in astronomy, before taking this class some part of my brain assumed we had somewhat stagnated on space exploration. This is largely because I knew other stars and galaxies were so far away, and we just don’t have the technology to travel to them. Ultimately, this class helped me […] Continue reading →

Posted in Class, Space Travel | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on What’s Next?

Where Are All the Aliens? Potential Solutions to the Fermi Paradox

Posted on April 29, 2023 by Europa

In class, Dr. G mentioned a Wait But Why article about the Fermi Paradox. I absolutely love this article and the entire concept of the Fermi Paradox–I even wrote about it in my Common App essay four years ago! The Fermi Paradox, first informally presented by physicist Enrico Fermi, describes the apparent contradiction between our […] Continue reading →

Posted in Aliens, Class, Space Travel | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Where Are All the Aliens? Potential Solutions to the Fermi Paradox

JUICE Explorer

Posted on April 29, 2023 by alicebyrnes

As discussed briefly in class, the European Space Agency (ESA) just successfully launched the Juice (formerly JUICE: JUpiter ICy moons Explorer) mission on April 14th! I had no idea this mission even existed before it was mentioned, so I decided to explore it further. The goal of this mission is focused on Jupiter’s moons. While […] Continue reading →

Posted in Class, Jovians, Space Travel | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on JUICE Explorer

Binary on the Golden Records

Posted on April 29, 2023 by casciand7

The Voyager Golden Records are the successors to the pioneer plaques in that they were launched four years later and contain more information than their predecessors. As phonographic record, there are lots of sounds and images of life on Earth contained on them, which can be read in detail here. The cover of the records, […] Continue reading →

Posted in Aliens, Class, Space Travel | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Binary on the Golden Records

Binary in the Pioneer Plaques

Posted on April 29, 2023 by casciand7

About the size of a license plate, the Pioneer plaques were placed on the Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11 spacecrafts with the hopes of reaching intelligent extraterrestrial life. The two circles on the upper left of the plaque represent two hydrogen atoms, the most abundant element in the universe. If you look closely, the line […] Continue reading →

Posted in Aliens, Class, Space Travel | Tagged , | Comments Off on Binary in the Pioneer Plaques

Political Economics of Space Exploration

Posted on April 25, 2023 by georgeboardman20

Image from NASA Press Release I remember when I was young thinking, why haven’t we put humans on Mars yet? We have the feasibility to do so, but why? The answer comes down to the intersection between power politics and economics that often hamper, restrict and sometimes fuel the drive for space exploration. Before this […] Continue reading →

Posted in Public Policy, Space Travel | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Political Economics of Space Exploration

The Universe and Me

Posted on April 23, 2023 by cuia2

     Looking back on the whole course, I felt like I learned so much about our solar system and beyond. I think it’s important to understand where you come from so you can better understand yourself and your place in the universe. Now, I definitely know more about the theory behind the formation of our solar […] Continue reading →

Posted in Class, Space Travel | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on The Universe and Me

Cumulative Post Featuring the JUICE Launch

Posted on April 20, 2023 by sydneyastr2110

As I reflect on my blog posts this semester as well as overall topics within the class, I appreciate the time aspect. By that I mean that we have examined the past, present, and future of astronomy. My blogs included everything from the Carrington Event, a result of a large solar flare in 1859, to […] Continue reading →

Posted in Class, Space Travel | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Cumulative Post Featuring the JUICE Launch

The Principal Investigator of the New Horizons Mission

Posted on April 9, 2023 by sydneyastr2110

I like to write my blog posts about a specific topic we discussed in class or used in a homework assignment. The most recent homework assignment concerning the speech given by Alan Stern was especially fascinating to me. Stern did a great job in discussing the New Horizons mission, he covered everything from the team […] Continue reading →

Posted in Class, Space Travel | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on The Principal Investigator of the New Horizons Mission