Category Archives: Space Travel

The Fermi Paradox

Posted on April 27, 2013 by fathomingthestars

The galaxy is a pretty big place.  With around 400 billion stars, it seems very likely that some of those stars have planets that can support life, that some of those planets have intelligent life, and maybe some of that intelligent life becomes space-faring.  Even if we say the chance of a star having a […] Continue reading →

Posted in Aliens, Space Travel | Tagged , , | Comments Off on The Fermi Paradox

The Constant Search For Life

Posted on April 25, 2013 by indianwm

In this past week, three new planets have been discovered in Kepler’s habitable zone. These three planets are announced to potentially host life. This may or may not be true, but the thought of finding planets slightly larger than earth that are in the Goldilocks zone is exciting in itself. For me, this is what […] Continue reading →

Posted in Aliens, Historical, Instruments, Space Travel | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on The Constant Search For Life

And It All Leads Up To The Now

Posted on April 21, 2013 by wherrysg

This semester we have studied everything from the creation of the universe to black holes to microscopic bacteria living on the bottom of the ocean floor. The range of topics covered in this class has helped round my view of the beginnings of time up until now and clarified many common misconceptions ranging from tides […] Continue reading →

Posted in Aliens, Galaxies, Historical, Light, Physics, Space Travel, Stars, Universe | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on And It All Leads Up To The Now

Solving a ‘Universal’ Delimma

Posted on April 21, 2013 by wherrysg

For those of you who are not familiar with the Fermi Paradox, it is “the apparent contradiction between the high probability extraterrestrial civilizations’ existence, and the lack of contact with such civilizations”.  There are many people out there convinced that life on other worlds doesn’t exist, but let me ask you this: what makes us […] Continue reading →

Posted in Aliens, Galaxies, Space Travel, Universe | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Solving a ‘Universal’ Delimma

Spacecraft of the Future

Posted on April 11, 2013 by JT McJunkins

Image Source After the end of the Space Shuttle program, many alternative spacecraft designs have begun to surface. Most of these designs are spaceplanes, much like the Space Shuttle, which means that they can glide through Earth’s atmosphere and… Continue reading →

Posted in Space Travel | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on Spacecraft of the Future

A Breakthrough in Space Travel

Posted on April 10, 2013 by AlanL

There is currently a project underway which aims to send astronauts in a fusion powered spacecraft to Mars and cutting the travel time to just 30 days round trip. Using existing rocket fuels it would take at least 4 years to travel the same round trip and would cost more than $12 billion. Using this […] Continue reading →

Posted in Space Travel | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on A Breakthrough in Space Travel

The toughest animal on the planet

Posted on April 9, 2013 by fathomingthestars

Most creatures require a specific set of conditions to survive: a certain amount of oxygen, temperature, pressure, food, etc.  However, some animals can live in conditions so extreme they kill almost everything else.  These animals are called, fittingly, extremophiles.  One extremophile is the tardigrade, more commonly called water bears or moss piglets. In general, tardigrades […] Continue reading →

Posted in General, Space Travel | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on The toughest animal on the planet

A Black Hole’s Diet

Posted on April 7, 2013 by wherrysg

Source Incredible! While studying a distant galaxy, astronomers noticed a bright flare of X-rays coming from another galaxy that happened to be in their field of view. Upon closer look, they discovered that it was actually a black hole ‘eating up’ what they believe to be either an extremely large planet or a smaller brown […] Continue reading →

Posted in Physics, Space Travel, Stars | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on A Black Hole’s Diet

Building the Launch Pad of the Future

Posted on March 20, 2013 by JT McJunkins

NASA’s Ground Systems Development and Operations (GSDO) Program is currently upgrading and modifying Launch Pad 39B (pictured above) at the Kennedy Space Center. The Space Launch System, with the Orion spacecraft atop it, will release from this … Continue reading →

Posted in Space Travel | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on Building the Launch Pad of the Future

SpaceX’s Merlin 1D engine

Posted on March 20, 2013 by williamcpower

SpaceX is a space transportation company founded in California by the same guy who founded Tesla Motors and Paypal etc.  They have designed a new boost engine that has the potential revolutionize space travel. It has the capability to loose two engines and still ensure safe travel and the reason it is so amazing is […] Continue reading →

Posted in Space Travel | Tagged , , | Comments Off on SpaceX’s Merlin 1D engine