Tag Archives: spacecraft

Project Orion: Humanity’s Best Hope?

In the 1950’s and 60’s, optimism about the new discoveries related to fission of atoms and available energy ran rampant. Ambitious designs of all kinds were created based around the new marvel of nuclear energy. Eager to harness the massive potential of fission and fusion reactions, scientists and engineers at NASA began to ponder the … Continue reading Project Orion: Humanity’s Best Hope? Continue reading

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Understanding Our Sun

On August 12, 2018 the Parker Solar Probe was launched. The mission of this probe is to investigate activity in the Sun’s corona in order to provide us with information that can help us understand more about the star and Earth’s connection to it. Analyzing the data being sent back will allow scientists to potentially … Continue reading Understanding Our Sun Continue reading

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Voyager: The End of the Road

Voyager 1 is the only human made object existing outside of the heliosphere of Earth. The Voyager space probes represent a level of exploration not seen since the era of European explorers, and in many ways exceed the ambition of those brave individuals. Aspects of the Voyager mission have been designed to last for an … Continue reading Voyager: The End of the Road Continue reading

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A Voyager in the Solar System: The Story of the Voyager I and II

Two twins. Exploring where no other spacecraft has ever explored before. This was the goal that NASA set out to accomplish when they launched the Voyager spacecrafts. At least, this is what their missions came to be. However, it is not just the missions themselves that make them famous, but also what they carry for… Continue Reading → Continue reading

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The Pioneer Plaque

While unlikely that Pioneer 10 will reach another civilization, NASA (mainly Carl Sagan and Frank Drake) provided Pioneer 10 with a plaque that would hopefully tell another intelligent civilization about our own civilization on Earth. Continue reading

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Juno Probe Makes Fourth Passage of Jupiter’s Clouds

  Last Monday (March 27), NASA’s Juno spacecraft made a historic passage within the vicinity of the cloud tops of Jupiter’s atmosphere, marking its fifth overall flyby of the gas giant and fourth “science pass”, or experimental run. The probe marked its closest point to the planet at 08:52 GMT, coming within 2700 miles of its […] Continue reading

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Blog #5

An Overview of the New Horizons Mission The Kuiper Belt is a very fascinating region of our solar system consisting largely of icy bodies and comets. Thus, there is a lot of really interesting research aiming to better understand the Belt itself and the objects that call it home. One NASA initiative in this regard is … Continue reading Blog #5 Continue reading

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The Voyagers

Image of The Voyager 2  The study of astronomy has been made easier and easier day by day because of the powerful man-made space probes.  Two spacecrafts that I find very interesting is from the Voyager Program, called Voyager 2. Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 were two of the human-made most distant objects, other than… Continue reading The Voyagers Continue reading

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Solar Probe Plus

In 1976, NASA’s Helios 2 spacecraft set the current distance record by orbiting the Sun with a closest approach of 43.4 million kilometers. Even though this is barely inside the orbit of Mercury, the intense heat close to the Sun has previously prevented any closer observation. The Goddard Space flight Center “Living with a Star … Continue reading Solar Probe Plus Continue reading

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Solar Probe Plus

In 1976, NASA’s Helios 2 spacecraft set the current distance record by orbiting the Sun with a closest approach of 43.4 million kilometers. Even though this is barely inside the orbit of Mercury, the intense heat close to the Sun has previously prevented any closer observation. The Goddard Space flight Center “Living with a Star … Continue reading Solar Probe Plus Continue reading

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