Realistically depicting space stuff on TV is difficult. We are all, like Khan, trapped in a surface-dweller's 2-D perspective.
(h/t +DeAnna Knippling; original by Dave Kellett at http://www.sheldoncomics.com/archive/150423.html)
Humor via Andy Borowitz.
Kochs Hope to Be First to Pollute Water on Mars
Credit Photograph by Universal History Archive/UIG via Getty
When you put thing to scale, the emptiness and distance is almost overwhelming.
Gimmicky as hell, and I still love it.
Send Your Name to Mars: Insight
Send Your Name to Mars on InSight at http://go.usa.gov/3Aj3G and retrieve your frequent flyer points on NASA’s Journey to Mars.
In 1949, the predecessor to NASA decided to do some testing to find out why crashing planes went boom. None of those namby-pamby computer simulations for them! (Well, to be fair, they had no computers to speak of). Instead, they simulated crashing lots of actual planes (many of them left over from the Berlin Airlift). Lots of cool footage ensued (and, ultimately, some life-saving regulations).
These Full-Scale Plane Crash Tests From the 1950s Are Absurd
Learning about how planes explode by exploding some gat dang planes.
Because a 90 day mission is a looooong time to hold it.
(via http://boingboing.net/2015/05/11/watch-how-to-use-the-toilet-on.html)
Harkened back to the capsule launches of my childhood. Bravo.
Originally shared by +NASA:
Missed the launch of #Orion? Want to see it again? Watch it here: http://bit.ly/1wDOT2c
NASA’s Orion spacecraft launched successfully atop a United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket Dec. 5 at 7:05 a.m. EST from Space Launch Complex 37 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. Orion’s Exploration Flight Test-1, is the first flight test for NASA’s new deep space capsule and is a critical step on NASA's journey to Mars. The 4.5 hour flight is scheduled to conclude with the splashdown of Orion in the Pacific Ocean.
Watch live coverage now: http://www.nasa.gov/nasatv
That's the way James Kirk put it. The real astronaut Gus Grissom phrased it this way, after the Gemini 3 mission in March, 1965::
"If we die, we want people to accept it. We are in a risky business and we hope that if anything happens to us it will not delay the program. The conquest of space is worth the risk of life."
Grissom was died in the 1967 lauch pad fire of Apollo 1.
My condolences to the friends and family of the dead pilot, and hopes for the surviving one. Space flight is hard, but we will continue.
Originally shared by +Yonatan Zunger:
SpaceShipTwo went down today during a test flight over the Mojave Desert. We're still awaiting further details, but we are getting reports from the highway patrol that one of the pilots was killed, the other severely injured. +Virgin Galactic will have a statement soon.
Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo crashes during test flight
NBC affiliate KGET reports that Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo has crashed, citing information from the CEO of Mojave Air and Space Port, where Virgin Galactic operates. The report follows earlier…
Wait until you get a load of Dave Hill, Interplanetary Man of Mystery!
NASA is doing a boarding pass / frequent flyer program thang with names on a microchip on various missions to come, etc., etc., yadda-yadda, as part of the #JourneyToMars, but it’s just kind of fun. I’m earning miles for being on the Orion flight test in early December. Click here to participate yourself.
I've not had a chance to drill down into this completely, and a lot of these are from games (vs TV vs movies), but it's a pretty impressive compilation. Heck, there's even a good sampling of Babylon 5 vehicles in there (just above the bottom right).
Go to the Deviant Art link for the full size version to zoom into.
(h/t +Asbjørn Grandt)
Originally shared by +Kyla Myers:
The most complete chart of sci-fi ships to date. Compiled by Dirk Loechel
Source: http://www.nerdist.com/2014/09/the-most-complete-chart-of-sci-fi-ships-ever-is-now-complete/
http://dirkloechel.deviantart.com/art/Size-Comparison-Science-Fiction-Spaceships-398790051
Most people know lifting body vehicles from the opening credits to "the Six Million Dollar Man." The one that crashed in that sequence was an M2-F2; the pilot survived to fly again, though he lost sight in one eye.
More here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lifting_body
New examinations and calculations have redefined the galactic super-cluster our Milky Way belongs to, dubbed Laniakea (Hawaiian for "immeasurable heaven").
Very, very cool.
(via http://boingboing.net/2014/09/05/liniakea-scientists-name-fo.html)
Reshared post from +Philip Plait
Thar be comet here!
After a decade in space, Rosetta has arrived at its cometary target… and the pictures so far are amazing.
Rosetta Arrives at a Comet!
After a journey of more than 10 years and a total of many billions of kilometers, the Rosetta spacecraft has finally arrived at the comet 67/P Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Outstanding. The European Space Agency has only released a few close-ups of the comet, but they’re simply stunning. They’ve also released images taken…
So bear that in mind for the next SF book (or comic book movie) you write …
Boil, Burn Or Explode? How You Die In Space
You’ve seen it in the movies: Somebody gets caught in space without a spacesuit and explodes. Or freezes. Or gets fried by radiation. But which is it? Astrophysicist Adam Frank weighs in.
(a) God specifically created Earth and humanity, thus there's no need for think that similar forces would do the same thing elsewhere.
(b) Adam's Fall affected the entire universe (which is why it's such a mean place), and Jesus only appeared once and for all here on Earth to offer salvation (because that's what the Bible says), thus extraterrestrial aliens could not possible be saved because they don't know Jesus, thus all of them would be going to Hell, and why would God do that?
Well, great, now that that's settled we can shut down SETI and most of the space program and save a little money. Thanks, Ken!
(I have to say that the thing I am now most looking forward to from contact with an extraterrestrial intelligence, should such a thing happen, is not the technology boost or anything like that, but watching Ken Ham's head 'splode.)
Embedded Link
“We’ll find a new earth within 20 years” | Around the World with Ken Ham
I’m shocked at the countless hundreds of millions of dollars that have been spent over the years in the desperate and fruitless search for extraterrestrial l
I can remember bits and bobs of the landing, but not a lot — this kind of stuff has too much waiting for a little kid, and I had my brother to keep amused, I expect. Also, I was already deep into science fiction, and while I knew this was big, historic stuff, frankly, it was old hat to someone who watched Star Trek.
Stupid little kid.
Honestly, I appreciate the adventure now a lot more than I did then. And I think we should go back, and go elsewhere, just to prove to ourselves that we can. And so that I can pay closer attention this time.
Reshared post from +NASA
The Eagle has landed! When it comes time to set Eagle down in the moon's Sea of Tranquility, Neil Armstrong improvises, manually piloting the ship past an area littered with boulders. During the final seconds of descent, Eagle's computer is sounding alarms. It turns out to be a simple case of the computer trying to do too many things at once, but as Buzz Aldrin will later point out, "unfortunately it came up when we did not want to be trying to solve these particular problems."
When the lunar module lands at 4:18 p.m. EDT, only 30 seconds of fuel remain. Armstrong radios "Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed." Mission control erupts in celebration as the tension breaks, and a controller tells the crew "You got a bunch of guys about to turn blue, we're breathing again."
Technology drives exploration and we're building on the Apollo program's accomplishments to test and fly transformative, cutting-edge technologies today for tomorrow's missions. As we develop and test the new tools of 21st century spaceflight on the human Path to Mars, we once again will change the course of history.
Image Credit: NASA
