Archive for the 'Space' Category
‘Starlink Is a Very Big Deal’
November 3rd, 2019This contains some techno-optimist glossolalia, but it’s the most informative piece I’ve found on Starlink so far. Via: Casey Handmer’s Blog: Starlink, SpaceX’s plan to serve internet via tens of thousands of satellites, is a staple in the space press, with articles appearing every week on the latest developments. The broad schema is clear and, […]
The Military Has Been Researching “Anti-Gravity” For Nearly 70 Years
October 31st, 2019Via: The Drive: Decades-old questions about the potential existence of fantastical anti-gravity propulsion technologies have resurfaced following the Navy’s own disclosure of encounters with unidentified aerial phenomena and our own original reporting on a series of bizarre patents assigned to the U.S. Navy that seem to defy our current understanding of physics and aerospace propulsion. […]
Secretive Military Spaceplane Lands in Florida After Record-Long Orbital Flight
October 27th, 2019I’m thinking: Kinetic bombardment. Ground attack capability from orbit; projectiles, accelerated mostly by gravity, maybe launched with a bit of cold gas. What’s your guess? Via: Reuters: The Pentagon’s secretive X-37B spaceplane landed in Florida on Sunday after a record-long orbital flight lasting more than two years, the U.S. Air Force said, capping the latest […]
SpaceX Plans to Start Offering Starlink Broadband Services in 2020
October 24th, 2019Global Lightning. Hmm. Via: Space News: Shotwell said many of the Starlink features are being tested by the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory under a program called Global Lightning. SpaceX in December 2018 received a $28 million contract to test over the next three years different ways in which the military might use Starlink broadband […]
SpaceX Submits Paperwork for 30,000 More Starlink Satellites
October 16th, 201942,000 satellites in low Earth orbit… Is anyone besides me wondering if there is some other purpose here besides fast Internet access? Via: SpaceNews: SpaceX has asked the International Telecommunication Union to arrange spectrum for 30,000 additional Starlink satellites. SpaceX, which is already planning the world’s largest low-Earth-orbit broadband constellation by far, filed paperwork in […]
Scientist Behind The Navy’s “UFO Patents” Has Now Filed One For A Compact Fusion Reactor
October 12th, 2019Via: The Drive: The War Zone has been reporting on a set of bizarre patents assigned to the U.S. Navy that describe radical new technologies that could absolutely revolutionize the aerospace field, and frankly, the very way we live our lives. These include high-energy electromagnetic fields used to create force fields and outlandish new methods […]
Former NASA Scientist Believes Viking Mission Found Life on Mars in 1976
October 11th, 2019Not new claims, but very interesting if you haven’t heard about this before. Via: Scientific American: I was fortunate to have participated in that historic adventure as experimenter of the Labeled Release (LR) life detection experiment on NASA’s spectacular Viking mission to Mars in 1976. On July 30, 1976, the LR returned its initial results […]
China Grew Two Cotton Leaves on the Moon
September 30th, 2019Via: IEEE: The team behind a pioneering biological experiment sent to the lunar far side has released an image showing two green leaves grown on the moon. The experiment began shortly after China’s Chang’e-4 spacecraft made the first ever landing on the far side of the moon, on 3 January this year. Cotton, arabidopsis and […]
The Silicon Valley Heavyweights Who Want to Settle the Moon
September 5th, 2019The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress by Robert A. Heinlein Via: Bloomberg: The moon is all the rage these days. China wants to send people there. So too does the United States and NASA. In fact, just about every country with a space program has some sort of lunar ambition that they hope will play […]
China’s Lunar Rover Has Found Something Weird on the Far Side of the Moon
August 31st, 2019Via: Space.com: China’s Chang’e-4 lunar rover has discovered an unusually colored, ‘gel-like’ substance during its exploration activities on the far side of the moon. The mission’s rover, Yutu-2, stumbled on that surprise during lunar day 8. The discovery prompted scientists on the mission to postpone other driving plans for the rover, and instead focus its […]
