Stream of Reading (Prepare to be Forwarded) – An Archive of What I'm Reading
Aviator Jerrie Cobb and a Mercury spacecraft. Photo from the public domain. Last month, an all-female Russian astronaut crew spent eight days together in a mock spaceship to determine how a group of women would interact during space travel as a test run for a 2029 mission to the moon. Sadly, at a press conference…
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All photos by the author Chris Gilman made a name for himself as a Hollywood prop designer, specializing in space-related movie props and effects for films like Deep Impact, Star Trek, and Armageddon. His company, Global Effects Inc, became notorious in the industry for their unparalleled ability to manufacture hyperrealistic space suits—the kind that mirrored…
The Perseids is my favorite meteor shower of the year, and this year is likely to be the best one in recent memory. Here’s when, where, and how to watch it—and just what is going to make this year so spectacular. Top image: 2010 Perseids / image courtesy of Michael Menefee. What Are the Perseids?…
There are a few differences, of course. For one, its solar system is 6 billion years old, compared to our system’s 4.5 billion years. It’s also 60 percent bigger than Earth. That means there’s a 40 percent chance that it’s either a water-world or a gas dwarf rather than a super-Earth. But of all the…
Happy moon landing day! July 20, 2015 marks the 46th anniversary of Apollo 11’s arrival on the moon. The lunar lander holding Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin touched down at 4:18 PM eastern, and Armstrong became the first human in history to walk on the lunar surface at 10:56 PM. Huge amounts of aeronautical and hardware…
Broadcast live streaming video on Ustream If all has gone according to plan, by the time you read this, New Horizons will have passed the last unseen planet in the solar system. At 7:49:58 am Eastern, the little spacecraft will pass Pluto at 7,750 miles, a distance just shy of Earth’s diameter, and the closest…
Who knew that Neil Armstrong‘s giant leap for mankind would one day lead to a world of space porn? Digital smut mogul Pornhub is trying to raise $3.4 million on Indiegogo to shoot an adult film in outer space. Established industry stars Johnny Sins and Eva Lovia are already signed on to the zero-gravity venture. If…
Last year, NASA’s advanced propulsion research wing made headlines by announcing the successful test of a physics-defying electromagnetic drive, or EM drive. Now, this futuristic engine, which could in theory propel objects to near-relativistic speeds, has been shown to work inside a space-like vacuum. Illustration: “Dreamscape IV,” by jamajurabaev, via Deviantart NASA Eagleworks made the…
Waco Tribune did *not” pull its Bill Nye the Science Guy story A Washington Post journalist sends this email: I saw this posting today on Facebook — that the incident happened isn’t very surprising, but is it true that the Waco Tribune took down its story about it (mentioned at the bottom of this…