Well, since I am an absolute nut when it comes to space and things of that nature, I figure I'll check to see if anyone else here is! Post your space-related stuff! Right now, I'm getting all antsy for the Pluto flyby that is happening soon. After a 9 year trip, the probe is finally getting close enough to deliver some pretty awesome pictures of the planet and it's moons. Personally I'm pretty amazed that it has a pretty active atmosphere, and it contains way more moons than it's main one Charon. Here's one of the photos in the latest article! http://www.nasa.gov/feature/nasa-s-new-horizons-a-heart-from-pluto-as-flyby-begins <3
I love space. Still Dreaming of becoming an Astronaut. What really struck me is that there's a 4.5 hour delay between communications!
I remember that I started to get in to space stuff in 2012. I was browsing everything about the Solar System in the Wiki. I am also very excited about the New Horizons mission and I can't wait to see the first photos of Pluto. This year is great for space ! We also had the first close up picture of Ceres in March.
Space, a place I love to be someday... but when I read and listen to Neil deGrasse Tyson, i start to believe space is realy, realy far away... so one needs a real rocket, so just a couple of thousands of bucks dont get me to space.. near space that will be... Ill play space games do you guys tried this Space sim? : http://en.spaceengine.org/
I tried it years ago when it was still in the early stages of development. I had a Pentium IV 3.2ghz with a Geforce 8400gs and 2gb of ram. It was playable at about 15fps-20fps.
I would love to go into space one day, if it ever becomes affordable enough (or I accumulate enough money) for me to do so. Even just going into near-Earth orbit would be pretty awesome. They're planning on launching the James Webb Space Telescope in 2018, which (among other things) is supposed to be able to directly image exoplanets. That's going to be pretty cool. Another space related thing: I've been reading about something called nuclear pulse propulsion, which is essentially using a nuclear explosion as thrust for a rocket. There have been actual designs for spacecraft (like Project Orion), but so far never a working machine. There's a more recent design called a magneto-inertial fusion rocket. I don't understand exactly how it works, but apparently it's similar to a nuclear pulse rocket, but it uses magnetic fields to cause a fusion reaction or something like that. It's really interesting (I mean nuclear pulse propulsion), but there are a lot of problems with it - like the possible effects of launching such a spacecraft from Earth. Launching from space would be less problematic, but then the issue would be getting it into space - which could probably be done, but it would probably be very difficult and expensive. It would be very fast though.
Seems that Pluto is larger than we thought! https://www.nasa.gov/feature/how-big-is-pluto-new-horizons-settles-decades-long-debate
This seems to be more interesting than the Pluto stuff. https://www.nasa.gov/jpl/dawn/ceres-bright-spots-seen-closer-than-ever
The progress about Pluto is amazing, considering how blurry and bad quality pictures were close to 20 years ago.
http://www.nasa.gov/news/media/newsaudio/index.html Kepler Discoveries Update Noon EDT, Thursday July 23 The first exoplanet orbiting another star like our sun was discovered in 1995. Exoplanets, especially small Earth-size worlds, belonged within the realm of science fiction just 21 years ago. Today, and thousands of discoveries later, astronomers are on the cusp of finding something people have dreamed about for thousands of years -- another Earth. And in other news, Pluto
DO A BARREL ROLL! @NASASunEarth's SDO satellite rolled over yesterday! #GIF https://pbs.twimg.com/tweet_video/CKl9dKhXAAADZTu.mp4 original tweet from a friend: https://twitter.com/SunViewer/status/624167965995438080
Isn't it amazing that New Horizons is powered by a 230w nuclear reactor? That's about the same as a low end PC without a graphics card at maximum load. I wish I had a plutonium powered PC
