Television: Updates on Star Trek

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Source: Paramount Plus.

If you are a Trekkie, you will want to stay abreast of some of the new and returning Star Trek series. I have provided some dates for your calendar.

— Star Trek: Discovery: Season 4 returns with new episodes on February 10th after taking a short break. Here is the trailer for the season. You can learn more about the series and watch earlier episodes at Paramount Plus.

— Star Trek: Picard: The series returns with its second season on March 3rd. Check out the trailer and you may recognize a few faces, including Q, Guinan, and the Borg as well. You can find season 1 episodes at Paramount Plus.

— Star Trek: Strange New Worlds: This new series premieres on May 5th. The series will follow Captain Pike and his time on the USS Enterprise. You can meet the actors of this series via this trailer.

If you are a fan of the animated series, you may want to check out these links for Star Trek: Prodigy and Star Trek: Lower Decks.

Source: Paramount Plus.

NASA and MIT Found More Than 5,000 Exoplanet Candidates

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Source: NASA’s TESS.

The volume of possible new worlds continues to expand with the work of the MIT-led NASA mission to observe the heavens for potential exoplanet candidates. Since 2018, the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) program has been monitoring stars for temporary drops in brightness caused by planetary transits (the mapping of the initial two years of viewing is provided above). With the addition of new candidates from July 2020 to June 2021, the count of potential exoplanets now exceeds 5,000. Potential candidates will be studied to learn more about their characteristics. TESS’s mission goal has been to discover 50 planets of size less than 4 Earth radii with measured masses.

You can read more about some of TESS’s earlier exoplanet discoveries (shown below and here). For instance, L 98-59b is about 80 percent Earth’s size and orbits L 98-59, an M dwarf about one-third the mass of the Sun. L98-59 is about 35 light-years away. 

Source: NASA’s TESS.

NASA’s Travel Agency

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Source: NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

If you are getting tired of staying home these days, NASA has some fun destinations in mind for you. Late last year, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) put together “Visions of the Future” to show you where the space agency hopes to go someday. You may not want to pack just yet, but whether it is this solar system or some other solar system, NASA wants to help.

The poster above for Kepler-16b comes with this enticing description:

Like Luke Skywalker’s planet “Tatooine” in Star Wars, Kepler-16b orbits a pair of stars. Depicted here as a terrestrial planet, Kepler-16b might also be a gas giant like Saturn. Prospects for life on this unusual world aren’t good, as it has a temperature similar to that of dry ice. But the discovery indicates that the movie’s iconic double-sunset is anything but science fiction.

You might also enjoy this NASA video showing some space activities in these prime locations.

I dropped in a few more posters below, but be sure to check out all of them. A big thanks also to the folks at JPL for these fun images. The 14 posters were created by nine artists, designers, and illustrators.

Of course, these free photos are already being sold on Etsy.com and elsewhere as posters and t-shirts.

Source: NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Source: NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

How Many Satellites Are Too Many?

Posted on by onespaceman2000

You may have remembered my earlier post showing all of the items already in orbit around the Earth. Well, it appears Elon Musk believes we can handle billions of satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO). And while the current number of orbiting satellites is only in the thousands, Mr. Musk’s SpaceX has already placed 1,700 Starlink satellites in LEO, with plans for a total of 42,000 such satellites under the program.

Not everyone agrees with unchecked growth. Josef Aschbacher, the European Space Agency’s (ESA) director-general, stated, “You have one person owning half of the active satellites in the world. That’s quite amazing. De facto, he is making the rules.” I agree with the ESA about the need for some rules in this area given the rapid growth. And we may need to look a little deeper into that “billions” number. Mr. Musk has been known to overstate things.

Mr. Musk is part of the move fast and break things club. Yet that can lead to problems when the things breaking up are expensive satellites leaving debris in their wake. We may need to find a better way.

Source: October 24, 2021 launch of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket carrying 60 Starlink satellites to orbit from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. See the SpaceX press release, which contains this image.