• Female Dummies in Space?

    No, it is not a new television show or a rude comment, but rather a real plan to test the effects of space radiation on manikins that simulate the female body. The test is in preparation for future Artemis missions to the Moon. NASA is concerned about the effects of radiation on female astronauts since…

  • Television: Check Out Strange New Worlds

    Tonight is the premiere of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. If you are a Trekkie, then there is nothing strange about Captain Pike and the earlier adventures of the U.S.S. Enterprise. We have been waiting for the rest of the story since Star Trek appears in 1966. You probably already saw Captain Pike in the…

  • Pic of the Week: Comet Over Stonehenge

    This week’s photo is from photographer James Rushforth who caught Comet Neowise over Stonehenge. The comet was discovered by astronomers on March 27, 2020 during the NEOWISE mission of the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) space telescope.  Mr. Rushforth’s photo was one of about 4,500 photos entered into the 2021 annual Royal Observatory Greenwich astronomy photography competition. His image above…

  • A Day in Astronomy: Lunar Orbiter 4

    On this day in 1967, NASA launched Lunar Orbiter 4 to continue a survey of the Moon (also conducted by three previous Lunar Orbiter missions) in preparation of the Apollo Moon missions. While NASA lost contact with the spacecraft on July 17th, the mission was a success. On October 6th, the spacecraft crashed onto the Moon’s surface.…

  • Where is This? May 3, 2022 Quiz

    Take a look at the image above. Can you determine where this image originated? Take a guess and then check your answer by going to the menu and selecting the “Where is this?” page.

  • Another Member of the Reusable Rocket Club

    Blue Origin did it, SpaceX did it, and now Rocket Lab wants to do it. The “it” is to successfully retrieve rocket boosters so they can be reused in the future. Back on April 6th, Rocket Lab stated: For the first time, Rocket Lab will also attempt a mid-air capture of Electron’s first stage as…

  • Space Quote: The End of Astronauts?

    “We should not have publicly funded programmes to send people to the moon, still less to Mars…It’s hugely risky, hugely expensive, and there’s no practical or scientific benefit to sending humans. It’s a pretty bad bargain for the taxpayer.” -Statement by Lord Martin Rees, co-author of the book The End of Astronauts, speaking to the…

  • More of Captain Kirk’s “Singing”

    Time for a little more about our friend William Shatner. You may be aware of his various recordings over the decades where he speaks rather than sings the lyrics of the songs. Some of his albums include The Transformed Man and Has Been. One noteworthy song is his version of “Bohemian Rhapsody” from his album…

  • Not the Remains of a UFO (Really!)

    If you came across the wreckage above if your back yard you might think of a UFO or even Martians. Yet instead it is the remains of Earthlings on Mars. The image comes from a little helicopter launched from NASA’s Perseverance rover on Mars. The Ingenuity Helicopter spotted the remains of the components used to…

  • Pic of the Week: Martian Eclipse

    This week’s pic is actually a video from NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover capturing Phobos as it partially blocks out the sun. You can see the video here and read more from NASA here. It is certainly more dramatic than the two shots below from the Martian rover Opportunity in 2004. Deimos is just a speck…