• Video: NASA’s Progress with Phase 1 of the Moon Base

    NASA is quickly learning that it needs to get out front with its own PR to promote efforts to build a Moon base near the lunar South Pole. With budget cuts always looming in the background, public support will be essential to ensure the US has a long-term presence on the Moon. This latest video…

  • Space Stories: A New Wind Tunnel, Names in Deep Space, and the First Exomoon Detected

    Here are some recent space-related stories of interest. —WTOP News: “NASA Opens its First Wind Tunnel in 40 Years at Langley Research Center“ Friday was a historic day for NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. A stellar lineup of VIPs from NASA, GSA, Congress, Virginia and Langley employees celebrated the ribbon-cutting ceremony for NASA’s newest and most…

  • Space Quote: AI is Ready to Run a Telescope

    “It is exciting to see ideas from AI and reinforcement learning brought to telescope scheduling, where every decision must balance changing conditions and scarce observing time…Developing intelligent scheduling systems for astronomical surveys also raises fascinating new machine learning problems, and we are excited to continue exploring them through this project.” -Statement by Northwestern University’s Aravindan…

  • A Hopeful Study on Solar Flares

    Now that we know solar flares can be worse than anticipated (per the study cited in the prior post), let me add some good news about another study that may have a solution. The recent study, Terrestrial Space Weather Protection Through Human-Produced Mass-Loading, has a plain language summary, fortunately, that explains one possible solution to…

  • Study Findings: Regression to the Mean Can Explain Saturation of Geomagnetic Storms

    Nature abstract of study findings: Extreme space weather events on Earth occur during intervals of strong solar wind driving. The solar wind drives plasma convection and currents in the near-Earth space environment. For low values of the driver, the Earth’s response is linear, estimated by parameters such as the polar cap index based on ground magnetometer activity.…

  • Pic of the Week: Preparing the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope

    The image above, taken on July 20th, shows one of the many teams working on the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope as it gets ready for its launch on August 30th. The pictured individuals are part of the propellant, safety, and quality assurance team. NASA’s latest update on the mission stated: Technicians completed fueling NASA’s…

  • Podcast: AI Data Centers in Space

    If you are following the debate about whether data centers belong in orbit, this Freakonomics Radio podcast titled “Should A.I. Move to Space?” may be for you. Guest host Steve Levitt talks to a number of experts about the role of AI in our economy. I recommend listing to all of the podcast since much…

  • Space Quote: Two Spacecraft Are Now Imperiled

    “Over the weekend, Katalyst’s LINK servicing spacecraft experienced issues with attitude control, causing the spacecraft to spin and resulting in sporadic communications. Preliminary investigation shows that two of LINK’s three reaction wheels currently are not operable, and there is some loss of functionality in its cold gas thruster system. LINK is designed to approach, capture,…

  • Space Stories: English Observatory Closing, an Early Warning System for Astronomers, and Accessing Europa’s Ocean

    Here are some recent space-related stories of interest. —The Guardian: “Jodrell Bank Observatory Facing Closure After Major Funder Cuts Support“ Jodrell Bank Observatory, the hub of a world-leading network of radio telescopes, is facing closure after government funding for the facility was slashed. Scientists say decision is blow to UK astronomy as deep space observatory is…

  • Astronomy Question: The Durability of Apollo Remains

    Multiple Choice: For how long will signs of the the earlier Apollo missions (e.g., footprints, equipment, flag, etc.) be visible on the Moon’s surface? A. 1-10 million yearsB. 10-100 million yearsC. 100-500 million yearsD. More than 500 million years Take a guess and then check your answer by going to the “Astronomy Question Answer Sheet” page.