Tag: Space
Blow me up Scotty: James Doohan's ashes scattered with Falcon 1
You may have already read about SpaceX’s failure to get their privately funded rocketship Falcon 1 into space on Saturday night, but just what you may have missed is the news that stowed onboard the doomed rocket-ship, ready for delivery to space, were three commercial satellites and the cremated remains of 200 people.
Of those 200 urns of ashes blown into mile-high confetti, one happened to contain the remains of everyone’s favourite Scottish Star Trek engineer: Montgomery “Scotty” Scott (actor James Doohan)…
NASA briefing the White House on secret Mars news. HG Wells' fear of Mars may be vindicated.
A couple of weeks ago the sixth man on the moon, Edgar Mitchell, in an apparent bid to catch up with James Watson in the “man of science inexplicably becomes a crackpot” stakes, went on the radio and claimed that the human race has made contact with aliens and there’s a big cover-up to disguise this fact.
Maybe he’s not mad after all if Aviation Week, a publication not usually known for its hyperbole (or generally not known) is right with its story about NASA deliberately sitting on a huge announcement?
Branson unveils White Knight II – Virgin Galactic's commercial spaceship
For some, the dream of shrugging off earth’s seeming inescapable pull just got a big step closer. Sir Richard Branson has just finished the grand unveiling of his first commercial space craft in the Mojave desert.
YouTube Hits: The moon passing in front of the Earth
Now just before we all rush out to the boozer, take a second to remember how small we all are and, basically, how bloody brilliantly mind-blowing space is. Here are pictures from the stars of what it looks like when the moon passes in front of the Earth – from 31 million miles away.
Moon water discovery throws doubt on moon's origins
Recent testing of ancient moon rock collected by astronauts in the 70s has found evidence of water. Scientists have been applying new and more powerful techniques on the volcanic glass ‘pebbles’ than were available back when were popping back forth to our orbiting neighbour.
Fancy your very own spy satellite? Yours for just $10m
Our lives are monitored by an increasingly sophisticated array of digital observers, be it from CCTV, speed cameras, internet usage monitoring, those blokes from TV licensing that won’t leave me alone… There’s no way around it, but what if – WHAT IF? – you could have your very own eye-in-the-sky, silently watching everyone and everything around you? That would take the edge off, right?
NASA probe discovers that Mercury is shrinking
Try not to panic – Mercury, the smallest resident of our close-knit solar system, is shrinking. Scientists studying data sent back by the Messenger probe, launched in 2004, reveal that it’s disappearing; withering away like a long-forgotten prune (not their words).
Space shocker – Voyager probe finds that Solar System isn't round
Ancient space probes sent out on a long-distance research mission during the 1970s are continuing to send back valuable data 30 years after they first launched. The Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 spacecraft have each now entered a vast region of space on the very edge of the solar system, a point where the solar wind blowing outward meets the interstellar wind blowing in.
Steve Bennett, 43, from Manchester, has made a rocket. It'll be ready in 2013
Three cheers for British entrepreneurs! That man there is Steve Bennett. He’s built a rocket called Nova 2.
Steve’s rocket is a three-seater, one which he hopes is going to make him one of Britain’s first “space tourism” millionaires. He heads up the Space Technology Laboratory (!) of Salford University (!!) and has spent…
Phoenix Lander finds ice beneath Mars' surface
Now that drama of the sticky Mars mud incident is firmly behind it (results are expected on Friday), the Phoenix Mars Lander is on the lookout for fresh Martian discoveries, and they seem to be in no short supply. Using its robotic arm, Phoenix has been scraping away at the rocky surface and uncovered some mysterious white patches that scientists say are most probably ice.
