DIY Space: ISEE-3, Near-Space Balloon Cam, and Denver Mini-Maker Faire

This weekend is the Denver Mini-Maker Faire in Denver at the National Western Complex. No, it probably won’t be as big as the one in San Mateo, California (pictures of some of last year’s San Mateo shenanigans below). But it is a start, and hopefully it will get bigger and more interesting. I’m hoping it […]

Low-cost Mars Probe Hack: Jugaad To Be Kidding Me

Americans pride themselves on entrepreneurship, independence, ingenuity, and can-do traits. And there’s historical and current evidence of those traits to support that pride. The Indians, however, seem to be quickly adopting these “American” traits, but at less expense. Or maybe the traits have always been present in India, but something was suppressing them for a long […]

DIY Space: Build a LEGO NASA Satellite

The stacked “hockey pucks” in the picture above have something in common with the site’s latest HEO lesson. However, they are also LEGO models you can build. In this case, the model is of a NASA satellite that hasn’t been launched yet. The Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) spacecraft model shown on NASA’s very own website looks a little […]

The Future of Satellite Maintenance?

Prepare to be blown away. The absolute coolness of the video below, if we were using Top Gear’s “Cool Wall,” would put it beyond “Sub-Zero” to “Absolute Zero.” The video doesn’t really say anything about satellites, so you might be wondering, “Why is this video on this blog?” Here’s my answer: what you’re seeing is possibly the […]

SpaceX News: An F9R video and Letters from Senator McCain

Here are two little “love letters” from Senator McCain. One is to the Secretary of the Air Force, the other to the Department of Defense Inspector General (DoD IG). The gist of both is that he takes issue with the United States Air Force’s arguments for cutting down the number of available launches in the EELV contract […]