This sounds bad–doesn’t it?

So, Science World Report tried to spice things up a little with this headline: NASA Announces Coronal Mass Ejection Hurtling Toward Earth from Sun But if you read the article, I hope you understand it’s really not the end of the world. I know, I know–whoever names these things needs to consider what they sound like […]

A word to the WISE…

This article is sort of a bittersweet reminder to me because the company that let me go (due to government money concerns), Space Dynamics Laboratory, is the builder of this satellite: the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer or WISE. They want to reactivate it and use it to hunt for rogue asteroids, among other things. This is […]

Pop Quiz answer

Several days ago, I posted these two pictures with a vaguely worded question: https://themadspaceball.wordpress.com/2013/08/09/one-of-these-things/ I promised an answer to that question and here it is: the top picture was taken from low earth orbit (LEO), the bottom from geosynchronous (GEO) orbit. How can one tell from just the pictures? Two big telltales exist in them. […]

Why space matters: Imaging satellite operations, part 7 (the dishy part)

Last week, we found out that companies flying satellites, especially low earth orbiting (LEOs) need a few ground stations to send and receive data to satellite and payload in a timely manner. How can you tell there’s something space-y going on in your neighborhood? The most visible part of the ground system is the thing […]

Not dead yet!!

To borrow an answer for a different question: I’ve never Kepled. But the Kepler Team sounds like they aren’t going to give up on planet-hunting yet. They’re looking for a few good ideas (at least according to the article). If you have any, maybe you could help them out? http://science.time.com/2013/08/16/the-kepler-space-telescope-may-be-dead-but-its-planet-hunting-mission-continues/ Related articles Planet-hunting scope beyond repair […]