By Professor Dove on April 26, 2010
After receiving criticism from the aerospace world, including Neil Armstrong, on the cancellation of the Constellation program, President Obama has worked out what he thinks is the best path for American space flight. I watched and listened, alongside my colleagues, as our commander in chief stirred up emotions with memories of the 1960′s space race. He reminded us with his typical eloquence of how, with burning hearts of national pride, paper, pencil, and slide rules, we placed 12 men on the surface of the moon and brought them all back safely. From there, for me, the inspiration dropped off quickly as the President outlined his plans to land us on an asteroid in 15 years and then orbit (yes, only orbit) Mars in 25 years. He explained to all of us that we have already been to the moon – been there, done that – and wrote it off as a waste of time and money. Read more... (596 words, 2 images, estimated 2:23 mins reading time)
Posted in Economics, Politics, Science & Tech | Tagged advantages, astroid, astronaut, base, benefits, cost, develop, different, economy, expensive, experience, far, gain, go, goal, land, landing, launch, lift, live, long, mars, miles, million, mission, moon, NASA, new, obama, off, orbit, practice, propulsion, radiation, reduce, shield, soft, space, spacecraft, systems, technology, to travel |
By Noisy Dove on December 23, 2009
You’ve probably heard the story, the SEALs who captured that jerk who is openly responsible for burning and displaying the contractors in Fallujah are being prosecuted for – according to the detained jerk – punching him in the little belly and hurting his widdle wip. Read more... (226 words, 2 images, estimated 54 secs reading time)
Posted in Politics | Tagged abuse, capture, fallujah, forces, honor, kill, military, mission, navy, prisoner, prosecuted, protect, punch, punish, punished, purpose, rights, seal, seals, special, terrorist, win |
By Professor Dove on October 30, 2009
This week the Ares I-X rocket was launched from Cape Canaveral. It was a new beginning in the storied history of American Spaceflight. The I-X is a prototype of the Ares I, which is expected to see test launches in 2012 and begin launching crews into low Earth orbit and supplies to the International Space Station in 2014. Ares I-X is now giving engineers valuable data for making tweaks to their design. It consists of a solid rocket booster very similar to the rocket boosters you see on either side of the space shuttle, except that it is a little taller and the nozzle throat is a little bigger. Stacked on top of that is the liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen fueled second stage which utilizes an engine derived from the Saturn V (the second stage was empty for this test flight). The rest of the rocket, which will someday include a crew module and abort system (pointy thing at the top), was nothing but dumbed-down avionics and mass mockups of components that will eventually be used in Ares I and beyond. If you haven’t already, take a look at the flight video. You can go here: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/constellation/ares/flighttests/aresIx/index.html The video is on the right hand side. Note the shock wave. Read more... (658 words, 2 images, estimated 2:38 mins reading time)
Posted in Science & Tech | Tagged 2012, apollo, ares, augustine, booster, commission, data, discover, earth, engineers, explore, flight, fuel, gravity, hydrogen, I, international, launch, liquid, mars, mission, moon, NASA, nozzle, obama, off, orbit, orion, outer, program, prototype, rocket, saturn V, shuttle, solid, space, spaceflight, stage, station, take, test, trial, X |
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