Archives for the 'space exploration' Category
Electrostatic Radiation Shielding
Published on 23 Oct 2009 at 7:23 pm.
1 Comment.
Filed under space exploration, space radiation.
Clearly carrying heavy shielding to protect astronauts from radiation in space is expensive. If you havent’ been reading my space radiation series as I’ve been posting, then you can look over the last several of my postings about space radiation to see some of the problems. So, some other strategy may be the way to […]
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Space Radiation and Humans
Published on 21 Oct 2009 at 2:25 pm.
2 Comments.
Filed under space exploration, space radiation.
As I continue my series on space radiation, the next topic that I want to address is how radiation harms space travelers. I’ve already alluded to this in earlier posts in the series, but I wanted to mention it again.
In an earlier installment, I said that radiation is a process where energy travels from one […]
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Space Radiation (Part I)
Published on 6 Oct 2009 at 10:36 am.
1 Comment.
Filed under cosmic rays, space exploration, space radiation.
This past weekend, I attended a symposium on space radiation. This is an interesting topic, and I’ve written about it before. But, space radiation is not confined to space. Cosmic rays raining down on Earth also create secondary radiation that impacts air travelers. I have received a number of comments on several of my posts […]
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40 years ago: a big step
Published on 20 Jul 2009 at 6:48 am.
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Filed under history, space exploration.
There’s not much to say that everyone else isn’t already saying all over the internet. Forty years ago, the first humans set foot on another world: the Moon. It may be the nearest other world, but it is nonetheless another world. That is an amazing feat.
In a way, it is hard to imagine that it […]
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Yes, men really did go to the Moon.
Published on 17 Jul 2009 at 4:31 pm.
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Filed under moon, space exploration.
Like so many other people around the world in 1969, I watched the Apollo 11 landing on the Moon unfold. I watched as the astronauts stepped forth onto the lunar surface. I followed the entire mission on television. So, it was a pretty big shock to me to find that some people didn’t believe that […]
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40 Years Ago
Published on 16 Jul 2009 at 9:38 am.
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Filed under NASA, history, space exploration.
40 years ago today a giant Saturn V rocket lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center on a trip of a lifetime. The astronauts were going to the Moon. The Saturn V rocket was an amazing piece of equipment. It was the largest rocket that was ever built (the Soviets had tried to build one […]
KAGUYA’s last images
Published on 20 Jun 2009 at 3:36 pm.
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Filed under moon, space exploration.
Japan’s KAGUYA (formerly SELENE) probe crashed into the surface of the Moon as planned this past week. Like many space probes to the Moon, the last action commanded from Earth was to crash into the Moon. This is in part a safety move to make sure that the dead spacecraft does not pose a hazard […]
