Subject
10 entries
Space
Bookmarks
NASA Designs Travel Posters for Exoplanets
NASA's JPL-designed travel posters for exoplanets in the style of 1920s-1930s WPA travel prints — one of the most successful examples of science communication through design. The posters made exoplanet science broadly legible without dumbing it down.
Animated GIF to Be Beamed Into Space
The Verge covered Lone Signal, a project that let anyone beam messages (including animated GIFs) to a star system using a radio telescope in New Jersey. The first animated GIF transmitted into space was a novelty stunt, but Lone Signal was an earnest attempt at crowdsourced SETI.
Elon Musk's Mission to Mars — Wired
Wired's 2012 Q&A with Elon Musk on SpaceX's Mars mission — a document of his stated ambitions before they seemed plausible. Musk articulates the multi-planetary species argument and SpaceX's approach to reusable rockets while Falcon 9 was still new.
Warp Drive May Be More Feasible Than Thought
Coverage of Harold 'Sonny' White's 2012 NASA research suggesting the Alcubierre warp drive might require far less exotic matter than originally calculated — reducing the energy requirement from Jupiter-mass to roughly 500kg. Speculative but grounded in real general relativity.
The Curiosity Rover's Nuclear Battery Explained
Explainer on the Curiosity rover's Multi-Mission Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator (MMRTG) — the nuclear battery that powers it. Unlike solar panels, the RTG works through Martian dust storms and the long polar nights, and its heat output helps keep electronics warm.
Mars Curiosity Rover: 2.5 Million Lines of Embedded C
Stack Exchange answer explaining that the Mars Curiosity rover runs on 2.5 million lines of embedded C, using a real-time operating system called VxWorks. An eye-opening look at mission-critical embedded software at its most demanding.
SpaceX Wins $440M NASA Contract for Crew Transport to ISS
SpaceX won a $440 million NASA Commercial Crew Integrated Capability (CCiCap) contract in August 2012 to develop crew transportation to the ISS, targeting astronaut flights by 2015. This was a key milestone in the shift from government-run to commercially-contracted human spaceflight.
The World Reacting to a New Perspective: Neil deGrasse Tyson
A video compilation of the world reacting to a new perspective — featuring Neil deGrasse Tyson's reflection on how the Apollo program's Earthrise photos changed humanity's self-conception. Bookmarked with the #Penny4NASA campaign hashtag, advocating for NASA budget restoration.
SpaceX Dragon Carried Scotty's Ashes Into Space
SpaceX's Dragon capsule carried the cremated remains of James Doohan (Scotty from Star Trek) on its historic first commercial cargo mission to the ISS. A poetic conjunction: the man who inspired generations of engineers, finally reaching the stars.
SpaceX: Why the US Can Beat China — The Facts About SpaceX Costs
SpaceX's 2012 cost comparison page arguing that US private spaceflight could beat China on launch costs — published the same week Facebook acquired Instagram. The bookmarker's observation that Facebook could have funded a space program with Instagram money captures the era's startup-vs-frontier absurdity.