What’s difference between this ….. and this …. Well apart from the size and several million dollars, surprisingly there is not a lot. When we think of iconic space programmes like Apollo and the latest generation of SpaceX reusable vehicles, we’re seeing liquid fueled rockets using cryogenic propellants and oxidizers, …
How Big is the Solar System, Really?
When we look up at the night sky with the unaided eye, we see stars that are up to about 1000 light years away, depending on their brightness. We also see objects which are much closer, in our celestial backyard so to speak, which only reflect light from the sun …
How Do You Fly a Plane Through a Hurricane?
While the president of the United States and the governor of Florida were urging millions of people to evacuate from their homes when hurricane Milton was looking like it could be one of the worst ever to hit the Florida coast, a small band of professionals were heading in the …
What Will Happen to Voyager and Others in the Far Future?
Right now there are at least 5 man made objects that are on course to leave our solar system, two of them Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 have already crossed the heliopause, the boundary where the solar wind and the interstellar wind are in equilibrium which some say is a …
Why Did the Apollo Landers Look So Odd?
To many apollo lunar lander was the epitome of the moon missions and one of the oddest looking spacecraft that have ever been built, with some saying that it looked like some weird robotized insect or fake and just too flimsy to be used as a space craft. But the …
DARPA’s Little Secrets That Changed The World
When many people hear the name DARPA which stands for the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency, most think of secret military development work, the sort of place it would come up with a Terminator-style robot and the Skynet control system that would allow it to try and take over the …
Apollos Most Critical Rocket Engine
During all of the manned Apollo moon missions just one engine was classed as so critical even the most insignificant or minor alterations had to be signed off by the very highest management in NASA. That engine was the lunar ascent engine that lifted the ascent module from the lunar …
F-14 The Last Analogue Fighter – The Deadly Tomcat
The F-14 fighter, one of the most well known fighter aircraft of the 1970s and 80s Cold War period, was also the last major analogue fighter to be made by the US and building upon the experience gained in Vietnam from the use of F4 phantoms and its direct predecessor …
The End of the ISS is Coming but Why and What Will Replace it?
So now we know what the fate of the International Space Station will be, around the 2030 mark, SpaceX will de-orbit the ISS and it will burn up in the atmosphere creating the most expensive man-made fireball in history, as about 150 billion dollars of hardware will light up the …
The Rise & Fall of the Harrier Jump Jet
In December 2010, The British Royal Air Force and Royal Navy announced they would retire their Harrier jump jets from operational flights before 2011, in what had been two-month rush job to meet the demands of government cuts due to the aftermath of the financial crash of 2008. This marked …