To the ancient Greeks it was called the Helm of Hades or the cap of hades, a special helmet that would make the wearer invisible. In Welsh and Germanic folklore as well as our modern day fictional equivalent of Harry Potter there is the “cloak of invisibility”, a magical …
What Were the Real Reasons Why We Stopped Going to the Moon
Next year, 2019, will be the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11 landing on the moon, since then just 12 men have walked on the lunar surface in 6 missions covering a period lasting less than 3 years. The Apollo project at it’s peak employed over 400,000 people in some …
The Rise and Fall of the British Rocket Jet Fighter – The SR-177
During the 1950s NATO faced a new threat from Soviet Union, western intelligence believed they were building a fleet of supersonic nuclear bombers that could fly higher and faster than anything NATO had including it’s interceptors. The UK’s response was to create a groundbreaking fighter that not only would outperform …
Can We Save Hubble and Where is the James Webb Space Telescope?
Hubble has been one of the most valuable scientific projects of recent times, some even say that we have learned more with Hubble than we did with Apollo but like all good things it must come to an end and that end will be coming in the not too distant …
SLAM – America’s Big Stick & Doomsday Weapon
During the height of the cold war hysteria in the 1950’s, SAC or the Strategic Air Command, America’s nuclear strike force was looking at the next generation of nuclear delivery systems. Bombers were the backbone of SAC but were slow and vulnerable to the Soviet air defences, ICBM’s were still …
Human Crash Test Dummies – Faster than a Speeding Bullet
Seat belts, air bags even ejector seats in planes, we take these type of safety devices for granted and they have saved thousands of lives. Virtually anything that carries people these days from cars to planes to spacecraft have been tested using sophisticated test dummies but it hasn’t always the …
Could We Launch Spacecraft with a Giant Space Gun?
When we talk about blasting something in to space, most of the time you would think that they would be using a rocket but what about using a giant gun.. sounds crazy but back in the 60’s a joint project between the US and Canada used just such a giant …
How Dangerous are Jet Contrails & Rocket Exhaust ?
The sight of contrails above us in the skies is a common one, especially in the developed world since the advent of the jet engine and at around same time we have had a much less prevalent but equally potent kind of exhaust from rocket engines but just how dangerous …
How Will We Save the Apollo & Other Lunar Landing Sites?
With the 50th anniversary of the first manned moon landing coming up and the prospect of having new lunar explorers both state-sponsored and private companies, how do you protect what are arguably some of the most important scientific and culturally historic sites in human history? You would think that the …
Why Can’t we Remake the Rocketdyne F1 Engine?
As we advance our technology ever forward you would think that re-making a 50-year-old design should be easy but things are not quite as simple as they seem. When the Space Launch System or SLS was in development, NASA ran the advanced Booster competition to find a new booster system …