Category Archives: Science

NASA to Keep Shuttles until 2022

According to this Yahoo! News article, NASA is exploring ways to keep the remaining three shuttles in service until 2022. Apparently the next generation space vehicle won’t make its first test flight for 12 years.

I’d say write your congressperson, but it’s too late for that now. NASA is so far behind in development, that no amount of budget increases would help them. Well, write your congressperson anyway. They’re not busy.

Go Outside!

It what is probably our first (and only) public service announcement, we say: Go Outside! Get some fresh air. Turn off the computer.

More to the point: Go watch the Leonid meteor shower tonight. Experts predict it will be one of the most spectacular celestial events for quite a while.

[Update 11.18.2002-18:35 EST] Here’s a whole mess of info on the Leonids from SlashDot.

Now is that 10 planets or just 8?

The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) has spotted the largest object in the solar system since Pluto was discovered in 1930. Though officially named 2002 LM60, the science team that found it are calling it Quaoar, after the creation force of the Tongva tribe of the Los Angeles basin. The new body is 1/10 the size of the Earth and about 1/2 the size of Pluto.

This has stirred up the debate as to whether or not Pluto is a planet or simply one of many Kuiper Belt Objects (KBO) on the outskirts of our solar system.

Space Elevator Concept Moving Forward

Those nice guys at Space.com have the full story. Private firms are looking into the feasibility of building the mammoth "vertical railroad." It seems the major holdup (superstrong carbon fibers) is only a few years away from being perfected.

If it works, transport missions into orbit would become extremely inexpensive and a lot more commonplace.