Tag Archives: technology

A Breakthrough in Space Travel

Posted on April 10, 2013 by AlanL

There is currently a project underway which aims to send astronauts in a fusion powered spacecraft to Mars and cutting the travel time to just 30 days round trip. Using existing rocket fuels it would take at least 4 years to travel the same round trip and would cost more than $12 billion. Using this […] Continue reading →

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Searching the Sky

Posted on April 9, 2013 by a2megal

In class this week I was curious about how astronomers are able to constantly search for exoplanets. On one hand, I knew that the Kepler Space Telescope had played an integral part in discovering the roughly 2,740 exoplanetary candidates as of January 2013. However, keeping in mind how vast space is and how quickly exoplanets […] Continue reading →

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Final Maven Instrument for Mars

Posted on April 8, 2013 by indianwm

The instrument above will be fitted on Mars Atmosphere and Volotile and Evolution spacecraft, or MAVEN. This instrument is a spectrometer for neutral gas and ion mass which will test the upper atmosphere of Mars. This instrument is important so we can understand the changes that have occurred within the upper atmosphere and analyze the […] Continue reading →

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Exoplanets

Posted on April 3, 2013 by juliettealper

Our lecture on exoplanets in class today reminded me of an article that I saw a few months ago about the discovery of new exoplanets. After looking deeper into it, I realized that just a month ago scientists discovered 2,700 objects that could potentially be considered planets. Not only is this a possibility, but around […] Continue reading →

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Dark Matter Discovered?

Posted on April 3, 2013 by Megan C

Scientists announced today that they may have finally found dark matter. Dark matter is the invisible matter making up most of the universe, but scientists can’t see it because it emits no light.  Scientists only know it exists because dark matter’s gravity bends light – gravitational lensing – and because stars are orbiting in galaxies […] Continue reading →

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Building the Launch Pad of the Future

Posted on March 20, 2013 by JT McJunkins

NASA’s Ground Systems Development and Operations (GSDO) Program is currently upgrading and modifying Launch Pad 39B (pictured above) at the Kennedy Space Center. The Space Launch System, with the Orion spacecraft atop it, will release from this … Continue reading →

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Things You can Do with a WMD

Posted on March 20, 2013 by ibrahim2016

If your knowledge is lacking, historically… A WMD stands for a Weapon of Mass Destruction. Commonly they refer to nuclear weapons: fission based and fusion based. Fusion based weapons are more powerful. I will talk about fusion based weapons. Because they make a bigger bang. I like big bangs. Remember Hiroshima and Nagasaki? Exactly. But […] Continue reading →

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Life on Mars?

Posted on March 20, 2013 by werdercj

Recently, we’ve been emphasizing comparative planetology in our work.  This has prompted studies of each planet in our solar system, which made it clear that many of our questions remain unanswered.  We know that Mars had a warmer, wetter period billions of years ago, and have much evidence indicative of abundant liquid water flows in […] Continue reading →

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Space Travellers

Posted on March 20, 2013 by burnspress

The greatest barrier to human exploration of space is undoubtedly the vast distances and time lengths required to travel from one stellar body to the next. This post will outline some potential modes of interstellar propulsion: Magnetoplasmadynamic (MPD) Thrusters As described by NASA, MPD thrusters are the most powerful form of electromagnetic propulsion. They use […] Continue reading →

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Mars: Trend in Water Presence

Posted on March 19, 2013 by indianwm

Last week, the Mars rover named Curiosity, found evidence for water-bearing minerals in rocks. The rover Curiosity was launched in 2011 from Cape Canaveral and landed on Mars in August, 2012. This rover is equipped with many devices that have multiple uses for observing and testing the terrain and environment on Mars. Among these is […] Continue reading →

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