This may be a controversial statement, but any ship large enough to support a crew is too large to be a realistic option for interstellar travel. That means you, ISV Venture Star. Even though you're beautiful. Space is big, unfathomably big, and the problem of venturing between stars has occupied theorists for quite a long... Continue Reading →
That Time the USAF Nearly Nuked the Moon
The Space Race was a wild time, especially in its early years, when the United States was shocked and humiliated by Sputnik and Gagarin, and threw money at various insane ways to take the lead. I've already written about the proposed one-way trip to the Moon; other highlights include an inflatable re-entry pod and flying to... Continue Reading →
Space History: The Plan to Maroon an Astronaut
Post by Nic Quattromani: I’m sure many of us are familiar with the book and film The Martian, in which NASA ends up with one of its astronauts stranded alone on another world, and has to mount a desperate effort to rescue him. As far as space mishaps go, that is one of the most... Continue Reading →
How to Grow a Treehouse in Space
Post by AJ Rise: Biology’s reputation as a “soft” science is ill-deserved. It’s a field of many wonders still unknown to mankind, and endless possibility. I think it likely that many of the technological advancements in the near future will be rooted in the deep study of living systems. Millions of years of evolution have... Continue Reading →
The Parker Solar Probe
Post by Nic Quattromani: Well, here’s an interesting bit of space news: the Parker Solar Probe is scheduled to launch tomorrow, on August 11. Thus our brave little space probe shall begin its journey to the hottest place within light-years of here. You see, while previous solar observation probes like Ulysses have been content to... Continue Reading →
Immersive Virtual Reality – A Possible Alternative to Cryostasis for Human Preservation in Space
Post by AJ Rise: Although human evolution is, without a doubt, beyond incredible, inadequacies come to fore when we spend time unfamiliar environments, surrounded by only a handful of similarly predisposed coworkers within a relatively tiny space can. By no means does this subtract from the wondrous potential of space exploration, but it cannot be... Continue Reading →
Neptune: Now in HD
Post by Nic Quattromani: This week we got a revolutionary new picture of another planet in our solar system, and while it's not the planet with the most interesting surface features (or with surface features at all, actually), we nevertheless have the best view of Neptune since Voyager 2 visited back in 1989. Feast your eyes on... Continue Reading →
Mining in Hell: The Problem of Venusian Metals
Post by Nic Quattromani: In the space colonization crowd there are a few contrarian fellows who see the ever-popular Mars as a cold, irradiated waste of time, and look instead to the sunny real estate just two planets over on Venus. While steamy Venusian jungles and lizard men were long ago replaced by a scorching... Continue Reading →





































