Project Prometheus: Nuclear Propulsion to the Moons of Jupiter

Nuclear power has had a long and complex history in outer space. Starting in the 1960s, both the US and USSR deployed full-on fission reactors aboard Earth-observing satellites; more recently, high-profile probes---Cassini, Curiosity, New Horizons---have all used safer but far less powerful radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTGs), which extract energy from the waste heat of decaying... Continue Reading →

Icy Mysteries of Europa

I originally had another topic planned for today---it was written and scheduled, and of course I will still upload it at some point---but then my area had a rare winter storm, blanketing everything in ice and snow, and I thought to myself that it would be appropriate to do a blog post on Europa, one... Continue Reading →

A Note on Extraterrestrials

Post by AJ Rise: Are we alone in this universe? Where are the space aliens? What do they look like? When, if ever, will we get to meet them? These questions all relate to the holy grail of astrobiology: discovering an intelligent alien species. Countless scientists and philosophers have attempted to tackle the question of... Continue Reading →

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