Let's Get Off This Rock Already!
An Author's Adventures in Space Travel, Science Fiction, and Worlds Beyond
Back in February I handed down the definitive ranking of all the planets in our Solar System. Today, I'm going to finish the job with a corresponding ranking of the Solar System's moons—rich and varied worlds in their own right, some larger than the smallest planets. This will not be an exhaustive list. Jupiter alone... Continue Reading →
The absolute smallest angular distance resolvable by the human eye is 28 arc-seconds1. That's about 0.008 degrees, or the apparent size of a quarter at 132 meters, and for those of us not blessed with impeccable vision, that value will be a lot worse. Thankfully modern technology far surpasses the limits of human eyesight, seeing... Continue Reading →
Laurence Fishburne is aboard a creepy spaceship again. This time the destination is Titan, not Neptune, and instead of an all-out horror flick, we get something much more psychological. Today's feature: the 2024 movie Slingshot. Slingshot came out on August 30. I saw it on August 31, and I'm writing this just three hours after... Continue Reading →
Today's post will be a tad unusual---a personal essay about a fond memory, not unlike my Star Trek piece from a while back. Enjoy! For all that I've been enthralled since childhood by the mysteries of deep space, reverent of humanity's forays beyond this rock we call home, I went through most of my life... Continue Reading →
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 →
