Let's Get Off This Rock Already!
An Author's Adventures in Space Travel, Science Fiction, and Worlds Beyond
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 →
For today's entry we're welcoming back my friend Eamon Minges---who, as an engineer, brings a welcome dose of technical rigor to this website. You can find his other pieces here, here, here, and here. I wanted to start off by saying a quick thank you to my good friend Nic Quattromani, the originator of this... Continue Reading →
Happy Halloween, everyone! We haven't had a proper Halloween special since my review of Event Horizon, all the way back in 2019, so I'm here today with something appropriately spooky: a conspiracy theory. Read on to uncover tales of ill-fated missions and doomed space travelers... First in space? Yuri Gagarin is recognized as the first... Continue Reading →
This piece is going to be about something very local. While I know I have a far-flung readership---just last week, I had visitors from Germany, South Korea, Thailand, and Poland, among others---it may still be of use for those of you who will one day visit the great state of Oregon. And for those who... Continue Reading →
A couple weeks ago, I wrote a piece on the next steps for American space travel, and speculated about a permanent lunar base within the next two decades. Today I have another guest post from my friend Eamon Minges, following up on my speculation with some hard numbers---he definitely has a knack for that sort... Continue Reading →
Happy Fourth of July, everyone! I have a special post for y'all, in the patriotic spirit of this great holiday. Right now, we're at a critical juncture in space history---any month now, we're supposed to see SLS and Starship take flight, after many years of waiting---and it's clear that there's a different energy in the... Continue Reading →
You may have noticed, reading this blog, that I don't dive into hard science or serious calculations very often. That is because I am a squishy liberal arts major who dropped out of engineering school three years ago. My good friend Eamon Minges, however, has me covered---he has previously furnished Let's Get Off This Rock... Continue Reading →
Hello, all! I have returned from my hiatus---and now that I've wrapped up my hectic school term, I ought to have ample time to blog during the long, hot summer. Let's kick things off again with another book review! You may remember my post on the novel Mission One, by Samuel Best. I deemed it... Continue Reading →
Hello! I've been absent for a bit---with midterms bearing down on me, I needed a two-week break---but I'm back with a guest post from my good friend Eamon Minges, who wrote about orbital skyhooks last year. He will be making a case for horizontally launched spaceplanes, as opposed to SpaceX's vertically launched Starship model. Enjoy!... Continue Reading →
On June 20, 1944, a test launch of the German V-2 missile reached an altitude of 176 kilometers, becoming the first object to cross the Kármán line1 and enter space. It was not intended to be a triumph of science; the milestone was simply a byproduct of Nazi weapons research, not recognized for many years.... Continue Reading →
