Robert Frost, a NASA employee, has shut down a conspiracy theorist on the popular question-answer site Quora. He perfectly explained how NASA sends probes and rovers to Mars. I want t share it here because his answer is so informative and enlightening.
Continue reading “How NASA sends probes and rovers to Mars?”Coronavirus: we’re in a realtime laboratory of a more sustainable urban future
Paul Chatterton, University of Leeds
A pause has been forced on urban life. Quiet roads, empty skies, deserted high streets and parks, closed cinemas, cafés, and museums – a break in the spending and work frenzy so familiar to us all. The reality of lockdown is making ghost towns of the places we once knew. Everything we know about our urban world has come to a shuddering halt. For now.
The lockdown will, at some point, end. Urban life will begin to hum again to the familiar rhythms of work, leisure and shopping. This will be a huge relief for us all. Yet our towns and cities will never be the same. Indeed, things might get worse before they get better.
Continue reading “Coronavirus: we’re in a realtime laboratory of a more sustainable urban future”Apollo 13: “Houston, We’ve Had a Problem”
“Houston, we’ve had a problem” (see notes 1 below that post) is the now-famous phrase radioed from Apollo 13 to Mission Control upon the catastrophic explosion that dramatically changed the mission. On the 50th Anniversary of the Apollo 13 mission, NASA recognizes the triumph of the mission control team and the astronauts and looks at the lessons learned. The American space agency commemorates the most “successful failure” in the history of space exploration with the video titled “Apollo 13: Houston, We’ve Had a Problem”.
Continue reading “Apollo 13: “Houston, We’ve Had a Problem””Namib Desert from space – amazing photo
European Space Agency (ESA) published an amazing photo of the Namib Desert from space, taken by the Copernicus Sentinel-2 Earth Observation mission on October 27, 2019.
Continue reading “Namib Desert from space – amazing photo”Apollo 13 commander Jim Lovell’s MIT speech
Last week was Apollo 13’s 50th anniversary – the most “successful failure” in the history of space exploration. On April 27, 2016, former NASA astronaut and Apollo 13 commander Jim Lovell made a speech at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and told the story of the legendary Apollo 13 flight. Here’s the full video of that speech below.
Continue reading “Apollo 13 commander Jim Lovell’s MIT speech”A History of Pandemics (8000 B.C.-today)
Lindsay Holiday published two-part very informative video series titled “A History of Pandemics” on Youtube. These pandemics (and epidemics) have occurred countless times in the past, infecting, injuring and killing millions, and sometimes changing dramatically the course of human history.
But, first, what is a pandemic? What is an epidemic?
Continue reading “A History of Pandemics (8000 B.C.-today)”Soviet N1 Rocket – a 3D model
A 3D model of the Soviet N1 Rocket, which was intended to enable crewed travel to the Moon and beyond, Soviet counterpart to the United States’ mighty Saturn V, which was used by NASA between 1967 and 1973 during lunar landings.
Continue reading “Soviet N1 Rocket – a 3D model”Nature’s comeback? No, the coronavirus pandemic actually threatens the world’s wildlife
Charlie Gardner, University of Kent
There have not been many bright spots in the coronavirus pandemic, but one has been the apparent return of nature as the frantic pace of modern life has slowed. We’ve seen fish-eating birds return to the clear waters of Venice, wild boar roaming the streets of Bergamo, and of course the feral mountain goats of Llandudno.
In Britain, wildlife seems set for a bountiful spring and summer. Fewer cars on the road means less roadkill, and many birds and voles will be spared as owners decide to keep their cats indoors. In towns and cities, wildflowers will surely flourish as councils realise that mowing their parks and verges is somewhat less than essential. Nature, it seems, is making a comeback.
Unfortunately, this is but a partial picture and one that is limited to the minority world of industrialised nations. Most of the world’s biodiversity is found in the low-income countries and emerging economies of the Global South, and in such places, the economic impacts of the pandemic are likely to be devastating for the natural world.
Continue reading “Nature’s comeback? No, the coronavirus pandemic actually threatens the world’s wildlife”A new Earth-sized planet (Kepler-1649c) in the habitable zone has been detected
A new Earth-sized planet named Kepler-1649c orbiting its star in the habitable zone has been detected by a team of scientists, using reanalyzed data from NASA’s Kepler space telescope, NASA has announced.
Continue reading “A new Earth-sized planet (Kepler-1649c) in the habitable zone has been detected”What’s the Epidemiology Behind COVID-19?
In the last three months, our entire lives have been upended by an organism we can’t see and little understand. In the process, it has transformed millions of us into homeschool teachers of our children, remote workers, and public policy pundits as we debate what our government officials are doing right, and wrong, in response to this global crisis.
Continue reading “What’s the Epidemiology Behind COVID-19?”