VVFA

Very Very Far Away – Research blog

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“The ping is quite high because of the satellite transmission to earth, but the bandwidth isn’t too terrible.”

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THE TIME HAS COME TO GO TO MARS

The exploration and settlement of Mars is one of the most daring and audacious human endeavors of our time. We’re ready. Join today, get involved and be a part of the greatest cause of our generation

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Presentation of a hefty plan for human space missions to the U.S. government

by Committee on Human Spaceflight; Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board; Space Studies Board; Division on Engineering and Physical Sciences; Committee on National Statistics;Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education; National Research Council

Description

The United States has publicly funded its human spaceflight program on a continuous basis for more than a half-century, through three wars and a half-dozen recessions, from the early Mercury and Gemini suborbital and Earth orbital missions, to the lunar landings, and thence to the first reusable winged crewed spaceplane that the United States operated for three decades. Today the United States is the major partner in a massive orbital facility - the International Space Station - that is becoming the focal point for the first tentative steps in commercial cargo and crewed orbital space flights. And yet, the long-term future of human spaceflight beyond this project is unclear. Pronouncements by multiple presidents of bold new ventures by Americans to the Moon, to Mars, and to an asteroid in its native orbit, have not been matched by the same commitment that accompanied President Kennedy’s now fabled 1961 speech-namely, the substantial increase in NASA funding needed to make it happen. Are we still committed to advancing human spaceflight? What should a long-term goal be, and what does the United States need to do to achieve it?

Pathways to Exploration explores the case for advancing this endeavor, drawing on the history of rationales for human spaceflight, examining the attitudes of stakeholders and the public, and carefully assessing the technical and fiscal realities. This report recommends maintaining the long-term focus on Mars as the horizon goal for human space exploration. With this goal in mind, the report considers funding levels necessary to maintain a robust tempo of execution, current research and exploration projects and the time/resources needed to continue them, and international cooperation that could contribute to the achievement of spaceflight to Mars. According to Pathways to Exploration, a successful U.S. program would require sustained national commitment and a budget that increases by more than the rate of inflation.

In reviving a U.S. human exploration program capable of answering the enduring questions about humanity’s destiny beyond our tiny blue planet, the nation will need to grapple with the attitudinal and fiscal realities of the nation today while staying true to a small but crucial set of fundamental principles for the conduct of exploration of the endless frontier. The recommendations of Pathways to Exploration provide a clear map toward a human spaceflight program that inspires students and citizens by furthering human exploration and discovery, while taking into account the long-term commitment necessary to achieve this goal.

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King Tut Had a Knife From Outer Space

Space dagger? Space dagger.

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Philae Lander Finds Organic Compounds on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko | Space Exploration | Sci-News.com

A special issue of the journal Science highlights seven studies that delve into data that has been collected by Philae on 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.

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“These planets are unlike anything in our solar system. They have endless oceans,” said lead author Lisa Kaltenegger of the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy and the CfA. “There may be life there, but could it be technology-based like ours?...

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Bethesda, MD (SPX) Jun 01, 2016 - Many innovators have proposed a variety of concepts that might propel a launch vehicle from Earth to orbit. However, only two basic types of rocket engines have survived the test of fire: Solid prop

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Airships and Reanimated Corpses from the Pages of Early Science Fiction

WASHINGTON, DC — Science fiction rose to prominence in the 19th and early 20th centuries, when authors like H. G. Wells, Jules Verne, and Mary Shelley imagined the extraordinary possibilities of ad…

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Download PDFs of the mysterious Voynich Manuscript and the Codex Seraphinianus for free

Codex Seraphinianus A few years ago we ran a post on one of the most mind-bogglingly awesome books ever written or conceived by mortal humankind—I refer to Luigi Serafini’s Codex Seraphinianus, republished by Rizzoli in 2013. To this day it remains one of the most popular posts we’ve ever done, the degree of interest in this peculiar, fantastical volume of fanciful schematics, all in an invented language and alphabet, was quite stunning. Similarly, The Voynich Manuscript, which dates from the early 15th century, is also written in an alphabet that nobody can decipher. The Codex Seraphinianus was written in the 20th century by a writer who is still among us, but the Voynich Manuscript isn’t like that. For centuries a great many people have tried to crack its elusive code, but nobody has been able to. So you get a very similar effect, marvelous illustrations of botanical fantasies, tagged with captions we can’t comprehend. The Voynich Manuscript Both of these are awesome coffee table books or just books to peruse idly and get your creative juices flowing. A friend recently called my attention to this 2011 post by the Holy Books blog, which offers...

the mysterious Voynich Manuscript and the Codex Seraphinianus (PDF)

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Nasa aims to move Earth

Scientists have found an unusual way to prevent our planet overheating: move it to a cooler spot.