Today, scientists working under the National Science Foundation reported using light from nine radio-telescopes spaces around the world to record the first (radio) image of a black hole: I understand the physics involved just well enough to tell you that this view of the black hole at core of galaxy Messier 87 is neither head-on…
Today, March 3rd, 2019, everything changed. It might be just another spring day wherever you are, but this is the day the space age got back on track. Bold statement? Allow me to back it up. Nearly everything most people alive today think about NASA is based on the Apollo program and NASA’s high-profile attempts…
An Internet denizen asks: Q: How were we able to put a man on the moon with the level of technology that was available in 1969? The answer? By spending a crap ton of money over ten years, peaking at 5% of the federal budget. And by relying as much at possible on already proven…
When Apollo astronauts first visited the moon, they brought back something somewhat expected (though predicted by Heinlein in Rocketship Gallieo) a gorgeous view of our little “blue marble” poised all alone in space. Nothing will ever match the poignancy of that image, but as technology has improved, we’ve given it some competition. This image, was…
One of my favorite moments from the entire Star Trek franchise occurs in the Next Generation episode, “Hide and Q” when Captain Piccard quotes Hamlet, saying, “What he might said with irony, I say with conviction. What a piece of work is man. How noble in reason. How infinite in faculty. In form, in…
With the launch of the Falcon Heavy, Space-x has demonstrated a booster half as powerful as the mighty Saturn V and three times as powerful as the next largest launch vehicle flying today: With the promise of extensive reusability and rapid turnaround times, Space-X seems poised to re-write the economic rules of spaceflight. Are we…
There’s a scene in Ron Howard’s wonderful film, Apollo 13, when the crew is preparing to fire the LEM engine in space and Commander Lovell is Seen ensuring that his socked feet are firmly attached to the velco floor. That might well be authentic, but it leaves audiences with a mistaken notion of when flying…
I often see people asking the question, why haven’t we gone back to the moon, sometimes accusingly, as if that somehow implies we never went at all. We went, and we’ve sought in the decades since never to engage in such a race again, largely because those in the position to fund such a race…
I am over the moon (no pun intended) at the reception this story has gotten. It’s hard Scifi–as in real-world science and hardware that either actually existed in 1969 or really could have, and it’s long–novelette length in an era where flash prevails. I knew when I wrote it that Trevor Quachri at Analog was…
Next in this year’s interview series, say hello to Ziporah Hildebrandt, who joins us from Hollywood during her workshop week. Stuart: Ziporah, hello, and welcome to the Writers of the Future family! Ziporah: Hi Stuart, thanks for inviting me to visit. Stuart: To start us off, what can you tell me about yourself that would…
