Topic: Pamela Gay
Starship: Dreaming of Mars, struggling for LEO

Starship: Dreaming of Mars, struggling for LEO

by | Jun 26, 2025 |

I think it is fair to say that humans have dreamed of going to Mars for as long as we have known that Mars is a planet. We see these dreams in amazing books, like The Martian Chronicles and John Carter of Mars, and even in Percival Lowell’s attempts to map what we now see as fictional canals. Humanity’s first successful Mars mission was the 1965 Mariner 4 Flyby, and today, two US rovers explore the Red Planet. Mariner 4 was 60 years ago, and if the dreamers get what they want, we will have humans on Mars before the 70th anniversary of Mariner 4. … I’m just not sure that is going to happen,...

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Euclid Releases First Science Images

Euclid Releases First Science Images

by | Jun 18, 2024 |

While the 33 year old Hubble struggles, the not yet 1 year old Euclid space telescope has released its first science images. Euclid is a 1.2 m telescope with a wide-angle camera that is designed to survey galaxy shapes and study dark matter and dark energy. It is...

Hubble Down to One Gyro

Hubble Down to One Gyro

by | Jun 17, 2024 | ,

In a June 4 telecon with the press, NASA shared that due to recent issues, they have made the decision to operate HST in single gyro mode. This isn’t expected to have any impact on the quality of individual science images, however Hubble will need significantly more...

Robotic arms may rescue clumsy astronauts

Robotic arms may rescue clumsy astronauts

by | Jun 7, 2024 |

I have a delightfully weird tech story related to future lunar exploration. Research has shown that astronauts working on the moon are most likely to fall over when using tools, and once they fall over, getting up while wearing a space suit that restricts their motion...

Closer Look: The cost of the climate of academia

Closer Look: The cost of the climate of academia

by | Jun 6, 2024 |

We are recording this episode about a week in advance of our normal recording date. This is because our producer Ally Pelphrey and I will be at the Balticon science fiction and fantasy convention over Memorial Day weekend and I’m then flying to Orlando where I’ll be...

Hubble Resolves star formation

Hubble Resolves star formation

by | Jun 4, 2024 |

Image credit: NASA / ESA One of the things I personally enjoy most about working in astronomy is the way yesterday’s empty star fields and faint smudges resolve into spectacular vistas and amazing nebulae as we build better telescopes and find the time to point them...

Geology points to the path most chosen

Geology points to the path most chosen

by | May 22, 2024 |

One of the most common questions faced by those of us who study other worlds is this, “What good is studying planets when we have issues here on Earth?” Well, it turns out Earth happens to be a planet and sometimes geology can tell us really cool things about...

Closer Look: The 2024 Carrington Event

Closer Look: The 2024 Carrington Event

by | May 22, 2024 |

On Wednesday, May 8, community member ThirdRock Astronomy brought to my attention a massive sunspot that was growing to resemble the Sunspot that produced the 1859 Carrington Event, which lit the skies with aurora and powered the telegraph grid with induced current. ...

Mars was a badly made Earth 2

Mars was a badly made Earth 2

by | May 22, 2024 |

How a wet Mars may have appeared based on MOLA data. Credit: Ittiz When we look out across the Universe, or even just our Solar System, we are only seeing a moment in the fast history of space. We see a galaxy fully formed with spiral arms and a nice little bar. We...