We like to separate the Apollo and Shuttle eras in our mind (and the five-year interregnum period without crewed flights makes it easy to), but in 1981, Apollo was still part of recent memory, with many key players like Young and Kranz still working at NASA.
The dinosaurs didn't fare well. Man, on the other hand, has a better chance. Whether or not we can deflect a large meteor as in the Hollywood movie, Armageddon, remains to be seen. But brilliant minds are at work. And nothing like an external threat to galvanize humanity.
If time and space are necessary to our being, and the implications of not having them could be detrimental, it is important to provide insight on how to embrace the emptiness without immediately attempting to fill it, and to cast a vision for what it might eventually produce.
NASA is famous for lots of things. Monkeys. Mercury. Gemini. Apollo. Space Station(s). Space Shuttles.
The nation that put humans on the moon and inspired generations of excellence in science, technology, engineering, and math is now paying Russia to transport Americans to and from the International Space Station.
To escape this excruciating task of spending time with reality, we turn to dregs. Many dregs are portals to alternate universes, where, like in the best science fiction, only one small change to our world produces a new and exciting frontier.
Still wondering how we blasted an SUV-sized robot to Mars last year? Curious what the Curiosity rover is doing up there right now?
President Reagan spoke about the sacrifice of the Challenger crew and promised that they would never be forgotten; that the exploration of space would continue. Yet I don't believe that the lethargic careful dipping of our toes into the interstellar ocean is paying tribute to them.
I view the campus now as my work space -- and feel liberated from a cloistered office. I can rationalize that my office is now far bigger than it was during my deanship. Still, I do miss having my own bathroom.
As we get closer to the New Year, everyone is making New Year's resolutions. The following are 13 ways to have a better marriage in 2013.
Buying insurance is seldom gratifying. But here's a case in which plunking down cash for a policy is just ... good policy.
I'm lucky to live at a time when my species is doing such incredible things, and there are surely plenty of historic moments still to come. And I'm hopeful about Comet ISON next November...
© Guy Laliberté - Algeria, Sahara Dessert, 2009 Print on cotton paper - 30 x 45 inches Edition of 15 The fire-eating accordion-player who fou...
On December 7, 1972 the crew of Apollo 17 pointed their 70 mm Hasselblad out the window and snapped the most famous photograph of all time, an image that "changed humankind's view of Earth forever."
I don't know where I first saw the photographs. I don't remember if it was in a book, or a magazine, or maybe even online. I'm pretty sure I saw the s...
Although Curiosity is not designed to verify life, we are left to wonder -- if Curiosity did discover life on Mars, what would be the impact of that discovery to the general public and to the future of human and robotic exploration of Mars?