by David Todd | Dec 17, 2015 | Apollo, China, exploration, NASA, Orion, Russia
Just as most modern jet airliners look the same as they optimise their shapes for their mission, so manned spacecraft are starting to look very similar. Sinodefence.com has revealed that China is working on a new manned spacecraft design that appears to be a close...
by David Todd | Oct 28, 2015 | Apollo, History
While astronauts are now allowed by NASA to sell off their memorabilia gifts from the Apollo era, astronaut Dave Scott has sold a personal item that he carried on the Moon. Scott who courted controversy in his time as Apollo 15’s mission commander by carrying...
by David Todd | Oct 28, 2015 | Apollo, ESA, exploration, NASA, Orion, Seradata News, SLS
While the recent film “The Martian”, starring Matt Damon, whetted the appetite of the general public for long-range human exploration, in truth, any mission to Mars is at least 20 years away. Similarly, while NASA has recently revealed its initial “Journey to Mars”...
by David Todd | Oct 26, 2015 | Apollo, On a Lighter Note
The female compere of the opening ceremony of the International Astronautical Congress in Jerusalem (IAC 2015) noted that while evidence of flowing (salty) water may have been found on Mars, she would be more likely to want to go to the planet if it had been wine that...
by David Todd | Feb 23, 2015 | Apollo, NASA, On a Lighter Note, Technology
NASA often likes to mention how its programmes have given the world new technologies – most noticeably in the fields of new materials and digital computing. Among the spin-offs it remains rather coy about is a hi-tech lubricant, developed for the Space,...
by David Todd | Sep 11, 2014 | Apollo, International Space Station, Technology
As we noted the departure to the breakers yard of the former Royal Navy Frigate HMS Plymouth, this column forgot to mention that it was one of the last warships that still had portholes in its main hull. In fact, portholes (more properly known as scuttles) are...
