Tag Archives: space exploration

Snow Cruiser, Moon Buggies, Mars Tractors

I started writing about the Antarctic Snow Cruiser, “one of the colossal engineering flops of history”. Or, my opinion, a basically good design that was rushed into service. The Snow Cruiser and Little America III reminded me of imperial ambitions … Continue reading →

Posted in Back to the Moon, Onward to Mars, Discursive Detours, Series | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Mars, MOXIE and More

Humanity is one step closer to exploring Mars, in person. With people living and working on the surface. And eventually, I think, living there permanently. That’s going to take time. But like I said, we’re one step closer. This week … Continue reading →

Posted in Back to the Moon, Onward to Mars, Discursive Detours, Science News, Series | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Single Stage to Orbit, Eventually

A tip of the hat to Anthony Stevens, whose recent op-ed started me thinking about this week’s topics. I’ll be talking about ideas that didn’t work out, or haven’t yet; three cool single-stage-to-orbit vehicles, including one that flew; and, finally, … Continue reading →

Posted in Back to the Moon, Onward to Mars, Discursive Detours, Series | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

DART: Trick Shot by OpNav, and a Successful Test

On September 26, 2022, the NASA/APL DART mission changed the orbit of an asteroid: Dimorphos, a satellite of 65803 Didymos. “NASA Confirms DART Mission Impact Changed Asteroid’s Motion in Space“Josh Handal, Justyna Surowiec; press release; NASA, Johns Hopkins Applied Physics … Continue reading →

Posted in Discursive Detours, Science News | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

The Mars Mission That Hasn’t Happened Yet: 1954

From 1952 to 1954, Collier’s published “Man Will Conquer Space Soon!” — a series of articles describing a step-by-step plan for landing on Mars. The first step was building an Earth-orbiting space station. Then we would build ships to reach … Continue reading →

Posted in Back to the Moon, Onward to Mars, Discursive Detours, Series | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment