Posted by Ian O'Neill in Featured Articles, Humour, Moon, NASA on February 7th, 2010 | Comments

The Real Inspiration Behind “Project M”

The Project M android... haven't I seen you somewhere before? As you know, I’m highly dubious about this “Project M” that has just surfaced on the intertoobs (I strongly suspect it’s a hoax). But doubts aside, I kept looking at that android throwing stones on the lunar surface thinking I’d seen that guy somewhere before. At first, I thought C3PO from Star Wars… but no! It’s this guy: It's uncanny! Bender from Futurama explores the lunar surface (NASA/20th...

Posted by Ian O'Neill on February 6th, 2010

“Project M”? L...

Doing for NASA what Star Wars did for sci-fi, send C3PO to the Moon! Huh? OK, so I have little idea about this project because there’s not much information circulating, but I hope it’s not real. It looks like NASA’s Johnson Space Center is heading up a robotic mission to the Moon. No big surprises there as that plan is pretty much in alignment with the “Flexible Path”...

Posted by Ian O'Neill on February 3rd, 2010

P/2010 A2 Was An Asteroid ...

What you see here is something mankind has never seen before, the aftermath of an asteroid collision. This conclusion comes after the Hubble Space Telescope was commanded to take a closer look at a strange comet-like object pottering around in the asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. “The truth is we’re still struggling to understand what this means,” said David...

Posted by Ian O'Neill on January 30th, 2010

Mars Rover Spirit Becomes ...

Sorry Spirit, you're not coming home (see the full xkcd comic strip). As far as space missions go, you couldn’t find a better epic tale than that of Mars Expedition Rover Spirit. Designed to last 3 months, roved for six years; lost the use of a wheel, turned it into a nifty trench-digging tool; nearly died, came back to life; had memory problems, shrugged them off… the list could go on...

Posted by Ian O'Neill on January 18th, 2010

Could P/2010 A2 be the Fir...

Something rather bizarre was observed in the asteroid belt on January 6. Ray Villard at Discovery News has just posted an exciting article about the discovery of a comet… but it’s not your average, run-of-the-mill kinda comet. This comet appears to orbit the Sun, embedded in the asteroid belt. Comets don’t usually do that, they tend to have elliptical and inclined orbits, orbits...

Posted by Ian O'Neill on January 17th, 2010

Tethys Plays Hide and Seek...

Which planet does Tethys orbit again? I do admit, I’m terrible with names, but I never forget a face. In this case, the face I didn’t forget was a little moon orbiting Saturn (it’s the one that looks like the Death Star from Star Wars). However, after seeing this photo, I doubt I’ll ever forget Tethys’ name again. In a photo snapped by the awesome Cassini Equinox mission...

Posted by Ian O'Neill on January 15th, 2010

How are Black Holes Used i...

Source: Graph Jam I mean, is the spaghettification of John Cusack using awesome 2012 doomsday graphics too much to ask? Instead of an improbable alien spacecraft appearing over the White House, why not use a black hole, producing so much tidal shear that it rips the building apart brick-by brick? Oh, and then have all the matter being sucked into the black hole accelerate to relativistic velocities,...

Posted by Ian O'Neill on January 11th, 2010

Warning, Over-Hyped Title ...

"SuperNova" by Shadow-Trance (DeviantArt) I’m not kidding, last week was a huge mess of a supernova doomsday circus. It was like whispering “there’s a bomb under your chair” to the person next to you in a crowded theater and then watching the resulting flood of people slam into the fire escape. It was internet chaos. And there was no stopping it. I am of course talking...

Posted by Ian O'Neill on January 11th, 2010

Vote Discovery News for a ...

…otherwise some Twilight fan site might win. And that would be bad. I don’t really get the whole smoldering vampire craze that’s going on at the moment, but the movies New Moon and Twilight certainly have fans going nutty about fangs and moody teenagers. I actually saw Twilight the other day, and it was the first film I’ve ever seen acted through… awkward glances. I felt...

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