Principal Investigator George Ricker likes to call it the “Goldilocks orbit” — it’s not too close to Earth and her Moon, and it’s not too far. In fact, it’s just right.
And as a result of this never-before-used orbit — advanced and fine-tuned by NASA engineers and other members of the...
Today, a group of billionaires and former NASA scientists will announce the first asteroid mining company in history. They claim they will "add trillions of dollars to the global GDP" and "help ensure humanity's prosperity" by mining asteroids for rare metals like gold and platinum. More »
In 1962, space travel wasn't what you'd call an "exact" science. NASA was only a few years old and nobody really knew how humans would cope outside the atmosphere. Now, 50 years after his historic orbit, John Glenn recalls what his doctors thought would happen in zero gravity. More »
YU55 is in the vicinity now, and will pass within the Moon's orbit tomorrow. NASA sent me a pretty crappy image but I fixed it up for you:
The image was taken on Nov. 7 at 11:45 a.m. PST (2:45 p.m. EST/1945 UTC), when the asteroid was approximately 860,000 miles (1.38 million kilometers)...
It was only two years ago that IBM showed us an image of a complete molecule, atomic bonds and all, but today's news does that one infinitesimally-sized breakthrough better. Ladies and gents, behold the first image of an electron's path. More »
It was 45-years ago today that NASA's Lunar Orbiter 1 snapped several photos of the Earth while the craft was orbiting the moon. It's our first real glimpse of the Earth from such a vantage point. More »
There is a 7000kg satellite that needs to get into space to orbit the Earth. How do I calculate the work needed to push this satellite to orbit? In other words, what is the relationship of work and speed?
Calculate the speed of a satellite in a circular orbit near the Earth (just above the atmosphere). If the mass of the satellite is 7000 kg, what is the minimum amount of work required to move the satellite very far away from the Earth?