Tag: ISS

Space exploration. We like to pretend it is about all kinds of noble things having to do with mankind’s place in the universe, blah blah blah. We all know it is really about all the cool…

A few weeks back I was replacing a valve cover gasket on a race car and accidentally rounded off a bolt that was in a hard-to-reach spot. I was working on that bolt in the garage…

The International Space Station is set to get a new camera that is specifically designed to image the Earth. The camera is called ISERV and it was launched on board the Japanese Aerospace exploration Agencies HTV-3…

After multiple delays, SpaceX is set to hit a major milestone this Saturday, May 19. Saturday is the day set for the launch of the first privately funded cargo mission to the International Space Station. With…

NASA and General Motors teamed up a while back to create a humanoid robot called Robonaut 2 or R2. R2 is now on the International Space Station where it will be used to conduct repairs and…

Automated cargo vessels head to the ISS regularly to take astronauts new supplies and pick up trash. At times, these cargo ships also return experiments back to Earth. Leave it to the Scottish to send an…

A while back, NASA opened up its astronaut program to normal people that didn’t have a military background. Naturally, a bunch of geeks that always wanted to be astronauts applied even though they’ll never get the…

There’s suprisingly little empty space left in low Earth orbit these days. This is in part due to the ever-growing number of satellites orbiting the planet. Most of the debris orbiting the planet includes defunct satellites…

We have an unnatural fascination with LEGO around here. When those little blocks are used to build geeky and awesome things, we get really excited. ISS astronaut Satoshi Furukawa from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency recently…

The Sun is right in the middle of one of its most active periods in its 11-year cycle. This means lots of radiation is being spewed towards the Earth during various solar storms. This radiation bounces…

Space junk is quickly becoming a big hazard in orbit around the Earth. There are untold numbers defunct satellites and other chunks of debris and trash floating around up there that pose a hazard to humans…

Next month is an important month for the NASA space program. It will mark the first visit of a commercial spacecraft to the International Space Station in history. With the Shuttle fleet retired, most of the…

China is getting its own space station ready, since much of the rest of the world is participating on the ISS. The Chinese space station is called the Tiangong, which apparently means “heavenly place.” The Chinese…

Anyone with kids knows that it can be a challenge to teach them to use the toilet. My daughter always got the sequence wrong, wipe, then flush. She finally got it down. I can only imagine…

I have talked about our robotic pal from NASA and GM Robonaut 2 or R2 a few times. The last we spoke of R2 NASA and GM were talking up the bots dainty hands as the…