While talking to people about space, I’ve noticed that many people don’t have a good idea on how low earth orbit satellites orbit the earth. This video about the impending Phobos Grunt reentry does a great job showing what a low earth orbit looks like. Also, my condolences go out the Russian Space Agency on [...]
Browsing Posts in Ministry of Astronomy
Orbits
January 6, 2012
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Martian Summer
June 5, 2011
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I just finished reading Martian Summer and it was very entertaining and humorous book. Running a very expensive and complicated mission on the surface of another planet is an incredibly difficult task. First of all, the crew works on “Mars time” which leads to exhaustion and possibly making mistakes. The Mars Polar lander is a [...]
Go Endeavour!
May 16, 2011
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Amazing launch today of the last flight of Endeavour. Kinda cool with the Shuttle disappearing into the cloud deck but probably a little bit of a disappointment for the onlookers. STS-131, a night launch, I watched until Discovery disappeared over the horizon and STS-133 I was able to see the SRB separation through my camera [...]
Shuttle Discovery Tank Fixed — But What About the Crew?
January 16, 2011
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It looks like the problems with Space Shuttle Discovery’s external tank have been understood and are well underway to being fixed. Discovery is scheduled to roll out to the pad on February 1 and launch on February 24. I changed my flight (for the third time — I love Southwest’s easy change policy. I never [...]
Happy Saros-versary
July 21, 2009
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As, many as you know, today there is a long total solar eclipse in Asia. What you may not know, is eclipses occur in cycles called Saros cycles. So exactly 6585 1/3 days ago (18 years, 11 1/3 days) ago, there was a very similar eclipse that I had the pleasure of seeing. So on [...]
Yesterday, I took a chance that NASA would call off a Kennedy Space Center landing of Space Shuttle Atlantis due to continued bad weather in Florida. I left Las Vegas at about 4:00 AM and stopped by my friend Ryan’s to borrow his 400 mm Canon prime lens. I checked the excellent updates on Spaceflight [...]
I have been eagerly following the amazing work that our astronauts are doing on the final Hubble repair mission. Today, astronauts removed the COSTAR apparatus which was installed in 1993 to fix the famous mirror problem that Hubble faced. One of my astronomy professors at UNLV helped design COSTAR and I’m sure she’s very proud [...]
Asteroid Impact Confirmed
October 6, 2008
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Spaceweather.com has reported that the 3 meter diameter asteroid 2008TC3 hit the earth’s atmosphere over the Sudan. Impact speed was calculated to be about 12 km per second which is fairly slow. While asteroids this size hit the earth a few times a year and result in a bright fireball, this is the first time [...]
Usain Bolt’s Record 100 Meter Dash and Star Clusters
September 5, 2008
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In last month’s Olympics, if Usain Bolt hadn’t slowed down in his world record-breaking 100 meter dash he would have had an even more amazing time. Some astrophysicists calculated his time. This paper was submitted to the American Journal of Physics. Abstract: Since that very memorable day at the Beijing 2008 Olympics, a big question [...]
Many of the actions that affect endangered species occur either on Federal lands or are the actions of federal agencies. Whether changes in logging rules in a National Forest, permitting oil and gas leases on BLM land, or even building a new visitor center in a National Park, Federal agencies are required by law to [...]
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