In August the Summer Triangle continues to dominate the seasonal sky. This classic asterism is defined by three bright stars of the constellations Cygnus, Aquila and Lyra, these are the distant but dazzling Deneb (Alpha Cygni), Altair (Alpha Aquila) and Vega (Alpha Lyrae). Running through the Triangle is the pale Read more…
Could humanity ever travel to the stars? Today this is an unattainable dream but world-wide researchers are studying the possibilities of starships. One concept for an interstellar craft is the photon rocket, an idea once popular but less prominent today. What happened to this appealing idea for voyaging into deepest Read more…
Our galaxy, the Milky Way, is vaster than we puny humans can imagine.A huge (100 000 light years across) spiral of stars and nebulae embedded in the tenuous interstellar medium , the Milky Way is a about a thousand light years thick apart from where it swells into the great Read more…
NASA’s next manned spacecraft will be the Orion, a capsule which will be carried into space by a rocket. Weighing 25 tonnes, each Orion will carry up to six people. Accommodation on board is cosy at best, cramped at worst. Orion was intended to take astronauts to the Moon and Read more…
“Rods from God” is the nick-name given to a hypothetical orbital weapon for bombarding targets on the Earth from space. Just how feasible is this concept? There are undeniable links between the spaceflight and military communities but apart from a few tests of anti-satellite weapons, the odd armed space Read more…