Category Archives: Space
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Revolution #3: Drone-launched Rockets
Think of it as a revolution inside a revolution tucked inside yet another revolution. Revolution #1: ground-based reusable rockets as exemplified by rocket billionaires Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin. The reuse of launch vehicles is lowering barriers to space flight. Great stuff! Revolution #2: air-launched rockets. A shining example is Paul Allen...
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Drones over Venus
While attending the AUVSI XPONENTIAL conference last May, I spoke with the team at Black Swift Technologies, a Boulder, Colorado-based UAS engineering firm specializing in scientific platforms, and I asked them to keep me updated with their progress. I recently received the news that it has been awarded a NASA contract to develop a UAS...
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The Data of River Dynamics
Using GIS tools and readily accessible satellite data to study rapid change in rivers. Editor’s note: The dynamics of rivers can range from relatively stable to rapidly shifting, the latter especially in flood-prone regions exacerbated by a global increase in extreme weather events. The impacts are environmental, but also economic, social, and cadastral. Surveyors, for...
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Rocket Billionaires
Here’s a great example of serendipity. Not so long ago I took a break from my daily routine and flipped on the TV. The set was tuned to the science channel, and just as the screen flickered to life I beheld the sight of the first launch of SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy as it lifted off....
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Big Bird + Black Ice = Space 2.1
First off, let’s decipher that headline, starting at the end. Space 2.0 (AKA “NewSpace”) is the catch-all phrase that describes the privatization of space and the companies, platforms, and technologies that come with it. We’ll get to the “2.1” in a minute. Big Bird is the nickname given the world’s largest aircraft (by wingspan, 385’)...
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Space Colonization: Why Titan Is Better than Mars
Come with me on a flight of fact-based science fiction. It’s 2024 and you’re strapped into SpaceX’s BFR (Big Falcon Rocket). Destination? Mars! You’ve sold your home and bought a one-way ticket to the red planet. Your heart pounds as the countdown commences. Whoosh and you’re off. Six months later, you disembark and board a...