Did any of the Apollo astronauts ever drag a magnet across the regolith to see how much, if any, metal particles might be available? I've seen references to...

There's some new? news about a contract for Kistler. Several sites are implying this could be a jump start for the almost bankrupt company. I've first read...

Tony Sivori wrote: kegwasher wrote: Tony Sivori wrote: Would anyone care to speculate as to how long will the rover tracks will last in the...

Does anybody have more technical info, or pointers to such, on the flash file system used by the MERs? The reason I ask is that JPL's explanation for Spirit's...

Announcement, for your information, browse and act as you see fit. Sterling-Bond announced proposal for an independent commercial space venture. This UK...

What's on the drawing board for a return to the moon? A similar command and service module to the Apollo program? Or a shuttle size vehicle? Also, will they...

Here's an article about a new paper in Physics Review Letters: http://focus.aps.org/story/v13/st3 Electromagnetism may allow you to transfer momentum between...

Sorry if I am belabouring the obvious but rocketry is not my field (x-ray optics is) but was curious about solar thermal rockets so looked in my old physics...

Any one know .... How many W/m2 can solar panels produce, assuming concentrated or laser light? The application I was thinking of was for a Solar Power...

Hello! Reading various bits of info about Mars rovers on various sites I haven't noticed (or missed?) any info about their life expectancy on the Mars...

I was lucky enough to help host a visit by two members of the Russian Space program. They spent the day with 600 Norfolk school children. One of the visitors...

It seems that for rockets of multiple stages with only one fuel combination, there is an interesting engineering decision. Consider a two stage rocket where...

(Ken S. Tucker) wrote in message ... The excellence of the shuttle system. ...

Do air breathing engines provide any benefit for vertically launched spacecraft? I have recently seen work regarding hypersonic aircraft which purports to have...

Hi, With the Opportunity Rover landing today, NASA (JPL) has successfully landed 3 spacecraft on Mars using airbag technology, that makes it a 100% success...

Was the Columbia accident attributable to any management / cultural problems within NASA? Do other large organisations have any lessons to learn from...

(Henry Spencer) : In article , John Carmack wrote: ...If...

This is the weekly Frequently Asked Question (FAQ) posting for sci.space.tech and sci.space.science . It is crossposted into sci.space.policy to explain...

I'm reading "Modern Engineering for Liquid-Propellant Rocket Engines". The section on fuel tank pressurization talks about using helium from a room-temperature...

(kemperr) wrote in message ... We have certainly seen a lot of media coverage about...