Author Archives: Joseph

Spacecraft Research is at it again

Posted on 10 May 2013 by Joseph

It’s been a little while since I checked in with the goings-on back at my Cornell research lab. Totally unsurprisingly, some very cool things are happening there! One is that the Sprite and KickSat project has gone all the way … Continue reading →

Posted in Concepts, Graduate school, Research, Science Fiction, Space | Leave a comment

CubeSailing

Posted on 7 May 2013 by Joseph

Way back when I was looking at grad schools, I visited an MIT space propulsion lab where students and faculty were developing something called an electrospray thruster. This is a device consisting of a plate covered in tiny spikes, with … Continue reading →

Posted in Concepts, Space | Leave a comment

Antares and tiny satellites

Posted on 23 April 2013 by Joseph

This weekend was full of excitement for commercial space fans. Orbital Sciences Corporation launched the Antares rocket, making them only the second private company to put a vehicle into orbit. Like the SpaceX Falcon 9, Antares is intended to carry … Continue reading →

Posted in NASA, Space | Leave a comment

Where does the public see innovation?

Posted on 17 April 2013 by Joseph

The Lockheed Martin corporation recently conducted a poll in which they asked members of the public to choose the company’s “ultimate innovation.” There were a lot of fancy gizmos in the poll, including some very recent ones that definitely qualify … Continue reading →

Posted in Space | Leave a comment

A spacecraft engineer’s review of Flotilla

Posted on 12 April 2013 by Joseph

I just picked up the latest Humble Bundle sale entirely because of the gameplay video of Flotilla. Flotilla is a terrific little gem of a game that puts players in tactical command of a small squadron of combat spacecraft, with … Continue reading →

Posted in Games, Science Fiction, Space | Leave a comment

On the World Zarmina

Posted on 7 April 2013 by Joseph

…Preliminary report on image data from the LongShot-2 mission… The planet Gliese 581g – also known as Zarmina – is a circular world. It is not circular in the literal sense shown on pre-Columbian maps of the Earth, before we … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Concepts, Geology, Maps, Original fiction, Science Fiction, Space | 2 Comments

Profile on Dice

Posted on 16 March 2013 by Joseph

So, I’ve been profiled as “Featured Geek” on Dice.com. Here is the article. If you found your way here by way of Dice, here’s a teaser for something I’ve got coming up…

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Marswhelmed

Posted on 15 March 2013 by Joseph

So, the Mars Science Laboratory “Curiosity” has discovered evidence that, about three billion years ago, the environment on the planet Mars could have supported Earth-like microbial life. Some news outlets (including the MSL Twitter feed) are billing this discovery as … Continue reading →

Posted in NASA, Science, Space | Leave a comment

Heritage

Posted on 13 March 2013 by Joseph

Today, I saw a piece in The Space Review about what makes spacecraft launches complex and difficult. It occurred to me that this was a rather odd essay, coming as it does on the heels of the successful, high-profile flight … Continue reading →

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Money matters

Posted on 9 February 2013 by Joseph

The whole public debate about sequestration, cutting the deficit, and stimulating the economy is looking in the wrong directions. The broad solutions are simple: (1) the federal government should not spend as much as it does in relation to its … Continue reading →

Posted in NASA, Politics | 1 Comment