Category Archives: Concepts

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 →

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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

Space Carriers

Posted on 30 September 2012 by Joseph

Two space-fighter games recently came out in quick succession. Both are free, downloadable fan-made takes on popular franchises, and both show very high production values. The first is Wing Commander: Saga, based on the 1990s-era Wing Commander space simulator games.* … Continue reading →

Posted in Concepts, Science Fiction, Space | 5 Comments

Stoking our Curiosity for Other Worlds

Posted on 11 August 2012 by Joseph

In the wee hours of last Monday (Eastern US time), a jubilant Mission Control erupted at the successful landing of the Mars Science Laboratory “Curiosity.” Curiosity has demonstrated some amazing technological feats. Now, that portion of its mission is nearly … Continue reading →

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Stealth Spaceships

Posted on 28 June 2012 by Joseph

When I started my original series of posts on space battles, I speculated about what a combat-spacecraft designer might want to do in order to make a vehicle that could avoid enemy detection: It would make sense to build their … Continue reading →

Posted in Concepts, Science Fiction, Space | 3 Comments

Woah wait, what?!

Posted on 19 April 2012 by Joseph

If you follow space news, you’ve likely seen one of the articles on this event. Woah! I’ve like to contribute just a couple things to the wild speculation at this point. The MIT Technology Review article concludes that asteroid mining … Continue reading →

Posted in Concepts, Space | 1 Comment

In the Arena

Posted on 10 February 2012 by Joseph

Well, since I just had some discussion about orbits and other fundamental physical concepts in science fiction, here’s a short scene I’ve been sitting on. It’s set in the Cathedral Galaxy, and I’m not quite sure what I want to … Continue reading →

Posted in Concepts, Original fiction, Science Fiction, Space, The Cathedral Galaxy | Leave a comment

Flying to Titan

Posted on 2 January 2012 by Joseph

Decadal surveys and other prioritizations of potential NASA exploration missions often rank one thing very highly: a sample-return mission from Mars. However, I think there are some much more scientifically interesting, technologically challenging, and engaging to the public mission proposals … Continue reading →

Posted in Concepts, NASA, Science, Space | 2 Comments

Kick Yourself into Orbit!

Posted on 26 October 2011 by Joseph

Ah, I’ve only been out a few months, but I already miss some things about being in grad school! For instance, I miss all the crazy brainstorming of new and wild space systems, missions, and technologies. No doubt you, dear … Continue reading →

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