Category Archives: Concepts

Gliese 581g (Hámnù, Pedak, Gaustan, or Estivama)

Posted on 24 January 2016 by Joseph Shoer

I finished a big new map! You can purchase a print here. (Link to larger image) The world known to humankind as Zarmina (catalog identifier Gliese 581g) is a habitable planet orbiting a red dwarf star. It is tidally locked to … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Concepts, Fantasy, Geology, Maps, Science Fiction | 2 Comments

How to Get to Mars

Posted on 26 March 2015 by Joseph Shoer

NASA wants to go to Mars. Great! The approach, as the agency has been publicizing with fancy graphics like the one below, seems to consist of the following: Send astronaut Scott Kelly to the International Space Station for one year, … Continue reading →

Posted in Concepts, NASA, Science Fiction, Space | Leave a comment

Back to the Future

Posted on 7 December 2014 by Joseph Shoer

This week, NASA launched the Orion spacecraft on a test flight. I have a conflicted viewpoint about this event. To me, Orion is both exciting and deeply disappointing. On the one hand, Orion is NASA’s first entirely new spacecraft for … Continue reading →

Posted in Concepts, NASA, Skepticism, Space | 1 Comment

Visionaries

Posted on 7 October 2014 by Joseph Shoer

The Space Review has a fantastic article that invaded my whole way of thinking this morning while I was trying to get into my groove for work. It casts the golden age of space exploration – the Space Race – … Continue reading →

Posted in Concepts, Politics, Social commentary, Space | Leave a comment

…how about half an elevator?

Posted on 20 March 2014 by Joseph Shoer

If you’ve paid any attention to science fiction in any form, you’ve probably seen the concept of the space elevator. A super-strong tether or tower extends upward from the surface of the Earth, past geostationary orbit, and beyond; to get … Continue reading →

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Ignition!

Posted on 13 February 2014 by Joseph Shoer

The National Ignition Facility – a humongoid stack of lasers all aimed at a tiny target to try and compress it until it fuses – announced today that they had “positive fuel gains,” meaning that fusion happened and that more energy came … Continue reading →

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Jove’s Moon Shot

Posted on 9 February 2014 by Joseph Shoer

Here’s a bit of wild speculation for the weekend: Suppose there is intelligent life in the globe-spanning ocean on Europa. Given how small our space exploration budget is, and our generally declining investments in R&D, how likely is it that … Continue reading →

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