It’s fifty years today since Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin stepped out on the surface of the Moon. I was a kid when it happened, but I remember it as yesterday – watching the wobbly image of Armstrong, on TV, as he made his way across the lunar surface. Looking back, we can see through … More Dreams of humanity: fifty years on
I find it incredible to think that this week has marked the fiftieth anniversary of the flight of Apollo 11 – the first landing on the Moon. Half a century: and yet, in many ways, it seems like yesterday. I was a kid at the time. Back then space was the place, as Sun Ra … More A half century since Apollo 11: a personal memoir
Hurrah for the Apollo 50th anniversary – and here’s how Apollo 11 came close to disaster on landing #Apollo50 #Apollo11 … More Hurrah for Apollo 11’s 50th anniversary!
One of my favourite Robert A. Heinlein novels is Time for the Stars, a realisation of Albert Einstein’s ‘twin paradox’ that Heinlein wrote in the mid-1950s as part of his so-called ‘juvenile’ series. It was an outcome of the slightly berserk nature of Einstein’s 1905 theory of Special Relativity, which – with his theory of … More Einstein’s twin paradox explained
Lately space science has made a slightly disturbing discovery. Space travel makes you go blind. Really. It’s a bit of a surprise, given that in other ways science has found solutions for most of the biomedical problems of free fall and, along the way, learned an awful lot about osteoporosis, which is a spinoff of … More Don’t space travel. You’ll go blind.
I don’t know whether to applaud or shudder at Elon Musk’s announcement that Space-X will launch a private ‘moon tourist’ mission late in 2018. I want to applaud because it’s deeply cool, damned bold, and it’s what humanity needs to be doing if we’re to keep any kind of space dream alive. Good stuff. But … More Space X’s trans-lunar mission isn’t a new idea – but it’s cool
The other day I picked up an interesting snippet about the likely breakfast menu on NASA’s upcoming Orion spacecraft. Because the vehicle is weight- and volume-critical, there are going to be problems packing enough food in for the expected 28-30 day duration asteroid investigation missions. The same issue also applies to storing the – er … More Breakfast in space, on an asteroid, in a tin can
The idea of aliens arriving and promptly attacking us, Independence Day fashion, recently popped up again largely on the back of another Independence Day movie. But it’s also been offered as a warning by no less a person than Stephen Hawking. And when Hawking says something – well, it pays to listen. Is it true … More Would aliens attack us, Independence Day style?
I saw a documentary the other day about Project Orion – which to me underscored just how much times have changed since the 1960s. Owing to a severe attack of geekiness, I already knew quite a bit about the idea, but this added interviews with project scientists such as Freeman Dyson. What was it? On … More Surfing the nuclear blast wave – with science!
I like Trek ‘the original series’ way better than Star Wars ‘Part IV’ because Trek gave us Spock. That’s it, really. But let me explain some more. When Lucas developed Star Wars (by which I mean the original 1977 movie) he deliberately wrote a story that spoke to our deepest senses of mythic self –for … More I like Trek ‘the original series’ way better than Star Wars ‘Part IV’ because…
Matthew Wright 
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