SETI Institute Konstantin Tsiolkovsky Intro BiographyTsiolkovsky, Konstantin Eduardovich (1857-1935). Konstantin E. Tsiolkovsky State Museum of the History of Cosmonautics Russian physicist and school teacher, regarded as the founder of modern rocket theory. Born in the small town of Izhevskoye almost exactly 100 years before his country placed the world's first artificial satellite in orbit, Tsiolkovsky developed the mathematics of rocketry and pioneered a number of ideas crucial to space travel including that of multistage launch vehicles. He later recalled: "For a long time I thought of the rocket as everybody else did – just as a means of diversion and of petty everyday uses. Early Years At age nine, Tsiolkovsky went deaf following a bout of scarlet fever, an event that prevented him from attending school but led him to become an avid reader. At the age of 17, while living in Moscow, he first dreamed about the possibility of space flight. In 1878, Tsiolkovsky became a math teacher in Kaluga, two hours south of the capital.
Nanotechnology summary Just give me the FAQ The next few paragraphs provide a brief introduction to the core concepts of nanotechnology, followed by links to further reading. Manufactured products are made from atoms. The properties of those products depend on how those atoms are arranged. If we rearrange the atoms in coal we can make diamond. If we rearrange the atoms in sand (and add a few other trace elements) we can make computer chips. If we rearrange the atoms in dirt, water and air we can make potatoes. Todays manufacturing methods are very crude at the molecular level. It's like trying to make things out of LEGO blocks with boxing gloves on your hands. In the future, nanotechnology (more specifically, molecular nanotechnology or MNT) will let us take off the boxing gloves. "Nanotechnology" has become something of a buzzword and is applied to many products and technologies that are often largely unrelated to molecular nanotechnology. Nanotechnology will let us: Some Frequently Asked Questions More Information Books
German Satellite Fell to Earth Over Indian Ocean's Bay of Bengal | ROSAT & German Roentgen Satellite | Space Junk & Orbital Debris An old German satellite most likely met a watery grave during its weekend plunge to Earth, a fall from space that ended over the Bay of Bengal in the northeast Indian Ocean, German space agency officials say. The 21-year-old Roentgen Satellite, or ROSAT, re-entered Earth's atmosphere on Saturday (Oct. 22) at 9:50 p.m. EDT (0150 GMT Sunday, Oct. 23). It is not currently known whether any fragments of the 2.7-ton satellite reached Earth's surface after its fiery trip through the atmosphere, officials at the German Aerospace Center (DLR) said. The debris was expected to fall over a 50-mile (80-kilometer) track of the Earth's surface. "With the re-entry of ROSAT, one of the most successful German scientific space missions has been brought to its ultimate conclusion," Johann-Dietrich Wörner, chairman of the German Aerospace Center's Executive Board, said in a statement. Artist's impression of the ROSAT satellite in space.Credit: German Aerospace Center
Giant Impact Hypothesis Artist's depiction of a collision between two planetary bodies. Such an impact between the Earth and a Mars-sized object likely formed the Moon. The giant impact hypothesis states that the Moon was formed out of the debris left over from an indirect collision between the Earth and an astronomical body the size of Mars, approximately 4.5 Gya (four and a half billion years ago) in the Hadean eon. There remain several questions concerning the best current models of the giant impact hypothesis, however.[5] The energy of such a giant impact is predicted to heat Earth to produce a global 'ocean' of magma; yet there is no evidence of the resultant planetary differentiation of the heavier material sinking into Earth's mantle. History[edit] A similar approach was taken by Canadian astronomer Alastair G. Theia[edit] Basic model[edit] The Earth would have gained significant amounts of angular momentum and mass from such a collision. Energetic aftermath[edit] Evidence[edit] Difficulties[edit]
The Elegant Universe: Series ... The Elegant Universe: Part 3 PBS Airdate: November 4, 2003 NARRATOR: Now, on NOVA, take a thrill ride into a world stranger than science fiction, where you play the game by breaking some rules, where a new view of the universe pushes you beyond the limits of your wildest imagination. BRIAN GREENE (Columbia University): And no matter how many times I come here, I never seem to get used to it. NARRATOR: Can he help us solve the greatest puzzle of modern physics—that our understanding of the universe is based on two sets of laws that don't agree? NARRATOR: Resolving that contradiction eluded even Einstein, who made it his final quest. BRIAN GREENE: We really may live in a universe with more dimensions than meet the eye. AMANDA PEET (University of Toronto): People who have said that there were extra dimensions of space have been labeled crackpots, or people who are bananas. NARRATOR: A mirage of science and mathematics or the ultimate theory of everything? S. We see 400 employees in three years.
Science Encyclopedia First Flight of SpaceShipOne However, 100 kilometers is an awful long way up, so shortly into its 80-second burn, SpaceShipOne climbed above the angle of the sun into clear blue sky. We didn't realize it at the time, but there were a couple of serious malfunctions as the craft accelerated to more than Mach 2.9 (2150 mph or 3460 km/h). About 7 seconds after ignition, a 60 knot (70 mph or 110 km/h) wind shear caused an unintended 90 degree rotation, which the pilot corrected. Just 10 seconds after starting its climb it reached Mach 1, and the rocket continued burning for another 66 seconds before automatically shutting down. Late during this powered phase, one of the motors which control the trim adjustment malfunctioned and although Melvill quickly swapped to a backup system the ship wasn't quite at the right angle as it climbed.
Greek Mythology Resource Page Greek Mythology Resource Page Greek mythology refers to the entire corpus of fantastic and heroic stories used by ancient Greek people to make sense of the world in which they lived. Though they are studied now mainly from a literary and cultural perspective, for the people of the classical Greek world, they were the facts of religious life. Greek mythology was intricately bound up in notions of cosmology , the study of the origin and nature of the universe. Greek Mythology from OpenUW: College-level course materials on Greek mythology provided by the University of Washington under its OpenUW project. Flash Physics Engine Box2DFlashAS3 1.4.2 Brief Answers to Cosmic Questions Structure of the Universe Does the Universe have an edge, beyond which there is nothing? Are the galaxies arranged on the surface of a sphere? Why can't we see the whole universe? Does the term "universe" refer to space, or to the matter in it, or to both? Evolution of the Universe Did the Universe expand from a point? More about the Big Bang When they say "the universe is expanding," what exactly is expanding? Structure of the Universe Does the Universe have an edge, beyond which there is nothing? Are the galaxies arranged on the surface of a sphere? Why can't we see the whole universe? If you could suddenly freeze time everywhere in the universe, and magically survey all of creation, you would find galaxies extending out far beyond what we can see today. Does the term "universe" refer to space, or to the matter in it, or to both? Today, the situation is reversed. Discovering the properties of space remains one of the deepest and most important problems in modern science.