Science: Air & Space - Popular Mechanics

Science: Air & Space Archive

465 records found. Displaying 1 to 30 Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16
Dwayne Johnson Promotes Space Exploration for NASA (With Video!) In Planet 51, Dwayne Johnson voices Chuck, an astronaut who lands on an extra-solar planet populated by aliens—so NASA felt he was the perfect person to spearhead the agency's new series of public service announcements.
Leonid Meteor Shower Dazzled, Impressed: Gallery Did you see the Leonid meteor shower? Or was it just too cloudy to spot the shooting stars? Well, PM has the next best thing: images of the shower in full swing—as well as a calendar of North American meteor showers so that you don’t miss the next event.
Top 6 North American Meteor Showers You Don’t Want to Miss Did you forget to go see the Leonid meteor shower? Or was it just too cloudy to spot the shooting stars? PM has compiled a calendar of North American meteor showers so that you don’t miss the next meteor fest.
This Is Not Your Grade School Solar System: Gallery In the last 30 years, new instruments and methods have acted together to form one giant, interdisciplinary zoom lens on our planetary companions. Here, planet by planet, is a quick guide to how our vision of the solar system has changed.
Hopes Stirring at NASA for Ares Engineering Vindication: Exclusive When NASA released news of troubles surrounding the Ares I rocket's propensity to shake violently, critics were quick to jeer. But now engineers are optimistic that the fears have been overstated after reviewing early data from the Ares I-X's test flight.
The Retirement of the Space Shuttle—And What's Next for NASA At this pivotal moment in manned space flight history, PM looks back at our coverage of the technology behind the Constellation Program and the development of the International Space Station, as well as news surrounding the Space Shuttles.
NASA Confirms There Is Water on the Moon—But Where Did It Come From? A month after it sent the LCROSS (Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite) probe hurtling into the Cabeus crater near the moon's south pole, NASA revealed today that it has uncovered irrefutable evidence of "significant quantities" of water.
UFOlogy Hits a New Low With The Fourth Kind: Analysis The Fourth Kind's unconvincing, irreverent UFOlogy gives this reviewer chills. The movie stumbles directly into the biggest problems facing the discussion and investigation of UFOs and alien abductions.
Ares' Continued Technical Problems and Money Troubles: Guest Analysis Space analyst Rand Simberg argues here that last week's test flight of the Ares I-X rocket, NASA's planned, vaunted crew-launch system, did little to stem the controversy over the program.
California Searchers Scour for Survivors of Midair Crash Aircraft and ships are scouring the ocean off San Diego for any signs of survivors of a nighttime collision of a Coast Guard C-130 airplane and a Marine Corps attack helicopter.
How Plane Technologies Affect the Titanium Market: Timeline The prices of raw materials offer a barometer to measure the ebbs and flows of manufacturing—and, in that way, the titanium market is a mirror of the often erratic aerospace industry. (Published in the November 2009 issue)
Rooting for NASA's Ares I Rockets: Analysis This week, all eyes were on NASA as it conducted the first flight of the Ares I, the first launch vehicle the agency designed since the Space Shuttle. PM shows why NASA’s Constellation program remains important, and is exceedingly difficult to replace.
9 Wildest Exoplanets Ever Spotted A team of European astronomers has discovered 32 new exoplanets, bringing the total of planets found outside our solar system to 403. Here, we've combed through the hundreds to pick the 9 hottest, biggest, most eccentric alien worlds ever found.
Critics and Proponents Wait Out NASA's Ares 1-X Rocket Delay Severe winds and bad weather delayed NASA's first Ares 1-X rocket test today. The launch, which will culminate in a 6-minute flight to test the new hardware, will pick up again tomorrow.
NASA's Orbiter Captures Strange Martian Tattoo Image The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter captured an image of ornate markings on the surface of Mars. The markings were created by dust devils—spinning columns of rising air—which last just minutes, pick up the red dust on the surface and leave behind darker soil.
5 Surprising Passages From the Full Augustine Report NASA recently released the full report by its Review of Human Spaceflight Plans Committee. The 157-page examination lacked an endorsement of an overall strategy, but there are a few passages of interest that were not included in the summary released in September.
Balloon Rescue 101: Airborne Lessons From A "Missing" Boy Today, when it was thought that a child ascended in a homemade rig to over 10,000 ft with temperatures as low as 20 F, we saw first-hand the inherent dangers of DIY ballooning.
X2 Helicopter Gurus Pay Homage to Engineering Inspirations With the successful test flight of the X2 in August 2008, the team that created it proved that their stacked rotor design had solved the conundrum of dissymmetry of lift. The trick is a coaxial rotor system whose blades spin in opposite directions, generating constant lift.
8 Experts Weigh in on the Future of Human Spaceflight The Review of U.S. Human Space Flight Planes Committee is getting ready to release its full report detailing the options for the future of manned missions into space. While the discussion over NASA's future continues, PM turned to the leading rocketeers, astronauts and manufacturers to weigh in on t...
10 Most Brilliant Innovators of 2009: X2 Coaxial Rotor Helicopter The X2 engineering team has overcome a basic limitation in rotary-wing aerodynamics—the dissymmetry of lift—and has set itself on the path to building the world’s fastest helicopter. (Published in the November 2009 issue)
10 Most Brilliant Innovators of 2009: Kepler Space Telescope The Kepler spacecraft takes aim at a group of 100,000-plus stars in our region of the Milky Way in search of exoplanets—and life. (Published in the November 2009 issue)
10 Most Brilliant Innovators of 2009: Deep Space Plasma Thruster Oleg Batishchev designed the light, cheap Mini-Helicon Plasma Thruster for deep space travel. The engine relies simply on the acceleration of plasma, a gaseous cloud in which atoms have been stripped of their electrons. (Published in the November 2009 issue)
Global Aspirations for a Solar-Electric Plane Electric airplanes are not being made just for joyrides. Swiss engineers have unveiled the prototype of an airplane they hope will become the first manned vehicle to fly around the world powered only by the sun. (Published in the October 2009 issue)
Water Found on the Moon: PM Breaking News A joint U.S.-Indian mission to the moon has discovered water on the lunar surface. The Indian Space Research Organization's Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft has found the presence of water molecules while mapping the moon. NASA helped to confirm the findings.
Launch System Skepticism Grows at Space 2009: Guest Analysis On September 14, the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) Space 2009 Conference kicks off—and with it come critical technical papers and important insider analysis on the future of manned spaceflight.
How to Make a (More) Environmentally Friendly Rocket Fuel Every NASA launch leaves a huge cloud of exhaust and chemicals in its wake. Alternative, more eco-friendly rocket fuels have made a number of advances in recent months. Here are some of the latest options to fuel a cleaner, more efficient rocket launch.
Why NASA Should Bomb the Moon to Find Water: Analysis NASA's LCROSS, which crash-landed into the moon on Oct. 9, 2009, has confirmed that there is water on the moon, silencing once and for all critics of this mission. Here's why we rooted for the mission to bombard the moon from the beginning.
Risk Aversion and NASA Don't Mix: Augustine Report Analysis The so-called Augustine committee came forward with a number of conclusions that were probably no big surprise to industry insiders. Rand Simberg finds the report a little too innocuous. He asks, what happens when we take the risk out of space travel?
Who’s Killing the Electric Plane? U.S. Aviation designers are hampered by federal rules restricting the use of battery-powered aircraft. Here is a look at a few electric planes that, under current FAA rules, are unavailable to sport pilots. (Published in the October 2009 issue)
5 Ways the Augustine Commission's Report States the Obvious A group of respected aerospace experts spent the entire summer coming up with plans for the future of NASA. The blue-ribbon commission recently released its initial findings and recommendations—and the results are anything but shocking.
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