Space Exploration Archives

Aerospace & Defense

People think Earth dies when the Sun becomes a red giant in five billion years — the more likely end is a billion years from now, when a star already 30 percent brighter than at birth pushes CO₂ too low for C3 plants, then a moist greenhouse strips the oceans of hydrogen and leaves a sterile Venus

The popular ending is fire. The actual ending is a slow loss of air that plants can breathe, then of water that can come...

Harrison KassSeptember 20, 2026

Venera 13 Venus Probe Creative Commons Photo

Aerospace & Defense

Venus Takes 243 Earth Days to Turn Once on Its Axis and 224.7 Earth Days to Circle the Sun. Its Equator Creeps Along at About 4 Miles per Hour — Slower Than a Person Walks — While the Planet Itself Races Through Space at 78,000 Miles per Hour.

Venus is the closest thing to a twin Earth has, and almost nothing about how it moves makes sense. It turns once every 243...

Harrison KassSeptember 16, 2026

Space and Technology

In 1984 the Soviet Union sent Vega 2 to Venus, where the surface is 900 degrees Fahrenheit under 90 times Earth’s pressure, hot enough to melt lead — then released a balloon that drifted for two days high in its clouds.

In December 1984 the Soviet Union launched Vega 2 on an unusual double mission: fly past Halley's Comet, then plunge into Venus, a world...

Harrison KassJuly 30, 2026

Space and Technology

Inside Mars’s Jezero Crater, once a lake and river delta, NASA’s Perseverance rover found complex carbon molecules built from the same four elements as all life on Earth — yet no one can yet say whether biology or ordinary chemistry made them.

NASA's Perseverance rover has found complex, ring-shaped carbon molecules sealed inside rocks in Mars's Jezero Crater, a basin that billions of years ago held...

Harrison KassJuly 27, 2026

Space and Technology

Saturn’s moon Titan has rain, rivers, seas, dunes, and seasons just like Earth, but at 290 degrees below zero the rain is liquid methane, the rivers carve ice, and the mountains are water frozen harder than granite — and in 2028 NASA sends a drone to see if it hides life.

Saturn's moon Titan looks uncannily like Earth: clouds, rain, rivers, lakes, seas, coastlines, dunes, and seasons. Then you learn the rain is liquid methane,...

Harrison KassJuly 27, 2026

Space and Technology

In July 2028 NASA launches a car-sized, 1,000-pound nuclear drone toward Saturn’s moon Titan, a six-year, $3.35 billion trip to a world where the air is four times denser than Earth’s, gravity is one-seventh as strong, and flying is the easy part.

NASA is about to try something it has never attempted: instead of another six-wheeled rover, it will fly a car-sized, plutonium-powered drone across the...

Harrison KassJuly 24, 2026

Space and Technology

NASA Hired Hollywood Stunt Pilots to Catch a Falling Spacecraft With a Fishing Hook. Four Upside-Down Switches Ruined It

They rehearsed the helicopter catch eleven times without a miss. Then four switches, installed upside down to a drawing nobody questioned, sent three years...

Harry J. KazianisJuly 18, 2026

19FortyFive

All posts tagged "Space Exploration"

Aerospace & Defense

Aerospace & Defense

Venus Takes 243 Earth Days to Turn Once on Its Axis and 224.7 Earth Days to Circle the Sun. Its Equator Creeps Along at About 4 Miles per Hour — Slower Than a Person Walks — While the Planet Itself Races Through Space at 78,000 Miles per Hour.

Space and Technology

In 1984 the Soviet Union sent Vega 2 to Venus, where the surface is 900 degrees Fahrenheit under 90 times Earth’s pressure, hot enough to melt lead — then released a balloon that drifted for two days high in its clouds.

Space and Technology

Inside Mars’s Jezero Crater, once a lake and river delta, NASA’s Perseverance rover found complex carbon molecules built from the same four elements as all life on Earth — yet no one can yet say whether biology or ordinary chemistry made them.

Space and Technology

Saturn’s moon Titan has rain, rivers, seas, dunes, and seasons just like Earth, but at 290 degrees below zero the rain is liquid methane, the rivers carve ice, and the mountains are water frozen harder than granite — and in 2028 NASA sends a drone to see if it hides life.

Space and Technology

In July 2028 NASA launches a car-sized, 1,000-pound nuclear drone toward Saturn’s moon Titan, a six-year, $3.35 billion trip to a world where the air is four times denser than Earth’s, gravity is one-seventh as strong, and flying is the easy part.

Space and Technology

NASA Hired Hollywood Stunt Pilots to Catch a Falling Spacecraft With a Fishing Hook. Four Upside-Down Switches Ruined It

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