spederson

This morning, my wife and I were enjoying some coffee on the front porch. This has been a missed event with the heat and rain from the summer. While drinking, I watched as a hummingbird hovered nearby.

The Gift So, what do you give a son who just turned 22? Why not just ask? His response was going to a concert together. Now, this might not be a big deal, but it's been 34 years since I attended a concert

Will the Moon's Dust Put a Screeching Halt to Setting Up Moon Bases? There is continued talk about going back to the moon and even settling it. Afterall, it's been around 42 years since we step foot on

Curiosity experiences a global blackout It's been a while since I posted anything, but with school coming to an end, grading and finishing year-end tasks this has taken up most of my time. With that said,

Insight to Mars So, Insight has launched (see below), and the first from the West Coast. But Why? NASA rockets normally launch from Florida where they can fly safely over the ocean and take advantage of

First image from ExoMars In my week four update, I discussed the status of ExoMars and the demise of the lander. This week, the orbiter took this wonderful photo shown below. The Colour and Stereo Surface

Happy Earth Day! This week's post is being dedicated to how the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the European Space Agency (ESA) are trying to study Earth in order to understand

Space News "Week Four" Advanced Plant Habitat [Image Credit] NASA Research on the International Space Station continues to support both research to further our movement into space as well as

Space News "Week Three" Well, despite my hopes for a souvenir, the Chinese Space station crashed into the ocean this week. I only saw one April fools joke concerning this. In the video below,

Space News "Week Two" Space has definitely been busy this week as I present my second weekly series on what's happening in space. Probably the biggest topic is when and where will the Chinese

Space News "Week One" Space is an ever-growing adventure with so much going on within it. I will begin a new weekly series to present some of these exciting events. Let me start this week with

Image Credit Astronaut Q & A Today, astronaut Joseph Acaba conducted a tweet-up allowing individuals an opportunity to ask questions. It's not very often you get to hear it direct from an astronaut's

Mars Desert Training So, we're going to Mars and several private companies have already set that as a goal. Will we die....will we survive? I've talked about many of these issues in previous posts, but

Telemedicine in Space? Technology is advancing at an ever-increasing rate and with this advancement comes the opportunity to advance medicine to distant places. Recently, two college graduate students

In my first post concerning Space X's Big Falcon Rocket (BFR), I discussed issues associated with the rocket decent, payload bay including crew quarters, and likely affects these travelers can expect to

The Challenges for Space X's Big Falcon Rocket (Part two of three) In my first post concerning Space X's Big Falcon Rocket (BFR), I discussed issues associated with the rocket decent, payload bay including

The Challenges for Space X's Big Falcon Rocket (Part one of three) In September 2017, Elon Musk presented his vision for Space X's Big Falcon Rocket (BFR). With his recent launch of the Falcon Heavy, with

Tesla in Space - Why? With all the hype from Space X's launch of the Tesla, one has to wonder why such a launch was made. First, there was speculation that this car launch was a rumor, but finally, the

Yes! Astronauts can watch the game too! With Superbowl 52 today, our off-world astronauts will also have the chance to watch the game on a 65" screen with projector (Barrett, 2015). Uplinks are created

Super Blue Blood Moon? What is That? Tomorrow morning, much of the U.S. will wake up with a bright red moon. But why is it called a super blue red moon, and what causes it? Three facts contribute to this.