Hunting for Alien Megastructures
See also The Best Way to Find Aliens: Look for Their Solar Power Plants, which I referenced here and the Chicon Dyson Sphere Update.
More on Dyson Spheres and similar feats of mega-engineering
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Tag Archives: space
Space News
Putin unveils $50 bn Russian space drive
The total proposed NASA budget for Fiscal Year 2014 (which starts Oct. 1, 2013) is $17.7 billion. This is $55 million lower than 2012, and $170 lower than 2013. That’s a drop of roughly only 1 percent, which these days can be considered holding steady.
The Language of Space
Want to be an Astronaut? Learn How to Speak Russian
You may wonder: “Shouldn’t Cosmonauts have to speak English?” I expect most of them learned it long before joining the space program.
In fact the situation is not symmetric. American astronauts as well as Russian Cosmonauts fly to space from a Russian-speaking site (the Baikonur Cosmodrome) in a Russian vehicle (the Soyuz).
Russia’s Soyuz Spacecraft
46 Years and Still Soaring High
While many improvements have been made to the Soyuz rockets and spacecraft since the first launch in 1966, the bottom line is that the Soyuz have become the world’s most used launch vehicles due to their consistent performance and relatively low cost.
“This is a safe and reliable and proven way to leave the Earth, and each successive Soyuz is different; each one has small changes. The role of the astronaut is to learn those small changes… and learn to apply them.”
– Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield
What would it take to take it?
The Best Way to Find Aliens
Curiosity: The Mars Science Laboratory
Notes from a panel at Chicon 7. Saturday, September 1, 2012, with weblinks and occasional
amplifications added.
Curiosity: The Mars Science Laboratory
The Mars Science Laboratory has the ambitious mission to study the climate, geology, and potential for life of Mars. Weeks after landing, what have we learned? What do we expect to find out in the coming months?
Bill Higgins [beamjockey], Brother Guy Consolmagno [brotherguy]
Dyson Sphere Update
Notes from a panel at Chicon 7. 12 noon, Friday, August 31, 2012. Weblinks and various comments and expansions added.
Dyson Sphere Update
What is a Dyson sphere? When can we make one, or at least part of one, and how? As a society, would we want to? What could one do with a Dyson sphere? Can we detect one now, or in the near future? What would be the environmental ethics of a Dyson sphere maker?
Jordin Kare, Allen M. Steele, James L. Cambias, David L Clements, G. David Nordley
