The Next Threat to Astronauts: Moon Dust
NASA is planning to build a lunar outpost by 2024, but the agency has a nitty-gritty problem to tackle first: jagged, ultraclingy moon dust, which could threaten the entire mission. Apollo astronauts discovered that the dust, with grains roughly ... [... more]
Popular Mechanics |
Mission to the Moon: How We'll Go Back - and Stay This Time
After a three-day journey, circa 2020, the Apollo-like Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle orbits the moon unmanned. Astronauts descend to the lunar surface in the Artemis lander. (Concept render by Jeremy Cook) One hundred and eighty-five miles above ... [... more]
Popular Mechanics |
Pilot's Perspective: The Crash of a Yankee
Wise flies a Cessna 172 above the East River next to Manhattan's Upper East Side, with Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle's crash site almost directly below him. When I was a newly minted private pilot like Yankee pitcher Cory Lidle, I did the same thing ... [... more]
Popular Mechanics |
Jesse James Builds A Flying Car On 'Monster Garage'
An increasingly loud discussion at the back of the car attracts several crew members--and the hovering camera. Over the rear of the vehicle, one group has fabricated an articulated frame out of steel square tubing. On top of it is a Lycoming ... [... more]
Popular Mechanics |
Civilian UAVs: No Pilot, No Problem
At twilight on a clear November evening, CBP-104 rolls onto the tarmac at Fort Huachuca, Ariz., revs its 900-hp turboprop engine and takes off into the ruby desert sky. Banking left, it straightens and climbs on a southerly heading, leveling off ... [... more]
Popular Mechanics |
Heavy Lifting: Big Ambitions, Small Markets
The weather over much of Western Europe on Sept. 4 was, in pilotspeak, severe clear-ideal conditions for the first flight of the world's largest passenger airplane with "civilians" on board. Carrying nearly 500 Airbus employees, the A380 took [... more]
Popular Mechanics |
NASA Mission Statement Q & A;: Eyes on Earth
In a report released this week, a committee appointed by the Council's Space Studies Board warns that a number of measurements providing critical information about Earth processes will cease to be made over the next few years. By 2010, it says, ... [... more]
Popular Mechanics |
NASA's New Moon Robot: Dig It!
To make air, the processing plant will add hydrogen to moon soil, heat it to 1652 F, condense the steam, and finally extract the oxygen. The blue LIDAR (LIght Detection And Ranging) box atop the 3-ft.-long bot sees by bouncing light off nearby ... [... more]
Popular Mechanics |
Should We Repair Hubble?
After repairing Hubble in 2002, the crew of Columbia took a photo of the telescope. NASA has decided to make one final - and controversial - repair call to the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), which is slowly dying after more than 16 years in orbit. ... [... more]
Popular Mechanics |
* Dual Rotors:
Helicopters have always had a hard time going fast. The forward motion of the chopper adds airspeed to advancing blades, while simultaneously reducing the speed of retreating blades. So, at high speeds one blade risks going supersonic as it gains ... [... more]
Popular Mechanics |
Robot Chopper: The Navy's Smartest UAV
The UAV during a test at Webster Field in Maryland on Dec. 18, 2006. It can fly as high has 20,000 ft., and faster than 125 knots. The Fire Scout is arguably the smartest unmanned aerial vehicle ever built. Unlike remote-operated drones such as ... [... more]
Popular Mechanics |
New Space: Maverick Rocketeers Aim for the Sky
It's Saturday night at a business park in a quiet suburb northeast of Dallas. The place is all but abandoned, the parking lot empty except for a cluster of cars parked around the corner. A late rain has slickened the black asphalt. A garage door ... [... more]
Popular Mechanics |
