Nov 20, 2009

Two hundred years after the first man and woman graced the plains of Mars, humanity is still isolated to just one star system. Despite an intense campaign by the Alpha Centauri Society, humans overall have little desire to travel between stars due to cost and technology. Although this rowdy species has yet to claim their interstellar inheritence, they have...

Mar 23, 2009

(Image: A prototype of the Mini-Helicon Plasma Thruster. Credit: Donna Coveney / MIT) Out “in the black” where the suns rays are much dimmer, future explorers will have to come up with innovative ways to travel to and from the gas giants, dwarf planets and the various moons that dance around their parent worlds. While solar sails, magnetic sails and...

Dec 10, 2008

Image Credit: Loony Tunes Note: Article inspired by NASA Watch, The Planetary Society and 21st Century WavesWarning: This is an extremely long article, so you may want to grab a quick snack as you read through this post. Anyone who has ever played board games such as Risk and Monopoly knows that the overall purpose of the game is for one player to dominant the...

Nov 10, 2008

(Hat Tip: Centauri Dreams, Image Credit: NASA) To say one could easily explore the surface of Titan without descending below the clouds would be as silly as trying to fathom Earth’s oceanic depths without using machines to probe the deep. If Titan is destined to be a future home for humanity, then we are going to have to find a way to accurately explore...

May 5, 2008

(Hat Tip: The Space Fellowship, Image Credit: NASA) Located approximately 1.5 billion kilometers away from the Sun, Saturn’s Titan may prove to be one of the more interesting worlds to live upon in our solar system. While it would not be surprising to see cites constructed upon the moon due to its methane lakes, future colonists may find its sand to be...

Apr 5, 2008

(Image Credit: NASA / JPL / University of Arizona) When camping outside in an unfamiliar wilderness, two essential tools one needs to consider packing are a map, and a compass. While the former is wise so one knows the overall layout of an area, the latter can help you determine which direction the final destination lies. Aside from Mercury, Earth and Ganymede,...

Mar 5, 2008

Of the 83 colony worlds that dance and prance around our golden star, only six worlds (excluding our home planet) hold the potential of being future homes, nine if you include Mercury, Pluto and Charon. Despite the fact that future technology could eventually open up all of these worlds for human habitation, only a few of them may attract “the...

Sep 5, 2007

Our race is indeed blessed to inhabit a fertile world that orbits our favorite star, Sol. With 83 colony worlds dancing around our yellow sun, one can only imagine all the possibilities of our brave race inhabiting them all. Of course, reality has a way of correcting our fantasies, and just as humanity refuses to dwell near or upon certain mountains, canyons and...