drew@drewexmachina.com
On January 25, 2004, NASA’s MER B (Mars Exploration Rover B) named Opportunity successfully landed at 1.95° S, 354.47° W on Meridiani Planum. After moving out […]
When I was growing up in the 1970s, I was already an avid space enthusiast who tried to keep abreast of all the latest space missions. […]
With the start of the Apollo program in 1960, a wide range of technologies and techniques needed to be developed to mount advanced missions beyond Earth […]
At the same time American agencies like NACA and the USAF were studying manned spaceflight through the 1950s (see “The Origins of NASA’s Mercury Program”), comparable […]
One of the most crucial phases of many interplanetary missions is orbit insertion. Everything must go right the first time, or the spacecraft fails to enter […]
Archaeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of artifacts and other evidence of material culture. While normally one associates archaeology with […]
The mention of the “dark side of the Moon” as a synonym for the lunar “far side” on any online forum inevitably leads to a torrent […]
As the Voyager spacecraft continue their missions onwards into interstellar space, it seems hard to believe that it has already been 30 years since the encounter […]
Whenever the hot weather finally arrives in New England, some of my thoughts during idle moments turn towards memories of summer vacations from school when I […]
As the historic Apollo 11 mission was heading to the Moon, a bit of space drama was unfolding before the eyes of the world. Just three […]
On October 18, 1967 the sole 1V spacecraft to survive launch for the Soviet “V-67” mission to Venus, called Venera 4, finally reached its target. The […]
As the Cold War deepened in the 1950s, Americans developed an ever worsening case of paranoia about its primary adversary, the Soviet Union. These fears were […]
