Space Video of the Day - 070920

Today's space video of the day is a retrospective of the 42 year career of John Young, Orlando's favorite son and astronaut extraordinaire, which was produced by NASA on his retirement in 2004.


Space Video of the Day Archive

Space Video of the Day - 070919

Avast, today be yon annual talk like a pirate day, so today's space video be about space pirates, from the creative folks at Futurama. Arrr.


Here be yer Space Video of the Day Archive, matey

Space Video of the Day - 070918

Today's space video is actually two videos, parts 1 and 2 of a video about America's first space station, Skylab.




Space Video of the Day Archive

Space Video of the Day - 070917

A week ago, the Cassini spacecraft did a flyby of Saturn's moon Iapetus, giving us the clearest view yet of this strange moon. There is an equatorial mountain range circling the moon, with some mountains up to 20 kilometers tall; it almost looks like the moon was broken apart and squished back together.


Space Video of the Day Archive

Space Video of the Day - 070916

On September 14th, the Japanese Space Agency launched their KAYUGA probe to the moon; today's space video shows the launch of the spacecraft.


Space Video of the Day Archive

Space Video of the Day - 070915

Today's space video shows hurricane Dean as viewed from the international space station.


Space Video of the Day Archive

Space Video of the Day - 070914

In the 1920s, the Orteig prize was offered for the first person to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean, in an effort to increase research on aircraft. Won by Charles Lindbergh in 1927, the Orteig prize sparked innovation in the aircraft industry. Similarly, in 1999, the X-Prize (later the Ansari X-Prize) was a $10 million prize offered for the first team to send a craft capable of carrying passengers above 100 miles altitude twice in the span of two weeks. This was won in 2004 by Scaled Composites, and it sparked the beginnings of a suborbital launch industry that will be offering launches to paying customers before the end of the decade.

Yesterday Google and the X-Prize foundation announced the Google Lunar X Prize, the largest international prize in history, with $30 million in prizes up for grabs. The $20 million first prize is for the first team to soft-land a robot on the moon, travel at least 500 meters, and return panoramic images and video. The $5 million second prize goes to the second team to complete the task, and the remaining $5 million is for bonus prizes for such things as surviving the 14.5 day lunar night, for imaging an Apollo landing site, for travelling longer distances (ie 5 km) and/or for verifying the presence of water ice in the permanently-shaded crater bottoms on the lunar poles. The first prize is available until December 31, 2012, and the contest closes on December 31, 2014.

I am going to enter this competition (I didn't name this blog Robot Guy for no reason). Of course, I'm not going to do this all by myself, but the team I am on includes some very smart engineers, including the guy who invented the afterburner and the thrust tubes used on all supersonic aircraft today. I am very excited about this prize, and even if I don't win it will spark innovation in both the launch industry and in autonomous robotics.


Space Video of the Day Archive