SAN FRANCISCO, 11:39 PM, THU MAY 15 | 27 POSTS IN THE LAST 24 HOURS | tips@io9.com | SUBMIT A TIP | RSS
Posts Tagged “

Space Age

”
space race

The U.S. Needs A Space Race With China

China plans to launch 15 rockets, 17 satellites and a crewed spaceship during 2008. But that's not going to be enough to scare the United States into launching a new space race. And the U.S. really, really needs a new space race to get us to take space exploration seriously again. More »

Feature

9:00 AM on Thu Jan 24 2008
By charliejane
964 views, 28 comments

The first person on Mars may be a woman, says a Kansas op-ed. For the first time ever, two female space shuttle commanders on separate missions met up in space. But NASA is facing questions about its plans to end the space shuttle program in 2010. [Kansas.com, KHOU.com]

Comment

space war

Super Lasers Of The Cold War

By the early 1980s, the Soviet Union will have a fleet of space shuttles far superior to our own, plus a network of space stations and a second fleet of orbital vehicles to service them. Oh, and mega laser weapons. That was the prediction in a 1974 book Soviet Conquest From Space. How did Peter James get it so wrong? More »

11:00 AM on Thu Nov 15 2007
By charliejane
115 views, Comment

space age

China Will Win The Next Space Race

What will it take to launch another space age to replace the one that ended with the Cold War? Maybe another space race. China is ramping up its efforts to put people back on the Moon, launch more lunar orbiters, and build its own space station. Already, China is challenging the U.S.' domination of space launches. More »

11:40 AM on Wed Nov 14 2007
By charliejane
65 views, Comment

fashion

Fashionable Shoes For Space Travel

An Italian company called Geox is marketing shoes and outerwear that are packed with patented technologies invented for use by astronauts in space. A semi-permeable membrane lines each shoe and jacket. The membrane is riddled with micro-pores big enough to vent sweat, but small enough to prevent water from getting into the shoe. Geox's shoes are popular with celebs like Angelina Jolie and the Pope, and Geox chairman Mario Moretti Polegato enlightens us as to why:
The name 'Geox' [is] from the Greek word geo for 'earth,' and 'x,' the letter symbolizing technology. Wearing these shoes makes you feel you are walking barefoot on earth and without the stink.
The best part? There are thigh-high suede boots fitted out with this space-age micro-pore crap. I hope the boys up in the International Space Station are strutting around in those.

Space-age shoewear [via The Manila Standard]

More »

11:20 AM on Fri Oct 12 2007
By Annalee Newitz
33 views, Comment

space age

Space Is More Fun Without Space Travel

The end of the Space Age was the best thing that ever happened to science fiction, claims author Gerard J. DeGroot:
When the space age ended, the alien age began. In the early 1990s, the Disney Corporation decided to close down its Mission to Mars ride, itself a direct descendant of the Rocket to the Moon attraction Werner von Braun had helped to design. In its place came Alien Encounter, in which an extraterrestrial stows away on a spaceship. This made things easier for Disney, as one executive admitted: "One way for an attraction to remain timeless is for it to be based in fantasy, rather than reality."
More »

3:44 PM on Thu Oct 4 2007
By charliejane
68 views, Comment

space age

No Interstellar Future For You

Sure, when the Soviets launched Sputnik, it made us frantic. But then we lost the thrill of the race. Just ask astronomer Stuart Atkinson:
The Space Age is dead, it died of starvation and neglect, somewhere around 1980. Yes, we fed it and gave it money while it was young, and exciting, and sexy, while our love for it was bright and new, but when it got older, and needed more expensive care and more of our time and understanding we guided it to a comfy chair over on the far side of the room, made it a cup of tea, handed it a magazine and left it to look after itself
More »

2:46 PM on Thu Oct 4 2007
By charliejane
92 views, Comment

Sputnik Is Officially Old Fart Technology
Fifty years ago, the Space Age was born with the flight of Soviet satellite Sputnik, and with that came the age of Surveillance Paranoia. More Sputnik fetish photography available from your pals at NASA.

Comment