Back to the Moon

Post author:The Physics Detective
Post published:29th November 2022
Post category:Space travel
Post comments:17 Comments

I was pleased to hear about the Artemis space programme. NASA tell us that “Artemis is the first step in the next era of human exploration. Together with commercial and international partners, NASA will establish a sustainable presence on the Moon to prepare for missions to Mars”. That sounds good to me, because the future isn’t what it used to be, and going back to the Moon is like going back to the future. I have fond memories of the Apollo space programme: Public domain images courtesy of…

Of mice and men, and what must the neighbours think of us?

Post author:The Physics Detective
Post published:11th July 2021
Post category:Censorship Gamma ray bursts Space travel
Post comments:43 Comments

I don’t like mice. I saw one last Saturday night. I was sitting at our kitchen bar at maybe 8pm having a glass of wine with the wife. A movement out on the patio caught my eye, and there it was. A mouse. I swivelled on my stool and watched it through the French windows. It was jumping around all over the place in a crazy kind of way. Maybe it was after some bits of food I’d thrown out for the seagull earlier. The seagull…

UFOs and Aliens

Post author:The Physics Detective
Post published:10th June 2021
Post category:Gamma ray bursts Gravity Space travel
Post comments:50 Comments

It’s a big big universe. The diameter of the Earth is about eight thousand miles, so the circumference is about twenty five thousand miles. If you could walk twenty miles a day and didn’t have to worry about little things like rivers and mountains and oceans, it would take you one thousand two hundred and fifty days to walk twenty five thousand miles. That’s over three years. The Moon is about two hundred and fifty thousand miles away. If you could walk to the Moon, it…