Bill Housley
Science Fiction and Fantasy Author
About.me
Bill Housley
Author, Actor, Father, Wildman
Hates the World;
Loves the world;
Writes about the world;
End of Story.
Contact
Into the Dark–Escape of the Nomad
Where’s The Cat?
Another Man’s Terrorist
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Space.com Top Stories
- Comet 67P: Target of Rosetta Mission March 4, 2015Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko is a small body visited by the Rosetta spacecraft in the first mission to land on a comet.
- Google Gives Lick Observatory $1 Million to Relieve Funding Woes March 3, 2015Tech giant Google will give $1 million to Lick Observatory, a University of California, Berkeley facility that has been battling for funds since 2013, the observatory announced today (Feb. 10).
- Norm Carlson, Who Gave 'Go' for NASA's Saturn V, Shuttle and Beans, Dies at 81 March 3, 2015When U.S. astronauts next launch to space from Florida, the control team that oversees their liftoff may celebrate with the traditional crock of beans. If so, they'll be honoring the legacy of test director Norm Carlson, too.
- Vanishing Binary Star Calibrates Space-Time Warp | Animation March 3, 2015Two stars, each more massive than our Sun but orbiting 100 times closer, affect each others gravity wells allowing astronomers to gauge space-time itself.
- LEGO 'Star Wars' Show Heading to Disney: Report March 3, 2015"Star Wars" is about to get the LEGO treatment. Disney XD is planning to air "LEGO Star Wars: Droid Tales" later in 2015, according to a report from the Hollywood Reporter. The five-episode series will act as a re-telling of the six "Star Wars" films from
- Mars on Earth: Mock Space Mission Examines Trials of Daily Life March 3, 2015Put six people into an isolated environment for months at a time, and lots of things can happen: frustration, conflict, or at best — a tight-knit group of people working happily for a common goal.
- Living on Other Planets: What Would It Be Like? January 28, 2015Have you ever wondered what it would be like to live on the moon? What about Mars, or Venus or Mercury? We sure have and that's why we decided to find out what it might be like to live on other worlds in our solar system, from Mercury to Pluto and beyond
- How to See 2 Star Clusters Shining in the Night Sky March 3, 2015As the moon moves around its monthly orbit of the Earth, it passes near or in front of a wide variety of objects. At some points in its orbit, there are almost no stars behind it.
- Mysterious Mars Plume Discovery Is Amateur Astronomy at Its Best March 3, 2015A network of amateur astronomers is responsible for identifying a truly mysterious phenomenon on the surface of Mars: a plume reaching so high above the surface of the Red Planet that it was visible from Earth.
- What Would It Be Like to Live on Jupiter's Moon Europa? March 3, 2015Jupiter's moon Europa suffers from extreme cold and deadly radiation, but its astronomical and geological sights are unique in the solar system.
- Living On Europa Explained: Humans Might Not Be First (Infographic) March 3, 2015Scientists believe conditions may be right for life, under Europa's icy crust.
- Mining The Asteroids: Who Decides? March 3, 2015Our civilization—and presumably any civilization with a technological capacity at least as advanced as ours—runs on energy and raw materials.
- Galaxy Clusters' Mass Amps Up View of Dusty Old Galaxy Behind | Video March 3, 2015Galaxy cluster Abel 1689 is so massive, light bends around it in an effect predicted by Einstein called a gravitational lens, revealing Galaxy A1689-zD1 to be surprisingly mature despite the young age of the universe seen.
- WATCH LIVE NOW: NASA Celebrates 100th Anniversary of NACA October 6, 2012NASA is celebrating the 100th anniversary of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, the space agency's predecessor, which formed on March 3, 1915 to research aircraft innovation.
- Galactic 'Missing Link' Reveals Early Galaxy Formation March 3, 2015Scientists have found an early galaxy that produces more stars in a single day than the Milky Way creates in a year.
- Ceres Science: NASA Probe to Study Dwarf Planet's Bright Spots and More March 3, 2015NASA's Dawn will investigate Ceres' bright spots and other mysteries after it enters orbit around the dwarf planet at about 7:20 a.m. EST (1220 GMT) on Friday (March 6).
- Power System Failure Eyed in US Military Satellite Explosion March 3, 2015While investigators continue to study the dramatic Feb. 3 death of the DMSP-F13 satellite, signs currently point to failure of the power system aboard the spacecraft, which launched in 1995.
- Curt Michel, Scientist-Astronaut Who Left NASA After Losing the Moon, Dies at 80 March 2, 2015F. Curt Michel, an astrophysicist who was among NASA's first scientist-astronauts but who resigned after it became clear he would not fly to the moon, died Feb. 23, 2015. He was 80.
- 20-Year-Old Military Weather Satellite Apparently Exploded in Orbit March 2, 2015A 20-year-old military weather satellite apparently exploded in orbit Feb. 3 following what the U.S. Air Force described as a sudden temperature spike.
- Dwarf Planet Ceres to Be Revealed in 'Stunning Detail' by NASA Probe March 2, 2015NASA's Dawn probe is scheduled to slip into orbit around Ceres — the largest object in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter — at 7:20 a.m. EST (1220 GMT) Friday, wrapping up a deep-space chase that lasted two-and-a-half years.
NASA Breaking News
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LiveScience.com – Top Stories
- Tessellation: The Geometry of Tiles, Honeycombs and M.C. Escher March 4, 2015Tessellation is a repeating pattern of the same shapes without any gaps or overlaps. These patterns are found in nature, used by artists and architects and studied for their mathematical properties.
- Cyborg Roaches Could Be Used to Find Disaster Survivors March 4, 2015Fleets of cyborg cockroaches could someday roam into damaged nuclear power plants or collapsed mines to carry out reconnaissance or locate survivors.
- Triceratops: Facts About the Three-Horned Dinosaur October 16, 2012The dinosaur with the fearsome face was a gentle giant.
- Penguins Rapidly Conquered New Zealand After Humans Ate Rivals March 3, 2015Fossils left behind by a penguin that was hunted to extinction reveal a remarkably fast turnover in species occurred after Polynesians settlers wiped out New Zealand's weird island wildlife.
- Step It Up! The States Where People Walk Most March 3, 2015People in New York state log the most steps, according to new data from an activity-tracker company.
- Kids Get Flu Every 2 Years, Adults Twice a Decade March 3, 2015Children get the flu more often than adults do, a new study finds. Kids typically catch the flu once every two years, whereas adults over age 30 get the flu about twice a decade, a study of people living in China found.
- Image Captures Light's Spooky Dual Nature for 1st Time March 3, 2015For the first time, scientists have caught a glimpse of light behaving both as a wave and a particle at the same time.
- Snowflakes Not So Perfect, High Speed Camera Reveals | Video March 3, 2015University of Utah engineer Cale Fallgatter and atmospheric scientist Tim Garrett captured falling snowflakes to improve weather warning and road condition forecasts. But, in the process, they explode an old myth: the symmetrical snowflake.
- Here's the Best Place to Hide During a Zombie Outbreak March 3, 2015In the event of a zombie outbreak, the best place to hide is away from populated areas, scientists have confirmed. A team of researchers decided to model what would happen if an epidemic of the undead hit the United States.
- Zombie Outbreak: Science Reveals Best Place to Hide | Video March 3, 2015In this simulated zombie outbreak, susceptible humans (blue - upper right) hide from zombies (red -bottom left) or disregard ‘dead zombies’ (green -bottom right). Combined effect of is shown on the upper left.
- Animal Sex: How Barnacles Do It March 3, 2015In calm waters, barnacle penises are long and slender, allowing them to reach the maximum amount of partners possible. But wave-exposed, intertidal locales favor stouter penises, which are more easily controlled under turbulent conditions.
- Secret Hideout Helped Penguins Survive the Ice Age March 3, 2015Earth's last ice age was so cold that even Antarctica's emperor penguins had trouble with the chill, a new study finds.
- New Pet Therapy Guidelines: No Cats in Hospitals March 3, 2015A furry companion can offer comfort to hospital patients, but new guidelines recommend that only dogs — and not cats — be allowed in hospital pet therapy programs.
- You Look Hotter After 1 Drink, But Not 2 March 3, 2015People who are trying to impress a date with their good looks might want to limit themselves to one drink, a new study finds.
- Global Warming Brought on California's Severe Drought March 2, 2015California's severe drought is just a taste of the dry years to come, thanks to global warming, a new study finds.
- 3 to 5 Cups of Coffee a Day May Lower Risk of Heart Attacks March 3, 2015Good news for people who drink coffee every day: Consuming a moderate amount of coffee could lower the risk of clogged arteries that can lead to a heart attack, a new study finds.
- Hundreds of Medieval Bodies Found Under Paris Supermarket March 2, 2015Routine renovations on a supermarket in Paris have revealed several mass burial pits at what was once an ancient hospital in the city.
- Siamese Crown Stolen from French Castle March 2, 2015French police are looking for thieves who swiped a Siamese crown and other Asian artifacts from the Château de Fontainebleau this weekend.
- Images of a Medieval Mass Burial in Paris March 2, 2015Routine renovations on a supermarket in Paris have revealed several mass burial pits at what was once an ancient hospital in the city.
- Hit the Sack! People Who Get a Good Night's Sleep Are Happier March 2, 2015People's happiness appears to be closely linked with how much sleep they get.
Discover Magazine — Space
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NASA Blog Updates
- NASA Deputy Administrator's Blog June 26, 2013A Great Day for Equality
- NASA Administrator June 26, 2013Protecting Planet Earth
- NASA IV&V Matters June 24, 2013Summer Interns Return to IV&V
NASA Image of the Day
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Masten-space.com Blog updates–X-Prize winner!
- Summer 2015 Internships December 3, 2014Masten is now accepting applications for internships for the Summer of 2015. If you’ve followed us you know we’ve had a great history of outstanding interns working with us. There are few places like us that can deliver an internship with this level of responsibility and hands on work. We’re not looking for gophers, we’re looking
- Masten Space Systems selected by Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency for XS-1 Program July 23, 2014Mojave, CA (July 23, 2014) — Masten Space Systems, Inc. (Masten) announced today that the company has been awarded a contract from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) as part of Phase 1 of the Experimental Spaceplane (XS-1) program to develop a reusable launch vehicle. Over the last decade, Masten has built three highly
- Astrobotic Technology And Masten Space Systems Perform Visually Guided Precision Landing June 30, 2014Contact John Thornton contact@astrobotic.com Sean Mahoney smahoney@masten.aero FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE ASTROBOTIC TECHNOLOGY AND MASTEN SPACE SYSTEMS PERFORM VISUALLY GUIDED PRECISION LANDING Groundbreaking effort integrates two privately developed technology platforms to validate performance of autonomous precision landing capability Mojave, CA: Astrobotic Te […]
- Spring 2015 Internships June 30, 2014Masten is now accepting applications for internships for the Spring of 2015. If you’ve followed us you know we’ve had a great history of outstanding interns working with us. There are few places like us that can deliver an internship with this level of responsibility and hands on work. We’re not looking for gophers, we’re looking
- Project Prometheus May 19, 2014A lot has been going on in the past year, and while we have been busy with clients and flying customer payloads, the Masten Team has also been thinking about ways we could engage the broader community and increase accessibility to our VTVL vehicles. One of the largest barriers to entry for any technology developer
- Masten featured on PBS documentary December 2, 2013We get asked on a regular basis what life is like working at Masten. Well, the good folks at KQED (San Francisco Bay Area PBS affiliate) came out in May to capture a slice of Mojave with a healthy dose of Masten rockets. Watch for Masten to appear around time marker 13:47. We really enjoyed hosting
- Summer 2014 Internships November 11, 2013Masten is now accepting applications for internships for the Summer of 2014. If you’ve followed us you know we’ve had a great history of outstanding interns working with us. There are few places like us that can deliver an internship with this level of responsibility and hands on work. We’re not looking for gophers, we’re looking
- Joy and Sadness November 11, 2013Most of the time these blog posts update you on just a glimpse of what’s going on behind the curtain over here at Masten, and the man behind that curtain for most of those posts over the last three plus years has been Colin. Today’s post is a little different. Today, it is both with
- Xaero B Rises March 18, 2013Since last summer, even while we focused on Xombie flights for JPL and expanding Xaero’s flight envelope, we were working. Designing, tweaking, and starting to build the next iteration of Xaero that we affectionately (and creatively) call Xaero-B. We’re finally ready to pull the curtain back and share her with you! Xaero-B is intended to
- February Flight Frenzy! February 1, 2013We finished our work early and now we have extra time for you! As a result, a special one-time deal can be yours this February. Think of it as our Valentine’s Day present to the space community. For projects that can fly by the end of February, we’re offering an open loop flight on our
Discovery Space News
- US Weather Satellite Breaks Apart After Possible Explosion March 3, 2015The 20-year mission of a U.S. military weather satellite came to an abrupt end last month after a power system temperature spike and an apparent explosion.
- Rosetta Spots its own Fuzzy Comet Shadow and a Halo March 3, 2015During the Rosetta's close flyby of comet Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko on Feb. 14, the European spacecraft snapped images of the comet's 'belly' revealing a shadow of itself surrounded by a halo.
- Hunt for Dwarf Planet Ceres' Mysterious Water Begins March 3, 2015NASA's Dawn spacecraft is about to make its second and final stop during its exploration of the asteroid belt and it is already returning some stunning images that are creating more questions than answers.
- Could This Alien Cell Thrive on Titan? March 2, 2015Chemical engineers have created a theoretical model of a type of alien cell that might be able to support life on Titan.
- DNews: The Space Station Isn't Ready for Retirement Yet March 2, 2015The International Space Station may be seriously graying at the temples, but that doesn't mean it still can't contribute meaningfully to science. Trace explains why the venerable space lab still matters.
- Fibril Flowers on Sun's Surface: Photo March 2, 2015This image isn't a close-up from the garden, but an active area of strong magnetic fields on the sun's chromosphere.
- A Salute to Leonard Nimoy From Orbit: Photo February 28, 2015NASA flight engineer Terry Virts paid respects to Leonard Nimoy from the International Space Station.
- Inspirational Leonard Nimoy, Spock of 'Star Trek,' Dies at 83 February 27, 2015Leonard Nimoy has died at the age of 83 at his Los Angeles home, but his work will continue to inspire.
- Rare 'Medium-Sized' Black Hole Creates Galactic Dead Zone February 27, 2015Astronomers have detected a black hole embedded in the spiral arm of a galaxy 100 million light-years from Earth — but this isn’t any old black hole, it belongs to an extremely elusive class that may be the ‘missing link’ in black hole evolution.
- Russia Will Spin-Off ISS Parts for New Space Station February 26, 2015Russia says it will support U.S. plans to keep the International Space Station operating through 2024, but then wants to split off three still-to-be launched modules to form a new orbital outpost.
New Scientist
- Tiny CubeSats could hitch a ride with ESA mission March 3, 2015The European Space Agency is calling for small, boxy spacecraft called CubeSats to hitch a ride with a mission in 2020 – perhaps the first CubeSat trip into deep space
- Dawn spacecraft set for first visit to a dwarf planet March 3, 2015The asteroid-hopping spacecraft will arrive at Ceres on Friday, making it the first to visit a dwarf planet and the first to visit two different worlds
- Giant robot eyes scan stars for dust March 3, 2015The huge eyes of the Large Binocular Telescope in Arizona are staring across vast cosmic distances in the hope of finding signs of alien life
- Weather forecast for early Earth involved iron rain March 2, 2015Put iron under pressure and it vaporises – much more readily than previously thought. This means meteorite impacts on early Earth could have created iron rain
- First photo of Earth from space was from deadly rocket February 26, 2015The first ever photograph of our planet from space marks the moment when rockets became space exploration vehicles and not just bomb carriers
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