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
- Uranus, Venus and Mars! See Planets in the March Night Sky March 4, 2015March should be a great month for spotting planets for skywatchers, weather permitting. Venus is becoming increasingly more prominent in the evening sky, remaining above the horizon for 2.5 to 3 hours after the sun dips below the horizon
- Stargazer Lottie Doll Brings Real Astronomy Down to Earth March 4, 2015The Stargazer Lottie doll — which comes with a realistic telescope, solar system collector cards and profiles of famous female astronomers — is being released this month in collaboration with the European Space Agency.
- WATCH LIVE FRIDAY: Slooh Celebrates Dawn Probe's Arrival at Ceres @ 1 pm ET January 9, 2013The online Slooh Community Observatory will host a live webcast featuring views of the dwarf planet Ceres. The live broadcast will begin Friday (March 6) at 1 p.m. EST (1800 GMT).
- Rosetta Probe Snaps Awesome Comet Photo in Harrowing Close Encounter March 4, 2015Europe's Rosetta spacecraft recently beamed back an amazing photo of its comet taken during a risky, close flyby of the dusty cosmic body.
- Vulcan Salute: Astronauts Honor Leonard Nimoy from Space (Photos) March 4, 2015Two astronauts in space said goodbye to a science fiction legend on Earth by beaming back striking photos from the International Space Station.
- Warp in Space-Time Swallows Pulsar March 4, 2015Astronomers have watched a pulsar some 25,000 light-years from Earth slip from view, swallowed by a companion star's warp in the fabric of space-time. This wacky effect is one more example that proves Einstein's general theory of relativity.
- Dark Matter Could Help Solve Sun Mystery March 4, 2015Dark matter may be one of the greatest mysteries of the universe, but it could help solve a puzzle about the sun that has been baffling scientists for years, researchers say.
- Gemini Constellation Holds Starry Treats for March Stargazers March 4, 2015The constellation Gemini is currently well placed in the evening sky, just above and to the left of Orion for observers in the Northern Hemisphere. Here's how to see it.
- WATCH LIVE NOW: NASA's 100-Year NACA Celebration Webcast October 6, 2012NASA is celebrating the 100th anniversary of NACA - the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics - the space agency's predecessor, which formed on March 3, 1915 to research aircraft innovation.
- NASA's Curiosity Rover on Mars Sidelined By 'Short Circuit' Glitch March 4, 2015The car-size Curiosity rover suffered a "transient short circuit" on Feb. 27 while it was transferring sample powder from its robotic arm to instruments on the robot's body, NASA officials said.
- Watch NASA's 100-Year NACA Symposium Live Online Today March 4, 2015NASA is celebrating the 100-year anniversary of its predecessor, NACA — the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics — and you can watch the celebration live online today (March 4).
- How an Ion Drive Helped NASA's Dawn Probe Visit Dwarf Planet Ceres March 4, 2015The Dawn mission's unprecedented deep-space feats are enabled by the probe's innovative propulsion system, which is about 10 times more efficient than traditional chemical thrusters, NASA officials say.
- 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.
NASA Breaking News
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LiveScience.com – Top Stories
- CRE: Causes, Symptoms & Treatment March 5, 2015CRE are a type of bacteria that have become resistant to most antibiotics. Infections usually occur in health care settings.
- Deforestation: Facts, Causes & Effects March 6, 2013Deforestation, the permanent destruction of forests in order to make the land available for other uses, is considered to be a contributing factor to global climate change.
- Real-Life Humanoid Robots Are Similar To 'Chappie' | Video March 5, 2015Virginia Tech developed Tactical Hazardous Operations Robot (THOR-OP) and Dynamic Anthropomorphic Robot with Intelligence (DARwIn) have similarities to the robot from the new film "Chappie." UCLA Labs robotic expert Dr. Dennis Hong explains.
- Endometriosis: Causes, Symptoms & Treatments May 29, 2013Endometriosis is a medical condition that occurs when the lining of the uterus, called the endometrium, grows in other places.
- Bioterrorism Prep: Docs Must Look Out for Rare Diseases March 4, 2015Doctors have better treatments for victims of bioterrorism today than in the past, but it's critical that medical staff first be able to recognize such illness so they can respond properly, experts say.
- Cleaner Air Really Does Improve Kids' Lung Health March 4, 2015In California, tougher rules about air pollution are linked with better lung health in children, a large new study finds.
- WWII Shipwreck: Haunting Photos of the Battleship Musashi's Remains March 4, 2015The sunken remains of the Japanese battleship Musashi were found in the Sibuyan Sea, off the coast of the Philippines, according to an announcement made this week by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen. Check out these haunting photos of the shipwreck.
- Photos: Earliest Known Human Fossils Discovered March 4, 2015Scientists have discovered 2.8-million-year-old fossils of what may be a new human species in Ethiopia.
- Jaws, Not Brains, Define Early Human Species March 4, 2015The extinct human species long thought of as the earliest known member of the human family may be at least a half million years older than previously thought, according to state-of-the-art computer models of the species.
- Earliest Human Species Possibly Found in Ethiopia March 4, 2015A human with a mix of primitive and more modern traits who lived 2.8 million years ago in what is now Ethiopia may be a newfound species and the earliest human ever discovered. The finding reveals humans arose 500,000 years earlier than thought.
- Sunken Japanese WWII Battleship Located in the Philippines March 4, 2015More than 70 years after it sank during World War II, the legendary Japanese battleship Musashi has been discovered off the coast of the Philippines by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen.
- Fireworks at Chile's Villarrica Volcano Light Up Night Sky March 4, 2015A small early morning eruption at Chile's Villarrica volcano lit the night sky with a spectacular display glowing ash and sputtering lava.
- Desert Blooms: Spectacular Photos of Organ Pipe Cactuses March 4, 2015The organ pipe cactus is one of the more spectacular species of cactus found in the Sonoran Desert. Check out these fascinating photos of the organ pipe cactus.
- Wow! Watch a Drone Fly Through the World's Largest Atom Smasher March 4, 2015The Large Hadron Collider, the world’s most powerful atom smasher, juxtaposes the big and the small. In a new video, a drone flies above and through the LHC, showing all the different size levels of the device.
- Arctic Sea Ice 'Thinning Dramatically,' Study Finds March 4, 2015Arctic sea ice — the ice that freezes and floats on Arctic waters — is thinning at a steadier and faster rate than researchers previously thought, a new study finds.
- Heroin Overdose Deaths Nearly Quadruple in 13 Years March 4, 2015Deaths from heroin overdose in the United States have nearly quadrupled in the last decade, with much of the rise occurring in recent years, according to a new report.
- 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.
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
- Curiosity Science Suspended After Electrical Glitch March 4, 2015Engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory are scrambling to figure out the cause of an electrical glitch on the Mars rover Curiosity which stopped science operations cold.
- Massive Exoplanet Evolved in Extreme 4-Star System March 4, 2015For only the second time, an exoplanet living with an expansive family of four stars has been revealed.
- Sun May Blast Two Jets of Plasma into Interstellar Space March 4, 2015A new computer model of our sun's magnetic field suggests the shape of our solar system's heliosphere is stranger than we ever thought.
- 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.
New Scientist
- Drill into Mars for clues to Earth's climate March 4, 2015Earth's Little Ice Age may have been caused by a fall in solar activity – digging holes on Mars could help us find out
- 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
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