Space's The Expanse is thrilling, intelligent, and emotional sci-fi

By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

One of my latest obsessions of late has been James S.A. Corey's The Expanse series of sci-fi books as well as its lavishly produced TV adaptation The Expanse on the Space channel (Syfy in the US). The Expanse is many things, it is a noir detective mystery set in space, it's a tale of a band of misfits uncovering an overwhelming conspiracy as well as the emergence of an awesome and mysterious new threat.

Now on its second season (season one is now available on Blu-Ray). The Expanse, which is shot and produced largely in Toronto, Canada, offers some of the most visually stunning set designs and special effects we've seen on TV. There's a neat mix of Blade Runner's gritty cyberpunk aesthetic, the immensity of space as shown in films like Gravity and Interstellar as well as an almost Kubrickian poetry to the ways of life in future Earth, colonized Mars and the powder keg of characters in The Belt.

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NASA shows glimpse of asteroid that passes by on Christmas Eve

These images of an asteroid 3,600 feet (1,100 meters) long were taken on Dec. 17 (left) and Dec. 22 by scientists using NASA's giant Deep Space Network antenna at Goldstone, California. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/GSSR

'Twas the night  before Christmas when Asteroid 2003 SD220 passes by and makes its closest approach to Earth. NASA was able to take a few radar images of the asteriod. The space agency assures everyone that this pickled-shape asteroid will not be a threat to our planet at all. It'll pass by the planet at a distance  of 6.8 million miles. As Paul Chodas, manager of NASA's Center for NEO Studies at JPL, said: "The closest this object will come to Santa and his eight tiny reindeer is about 28 times the distance between Earth and the moon." It'll pass by closer to us at 1.8 million miles in 2018 and then 1.7 million miles in 2070.

Source: NASA JPL

Bill Nye’s LightSail spacecraft reboots and gets in touch with Earth

Josh Spradling / The Planetary Society

Bill Nye’s sunbeam-powered spacecraft caused quite a scare for him and his company Planetary Society when it lost the ability to send information back to earth. LightSail got cut off from communications a week after it launched on May 20^th due to a software glitch. They couldn’t get it to reboot remotely and so the engineers put their hope in the “natural reboot” that would happen when it collides with stray charged particles. Thankfully, that happened and they re-established connection with the spacecraft.

LightSail was inspired by Carl Sagan’s solar sailing idea, which imagines a spacecraft using the sun in the same way a sailboat uses the wind. This month’s test hopes to prove it can unfurl it sails. If successful, a second test run will happen in April next year. LightSail is built with a small satellite and four Mylar sails to ride solar radiation. The scientists hope to prove that solar propulsion can get rid of the need for boosters or fuel reserves in spaceflight.

Source: The Verge

First Vine from outer space shows the Earth’s orbit

While Astronaut Mike Massinimo was the first person to tweet from space in 2009, there is a new social media first coming all the way from outer space. Astronaut Reid Wiseman has sent the first Vine video from space showing the Earth’s orbit in six seconds. Wiseman explained in the caption that the sun does not set on this 90-minute orbit because the International Space Station travels along the terminator line, which is the border between darkness and light on the face of the earth. It is still quite a sight though.

Source: Gizmodo