One of the miracles of this age may turn out to be the EM drive. I’ve mentioned it before, but it is so fascinating I have to talk about it again. There is no exhaust and is completely enclosed. Nobody seems to be able to figure out how it can put out thrust, yet it does. The reason I am mentioning this today is the fact the engine has just gone public and a patent has been issued. Another aspect of the engine is the fact it doesn’t use any propellant. It almost sounds like magic. NASA spent 10 weeks testing this engine or its forerunner I should say and it seems it worked perfectly, so perfectly the inventor Guido Fetta has been given approval to test his version of the engine in space. In Britain an EM engine was invented by Roger Shawyer and he has filed a patent application for his engine. Shawyer first invented his EM engine back in 1999 and it has faced controversy ever since. Why were so many people against this engine? The answer probably lies in the fact it violates one of Newton’s laws, the third Law to be exact, which states to every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Picture a tin can closed at both ends and a device to generate magnetic waves inside of it. These waves bounce around inside the closed can and yet they provide thrust. NASA claims if they use this engine to power a craft flying to Mars the trip will only take 70 days.

It is amazing how much we don’t know about space. We are still finding things in our own solar system which we had no idea existed. Voyager 2, the probe that was launched years ago did a flyby of Uranus in 1986 and sent back information showing there were two more moons behind this ringed planet. We didn’t know it at the time, but the data has been re-examined. We found out Uranus has 13 rings. The moons are tiny, but they did exert a pull on some of the rings and that’s how they were discovered. When we say tiny that may be an understatement since their size ranges from about 2.8 miles in diameter to probably about 9 miles in diameter. It sounds to me as if Uranus may have captured a couple of meteors or asteroids. Voyager 1 and 2 have been traveling for over 39 years and are still sending back data. Perhaps we will have to consider them the miracles of the space-age.

I can’t help but laugh when people talk about the size of the universe. Highly educated astronomers come out and tell us the universe is a certain size and there are so many galaxies in it and so many stars, but the truth is there are couple of things wrong with these statements. The first thing that is wrong with them is we can only measure what we can see and we have no way of knowing if beyond our vision there is far more to the universe. It may turn out that what we consider the universe is only a tiny part of what is really out there. The second problem has to do with dark matter. Scientists continue to claim we only see 10% of the universe. If they are measuring galaxies they can see how do they know this only accounts for that 10%? There may be nine times more dark galaxies out there if their calculations on the visible universe are correct. Then there is the argument about dimensions. Many scientists believe there are more dimensions and if they are correct dimensions could contain more galaxies. I just can’t take the numbers we are given seriously at this time.

I don’t know how many of you have heard about this, but scientists are going to the UN to ask approval to create a new nation. This nation will not be like any other nation on earth, since it will be the first space nation. Yes scientists want to build a huge satellite warship capable of holding a goodly amount of people and it will be named Asgardia, after the city in mythology. I think a lot of superhero fans will recognize the name right away, because the place Thor comes from is Asgard. While this is something the scientific community is thinking about doing, I guess we will have to wait and see if it ever comes about. Like many other ideas, it could fall by the wayside. I do have to wonder if there is an ulterior motive for creating the city at this time. With all the talk of war coming perhaps this is seen as some sort of refuge?

As we get closer to launching astronauts into space for long journeys to other planets we must realize how dangerous these trips will be. One decent sized solar flare and it could be bye-bye for those people on a spaceship, assuming we can’t develop some sort of practical shielding I say practical because it would have to be light yet effective, perhaps some sort of plasma, because if we don’t develop new types of shielding these trips will not be possible. It’s now being said people who travel on these long trips have a higher chance of developing dementia and long-term brain damage. NASA is optimistic they can solve the problem by the 2030s. Despite this far-off deadline private companies are talking about going to Mars a lot sooner. We know astronauts who come back from the International Space Station experience many changes in their body, including some pretty serious ones such as reduced bone mass, damage to the nervous systems, sleep disturbances and one which seems funny but really isn’t, flatulence. This will change if an effective shield is developed and if artificial gravity can be developed that might be icing on the cake.

Titan is one of Saturn’s moons. It is turning out to be more like earth than first thought. Don’t get me wrong there are some real major differences between our world and Titan, but there are some similarities. Liquid can be seen on the surface of Titan just as it can be seen on earth. The difference is this liquid is not water on Titan, it is liquid methane. Titan has many valleys and grand canyons and is geologically active as is our planet. Some scientists believe Titan could actually host life. Recently astronomers noticed a cloud above Titan’s surface and they were shocked, because the current thinking was it was supposed to be impossible for this to happen. The reason it was thought to be impossible was the fact clouds are formed by water vapor on earth, but these clouds were formed by methane vapor. A NASA scientist said the appearance of the cloud went against everything they know about the way clouds form on Titan. It just goes to show we have a lot more learn.