Can Elon Do It Alone?
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SpaceX has been amazing. It's an excellent government contractor.
Read MoreHow Space Can Cure Disease
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Pharmaceutical corporations already occupy a sizeable payload portion of satellites in space. And not just for exploration of space and Earth. The absence of gravity causes crystals to grow unusually large and with almost perfect form, without touching the walls of their containers.
Read MoreHow Sputnik Saved America
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The response to being beaten in space was as profound as the shock, and not just in increased defense spending on technology. For the first time, the nation saw technological education as a form of defense.
Read MoreSpace Fact #8: The Moon Is One-Fifth Up the Gravity Well
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At 240,000 miles on average, the Moon lies only one fifth of the way to the top of the Gravity Well.
Read MoreSpace Fact #7: Ten Pounds Takes a Pound of Human Into Space
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As a rule of thumb, ten pounds of rocket fuel are required to push one pound of equipment or human into low Earth orbit.
Read MoreSpace Fact #6: How Fast Does It Take to Reach Outer Space?
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To get into low Earth orbit—a path in which the forces of motion balance the pull of gravity—a rocket has to attain a speed of about 17,000 miles per hour.
Read MoreSpace Fact #5: An Economy Lies Right Overhead
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Most of today’s space economy occupies low Earth orbit, a 1,200-mile-wide band that’s a slice of less than one one-thousandth of the Gravity Well.
Read MoreSpace Fact #4: Venus Used to Be a Paradise
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Venus used to be a pleasant, watery, habitable planet much like ours. The Martian atmosphere, it turns out, also used to be much more like Earth’s
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