The Estonian student Cubesat project ESTCube successfully reached orbit via a Vega rocket this week:
Paul Gilster writes about the E-sail propulsion concept, developed by Pekka Janhunen of Finland, which will be tested by ESTCube: To Ride the Solar Wind.
Lunar settlement advocate Christopher Carson (Luna Project) has a prominent role in the documentary Lunarcy! (2012). Moonandback spoke with him at the recent Space Access ’13 conference in Phoenix:
I continue the serialization of the updated version of the book The Rocket Company by Patrick J. G. Stiennon and David M. Hoerr, with illustrations by Doug Birkholz. This week you can obtain the following chapters of the book:
Download these within the next week. Only four chapters will be available at any one time.
See also the electronic version of the updated book is available at The Rocket Company eBook by Patrick Stiennon, David Hoerr, Peter Diamandis, Doug Birkhol: Kindle Store/Amazon.com.
Never would have imagined that 2001: A Space Odyssey, a wonderfully visual but intellectually complex movie, would be depicted in comic book style in a children’s restaurant menu : “2001: A Space Odyssey” Howard Johnsons Children’s Menu (1968) – Dreams of Space/Books and Ephemera – May.8.13
Here are three of the panels:
![1968HowardJohnson2001-12[1]](https://i0.wp.com/hobbyspace.com/Blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/1968HowardJohnson2001-121.jpg)
![1968HowardJohnson2001-20[1]](https://i0.wp.com/hobbyspace.com/Blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/1968HowardJohnson2001-201.jpg)
![1968HowardJohnson2001-22[1]](https://i0.wp.com/hobbyspace.com/Blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/1968HowardJohnson2001-221.jpg)
Here’s a video of the amazingly complex flying techniques of a robotic dragonfly called the BionicOpter developed by the company Festo (link via ralph.ewig):
Just like its model in nature, this ultralight flying object can fly in all directions, hover in mid-air and glide without beating its wings.