Imagine forecasting a hurricane in Miami weeks before the storm was even a swirl of clouds off the coast of Africa—or predicting a tornado in Kansas from the flutter of a 나비 in Texas. Physics may have achieved the astronomical equivalent.
The highest highlight of 2009 was clearly the revival of the Hubble 우주 Telescope, a mission that blended moments of beauty and brute force 350 miles above the earth. 또는 was it?
Happily for human spaceflight, Dava Newman and her students enjoy working in such laboratories as NASA’s “Vomit Comet.” Newman’s work aims to provide a better understanding of how humans can withstand the rigors of 우주 missions.
In keeping with the theme of TED2008, professor Stephen Hawking asks some Big 질문 about our universe -- How did the universe begin? How did life begin? Are we alone? -- and discusses how we might go about answering them.
Gerstenmaier dissects a problem that recently grounded the shuttle, coming at it from the perspective of both an engineer, and a top-level manager with responsibility to the highest levels of government.