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The Simulation Argument. According to John Barrow, professor of mathematical sciences at Cambridge University, "Civilisations only a little more advanced than ourselves will have the capability to simulate universes in which self-conscious entities can emerge and communicate with one another."

Reference: Top scientist asks: is life all just a dream?

Of course, there's a very old philosophical notion that what we perceive as reality may be a sort of dream. Zhuangzi, a Chinese philosopher who lived around the 4th century BCE, speculated about in Zhuangzi's butterfly dream.

>Once Zhuangzi dreamt he was a butterfly, a butterfly flitting and fluttering around, happy with himself and doing as he pleased. He didn't know he was Zhuangzi. Suddenly he woke up and there he was, solid and unmistakable Zhuangzi. But he didn't know if he was Zhuangzi who had dreamt he was a butterfly, or a butterfly dreaming he was Zhuangzi.

Carl Sagan also commented on the idea as is mentioned in The Conscious Universe: Brahma's Dream.

>There is the deep and appealing notion that the universe is but a dream of the god who, after a hundred Brahma years, dissolves himself into a dreamless sleep. The universe dissolves with him - until, after another Brahma century, he stirs, recomposes himself and begins again to dream the cosmic dream.
>
>Meanwhile, elsewhere, there are an infinite number of universes, each with its own god dreaming the cosmic dream. These great ideas are tempered by another, perhaps greater. It is said that men may not be the dreams of gods, but rather that the gods are the dreams of men.

~ Carl Sagan in Cosmos

Or maybe we're just a brain in a vat.

But, as you state, we can't prove such notions, so, though they may make for interesting philosophical speculations or themes for movies, such as The Matrix or Waking Life, there seems to be no way to test such notions scientifically.

Well... Not really? I'd probably word it more as experiencing the passage of time faster/slower as opposed to moving through time faster/slower, as the latter (at least to me) seems to imply time as an absolute, but that may just be a wording issue on my part.

Honestly we're moving toward areas I don't feel as confident explaining, but I'll give it a try. As far as I understand, basically if two observers are at rest with respect to each other in the same inertial reference frame, they will experience the same passage of time. If the two observers are in motion with respect to each other (outside of a major gravitational field), each will observe the other's clock as going slower than his own. Each observer's experience of his own passage of time also never changes.

Clocks near significant gravitational masses also move more slowly than those farther away, which isn't reciprocal like the relative velocity time dilation. An observer farther away from the mass and one closer will both agree that the farther away observer's clock is moving faster and the closer observer's clock is moving slower.

If all this fascinates you and you want to read about it from someone who actually knows what they're talking about, I'd recommend Stephen Hawking's "A Brief History of Time". You can also check out the Wikipedia pages on the theory of relativity and time dilation, but I think it helps a lot to have a whole book to explore the ideas rather than just a couple Wikipedia pages. Also, Hawking is really good at explaining all of it in a way that normal people like us can understand while still keeping the ideas intact.

If you want a rigorous basic understanding of astrophysics, you need a couple of years of college-level math and physics. If you are the sort who can learn difficult material on your own, they have textbooks at libraries. These topics go into it:

Math: Presumably you had the full track of algebra and trigonometry, so then you need single and multivariable calculus, differential equations, and linear algebra.

Physics: Newtonian mechanics, heat and electromagnetism, relativity, and quantum mechanics.

You also need statistics, which I would advise learning the basics of before trying to learn quantum mechanics. Chemistry is nice to have too, but isn't essential except for certain topics.

Once you have this background, there are introductory astrophysics textbooks you can read. In fact, you might just want to browse through one at a library just to see what it's like. The one I learned from in college was pretty great:

https://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Modern-Astrophysics-2nd/dp/0805304029

Even without completing the entire background knowledge, you can pick up some fascinating things reading a book like that.

It appears a tripod isn't a necessity, but certainly makes for better viewing. Here's an Amazon review discussing this fact:

>My first night out under dark skies with these binoculars was a terrific experience. In ninety minutes of observing I had great views of M36, M37, M38, M44, M50, easily saw the Trapizium in Orion's nebula, saw the Andromeda galaxy and it's companions streaching across 75% of my FOV. It had taken me two observing sessions with my 5" reflector to find M33, with the Binoculars I found it in two minutes, M81 and 82 were also easy.
>
>All this and I don't even have a tripod yet. I may well spend more time with the 15 X 70's than I do with my telescope.

> Any good books about that period you could recommend?

Sure. Here is a link to a list of a bunch of good books written by or about astronauts and the space programs, and just about every book on this list I would recommend.

Eugene Cernan's "The Last Man On The Moon" is a great and candid read in my opinion, and he goes into some great detail about his almost fatal spacewalk during his Gemini-9A mission. Neil Armstrong's "First Man: The Life of Neil Armstrong" is excellent as well, and in addition to talking about being the first man on the Moon, it has some interesting storytelling about the "stuck thruster" emergency that he and Dave Scott experienced during their Gemini 8 flight that almost killed them both.

Really, ANY of the astronaut auto-biographies are fantastic reads, as most of the guys are pretty candid and open about their experiences in the early days of the Space Race.

I wouldn’t say microscopic, but significantly smaller than a small black hole. Surprisingly, and please Reddit, don’t hang me for citing a Hollywood movie in a discussion about astrophysics, the movie Interstellar is a fantastic example of what happens when you’re close to a SMBH. Kip Thorne was the science/physics advisor for the film and does a great job keeping the physics true to science. If you’re able, read The Science of Interstellar. It’s amazingly written and Thorne is so so so good at explaining complex ideas in simple language. Also pictures.

Jupiter will be visible after sunset throughout the summer and well into the fall. There are lots of free nigh sky apps which can help you identify what you're seeing.

Telescopes are probably more affordable than you might think. Check out /r/telescopes for info and advice.

Also consider getting some binoculars. Even a very cheap set (like these) will allow you to see Jupiter's four brightest moons, craters on our Moon, star clusters, galaxies (look like fuzzy clouds), comets (when applicable), thousands of stars invisible to the naked eye, hundreds of satellites, etc. Plus they're great for daytime views.

Great question! The most direct method is by spectroscopy. This exploits the fact that atoms absorb and emit light at specific wavelengths. So, we can look at what wavelengths of light distant stars are emitting and absorbing, and infer what kinds of atoms are in its atmosphere. This is what lets us know what white dwarfs are made of, for instance.

There are also indirect lines of evidence. We can take well-tested theories describing nuclear reactions, thermodynamics, fluid dynamics, and others, and apply them to the interiors of stars. The most sophisticated models are supercomputer simulations that couple fluid dynamics models with statistical descriptions of nuclear reactions and electromagnetic interactions. They're tested both by ensuring that they're correctly applying theories tested elsewhere, and against actual astrophysical observations of stellar luminosity and spectra. (Side note --- as you might expect, these numerical capabilities have a decidedly terrestrial origin.)

Scientific advances along these lines often look like rasterizing, where the scientific community takes a very simple model and makes successive passes elaborating and refining it. For instance, you can look at the sun, measure its temperature, mass, and radius, and notice that it's mostly made of hydrogen gas. Then you can show that the kind of conditions that exist at its core necessitate hydrogen fusion. Once you've done that, you see that a hydrostatic equilibrium balancing energy produced by fusion with gravitational collapse accurately predicts the sun's radius and temperature. Then it's on to building more complex models to try to understand its inner temperature gradients, convection, solar storms, etc ...

(Source: Mixed graduate/undergraduate astrophysics was one of my favorite classes in college and I still keep BOB in a special place on my shelf.)

The first atoms came into existence around 380,000 years after the Big Bang, when the universe’s temperature was low enough for electrons to become bound to free nuclei and thus form atoms. Every element heavier than lithium was formed in the cores of huge stars, so carbon and oxygen nuclei didn’t exist until around 100,000,000 years after the Big Bang at the earliest.

The Big Bang wasn’t an explosion, but rather a rapid expansion of space. It didn’t occur in one place, nor was it fueled by a chemical reaction.

Whether something came from nothing or if it even makes sense to talk about what caused the Big Bang — as a notion of causality presupposes the existence of time — remain open questions!

If this seems strange and confusing, don’t worry, it is strange and confusing! The conditions encountered in the Big Bang are extremely far removed from anything we experience in our lives today, so we have little frame of reference to fall back on for understanding the beginning of the universe in an intuitive fashion.

Don’t let this dissuade you, though! There is a huge amount of stuff one can learn about the Big Bang still and its strangeness only makes it more interesting and exciting to learn about, even if some of the concepts take a little time to wrap our heads around!

EDIT:

Here are a pair of classic books written for the interested layman that I think are good introductions to some of the topics at hand:

Big Bang — Simon Singh

A Brief History of Time — Stephen Hawking

Dr. John S. Lewis has written some neat books. He was a planetary scientist at the University of Arizona. The UofA has a strong geology program because of it's school of mines (Arizona is a copper state). as well as a strong astronomy program due to its proximity to Kitt Peak. Together they make a very strong planetary science team. The books:

Rain of Iron and Ice meteorite impacts past and future.

Mining The Sky An early book on asteroid mining

Asteroid Mining 101 A later book on asteroid mining and the possibility of expanding our population and economy into the solar system.


Asteroid Mining 101 is published by Deep Space Industries. So I like to think my purchasing this book helped the fledgeling asteroid mining company.

Bah, the OP deleted his post after I got finished writing a big long explanation of why space flight is worthwhile. So screw it I'm posting it anyway since I spent half an hour writing it...

In regard to your other point:

>Why, other than satellite technology, should we not dump that money into renewable energy and the social sciences? Or education?

I would passionately argue that developing outer space would hugely improve the quality of life on Earth and more than that, it is essential for the survival of humanity.

If we can develop economical access to space that doesn't cost a fortune then we'll have access to amounts of energy and resources that are unimaginable by today's standards. With cheap access to space we could solve the energy problem you spoke of easily. If we could get orbital power stations up there we could build them as large as we wanted and beam enough renewable energy back to Earth to power all civilization.

There's also as much metal in the asteroids and the moon as you could ever care to mine. There are actually more precious metals in one asteroid than have ever been mined by humans in history. If you have the time you ought to read Mining The Sky: Untold Riches From The Asteroids, Comets, And Planets to get an idea of just how much of a game changer getting at all those resources would be. The author John S. Lewis predicts that if we could colonize space and tap the material wealth of space we could support a 1st world society of 10^16 people.

Aside from all the wealth we could ship back to Earth I think we need to develop space simply because it's a bad idea to keep all your eggs in one basket. If a nuclear war, rogue comet, super volcano, or some unforeseen disaster takes out humans on Earth it would be nice to have some space colonies as a back up. JPL scientists and Stephen Hawking agree with me.

So if we work on cheap space flight we could solve our energy crisis meaning no more CO2 emissions, dead coal miners, oil wars, mercury in the lakes, and all the other bad stuff that comes with terrestrial energy production. We could get all our metals from space so no more strip mining and acid lakes. On top of that we could have an immortal civilization too, so what's not to like?

/space nerd rant...

A Man on the Moon by Andy Chaiken is considered THE text on the Apollo program. If formed the basis of the mini series From the Earth to the Moon

Failure is not an Option by Gene Kranz is a wonderful first hand account of life in the trenches from Mercury thru Apollo.

And my personal favorite space book - Roving Mars which was turned into a great IMAX movie as well.

Here you go! My $50 pair.

Large, Crisp and bright enough that the moon's terminator can be seen to ripple with the relative depth of the terrain. Also, will amaze you during the day - I had no idea there were that many birds in the sky at seemingly all times!

However, don't expect the planets to be more than bright blobs. For that kind of detail a telescope is the only way to go. These Binocs are good for watching animals/people other things at great distance though.

If I might recommend a book, Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything sounds like something you'd be interested in.

It's mostly about the origins and stories behind major scientific discoveries and theories that have shaped our view of the world and universe today. He starts at the Big Bang and goes from there. The book is quite accessible to those without formal scientific education (like myself). Bryson dumbs things down just enough so you can understand it while feeling enriched afterwards at the same time. I can definitely say that the book changed me for the better when I read it for the first time back as a teenager. It also has an awesome illustrated edition.

Could you give a few examples of "higher end astronomy binoculars"?

I got a set of Celestron Upclose G2's from a friend and I'm pretty happy with them, but I'd like to know where I might go next. Should I get an even better set of binoculars, or should I just go straight for the telescope?

If you are in the USA or Canada this might be useful for satellite watching. There are apps for this on smartphones too (iPhone and Android).

http://www.spaceweather.com/flybys/

A good pair of binoculars can really be useful from a dark location (not just for satellites).

http://www.amazon.com/Celestron-SkyMaster-Binoculars-Tripod-Adapter/dp/tags-on-product/B00008Y0VN

Using both of your eyes to view the night sky is much more satisfying. Binoculars are a great addition even if you plan on getting a standard telescope. Try to resist the urge to get higher and higher magnification powers. These become much more susceptible to shake and are more difficult to aim. The lower power options, 10x to 15x, will allow you to take in a larger expanse of the night sky.

I did a search for the term books in this sub and compiled this list from the dozens of previous answers:

How to Read the Solar System: A Guide to the Stars and Planets by Christ North and Paul Abel.


A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson.


A Universe from Nothing: Why There is Something Rather than Nothing by Lawrence Krauss.


Cosmos by Carl Sagan.

Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space by Carl Sagan.


Foundations of Astrophysics by Barbara Ryden and Bradley Peterson.


Final Countdown: NASA and the End of the Space Shuttle Program by Pat Duggins.


An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth: What Going to Space Taught Me About Ingenuity, Determination, and Being Prepared for Anything by Chris Hadfield.


You Are Here: Around the World in 92 Minutes: Photographs from the International Space Station by Chris Hadfield.


Space Shuttle: The History of Developing the Space Transportation System by Dennis Jenkins.


Wings in Orbit: Scientific and Engineering Legacies of the Space Shuttle, 1971-2010 by Chapline, Hale, Lane, and Lula.


No Downlink: A Dramatic Narrative About the Challenger Accident and Our Time by Claus Jensen.


Voices from the Moon: Apollo Astronauts Describe Their Lunar Experiences by Andrew Chaikin.


A Man on the Moon: The Voyages of the Apollo Astronauts by Andrew Chaikin.


Breaking the Chains of Gravity: The Story of Spaceflight before NASA by Amy Teitel.


Moon Lander: How We Developed the Apollo Lunar Module by Thomas Kelly.


The Scientific Exploration of Venus by Fredric Taylor.


The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe.


Into the Black: The Extraordinary Untold Story of the First Flight of the Space Shuttle Columbia and the Astronauts Who Flew Her by Rowland White and Richard Truly.


An Introduction to Modern Astrophysics by Bradley Carroll and Dale Ostlie.


Rockets, Missiles, and Men in Space by Willy Ley.


Ignition!: An Informal History of Liquid Rocket Propellants by John Clark.


A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking.


Russia in Space by Anatoly Zak.


Rain Of Iron And Ice: The Very Real Threat Of Comet And Asteroid Bombardment by John Lewis.


Mining the Sky: Untold Riches From The Asteroids, Comets, And Planets by John Lewis.


Asteroid Mining: Wealth for the New Space Economy by John Lewis.


Coming of Age in the Milky Way by Timothy Ferris.


The Whole Shebang: A State of the Universe Report by Timothy Ferris.


Death by Black Hole: And Other Cosmic Quandries by Neil deGrasse Tyson.


Origins: Fourteen Billion Years of Cosmic Evolution by Neil deGrasse Tyson.


Rocket Men: The Epic Story of the First Men on the Moon by Craig Nelson.


The Martian by Andy Weir.


Packing for Mars:The Curious Science of Life in the Void by Mary Roach.


The Overview Effect: Space Exploration and Human Evolution by Frank White.


Gravitation by Misner, Thorne, and Wheeler.


The Science of Interstellar by Kip Thorne.


Entering Space: An Astronaut’s Oddyssey by Joseph Allen.


International Reference Guide to Space Launch Systems by Hopkins, Hopkins, and Isakowitz.


The Fabric of the Cosmos: Space, Time, and the Texture of Reality by Brian Greene.


How the Universe Got Its Spots: Diary of a Finite Time in a Finite Space by Janna Levin.


This New Ocean: The Story of the First Space Age by William Burrows.


The Last Man on the Moon by Eugene Cernan.


Failure is Not an Option: Mission Control from Mercury to Apollo 13 and Beyond by Gene Kranz.


Apollo 13 by Jim Lovell and Jeffrey Kluger.

The end

Some people are looking for suggestions. I second the suggestion and I have a pair of these that work well for me.

• Good reach (magnification) - suitable for most things I'll see with my 6" schmidt cassegrain
  
• Tripod attachment is important - for looking at just about anything, it's much nicer to have the stabilization of the tripod. Also, it's nice to be able to "point" them at something and have another person look through (last night I went out with my 3 year old daughter and showed her Venus and Mars - otherwise she would have needed to try to find them and hold the binoculars steady enough to be able to see them herself)
  
  (edit: formatting)

Non-fiction: Mining The Sky: Untold Riches From The Asteroids, Comets, And Planets by John Lewis

Goes a little into the technical details of space colonization, especially valuable minerals, mining processes, the rockets required to get there and a quick risk/reward analysis. I found it a very enjoyable read, and highly recommend it.

From Packing for Mars, by Mary Roach (chapter 11)


> The zero-gravity fart has been a popular orbital pursuit, particularly on all-male flights. One hears tell of astronauts using intestinal gas like rocket propellant to "launch themselves across the middeck," as astronaut Roger Crouch put it. He had heard the claims and was dubious. "The mass and velocity of the expelled gas," he told me in an email that has forevermore endeared him to me, "is very small compared to the mass of the human body." Thus it was unlikely that it could accelerate a 180-pound astronaut. Crouch pointed out that an exhaled breath doesn’t propel an astronaut in any direction, and the lungs hold about six liters of air—versus the fart, which, as we learned from Dr. Murphy, holds at most three soda cans’ worth.

> Or the average person’s, anyway. "My genes have blessed me with an extraordinary ability to expel some of the byproducts of digestion," wrote Crouch. "So given that, I thought that it should be tested. In what I thought was a real voluminous and rapidly expelled purge, I failed to move noticeably." Crouch surmised that his experiment may have been compromised by the "action/reaction of the gas passing through "through the pants." Disappointingly, both his flights were mixed-gender, so Crouch was disinclined to "strip down naked" and try it again. He was heading to Cape Canaveral and promised to ask around for some other astronauts’ input, but so far no one is, as they say, spilling the beans.

Great book. If you get a chance to read it, it's chocked full of hilarious/disgusting/interesting stuff like this.

If you're designing missions (I'm assuming for academic purposes), the Payload Planners Guide will be the source of authority. This has loads expectations, payload adapter requirements, sizing, environmental controls, etc. ULA also publishes a User's Guide that you may find useful; this will contain quite a bit of other material on the vehicle as a whole that should certainly help nail down specifics.

As a starting reference for launch vehicle selection, I'd recommend the International Reference Guide to Space Launch Systems, if it hasn't already been consulted. The latest edition I'm aware of is slightly out of date, but there's probably no better compendium for easy reference between different vehicles. Makes putting together a thorough and convincing trade study very simple.

As one final point, it's quite common for payoads to not make up the full fairing volume. It is not advantageous to switch to a smaller fairing in most cases, usually because aerodynamic loads, vibrational and acoustic environments will all change, putting a large risk on the launch. Not to mention the added uncertainties in deployment and the costs of uniquely manufactured equipment.

If there's extra mass in the manifests, EELV standard payload adapters (which is what you'll be using on ULA launchers) can be fitted to launch secondary payloads, usually cubesats or smaller independent vehicles. Regardless, if there isn't, there's no reason to spend millions on new fairing design. And launcher efficiency is not really your concern as a primary payload anyway; so long as the vehicle meets your needs and you can pay for it.

I highly recommend Dennis R. Jenkins' books on the space shuttle:

Space Shuttle: The History of Developing the National Space Transportation System https://www.amazon.com/dp/0963397443/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awd_y9sOwbKKVHSSW

It's neat, I pulled this up on my Amazon app to get the link and it had a little box there telling me that I had purchased it in March of 2000. I think I've purchased one or two newer editions since, great read and reference.

There was a book that is basically the series in print. Carl Sagan wrote it. I have not read it personally, but fully plan on it. I have seen the series and fully endorse it as well. But I understand some people absorb and learn better through reading, so for posterity:

Wikipedia,
Amazon

Get a nice set of binoculars, these are good and inexpensive:
https://www.amazon.com/product-reviews/B006ZN4TZS/ref=acr_search_see_all?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1

Trust me on this. Many want to start with a telescope, and I did myself, but the scope I got I outgrew quickly and now these are my go to. Get to some dark lands and whip these bad boys out and you will be astonished all you can see with them. It's like having a telescope in your hands that you can hang around your neck.

Once you get the hang of space and what's out there to view, then get a telescope. But start with some good nocs. You wont be sorry.

Clear skies!

Yes, it does hold. Mass-energy is the typical term used when talking to laypeople, but physicists tend to use natural units (\hbar=c=k_{B}=eV=1) which means that mass and energy are equal, not just equivalent. E=m, instead of E=mc^2, since c=1. (E^2 =m^2 c^4 +p^2 c^2 becomes E^2 =m^2 +p^2 for high velocities, for the pedantic.) So the terms are interchangeable, as long as you're using the right system of units.

The actual theory (the Alcubierre metric) is a solution to the Einstein Field Equations (the complex system of nonlinear partial differential equations that make up general relativity). However, since these are differential equations they can have many solutions, and indeed many different solutions have been found. It is not known which solution (if any) is correct for the real world. In general, it can't be known for certain until a full theory of quantum gravity is discovered. Indeed, the existence of "Dark Energy" is one of the indications that the theory is slightly wrong. It may be explainable as a modification of the theory or may actually be some sort of negative mass-energy, but at the moment we have no way to tell. Again, we need a complete theory of quantum gravity.


For anyone actually wanting to learn about this sort of thing in detail, try the following, in order:

http://www.amazon.com/Gravity-Post-Newtonian-Relativistic-Eric-Poisson/dp/1107032865
http://www.amazon.com/Gravitation-Physics-Charles-W-Misner/dp/0716703440/

Both are graduate level texts (it's a graduate level theory) and require a thorough understanding of differential equations. And differential geometry, and all the more basic physics on which they build of course. The first book starts with some very good material on Newtonian gravity, but you'll still want to have had at least a year of undergraduate physics to start. The theory is simple, but the solutions are very complicated.

There was recently a revision to Stephen Hawking's: A Brief History In Time and it does a really good job of laying out some of the construction behind the biggest phenomenons in space without getting to complex conceptually. Definitely recommend it for dipping your toes in the water so to speak.

http://www.amazon.com/Brief-History-Time-Stephen-Hawking/dp/0553380168

Celestron Skymasters from my in laws. I don't have a lot of time for a new hobby, but I'd still like to see more than I can with just my eyes.
We'll see where I go from here :)

If you haven't already read it I highly recommend the book Mining the Sky. It talks in very great detail about just how much material exists in our solar system.

The best "telescope" in that range is a pair of binoculars. Anything else is more likely to cause someone to be turned away from astronomy.

These are $56 at amazon right now (normally $90). Get those and a decent tripod (the binoculars are a little heavy), and the total price should be well under 100 pounds.

Could I get your opinion on these? My area is as bad as it gets for light pollution so didn't want to blow too much on binoculars but these seem to have good specs at a good price.

I found A Brief History of Time to be a very interesting book when I was in high school. It's not so much about space as it is about the physics side of things. At least a good starter in this area.

Mary Roach touched on it in her book packing for mars. If you haven't read it I'd recommend it. Very entertaining and well researched.

In short, the answer is no. It came close to happening though.

http://www.amazon.com/Packing-Mars-Curious-Science-Life/dp/1469235919

Gene Kranz’s book is absolutely fantastic: Failure is Not an Option

If you want incredibly in-depth Shuttle details, T. A. Heppenheim’s books can’t be beat:

• Space Shuttle Decision, 1965-1972 (History of the Space Shuttle, Volume 1)
  
• History of the Space Shuttle, Volume Two: Development of the Space Shuttle, 1972-1981

Posters:

Chart of Cosmic Exploration

History of Space Travel

Cutaway View of a Space Shuttle peel and stick wall decals

NASA Saturn V Cutaway

Skylab Cutaway illustration

International Space Rockets

X-15 Cutaway

Smithsonian Milestones of Flight

Space Stations Poster

International Space Station Planet Earth

SpaceX Falon 9

Shuttle Atlantis & Mir Space Station

T-Shirts:

Spacex Falcon 9 T-shirts

SpaceX Kids T-Shirts

NASA Logo T-shirt

NASA KIds T-Shirt

Organizations:

Students for the Exploration and Development of Space (SEDS)

Planetary Society

Tech

Get email or text alerts when the space station is flying over

NASA App

Star Walk App

Celestron SkyMaster

Celestron 71020 SkyMaster

Toys:

3D Laser Cut Models

Model Rockets (starting with easiest to make and launch) First Rocket, Second Rocket, Third Rocket, Forth Rocket, and Fifth Rocket.

LEGO City Space Utility Vehicle

LEGO City Space Port

LEGO Ideas NASA Apollo Saturn V

Videos:

Huble IMAX

NASA: A Journey Through Space

Moon Machines or watch at YT - this series rocks.

NASA Live - Earth From Space

HOW IT WORKS: The International Space Station

SKYLAB : SPACE STATION I

The Mir Chronicles

Hubble Space Telescope Servicing Mission

The Space Shuttle

North American X-15

Events:

Total Solar Eclipse 2017

Meteor Showers in 2017

Vandenberg AFB Launch Schedule

Launch Schedule

Dark Sky Map People who have never been to a dark sky area do not think that it is worth the effort to see. People who have gone to a dark sky site are blown away by the amount of stars they can see with their naked eyes. Go on a trip to a dark sky area (dark gray on the map) on a moonless (new moon) night, here is a moon phase calendar.

Hadfield's is An Astronaut's Guide to Life On Earth. Great read! I usually give a copy out every Christmas to some random family member.

Great book on the Shuttle and how it came to be:

"Into the Black" by Rowland White.

https://www.amazon.com/Into-Black-Extraordinary-Columbia-Astronauts/dp/1501123629

You can't go wrong with A Brief History of Time or The Universe in a Nutshell.

A book that is only partially about space but covers a lot of material that I'd highly* recommend is How to Build a Habitable Planet.

I would highly recommend Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time. It goes into some detail about quantum mechanics, and gets into black holes some. But be warned: Despite being toned down, it is still a pretty hard read, and you will find yourself going back to re read things a lot.

For a documentary, you could probably google one and look for the one with the best ratings. I remember watching one a few years ago, but I can't find it.

You heard wrong. Kip Thorne, one of today's leading theoretical physicists, was intimately involved to ensure the science wasn't inaccurate. Here are some great interviews that discuss this:

• Science Friday
  
• Wired
  
• Scientific American
  
  Kip even wrote a book called The Science of Interstellar that goes into a lot more detail.

You can buy the book from Barnes and Nobles and Amazon as an easy route. All proceeds of this book goes to the Red Cross

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/You-Are-Here-Photographs-International/dp/0316379646

Barns and Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/you-are-here-colonel-chris-hadfield/1119434856?ean=9780316379649

If you haven't already I highly recommend reading A Man on the Moon by Andrew Chaikin. It has all of the wonderful stories about the Apollo missions, especially with this quite spirited crew

Into The Black was a good read

> Celestron SkyMaster 15x

These guys? https://www.amazon.com/Celestron-SkyMaster-Binoculars-Tripod-Adapter/dp/B00008Y0VN

What would be the next higher binoculars? I could easily swing something more expensive than $55.

Celestron Sky Master 15x70 about $60. Very well reviewed for purpose of amateur astronomy

You should read his autobiography.
It was quite interesting to see what the space race was like behind the scenes, so to speak.

http://www.amazon.com/Failure-Is-Not-Option-Mission/dp/1439148813

*Edit: Reading the passage about the death of the Apollo 1 Astronauts was very difficult to read.
Mission Control could here them calling for help and screaming wothout being able to do anything in time to rescue them.

Do you already own astronomical binoculars? If not, I recommend you start there.

tl;dr - two eyes is greater than one

If you haven't already read it, Failure Is Not An Option by Gene Kranz is at the top of my "space book" list.

Apollo: Race to the Moon by Charles Murray and Catherine Bly

and

Failure Is Not an Option: Mission Control From Mercury to Apollo 13 and Beyond by Gene Kranz

You should read a book written by Gene Kranz

Read the book An Astronauts Guide To Life On Earth, it chronicles Chris Hadfield's entire journey. Basically he made up his mind as a child that he was going to do everything in his power to become an astronaut, and he kept doing that until he was one.

check out A Man on the Moon: The Voyages of the Apollo Astronauts by Andrew Chaikin

https://www.amazon.ca/Man-Moon-Voyages-Apollo-Astronauts/dp/014311235X

http://www.amazon.com/Cosmos-Carl-Sagan/dp/0345331354

Read this book. I don't have good answers for you, but I'm reading this right now and I think it's exactly the kind of information you're looking for.

Here's one I have just ordered:

100 Years of Spaceflight: A Chronicle of Aerospace History

Another I have in my library and hope to read soon:
Gene Kranz: Failure Is Not An Option

About the why questions you asked: I'm afraid nobody has the definitive answers you are looking for. But there are people who ask the same questions you do. Let me point you to read "a Brief History of Time" by Stephen Hawking.

> "Even if there is only one possible unified theory, it is just a set of rules and equations. What is it that breathes fire into the equations and makes a universe for them to describe? The usual approach of science of constructing a mathematical model cannot answer the questions of why there should be a universe for the model to describe. Why does the universe go to all the bother of existing?"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Brief_History_of_Time

https://www.amazon.com/Brief-History-Time-Stephen-Hawking/dp/0553380168

http://www.fisica.net/relatividade/stephen_hawking_a_brief_history_of_time.pdf

Read all of his books.

The Demon Haunted World

Cosmos

Varieties of the Scientific Experience

Pale Blue Dot

The Dragons of Eden

Billions and Billions

His novel:
Contact

your request is basically "i want to reach for the stars with no effort because im handicapped and poor" and sadly you are limiting yourself because of that mindset.

This is handicapped. so whatever ouchie, booboo, or challenge you might have: Suck it up and deal with it; every handicapped person in the world that makes anything of themselves comes to realize this.

if you can flip burgers at mcdonalds, you can make enough to get your education at any age (expecially if you are handicapped as you would get SSI, plus that pension you mentioned). dont think that your above flipping burgers- nobody is above flipping burgers to survive.

things you need to do first:

1. fix your financial situation. you can live and study on less than 150 a week of income. if you cant manage to make 150 a week, then you are going to have problems.
   
2. once you relearn all that you've lost, you have to focus on getting a higher income. you cannot achieve your dream without at least 30k a year of income and even then it would be difficult in the current economy.
   
3. since your a blue collar worker- being a scientist isnt your best route. now Space craft engineer is well within your realm of doing if you did any form of manual labor/dealing with blueprints.
   
4. study your space engineering and design a space ship that can surpass anything on the market (keep in mind, thousands of other people with a 20 year head start have already been trying to do this, so you need to blow minds if you want to make it.)
   
5. 
   
   
   required reading
   
   Book 1
   
   Book 2
   
   book 3
   
   Book 4
   
   Book 5
   
   sadly without a degree- people wont acknowledge you or accept your theories. you need to get a solid college education for anyone to care. i recomend getting a diploma in astronautics and then going from there.