Thinking in Space

Routinely Updated Space News

• Space.com (The premiere space news page)
• Space Today (the other premiere space news page)
• NASA Today  (short PR briefings from NASA directly)
• Space Science News (3-3 day briefings from Marshall Space Flight Center)

Space Probes

• Schedule Of Space Probe Launches, Encounters, etc. (All deep space missions, US and international)
• Lunar Prospector And Lunar Archive (Lunar Prospector official site)
• Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous  (probe enroute to orbit asteroid)
• NASA Network Control Center (Communicating with space probes)

Spacecraft, Space Stations, and Bases

• Space Shuttle (Good site, but must dig for detail)
• Diagrams of historic spacecraft (Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, etc.)
• Advanced Life Support Project(simulating closed life cycles, for eventual Mars mission)
• Lunar/Mars Mining (NASA research in this area)
• Space Maneuver Vehicle (X-40) (Small, unpiloted military spaceplane)
• Larger US Military Spaceplanes  Exhaustive plans for piloted military spacecraft
• Project Orion (1950's design for very large space craft propelled by nuclear explosions)
• Apollo Saturn Reference Page (Excellent reference page on Apollo program. See the links page as well)
• Deep Cold (Very well done CG images and animations of never-built cold war spacecraft)
• Encyclopedia Astronautica (The premiere spacecraft history web site)
• ESA Portal (Link to European space program web site)

Planets and Astronomy

• The Nine Planets (Excellent textbook of the solar system)
• Ephemeris Generator (Generate views from any object to any object in the Solar System)
• Mars Orbital Laser - landscape data (Detailed contour map data of Mars)
• NASA PDS Map-a-planet (Section of PDS - view planet maps online)
• NASA Planetary Image Atlas (Photos from space probes)
• Planetary Sciences page (Reference on planetary science)

Stars

• Stardate org - McDonald Observatory site (Good astronomy reference site)
• Sloan Digital Sky Survey (most exhaustive mapping of the heavens)

Become an Armchair Astronaut - Training and Simulators

• JPL Basics of Space Flight (Learn online from an actual NASA course how spacecraft find thier way)
• X Plane Flight sim (flight sim for both earth and mars environments. See also Space Combat Simulator.)
• X Plane Online (X-Plane is not designed for online flight, but this "fan site" offers a work-around)
• Orbiter - Free Space Flight Simulator (Excellent simulator for entire solar system, but picky about graphics cards)
• Virtual Aviation Network (Network flight sims together for formation flights, etc.)
• SimNASA (Uses Orbiter and other software to complete virtual missions.)
• Real Space Models (Detailed resin model kits of many spacecraft)

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