doing the math for you since 1994
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Starlink Satellites: Decoding Their Lifetime and Next-Gen Upgrades
Hey there, space enthusiasts! Today, we’ll take a look at the fascinating world of Starlink satellites, sparked by a recent post from Jonathan McDowell on February 26, 2025. If you’re not familiar with Jonathan, he’s an astrophysicist who’s become a bit of a rockstar in the space community for tracking satellites and sharing insights—all seemingly…
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The Power of Ten: A Decade of Wisdom in Safety-Critical Coding
In the vast and often perilous world of software engineering, where a single misplaced semicolon can doom a Mars mission or crash a nuclear reactor, the need for stringent coding standards is as critical as the systems they govern. Enter Gerard J. Holzmann’s “Power of Ten”—a compact yet draconian set of rules designed to keep…
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Mission 2024 YR4: Saving Earth (or Just Having a Cosmic Road Trip) with JPL’s Mission Design Tool
The Cosmic Panic Button Every now and then, humanity is graced with the thrilling news that an asteroid might—just might—have our little blue planet in its celestial crosshairs. Enter 2024 YR4, a near-Earth asteroid making waves in the headlines with a non-zero chance of impact in 2032. Naturally, this has led to an avalanche of…
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The Sunk Cost Fallacy in Science: When Gigantic Budgets Meet Reluctant Goodbyes
The Reluctance to Let Go Science is a beautiful, relentless pursuit of truth, but it is also expensive—astronomically so, in some cases. The sunk cost fallacy, a well-known cognitive bias, is not just the domain of gamblers at the poker table or hopeless romantics in doomed relationships. It is alive and well in the realm…
