Best Of MetaFilter

Ok NASA, you've sent people into space, landed on the Moon, launched science redefining telescopes, so what's next on your agenda? As Wobbuffet's post points out, creating a tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG) system is the agency's latest accomplishment.

Apollo 8 Reentry by NASA Goddard Photo and Video (cc by)

Community member 'automatronic' made a great comment about Artemis 1's fiery re-entry to Earth. It's an amazing recounting of a fantastic engineering feat by NASA!

Mars Rover by US Department of State (cc by)

There's bad days at work and then there's the day Chris Lewicki made a mistake and thought he had destroyed a $500 million dollar Mars rover. User rikschell shares the story of learning from failure!

Hubble Marks 30 Years in Space With Tapestry of Blazing Starbirth by NASA Goddard Photo and Video (cc by)

Doctornemo has a fantastic post about what's been going on in the past month of humanity's exploration of space!

Anableps anableps by rubund (cc by-sa)

zamboni with the facts about giant diamonds, the Venus lander, and what this has to do with export taxes.

Can a fish see out of water? Wolfster introduces us to the amazing anablep, the fish whose eyes are bifocals.

Pogo_Fuzzybutt reflects on "one of the better" pizzas he's had -- the day began with a hiker falling off a cliff (Spoiler: don't worry, the hiker lives).

First NBL training run - Getting a feel for the suit. by AstroSamantha (cc by)

Did you enjoy last night's live thread watching the Jupiter mission?

Check out the big auction of space items like navigational globes -- alongside this video from (Mefi's own) engineerguy Bill Hammack on how some of that equipment worked. (Also don't miss his video series recreating Faraday's historical lectures on how a candle works.)

Flight history detectives: Who was the first child to fly in an airplane?

From backseatpilot and Eleven, some expert answers to that age-old question: Which has better aerodynamics, an X-Wing or a TIE fighter?

Nathalia Holt's "Rise of the Rocket Girls"

Amaaaaazing post from filthy light thief on the women behind the Jet Propulsion Lab and NASA, and the book by Nathalia Holt that celebrates them. 🚀

Fermi satellite

I’ve flown 7 satellites and supported two launches.

Rob Rockets with a great answer to krautland's question about the ins-and-outs of satellite operations.

Ramses condom package design

Ramses condoms are named after Ramses II, who had almost 160 children. Condoms are kind of all about preventing lots of kids ... And the Trojans famously let a large object inside their city which discharged a swarm of invaders that destroyed it. Again, isn't this exactly the opposite of what a condom should do? – Sangermaine

Arousing, spacey, spicy and dashing design recently on Mefi: Vintage condom package designs; An extravagant symbol of a man who can’t hide his true nature – A brief history on Spats; Taxi Fabric connects young Indian designers with taxi drivers; When Airlines Looked Cool and Showed It, posters from flying's golden age; In the '70s, NASA commissioned a redesign of their "meatball" logo... unfortunately a lot of NASA engineers hated it. And of course, Mefites weigh in on the Google logo redesign.

and in the Green: Who originated the ubiquitous laser/neon grid design of the '80s?; Cool examples of generative art?; How can I make beautiful Powerpoint Slides?; "The best way I can describe it is 'whimsical'" – Where can I get more plates like this?

Space Shuttle Columbia Memorial by cliff1066™ (cc by)

MeFi member arnicae shares what it was like during the aftermath of the Space Shuttle Columbia's crash 11 years ago in east Texas.

The response of the communities of deep east Texas, an area of the country with some very problematic and sad history is nothing short of phenomenal. Though the weather was cold and rainy throughout the days and weeks that followed the crash, searchers, many of them volunteers from throughout the South (and around the country) stayed out for twelve hour shifts.

Apollo 12 Pacific Recovery by NASA Goddard Photo and Video (cc by)

In a thread about the wonderful "writes upside down" spacepen, member eriko explains why pencils in space can be quite deadly and unsafe:

Realize that a piece of graphite between two conductors with enough current behind them becomes a light bulb. Briefly. This isn't good in sea level atmosphere, in a pure oxygen atmosphere, this is deadly. Gemini used mechanical pencils, which got rid of the wood, but left the graphite, and graphite+oxygen+spark=fire. Bad.

Apollo 11 Bootprint by NASA on The Commons

On the occasion of Neil Armstrong's passing, MetaFilter member liza recounts how profound the moonwalk was to her and her family:

supposedly 500 million people saw that Lunar landing worldwide. beside the bouncing images of Armstrong on our little black & white TV, the most important memory i have of that day is that the sky, the Moon and space were only the limits to the opportunities i could have.