Free Republic

Explanation: In 2011, on January 20, NASA's NanoSail-D2 unfurled a very thin and very reflective 10 square meter sail becoming the first solar sail spacecraft in low Earth orbit. Often considered the stuff of science fiction, sailing through space was suggested 400 years ago by astronomer Johannes Kepler, who had observed comet tails blown by the solar wind. But modern solar sail spacecraft designs, like NanoSail-D2, Japan's interplanetary spacecraft IKAROS, or the Planetary Society's Lightsail A, rely on the small but continuous pressure from sunlight itself for thrust. Glinting in the sunlight as it circled planet Earth, NanoSail-D2's solar sail...

Two famous actors passed away today. Rene Auberjonois was 79. He played a snooty staffer opposite Robert Guiiaume in the 80's series 'Benson'. He was slightly morer famous for playing the shape-shifting Founder 'Odo' on 'Star Trek: Deep Space Nine'. The other was Carrol Spinney, who was 85. You probably don't know him by face, but you definitely knew him as his characters. He was the first and original 'Big Bird' and 'Oscar the Grouch' on 'Sesame Street' providing both the voices and puppetry for the characters. He only gave up being the characters not that long ago.

Airing on January 3rd, 1993, the premiere episode, "Emissary," played out like a changing of the guard. Jean-Luc Picard and his crew, which had solidified Trek's glorious return to television with The Next Generation, boards the Enterprise at the episode's conclusion and disembarks for some new adventure—but the audience is left behind. That's because it was time for something new, and that something was Deep Space Nine. Now, some 26 years later, fans are returning to what's become a beloved show, sometimes even eclipsing the ones that had come before it, with What We've Left Behind, a crowdfunded documentary that...