Sandy Antunes | |
---|---|
Born | Alexander Antunes April 7, 1967 |
Nationality | American |
Alma mater | Boston University College of Arts and Sciences Pennsylvania State University George Mason University |
Scientific career | |
Fields | Astronomy |
Alexander "Sandy" Antunes, (born 4 April 1967 in Baltimore, Maryland) is a Maryland-area astronomer, author, and role playing game designer. He graduated from Boston University in 1989 with a dual major in astronomy and physics, received a master's degree in astronomy from Penn State in 1992, and received his PhD in computational astrophysics from George Mason University in 2005. He is an associate professor of Astronautical Engineering at Capitol Technology University.
Antunes has been published in numerous journal articles, including Science. [1] In his work for NASA, he designed the mission-scheduling software used for XTE, Astro-E2, and Swift missions. He was the science scheduler for the NASA/ISAS ASCA mission from 1992 to 1994.
Antunes is currently working on Project Calliope, [2] a pico-satellite designed to convert space sensor data to music. [3] Additionally, he has authored four books for O'Reilly Media: DIY Satellite Platforms, [4] Surviving Orbit the DIY Way. [5] DIY Instruments for Amateur Space [6] and has recently completed the fourth book in the series: DIY Comms and Control for Amateur Space. [7] He was featured on Episode 10, "Space Invaders," of "The Big Picture with Kal Penn" [8] in May 2015, launching a high-altitude balloon with his students and explaining what it takes to get into space.
Antunes has been active in the gaming community since 1992. With his wife, Emma, he founded the industry-focused role-playing game website RPGnet in 1996. He has published a monthly column on the business side of gaming since the site's inception. One early column, "The 1K Company" (RPGnet, 1998), continues to receive comments and citations.
Antunes's notable works include Miskatonic University , a supplement for Call of Cthulhu ; Rules to Live By (a LARP rule book); Priceless, published by Rogue Publishing; and the Origins Award-nominated A Faery's Tale. [9]
He was chief editor on the Origins Award-nominated Metagame Magazine for its mass market run, 1997–1999. He was executive director of the GPA for 2000 and 2002.
Antunes and Mike Young ran the Cthulhu Live demos at the 1996 Gen Con game convention.
In recent years he has been exploring games that can be played by parents and children, children's games, and family games.
Basic Role-Playing (BRP) is a tabletop role-playing game which originated in the RuneQuest fantasy role-playing game. Chaosium released the BRP standalone booklet in 1980 in the boxed set release of the second edition of RuneQuest. Greg Stafford and Lynn Willis are credited as the authors. Chaosium used the percentile skill-based system as the basis for most of their games, including Call of Cthulhu, Stormbringer, and Elfquest.
Call of Cthulhu is a horror fiction role-playing game based on H. P. Lovecraft's story of the same name and the associated Cthulhu Mythos. The game, often abbreviated as CoC, is published by Chaosium; it was first released in 1981 and is in its seventh edition, with licensed foreign language editions available as well. Its game system is based on Chaosium's Basic Role-Playing (BRP) with additions for the horror genre. These include special rules for sanity and luck.
Space exploration is the use of astronomy and space technology to explore outer space. While the exploration of space is currently carried out mainly by astronomers with telescopes, its physical exploration is conducted both by uncrewed robotic space probes and human spaceflight. Space exploration, like its classical form astronomy, is one of the main sources for space science.
Deimos is the smaller and outer of the two natural satellites of Mars, the other being Phobos. Deimos has a mean radius of 6.2 km (3.9 mi) and takes 30.3 hours to orbit Mars. Deimos is 23,460 km (14,580 mi) from Mars, much farther than Mars's other moon, Phobos. It is named after Deimos, the Ancient Greek god and personification of dread and terror.
Deities & Demigods, alternatively known as Legends & Lore, is a reference book for the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game (D&D). The book provides descriptions and game statistics of gods and legendary creatures from various sources in mythology and fiction, and allows dungeon masters to incorporate aspects of religions and mythos into their D&D campaigns.
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) is the Japanese national air and space agency. Through the merger of three previously independent organizations, JAXA was formed on 1 October 2003. JAXA is responsible for research, technology development and launch of satellites into orbit, and is involved in many more advanced missions such as asteroid exploration and possible human exploration of the Moon. Its motto is One JAXA and its corporate slogan is Explore to Realize.
Calliope is the muse of epic poetry in Greek mythology.
The two moons of Mars are Phobos and Deimos. They are irregular in shape. Both were discovered by American astronomer Asaph Hall in August 1877 and are named after the Greek mythological twin characters Phobos and Deimos who accompanied their father Ares into battle. Ares, the god of war, was known to the Romans as Mars.
Robin D. Laws is a Canadian writer and game designer who lives in Toronto, Canada. He is the author of a number of novels and role-playing games as well as an anthologist.
Polymancer was a magazine covering roleplaying games and related hobbies such as miniatures, wargaming, and LARPs. The magazine was published in Canada by Polymancer Studios Inc. It was distributed across the United States, across Canada, in the UK, in Australia, and in New Zealand, as well as having hard copies archived with Archives Canada. The first issue was published in 2004 and it ran for 32 issues.
James Daniel Lowder is an American author, anthologist, and editor, working regularly within the fantasy, dark fantasy, and horror genres, and on tabletop role-playing games and critical works exploring popular culture.
Claims of the existence of other moons of Earth—that is, of one or more natural satellites with relatively stable orbits of Earth, other than the Moon—have existed for some time. Several candidates have been proposed, but none have been confirmed. Since the 19th century, scientists have made genuine searches for more moons, but the possibility has also been the subject of a number of dubious non-scientific speculations as well as a number of likely hoaxes.
The Moon Lightweight Interior and Telecoms Experiment (MoonLITE), was a proposed British space mission to explore the Moon and develop techniques for future space exploration. If funded, it would have been built by a consortium of UK industry likely including Surrey Satellite Technology, and it was planned to be launched into lunar orbit in 2014. The mission concept emerged from a study run by the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council in 2006. In December 2008, the British National Space Centre announced that the project was moving to a 12-month Phase A study of the mission systems and the planned penetrators.
Hitomi, also known as ASTRO-H and New X-ray Telescope (NeXT), was an X-ray astronomy satellite commissioned by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) for studying extremely energetic processes in the Universe. The space observatory was designed to extend the research conducted by the Advanced Satellite for Cosmology and Astrophysics (ASCA) by investigating the hard X-ray band above 10 keV. The satellite was originally called New X-ray Telescope; at the time of launch it was called ASTRO-H. After it was placed in orbit and its solar panels deployed, it was renamed Hitomi. The spacecraft was launched on 17 February 2016 and contact was lost on 26 March 2016, due to multiple incidents with the attitude control system leading to an uncontrolled spin rate and breakup of structurally weak elements.
Cubicle 7 Entertainment Ltd is an Irish games company that creates and publishes tabletop games. Best known for its Doctor Who and Lord of the Rings games, Cubicle 7 offers titles covering a range of licensed and self-developed properties.
KickSat was a satellite dispenser for small-satellite (femtosatellite) project inaugurated in early October 2011, to launch many very small satellites from a 3U CubeSat. The satellites have been characterized as being the size of a large postage stamp. and also as "cracker size". The mission launch was originally scheduled for late 2013 and was launched April 18, 2014.
Free RPG Day is an annual promotional event by the Tabletop role-playing game industry. The event rules are fairly simple: participating publishers provide special free copies of games to participating game stores; the game store agrees to provide one free game to any person who requests a free game on Free RPG Day.
The Black Knight satellite conspiracy theory claims that a spacecraft of extraterrestrial origin is in near-polar orbit of the Earth, and that NASA is covering up its existence and origin. This conspiracy theory combines several unrelated stories into one narrative.
ULTRASAT is a space telescope in a smallsat format with a large field of view, 210 square degrees, that will detect and monitor transient astronomical events in the near-ultraviolet (220–280 nm) spectral region. ULTRASAT will observe a large patch of sky, alternating every six months between the southern and northern hemisphere. The satellite will be launched into geosynchronous orbit in early 2026. All ULTRASAT data will be transmitted to the ground in real time. Upon detection of a transient event, ULTRASAT will provide alerts within 20 minutes to other ground-based and space telescopes to be directed to the source for further observation of the event in other wavelength bands.
Terror Australis is a supplement published by Chaosium in 1987 for the horror role-playing game Call of Cthulhu, itself based on the works of H. P. Lovecraft. It was written by Penelope Love, Mark Morrison, Lynn Willis, Larry DiTillio, and Sandy Petersen, and is intended to be used as a sourcebook for adventures in Australia in the 1920s. It received positive reviews in game periodicals including White Dwarf, Casus Belli, and Dragon. A revised and expanded second edition was published in 2019, which won two ENnie Awards.