The traveling show has landed on my little blog for week 15. Please check out all the acts.
A Babe in the Universe discusses how the private space industry has long believed that they can explore Space for less cost than NASA.
This article discusses a plan that would service a lunar observatory and incidentally return people to the Moon.
Advancednano discusses a trio of proposals for $500/kg or less launches to space in this post Ram accelerators are variations on big cannons and could be very cheap to develop. Magnetic ring launch is similar but more expensive for infrastructure but would be cheaper to operate. Plasma hypersonic is interesting, has a credible promoter but has secret core technologies.
Alfa King Memories asks the question, is their life on Mars? Looking at the question is particularly timely with the launch of Phoenix.
The Bad Astronomer points out that people sometimes just don’t get it. In this blog article, he point’s to Neil deGrasse Tyson’s recent article on space flight and then comments on the poor logic of folks arguing against NASA.
Bigelow Aerospace announces history in the making. For the first time, Bigelow Aerospace is able to project images on the outside of a spacecraft! You can learn all about what they are up to here.
Astroblog takes readers on a walk through the sky. This post points toward a beautiful morning with the Moon, Pleiades, Mars and the Hyades close together. The to top it off, the ISS goes in front of Mars!
Astroversity notices that when people think of NASA, they think of a big building in Florida that is in charge of Space Shuttles and the Mars Rovers. This is a common misconception amongst the general population. In this post, the record is set straight by explaining that NASA is built upon by a foundation of other branches and centers that each individualize in something different to help NASA advance, learn, and build. NASA attempts to understand our Universe, and at the same time they try to better the lives of the individual person.
Centauri Dreams has a piece discussing new research that changes the ground rules for storing antimatter, and goes on to look at one proposal for using antimatter as a propulsion system that takes into account how hard it is to create significant amounts of antimatter at this point in our technological development.
Colony Worlds notes that if scientists are unable to develop faster than light or wormhole technology by the 22nd Century, humanity may find themselves using gravitational assistance in order to travel throughout our solar system. This leads to a discussion on how he Jovian king (aka Jupiter) has been frequently used to fling satellites across the gulf of space, and why establishing a colony inside its domain may be the next logical step for conquering the outer solar system–with Callisto being the key.
Cumbrian Sky asks that we put behind it a week of horror headlines involving drunk astronauts and embezzling employees, last weekend NASA successfully launched its latest probe to Mars. As Phoenix begins its long cruise to the Red Planet, blogger Stuart Atkinson looks at why people have been so moved by the mission, and wonders why one part of that mission – looking for a habitable environment near the martian pole – has such a hold on our imaginations…
Geek Counterpoint talks about the first high-resolution image of a dust devil as seen by MRO has just been released. This prompts the question — what do we know about Martian devils, and what’s the history of our knowledge of them?
Hobby Space writes a response to those who attempt to use the recent accident at Scaled Composites as evidence that space tourism faces insurmountable safety hurdles.
Phil for humanity looks up and sees junk. In this post, he discusses the problem with space debris and possible solutions.
Universe Today gives us a glimmer of hope for the dust fighting rovers. In this blog story he discusses current weather and rover status for the red planet.
WTTF: Welcome to the Future notices that astronomers need love too. In this post help is offered in the form of the worst pickup lines you’ll ever hear.
Why Homeschool blogger (and Space Carnival founder) Henry writes about the importance of selling the dream in his article, “Space flight ticket seller – selling dreams.”
From CBS Space News (An appropriate item that puts things in proper perspective — and should be a lesson to be learned by knee-jerk media and bloggers)
. . .Shuttle commander Scott Kelly stated, “This is a serious business we’re in here. I’m proud of your team for getting Endeavour ready to go fly. I’m also proud of my crew and the rest of the astronaut office for their competence and professionalism for consistently making something that is incredibly difficult look easy.”
Kelly’s comments followed a recent letter he wrote to the media, strongly defending the astronaut office in the wake of a NASA-chartered medical report that included anecdotal allegations of at least some instances of alcohol abuse in the past. NASA is currently carrying out an internal investigation to determine whether the alleged incidents actually occurred. So far, NASA Administrator Mike Griffin said today, investigators have not found any evidence supporting the allegations in the report.
“We are conducting a full-scale investigation, flight by flight, to determine whether it’s even reasonable or possible that a crew under the influence of alcohol got on a space shuttle, or a Soyuz or third, on a T-38 (jet trainer),” he said. “We’ll look at all that. Right now, we’ve gone back 10 years. And we can’t even find where it would be a possibility that there was a crew under the influence on either a (Russian) Soyuz or a shuttle.”
But Griffin stressed the probe is not yet complete. The allegations are “extremely serious,” he said, and “I take it as my responsibility to find out.”
Hi, I am having trouble getting to the badastronomy.com entry for some reason. It keeps on popping up to a forum called “Nuclear Australia” which requires a log-in.