Israel will try once more to land a robot craft on the moon.
“The 5-foot-tall Beresheet 1, the world’s first privately funded moon lander, crashed into the moon while attempting a landing [April 11] Apparently, a technical glitch caused its main engine to stop mid-landing.”
The second attempt could take 2 to 3 years to get ready. If at first you don’t succeed…
Via UPI
Posted in Israel, Science/Engineering, Space
The Hebrew means Israel Lives! The English: Small Country, Big Dreams
Space X’s Elon Musk celebrated the Feb. 6. 2018, first flight of its Falcon Heavy rocket by launching a cherry-red Tesla roadster with a space-suited mannequin driver into solar orbit. Video low-orbit view here.
“The Tesla will likely make quite a few laps around the sun before its deep-space adventure comes to an end. An orbit-modeling study performed last year predicted that the space car will eventually slam into either Venus or Earth, probably within the next few tens of millions of years.”
When you’re filthy rich you can do anything, obviously. Even evade the environmental wackos who might have held this up. Too late, guys, the roadster is now about 226 million miles away. And probably a wreck.
Via Space dot com
Comments Off on Roadster to the Sun
Posted in Science/Engineering, Space, Uncategorized
View of the far side of Luna, a great hole to be explored, and inside the Chinese probe, an experimental biosphere that may lead to a moon base for people– a sustainable closed ecosystem.
Comments Off on An impressive hole
Posted in Science/Engineering, Space
Tagged far side of the moon, Moon base
The 16th dragon ship to rendezvous with the International Space Station has delivered Xmas goodies and “a team of space-going mice” which I’m sure will outrage PETA if they don’t make it back alive.
Comments Off on Just another day at the office
Posted in Science/Engineering, Space
Tagged just another dragon ship
It usually waits in Central Texas to get cold, cold in December and then only for short periods with quick warmups. January is our winter and by mid-February it’s warming up for good.
Not this year. Freezing nights have already been here and more are expected.
No big surprise, says Martin Mlynczak of Nasa’s Langley Research Center:
Very few sunspots on the sun this year means “it could be about to get very cold very quickly…If current trends continue, it could set a new Space Age record for cold…It could happen in a matter of months.”
Oh, joy.
Via Metro
UPDATE: We’ve been spared the snow so far. We rarely get snow.
Comments Off on November cold so far
Posted in Science/Engineering, Space, Weather/Climate
Tagged new Maunder minimum, very cold winter
“Forget The Right Stuff. This is The Neurotic Stuff. First Man drains the triumph, the exhilaration, the excitement, and the meaning from Neil Armstrong’s exemplary life in favor of a jittery, anxious, tragedy-soaked account deliberately designed to deny its audience any sense of transcendence.”
Then, the other day, the Brit actress who plays Armstrong’s suffering wife takes a liberal shot at President Trump. Thank you, dear, for saving me the price of your movie. From the bottom of my wallet.
Via The Weekly Standard
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