Category Archives: Space

Space Porno

Posted on March 20, 2012 | Comments Off on Space Porno

Riding one of the (now defunct) space shuttle’s Solid Rocket Boosters to 41 miles high and back again to splash down in the Atlantic. Even the audio is orgasmic.

Via Instapundit.

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Posted in Blogosphere, Music, Science/Engineering, Space

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Climate Czar of Mars

Posted on February 18, 2012 | Comments Off on Climate Czar of Mars

The usual shrill babble and punchy trailer clips are flogging John Carter, Disney’s remake of Edgar Rice Burrough’s 1917 novel Princess of Mars, but it looks like a kiddie combo of Hercules and Avatar.

The bad guys burn coal, you see, and are damaging the Martian atmosphere. Uh oh. John Carter is a Confederate soldier mysteriously transported to Mars. There he engages in a lot of sword play, some love scenes steamy enough for 14-year-old boys, and I’ll bet more than a few ecology speeches about sustainability and global warming. Face palm.

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Posted in Blogosphere, Civil War, Science/Engineering, Space, Weather/Climate

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Shock diamonds

Posted on February 12, 2012 | Comments Off on Shock diamonds

SpaceX’s new rocket motor (for propulsive landings, just like the ones in the scifi stories) has “shock diamonds” in its plume. The phenom was first seen in the 1950s in the exhaust plume of the Bell X-1, the first craft to fly faster than the speed of sound. The “diamonds” are more visible in this video of the motor’s recent test firing (below) in McGregor, Texas, just up the road from the rancho.

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Posted in Rancho Roly Poly, Science/Engineering, Space, Texana

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Bleeding imagery

Posted on January 29, 2012 | Comments Off on Bleeding imagery

Michael Flynn’s third installment in his January Dancer series falters nae a bit, with such lines as these:

“A faint band of red has cut the throat of night and bleeds across the eastern horizon.”

I’m only half through this one but it’s already safe to say it’s as good as the first two about the Fair-haired Donovan, and well worth your time if you like complex, near-literary Celtic space opera.

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Posted in Library, Science/Engineering, Space

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Conserve Earth, Colonize Space

Posted on October 15, 2011 | Comments Off on Conserve Earth, Colonize Space

 

Had a bumper sticker by that title, years ago. Back in the 80s, I believe it was, when talk of O’Neil’s orbiting colony at L-5 (left) was rather more popular than now.

But it should be, again, in some form, avers aerospace guy Rand Simberg. Exploration, per se, makes no sense. Unless we go to stay.

And if we don’t do it, others will.

More ideas, here.

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Posted in Blogosphere, Science/Engineering, Space

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WWW: Wonder

Posted on August 23, 2011 | Comments Off on WWW: Wonder

I’ve read a lot of Robert Sawyer’s scifi, and enjoyed most of it, but this conclusion to a trilogy (and, indeed, the first two books, Watch and Wake), takes the prize.

It’s a bit preachy, as others have said, but the AI’s achievements, particularly the takedown of a dictatorship, justifies most of it. Sawyer’s usual liberal politics and Canadian ethnocentrism also are pretty well balanced this time out. And no Texan could complain very convincingly about his Texan main character, or the amusing way he handles her sometimes skeptical encounter with Canadian culture.

The ending also surprised me, which is always delightful in a novel, not so much for the content as for the unexpectedness of its leap. We can only hope that the tale’s singularity, and particularly Sawyer’s AI, is a reliable forecast of our future, in addition to being enjoyable entertainment.

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Posted in Library, Science/Engineering, Space, Texana

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Pray for global warming

Posted on August 7, 2011 | Comments Off on Pray for global warming

“If we fall into a Dalton, let alone a Maunder, we may again see those picturesque post cards of snow enshrouded Christmases.  So pray for global warming, friends.”

But before you assume the position (whichever one you favor), read it all.

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Posted in Library, Science/Engineering, Space, Weather/Climate

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