…John Theon of NASA, says Hansen’s global warming data is bosh. No surprise, there. When science turns messianic, it’s time to watch out. Hansen has even declared that energy industry execs who question his data should be jailed. Sweet reversal.
UPDATE: Ah but, meanwhile, in Obamalot, the warnings continue as if nothing had changed. How brilliant.
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Posted in Science/Engineering, Space, Weather/Climate
Tagged James Hansen, John Theon, manmade global warming, NASA
Big Media, as usual, is twisting the discovery of the methane to mean that there probably are microbes beneath the windblown soil of the Red Planet. But the researchers say it could as easily be the result of geological processes. I agree with Instapundit that it would be best if the source was not microbial. If it was, we would then be faced with worrying about contamination of Mars from visiting humans or, perhaps worse, of Earth on their return. Be simpler all around if Mars is a reasonably sterile wasteland. Especially for the (admittedly debatable) dreams of making it a second, habitable home some day away from the threat of nuclear war.
Eight full-size school buses fit in the nose shroud of the Ares V rocket NASA wants to use to send astronauts back to the moon, according to the space agency. Or a telescope about four times wider than the Hubble with, consequently, a much bigger light-gathering mirror. Theoretically, this is all about the International Year of Astronomy. But it might also have something to do with the skepticism recently raised by Barry’s aides about NASA’s back-to-the-moon plans. Or not.
Via Space Weather.
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Posted in Space
Starting the year off right, with a starburst that began twenty-five million years ago, a mere eleven million light years away. A weekend trip into the black, when we get star travel worked out. Heh.
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Posted in Space
Tagged Hubble Space Telescope, NGC 1569: Starburst in a Dwarf Irregular Galaxy
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”
Instapundit remembers hearing it on Armed Forces Radio as a teenager in Germany. I was twenty-four in 1968 when it was broadcast from the moon. I was duty officer that Christmas Eve night at squadron headquarters of the Sixth Armored Cavalry Regiment at Fort Meade, MD. The duty NCO and I were transfixed.
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Posted in Blogosphere, Infantry OCS, Science/Engineering, Scribbles, Space
Tagged Apollo VIII, Rand Simberg
Bureaucratic intransigence is the order of the day at NASA, where Mike Griffin, the presumably soon-to-be ex-administrator, is fighting to preserve his little return-to-Apollo vision from Barry’s transition team. As usual, going back to the moon seems to be about the last thing to all concerned. I’m betting the Chinese will have a base there before we do.
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Posted in Space
Nice sentiment. Makes a great bumper sticker. I used to have one. But the reality? Not so much.
SF author Bruce Sterling: "I’ll believe in people settling Mars at about the same time I see people settling the Gobi Desert. The Gobi Desert is about a thousand times as hospitable as Mars and five hundred times cheaper and easier to reach."
SF author Charles Stross: "Space itself is a very poor environment for humans to live in. A simple pressure failure can kill a spaceship crew in minutes. And that’s not the only threat. Cosmic radiation poses a serious risk to long duration interplanetary missions, and unlike solar radiation and radiation from coronal mass ejections the energies of the particles responsible make shielding astronauts extremely difficult. And finally, there’s the travel time. Two and a half years to Jupiter system; six months to Mars."
Nevertheless, Stross, at least, foresees a Moon base in twenty years and ten years later, one on Mars. I would add that both will probably be Chinese. American pols are too gutless and greedy.
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Posted in Library, Science/Engineering, Space
Tagged Bruce Sterling, Charles Stross, colonizing space
THE TEXAS SCRIBBLER 