A closeup of the stars in the Belt of Orion the Hunter, my favorite constellation, and the only good thing about winter (for me), except for the fact that in Texas, at least, winter is rarely longer than six weeks. The worst part is in January, which is about to begin. Oh, well, it’s short./ NASA.
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Posted in Science/Engineering, Space
Tagged NASA, the Belt of Orion the Hunter
The Jack-and-the-beanstalk technology–it ain’t rocket science–looks to advance by the so-far-unscheduled-but-planned games next fall, according to email from the Spaceward Foundation:
"In 2007, we expect to have real racing going on, with multiple teams achieving the minimum required speed and competing on the amount of payload [Jack] they carry. We’re also considering, if we can raise the funds for it, a two ribbon, no payload, head-to-head race. This will not carry the $500,000 prize purse (since speed alone is not the ultimate requirement) but will provide another opportunity for bragging rights and photo-ops.
"In tether [Beanstalk] land, we don’t have grand announcements or plans, except for that oh-so-good feeling that we will probably give away the prize money this year. While the tether competition is not quite as spectacular as the power beaming competition, we all know what awarding the prize money here means – we have placed the bar so that it will take a new tether material technology to claim the prize."
As always, worth a look.
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Posted in Science/Engineering, Space
Tagged 2007 Space Elevator Games, space elevator, Spaceward Foundation
Some of that work the astronauts of STS 116 were doing last week, installing structural trusses and rewiring the International Space Station/ NASA
A geomagetic storm triggered Northern Lights as unusually far south as Arizona last night. The cause: a mass ejection from the sun which hit Earth squarely on Thursday. Our planet’s magnetic field reverberated for more than 24 hours after the impact. A second one is due today, but is only expected to be a glancing hit, so it probably won’t cause auroras so far south/ photo by Vic Winters.
Via Spaceweather.com
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Posted in Science/Engineering, Space
Tagged Aurora, geomagnetic storm, Missouri, Northern Lights, solar mass ejection
The Geminid meteor shower could be a winner this year, for the Northern Hemisphere, from Wednesday evening into the twilight before dawn on Thursday. If the waxing moon doesn’t get in the way. To avoid that, face west with the moon at your back.
"…people in dark, rural areas could see one or two meteors every minute," for what could be the best meteor shower of 2006, in speedy, bright streaks of yellow across the star-spangled black.
Via Spaceweather, Sky & Telescope, and Space.com, the most pessimistic of the trio.
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Posted in Space
Tagged Geminid meteor shower, Sky & Telescope, Space.com, spaceweather.com
So scientists have long said, and now they say they have evidence that there is water on Mars. Not was water, but is water. It’s sensor evidence in before and after photos taken by Mars Global Surveyor, which still needs to be verified by robots on the ground, but now the hunt for life can truly begin, even if it’s only microbial. I might add that it also would seem to strengthen the controversial, decade-old finding of microbial life in a Martian meteorite found in Antarctica.
Via Instapundit
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Posted in Space
Tagged Mars Global Surveyor, Mars water, microbial life
British physicist Stephen Hawking recently said we must get off this rock or die here en masse.
"Sooner or later disasters such as an asteroid collision or a nuclear war could wipe us all out."
The late President Ronald Reagan was more upbeat about it. He said only the Milky Way is big enough to encompass the human imagination.
"In a Sept. 22, 1988, speech at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, shortly before a launch of the space shuttle Discovery, Reagan said: ‘It is mankind’s manifest destiny to bring our humanity into space; to colonize this galaxy; and as a nation, we have the power to determine whether America will lead or will follow.’"
Via NewsMax for the Reagan quote, from their email alert, but I can’t find a link.
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Tagged colonize space, President Ronald Reagan, Stephen Hawking
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