Now you can have the greatest scientific minds in human history collecting dust on your bookshelf! Lord Crumwell's Oddfellows Scientists Mini Figures includes Marie Curie, Charles Darwin, Sir Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein, and Nikola Tesla. I think if I had a chance to travel back in time and meet any of these folks it would have to be Einstein as he seemed to have a good sense of humor.
The good news: There may have been Martians! The bad news: That was a long, long time ago:
"New observations made by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), currently circling the planet, have revealed evidence that vast regions of the southern highlands of Mars were altered by water in a variety of environments billions of years ago. Water is a key condition for life as we know it. Though there is no firm evidence that Mars has ever harbored life, knowing that the planet was once wet suggests that it was at least habitable in the past."
I've always admired Freeman Dyson from the first time I heard about the concept of the Dyson sphere. In the above video Dyson talks about the idea of looking for exterrestrial life inside of our own solar system. What's interesting is that Dyson thinks is that we should look on the edge of the solar system — all the way out in the Kuiper belt and the Oort cloud.
Why are you sitting at home watching Netflicks when there's a huge ass space station flying above your house? It seems that the next few weeks will be ideal for NASA fanboys to catch a glimpse of the International Space Station:
"If you're out watching the twilight sky in the time frame from 45 to 90 minutes before sunrise, or 45 to 90 minutes after sunset, you'll might see a few "moving stars." They are most likely artificial satellites. The brightest of all is the International Space Station, and this month provides some great opportunities to see it from just about anywhere. During the next couple of weeks, North Americans and Europeans will have many opportunities to see the ISS flying over their homes, due chiefly to a seasonal circumstance."
That man you see in the photograph above is an international treasure. Under that rejected humble facade is none other than Charles Thomas Bolton who will one day be seen as one of the great astronomers of all time. He was THE first man to discover a black hole:
"In 1972, Bolton made a discovery in astronomy that was so important it guaranteed him a place in the history books: he was the first astronomer to present irrefutable evidence of the existence of a black hole. The black hole in question was Cygnus X-1, which lies at the centre of our own galaxy, the Milky Way. Bolton detected its presence by observing star HDE 226868 wobble as if it was orbiting around an invisible but massive companion. His calculations demonstrated that the companion could be nothing less than a black hole."
So why is one of the best astronomers in the world — a grown man who is 65 years old — crying on the steps of his observatory? After 73 years of the observatory being open the University of Toronto sent Bolton an email informing him that he had 10 days to get get off the premises because the University in their "wisdom" had decided to close the David Dunlap Observatory:
Dunlap Observatory closing sparks anger, frustration
"In November, the university voted to close the observatory and sell it to the highest bidder, and redirect the money from the sale back into the school’s astronomy program. Yesterday it confirmed it has a “firm agreement” with a buyer and it’s looking to close the deal by month-end. It did not disclose the buyer or the price."
The university used the excuse that the observatory was no longer useful due to light pollution, but this is a lie as the facility is perfectly useful long-term research programs and large survey programs where relatively few observations are taken of a large number of stars. But more shocking than the closure of the observatory is the poor way the university is treating Mr. Bolton. It's heartbreaking to think that when you're looking at that photo that they carrying out 37 years of his life's work. The University of Toronto should be ashamed of their shoddy treatment of a man who is a real life hero.
I've spent my life wondering about the barbarians who sacked the library of Alexandria, I always imagined that it's same primitive minded folks like the Taliban that destroyed the Buddhas of Bamiyan. Well what makes this case sad is that the man responsible for this move is David Naylor the 15th President of the University of Toronto who amongst his other honors is that he was a Rhodes Scholar. I'd love to know if Naylor has seen the photo Bolton crying on those steps and if so how he can he sleep at night knowing that he defiled an living astronomical treasure?
Unlike rockets solar sails work by tapping into the power of the sun. The first person to propose a solar sail was Johannes Kepler in the seventeenth century, although it wasn't until 1984 when an article by engineer and science fiction author Robert L. Forward stirred serious interest in the subject. In 2001 and 2005 the Planetary Society made two attempts as testing the concept, but the mission was scuttled due to malfunctioning rockets.
But solar sails may be set to become reality shortly as NASA is getting ready to test the concept again with an ultra-thin, 100-square-foot sail called the NanoSail-D. The sail was developed in less than six months and features xtremely lightweight gossamer fabric designed to glide into space. The NanoSail-D is set to sail into orbit on July 29th and you can follow the progress with this mission dashboard and get updates via Twitter too:
"I lay no claim to advancing scientific data other than advancing flying knowledge. I can only say that I do it because I want to." — Amelia Earhart
Amelia is a real hero to me, I see her as a true pioneer in every sense of the word. We tend to forget today that once upon a time that aviation was once the stuff of cutting edge technology. But back in the 30s aircraft were very futuristic, so much so that in the 1936 film Things to Come H. G. Wells has a band of united airmen saving the world from the next dark age. Amelia Earhart was very much the face of not just aviation but the notion of progress itself. She wasn't only exploring the frontiers of flight, but of equal rights for women as well. I think today, 71 years after she disappeared that we can still learn a great deal from her.
Continue reading "Amelia Earhart Vanished 71 Years Ago Today" »
It's looking more and more like Mars might be ready for some terraforming:
Martian soil could grow turnips, Phoenix finds
"Some Martian dirt has the same basic chemistry as garden soil, a new analysis from the Phoenix lander suggests. The find widens the range of organisms that might be able to live on Mars. Although the analysis is not yet complete, the lander has already found trace levels of nutrients like magnesium, sodium, potassium and chloride. Although these ingredients were known to exist in Martian soil, until now no one was sure whether they would be soluble in water and thus potentially available for life."
So far we've discovered over 300 planets outside of our solar system, it makes one start to wonder if we might find alien life forms sooner than later (or at least a planet that might support life):
Life in outer space? Astronomers hunt aliens
Japan’s project involves astronomers filming one star over several nights
"Japan's biggest astronomical observatories are teaming up for an unprecedented quest to find out whether there is life in outer space. The project, led by Japanese astronomers, will bring together a dozen or more observatories from all over the country to study one star that researchers see as a potential home to an extraterrestrial civilization."
It's amazing to think in just a few short years we've discovered over 300 planets outside of this solar system, it's only a matter of time until we come across Earth-like which are known as "Class M Planets" to us Star Trek fanboys:
Trio of super-Earths found around Milky Way star
"European researchers said on Monday they discovered a batch of three "super-Earths" orbiting a nearby star, and two other solar systems with small planets as well. They said their findings, presented at a conference in France, suggest that Earth-like planets may be very common."
Frankly until we're able to see a few more planets outside of our solar system up close it's a bit early to make judgement calls on what is and isn't a planet. I say we go to the Star Trek model and start to classify different types of planets by letter:
Plutoid chosen as name for solar system objects like Pluto
"Almost two years after the International Astronomical Union (IAU) General Assembly introduced the category of dwarf planets, the IAU, as promised, has decided on a name for transneptunian dwarf planets similar to Pluto. The name plutoid was proposed by the members of the IAU Committee on Small Body Nomenclature (CSBN), accepted by the Board of Division III, by the IAU Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature (WGPSN) and approved by the IAU Executive Committee at its recent meeting in Oslo, Norway.
Plutoids are celestial bodies in orbit around the Sun at a distance greater than that of Neptune that have sufficient mass for their self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that they assume a hydrostatic equilibrium (near-spherical) shape, and that have not cleared the neighbourhood around their orbit. The two known and named plutoids are Pluto and Eris. It is expected that more plutoids will be named as science progresses and new discoveries are made."
The movement of these robot fish is quite creepy — they remind me of the Sentinel I-Series ("Squids") from the Matrix movies:
This is an interesting article: It seems that since we are in the middle of the galaxy it's very complex to reverse engineer what we're seeing — until now that is thanks to computer aided astronomy. And it seems that the results are changing the way we think about the shape of the our galaxy, it seems that the Milky Way is two large spiral arms rather than four:
"Astronomy concepts are always changing as new information comes to light. The latest theory to undergo revision is our concept of the structure of the Milky Way. As we reside in the thick of it, it's tough to see the proverbial forest for the trees. New findings may make a compelling case that the Milky Way has two major spiral arms, rather than four that have been theorized in the past.
A team led by Robert Benjamin of the University of Wisconsin used the recently completed Spitzer Space Telescope infrared survey of the Milky Way, spanning 120° of sky. Previous studies led astronomers to conclude the galaxy has a pronounced central bar and four major spiral arms named for the constellations we see in their directions: Sagittarius-Carina, Scutum-Crux, Perseus, and Norma-Cygnus."
The United States hasn't had a serious investment in NASA since the early 70s. Both Republicans and Democrats have never seen the spin off benefits which have been a boom to our economy. Well maybe a little bit of shock treatment might help NASA get some over due funding:
China likely to beat U.S. back to the moon, NASA says
"Here's one Olympic-style event that China is likely to win: landing the next humans on the moon. Chinese astronauts are on schedule to beat the United States back to the moon by two or three years, the head of NASA's lunar exploration program said Wednesday. "If they keep on the path they're on, they can" land before Americans do, said Rick Gilbreth, NASA's associate administrator for exploration systems.
The goal of NASA's Constellation program is to return astronauts to the moon by 2020, as proposed in President Bush's Vision for Space Exploration. Gilbreth said the Chinese could accomplish that by 2017 or 2018. The Chinese lead will be even longer if the American schedule slips, as some space experts predict."
Recently I was wandering through on of my favorite local bookstores here in Williamsburg, Brooklyn and I came across a beautiful coffee table book which featured some delicious photos of vintage computers:
Core Memory: A Visual Survey of Vintage Computers
What blew me away about the book was the sharp design and the photographs by Mark Richards. What's amazing to me about these artifacts is that theyshow just how fast everything has changed in the world of computers in the last few decades. If you look at an automobile from 1970 the industrial design may be a bit different, but what's under the hood is pretty much the sam car that you'd see today. However with computers what would take up a room and require a team of experts to operate can now fit into a cell phone which can be operated by a child.
You can check out the website of Mark Richards here, and below are just a few of the technolicious photographs from the book:
Continue reading "Core Memory: Visuals of Vintage Computers" »
I got quite a kick out of this video from NewScientist.com which shows off the first scientific films from the dawn of the 20th Century.
It looks like the International Space Station is having some issues with its only toilet which is seven years old at this point, NASA is trying to send up parts for a replacement on the next shuttle launch but Discovery is currently overloaded with another payload:
Space Station Toilet Broken: It's The Only One
"The international space station's lone toilet is broken, leaving the crew with almost nowhere to go. So NASA may order an in-orbit plumbing service call when space shuttle Discovery visits next week. Until then, the three-man crew will have to make do with a jury-rigged system when they need to urinate.
While one of the crew was using the Russian-made toilet last week, the toilet motor fan stopped working, according to NASA. Since then, the liquid waste gathering part of the toilet has been working on-and-off. Fortunately, the solid waste collecting part is functioning normally. Russian officials don't know the cause of the problem and the crew has been unable to fix it."
...if you're curious about how to go to the bathroom in space check out this page.
The year is 1976 and there is no such thing as a cell phone, the web, DNA testing, or cloned animals: Yet the Viking spacecraft lands on Mars and takes some photos. I'm sorry but thirty years later I'm not going to get excited about the Phoenix landing on Mars. We've been there and done that already. If you want to get me excited then have a team of humans building sandcastles on the Martian surface and then I'll be impressed. The state of NASA is depressing, never mind having a moon base — we can't even find a replacement for the space shuttle. In thirty years we've made so little progress with space exploration it's disheartening.
The only silver lining to these gray clouds is the amazing discoveries made by astronomers of planets outside of our solar system. But how can we even dream of interstellar space travel when a fellow earthling can't take a stroll on Mars? As a kid I grew up watching science fiction TV shows like Space:1999 and Star Trek — as I get old I fear that I was just watching fantasy and didn't know it. As a global civilization humanity is slipping...
Those of us fanboys who work at our day jobs in the computer biz are well aware of the concept of Moore's Law which is that as time goes on more sophisticated hardware becomes cheaper to manufacture at an incremental rate. Well it seems that now some folks who develop photovoltaics (PV for short) think that they may see their technology reach a turning point by 2015 which is only seven years away:
Photovoltaic Moore's Law Will Make Solar Competitive by 2015
"In recent years, global PV production has been increasing at a rate of 50 percent per year, so that accumulated global capacity doubles about every 18 months. The PV Moore’s law states that with every doubling of capacity, PV costs come down by 20 percent. In 2004, installing PV cost about $7 per watt, compared to $1/W for wind, which at that time was beginning to stand on its own feet commercially, Last, year, as recently noted in this blog, average global solar costs had come down to between $4 and $5 per watt, right in line with the PV Moore’s law. Extrapolate those gains out six or seven years, and PV costs will be below $2/W, making photovolatics competitive with 2004 wind."
Found via futurepundit.com.
This is interesting because there is already some thinking that we may have contaminated Mars with the Viking probes from the 70s:
Do other star systems need protection from Earth life?
"The technology needed to send a robotic probe to another solar system is far in the future at best. But one scientist says it's not too soon to start thinking about how to avoid contaminating extrasolar planets with hitchhiking microbes from Earth. Even today's fastest spacecraft would take tens of thousands of years to reach the Sun's nearest neighbours, Proxima and Alpha Centauri, which lie just over 4 light years away and may host an Earth-like planet. But some proposed technologies – such as nuclear propulsion, solar sails, and antimatter drives – could theoretically get a spacecraft to other solar systems in a human lifetime."
I love the idea of this — but I hate the thought of having to wait until 2020:
Moonbase Armstrong: The Next U.S. Lunar Outpost?
"The name of Apollo astronaut Neil Armstrong is etched into U.S. history books as the first human to walk on the moon, and it may be set for an encore. A new bill, the NASA Authorization Act of 2008 (H.R. 6063), that cleared the House Science and Technology space and aeronautics subcommittee on Monday carries an interesting caveat. If passed into law, NASA apparently MUST name its first lunar outpost after Armstrong – the first human to set foot on another world during the Apollo 11 mission on July 20, 1969."
I think the more nations with manned spacecraft the better:
Europe's first crewed spaceship on the horizon
"Europe's first crewed spaceship may be on the horizon. The European Space Agency may build a new spaceship – based on its recently launched cargo ship – that could transport humans to the International Space Station and possibly the Moon. Until recently, Europe had relied on NASA's space shuttles and Russia's Soyuz and Progress vehicles to transfer goods and astronauts to the space station.
The Jules Verne Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV), which successfully transported supplies to the ISS in April, gave Europe its first taste of autonomy. But it can transport only goods, not people, and some experts have called for a crewed craft to build on this success."
Laser Cannons are very common in the Star Wars universe and now they might become reality:
Boeing raygunship fires first blasts in ground testing
"US airliners'n'armaments colossus Boeing announced today that one of its prototype aerial laser cannon planes has fired its first energy bolts in ground testing. "First firing of the high-energy laser aboard the ATL aircraft shows that the program continues to make good progress," said Boeing blast-cannon biz boss Scott Fancher.
The so-called Advanced Tactical Laser (ATL) programme is one of two flying raygun projects underway at Boeing. The other is the Airborne Laser, or ABL, a monstrous jumbo-jet mounted energy ray intended to disintegrate threatening nuclear missiles from hundreds of kilometres away. Both ATL and ABL use toxic chemical fuels to generate higher-intensity laser beams than can currently be produced by electric equipment."
Scientists have been thinking that there may be life on Europa for sometime now, and this is a good sign that this might could become a reality:
Wandering Poles Left Scars On Jupiter's Moon Europa: Could Life Exist Beneath Icy Crust?
"Curved features on Jupiter's moon Europa may indicate that its poles have wandered by almost 90°, report scientists from the Carnegie Institution, Lunar and Planetary Institute, and University of California, Santa Cruz in the 15 May issue of Nature. Such an extreme shift suggests the existence of an internal liquid ocean beneath the icy crust, which could help build the case for Europa as possible habitat for extraterrestrial life.
The study has implications for liquid water inside Europa. Scientists have hypothesized that Europa has an extensive subsurface ocean based on spacecraft photos that revealed its fractured, icy surface. The ocean beneath the crust would be kept liquid by heat generated by tidal forces from Jupiter's gravity. The presence of heat and water may make life possible, even though the subsurface ocean is cut off from solar energy."
I've been geeking out tonight listening to a great podcast by Dr. Moira Gunn where she interviews theoretical physicist and author Michio Kaku. They talk about the science side of everything from the transporter from Star Trek to time travel.
This is amazing because they're thinking is that Mars isn't a dead planet after all, but in fact has a more active climate than Earth:
Glaciers Reveal Martian Climate Has Been Recently Active
"The prevailing thinking is that Mars is a planet whose active climate has been confined to the distant past. About 3.5 billion years ago, the Red Planet had extensive flowing water and then fell quiet - deadly quiet. It didn't seem the climate had changed much since.
Now scientists think Mars' climate has been much more dynamic than previously believed. After examining stunning high-resolution images taken last year by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, the researchers have documented for the first time that ice packs at least 1 kilometer (0.6 miles) thick and perhaps 2.5 kilometers (1.6 miles) thick existed along Mars' mid-latitude belt as recently as 100 million years ago.
In addition, the team believes other images tell them that glaciers flowed in localized areas in the last 10 to 100 million years - akin to the day before yesterday in Mars' geological timeline. This evidence of recent activity means the Martian climate may change again and could bolster speculation about whether the Red Planet can, or did, support life."
Found via dailygalaxy.com.
Countless science fiction films from 2001: A Space Odyssey to Alien (my favorite was Planet of the Apes) have used the idea of suspended animation as a technique to allow for prolonged missions in outer space. Well now it looks like that concept may become reality:
Rotten egg gas may save Mars mission
"Dr Warren Zapol and colleagues report in the latest issue of the journal Anesthesiology how hydrogen sulfide slows mouse metabolism without cutting blood flow to the brain. There are many questions and years of research before healthy people like astronauts would be put into hibernated states. But the procedure could find an earlier application in cases of traumatic injury when life itself is at risk. Zapol plans additional experiments on larger mammals, probably sheep. "Before you use it on astronauts, you want to make sure it's very, very safe," he says."
I wonder if somewhere out there we have an orphan moon wandering the cosmos?
Did Earth once have multiple moons?
"The ancient catastrophe that gave birth to the Moon may have produced additional satellites that lingered in Earth's skies for tens of millions of years. A new model suggests moonlets may have once occupied the two Earth-Moon Lagrangian points, regions in space where the gravitational tug of the Earth and the Moon exactly cancel each other out. Objects trapped in these points are called Trojans and can remain stationary forever if left undisturbed.
Scientists think the Moon was created when Earth was struck by a Mars-sized object some 4.5 billion years ago. "The giant impact that likely led to the formation of the Moon launched a lot of material into Earth orbit, and some could well have been caught in the Lagrangian points," says study team member Jack Lissauer of NASA Ames Research Center in California, US."
So if global warming doesn't get us first we may get hit by tons of comets:
Did the solar system 'bounce' finish the dinosaurs?
"The sun’s movement through the Milky Way regularly sends comets hurtling into the inner solar system – coinciding with mass life extinctions on earth, a new study claims. Scientists at the Cardiff Centre for Astrobiology built a computer model of our solar system’s movement and found that it “bounces” up and down through the plane of the galaxy. As we pass through the densest part of the plane, gravitational forces from the surrounding giant gas and dust clouds dislodge comets from their paths. The comets plunge into the solar system, some of them colliding with the earth.
The Cardiff team found that we pass through the galactic plane every 35 to 40 million years, increasing the chances of a comet collision tenfold. Evidence from craters on Earth also suggests we suffer more collisions approximately 36 million years. The periods of comet bombardment also coincide with mass extinctions, such as that of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. Our present position in the galaxy suggests we are now very close to another such period."
It seems that scientists are discovering young galaxies that are smaller in scale but contain as many stars as a more mature galaxy like the Milky Way:
Tiny Young Galaxies "Full of Stars" Discovered
"While these galaxies are small enough to fit within the central hub of our own Milky Way, they each contain as many stars as larger, more mature galaxies. The light we see from the densely packed galaxies dates to a time when the universe was relatively young, less than three billion years old.
Previously observed tiny galaxies from this time period had correspondingly small numbers of stars. But the newfound galaxies—each only about 5,000 light-years across—weigh in at about 200 billion times the mass of the sun."
This is an amazing article, according to one scientist within ten years that we will have strategies that will allow us to re-grow the bones and functional tissue:
"The photos of his severed finger tip are pretty graphic. You can understand why doctors said he'd lost it for good. Today though, you wouldn't know it. Mr Spievak, who is 69 years old, shows off his finger, and it's all there, tissue, nerves, nail, skin, even his finger print. How? Well that's the truly remarkable part. It wasn't a transplant. Mr Spievak re-grew his finger tip. He used a powder - or pixie dust as he sometimes refers to it while telling his story."
Six Million Dollar Man toy photo found via W!L.
I say we skip the friggin moon! We've been there done that — time for something cooler:
NASA must look beyond the Moon
"Pressure is growing on NASA to speed up development of technologies that will allow astronauts to explore Mars, as envisioned by President George Bush's Vision for Space Exploration. A new report echoes earlier concerns that sending astronauts to the Moon is dominating NASA's agenda."
When you stop and think about the idea of there only being 2,000 people some 70,000 years ago it's amazing — you realize how fragile our existence is in this world:
Study says near extinction threatened people
"Human beings may have had a brush with extinction 70,000 years ago, an extensive genetic study suggests. The human population at that time was reduced to small isolated groups in Africa, apparently because of drought, according to an analysis released Thursday. The report notes that a separate study by researchers at Stanford University estimated the number of early humans may have shrunk as low as 2,000 before numbers began to expand again in the early Stone Age."
Illustration found via Scientific American Magazine.
Fear not fellow fanboys! South Korea's first astronaut Yi So-yeon (she's the cute one you wanted to ask out on date) is safe:
Astronauts rescued as capsule lands off-target
"A Soyuz capsule carrying South Korea's first astronaut landed in northern Kazakhstan Saturday, 260 miles off its mark, Russian space officials said. Mission Control spokesman Valery Lyndin said the condition of the crew — South Korean bioengineer Yi So-yeon, American astronaut Peggy Whitson and Russian flight engineer Yuri Malenchenko — was satisfactory, though the three had been subjected to severe G-forces during the re-entry."
I love all the breakthroughs that we're seeing in astronomy these days, but the idea of taking the first steps to making interstellar travel excite the fanboy in me:
"Engineer Neil Wallace peers into a huge vacuum chamber designed to replicate - as far as possible - the conditions of space. Cryogenic pumps can be heard in the background, whistling away like tiny steam engines. Using helium gas as a coolant, they can bring down the temperature in the vacuum chamber to an incredibly chilly 20 Kelvin (-253C). The pressure, meanwhile, can drop to a millionth of an atmosphere. This laboratory in a leafy part of Hampshire is where defence and security firm Qinetiq develops and tests its ion engines - a technology that will take spacecraft to the planets, powered by the Sun."
The above photo of Phobos is just breath taking, to see the all the amazing detail just click on the image to view it as full size. Also the NASA website features a 3D photo if you have those cool red and blue glasses:
NASA Spacecraft Images Mars Moon in Color and in 3D
"A new stereo view of Phobos, the larger and inner of Mars' two tiny moons, has been captured by a NASA spacecraft orbiting Mars. The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter took two images of Phobos 10 minutes apart on March 23. Scientists combined the images for a stereo view.
"Phobos is of great interest because it may be rich in water ice and carbon-rich materials," said Alfred McEwen, HiRISE principal investigator at the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory at the University of Arizona, Tucson. "
What's amazing about this vehicle is that the living quarters being carried around by this lunar robot will weigh 15 tons. What's great about this concept is that the same technology could be used to construct a base on Mars in advance of human explorers reaching the planet:
Giant robots could carry lunar bases on their backs
"NASA engineers are testing out a giant, six-legged robot that could pick up and move a future Moon base thousands of kilometres across the lunar surface, allowing astronauts to explore much more than just the area around their landing site. In a 2005 report about its exploration plans, NASA said it wanted to set up a base at a fixed location on the Moon after initially returning humans there in 2020.
But a gargantuan robotic vehicle called ATHLETE (All-Terrain Hex-Legged Extra-Terrestrial Explorer) could change that. Measuring about 7.5 metres wide, with legs more than 6 metres long, the robot could act essentially like a turtle, carrying the astronauts' living quarters around on its back. It was designed by engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, US, who are now testing two small-scale prototypes of the robot."
While we have yet to make it to Mars, maybe in my lifetime we'll spot another Earth? So far we've discovered 300 planets outside of our solar system so the odds are in our favor:
Solar System's 'look-alike' found
"Astronomers have discovered a planetary system orbiting a distant star which looks much like our own. They found two planets that were close matches for Jupiter and Saturn orbiting a star about half the size of our Sun. Martin Dominik, from St Andrews University in the UK, said the finding suggested systems like our own could be much more common than we thought.
And he told a major meeting that astronomers were on the brink of finding many more of them."
It's amazing to think of what's out there: This almost (but might not be) planet is 14 times the mass of Jupiter:
Has the youngest known planet been spotted?
"A team of astronomers says it may have spotted the youngest planet ever found, boasting an age of less than 100,000 years old, and perhaps as young as 1600 years old. They say it bolsters a controversial theory that planets form very quickly, like stars – but other astronomers say the massive object may not be a planet at all but a 'failed' star, which explains its speedy birth."
I think it's more a matter that intelligent life-forms that have technology are rare:
There is life out there but it's probably stupid
"EXTRA-TERRESTRIALS will probably never phone Earth in a way we can understand because they are unlikely to have evolved human-like intelligence. Australian National University astronomer Charley Lineweaver said no other organism on Earth had evolved with intelligence matching that of humans, so it was highly improbable an extra-terrestrial lifeform would think like we do or have built technologies like ours.
"If human-like intelligence were so useful, we should see many independent examples of it in biology and we could cite many creatures who had involved on independent continents to inhabit the intelligence niche," Dr Lineweaver said. "But we can't. Human-like intelligence seems to be what its name implies - species specific." Although he was sure there was other life beyond Earth, he doubted there was intelligent life, such as that, pictured, from the film ET."
Shown above is a simulation that shows the amount of sunlight falling on the Moon's south polar region over the course of one (solar) day:
Moon's south pole revealed in 'dramatic' new 3D map
"Earth-based radar observations have produced a detailed 3D map of the Moon's south polar region, revealing a dramatic and rugged landscape. The map will help NASA assess the site's potential for setting up a base. NASA plans to return humans to the Moon by 2020 and wants to eventually set up a permanent base there. The Moon's poles are considered particularly good locations for a base.
That's because frozen water may be present in frigid, permanently shadowed craters at the poles, providing a crucial resource for astronauts. At the same time, some terrain at the poles may be permanently illuminated, providing prime spots to set up solar power stations."
As a fanboy I count myself as a huge supporter of NASA, however I think it's important to remind the more mundane minded among us that space program spin-off technology can be found in our everyday world. And to that end NASA has just launched a website called "Trace Space Back to You" which shows how you can find NASA R&D in every thing from toothpaste to tennis rackets.
Microsoft and Apple are you paying attention? You better one up Google and start planning a Mars mission:
Private race to the moon (and money) takes off
10 teams vie for $30 million in Google Lunar X PRIZE competition
"Google and X Prize officials have unveiled nine new privately funded teams that will compete for $30 million in the Google Lunar X Prize challenge, a race to the moon. "It's not just a new mission," Peter Diamandis, chairman and CEO of the X Prize Foundation, said during Thursday's announcement here at Google's headquarters. "It's a new way of doing business."
The Google Lunar X Prize, unveiled last September, aims to encourage privately funded lunar exploration — just as the $10 million Ansari X Prize provided a jump start for space tourism three years ago. Private-sector moonshots could open the way to commercial ventures ranging from robotic mining operations to lunar hotels and virtual reality-TV expeditions."
Currently only a few lucky fanboy (and fangurl) multimillionaires have had the pleasure of going on vacation in outer space, however according to this article the price may come to down to a mere $80,000 for a quick taste of the final frontier:
Space tourism to rocket in this century, researchers predict
"Outer space will rocket into reality as “the” getaway of this century, according to researchers at the University of Delaware and the University of Rome La Sapienza. In fact, the “final frontier” could begin showing up in travel guides by 2010, they predict.
“In the twenty-first century, space tourism could represent the most significant development experienced by the tourism industry,” says Prof. Fred DeMicco, ARAMARK Chair in UD's Hotel, Restaurant and Institutional Management program."
By the way the image of the Orion Space Plane from 2001: A Space Odyssey is from this great page on Martin Bower.
I wish I was an astronaut! Shown above is a great photo taken by an astronaut aboard NASA's Space Shuttle Atlantis on February 18, 2008. Click on the image to see it as full size...
Found via chamorrobible.org.
It's just amazing to me how many new basic things we are learning every day about the universe that we live in:
The Milky Way is twice the size we thought it was
"It took just a couple of hours using data available on the internet for University of Sydney scientists to discover that the Milky Way is twice as wide as previously thought. Astrophysicist Professor Bryan Gaensler led a team that has found that our galaxy - a flattened spiral about 100,000 light years across - is 12,000 light years thick, not the 6,000 light years that had been previously thought."
Shown above is a video of author George Dyson at the TED conference. Dyson wrote an amazing book on Project Orion, a massive, nuclear-powered spacecraft that could have taken us to Saturn in five years.
H.G. Wells was wrong! It wasn't the germs that killed the poor martians but too much salt:
Early Mars 'too salty' for life
"The Red Planet was too salty to sustain life for much of its history, according to the latest evidence gathered by one of the US rovers on Mars' surface. High concentration of minerals in water on early Mars would have made it inhospitable to even the toughest microbes, a leading NASA expert says.
Clues preserved in rocks that were once awash with water suggest the environment was both acidic and briny. The observations were made by the US space agency's Opportunity rover. It has spent months examining rocks on an ancient Martian plain."
It's amazing to think to think that the creature above isn't a space alien but once upon time was flying around China:
Tiny perching pterosaur discovered
"A beautifully preserved fossil of a tiny pterosaur suggests that the giant pterodactyls that roamed the skies during the late Cretaceous period may have come from much smaller, tree-dwelling ancestors. The new fossil, which was discovered in 2004 in western Liaoning province, China, is about 120 million years old.
"This is a very, very complete specimen of an unusual little pterodactyl," says Michael Caldwell, a vertebrate palaeontologist at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada. The new fossil also sheds some light on another mystery of pterosaur evolution – whether pterosaurs began to fly upwards from the ground, or whether they first climbed into trees and then began to glide downwards."
Illustration by Chuang Zhao, found via Neatorama.
Shown above is an education film from 1966 which was the high point of the space race between the US and the USSR. My favorite part of the film is the spaceship animation before the title sequence, I'd love to know who did the illustrations. Sadly the only credits on the film are for the production company which is credited as "a Dr Douglass Film" and my Google search produced no results when looking this up...
Found via film archivist Ira H. Gallen.
As a kid I grew up looking at how much cooler the Concorde (or at least the early prototypes of it) looked next to the old fashioned jumbo jets of the era, I just sort of assumed that in the future supersonic air travel would rule the day. Well sadly it's the year 2008 and the Concorde is history, although maybe supersonic air travel isn't quite dead yet:
Continue reading "Fly Sydney to Brussels in 4 Hours — Emissions Free!" »
NASA needs to go back to it's roots — I say we just go to Mars in my lifetime and forget about play testing the concept:
From Brave New World to Blade Runner artificial life has always been a staple of science fiction, so it's interesting to see the first baby steps in that direction:
Synthetic life 'advance' reported
"An important step has been taken in the quest to create a synthetic lifeform. A US team reports in Science magazine how it replicated the entire DNA code from a common bacterium in the laboratory. The group hopes eventually to use engineered genomes to make organisms that can produce clean fuels and take carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere."
