Posts Tagged we don’t go to the moon anymore
Interview: “Warren Ellis Thinks Newt Gingrich’s Space Ideas Are Full of Shitâ€
Posted by mistergroonk in Interviews, Just Freaking Neat, USA, World on January 31, 2012
Over on Motherboard , Abraham Reisman interviewed Warren Ellis about Newt Gingrich’s aspirations for a USA moon colony. We figured Mr Ellis might have a word or two on Gingrich’s obvious vote grabbing statement. Mr Ellis did not disappoint.
The following excerpts are just a few choice moments from the interview. It was a bit difficult deciding which thoughts were best.
Abraham Reisman: What kind of merit is there to Gingrich’s proposals — which he’s self-described as “grandiose†— for developing a rocket that can reach Mars, establishing a permanent moon base, and so on?Warren Ellis: Well, let’s start with the “51st State†bit that’s being bandied about. Speaker Gingrich knows as well as the next political mammal that the Outer Space Treaty forbids any one nation from claiming sovereignty over the moon. So, not so much with the 51st State crap.
[…]
Going to Mars is important. Going back to the Moon is, I think, important. But his plans and reasons for going make about as much sense as if he had said we had to go to Mars to find him something new to marry. I’m genuinely interested in seeing the human race escape the planet and go exploring. Speaker Gingrich would like to be elected.
Are there other technological goals on the scale of space travel that you think humanity should be pushing for, right now? If so, do you see models for us achieving them?
I’m not suggesting that we can’t do two things at once. But if there were things in addition to space travel that you think could have a similarly massive effect on humanity’s ability to grow as a species…
Curing cancer. Increasing quality human longevity. Induced pluripotential cell treatments. Nailing down that weird neutrino anomaly that seems to allow for faster-than-light communication. The usual shopping list. Also I want an orbital death ray.
You will read the entire interview on Motherboard.
Our Strange Sky: Canadians Launch a Lego Man Into Space, Films it All. Awesome Journey, Eh?
Posted by mistergroonk in Space, Video on January 31, 2012
They claim to have more video on how they did it and extended footage in the works. We’ll keep an eye on their Facebook page for these bits.
Official site http://www.facebook.com/legomaninspace
Our Strange Sky: Astronaut Ron Garan Shares the Moon
Posted by mistergroonk in Photography, Space on October 21, 2011
via +Ron Garan
Good Morning, World…NASA… Please Consider This…
Posted by mistergroonk in Art, Space on July 28, 2011
via @apollorocket
Our Strange Sky: The Many Views of Endeavour’s Last Launch
Posted by mistergroonk in Photography, Space, USA on May 31, 2011
The Space Shuttle Endeavour launched for the sky for the last time 15 days ago. Trey Ratcliff scoped an inspiring shot of Endeavour worm-holing into the clouds. Stefanie Gordon with her handy futurephone caught the awesome sight of Endeavour blasting free from the top layer of clouds and shared with the world. And NASA shared a shot of their own from a shuttle training aircraft. You can watch a video of the launch here.
Endeavour returns to Earth Wednesday June 1, 2011.
Trey Ratcliff’s Dream of Endeavour
Even though I had my Nikon D3X set up on a tripod with my 28-300 lens, I actually shot this picture with my 50mm prime lens on my Nikon D3S! Everything did go according to plan, and I had run through the routine a few times before the launch. The plan was to fire away on my main body during the first 15 seconds or so. At that point, the D3X starts to have bufferring problems, so I switched to my Chewbacca-bandolier D3S. I pulled it up into a vertical orientation and rapid-fired just as the shuttle tore into the clouds.
As soon as the Endeavour worm-holed into the cloud layer, the strange staccato-bass of torn air came skipping across the water into the press area. The sound was not at all what I expected, but it was awesome dot com.
Stefanie Gordon’s Space Shuttle Twitpic
APOD’s Space Shuttle Rising Tribute
If you looked out the window of an airplane at just the right place and time last week, you could have seen something very unusual — the space shuttle Endeavour launching to orbit. Images of the rising shuttle and its plume became widely circulated over the web shortly after Endeavour’s final launch.
Focus: 30 years of the Space Shuttle Program Celebrated, Infogragphed. To End.
Posted by mistergroonk in Holiday, Science, Space, USA on April 12, 2011
That fancy patch you see above is to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Space Shuttle program and, sadly, its coming retirement.
On the morning of April 12, 1981, the shuttle Columbia, strapped to an enormous external fuel tank and a pair of solid rocket boosters, lifted off on its maiden voyage–and launched a new era in the Space Age. Never before had there been a spacecraft that could be used over and over again, that could land on Earth like an airplane–a glider, specifically.
That flight lasted 2 days, 6 hours, 20 minutes, and 53 seconds, in which time Columbia traveled 1.07 million miles, reaching an orbital altitude of 166 nautical miles. The two-man crew consisted of shuttle commander John Young and pilot Robert Crippen.
To date, the five spacecraft in the shuttle fleet have conducted more than 130 missions and traveled a cumulative half-billion miles–that’s a lot of commuting into Earth’s orbit and back.
- STS 1 Historical Press Kit (PDF)
- NASA’s Space Shuttle section
- When the space shuttle was new (photos)
Informative infographic below the cut.
Read the rest of this entry »
Our Strange Sky: What Yuri saw 50 Years Ago, First Manned Spaceflight Remembered
Posted by mistergroonk in Documentary, Movies, Photography, Science, Space on April 12, 2011
On April 12th, 1961, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Alexseyevich Gagarin became the first human in space. His remotely controlled Vostok 1 spacecraft lofted him to an altitude of 200 miles and carried him once around planet Earth. Commenting on the first view from space he reported, “The sky is very dark; the Earth is bluish. Everything is seen very clearly“. His view could have resembled this image taken in 2003 from the International Space Station.
Lots of sites are talking about cosmonaut Yuri Gargarin‘s launch into Earth orbit 50 years ago. A launch that made him the first human in Earth orbit. Also, space.
Google’s got a special animated doodle in place. We’ve dropped a screen cap of it below. Maybe it will show up in their logo history tomorrow.
There’s the yearly worldwide celebration at Yuri’s Night.
New Scientist has a behind the scenes photo history of Yuri’s photo album.
And this year, there is an extra-special twist in honor of the 50th anniversary of that historic flight. “Yuri’s Night” 2011 will feature the world premiere — on YouTube, no less — of an experimental documentary film called First Orbit, by Chris Riley, co-director of In the Shadow of the Moon. Done in collaboration with the European Space Agency, First Orbit was shot aboard the International Space Station by ISS Italian astronaut Paolo Nespoli, who is an accomplished space photographer as well as an astronaut.
View the documentary below the jump.
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Our Strange Sky: International Space Station Expedition 27: Soyuz launch. Up, Up and Away!
Posted by mistergroonk in Photography, Science, Space on April 8, 2011
via boingboing
Art-Out Moment: Behold the Moon Made of Glass
Posted by mistergroonk in Art, Artist, Flickrlicious, Photography on February 22, 2011
white glass powder on black glass circle – slumped into a convex bubble rather than a concave bowl
via medicmike
Saturday Afternoon Theater: “The Open Road Still Softly Calls” 3 Videos on Space Exploration & Wonder.
Posted by mistergroonk in Movies, Science, Space on January 15, 2011
Gathered here are three videos on the wonders of space exploration. The two below are short films. The video below the jump is the 30 years of the Space Shuttle commemorative film documenting shuttle launches.
Reid Gower’s: NASA – The Frontier Is Everywhere
A man, frustrated with NASA’s poor publicity skills, creates kick-ass video of his own.
With crazy credit to Michael Marantz.
MAVEN Mission to Investigate How Sun Steals Martian Atmosphere
NASA release October 5, 2010
The Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution Mission (MAVEN), set to launch in 2013, will explore the planet’s upper atmosphere, ionosphere and interactions with the sun and solar wind. Bruce Jakosky, MAVEN’s Principal Investigator discusses the mission.
Credit: NASA/Goddard/Chris Smith
Freefall below the cut for the main event: