Re: Space Nerds
I posted that in the cool vids thread. It's amazing. We should be throwing insane amounts of cash at those people all the time.
You are not logged in. Please login or register.
I posted that in the cool vids thread. It's amazing. We should be throwing insane amounts of cash at those people all the time.
Ah! I thought I'd seen it here but couldn't for the life of me find it again. Sorry Lamer!
A lot of money is spent in the industry when looking at the figures in isolation, but nowhere near close to what should be and relative to what is spent elsewhere. Sometimes I wish taxpayers could be more selective as to where their money is spent.... or better yet, can voluntarily pay extra tax to certain endeavours.
Last edited by redxavier (2012-07-05 15:47:03)
I've been reading Mike Mullane's memoir, Riding Rockets, and he paints a really dismal picture of John Young's leadership during his tenure as Chief of the Astronaut Office (and also of George Abbey, who was director of flight operations at the time). It seems surprising to me that someone with such guts (he took arguably the most dangerous trip of all on the first launch of the shuttle) could be so bad at being a leader. From Mullane's description, he sounds reclusive and timid, and not at all what you'd expect from a test pilot with those qualities expected in someone with the Right Stuff.
Superb book by the way for anyone interested in the Shuttle years. It's astonishing to read of all the near misses they experienced. Sometimes it seems that almost every shuttle flight came close to being a catastrophic accident.
believenothing.net/2012/06/16/out-of-th … meteorite/
Last edited by BigDamnArtist (2012-07-11 10:14:11)
Here's what the Sun's chromosphere showed yesterday:
I saw this with my own eyes with a special solar telescope we own at the astronomy center I'm currently working at. I almost shed a tear, I had never observed such a big prominence before (with my own eyes).
And since the Sun's activity is still growing, there's probably more to come this summer. Yay.
And here's an animated gif of its evolution (1h15 total).
(I realize this thread was originally about space travel and stuff, but I figured it could be a general astronomy thread, as the Astrophotography one is a different matter)
Last edited by Saniss (2012-07-20 20:47:35)
And since the Sun's activity is still growing, there's probably more to come this summer. Yay.
Yeah the sun should get it's ass in gear in the heating department. So far this has been the coldest summer in years. I'm filing a complaint!
Look how close it is to the Earth! Gah! Where are the space arks?!?!
So uh...Happy 43rd anniversary of the moon landing everyone!
(Let's just pretend I actually posted this yesterday, and not a day late)
Cool, I'll definitely be checking that out.
Some sad news today unfortunately, Sally Ride, the first American woman in space, has died.
http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n1207/23ride/
They did it, they made their target! I'm so pleased for them. Now they've set a new goal of $100k. Anyone who's not become a backer yet and would like to see the documentary get made (and get some rewards of course ), please join the effort.
So uh...Happy 43rd anniversary of the moon landing everyone!
(Let's just pretend I actually posted this yesterday, and not a day late)
Coming up this December is the 40th anniversary of the LAST footprint on the Moon
Coming up this December is the 40th anniversary of the LAST footprint on the Moon
Oof, right in the progress of society. Ouch.
avatar wrote:Coming up this December is the 40th anniversary of the LAST footprint on the Moon
Oof, right in the progress of society. Ouch.
And yet...
http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/368659/ … e-dock.htm
We have progress - 40 years ago, teenage culture was dominated by camp caped crime-fighting crusaders like Batman, Spiderman and Superman, and today... oh bad example.
40 years ago we had the subsonic 747 to fly us from city to city, and now we have.... oh bad example.
40 years ago we were meddling in the middle east over fossilised plants from the Carboniferous. How primitive is that?
40 years ago women were campaigning for the right to have contraception and abortion without stigma
And yet...http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/368659/ … e-dock.htm
The unmanned craft...
Thank you for making my point for me.
Last edited by BigDamnArtist (2012-08-01 15:09:18)
It'll be interesting if China really do take up the baton of exploring the solar system - in the 1960s/70s, The USA & Soviets were all over Venus & Mars & Moon, launching Viking, Pioneer & Voyager. There were big 'tentpole' missions every year, and not just Apollo. There were even balloon probes floating in the atmosphere of Venus!
I wonder how long it'll be until China actually goes beyond USA/Soviets e.g. landing on Europa or orbiting Neptune. It'll go faster if data is shared, but if China have to re-invent the wheel, we'll be retirement age before anything happens.
We've had 40 years of great innovation in computer miniaturisation and CCD sensors, etc - so the next generation of probes should give us HD 3D 1080p video from the surface of other worlds.
Less than a week till Curiosity - that baby better land, otherwise there's nothing for quite a while.
China's launch is a step in the right direction, though, and that's all we can ask for.
Ya, fingers crossed china absolutely kicks our ass in the space-tech department, kicking off another space race.
Powered by PunBB, supported by Informer Technologies, Inc.
Currently installed 9 official extensions. Copyright © 2003–2009 PunBB.