As noted, I’ve been more than a bit preoccupied with something else of late. But I do want to take a moment and pass along this delightful tribute, via Phil Plait:
I was never a hard-core Shuttle fan. The whole project was a series of compromises, both political and technological, and it never lived up to the original promise. And yet . . .
. . . and yet even with all that being true, the Shuttle, and the people who made it work, undeniably accomplished remarkable things. It would be churlish to say otherwise, just because it didn’t meet my youthful expectations.
We all compromise in the face of reality. But those who still manage to create the future even with that limitation deserve our honor, and our praise. Life is short, and the stars are far away.
Jim Downey
Via The Last Shuttle, an amazing Virtual Reality Panorama of the Space Shuttle Discovery’s flight deck at the time of decommissioning.
*sigh*
More on all of this, once I’m not entirely preoccupied with getting Her Final Year launched.
Jim Downey
150 years ago the US Civil War started. 50 years ago a man first went into space.
In a completely trivial and unimportant, unrelated note, I started posting on this blog 1065 posts ago. Yeah, this makes post #1,066.
So why mention it? Oh, because I’m amused by the number. And because it is something of a poke at myself – it’s important to have perspective. As the old line goes, “after Shakespeare, why write anything?”
And yet, I can’t seem to help myself.
Jim Downey
*Gratuitously stolen from the book of the same name, of course.
Filed under: ISS, Music, NASA, Predictions, Religion, Science Fiction, Space, Violence, YouTube
This is from the end of Chapter Three, set on a space station in Earth orbit:
There was a knot of perhaps 15 people, all facing one another around a bunch of tables shoved together. They finished their song, and clapping was heard throughout the atrium.
Jon smiled at Gates, explained. “Spacers. Crew off those two ships docked outside. Choral music has become something of a tradition the last few years, and each ship usually can field a fairly good ensemble of at least a half-dozen singers.”
“Huh. I had no idea.”
Another song started, this time with more voices. “C’mon, let’s go on down there.”
Why do I post this? Because of this wonderful clip:
Not choral music, but flute as an accompaniment to a song. The provenance of her flutes is impressive in itself. But the fact that we’re seeing a highly-trained, wonderfully intelligent person in orbit doing this just really makes my day . . . and re-affirms my faith in humanity overall.
It is sometimes easy to be cynical and depressed at the things we do.
This makes up for it.
Jim Downey
Filed under: Astronomy, NPR, Predictions, Science Fiction, Space, Titan, UFO
Lights in the sky. Strange lights. Lights that don’t move . . . right.
Must be aliens, stopping off for a visit, right?
Highbeams Of The Gods: Do UFOs Need Headlights?
Over at the Two-Way a UFO sighting over Colorado has been generating discussion and heat. In looking over the comments a question has come up which really strikes at the heart of the UFO issue. Someone astutely asked something along the lines of “Why do UFOs need headlights?”
Yeah. Good point. Are the aliens scared of running into a deer?
Exactly.
Pretty much the most crucial plot point in Communion of Dreams is that the alien artifact discovered on Titan is using some kind of stealth technology. (I’m not giving anything away by saying this, for those who haven’t yet read the book.) How and more importantly why this is the case is what drives the story.
I agree with the author of the blog post cited: “…any civilization with technology capable of spanning light-years ought to be able to hide themselves well enough to avoid detection from hairy apes with jet-planes like us.”
Bingo.
And that’s all I’ll say, or I will give away some spoilers for those who haven’t yet read the book. (And why haven’t you?? C’mon – it’s brilliant!)
Jim Downey
3.5 million square miles of desert: a meteorite-hunter’s dream. Here’s an excerpt from this fascinating account:
Dar al Gani
Small in size at 80 x 50 km (50 x 30 mi), Dar al Gani is the most important Saharan strewnfield, with nearly a thousand itemized meteorites, Lunar and Martian rocks, various achondrites, etc. At least 150 different falls are represented. When you approach Dar al Gani from the west, the first thing to strike you is its whiteness, as if you were looking out over mountain-tops covered in snow: a mirage in the desert. First comes a succession of terraces which then open on to a smooth, rolling expanse of white, without rocks or vegetation. Meteorites have been falling here for thousands of years, and it goes without saying that strewnfields like this one are of scientific interest. Unlike Antarctica, where ice shifts concentrate meteorites and wind scatters the fragments, things here stay in the same place from one millennium to the next. I often think of Dar al Gani as a photographic plate recording all falls over a significant time-scale of 20,000 years or more. The terrain is gentle and preserving, so that thousands of years worth of data are at present accessible.
The author and his brother make one of the most important finds ever. Very cool, and with some great pictures.
Jim Downey
Interesting news from the Indian Space Research Organization: discovery of a very large lava tube which looks like it’d be very suitable as the basis for a habitat/research facility on the Moon.
From the Calcutta Telegraph:
New Delhi, Feb. 23: A giant volcanic cave beneath the moon’s surface discovered by Indian scientists last year through an analysis of archived images from the Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft may be a candidate site for a future human habitat.
Researchers at the Space Applications Centre, Ahmedabad, analysed 3D images from Chandrayaan-1’s Terrain Mapping Camera to identify the 1.7-kilometre long cave in a region of the moon called Oceanus Procellarum.
The hollow structure created by ancient volcanic lava flows on the Moon may provide lunar explorers a natural shelter from radiation storms and extreme variations between day and night temperatures encountered on the lunar surface, the SAC scientists said.
Glad to see someone is thinking about the future of humans in space.
Jim Downey
since I first posted about Iron Sky, but it seems like they’re continuing to make progress. From their website two weeks ago:
The news just arrived from Downunder: principal photography finished, all filmed material is in the can (or on portable hard drives in this case), and everyone is washing away the Australian dust with a hefty soaking of assorted beverages!
Additional info indicates that they have three months or more of editing and special effects, and I’m sure that there will be delays along the way – but I’m impressed that they’ve come this far.
Just for giggles, here’s the second teaser which was out a while ago (but which I had managed to miss):
Jim Downey
Just had to share this image, via Phil Plait:
Link to a huge version of the image, along with a nice explanation about the galaxy, in the Bad Astronomy piece.
Jim Downey
Filed under: Astronomy, BoingBoing, Fermi's Paradox, Music, NASA, Science, Science Fiction, Space, tech
Lee Billings, a science writer I was not previously aware of, has a really nice little introduction over at BoingBoing on the topic of searching for exoplanets capable of supporting life. Here’s a bit:
I’m admittedly biased (just look at my Twitter feed—it’s clear what my interests are), but my argument rests on facts: The research architectures and observational capabilities required to find Earth-like planets in our region of the galaxy, and determine whether or not some of them harbor life, are already reasonably well-defined. Public interest in (if not knowledge of) the search for alien life is high, and nearly universal. And, in comparison to tasks like finding the Higgs boson, establishing the precise nature of dark energy, or experimentally validating string theory, completing much (though not all!) of this “planetary census” simply isn’t that expensive.
* * *
What if we are cosmically alone, on a planet as anomalously unlikely and fertile as a fruit tree flourishing in an arid wasteland, or a flower blooming in a desert? What if worlds like ours are common as grains of sand? Does the universe hum and throb with life, or does eternal silence and sterility reign outside of our small planet? The truth is, no one really knows. But that will soon change. And when it does, this knowledge can only fill our lives, our world, and our future with more excitement, mystery, and awe.
Interesting metaphor – the flower blooming in a desert. And exactly the same one I use in the beginning of Communion of Dreams for exactly the same reason. Obviously, the man is brilliant.
OK, to be a little more serious here, I just thought people might want to know about this fellow, since he is going to be reporting on the results of the Kepler mission over the next couple of weeks.
Jim Downey
*Gratuitous Pink Floyd reference.
Communion Of Dreams 