August 12, 2016 Zimmerman/Batchelor podcast
Embedded below the fold. Commercial space and planetary science, as usual, were the topics, with a focus on Curiosity’s upcoming journey (which shall get an update by tomorrow at the latest).
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Embedded below the fold. Commercial space and planetary science, as usual, were the topics, with a focus on Curiosity’s upcoming journey (which shall get an update by tomorrow at the latest).
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
The Russians don’t need to sell the third seat to the ISS to a “tourist”. Foreign space agencies are likely interested buyers too. They have trained astronauts waiting. The US pays $70 million per seat. Space tourists have paid $20 to $40 million, according to Wiki.
Localfluff said;
“Foreign space agencies are likely interested buyers too. They have trained astronauts waiting.”
I immediately thought of the Chinese. But the Iranians or the North Koreans might be interested. Just so long as they don’t want to skip the training on how to land. (I know what the word for “divine wind” is in Japanese, what is it in Farsi?)
Anyway, the Russians won’t leave the third Soyuz seat empty to make it more comfortable for the remaining two, or to save kerosene, they’ve got plenty of that.
– – – – –
Curiosity will now travel between the “buttes” on Mars.
Since I don’t understand much English, I look such words up. “Butte” comes from the, thanks to Hollywood, internationally more familiar meaning of “butt”. Which I suppose is not what is meant here. But(!) a dictionary gives it a funny etymology:
“Thick end”. “Remainder of a smoked cigarette”. “Liquor barrel”. “Target of a joke”. “Hit with the head”.
And of course, confusing English is the fault of Scandinavian influence:
(They’ve really found water and life on Mars this time!)
http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=butte&allowed_in_frame=0
http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=butt&allowed_in_frame=0
You see, this is a problem for international cooperation in space.
Emily Lakdawalla has her 4 first minutes about these, ehum, topological features, on the Planetary Radio today:
http://www.planetary.org/multimedia/planetary-radio/show/2016/0815-titan-canyons-hayes.html
LocalFluff–
Get me a tourist Visa to your homeland, and I’ll come face slap you personally, academically of course!
[1805, American English, from French butte, from Old French but “mound, knoll.”]
:)
“Bogart Gets Rough”
https://youtu.be/B76s0SF47xw
Totally tangential–
Look up the phrase, “A boodle of queer.”
(Means– counterfeit money. Watch the movie “Mister 880.”)
And for Trump– The phrase is “as queer as a three dollar bill.” (but I don’t know if we are allowed to say that any more…)
No, Wayne. Butte comes from Old Swedish “but” = “flatfish”. Probably Danish Vikings who brought this into English when they ruled England, who then in turn colonized America.
Two dollar bills are for real. “He” habitually adds one or two or more to every number he mentions, so from January 21th all three and four dollar bills will have to be accepted as payment by executive order. “He” will solve the US debt crises, and I think it will work better (for the US) than any other option, by replacing USD with TRD (exchange only allowed for selected friends). Beautiful orange dollar bills with a pretty smiling face on them, and the printed text:
“It’s a rigged system. But that’s okay, because now I’m the one who’s rigging it!”
And on the coins:
– “Heads, Trump wins.”
And on the other side:
– “Tails, Trump wins again!”
Localfluff: Danish Vikings never ruled England in total, but conquered some areas at the North-west coast of British isle and build there even quite a number of villages/settlements in time period around 700-1000 b.c..
Alex,
Well, they ruled your colonizers little island enough to teach you new words like “law” and “king”.
And “dead reckoning” which is a funny rime of the Danish term for the same thing. (You measure your speed by throwing an English slave off board and see how fast it tries to swim relative to the ship). Not really applicable for space travel, though. Even Shakespeare had to reference Denmark in Hamlet 600 years later. At the same time as the astrologer Johannis Kepler founded astrophysics, based on the data observed by the Dane Tycho Brahe. A generation later Isaac Newton, the greatest Englishman of all times, founded his work on that beginning.