Rube Goldberg music video
An evening pause: Here’s another Rube Goldberg machine, this time created for a music video from the band OK Go.
Author: Robert Zimmerman
Orion testing goes on
Despite the program’s budget uncertainties, testing by NASA of the Orion capsule continues.
My Friday night travels
On Friday I drove up to Westfield, New Jersey, to give a public lecture to Amateur Astronomers, Inc. at Union County College in Cranford, New Jersey. On this, my second visit to this amateur astronomy club, my lecture topic was the story behind the Apollo 8 mission to the Moon, the subject of my first book, Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8.
I visit a lot of astronomy clubs, giving talks on space and its history, so it is not a light complement when I say that this particular club is one of the most active, organized, and enthusiastic astronomy clubs I have ever seen. This is not to say that other clubs are not active, organized, or enthusiastic, only that it seems to me that the members of Amateur Astronomers are particularly so.
This fact only makes the decision by Union County College to throw the club and its observatory off campus seem incredibly stupid. Fortunately, the club has managed to negotiate a two year postponement of their eviction. What will happen after that, however, remains unknown.
A look at the Washington Post’s take on the space war
The Washington Post today includes an excellent article outlining quite succinctly the mess that’s resulted from the space war between the House, the Senate, and the administration over NASA’s manned program. Key quote:
In an effort to restore a NASA consensus and fund future human space travel, negotiators from the House and Senate have been meeting frequently in recent weeks. Participants say, however, that the sides are dug in and that stalemate is a real possibility.
As I have been saying for months, don’t expect anything good to come from Congress, even if they come up with a compromise. Obama and NASA under Bolden did a very bad job selling their ideas to Congress, and Congress returned the favor by rejecting those ideas and instead coming up with two different plans, both of which serve their own parochial interests rather than the nation’s. The result is a micromanaged mishmosh that won’t get anything done, while wasting huges sums of cash that the federal government does not have.
Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain
An evening pause: The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain doing the music (with sound effects!) from the film The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (1966).
Lawmakers Curb Spending on Defense Weather Satellites
Congress cuts the budget on a proposed military weather satellite system.
For the fifth time in two years Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has had computer problems.
For the fifth time in two years Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has gone into safe mode because of a computer reboot.
An update on SpaceX’s Falcon 9, with pictures
Here’s a good inside look, with pictures, at the preparations for the October 23 launch of the second Falcon 9 rocket.
The day the Constitution was ratified
An evening pause: As today is the day in which our Founding Fathers ratified the Constitution, I thought it might be worthwhile to allow Andrew Klavan the opportunity to give us his “A Young Person’s Guide to the United States Constitution.” To quote: We are going to have a little civics lesson, to make up for what you’ve been learning in school.
You do not have to answer any questions at the airport
Microbes survive 553 days attached to ISS
Microbes survive 553 days attached to the outside of the International Space Station as part of a scientific experiment.
White House tries rebranding global warming
Rather than address the many questions people have about climate research (questionable research, unclear data, corrupt scientists), the White House has come up with a much better approach: Change the name of “global warming” to “global climate disruption.” Now, doesn’t that explain everything?