It’s Cold and Wet at the Moon’s South Pole
New results from the LCROSS impact on the Moon’s south pole: It’s cold and wet at the Moon’s south pole.
Update: Other elements detected in the impact plume included silver and mercury.
Category: Points of Information
Very brief descriptions, with appropriate links, of current or recent news items.
Steny Hoyer Knuckle-Punched GOP Opponent in the Back
Steny Hoyer must really be worried: a attendee at the Hoyer-Lollar debate last week saw Hoyer “knuckle-punch” Lollar in the back, something that Lollar also attests to. This took place shortly after Hoyer was reported to have threatened Lollar by saying to him “I’m coming after you.”
Clinton misplaced the nuclear codes twice
It appears that while he was president, Bill Clinton misplaced the pocket electronic component, called a biscuit, that holds the codes used to activate America’s nuclear forces. And he didn’t tell anyone for months! As Ed Morrissey notes,
“Did they look under the sofa cushions? That’s where my remote usually winds up.”
New Zealand might lose $700 million in movie business due to union
Talk about stupid: New Zealand might lose $700 million in movie production business due to a boycott by an Australian-based actors union. Fun quote:
Fifteen hundred workers, including directors, technicians and crew who [oppose the actors union], met at . . . Miramar Studios at 5pm for an emergency meeting this evening. By 7pm, they were storming the Actors Equity meeting in the city.
the Moon Stinks of Gunpowder
The Moon stinks of gunpowder.
Orbital posts good third quarter results
Not all space business news today is bad: Orbital Sciences, one of the companies building cargo ferrying services for ISS, posted good third quarter results today.
Canadian company that makes robot arm might be for sale again
The Canadian company that makes the shuttle robot arm and other space robotics might be for sale. The company has vaguely denied this report, however.
The Continuing Controversy of the Mars Meteorite
TerreStar files for bankruptcy
As expected, the satellite company TerreStar has filed for bankruptcy.
Arianespace in trouble
Expensive and therefore not as competitive for market share as it could be, Arianespace is now facing a second year of losses and further competition from a variety of other rocket companies.
Most distant galaxy ever seen
Using a deep field image taken by the Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers at the European Southern Observatory have identified one galaxy in that image as the most distant ever seen, with a record-setting redshift of 8.6 and thus an rough distance of about 13 billion light years, only about 600 million years after the Big Bang.
Whoops! Last sentence corrected, thanks to my readers.
Father of fractals dies
Benoit Mandelbrot, the mathematician who discovered fractals, has died at 85.
Engineers to replace seals on shuttle
Unsure of the cause of yesterday’s fuel line leak on the space shuttle Discovery, engineers plan to replace a set of seals this week. Whether this will delay the November 1 launch remains unknown at this time.
Bigelow has made deals with six nations to provide orbital station modules
The private space station company, Bigelow Aerospace, has signed agreements with six different nations — Japan, the Netherlands, Singapore, Sweden, Australia and the United Kingdom — to provide them space on its next orbiting station.
Damaged Soyuz descent module being replaced
Because of damage sustained during the railroad trip from Russia to Kazakhstan, the Russians are flying in a replacement descent module for the Soyuz capsule scheduled for launch to ISS on December 13.
Chinese embargo of rare earth minerals expands
China is expanding its embargo on exporting rare earth minerals, blocking shipments to Japan, Europe and the United States. Key quote:
China mines 95 percent of the world’s rare earth elements, which have broad commercial and military applications, and are vital to the manufacture of products as diverse as cellphones, large wind turbines and guided missiles. Any curtailment of Chinese supplies of rare earths is likely to be greeted with alarm in Western capitals, particularly because Western companies are believed to keep much smaller stockpiles of rare earths than Japanese companies.
Fuel leak on Discovery plugged
It appears that the fuel leak on the space shuttle Discovery has stopped.
Dead Sea scrolls going digital on Internet
The custodian of the Dead Sea Scrolls is working with Google to put them on line for all to view.
Bigelow Aerospace Begins Testing Life Support Systems with Crew
The private space station company Bigelow is beginning the testing of its station life support systems, using human subjects.
Bankrupty for TerreStar?
It ain’t just the government in financial trouble: With $1 billion in debt, the satellite wireless company TerreStar is rumored to be considering bankruptcy.