Very brief descriptions, with appropriate links, of current or recent news items.
WhiteKnightTwo was in the air today, doing another test flight, this time without SpaceShipTwo attached.
That coronal mass ejection thrown out by the Sun on Sunday is expected to energize the aurora tonight and again on Thursday. Look up at night if you live in the high northern latitudes.
Steve Goddard notes the state of ice at the North Pole, both then and now, with pictures.
Two new predictions of the upcoming solar maximum were published today on the Los Alamos astro-ph preprint webpage. Both call for a weak solar maximum, with one expecting a sunspot number of 92 at maximum while the other predicting a number of 72.
Three citizens of the United Arab Emirates are now the first non-American citizens to train at the NASA Ames Research Center, with more to come, suggesting that NASA Administrator Charles Bolden really meant it when he said his foremost priority was Muslim outreach.
Ed Driscoll has an excellent summary outlining the sale of Newsweek to the husband of Congresswoman Jane Harman (D-California). Fun quote from headline: Washington Post Unloads Newsweek for $1; Buyer Clearly Overpaid
The first spacewalk to replace the pump module on ISS and thus fix on of the station’s two cooling system is now scheduled for Friday at 6:55 (EDT).
Scientists have found that the methods used to measure frog populations in the U.S. might be flawed, producing many more false positives than expected and thereby overestimating the populations.
Talk about stupid: It seems the legal eagles at NASA have shut down a website that featured a variety of webcams, showing NASA missions.
The Met Office in the United Kingdom has issued a report on the state of the climate. In it they state unequivocally that the “world is warming”. Unfortunately, the report fails to address the questions that have been raised about much of the existing climate data, following the climategate scandal.
Archeologists have discovered the largest Roman canal ever built at the mouth of the Tiber river.
It appears that McCarthyism and the blacklist are both alive and well, thriving happily in the field of climate research. Key quote:
It is disturbing, to say the least, that organisations and persons who would be quick to claim professional status consider that it is their current duty to disparage, or to refuse to debate with, or to muzzle scientists whose views on climate change they apparently disagree with.
Read the whole article.
More on that failure of the cooling system on ISS. It appears that NASA is gearing up to send two astronauts out for up to two spacewalks to try to fix the problem.
Duck! The Sun has unleashed a coronal mass ejection towards the Earth.
War between the elites of our society and everyone else. Key quote:
If this election has a theme, it’s going to be the rejection of the elites and a return to a form of populism with a long streak in American history — the demand of citizens to their government to get the hell out of their lives.
China successfully launches the fifth satellite in its own GPS system.
A failure in the cooling system on the International Space Station yesterday has forced the astronauts to shut down some of their systems while ground control troubleshoots the situation.
Undersea adventure by robot. An unmanned probe completed its first dive beneath the Arctic ice this week.
At an airshow on Thursday, July 29, in Oskosh, Wisconsin, Burt Rutan, designer of SpaceShipOne, made some interesting remarks about the past and future of private space flight. Key quote:
Rutan said NASA should give 10 to 15 percent of its budget to new space companies like Elon Musk’s SpaceX without regulating how to spend the money. “That would allow them to not (have to) beg for commercial investment, while still working in an entrepreneurial mode.”
Scientists are beginning to unravel the wind patterns on Titan.
After more than six years, it appears that the Mars rover Spirit has finally died. The rover was originally designed to only operate 90 days.
Who are the racists? Readers (and one former editor) respond with dismay because Essence magazine has hired a fashion editor who happens to be white.
Law of unintended consequences strikes again. The new healthcare law has a provision, unrelated to healthcare, that involves a paperwork nightmare for small businesses.
A political note: my Congressman happens to be Steny Hoyer, who waxed poetic recently about taxes and the coming expiration of the Bush tax cuts. Hopefully, this man will free Hoyer from such concerns.
The space war over NASA continues. The pushback from commercial space advocates and industry proponents seems to be having an effect. House aides have indicated that the House NASA authorization bill will not be voted on until September.
The Japanese space agency JAXA has put Hayabusa’s heat shield, outer capsule, and parachute on public display, to large crowds.
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter takes a picture of the non-face on Mars.
The space war continues. Jeff Foust has two reports today on the political state of NASA’s budget. First, Congress has approved language that requires continuing funding of Constellation. Second, it looks like the House may vote on the new NASA authorization bill this week.
The Mars rover Opportunity has spotted its first dust devil after six-plus years of travel.
Two NASA probes, originally launched to study the Sun and having completed their mission, have had their orbits adjusted so that they can study the Moon instead.
