Very brief descriptions, with appropriate links, of current or recent news items.
Will wonders never cease? The sun actually does influence the climate, the powers-that-be admit at last.
Some encouraging news: A defense of free speech by American and Canadian Muslims.
Pressure seems to be mounting for Rajendra Pachauri to resign as head of the IPCC. Key quote:
“It’s vital that this body is led by someone whose academic and intellectual credentials are unquestioned and I’m afraid that can no longer be said of him.”
Check out the first do-it-yourself satellite. It is 60 cubic inches in size and cost only $500 to build.
Houston-area schools brace for impact of NASA layoffs.
SpaceX has delayed the second Falcon 9 test launch, which includes the first test of the Dragon capsule, until November 8, at the soonest.
Who da thunk it? Internal combustion engine wins fuel efficiency contest, beating out both hybrids and electric cars.
What does this mean for private space? The European consortium Arianespace is heading toward an unprofitable 2010. Note also that though the company “performed a record seven launches of the Ariane 5 vehicle in 2009, Arianespace reported a loss of 71.2 million euros on sales of 1.03 billion euros” in that year as well.
Too much water on the Moon?
The Japanese effort to rent out their Kibo module on ISS for research has stalled, mainly because private businesses apparently consider the prices too high.
Spring on Titan brings sunshine and patchy clouds.
Profiles in cowardice: Neither the government nor several major journalist organizations seem willing to comment on the story of that cartoonist forced to go into hiding because she made the mistake of proposing “Everybody draw Mohammad Day.”
We’re here to help you! The New York city government, in an effort to control its rat population (the small rodent kind), decided to release opossums in Brooklyn to eat rats. Instead, the opossums have ignored the rats, and now Brooklyn is overrun with both rats and opossums. More here. Key quote:
“Didn’t any of those brain surgeons realize that the opossums were going to multiply?”
It appears that the NASA budget deadlock will remain stalled, at least until lame duck session after the November 2nd election.
The English language is dead. R.I.P.
Check out these newly posted images of lunar cave pits, taken by Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. The depth estimates range from 100 to 300 plus feet.
[Ed. I should note that some of these images have already been posted on behindtheblack. For example, the center image found here) was first discovered by reader James Fincannon and posted by me on July 15 and July 26, when I discussed the challenges of accessing the bottom of these pits. I also posted an image of the Mare Ingenii pit on July 13.]
A photo gallery showing the space shuttle Discovery’s last rollout from the VAB to the launchpad on Monday.
Though NASA’s Inspector General has cleared [pdf] NASA administrator Charles Bolden of ethical violations in connection with his communications with the Marathon Oil corporation during discussions about awarding research money to a Marathon competitor, the IG also noted that Bolden’s actions were inappropriate. Key quote:
We concluded that Bolden’s contact with Marathon regarding OMEGA did not violate federal laws or regulations pertaining to conflicts of interest. However, we found that the contact was not consistent with the Ethics Pledge he, as an Administration appointee, had signed, and that it raised concerns about an appearance of a conflict of interest involving the NASA Administrator and a large oil company to which he had financial ties.
Keith Cowing and Frank Sietzen at SpaceRef report that NASA administrator Charles Bolden will soon be heading to Saudia Arabia, ostentively to continue NASA outreach to the Muslim world, with other less obvious motives pertaining to Israeli/Palestine peace negotiations. Key quote:
According to one of several sources knowledgeable on the subject “expect to see a wave of mid-level Administration appointees embarking on a round of carrot-and-stick sweetener overtures” to Saudi officials to entice them to join the Obama effort. For their part, the Saudi government wants the U.S. to exert greater pressure on Israel to stop construction of settlements in occupied territories that might someday be a key in a peace accord. In the meantime the Obama administration is trying to give the Saudis every incentive to craft a stronger relationship with the U.S.
Despite the program’s budget uncertainties, testing by NASA of the Orion capsule continues.
Congress cuts the budget on a proposed military weather satellite system.
For the fifth time in two years Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has gone into safe mode because of a computer reboot.
Here’s a good inside look, with pictures, at the preparations for the October 23 launch of the second Falcon 9 rocket.
Microbes survive 553 days attached to the outside of the International Space Station as part of a scientific experiment.
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?
The second Falcon 9 rocket passes fuel test in anticipation of an October 23 launch.
New results from Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, including a new global topographic map.
From the caption: A lunar topographic map showing the Moon from the vantage point of the eastern limb. On the left side of the Moon seen in this view is part of the familiar part of the Moon observed from Earth (the eastern part of the nearside). In the middle left-most part of the globe is Mare Tranquillitatis (light blue) the site of the Apollo 11 landing, and above this an oval-appearing region (Mare Serenitatis; dark blue) the site of the Apollo 17 landing. Most of the dark blue areas are lunar maria, low lying regions composed of volcanic lava flows that formed after the heavily cratered lunar highlands (and are thus much less cratered).
The space war continues. Here is another article outlining the political state of war between the House, Senate, and administration over NASA’s future. Don’t expect anything good to come out of these political shenigans.
Europe to the Moon! The U.S. may no longer have a coherent lunar exploration program, but Europe sees that water at the Moon’s south pole and wants it, awarding contracts today to begin the work of getting a lunar lander there.
