Penn State’s Google Lunar X Prize team has now launched a kickstarter campaign to fund its effort.
Penn State’s Google Lunar X Prize team has now launched a kickstarter campaign to fund its effort.
Because of a computer reboot, Rosetta’s revival from hibernation came 18 minutes late.
Because of a computer reboot, Rosetta’s revival from hibernation came 18 minutes late.
[Rosetta] woke yesterday as planned, to the relief of ESA scientists – but the signal it sent home to confirm it was awake reached Earth late, fraying the nerves of some mission controllers in the meantime. Due to call at 1745 GMT, Rosetta did not announce its revival until 1818. Fifteen minutes could be explained because the spacecraft’s computer checked the on-board clock only every quarter of an hour. The additional 18 minutes, however, was a mystery.
Now, the telemetry has shown that soon after Rosetta’s first revival sequence had started, the on-board computer automatically rebooted and the sequence started again, causing 18 minutes of delay.
It seems all is well now, though the engineers plan to spend some time pinpointing the cause of the reboot.
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 print edition can be purchased at Amazon or any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. 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 potential for abuse is staggering.”
“The potential for abuse is staggering.”
The words Obamacare and IRS should immediately come to mind.
A village government in New York is trying to take a private grocery using eminent domain in order to replace it with a municipality-owned market.
Theft by government: A village government in New York is trying to take a private grocery using eminent domain in order to replace it with a municipality-owned market.
In a statement, the village said it has “been trying, without success, to engage the Whitneys in substantive discussions” about renovating for the past year. “[A]t various times they have clearly stated their inability or unwillingness to undertake the renovation requirement and despite statements to the contrary, no building plans or architectural drawings of any kind have ever been presented to the village for review,” it said.
But here’s where the story becomes particularly frustrating for Whitney: Four engineers, including two commissioned by the village, reviewed the storm damage on the market and ruled that it was not “substantial,” the store owner’s son, Scott, said. “The repairs that are required due to the flooding . . . do not appear to me to be substantial improvements as defined in the building code,” one of the village-commissioned reports reads.
Nevertheless, despite the findings in the reports, village officials continue to argue that the damage is too much for Whitney to handle. Officials also said the veteran’s submitted plans for repairs are insufficient or incomplete.
Now available in hardback and paperback as well as ebook!
From the press release: In this ground-breaking new history of early America, historian Robert Zimmerman not only exposes the lie behind The New York Times 1619 Project that falsely claims slavery is central to the history of the United States, he also provides profound lessons about the nature of human societies, lessons important for Americans today as well as for all future settlers on Mars and elsewhere in space.
Conscious Choice: The origins of slavery in America and why it matters today and for our future in outer space, is a riveting page-turning story that documents how slavery slowly became pervasive in the southern British colonies of North America, colonies founded by a people and culture that not only did not allow slavery but in every way were hostile to the practice.
Conscious Choice does more however. In telling the tragic history of the Virginia colony and the rise of slavery there, Zimmerman lays out the proper path for creating healthy societies in places like the Moon and Mars.
“Zimmerman’s ground-breaking history provides every future generation the basic framework for establishing new societies on other worlds. We would be wise to heed what he says.” —Robert Zubrin, founder of the Mars Society.
All editions are available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and all book vendors, with the ebook priced at $5.99 before discount. All editions can also be purchased direct from the ebook publisher, ebookit, in which case you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
Autographed printed copies are also available at discount directly from the author (hardback $29.95; paperback $14.95; Shipping cost for either: $6.00). Just send an email to zimmerman @ nasw dot org.
A donut-sized rock suddenly appears in front of the Mars rover Opportunity.
A donut-sized rock suddenly appears in front of the Mars rover Opportunity.
NASA announced the discovery of the rock at an event at Caltech in Pasadena this past Thursday night, dubbing the rock “Pinnacle Island.” “It’s about the size of a jelly doughnut,” NASA Mars Exploration Rover lead scientist Steve Squyres told Discovery News. “It was a total surprise, we were like ‘wait a second, that wasn’t there before, it can’t be right. Oh my god! It wasn’t there before!’ We were absolutely startled.”
Beautiful machinery.
Leaving Earth: Space Stations, Rival Superpowers, and the Quest for Interplanetary Travel, can be purchased as an ebook everywhere for only $3.99 (before discount) at amazon, Barnes & Noble, all ebook vendors, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit.
If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big oppressive tech companies and I get a bigger cut much sooner.
Winner of the 2003 Eugene M. Emme Award of the American Astronautical Society.
"Leaving Earth is one of the best and certainly the most comprehensive summary of our drive into space that I have ever read. It will be invaluable to future scholars because it will tell them how the next chapter of human history opened." -- Arthur C. Clarke
Another lunar Earthrise image from the 1960s restored and enhanced.
Another lunar Earthrise image from the 1960s restored and enhanced.
One must remember that when these images from the 1960s were first taken, it was the very first time humans were seeing our home world from a distance. While today we are somewhat sanguine about such images, then no one knew exactly what the Earth looked like. These images told us.
If you want to see the inside of NASA’s gigantic Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB), you better hurry. Tours cease in February.
If you want to see the inside of NASA’s gigantic Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB), you better hurry. Tours cease in February.
Tours into the VAB have only occurred during gaps in the American space effort. I was lucky to visit Florida back in 1977, after the end of the Apollo program and before the start of the shuttle program, so my tour went inside the VAB. For the last few years, since the shuttle’s retirement, interior tours resumed.
The tour is worth it. If you can find the time and money, get down there now!
Another law, another squelched dream
Surprise, surprise! Virgin Galactic space tourists could be grounded by federal regulations.
Virgin Galactic submitted an application to the FAA’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation in late August 2013, says Attenborough. The office, which goes by the acronym AST, has six months to review the application, meaning an approval may come as early as February. Industry experts, however, say that may be an overly optimistic projection. “An application will inevitably be approved, but it definitely remains uncertain exactly when it will happen,” says Dirk Gibson, an associate professor of communication at the University of New Mexico and author of multiple books on space tourism. “This is extremely dangerous and unchartered territory. It’s space travel. AST has to be very prudent,” he says. “They don’t want to endanger the space-farers or the public, and they can’t let the industry get started and then have a Titanic-like scenario that puts an end to it all in the eyes of the public.” [emphasis mine]
As I predicted ten years ago, the 2004 revision to the Commercial Space Act puts bureaucrats in charge of the exploration of space by private citizens, a fact that can have no good consequences.
» Read more
The Obama administration exempted the members of a Muslim Brotherhood delegation from any TSA inspection when the visited the U.S in 2012.
Does this make you feel safer? The Obama administration exempted the members of a Muslim Brotherhood delegation from any TSA inspection when the visited the U.S in 2012.
After three years in hibernation Europe’s Rosetta comet probe has successfully come back to life.
After three years in hibernation Europe’s Rosetta comet probe has successfully come back to life.
The craft at the heart of ESA’s €1-billion (US$1.4-billion) comet-hunting mission was shut down in 2011 to save energy while travelling in deep space. Rosetta successfully re-established communications with Earth on 20 January.
With an alarm pre-set for 10:00 GMT, a signal was expected at any time from 17:30 GMT, once the spacecraft had warmed up and turned its antenna towards Earth. But Rosetta kept everyone guessing, with the first sign that everything had gone to plan only arriving around 40 minutes later.ESA’s European Space Operations Centre erupted in cheering and hugging as small spikes appeared in radio signals received at NASA deep-space communications centres in Canberra and in Goldstone, California.
“You can literally just open up your browser, go to this, and extract all this information without actually having to hack the website itself.”
Guess which website. And guess what personal and confidential information he is extracting.
Aren’t you glad the Democrats and Barack Obama built it for you?
A comparison between reality and the predictions of global warming scientists from 1988 reveals an epic fail.
The uncertainty of science: A comparison between reality and the predictions of global warming scientists from 1988 reveals an epic fail.
Look especially at the charts at the link. While carbon dioxide emissions increased at a higher rate than predicted, the global temperature — predicted to increase from 2 to 5 degrees Fahrenheit — has instead remained completely flat.
A cancer patient discovers at the last minute that she can’t keep her doctor or get treatment, because of Obamacare.
Repeal the damn law! A cancer patient discovers that she can’t keep her doctor or even get treatment, because of Obamacare.
I realize I am a racist and a terrorist for repeatedly demanding that Obamacare get repealed, but unlike the Democrats and President Obama — who are willing to defend this law under all conditions — I don’t like it when innocent people die because of some stupid regulations imposed on them by self-righteous elites who really don’t know what they are doing.
A Kentucky state legislator has introduced a bill to have the state pull out of the Common Core federal education standards program.
The coming battle: A Kentucky state legislator has introduced a bill to have the state pull out of the Common Core federal education standards program.
The European Space Agency has now released its first cost estimates for upgrading and replacing its Ariane 5 rocket.
The European Space Agency has now released its first cost estimates for upgrading and replacing its Ariane 5 rocket.
Europe needs to find about 1 billion euros ($1.35 billion) to complete development of an upgrade to its current Ariane 5 heavy-lift rocket, which would fly in 2018 and be capable of lifting satellites weighing 11,000 kilograms into geostationary transfer orbit, European Space Agency Director General Jean-Jacques Dordain said Jan. 17. The Ariane 5 upgrade, called Ariane 5 ME, will be on the table for ESA governments to decide, alongside the new Ariane 6 rocket, at a meeting scheduled for December in Luxembourg.
In a press briefing in Paris, Dordain said it is too early to say how much Ariane 6 will cost to develop. Government and industry estimates have ranged between 3 billion and 4 billion euros, with an inaugural flight in 2021.
As Doug Messier notes in his worthwhile analysis of these numbers, “Europe is in deep trouble.” From a customer’s perspective, these new rockets won’t fly (pun intended). The cost is too high and the development time too long. By the time they get both Ariane 5 and Ariane 6 ready for launch they will be obsolete and overpriced, when compared to the rocket’s that will already be available from their competitors.
Opportunity begins its second decade roving the Martian surface.
Opportunity begins its second decade roving the Martian surface.
The rover’s surface mission was originally scheduled to last only 90 days.
SpaceX successfully tested the parachute system on its Dragon capsule on Friday.
SpaceX successfully tested the parachute system on its Dragon capsule on Friday.
And in a competing test, NASA successfully tested Orion’s parachute system the day before.
Both systems plan test flights later this year to prove the safety of the spacecraft.
On Friday SpaceShipTwo completed another test flight, this time a glide test to for pilot training.
On Friday SpaceShipTwo completed another test flight, this time a glide test to for pilot training.
An interview with Scott Walker.
An interview with Scott Walker.
Lots of interesting information about the Wisconsin governor, who so far looks to me to be the best candidate, from either party, for President in 2016. The key paragraphs, however, are those that describe the violent threats made against himself, his wife, and his children by his Democratic and union opponents.
The protestors would shout me down; they would shout down lawmakers at events. They would not allow people to speak. It eventually got to the point where I and even some of our Senate Republicans in particular got death threats. I got threats against me probably a stack high from the ground. As I point out in my book “Unintimidated,” we had one of the most egregious ones, one that I got right before I went into a press conference. It was directed actually at my wife, pointing out that a governor had never been assassinated before in Wisconsin, but that she should start paying attention and that they not only were going to target me, but maybe they’d start thinking about my kids. It talked about where my kids went to school at the time, it talked about where my wife works, where my father-in-law lives, and where my parents were at. There was another one that talked about threatening to gut my wife like a deer. My kids were targeted on Facebook. There were just all sorts of horrible things.
Ain’t it nice how Obama came out so strongly to condemn this ugliness in Wisconsin when it occurred? You say he didn’t? I am shocked, shocked!