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NASA engineers had postponed a planned midcourse maneuver of its Jupiter-bound Juno spacecraft due to unexpectedly high pressures seen in the previous engine burn.
A public memorial service for Neil Armstrong has been scheduled for September 13 in Washington, D.C.
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, any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
"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 Democratic Party platform’s [pdf] position on space and NASA is one sentence long.
President Obama has charted a new mission for NASA to lead us to a future that builds on America’s legacy of innovation and exploration.
This is even worse than the Republican Party platform, and is more inexplicable. Considering how much support the Obama administration has given to private commercial space, this was a great opportunity to sell Obama as supportive of private enterprise. Sadly, they do not, which suggests again that Obama and his party really aren’t that interested in it.
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.
“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.
Because of the failure to replace a power unit during last week’s spacewalk, the U.S. portion of ISS is now in a brown-out, with a 25% reduction in power.
They plan a second spacewalk tomorrow to try to fix the problem.
In another attempt to win the $250,000 AHS Sikorsky Prize, the Gamera II human-powered helicopter has successfully flown for more than sixty seconds Video below the fold.
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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.
"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
The day of reckoning looms: The debt of the federal government officially exceeded $16 trillion on Tuesday.
The competition heats up: Two Russian companies have announced a joint plan to build a suborbital spacecraft for tourism.
Sounds great, but Clark Lindsey has a very informative review of the history of these announcements from Russia, none of which has ever born fruit.
Do you want to name an asteroid that might hit the Earth? NASA has started a contest for students to do just that.
“[Medical] services provided to individuals who are irreversibly prevented from being or becoming participating citizens are not basic and should not be guaranteed.”
Words written by one of the writers of Obamacare, who is expected to be appointed to Obamacare’s Independent Payment Advisory Board, a panel of fifteen unelected officials whose job it will be to decide what treatment is affordable and what treatment is not and should therefore be denied. The problem with the above quote however is that this person is advocating denying treatment not because of cost but because in his opinion some individuals are simply not worth very much to society.
We have got to repeal this monstrosity.
Russia has decided to delay the rest of its military launches this year, pending a full review of the upper stage problems of the Proton rocket.
The future dies to exhibit the past: To get the space shuttle Endeavour to its new home in Los Angeles city officials have decided to cut down about 400 trees along the route.
Several alternatives for the Oct. 12 move were considered but ultimately discarded. Taking the massive shuttle apart would have damaged the delicate tiles that acted as heat sensors. Airlifting the 170,000-pound craft was also ruled out. Not even heavy-duty helicopters could sustain that kind of weight, Rudolph said. A freeway route was considered until engineers realized that the five-story-tall, 78-foot-wide shuttle could not travel under overpasses. “We had to identify a route that had no permanent infrastructures like buildings and bridges,” Rudolph said.
They settled on a final route that will follow Manchester Boulevard to Crenshaw Drive, then onto Crenshaw Boulevard and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard — wide thoroughfares with few permanent obstacles. To make way for the shuttle, some trees will be pruned, power lines will be raised and traffic signals will be removed. Inglewood will lose 128 trees, and communities in South Los Angeles about 265 trees, though the exact number has not yet been determined.
Normally I wouldn’t sweat over the removal of some trees, but this is quite disgusting. It once again raises questions about the choice of Los Angeles over Houston for a shuttle.
Surgery in weightlessness? Two doctors and an engineer are about to test equipment that might make it possible.
The idea actually has more significance for controlling bleeding during brain and spinal surgeries here on Earth.
Planets without end: Another planet has been found in the habitable zone.
Gliese 163c could have a size between 1.8 to 2.4 Earth radii, depending if it is composed mostly of rock or water, respectively. It receives on average 40% more light from its parent star than Earth from the Sun, making it hotter. In comparison, Venus receives 90% more light from the Sun than Earth. We do not know the properties of the atmosphere of Gliese 163c but, if we assume that it is a scaled up version of Earth’s atmosphere, then its surface temperature might be around 60°C [140°F]. Most complex life on Earth (plants, animals, and even humans) are not able to survive at temperatures above 50°C [122°F], however, plenty of extremophilic microbial life forms can thrive at those temperatures or higher.
A new study of the Earth’s past climates has revealed that during warming periods the number of species multiplied.
The article spends a lot of time explaining that just because global warming in the past was beneficial for life does not mean that global warming today will be a good thing. Or to put it another way: “Absolutely not! We mustn’t think that! It can’t be! Never!!!! My fingers are in my ears! La-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la!”
Talk about an inappropriate use of federal funds: The Democratic and Republican conventions received $136 million in taxpayer subsidies.
NOAA today posted its monthly update of the ongoing sunspot cycle of the Sun. This latest graph, covering the month of August, is posted below the fold.
The Sun continues to fizzle.
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The Forest Products Laboratory of the U.S. Forest Service has opened a $1.7 million pilot plant for the production of cellulose nanocrystals, which have the potential to be stronger, stiffer, and lighter than Kevlar or carbon fibers.
It appears that the lab has been researching the useful properties of these nanocrystals, which is a good thing. However, I can’t help wondering why they are now building a production plant. Shouldn’t this be left to the private sector? What business is it of the Forest Service to be a producer of this product? It could be that the plant is aimed not at production but at figuring out how to make it affordable and practical, a goal that might make sense for a government agency to pursue. If not, however, it seems inappropriate for a government agency to use taxpayer dollars to run a facility aimed at selling a product to the private sector.
The article, as well as the lab’s webpage, do not make this clear.
Though this is a nice write-up describing Sierra Nevada’s Dream Chaser, the part where they talk about using the vehicle like the shuttle to repair other orbiting satellites is a bit of a stretch.
The Solar Dynamics Observatory captured an incredible video of an August 31 eruption on the Sun. Video below the fold.
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The head of the Russian space center that built the upper stage that failed on two recent Proton launches has been fired.
Putin’s action here suggests the Russians are taking these problems seriously. especially with the looming competition from SpaceX. At the same time, the boss doesn’t actually build anything, and firing him won’t fix anything if there aren’t also changes on the factory floor.
An 89-year-old California engineer and World War II veteran has developed a bat and bird safe wind turbine.
And it only cost him $550!
An evening pause: “Silly, isn’t he?”
From 1944, with numerous references to the war effort. What I like most, however, is the brazen confidence. Bugs Bunny in more ways than can be imagined so clearly represents the American spirit of the war years.
It is healthy for America that the president be criticized and even mocked. Deference to a Dear Leader has no place in a democracy. It’s healthy for race relations, too, that he be judged on his record rather than held to a lower standard in the name of racial progress. When a black politician is treated just like any other politician, that’s genuine progress.
And then there’s this:
Obama’s journalistic supporters live in a bizarre alternate reality in which a politician’s actual words mean nothing. When the president says something foolish and offensive, he didn’t say that. Meanwhile every comment from a Republican can be translated, through a process of free association, to: “We don’t like black people.”
Taranto’s second point above suggests to me that there are a lot of people on the left whose recent behavior is making them ripe targets for some very healthy ridicule.
Read the whole thing.
Eleven incredible navigable aqueducts.
Not surprisingly, they are all in Europe, where the art of canal building has never died off.
