“What would happen if an astronaut became mentally unstable in space and, say, destroyed the ship’s oxygen system or tried to open the hatch and kill everyone aboard?” Yet another use for that miracle of miracles, duct tape, is discovered: restraining crazy astronauts in space. Hmmm. Somehow I doubt that would’ve worked on Ash.
Tag: Space
Godspeed, ISS.
“To not utilize that station the way I think it ought to be utilized is just wrong.” Forty-five years to the day after his historic orbit, space pioneer and former US Senator John Glenn makes a case for the International Space Station.
Breaking News.
Anna Nicole Smith died after what looks to be a casino bender, and, just in time for Valentine’s Day, Houston has a problem with crazy-jilted astronauts. I have very little to say about either of these stories, but since they feverishly consumed most of this week’s news cycles, here they are.
They Blinded Me With Science.
The source of that Hawaii link above deserves its own posting: DISCOVER magazine presents the Top 100 science stories of 2006.
Red Surf?
New photos released by NASA from the Mars Global Surveyor seem to suggest the possibility of surface water on Mars, which would make any attempt to visit — or colonize — the red planet considerably easier (although, obviously, it’s still no walk in the park.)
Moon Station Zebra.
In “world of the future” news, NASA announces it plans to establish a permanently-staffed base camp on the moon by 2024, preferably at one of its poles. (Here’s the rationale.) A moonbase within 18 years? I’m all for it…just keep an eye out for monoliths and make sure Sean Connery runs a tight ship.
On the Dark Side.
Using the thankfully soon-to-be-refurbished Hubble, astronomers find more evidence of “dark energy” in the early universe working along the lines of Einstein’s famous fudge factor, the cosmological constant, to combat a gravitational crunch. “‘Dark energy makes us nervous,’ said Sean Carroll, a theoretical physicist at the California Institute of Technology who was not involved in the supernova study. ‘It fits the data, but it’s not what we really expected.’“
Dispatch War Rocket Ajax.
As threatened in the past, Dubya has apparently signed a new National Space Policy that heavily emphasizes the weaponization of space. “Theresa Hitchens, director of the nonpartisan Center for Defense Information in Washington, said that the new policy ‘kicks the door a little more open to a space-war fighting strategy’ and has a ‘very unilateral tone to it.’“
“A” Moon…
If you believe they put “a” man on the moon, then there’s nothing up my sleeve, and nothing is cool. Also, you’ll have no problem with the recent update to Neil Armstrong’s famous first words there. Score one for the lunar grammarians.
Pluto Put Down.
Sorry, Virginia (and all the other kids out there who just memorized the solar system): As the dust dies down at the recent astronomer’s conference, word comes to light that Pluto has in fact been demoted to “dwarf planet,” a status it’ll hold with UB313 (Xena) and Ceres.