NASA’s Cassini sends back detailed pics of Saturn’s finest.
Tag: Space
Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow.
Blue Planets, Red Planets.
The two NASA rovers have completed one facet of their mission, and the results are exciting: There was in fact water on Mars. And where there’s water, there’s…sea monkeys?
Ares or Bust.
Via a frequent reader, Explore Mars Now, a website which attempts to visualize red-planet-viable spacecraft using existing technology. Well, it’s already more realistic than Mission to Mars.
Hubble Hobble.
Two anonymous NASA engineers go to the mat for the Hubble. The agency gets so much flak for ants-sorting-screws-in-space-type research, you’d think they go out of their way to preserve a program as popular and wildly successful as the Hubble.
I See You.
Beware M64: There is an evil there that does not sleep…and the Great Eye is ever watchful.
Opportunity Knocks.
NASA scores another success on Mars with the flawless landing of the Opportunity. And, in other good news, scientists have determined the Spirit has memory issues, and have upgraded their prognosis from critical to serious.
Back in Business?
The good news: The confused and constantly-rebooting Mars Rover pipes up after a two-day vacation (although apparently it still has major issues.) The better news: The Mars Express confirms the existence of water on the red planet. Houston, we’re still a go.
Moon, Mars, and Beyond.
“I always knew that I would see the first man on the Moon,” once quipped Jerry Pournelle. “I never dreamed
that I would see the last.” Hopefully, we can now prove him wrong. Dubya officially announced his space plan in front of NASA’s DC headquarters today, and the upshot is this: More scientists, less entertainers, a Research Lab in every city, and he’s going to disband all the Spearmen and Pikemen still lying around so he can build the SS Planetary Party Lounge.
Ok, just joking…some of y’all out there might think that was funny. At any rate, the plan is the ISS by 2007, the CEV by 2014, the moon by 2015, and Mars thereafter. Say what you will about election year boondoggles, but I still think creating and funding long-term goals for NASA is a wise investment. (Besides, if you want to cry election-year boondoogle, you don’t need to go any farther than Dubya’s ridiculous $1.5 billion marriage-promotion plan.) NASA still has serious organizational and cultural flaws, sure, but I think it’ll be better able to address them if there’s at least some semblance of a “vision thing” to build on.
Laying the Groundwork/Snoopy Come Home.
NASA sets its sights on an Apollo-based Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) to replace the earlier space plane idea, and the Mars rover begins scrounging for water. Meanwhile, the search continues for the missing Beagle.