Space Exploration

“They slipped the surly bonds of Earth, and touched the Face of God…”


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Leslie Fish & Vic Tyler, “Guardians”

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        “The crew of the space shuttle Challenger honored us by the manner in which
        they lived their lives.  We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw
        them, this morning, as they prepared for their journey and waved goodbye
        and 'slipped the surly bonds of earth' to 'touch the face of God.'”


        President R Reagan, 28 January 1986 - speech by Peggy Noonan

Holy cow, I'm checking out the pictures and video being posted of the meteor that blew up over Chelyabinsk (I hope I spelled that right). "Bad Astronomer" Phil Plait has compiled a bunch of good stuff.

Are there any Russians in this community who saw it?

Infographics fun!

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/new…

Very sad to hear the news about Neil Armstrong.  His 'one small step' remains one of the most amazing achievements of the human race so far.

“July 20, 1948 - the National Council on Astronautics, or NCA, has been brought into being.

Promo Video

“For the eyes of the entire world now look into space - to the realms of low and high Earth orbit, to the Moon, to Mars and the other planets - and to the stars beyond.

“And we have determined that we shall not see any of it governed by the hostile flag of a repressive regime, but by a flag of freedom, peace, and of boundless enterprise born of exploration for the sake of all mankind…”

I watched the space shuttle Columbia launch on a TV in my second grade classroom, in 1981.

I watched the final landing just now, in 2011, at work on my "smartphone".

Posted via LjBeetle

Just got the word via a friend elsewhere:

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.…

Thank you for everything, Spirit. May we find a way to repay our debt in proper fashion, and sooner than later...

Can someone tell me why NASA is not exploring the possibility of telepresence on the Moon? They're going through all this fol-de-rol of “Returning to the Moon,” with scarcely any better reason than the first time, and it's probably never going to happen - not by NASA - but look at this.

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I don't think even the Russians have a pressure suit this flexible. It sure beats anything ol' Neil & Buzz could do! And you're standing in your motion-sensor harness back on Earth. So what if there's a 2.5 second delay between initiating a motion and seeing the result? What would you do fast? There could be 'walk' subroutines in the droid, where you indicate where you want to go and it walks you there.

Wouldn't you like to see even a stereo periscope view of actually standing on the Moon? Look around, walk around, do things. No life support requirements, your equipment size-reduced and thus cheaper to send, and if you fall off a cliff somewhere - oh, well, activate another droid.

It is technically feasible, and I don't understand why NASA isn't exploring the concept.