space shuttle

this is pretty cool -- a quick-look at the final drive.

where several men have gone before ...

wow!!

the space station hasn't ended up anything like it started out. this is an interesting time line which has been put together. there are descriptors listed on the right side of the page. still ... it's hard to imagine what it's like inside. probably dusty.

look what we can do for you

i can see it now. these space adventurers want to go out and mine for resources they can send back to earth. for the good of humanity? ha! get outta town. for the profit and power and glory, of course. and i can see just exactly what would happen. they send down some stuff from space which carries a teeny little virus which kills us all. yep. republicanism at its best.

nightscapes

these pictures of the colorado sky at night are beyond lovely. my favorite is the first one (shown below). nicely done, mike berenson!!

to beyond

this is just pretty darned cool. and it's hard for me to understand why he's unemployed. do businesses not understand what an imagination this guy has?

it's a 6-minute clip, but it's so interesting you don't even realize the time it's taking. enjoy!

can you hear me?

this is an interesting room. i'd kind of like to try it myself. i mean, i've got this permanent ringing in my ears so it seems like the room shouldn't bother me as much. the article didn't mention if anyone has tested deaf people in there. i wonder what kind of 'being able to last' difference there is with that group?

high up in the sky

okay, so this guy is going to go up  to 120,000 feet and then dive toward earth and part-way down he's going to be going 690 mph. at what point does he start to burn up? this is so bizarre. if he doesn't burn up, how can his body withstand that speed? i'll take an enclosure myself, thanks.

oh look! up in the sky ....

oh cool! we're going to be able to see the northern lights tonight! i'm not sure where i should go to get the best view, since they're supposed to be along the northern horizon and there are evergreens all around our neighborhood. i suppose i should just drive out into the country. of course that would be about 2 a.m. and border patrol would probably drive up and ask what i was doing. still, it would probably be worth it!

see and hear

so. you sit outside at night in your yard in the big city, look up at the stars and think, wow -- there are so many. but what you don't realize is that light pollution from the city lights is really obstructing your view of the sky.

if you've never been fortunate enough to look at the midwestern sky, out in the country, at night then you'll be awed by the videos this guy has put together.  enjoy. (and listen to the music, too)

deliver this where?

Spaceport America, New Mexico. ever been there? ever heard of it? it's a place they're building from the ground up as the facility to launch ordinary (paying) people into space. richard branson is committed to the project, but everyone's wondering if the state's new republican governor will support it like the previous democrat did. the project has run into problems, of course, and i hope that's not how things will always work with this operation. someone needs to continue forward with a space effort and my hat's off to these intrepid visionaries.

pretty!

if you like looking at pictures of the night sky, go here.

houston ... we've got a problem

did you see the cool logo that google has today because of the 50th anniversary of the first human spaceflight? it's pretty cool! pretty disgusting that we haven't done much else in the last 50 years though. i mean, come on, we go up in space, we walk on the moon, and we build a space station. that's it? something got derailed somewhere.

bored? depressed? read this...

i was curious about the article talking about the space station and space junk. so i started reading it and... whoa! totally cracked me up! if you want a really good laugh, check it out.

here it comes and there it goes....

oh, this is cool! from up in the air, watching a shuttle launch -- what a great perspective! it got me excited about the space program all over again!

look out, look out, look.... *splat!* and items suddenly quadruplicate....

the picture at the beginning of this article is pretty amazing -- so much junk we have left in space to fly around our world! good grief -- will we NEVER learn??!!!

little green men? no.

it's amazing to me that these scientists are awed by their project of forcing microbes to assimilate arsenic rather than phosphorus. they have concluded, "If the claim holds up, it would lend weight to the idea that life as we know it isn't the only way life could develop."

well, duh. ego-and ethno-centrism at its finest.

i've always wondered when i've heard 'life couldn't exist there. it's (too cold, there's no oxygen, there's no water, there's no .....).' i mean, with the variety we have right here on earth, how could intelligent people NOT think life could appear in a variety of ways. *sheesh*

we make our own jokes

at lunch today the husband and i were discussing going to mars and not coming back. we both thought it wasn't something we'd do. then he said if an alien came along and said he'd fly the husband to far-away worlds and he'd see things he couldn't even imagine, he'd be mighty tempted to take the offer.

we talked about what situations would make our names go down in history. then he commented that even if we made the history books people probably wouldn't remember our names for long. i mean, how many people landed on the moon and could we remember their names?

hmmm .... we thought about it a minute then i said, 'bob armstrong?' just teasing. and he said, 'yes, neil armstrong.' and i laughed and said that i really thought it was lance armstrong, and he said, 'yes, lance armstrong and buzz lightyear.'

hi-ho, hi-ho, it's off to mars we go ....

i read an article today about the idea of going to mars ..... and not returning.

they likened it to christopher columbus who sailed off, not at all sure of where he was going or what he'd find. to a certain extent i agree with that thought. new explorations are necessarily into the unknown, and there's a real likelihood you won't make it back.

still .... the idea of going to mars -- as tantalizing as it seems at first -- would almost have to be really, really depressing. i mean, no clouds, no trees, no buildings, no animals. so much sameness. maybe someone who grew up in the sahara could handle it, but i'm pretty sure i could not.

they mused about the possibility that the only people willing to go on that one-way trip would be oldsters, who didn't really have that much to lose with not returning to earth. being with a bunch of oldsters might, in itself, be depressing, and sooner or later someone would get stuck taking care of everyone else.

a number of possibilities and many things to think about. if they knock on your door and ask if you want to go along for the ride, what are you going to say?

it's a dragon ... no, a boat ... no, a castle ...

do you like looking at clouds? i do, and i miss seeing some of the wonderful formations which are created in the midwest. check out this site, though, for some excellent shots of cloud formations seen from space. it's a neat way of looking at them.

all sorts of problems

today, class, we are going to discuss 'how to have sex in outer space.' this activity brings new challenges in space, so we'll start by opening our books to page 8. remember that lab practice is tomorrow morning at 9 a.m.