Whenever I hear the word enormity used to describe how gi-freakin-normous something is, I always willfully misinterpret it to mean an act of extreme evil or extreme wickedness. Now before you start screaming prescriptivist and throwing Kleenexes drenched in the snot of sociolinguistics at me — I’m not being a prescriptivist. Of course people have [...]
Posts Tagged ‘spaceflight’
The Enormity of Space
Posted: 26 February 2008 in UncategorizedTags: enormity, language change, prescriptivism, richard branson, space, spaceflight, virgin galactic
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Finders Keepers
Posted: 8 January 2008 in UncategorizedTags: humor, lunar base, moon, moon treaty, space, space exploration, space station, spaceflight, t-shirts
This T-shirt just cracked me up: Of course, it actually could have been this way. I think the US even had a defacto assumption that the moon was ours. This is very much not the case. With the recent Japanese and Chinese probes to the moon, the upcoming German probe, and rumors of more probes [...]
Mars, Phobos, or Deimos?
Posted: 8 November 2007 in UncategorizedTags: asteroids, deimos, mars, moons, nasa, phobos, space, spaceflight
Which will be the newest extraterrestrial body humans will set foot on? (Aside from the moon, of course.) According to Pascal Lee of the Mars Institute, “[Phobos and Deimos] are the most accessible planetary bodies in our solar system.” New Scientist has a report on the conference at Ames Research Center on Wednesday where ideas [...]
Discovery and ISS Viewing
Posted: 5 November 2007 in UncategorizedTags: discovery, international space station, iss, nasa, satellite tracking, space, spaceflight
There is a somewhat rare opportunity for people in the US and southern Canada over the next two days. The space shuttle Discovery just undocked from the International Space Station and is currently drifting just in front of it. It will be passing nearly overhead just before dawn, the best time for viewing. As the [...]
Cassini Contest for Kids
Posted: 23 October 2007 in UncategorizedTags: astronomy, cassini, contest, kids, nasa, nobel prize, nobel turds, saturn, science education, space, spacecraft, spaceflight
I caught Randy Pausch on Oprah yesterday (and yes, a dying CMU professor IS the one of the few things that will make me endure watching Oprah). His last lecture focused on the importance of childhood dreams and he mentioned the landing of men on the moon as a pretty fundamental motivator. Heck, it inspires [...]
Discovery and Harmony
Posted: 21 October 2007 in UncategorizedTags: discovery, harmony, international space station, iss, nasa, shuttle, spaceflight
The shuttle Discovery is set to launch Tuesday to bring the Harmony module to the International Space Station (ISS). The Harmony module, named by US school kids, is a connector that will bring together the various international components of the space station. Specifically, it will connect the US Destiny Lab, the ESA’s (European Space Agency) [...]
Space money
Posted: 10 October 2007 in UncategorizedTags: currency, humor, quids, real sci-fi, space, space currency, spaceflight, star trek, teflon, travelex
Well, this ain’t no Federation baby. Unlike the world of Star Trek, where money isn’t much of an issue for your average Star Fleet officer, money is an issue in our world. And soon to be off our world, as well. In one of those bizarre, possibly pointless moves, some scientists have created a currency [...]
Dawn liftoff
Posted: 28 September 2007 in UncategorizedTags: asteroids, dawn, fuel, launch, nasa, probes, rocket fuel, spacecraft, spaceflight
NASA’s image of the day is the Dawn spacecraft launching via a Delta II rocket. It’s heading to two asteroids: Ceres (actually a dwarf planet) and Vesta. The journey will take several years. In March 2009, Dawn will slingshot around Mars to arrive at Vesta in September of 2011, where it will stay for about [...]
New X Prize cooler than ever
Posted: 13 September 2007 in UncategorizedTags: google, mars, moon, rovers, spacecraft, spaceflight, x prize
Buzz has been building over the past few days about what will be the next X Prize. If you don’t know what the first X Prize was all about, skip down a bit. The new Google Lunar X Prize was announced today. The prize purse is $20 million for the grand prize winner, $5 million [...]
Dawn
Posted: 12 September 2007 in UncategorizedTags: asteroids, dawn, mars, mining, nasa, space, spacecraft, spaceflight
The Dawn spacecraft is currently sitting on the launchpad at Cape Canaveral, where it will wait until September 26th for launch. NASA always chooses these vague, optimistic names for spacecraft. The Mars rovers have names like Spirit and Opportunity or old probes with names like Voyager and Pioneer. Of course there are the dreadfully functional [...]
