Planetfest Mars Curiosity Rover Coverage

If you're not watching the Planetary Society's coverage of the Mars Curiosity Rover landing coverage, why not?

Here you go!

http://new.livestream.com/planetarysociety/planetfest

And, while you're listening, play with this too: Eyes on the Solar System! It's is a great way to see Mars. Check it out:

http://eyes.nasa.gov/index.html

And of course, there's this minute-long explanation of the whole kit-n-kaboodle!

A Positive Message

"What new wonders undreamt of in our time, will we have wrought in another generation, and another? How far will our nomadic species have wandered, at the end of the next century, and the next Millennium?"

"Yet it will not be we who reach Alpha Centauri and the other nearby stars. It will be a species very much like us, with more of our strengths, and fewer of our weaknesses."


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oY59wZdCDo0

Space Rides

I think I may have to sit out Virigin Galactic's 200k ride into space with their soon-to-launch (fingers crossed) SpaceshipTwo.

However, there are other contenders for your retirement money in this arena, and some of them, while offering less head-room and fewer amenities, promise to be slightly less expensive.

The one I'm most jazzed about right now is the Lynx spacecraft by XCOR. You can download the podcast from the Planetary Society where they talk about the ship here. And here's a link to an article describing the Lynx. Just you and pilot fly, you in the co-pilot's seat. Sounds fabulous.

Phoenix has Landed!

Wow, I just watched NASA TV as the Phoenix lander touched down on the northern plains of Mars, while also monitoring a planetary society chat room (elakdawalla's Ustream page) with a bunch of fellow enthusiasts. It was awesome, especially because the spacecraft landed safely!

The last three successful landings used airbags for a bounce landing. This one was like the earlier Viking landings in the 70s, using thrusters for the last hundred or so meters. Very cool stuff.

Looking forward to digging down into the ice and seeing if anything like earth life has ever lived on mars!

Lava Fountains On The Moon

Lava fountains on the moon Io, that is, which orbits Jupiter. How amazing is it that a craft we built and launched into the lifeless void in 13 years ago is still sending back photos of violent lava fountains on another world? It's freaking amazing when you think about it.

Get Blasted From Space, For Free

Until January 15th, you can download a free PDF copy of my event book When The Sky Falls!

When The Sky Falls describes what happens when a fantasy world is struck, and struck hard, by a meteor. The book provides new prestige classes for characters close to ground zero, a variant magic system powered by residual meteor fragments, and many new feats and spells. When the Sky Falls also describes frightening new monsters -- creatures twisted by their proximity to the Afterfall.

When The Sky Falls was one of the games I wrote with Malhavoc Press (a list that includes Hyperconscious and If Thoughts Could Kill). I remain as proud of it as anything I've done, mainly because it allowed me to stray outside regular fantasy tropes. When things fall from the sky in a fantasy world, they might be nickel-iron, but then again, they might be fragments of something far stranger . . .

Black Hole Energized Matter-Energy Beam

When supermassive black holes tear apart suns as they feed, they can release beams of energy and particles that slam through space near the speed of light. Prospects for any planet, solar-system, or galaxy in the way of that beam are dim. If our solar system fell into line with such a black hole energized beam, it'd be history for us. (Much less likely is what happened in the book by A. A. Attanasio, Radix, where psionic creatures that ride the line of such beams manifested on earth to form god minds...).

I've included a picture of recently taken of such a beam. Go here to Bad Astronomy to read an in-depth account of what the various stunning colors in this picture represent).

Obama 1, Clinton 1

I've been down on Ms. Clinton in previous years due to her support of a trendy, anti-gaming bill.

Thus, I've sort of been supporting Mr. Obama to get the Democratic nomination, not only because of the gaming thing, but also because Mr. Obama hasn't taken much (if any?) in contributions from major corporations. I'm slightly freaked out by the rampant corporatism that so defines our times.

However, I was a little sad to see that Obama recently indicated he'd delay the NASA program to finish the space-station and move us onward to something actually worthwhile to help fund education reform. The 0.5% of the national budget NASA still gets is is too much? I suppose I can see things from his perspective, but I ask you, how are we going to inspire a new generation of scientists and engineers without a viable, exciting space program? Science fiction will only inspire so far. His perspective on this issue is too narrow.

On the other hand, Clinton came out with a space policy statement that pretty much delivers what I'd like to see. Her release says:

Hillary is committed to a space exploration program that involves robust human spaceflight to complete the Space Station and later human missions, expanded robotic spaceflight probes of our solar system leading to future human exploration, and enhanced space science activities. She will speed development, testing, and deployment of next-generation launch and crew exploration vehicles to replace the aging Space Shuttle.

Now I'm in a dead heat between these two. Maybe slightly back in Hillary's camp, to be honest. Ms. Clinton said in her biography one of the reasons she ended up in politics was because she was told she couldn't be an astronaut when she was young.

Bussard IEC Fusion Rockets

Bussard IEC Fusion Rockets are the sort of break-through propulsion technology that could actually reasonably/affordably put up a constellation of solar-power satellites that, in turn, could turn the tide on the energy-demand avalanche that is crashing down on our environment in a slow-mo, decades-long disaster.