I guess it's still a bit too early to start building those Star Trek Constellation class starships...

Here's a bunch of pictures showing how they assemble a space shuttle together for a mission, from the external tanks being delivered via barge to the final lift-off from the launch pad.  Hard to believe NASA will be retiring these things in only a couple more years.  

(via kottke.org)

Suddenly, the lunar landing doesn't seem all that anymore...

This is a map of the paths that Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin took after Apollo 11 landed on the moon overlayed on top of an average baseball diamond. You'd think with all the time and energy they took to get to the moon, they'd have walked around just a wee bit more to stretch their legs.

Maybe I should try and buy some land on the moon now...

Wired Magazine has a short essay about the current battle for Arctic ownership that I've been somewhat obsessed with lately, and it's implications for future territorial disputes on the moon. Little did I know how much those Canucks were trying to flex their muscles up north:

In 2005, the Canadian military launched Exercise Frozen Beaver. Eleven soldiers flew in helicopters to Hans Island, a hunk of rock off the coast of Greenland that's long been claimed by both Denmark and Canada. When they landed on the half-square-mile outcropping, the troops planted a Canadian flag, ripping down the Danish colors that had been flying there since 1984. Once they got home they mailed the confiscated flag to the Danish ambassador in Ottawa.

Of course, they would pick on some puny country like Denmark. Sheesh! But as other countries besides the United States and Russia embark on journeys to the moon, similar skirmishes may begin to occur in the space above us. Even wars in space may not be science fiction either soon:

But what has gone unnoticed amid the international clamor is that the Arctic battle has implications that reach far beyond the top of Earth. The squabbling will be a prelude to — and even set the tone for — eventual sovereignty claims on the moon. At the same time that it was making Arctic claims, Russia announced plans for manned lunar missions by 2025 and a permanent base there by 2032. Japan might beat them to the punch with a 2030 base. Both will be able to stop over and share a glass of Tang with US astronauts, who are supposed to start setting up shop in 2020. China also has lunar aspirations, though officials will say only that they plan to get to the moon sometime after 2020.

Actually, I don't know what all the hub-bub is all about. The U.S. already planted the American flag on it's lunar mission back in the 60's. As far as I'm concerned, that entire orbiting rock is ours. Bwahahahahahahaha!!

Killer germs from outer space...

I was always under the impression that some crazy killer microorganism was going to be released from the abyss of the sea while humans dug into the inhospitable ocean depths for oil and mineral deposits. But who would have thought that our mere excursions into space might actually be responsible for creating some deadly pandemic to the Earth? From The New York Times:

The germ: Salmonella, best known as a culprit of food poisoning. The trip: Space Shuttle STS-115, September 2006. The reason: Scientists wanted to see how space travel affects germs, so they took some along -- carefully wrapped -- for the ride. The result: Mice fed the space germs were three times more likely to get sick and died quicker than others fed identical germs that had remained behind on Earth.

Apparently, 167 genes in the "space" Salmonella had mutated, possibly in response to their microgravity environment.

Be afraid. Be very afraid.

The Dharma Initiative? Now those Lost tie-ins are getting a little out of hand...

Photo: NASA

So did anyone catch these pictures taken from the Cassini Space Probe orbiting Saturn that were released by NASA a couple of weeks ago? According to the NASA site, this phenomenon isn't new, as it was also seen by Voyager 1 and 2 as they passed the planet, as well. I think the red color above is just a result of the infrared imaging used to capture the picture, but it's still kind of freaky nonetheless.

Of course, when I worried about strange alien life inhabiting Saturn and creating such a geometric shape that surely could only mean impending doom from an extraterrestrial weapon of mass destruction set to destroy the Earth, it turns out that swirling hexagonal shapes actually do occur in nature. HC? Well, I guess it's gotta be PHYSICS!

And I thought the garbage problem on terra firma was bad...

I just assumed all the scolding of China about their antisatellite missile test last month was just the U.S. and other countries getting worried that Chinese military technology was getting advanced enough to challenge American weaponry. It never occurred to me to think about all the extra space debris that explosion caused. As reported in The New York Times:

In the last decade or so, as scientists came to agree that the number of objects in orbit had surpassed a critical mass — or, in their terms, the critical spatial density, the point at which a chain reaction becomes inevitable — they grew more anxious.

Early this year, after a half-century of growth, the federal list of detectable objects (four inches wide or larger) reached 10,000, including dead satellites, spent rocket stages, a camera, a hand tool and junkyards of whirling debris left over from chance explosions and destructive tests.

Now, experts say, China’s test on Jan. 11 of an antisatellite rocket that shattered an old satellite into hundreds of large fragments means the chain reaction will most likely start sooner. If their predictions are right, the cascade could put billions of dollars’ worth of advanced satellites at risk and eventually threaten to limit humanity’s reach for the stars.

Federal and private experts say that early estimates of 800 pieces of detectable debris from the shattering of the satellite will grow to nearly 1,000 as observations continue by tracking radars and space cameras. At either number, it is the worst such episode in space history.