tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-221559522011-12-13T19:57:24.623-08:00Space colonization offers the best possible future for mankind, and the colonization of the moon is our best first step.billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05007923913646456077noreply@blogger.comBlogger731100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22155952.post-90340773475116478992010-05-22T17:04:00.000-07:002010-05-22T17:21:48.065-07:00

I caught this video over at Space.com and wanted to share it. I found the video very informative, and surprisingly candid. Zero-g toilets are.. well.. complicated. Hardly the thing you want to fool with if you're in a rush. Yet another example of a function that would be better served in a spinning space station of one sort or another.

billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05007923913646456077noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22155952.post-73236635857152424052010-03-03T09:13:00.000-08:002010-03-03T09:57:52.841-08:00

I brought this up once a very, very long time ago. Shot an email straight off to NASA Admin. Dan Goldin at the time (At least I think it got too him. The NASA email server didn't cough it back at me as unsent). He never replied (the bastard). The idea is simple enough: put a user-directable, streaming webcam on the outside of the ISS so people can browse over and check out space on their own

billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05007923913646456077noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22155952.post-58465589851452711582010-02-17T10:41:00.000-08:002010-02-17T11:05:36.415-08:00

I haven't been focusing on space-related news lately. Mostly I spend my time saving my job and saving my house from foreclosure, so space news hasn't been much of a priority. Still I felt this entry was worth writing. A long time ago, I worked with a company that had me frequently traveling to an obscure corner of Japan called Ipponmatsu, a smallish village nestled between two fishing towns,

billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05007923913646456077noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22155952.post-16441661200474074152009-11-02T12:47:00.001-08:002009-11-02T12:56:56.640-08:00

Ares 1-X successfully launched on October 28. This sub-orbital mock-up tested the avionics and mechanics of a simulated Ares SRB -- A 4 segment shuttle SRB was used with a dummy fifth segment on the top of the stack. The remainder of the rocket was basically an empty shell, save for the roll control in the upper stage. All in all, everything went as planned. There are at least 2 more flights

billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05007923913646456077noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22155952.post-34419742826123065002009-10-19T14:52:00.000-07:002009-10-19T15:06:58.082-07:00

LCROSS hit the moon with a bang, with stunning results. Mostly because so many of us were expecting a more impressive show and were stunned by the puff of white we might or might not have seen. Still, the LCROSS team were able to locate the Centaur stage impact event in their imaging stream and are happy so far with the returned data -- which is still being analyzed. Hopefully important data

billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05007923913646456077noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22155952.post-55487116050672419372009-08-27T13:31:00.000-07:002009-08-27T14:16:50.224-07:00

It's been a profoundly long while since I've posted anything on this blog. Sorry for the hiatus. Sadly, not much is happening that has got my attention. I am happy to see the ISS putting up more astronauts (six, as of May 29). I'm sorry to hear that the Russians are going to curtail future tourist trips to ISS. On the other hand, this gives SpaceX an opportunity to fill that void. Elon Musk

billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05007923913646456077noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22155952.post-57011896600383626832009-05-26T10:07:00.000-07:002009-05-26T10:21:14.354-07:00

North Korea reports that they have again detonated a nuclear weapon of about 10 to 20 kt. The magnitude earthquake created by the blast was initially reported as a 5.3 magnitude earthquake (90kt), but was downgraded to a 4.7 magnitude (11.3 kt). For what it's worth, one kiloton of energy is liberated by a 4.0 magnitude earthquake and the converse, a 1 kiloton underground blast will cause a 4.0

billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05007923913646456077noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22155952.post-7207806312680928502009-04-13T12:17:00.000-07:002009-04-13T12:27:04.081-07:00

I saw a flash in the night sky Sunday at around 0525 UTC. The rough location was between Arcturus and the front foot of Ursa Major, if you're familiar with the H.A.Rey star maps. After a little research, I conclude that it was pretty much in the direction of the Messier globular cluster M3. I only caught it for a fraction of a second out of the corner of my eye, it was blue white, and it was

billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05007923913646456077noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22155952.post-80135554164083931902009-04-10T15:57:00.000-07:002009-04-10T16:08:34.558-07:00

It's Friday, and I decided to add a contest. Here's the rules -- figure out what person used to own this house. He was a space colonization advocate long long ago (mid-twentieth century). This factoid and the picture above are your only clues. Good Luck...

billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05007923913646456077noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22155952.post-84582693657281567972009-04-02T11:21:00.000-07:002009-04-02T12:52:46.635-07:00

I have been meaning to write this entry for a long time. Since the discovery that Saturn's moon Enceladus has active liquid water geysers, people have speculated that life might be present there, and follow up missions to Cassini have been proposed to perhaps go to Enceladus and see what, if anything, is living there. But apparently, anything that is sent to Saturn will set back a space agency

billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05007923913646456077noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22155952.post-69828215656735799792009-02-24T11:11:00.000-08:002009-02-24T12:30:58.121-08:00

There is a bit more detail on the CEV's SRM (Solid Rocket Motor) vibration problem. Most structures -- rockets, buildings, what have you -- will vibrate at particular frequencies if you 'excite' or 'whack' them. These are called "natural frequencies/resonances". The burning SRM (the SRB on the shuttle -- try to keep up with the acronyms) acts a bit like a didgeridoo or organ pipe, with the

billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05007923913646456077noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22155952.post-60647809939540434292008-10-13T12:08:00.001-07:002008-10-13T12:56:17.260-07:00

On September 28th, Space-X reached orbit on their 4th attempt with the Falcon 1 rocket. The payload for the flight was a 165 kg aluminum chamber, which remains attached to the second stage. The eliptical orbit is 500 km by 700 km, with a 9.2 degree inclination. This means it will be nigh unto invisible in the United States, except perhaps from South Point in Hawaii, where it's greatest height

billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05007923913646456077noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22155952.post-80392073548011197052008-08-22T16:49:00.000-07:002008-08-22T18:02:29.200-07:00

Apparently the engineering team working on the ARES CEV are considering adding weights and shock absorbers between the first (SRB) and second stage in order to dampen hefty vibrations that might otherwise blur the vision of the crew or cause parts to fall off. The vibrational load is in the 5 to 6 g range. It's hard to honestly evaluate the impact of this new development, but one wonders if a

billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05007923913646456077noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22155952.post-77303545260799095092008-08-07T08:44:00.000-07:002008-08-07T09:32:24.777-07:00

Sorry, but I couldn't help the title. In short, the third flight of the Falcon 1 failed because the time between first stage engine cutoff and second stage separation was a tad too short. The third flight incorporated fixes to the problems seen in the second flight as well as a change to the first stage engine (from the ablatively cooled Merlin 1 to the higher performance, regenatively cooled

billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05007923913646456077noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22155952.post-1152825786026966012008-08-06T10:02:00.001-07:002008-08-06T10:10:29.538-07:00

Sadly, SpaceX wasn't able to make orbit last Saturday. Communications with the rocket ended a few minutes into the launch around the time of second stage separation. Apparently, second stage separation did not occur. This link includes video footage from the launch.

billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05007923913646456077noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22155952.post-10248358911042411752008-08-06T09:51:00.000-07:002008-08-06T09:57:46.835-07:00

I recently read articles about perchlorate being found on Mars. Some are trying to figure out if the Phoenix lander's pyrotechnics are involved, but I found an interesting link about natural perchlorate formation on Earth that might explain the Martian source. ">This abstract discusses perchlorate detected in the Black Rock Desert and in Death Valley, which apparently forms when titanium dioxide

billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05007923913646456077noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22155952.post-44848487015091115972008-08-04T15:06:00.000-07:002008-08-04T15:13:10.989-07:00

Whilst browsing about, I came upon this interesting recipe Since the little devils would do double time as excess vegetative matter break-downers, using them in space colonization might be a plus. Although, I have no idea what they taste like. Anyone with an idea, please comment.

billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05007923913646456077noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22155952.post-14387730635529366332008-07-22T11:34:00.000-07:002008-07-22T12:19:00.968-07:00

A picture on Spacedaily.com had me wondering where it was taken. Apparently from Google Earth or Google Maps. For what it's worth, here are a few coordinates of space facilities and or space tourism spots around the world. Feel free to add your own:Huntsville Alabama Rocket Center (Space Camp)34.710618,-86.655098Baikonur, Kazakhstan45.628362,63.321092 Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan --

billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05007923913646456077noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22155952.post-29685645712277536372008-06-26T12:24:00.000-07:002008-08-04T15:14:22.890-07:00

While NASA contemplates what plants might be grown in space for the Astronauts based on the moon or on their way to Mars, may I offer a few of my own plant candidates? These candidates probably haven't been researched much so far because, for most people, they're dismissed as common weeds.Summer Purslane - Portulaca oleraceaSummer Purslane, or common purslane, is a common bane to most gardeners.

billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05007923913646456077noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22155952.post-18997329121572772912008-06-19T13:43:00.000-07:002008-06-20T12:48:34.268-07:00

It's been a very long while since I've written anything in the blog, so I thought I'ld catch up a bit. LCROSSSeveral month's back (April, I think), I went to the Ames Research Center's Open House and sat through some interesting lectures about LCROSS, standing for Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite or the Lunar Whack-a-mole Project as I like to think of it. The purpose of the

billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05007923913646456077noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22155952.post-11818511222955803832008-02-14T16:10:00.000-08:002008-02-14T16:57:02.768-08:00

President Bush has agreed to let the military shoot down the National Reconnaissance Office's unresponsive spy satellite, US-193 due to the threat of a 1000 lb hydrazine release on impact. The satellite will be shot down with a modified Navy launched SM-3/RIM-161 missile. According to the Reuters story, the US officials indicated that their intent was to eliminate hydrazine exposure and denied

billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05007923913646456077noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22155952.post-67834592725020032642007-11-08T14:23:00.000-08:002007-11-08T15:21:24.412-08:00

I have to admit that I've thought Carbon sequestering has been a dead end idea since the first time I heard of it, but now scientists at Harvard are taking the cake. Their idea? Create Hydrochloric acid out of sea-water, I suppose using atomic energy or at least something that doesn't create more CO2, then dump it onto a very large pile of volcanic rock -- perhaps the island of Hawaii --

billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05007923913646456077noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22155952.post-1352004352914794552007-11-07T07:47:00.000-08:002007-11-07T08:52:44.602-08:00

However, be forewarned. This is a planet 45 times the mass of Earth with a probable surface gravity of 3.5 Gs (based on the assumption that it's a rocky planet like ours with similar density). It's not quite "earth-like" just yet, but perhaps one of it's possible moons could be. Of note is that this planet has an orbital period of 260 days and was found by monitoring the wobble of the system's

billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05007923913646456077noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22155952.post-32698498035651187692007-11-03T12:06:00.001-07:002007-11-03T12:17:33.667-07:00

Say what you will about NASA, but fixing the solar array this Saturday, especially while strapped to the end of a 90 foot (27 meter) pole took serious guts and coordination on the part of the entire crew. Congratulations for a job well done.Now, hopefully, they'll end this practice of retracting and extending the solar arrays every time they want to add another bit to the space station. The

billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05007923913646456077noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22155952.post-21462161371286637712007-11-02T16:05:00.000-07:002009-03-03T12:32:46.222-08:00

A new, important, controversial study has been revealed on aRocket. Thanks to Carl Tedesco for pointing it out! I don't dare discuss it here, so go follow the link, above.

billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05007923913646456077noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22155952.post-42309191880584018322007-11-02T10:11:00.000-07:002007-11-02T12:12:54.467-07:00

A mixed bag of successes and failures in the nascent entrepreneurial rocket industry demonstrates that it's having growing pains, and why shouldn't it? Each group is developing its own rocket engines, IMUs, etc. on its own. While this provides development on a broad selection of designs, it makes one wonder if all of this parallel reinvention is all that necessary. After all, the space

billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05007923913646456077noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22155952.post-56836517423179828972007-11-01T15:36:00.000-07:002007-11-01T18:02:58.579-07:00

The STS-120 crew will attempt a repair of the crippled solar array of the International Space Station. By using the shuttles self-inspection boom and the station's Canadarm II, mission specialist Scott Parazynski will be able to access the damaged part of the array. He will be attached to a precarious perch while working on a torn electrical circuit with 110 volts running through it at who

billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05007923913646456077noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22155952.post-10365416154567639812007-10-31T11:09:00.000-07:002007-10-31T12:22:42.463-07:00

Last Christmas, my wife's present to me was a trip to Space Camp as part of their three day adult program. In all honesty, it was a lot of fun. Space Camp is directly adjacent to and has free access to the U.S. Space & Rocket Center, which has a museum and a rocket garden filled with various rockets and their assorted hardware bits. Saturn V F-1 engines are about as ubiquitous there as

billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05007923913646456077noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22155952.post-46628592537746256312007-10-31T07:55:00.000-07:002007-10-31T09:07:14.092-07:00

October was also the month of the X-Prize Cup, which featured Armadillo Aerospace's attempt to win the Northrup Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge. I won't go into detail here, but sadly the LLC prizes are still up for grabs. Armadillo Aerospace(AA) got remarkably close to winning the LLC 1 challenge, but was ultimately stymied by engine problems, especially a hard start which shattered their

billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05007923913646456077noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22155952.post-36472411131624313622007-10-30T12:21:00.000-07:002007-10-30T12:35:08.608-07:00

Last December I questioned the practice of retracting and extending the ISS's solar arrays as though they were mini-blinds, and it appears as though those concerns were well founded. Honestly, I am not gloating over this recent turn of events. It saddens me that this has occurred, but I can't say I'm surprised. Discussion around the office has brought up the notion that it might've been a

billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05007923913646456077noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22155952.post-25542716799903915752007-10-04T17:29:00.000-07:002007-10-04T18:05:02.611-07:00

I can't imagine there are any space-blogs or websites that aren't covering Sputnik 1 today, so therefore I must as well. Sputnik was launched 50 years ago today on October 4th, 1957, not counting time zones and date line differences. The 58cm/22.8inch aluminum sphere sporting 4 whip antennas weighed 83.6kg/183.9lb, transmitted a continuous stream of beeps on 20 and 40 MHz for 23 days, and was

billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05007923913646456077noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22155952.post-15831737486876247242007-09-20T11:14:00.000-07:002007-09-20T12:41:15.412-07:00

Is this the new face of the Astronaut Corps? An article in EETimes reveals that scientists at NASA Ames have been working on carbon nanotube brain implants to trick the astronaut brain into believing it's still in a gravity field (as on Earth). This supposedly will help combat muscular atrophy during the 30 month trip to Mars and back. *Ack!!* I wonder how the human astronauts feel about getting

billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05007923913646456077noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22155952.post-27345299771408568992007-08-28T08:41:00.000-07:002007-08-28T09:15:28.986-07:00

The lunar eclipse last night was not disappointing. We went to bed early, then woke up at 1:50 AM last night to view the eclipse, which had just started with just a small corner of the moon knawed away into shadow. Then we went back to bed and checked progress again at 2:50 AM when the eclipse was in totality. Very pretty indeed. My cool observation of the night was comparing the amount of

billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05007923913646456077noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22155952.post-85852953757440068142007-08-27T17:37:00.000-07:002007-08-27T18:07:30.647-07:00

For any interested souls, it's time to set your alarm clocks very early tonight and see a total eclipse of the moon! The big event starts at about 1:50AM PDT, is in the deepest part of the eclipse at 3:37AM PDT, and ends at around 5:24AM PDT. The moon will be in the deepest part of the earth's shadow from 2:52 to 4:22AM PDT. This is the most dramatic part of the eclipse to witness (when the

billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05007923913646456077noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22155952.post-59576074950627916462007-08-14T17:04:00.001-07:002007-08-14T17:42:36.482-07:00

The Spacenews section of Space.com had a story today about NASA's phasing out of Delta II launch vehicle. The Delta II has a long and illustrious career launching many of NASA's robotic spacecraft program. It seems that within the last 10 years, almost every NASA unmanned launch video featured a Delta II of one configuration or another lofting a spacecraft towards Mars or an asteroid. Now,

billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05007923913646456077noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22155952.post-25676106176619868902007-08-09T10:12:00.000-07:002007-08-09T10:35:06.771-07:00

We watched the video of Endeavour/STS-118 launch last night, and everything generally looked good. One thing I saw shortly after liftoff made me wonder if I was seeing things. What I saw were brief yellow flashes in the normally clear SSME exhaust plume which got me to wondering if they'ld blown out some engine tubing like what happened with Columbia on STS-93. Right before tank separation

billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05007923913646456077noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22155952.post-91752573012843174282007-08-01T13:07:00.000-07:002007-08-01T17:29:33.656-07:00

The latest Progress cargo carrier was ejected from the International Space Station today, for later deorbit and disposal in the coming days. This comes on the heels of last week's disposal of the EAS ammonia tank and camera mount via hand toss. The news of that week was that the ammonia tank and camera mount are going to stay in orbit for something like five to seven years prior to their

billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05007923913646456077noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22155952.post-86702530448624460962007-08-01T08:01:00.000-07:002007-08-01T13:01:03.573-07:00

An article posted on SpaceDaily.com's 'Space War' Section is dubiously titled "Washington Seeking to Calm Mideast with Arms Sales". The article claims that the Bush Administration wishes to pump billions of dollars in arms into Egypt, Israel, Saudi Arabia and other gulf states in order to counter the influence of Iran and Syria. At least that's the theory. Still, the title of the article alone

billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05007923913646456077noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22155952.post-70673726987019534282007-07-31T07:22:00.000-07:002007-07-31T08:21:36.276-07:00

Scaled Composites announced the formation of a family support fund for the scaled employees who were involved in last weeks accident. Three employees were still in the hospital as of last Saturday, two in critcal condition and one in serious. The employees are Keith Fritsinger (critical), Gene Gisin (critical), and Jason Kramb (serious).The family fund details are as follows:Scaled Family Support

billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05007923913646456077noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22155952.post-81665085049959002952007-07-27T16:24:00.000-07:002007-07-27T17:11:10.879-07:00

At 2:45pm Thursday (July 26th, 2007), an explosion occured at the Scaled Composites test stand, located in the northeast corner of the Mojave airport. Three people died -- Eric Blackwell, Charles May, and Todd Ivens, and three people were critically injured. All six people are Scaled Composites employees. The group was doing a cold flow test of the nitrous oxide plumbing of the spaceship two

billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05007923913646456077noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22155952.post-68584460247362112592007-07-27T14:39:00.000-07:002007-07-27T15:16:52.191-07:00

Rumors circulating yesterday have been confirmed by Dana Shale, the NASA deputy administrator during a press conference this morning. Alchohol abuse prior to launch has been identified.Apparently there's been at least one case of a Soyuz launch and a Shuttle launch where an astronaut in each case has been a bit toasted prior to the launch. The astronaut corps is again demonstrating that

billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05007923913646456077noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22155952.post-24779282430707047302007-07-25T13:19:00.000-07:002007-07-25T13:43:13.438-07:00

OK, this isn't really a freeluna story, but it grabbed my attention with some amusement. I read the story on Yahoo, but tracked it down to CBS is about the rare American Crocodile making its way back from extinction via the Turkey Point Nuclear Generating Station. This is a bit of a fluff piece since it was already mentioned by CSI Miami about two seasons ago, but the story goes on to say how

billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05007923913646456077noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22155952.post-84330592388902262182007-07-16T11:43:00.001-07:002007-07-16T15:22:10.695-07:00

NASA Ames is holding a conference to discuss the sending of robotic and potentially manned missions to the moons of Mars. The conference which is being called "PhobosDeimos2007" will be held at the NASA Ames Research Center's conference facility from November 5th through 8th of 2007. Tickets for professionals are $150 if ordered early and $195 at the door. Students are only $75 and the

billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05007923913646456077noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22155952.post-7019259025793463222007-07-13T12:58:00.001-07:002007-07-13T13:22:32.476-07:00

In an article on spacedaily.com, Dupont and NASA have come to an agreement to jointly develop kevlar reinforced tank foam for the Ares-1 crew launch vehicle. This strikes me as a good idea, but perhaps a little too late since all the envisioned future NASA vehicles have the crew capsule at the front of the vehicle and any foamed tanks behind that. Foam separation in these future vehicles

billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05007923913646456077noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22155952.post-41221738430941178992007-06-22T15:55:00.000-07:002007-06-22T16:24:36.305-07:00

A casual read of an article at space.com caught me by surprise. DVDs of the series Firefly and follow-on movie Serenity flew to ISS on the recently completed STS-117 mission. There are a growing number of browncoats at NASA. You can read more about it here.Is this news shiney or what?

billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05007923913646456077noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22155952.post-62484677301113117962007-06-18T18:19:00.000-07:002007-06-22T15:18:50.163-07:00

I recently caught sight of an add from the Heartland Institute in my Adsense banner box. "I wonder what this is?" I asked myself, and then proceeded to check it out. Apparently they are a group of free market advocates, who don't believe global warming is real, that smoking isn't all that bad for you, etc. 98% of their advisory staff are either economists or lawyers, and a search of their

billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05007923913646456077noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22155952.post-83147645140640699572007-06-18T15:01:00.001-07:002007-06-18T15:40:21.492-07:00

This has been a long time coming, but congratulations are in order for Armadillo Aerospace and their recent lunar lander challenge flight of "Pixel" at the Oaklahoma Spaceport on June 2, 2007. The above pictures are part of a screen capture of the video from that flight. Pixel lifted off of one pad, rose vertically to what looks like about 100 meters altitude, transitioned 100 meters sideways,

billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05007923913646456077noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22155952.post-2094667902596061412007-06-13T09:22:00.001-07:002007-06-13T09:37:49.526-07:00

The picture above is from STS-116, but it might as well be from STS-117. Apparently the pesky panels are balking at being folded back into their stowage configuration yet again. Not unlike cranky road maps, methinks. Maybe what they need is a spritz of vacuuum-rated WD-40.

billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05007923913646456077noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22155952.post-24115125764136526102007-05-31T15:03:00.000-07:002007-05-31T16:19:07.464-07:00

In part of a peculiar interview of Michael Griffin on NPR this morning, the NASA administrator argued that although global warming was real and that mankind is responsible for 'much' of it, he questioned whether or not it was a long-term concern or a problem with which we need wrestle. He had other comments about who are we to decide what is an optimum climate, etc. The transcript and audio of

billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05007923913646456077noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22155952.post-80320291789259572012007-05-30T12:43:00.001-07:002007-05-30T13:31:03.471-07:00

In various web articles it was announced that the ESA and NASA are working towards establishing safety standards for commercial spaceflight via their IAASS association. It's interesting to see something like the ESA, an agency that has never flown a man-able rocket, and NASA, an organization with a proven record of killing astronauts by ignoring safety concerns, becoming so passionately involved

billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05007923913646456077noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22155952.post-66220942193617204692007-05-30T11:02:00.000-07:002007-05-30T12:40:06.490-07:00

Who says you can never profit from tragedy? Scientists exploring the inside of the Chernobyl reactor vessel, the source of the world's greatest unintentional nuclear disaster have discovered a black fungus that apparently thrives on the radiation therein. New research shows that many melanin-rich fungi like radiation. The melanin functions much the same as chlorophyll does in plants in these

billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05007923913646456077noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22155952.post-34937431042606121982007-05-11T16:27:00.000-07:002007-05-11T18:22:59.170-07:00

As we all know, the latest shuttle launch was delayed due to a hail storm pitting the foam on the external tank. In the photo above, you can see the little white dents that the hail stones left behind. In the latest news from NASA, the tank is ready to go -- having been refoamed in several spots -- if a bit homely in appearance. Apparently, the insulating foam is orange because of natural

billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05007923913646456077noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22155952.post-43983673056093757722007-05-07T11:35:00.000-07:002007-05-07T11:56:44.073-07:00

A few months ago, the news that XCOR Aerospace had tested a LOX/Methane engine hit the rocket journals, like the aRocket email list and SpaceDaily.com. Today, Science@NASA got around to covering the event. LOX/Methane research is cool for at least three reasons: (1) It's far denser, much easier to handle, and far warmer in it's liquid state than liquid hydrogen, (2) Robert Zubrin has pointed

billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05007923913646456077noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22155952.post-62318048419108913562007-03-30T10:21:00.000-07:002007-03-30T10:45:56.242-07:00

So here's the deal. I'm a regular reader of the sfgate.com, the San Francisco Chronicle's web presence. Violet Blue wrote a piece on the Gate about Internet Trolls which caught my attention. And it struck to me that there is a certain complicity in silence from the bloggers who tolerate troll postings, either by failing to respond to the troll or by failing to remove the troll's posts.Freeluna

billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05007923913646456077noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22155952.post-32060131446911972662007-03-21T07:53:00.000-07:002007-03-21T08:33:46.403-07:00

By now you've probably heard that Falcon 1 flew yesterday, but did quite achieve orbit. The first stage burn looked beautiful, but it looks like some kind of instability built up during the second stage burn. The aRocket list was abuzz with the term 'coning' to describe a circular resonance around the roll axis of the rocket (nose to tail). I was wondering if this might be due to swirling in

billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05007923913646456077noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22155952.post-66442171233593969262007-03-19T17:35:00.000-07:002007-03-19T17:38:41.643-07:00

No Falcon launch today. sigh.

billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05007923913646456077noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22155952.post-80206491916801200572007-03-19T16:53:00.000-07:002007-03-19T17:14:36.454-07:00

The Falcon 1 second demo launch is on hold at T - 1 minute, 2 seconds. If you haven't checked allready, then go to spacex.com and check it out. On an unrelated note. It's "bated breath" not "baited breath". One is instilled from fear or excitment, and one comes from eating raw fish.

billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05007923913646456077noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22155952.post-24789362839236105832007-03-14T13:36:00.000-07:002007-03-14T14:59:47.902-07:00

Here's a bit of news that has nothing to do with space and lunar colonization. It's an interesting dealing more with politics. Sometimes stories like this disappear off of the main news pretty quick. So the very least I can do is supply you with a link..white house to cut geothermal energy research fundsIt seems like the white house is looking to cut funding for a source of power which is readily

billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05007923913646456077noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22155952.post-47022137772848673372007-03-12T16:33:00.000-07:002008-07-15T18:41:06.236-07:00

Poor, poor Pluto, I knew him well.He once was a planet, now of that he's barely a shell.With a quorum of a hundred or maybe a hundred times threethe IAU voted and with grins of glee,sent my poor planet Pluto off to Minor Planet hell.As of September 2006, Pluto has registered with the IAU's Minor Planet Center. Unlike the Major Planets, registration and enumeration are required for Minor Planets.

billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05007923913646456077noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22155952.post-84464596893469317922007-03-09T15:03:00.000-08:002007-03-09T16:01:45.243-08:00

I found a website that had many of the affidavits and other documents (such as e-mails) released by the Orlando district attorney's office (or was it the police?) in relation to the Nowak/Oefelein/Shipman affair, and I'm sure the media will spend much time deciding who is to blame for what all happened, but how can we the public really judge, and when it comes down to it, who are we to have such

billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05007923913646456077noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22155952.post-45368088555171864862007-03-06T10:29:00.000-08:002007-03-06T11:41:17.365-08:00

In a story on the site Space.com, indicates that NASA is asking for $1 billion budget (to be spent over the next 13 years) to identify killer asteroids headed for Earth. The Agency is apparently strapped at the moment (I think it's their NEAT program that's in trouble) and can no longer afford to point telescopes at the sky to identify these orbit-crossing rocks.So far there is no budget to

billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05007923913646456077noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22155952.post-1169519261751130402007-01-22T17:12:00.000-08:002007-01-22T18:27:41.793-08:00

I was checking out Space.com today, when I was startled to read the forboding headline "Earth's Moon Destined to Disintegrate". Naturally, as a long-time moon colonization advocate, I was mortified until I started reading the article. The basic jist of it was that when the sun becomes a red giant, the Moon and Earth will actually be orbiting within a part of the solar atmosphere. As a

billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05007923913646456077noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22155952.post-1166126334484264592006-12-14T10:22:00.000-08:002006-12-14T11:58:54.570-08:00

OK, call me a sourpuss, but how were they really expecting this to go right? Of course I am refering to the retraction of one of the big solar panels on ISS. This particular panel has been extended for something like six years, and my personal opinion is that it's a miracle the thing managed to fold up at all. The panels consist of photovoltaic wafers bonded onto what we call a flex circuit (

billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05007923913646456077noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22155952.post-1160372209414676622006-10-08T21:56:00.000-07:002006-10-08T22:36:49.473-07:00

I just heard the news this evening that North Korea apparently set off an underground nuclear device this Sunday. According to SFGATE.COM the test was conducted at 10:36 a.m. (9:36 p.m. EDT Sunday) near the city of Kilju (or Kilchu -- depending on your translation). The article went on to say that the USGS hadn't detected any seismic activity in that area, possibly because their sensors weren't

billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05007923913646456077noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22155952.post-1159832283953189682006-10-02T15:21:00.000-07:002006-10-02T16:38:04.026-07:00

About two weeks ago, there was an announcement on the bbc website regarding the upcoming arrival of the Opportunity Rover to Victoria Crater in some two weeks time. The NASA manager in charge of publicity for that day seemed to be really excited by the announcement which made me wonder if the Rover was really cruising or what, since two weeks was a pretty long time when you got to thinking about

billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05007923913646456077noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22155952.post-1157004632120265312006-08-30T23:05:00.000-07:002006-08-30T23:10:32.146-07:00

On August 24th, 2006, after many years of hard effort, a small self-serving voting group of the International Astronomical Union (IAU) has officially excluded Pluto from the list of official planets of our solar system with a bit of definitive legerdemain. As a consequence, tens of millions -- if not billions -- of publications and video programs will need to have errata added to them to inform

billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05007923913646456077noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22155952.post-1152579909470380872006-07-10T14:22:00.000-07:002006-08-30T13:05:51.263-07:00

Today the California State Appeals Court in San Francisco is taking up the issue of gay marriage and whether or not the ban against it is unconstitutional or not. On the side arguing against the ban are lawyers from the City of San Francisco and the National Center for Lesbian Rights, on the other side is the State of California which passed the ban in the form of Proposition 22 from the year

billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05007923913646456077noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22155952.post-1150944242175755592006-06-21T19:34:00.000-07:002006-06-26T09:20:15.113-07:00

I have often been asked why I chose the name "Freeluna" for my blog and my webpage. The name comes from the "Luna Free State" envisioned in Robert Heinlein's "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" -- a must read for all space afficionados.While Heinlein's main interest in that story had to do with politics, the social aspects of revolution, and the advantages of living at the top of a gravity well, it

billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05007923913646456077noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22155952.post-1150506920243160512006-06-16T16:14:00.001-07:002008-07-07T14:34:51.118-07:00

Recently, NASA asked the public for opinions on what priorities should they use in the Moon, Mars, and Beyond exploration program. Today's blog is an attempt to answer that request, and to debut the Freeluna Manned Space Exploration Program, or FMSEP for short. FMSEP is based on the following tenets:1. The purpose of manned space exploration is ultimately to develop technologies and pathways

billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05007923913646456077noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22155952.post-1149060196222261552006-05-30T23:53:00.001-07:002006-05-31T08:19:55.700-07:00

Over the Memorial Day weekend, I managed to rev up my sourdough starter and bake two loaves of bread. My starter, which was given to me by a dear friend, has a bit of a history to it. In fact, it even has a name and consequently a preferred sex. 'Her' name is 'Melissa'. And she is named after my dear friend's great great grandmother, who migrated out to California from Virginia shortly after

billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05007923913646456077noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22155952.post-1147934190761231602006-05-17T22:55:00.001-07:002006-05-17T23:36:30.766-07:00

Over the last few years, advancements in the science of exo-planet discovery have allowed astronomers to detect smaller and smaller planetary bodies. Initial attempts at exo-planet discovery relied on a doppler shift seen in the light coming from a distant star as the star responded to the pull of gravity from an unseen planetary body whizzing about it. This resulted in the discovery of planets

billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05007923913646456077noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22155952.post-1144564304226981352006-04-08T21:37:00.000-07:002006-04-08T23:40:26.366-07:00

At a recent visit to a used bookstore, I had the chance to pick up a June 6, 1969 issue of Life Magazine. The cover photo show's the Apollo 10's lunar module's ascent stage on its way back to the command module from a very low lunar orbit. Of course, Apollo 10 didn't land on the moon, but the lunar module did get within eight miles of the surface. The purpose of the mission was to check all of

billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05007923913646456077noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22155952.post-1140833287289244752006-02-24T17:44:00.000-08:002006-03-06T11:09:32.086-08:00

The good news is that Sir Richard Branson and company are coming up with a way for us (relatively well to do) mortals to experience spaceflight. This is great stuff, and we have every reason to be ecstatically happy. Starting in about 2008, people will start queueing up outside the gates of the New Mexico Spaceport to take a ride with Virgin Galactic. The lucky/wealthy participants allowed in

billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05007923913646456077noreply@blogger.com4