I was watching the classic 1951 movie, The Day the Earth Stood Still, and found it amusing that the command Klaatu-Barada-Nikto given to the robot Gort by actress Patricia Neal, almost had the same effect as Ctrl-Alt-Del has on many computers today. In that scene, the robot was on the verge of rampaging and destroying — Continue reading »
Voyager 1 and Earth-like Planet
📆 December 5, 2011
A pair of interesting space stories today. Voyager1 launched in 1977 is now 11 billion miles away from earth. It's in an area thought to be the final barrier between the solar system and the inner-stellar space which is outside the sun's sphere of influence. Who knows what sorts of stuff lie beyond the barrier — Continue reading »
Time Travel
📆 May 11, 2010
People may find Stephen Hawking's ideas of alien encounters humorous, but it'll be silly not to give it any possibility that intelligent life exists outside our boundaries. There's a chance, even if a small one. But what recently captured my attention was Hawking's latest musings about time travel, wormholes, and speed of light. I think — Continue reading »
Voyager Spacecrafts
📆 May 8, 2010
It's astonishing to think how far from home both Voyager crafts have travelled, nearly 10.5 billion miles. Equally amazing is the fact that both crafts are still working and in communication with Earth. Of course at that distance, it takes messages over a half a day to reach them and another half a day for — Continue reading »
Super-Earth Discoveries
📆 December 15, 2009
The reported discoveries of super-earths (extra-solar planets larger than earth), can certainly do a number of one's imagination. At least it did to mine. Imagine for a moment, if you will, that some 100 light-years from our planet, a rocky planet is orbiting its sun. What would that planet look like? Would there be any — Continue reading »
Phoenix's Mars Landing
📆 May 24, 2008
I bet the team in charge of the Phoenix spacecraft is not going to enjoy a restful night as they prepare to land this hunk of metal near Mars's north pole tomorrow. I'll probably sleep fine, but I'm hoping for good news tomorrow. This landing is specially poignant, since the last craft (Mars Polar Lander) — Continue reading »
Phoenix's Mars Landing
I bet the team in charge of the Phoenix spacecraft is not going to enjoy a restful night as they prepare to land this hunk of metal near Mars's north pole tomorrow. I'll probably sleep fine, but I'm hoping for good news tomorrow. This landing is specially poignant, since the last craft (Mars Polar Lander) — Continue reading »
Keeping Humans in Space
📆 September 23, 2007
Being a space exploration fan (hard not to be when you're a trekkie), I try to keep up with the news and commentaries on the subject. I was disappointed with this recent article in which an respected scientist criticizes manned space missions. In his view, many of NASA's projects that revolve around putting men in — Continue reading »
Give a few Sats