Recently in Space Category

"Within 40 small craters, one to nine miles wide, they estimated 600 million metric tons of water. Perhaps most notably, 'It has to be relatively pure,' said Paul Spudis, the principal investigator for the instrument that made the discovery."

By way of a friend, scientists find more evidence of lots of water on the moon. "That is significant, because the ice in these craters could be easily tapped by future lunar explorers -- not just for drinking water, but also broken apart into oxygen for breathing and hydrogen for fuel." Hmm. Maybe it's time to start thinking of ways to get up there...

"In April, the world will celebrate the quinquagenary of SETI, the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, so it seems a good time to take stock of the silence. Three new books tackle the issue in three different ways. One, an immensely readable investigation of the SETI enterprise (with a surprising conclusion); the second, a technical guide to what we should be looking for and how; and the third, a left-field argument that the alien question has already been answered."

In New Scientist, Michael Hanlon surveys three new books about the continuing search for alien life, and attempts to grapple with the Fermi paradox."Today it is rare to meet an astronomer who doesn't believe that the universe is teeming with life. There is a feeling in the air that light will soon be shed on some of science's most fundamental questions: is Earth's biosphere unique? Do other minds ponder the universe?"

"The second law states that a force is proportional to an object's mass and its acceleration. But since the 1980s, some physicists have eyed the law with suspicion, arguing that subtle changes to it at extremely small accelerations could explain the observed motion of stars in galaxies." Also on the subject of spinning, a new experiment finds a way to test Modified Newtonian Dynamics (MOND) on Earth, which, if successful, could revise Newton's heretofore ironclad 2nd law...and explain away the longstanding dark matter problem. (By way of my new favorite Twitter feed, @newscientist.)

"I was inspired a great deal by the work of Simon Page and his astrology series. If anyone enjoys this style of art I would highly recommend they check out his work. I also drew ideas from old Art Deco style prints and vintage science fiction posters from the 1960/70's." The LA Weekly talks with Justin Van Genderen, designer of the spiffy minimalist Star Wars posters above.

"The troubled and expensive Ares I rocket that was to replace the space shuttle to ferry humans to space will be gone, along with money for its bigger brother, the Ares V cargo rocket that was to launch the fuel and supplies needed to take humans back to the moon. There will be no lunar landers, no moon bases, no Constellation program at all." As expected (and feared) earlier this year, the Obama administration's proposed NASA budget for the next five years cancels any and all plans to go to the moon anytime soon. "'We certainly don't need to go back to the moon,' said one administration official."

Sigh.

Ok, first off, the administration official who uttered the last sentence should be filed away next to Mr. Left of the Left and Ms. Pajamas as people who should no longer speak for the White House in any capacity whatsoever. Full stop, end of story. Putting my speechwriter cap on for a second: In most any political situation, ridiculing the dreams of an entire generation does not make for particularly good messaging.

Anyway, anonymous WH official aside, NASA administrator Charles Bolden sounded a better note about all this: "We're not abandoning anything. We're probably on a new course but human space flight is in our DNA. We are not abandoning human space flight by any stretch of the imagination. We have companies telling us they're excited to get humans off this planet and into orbit. I think we're going to get there and perhaps quicker than we would have done before."

And, to be clear, the administration's NASA budget increases the agency's funding by $6 billion over the next five years. The new budget ups research and development spending into cheaper heavy launch mechanisms, emphasizes more robotic exploration missions and observational experiments into climate change, extends the life of the ISS (although, with only five more shuttle missions remaining, other nations will have to help service it), and works to promote the various commercial space enterprises moving along right now.

All of this is well and good, but it would be nice to see some recognition of the civic importance of manned space flight by this administration. In their words, NASA is scrapping Constellation on account of it being "over budget, behind schedule, and lacking in innovation due to a failure to invest in critical new technologies." And, given that we still had a lot of the expenditures before us, I suppose now was as good a time as any to kill the program if it's not the right direction to go in.

That being said, how many more times are we going to do this? We keep stopping and starting and stopping and starting our post-Shuttle plans for space, so that now, after five final shuttle missions this coming year, we will longer have the capability anymore as a nation to send men and women into orbit. "If implemented, the NASA a few years from now would be fundamentally different from NASA today. The space agency would no longer operate its own spacecraft, but essentially buy tickets for its astronauts." Forty-one years after we first reached the moon, that's just plain sad.

Ultimately, the central finding of the Augustine commission's final report, released this past October after extensive study of NASA's current situation, is a sound one: "The U.S. human spaceflight program appears to be on an unsustainable trajectory. It is perpetuating the perilous practice of pursuing goals that do not match allocated resources." In other words, we've been trying to talk the talk without walking the walk. If we're going to get serious about manned space flight, we need to stop piecemealing NASA and start making manned exploration a funding priority.

In total, the agency is slated to get $100 billion over the next five years. To put that number in perspective, that's less than a fifth of our defense budget for 2011 alone, and that's going by the most conservative numbers around -- NASA's five-year budget could be closer to a tenth of next year's defense spending. (For its part, the Augustine commission set a price tag of $3 billion a year to get serious about manned exploration.)

If we had put anywhere near that kind of money into exploration and R&D over the years, would we now be in this position, where we face the Hobson's choice of replicating expensive 50-year-old launch tech or being completely grounded as a nation? The lack of thinking about our long-term priorities sometimes is staggering to me. I've said this before, but I still believe it holds true: Short of possibly genomic research and advances in AI, nothing we do right now will matter more centuries or millennia hence than establishing a presence off-world...if we even have that long. Not to get all Jor-El up in here, but we really have to start getting serious about this.

"Although that panel suggested a $3 billion boost to NASA's $18.7-billion-a-year budget in order to take a firm next step in human space flight, Obama's support for a $1 billion bump next year represents a major coup for the agency given the ballooning deficit and the continuing recession. And NASA just won a $1 billion boost from Congress for 2010 in a bill signed by the president." By way of another friend, President Obama backs increased funding for NASA's new heavy launcher. "The president's decision to go with the second option is a major departure from his 2010 budget plan, which called for a 5% increase in 2010--the boost just approved by Congress--but then remaining flat through 2014."

Good, although I do wish he'd gone the full $3 billion. In the great scheme of things, not much we do is of larger importance than manned space flight. And 10,000 years from now, people aren't going to remember or much care how many Joint Strike Fighters we built in the Twenty-Tens. But they will know whether or not we took significant steps to leave the cradle and move off-world.

"'There's going to be all kinds of weird stuff out there,' said Alan Boss of the Carnegie Institute of Washington, who wasn't part of the research. 'This is an unparalleled data set. The universe really is a weird place. It's fantastic.'" In the midst of its current planet-hunting sweep, NASA's Kepler telescope discovers two examples of a new type of heavenly body that are "too hot to be planets and too small to be stars." (Although some think they're recently-born planets; others dying "white-dwarf" stars.) "'The universe keeps making strange things stranger than we can think of in our imagination,' said Jon Morse, head of astrophysics for NASA."

"Any intact lava tube could serve as a shelter from the severe environment of the lunar surface, with its meteorite impacts, high-energy UV radiation and energetic particles, and extreme diurnal temperature variations." In a tube in the ground lived...a human? An international team of researchers identify a lava tube in the moon's Marius Hills as a good spot for a lunar colony. Just watch out for the exogorths.

'We've looked at far, far fewer than 10 million stars since 1960, and so we really can't say anything worthwhile yet about whether or not intelligent life is out there,' Drake said. 'Given our capabilities now, we might have something useful to say one way or another in 25 years.'"

In the wake of all these new planets, the WP takes a gander at the new and improved SETI program. "'We're finding new extra-solar planets every week,' she said. 'We now know microbes can live in extreme environments on Earth thought to be impossible for life not very long ago, and so many more things seem possible in terms of life beyond Earth.'"

"Charbonneau said it's unlikely that any life on the newly discovered planet would be similar to life on Earth, but he didn't discount the idea entirely. 'This planet probably does have liquid water,' he said." Don't mean to turn GitM into the We Found a Planet Weekly, but this also seems like big doings: Astronomers discover a watery, Earth-like planet relatively nearby. (As in 40 light years away, orbiting GJ 1214b.) "While the planet probably has too thick of an atmosphere and is too hot to support life similar to that found on Earth, the discovery is being heralded as a major breakthrough in humanity's search for life on other planets." I'll say.

Update: "'I was instantly excited because the glint reminded me of an image of our own planet taken from orbit around Earth, showing a reflection of sunlight on an ocean,' Stephan said. 'But we also had to do more work to make sure the glint we were seeing wasn't lightning or an erupting volcano.'" Might be some more water closer to home too: NASA confirms liquid on Saturn's moon of Titan.

"'We want this program to be a whole new beginning in a commercial era of space travel,' Branson said." You and me both, brother. A little over a year after unveiling the White Knight Two, i.e. the mothership, Richard Branson and Burt Rutan show off the actual cruising craft, SpaceShipTwo.

"SpaceShipTwo is based on Rutan's design of a stubby white prototype called SpaceShipOne.In 2004, SpaceShipOne captured the $10 million Ansari X Prize by becoming the first privately manned craft to reach space...SpaceShipTwo, built from lightweight composite materials and powered by a hybrid rocket motor, is similar to its prototype cousin with three exceptions. It's twice as large, measuring 60 feet long with a roomy cabin about the size of a Falcon 900 executive jet." And the price of a flight is still $200,000 American, so keep saving those pennies.

"It could be a planet, though even if it isn't, there's plenty of reason to be excited. For one thing, astronomers got an image of it. The reason it's so tough to image a planet is its proximity to the blinding light of its star, which in this case is about a million times brighter. It would be like trying to see a candle burning next to the beam of a million-candlepower searchlight." Astronomers spot a new planet called GJ 785 B -- by looking right at it. "In short, says McElwain, 'We're using state-of-the-art instruments on a state-of-the-art telescope.'"

"'The discovery opens a new chapter in our understanding of the moon,' the space agency said in a written statement." It's official: Data from NASA's LCROSS impact of a few weeks ago confirms the recent findings of Chandraayan-1: It ain't Hoth or Rura Penthe, but there is a "significant amount" of water on the moon, like, ice-field size.

"The amount of water they found in the plume was a couple of hundred kilograms in total, but that indicates there is a lot more still lying on the surface. They don't know how much exactly just yet." (As we found out recently, the same might also hold true of Mars.)

"'The full understanding of the LCROSS data may take some time. The data is that rich,' said Colaprete. 'Along with the water in Cabeus, there are hints of other intriguing substances. The permanently shadowed regions of the moon are truly cold traps, collecting and preserving material over billions of years.'" I'm very reminded of James Hogan's Inherit the Stars right now. Also, it's probably about time to start taking lunar exploration a bit more seriously again, eh?

"The European Space Agency is seeking volunteers for a 520 day mission to Mars. The trip will begin in early 2010 and include 30 days on the surface of the red planet. The only requirements are that candidates must be 20-50 years old, in good health and no taller than six feet. You must be able to speak English or Russian and have experience in medicine, biology or engineering. You also must be a resident of one of the ESA Member States, which rules out Americans, but not our Canadian brothers & sisters."

Down and Out in Paris or London (or Toronto)? Well, if you're short of cash and heavy on free time, it seems the ESA is running a 520-day Mission-to-Mars simulation. Please don't be alarmed just because this is how Capricorn One starts. "If you're interested in volunteering, more information can be found here." (RT @Joe Hill.)

"'This film integrates my life's achievements,' he told me. 'It's the most complicated stuff anyone's ever done." Another time, he said, "If you set your goals ridiculously high and it's a failure, you will fail above everyone else's success.'" On the eve of Avatar, the New Yorker's Dana Goodyear delivers a long and interesting profile of take-no-guff, autocratic auteur James Cameron. ("A small, loyal band of cast and crew works with him repeatedly; they call the dark side of his personality Mij--Jim backward.")

The whole thing is definitely worth a read, but this caught me eye further down the piece: "'We should ultimately have colonies on Mars, for purposes of expanding the footprint of the human race,' Cameron says. He shares with the Mars Society the opinion that NASA -- on whose advisory council he sat for three years -- has become too risk-averse. 'We've become cowards, basically,' he says. 'As a society, we're just fat and happy and comfortable and we've lost the edge.'" Listen to the King of the World -- he's dead on.

Hey all. As we approach the decade mark next month, the readership around here at GitM continues to dwindle, which is primarily my fault for not updating as much as I'd like. Nonetheless, if and when it gets quiet 'round here, I encourage you to also check out my Twitter feed, which is easier to update in the midst of more frantic weeks like last one. (Memo to myself: Columbus Day, and three-day-weekends in general, will mean a lot of speechifyin' in Congress' home districts.)

Yeah, I was skeptical about Twitter earlier in the year, but I'm definitely coming around. Within an hour of news of President Obama's Nobel prize win, for example, (which I'm neither here nor there about -- it seems goofy, yeah, but I was already down on Nobel anyway), there were dozens of wry and amusing quips going around the twitterverse. My favorite two were variations on "Obama, I'mma let you finish but Bono has been working his ass off for this!" and "Uh...did the Nobel committee just miss the fact that Obama bombed the f**king moon?!"

Another good example: the Baucus committee tanking the public option in late September brought on a similar flurry of bon mots: "Senators should be required to make the little cash register 'ka-ching!" noise when they vote." "Well the insurance Industry is looking forward to its Baucanalian Orgy." "75% of Americans support #publicoption, but only 35% of the Senate Finance Cmittee support it." "Health care industry must pay capital gains on Senate Finance Committee members this year as investment is cashed out." Etc., etc.

Its immediate posting benefits aside, Twitter has definitely grown on me as a fertile hothouse environment for exactly this sort of choice, top-shelf snark.

"'This will create a considerable stir. It was wholly unexpected,' said one scientist also involved in Chandrayaan-1. 'People thought that Chandrayaan was just lagging behind the rest but the science that's coming out, it's going to be agenda-setting.'" Well, this definitely changes things if it holds up: India's first mission to the moon discovers "evidence of large quantities of water on its surface(!)"

"Another lunar scientist familiar with the findings said: 'This is the most exciting breakthrough in at least a decade. And it will probably change the face of lunar exploration for the next decade.'" NASA comments tomorrow, so be ready to hum a few bars...

"'We would have never dreamed you would find a rocky planet so close,' he said. 'Its year is less than one of our days.'" Astronomers discover the first rocky planet outside our solar system in CoRoT-7b.

But don't prep the colony ship just yet: "It is so close to the star it orbits 'that the place may well look like Dante's Inferno, with a probable temperature on its 'day face' above 3,600 degrees Fahrenheit (2,000 degrees Celsius) and minus-328 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 200 degrees Celsius) on its night face,' said Didier Queloz of Geneva Observatory in Switzerland, the project leader." Eh, we'll work with it.

"'The space program began the day humans chose to walk out of their caves,' says Chang Díaz. 'By exploring space we are doing nothing less than insuring our own survival.' Chang Díaz believes that humans will either become extinct on Earth or expand into space. If we pull off the latter, he says, our notion of Earth will change forever."

With that red meat for the space cadets among us, the Smithsonian's Air & Space Magazine surveys current theoretical endeavors in propulsion mechanics, including nuclear-based rocketry and fusion. "I grew up watching Apollo, and the systematic and well-thought-out march to that. And they did it. When you look into pioneering topics, there are those people who don't want to touch it because it's too far out there. But if it's mature enough for you to at least start asking the right questions, and you do an honest job, then you can be a pioneer."

"'If you're willing to wait until 2028, you've got a heavy lift vehicle, but you've got nothing to lift,' she said. 'You cannot do this program on this budget.'" President Obama's Human Space Flight Plans Committee is set to announce that getting back to the moon by 2020 is not feasible given current budgetary constraints, and Mars is definitely out of the question. "The final list of options...will include some variation of a lunar base down the road. But the committee is most animated by what it calls the 'Deep Space' option, a strategy that emphasizes getting astronauts far beyond Low Earth Orbit but not necessarily plunking them down on alien worlds.'" Which basically sounds like unnecessarily strapping astronauts to normally-unmanned fly-by missions -- Not sure I see much point in that.

Honestly, this is pathetic. As I said here, it's time to raise our expectations of what we can achieve in space, and fund manned exploration of the solar system accordingly. Particularly given how much we're blowing on the Pentagon's space toys at the moment, we could stand to spend a bit more on one of the most important collective human endeavors still before us.

"So why do tech geeks love space? Though they may have the resources -- a trip to space will now set you back some $45 million -- this can't be the full answer: You don't see Donald Trump or P. Diddy signing up for an astro-mission. What makes it worth it for the tech geeks?" The Big Money's Julia Ioffe tries to ascertain why dot.com miliionaires pay out the nose for space travel. Uh, because it's there?

"'There's a documentary called Orphans of Apollo that's stated this well,' he explained. 'There's a generation of us, who are the tech leaders of today, who were universally inspired to go into science and technology because of the NASA Lunar Space Program. And the reason the movie is called Orphans of Apollo is because, in many ways, we feel orphaned by the fact that the space industry has not done a good job of capitalizing on that momentum of what many of us believed were the first steps into space, carrying the mission of human space flight farther and farther into deep space.'"

"The future is here and we are not too far off a new age of space. It is not just about private astronauts going up, it is about bringing the cost structure down and about new medicines, solar power in space and the entire range of scientific benefits that can come from it." After many years of discussion and planning, ground is broken on Spaceport America in New Mexico, "the world's first purpose-built commercial spaceport." Any and all donations to GitM for one of the $200,000 spaceshots soon to commence from there will be greatly appreciated.

"In the summer of 1959, Allen Ginsberg, the generation's visionary poet of exuberance and doom, wrote in the Village Voice: 'No one in America can know what will happen. No one is in real control. America is having a nervous breakdown...Therefore there has been great exaltation, despair, prophecy, strain, suicide, secrecy, and public gaiety among the poets of the city.' He might as well have written that today."

In Slate and per his recent book, Fred Kaplan makes the case for 1959 as a Very Important Year, and uses the groundbreaking flight of Luna 1 as that moment's muse. "[I]t, and the race to space that it triggered, helped create the climate in which all those other breakthroughs were possible or, at least, appealing to a broad population. The breakdown of barriers in space, speed, and time made other barriers ripe for transgressing." And folks argue space exploration isn't important...

"In Huntsville, Ala., there is an unusual grave site where, instead of flowers, people sometimes leave bananas. The gravestone reads: 'Miss Baker, squirrel monkey, first U.S. animal to fly in space and return alive. May 28, 1959.'" On the fiftieth anniversary of their history-making flight, NPR remembers NASA's pioneering space monkeys, Able and Baker. "More than 300 people attended Baker's funeral service when she died of kidney failure in 1984, Buckbee says. And, he says, often at her grave at the entrance to the rocket center, 'you'll see a banana or two laying there.'"

"'Houston, Hubble has been released,' Atlantis commander Scott Altman radioed Mission Control. 'It's safely back on its journey of exploration as we begin the steps to conclude ours." The crew of STS-125 re-release the Hubble into high orbit, their epic repair-and-upgrade mission accomplished. "'We have literally thousands of astronomers out there around the world waiting to use these new capabilities,' Morse said. 'And they are chomping at the bit to get their data.'" Great work, Atlantis.

Update: Spiffy pic above -- and many more like it -- courtesy of Boston.com's The Big Picture and Hal at Blivet.

"I believe it is not in our character, American character, to follow -- but to lead. And it is time for us to lead once again. I am here today to set this goal: we will devote more than 3 percent of our gross domestic product to research and development. We will not just meet, but we will exceed the level achieved at the height of the space race, through policies that invest in basic and applied research, create new incentives for private innovation, promote breakthroughs in energy and medicine, and improve education in math and science."

It's poetry in motion: In a clear break with his predecessor, President Obama pledges $420 billion for basic science and applied research. "And he set forth a wish list including solar cells as cheap as paint; green buildings that produce all the energy they consume; learning software as effective as a personal tutor; prosthetics so advanced that you could play the piano again and 'an expansion of the frontiers of human knowledge about ourselves and world the around us.'" Huzzah! (And fwiw, I would also like more manned spaced exploration...and a jetpack.)

Speaking of NASA, somebody page Jim Starlin (and file this next to the Great Eye): Another holdover from last week, The agency's Chandra X-Ray Laboratory captures an eerie and beautiful galactic "hand" reaching across the cosmos. "[T]he display is caused by a young and powerful pulsar, known by the rather prosaic name of PSR B1509-58...The space agency says B1509 -- created by a collapsed star -- is one of the most powerful electromagnetic generators in the Galaxy. The nebula is formed by a torrent of electrons and ions emitted by the 1,700-year-old phenomenon. The finger-like structures are apparently caused by 'energizing knots of material in a neighboring gas cloud,' NASA says."

"'There is 'something new and interesting going on in the universe,' said Alan Kogut of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md." Aspiring Jor-Els: Best get to work on those interstellar child-bearing rockets. Scientists detect a distant -- and very loud -- roar on the other side of the universe. "'The universe really threw us a curve,' Kogut said. 'Instead of the faint signal we hoped to find, here was this booming noise six times louder than anyone had predicted.'" (Sssh, listen...there went Earth-2.)

"'An automated rendezvous does all sorts of things for your missile accuracy and anti-satellite programs,' said John Sheldon, a visiting professor of advanced air and space studies at Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama. 'The manned effort is about prestige, but it’s also a good way of testing technologies that have defense applications.'" In order to keep pace with the increasingly proficient Chinese space program, President-elect Obama may be considering retying NASA to the Pentagon, "because military rockets may be cheaper and ready sooner than the space agency’s planned launch vehicle, which isn’t slated to fly until 2015...Obama has said the Pentagon’s space program -- which spent about $22 billion in fiscal year 2008, almost a third more than NASA’s budget -- could be tapped to speed the civilian agency toward its goals as the recession pressures federal spending."

Hmm. On one hand, I would think making NASA yet another fiefdom of the Pentagon would greatly facilitate its ability to lock down the funding it needs for various exploratory endeavors, recession or no. And if the types of conveyance vehicles NASA needs are basically sitting around gathering dust in some Pentagon-owned warehouse next to the ark of the covenant, well then it only makes sense to combine the two programs. No need to reinvent the, uh, rocket.

On the other hand, putting the brass in charge is probably going to have deleterious effects on the types of projects NASA pursues in the future. And, in a perfect world, there's something to be said for having a civilian space program completely outside the purview of the military. In fact, now that i think about it, won't combining the Pentagon and NASA space programs cut back on the types of international cooperation that have guided our efforts in space in recent years? GIven the current economic climate, I guess this is the best way for NASA to continue pursuing its goals in the short term. Still, there could well be trouble ahead.

"Lemmings do not engage in suicidal dives off cliffs when migrating. They will, however, occasionally, and unintentionally fall off cliffs when venturing into unknown territory...The misconception is due largely to the Disney film White Wilderness, which shot many of the migration scenes (also staged by using multiple shots of different groups of lemmings) on a large, snow-covered turntable in a studio. Photographers later pushed the lemmings off a cliff."

LMG points the way to an interesting list of common misconceptions over at Wikipedia. "The Inuit do not have a large number of words for snow. One Eskimo-Aleut language studied had four unrelated root words...By comparison, English has many unrelated root words for snow as well: snow, sleet, powder, flurry, drift, avalanche and blizzard."

"'We've discovered this incredible dark energy, we don't understand what the hell it is,' said Lawrence Krauss, a physicist at Arizona State University. 'It's extremely small, extremely weak, and it's so close to being zero, it's just a total mystery why it should have this small value and not be zero." While they're still not entirely sure what in fact they're looking at, Harvard-Smithsonian astrophysicists announce they've found another way to measure and quantify "dark energy", a.k.a. the repulsive "cosmological constant" force causing the universe to expand rather than contract. "This is a much-needed confirmation that the earlier work was correct, the astronomers said, comparing it to football referees examining a controversial play with multiple camera angles."

As an added bonus, the results announced today also seem to confirm Einstein's general theory of relativity. "'It's never been proved right on the scale of the observable universe,' Spergel said."

"Although we think of black holes as somehow threatening, in the sense that if you get too close to one you are in trouble, they may have had a role in helping galaxies to form -- not just our own, but all galaxies." German astronomers believe they have discovered a black hole right in the center of our Milky Way. "According to Dr Robert Massey, of the Royal Astronomical Society (RAS), the results suggest that galaxies form around giant black holes in the way that a pearl forms around grit."

And, if that wasn't heady enough news to wrap one's mind around, see also this article on loop quantum cosmology (LQC) and "The Big Bounce." "LQC has been tantalising physicists since 2003 with the idea that our universe could conceivably have emerged from the collapse of a previous universe. Now the theory is poised to make predictions we can actually test. If they are verified, the big bang will give way to a big bounce and we will finally know the quantum structure of space-time. Instead of a universe that emerged from a point of infinite density, we will have one that recycles, possibly through an eternal series of expansions and contractions, with no beginning and no end." (Both links via Dangerous Meta.)

"Said John Logsdon, a George Washington University professor who co-wrote the book honored at the NASA party, 'There is a natural tension built into this situation... Mike is dead-on convinced that the current approach to the program is the right one. And Lori’s job is to question that for Mr. Obama. The Obama team is not going to walk in and take Mike’s word for it.'" The Orlando Sentinel suggests that NASA head Michael Griffin isn't being particularly helpful to the transition team at the agency: "NASA administrator Mike Griffin is not cooperating with President-elect Barack Obama’s transition team, is obstructing its efforts to get information and has told its leader that she is 'not qualified' to judge his rocket program, the Orlando Sentinel has learned."

I've been quite complimentary of Mike Griffin here in the past. He seems like a smart, take-no-guff fellow, and I'm in general agreement with his views on space exploration. But this sort of tantrum reflects poorly on him. Knowing nothing other than what's written in this article, it sounds like Griffin, a holder of six advanced degrees, is indulging his engineer's exasperation with the laypersons who seem to be meddling with his current experiment. But if Griffin wants to see the vision he's outlined for NASA make it into the next administration, I suspect honey would garner more flies than vinegar at this moment.

"The last Twitter post said it all: "01010100 01110010 01101001 01110101 01101101 01110000 01101000."" Or, in other words, Ground Control to Phoenix Lander: You've really made the grade. Having seemingly succumbed to the Martian winter at last, the Mars Phoenix Lander is pronounced deceased by NASA. "NASA official Doug McCuistion counseled people to view Phoenix’s end as 'an Irish wake rather than a funeral. It’s certainly been a grand adventure.'...While some followers said farewell to Phoenix in computer language today, others kept it simple. 'Good bye Phoenix, I love you :(,' said user patach."

Europa, Enceladus...Titan? The ESA's Cassini-Huygens probe discovers a liquid lake on Saturn's largest moon, although it's definitely not water. ""Detection of liquid ethane in Ontario Lacus confirms a long-held idea that lakes and seas filled with methane and ethane exist on Titan." [Via Quiddity.]

"'It was very emotional for me,' he said. 'I thought, "Oh my God, we're getting closer."'" I'll say...Richard Branson and Burt Rutan unveil their space tourism mothership, the White Knight Two. "Virgin Galactic envisions a future where space voyages will become as common as airplane travel. It wants to fly 500 people into space in the first year for $200,000 a head...So far, more than 250 wannabe astronauts have paid the full amount." Hmm...maybe it's time to start putting ads on this site.

ESA's Mars Express sends back some impressive postcards from Mars. "Over the last five years its stereo, high resolution camera has taken thousands of images of the surface, revealing the planet's awe inspiring beauty in unprecedented detail."

"'There's nothing about it that would preclude life. In fact, it seems very friendly,' said mission scientist Samuel P. Kounaves of Tufts University. 'We were flabbergasted.'" Hope y'all like asparagus: Early tests by the Mars Phoenix seem to indicate that the Martian soil is more nutrient-rich than anyone expected. "Carbon-based organic material, however, has not been found and may be impossible to detect with the equipment now on Mars."

"It's with great pride and a lot of joy I announce today we have found proof that this hard material really is water ice and not some other substance." Signs have pointed in that direction for awhile now, and particularly since the Phoenix landed. But now, it seems we have really, truly, definitively found ice on Mars. "The next questions to answer are what chemicals, minerals and organic compounds might be mixed in with the water. 'Just the fact that there's ice there doesn't tell you if it's habitable,' Smith said. 'With ice and no food it's not a habitable zone. We don't eat rocks — we have to have carbon chain materials that we ingest into our bodies to create new cells and give us energy. That's what we eat and that's what has to be there if you're going to have a habitable zone on Mars.'"

"'They're taking an Apollo-like approach,' Gilbreth said. 'Our program is much more ambitious than Apollo. We're going to put four people on the moon for seven days, eventually for six months. China is looking for a minimum capability. We're looking to put an outpost on the moon.'" NASA officials concede that China will beat the US back to the moon. "The goal of NASA's Constellation program is to return astronauts to the moon by 2020...Gilbreth said the Chinese could accomplish that by 2017 or 2018."

Moreover, that US date will likely slip five years when Pres. Obama takes office in January. In all honesty, this is one of the few areas where I emphatically disagree with our nominee. There are plenty of places to acquire $18 billion for education without raiding the space exploration budget...defense bloat, for example.

"'We were expecting to find ice within two to six inches of the surface,' said Phoenix principal investigator Peter Smith of the University of Arizona in a statement. 'The thrusters have excavated two to six inches and, sure enough, we see something that looks like ice. It's not impossible that it's something else, but our leading interpretation is ice.'" Well, it sure looks like ice. The Phoenix Mars Lander seems to have found its quarry almost immediately after landing. And where there's water...

"In my dreams it couldn't go as perfectly as it went tonight, we went right down the middle." Touchdown: NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander, soon to look for water in the Martian Arctic, lands without incident in the Vastitas Borealis plains. Congrats!

"It's very deep, like in a forest on the darkest night,' said Shawn-Yu Lin, a scientist who helped create the material at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y. 'Nothing comes back to you. It's very, very, very dark.'" Dick Cheney's soul? Tonight's lunar eclipse? No, a great leap forward in "transformational optics"...and invisibility cloaks. The "paper-thin material...absorbs 99.955 percent of the light that hits it, making it by far the darkest substance ever made -- about 30 times as dark as the government's current standard for blackest black."

"'This is a landmark discovery because it implies that solar system analogs may be very common, at least scaled-down versions,' said Sara Seager, an extra-solar planet expert from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. '...We are on an inexorable path to finding other Earths.'" Astronomers find a solar system not unlike our own 5,000 light years away. "We are seeing the emergence of a new planet-finding technique -- one that opens up an entirely new capability for planet finding. It is more powerful than we ever thought possible."

"It could be the weirdest and most embarrassing prediction in the history of cosmology, if not science. If true, it would mean that you yourself reading this article are more likely to be some momentary fluctuation in a field of matter and energy out in space than a person with a real past born through billions of years of evolution in an orderly star-spangled cosmos. Your memories and the world you think you see around you are illusions."

In today's NYT, Dennis Overbye attempts to explain the Boltzmann Brain problem, a theoretical puzzle causing consternation among cosmologists. “'It is part of a much bigger set of questions about how to think about probabilities in an infinite universe in which everything that can occur, does occur, infinitely many times,' said Leonard Susskind of Stanford, a co-author of a paper in 2002 that helped set off the debate. Or as Andrei Linde, another Stanford theorist given to colorful language, loosely characterized the possibility of a replica of your own brain forming out in space sometime, 'How do you compute the probability to be reincarnated to the probability of being born?'”

Um, yeah. The graphic sorta helps explain what may be going on: Minute fluctuations in the universe's general move towards entropy create random pockets of order, some of which could hypothetically organize as floating brains, or pocket universes or whales and flowerpots too, I suppose. Or something like that...Now my brain hurts.

"And from the crew of Apollo 8, we close with good night, good luck, a Merry Christmas, and God bless all of you -- all of you on the good Earth." Happy holidays to everyone out there. Berk and I are currently at the family homestead, where I'm enjoying home cooking, catching up on work and -- true to form -- checking out some of the better video games of the year: Call of Duty 4, Portal, Rock Band (I'm the frontman.) Hope your own holidays are equally fun and relaxing.

"...as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced." Scientists at NASA catch a glimpse of cosmic devastation on a galactic scale, as a "death star galaxy," fueled by a black hole, destroys its neighbor with a beam of radiation. "The telescope images show the bully galaxy shooting a stream of deadly radiation particles into the lower section of the other galaxy, which is about one-tenth its size...Tens of millions of stars, including those with orbiting planets, are likely in the path of the deadly jet...If Earth were in the way -- and it's not -- the high-energy particles and radiation of the jet would in a matter of months strip away the planet's protective ozone layer and compress the protective magnetosphere." And what does that mean? "'You would basically render extinct all surface forms of life,' Tyson said. 'But it may be that subterranean life is...immune to this kind of violence in the universe.'" You heard the man...start digging.

"Human beings evolved in gravity, and it makes perfect sense that some systems -- especially the immune and skeletal systems -- might not do well without it." A new NASA study finds microbes and viruses may be particularly lethal on long space flights. "Even though astronauts are not now getting sick on their missions, we see very clearly statistically significant and reproducible change in immune functioning after two weeks in space."

Have we inadvertently killed Schrödinger's cat? No, it's much, much worse. Cosmologists at Case Western Reserve and Vanderbilt speculate that mankind may have hastened the end of the universe by observing dark energy in 1998. "[Q]uantum theory says that whenever we observe or measure something, we could stop it decaying due what is what is called the 'quantum Zeno effect,' which suggests that if an 'observer' makes repeated, quick observations of a microscopic object undergoing change, the object can stop changing - just as a watched kettle never boils...Prof Krauss says that the measurement of the light from supernovae in 1998, which provided evidence of dark energy, may have reset the decay of the void to zero -- back to a point when the likelihood of its surviving was falling rapidly. 'In short, we may have snatched away the possibility of long-term survival for our universe and made it more likely it will decay,' says Prof Krauss." D'oh! But wouldn't this presume that at no other place or time in our unfathomably gigantic universe did any other civilization make the same observations? Given the odds of intelligent life out there, that seems unlikely. (And, if you think this all sounds goofy and ridiculous, just wait until we get to the multiverse...)

"Fact:...The density of Saturn is so low that if you were to put it in a giant glass of water it would float." And another pilfered link, which I meant to post last week: Megg of Quiddity points the way to 10 Cool Facts about Space (although, to paraphrase The Smiths, some facts are cooler than others.)

"If the current proposals to restart human exploration fail politically, indeed, the human space flight endeavor conducted under government auspices might well lose its momentum. I obviously hope that doesn’t happen. But it’s far from a slam dunk that we’re going back to the Moon and on to Mars." Two companion pieces to today's reflection on 50 years of Sputnik which I missed earlier: The Grey Lady hypothesizes about the next fifty years of space travel (suggesting its future as a public enterprise might be dubious) and takes a moment to consider the pop culture ramifications of the space age. "'At the level of government, I think we’re still struggling as to why we’re sending people to space,' Dr. Logsdon said. 'It’s a decent question, and I think it’s an unanswered question.'" (My answer to this question, for what it's worth, is here.)

"It was the sound of wonder and foreboding. Nothing would ever be quite the same again -- in geopolitics, in science and technology, in everyday life and the capacity of the human species." On the eve of its fiftieth anniversary (Oct. 4), the NYT remembers the Sputnik launch. "It was an unprepossessing agent of alarm. A simple sphere weighing just 184 pounds and not quite two feet wide, it had a highly polished surface of aluminum, the better to reflect sunlight and be visible from Earth...The Russians clearly intended Sputnik as a ringing statement of their technological prowess and its military implications. But even they, it seems, had not foreseen the frenzied response their success provoked."

"For Barbara Morgan and her crewmates, class is in session." Congrats to schoolteacher Barbara Morgan, who rocketed off into space today aboard the Endeavor, fulfilling both a lifelong dream and the mission originally set for Christa McAullife and the Challenger crew 21 years ago. Godspeed.

"'We're thrilled to have identified clear signs of water on a planet that is trillions of miles away,' said study leader Giovanna Tinetti of the Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris in France." Scientists discover clear signs of existing water well outside the solar system at HD 189733b, a Jupiter-ish gas giant in the Vulpecula constellation, 64 light years away. "The researchers found that the planet absorbed starlight in such a way that could only be explained by the presence of water vapor in its atmosphere."

NASA prepares a probe, named Phoenix, to dig for water on Mars. "Upon reaching Mars in May 2008, the spacecraft is to land just as the winter ice begins to recede around the polar cap."

"I have long wanted to go into space, and the zero-gravity flight is the first step toward space travel." Physicist Stephen Hawking experiences zero gravity aboard the Vomit Comet. "Hawking said he hoped his flight would provide a boost for commercial spaceflight, in line with his oft-expressed belief that humanity's future depended on moving beyond Earth...'I think that getting a portion of the human race permanently off the planet is imperative for our future as a species. It will be difficult to do this with the slow, expensive and risk-averse nature of government space programs,' Hawking said, working in a veiled reference to NASA. 'We need to engage the entrepreneurial engine that has reduced the cost of everything from airline tickets to personal computers.'" I'm in full agreement...far be it from me to differ with a man as intelligent, knowledgeable, and solid on the mic as Mr. Hawking.

"Because of its temperature and relative proximity, this planet will most probably be a very important target of the future space missions dedicated to the search for extraterrestrial life. On the treasure map of the Universe, one would be tempted to mark this planet with an X." The big news today, of course: Astronomers announce the discovery of an earth-like planet, Gliese 581c, at the galactically tiny distance of 120 trillion miles (20.5 light years) away. (For the stargazers, Gliese 581 is a red dwarf "located in the northeastern part of constellation Libra.") Of course, we still don't know if we even have to go that far to find extraterrestrial life -- Europa, Mars, Ganymede, and Callisto all still pose unresolved questions. Nevertheless, it's an exciting moment in our history to discover the first planet far afield that might possibly be inhabited (and inhabitable)...and even more exciting to know that there'll assuredly be many more to come. The stars, our destination!

A faraway Jupiter-like gas planet, HD 209458b, is found (by some) to have water in its atmosphere. I saw this on Blivet on Friday and spent the weekend dreaming about it: If my sleeping brain can be trusted, HD 209458b has winged, eel-like space reptiles cavorting amidst the gaseous clouds there. Alas, my subconscious makes for a lousy exobiologist: "[A] Jupiter-like gaseous planet such as this one, as opposed to a rocky one like Earth, is highly unlikely to harbour any kind of life." Well, damn.

"What would happen if an astronaut became mentally unstable in space and, say, destroyed the ship's oxygen system or tried to open the hatch and kill everyone aboard?" Yet another use for that miracle of miracles, duct tape, is discovered: restraining crazy astronauts in space. Hmmm. Somehow I doubt that would've worked on Ash.

"To not utilize that station the way I think it ought to be utilized is just wrong." Forty-five years to the day after his historic orbit, space pioneer and former US Senator John Glenn makes a case for the International Space Station.

Anna Nicole Smith died after what looks to be a casino bender, and, just in time for Valentine's Day, Houston has a problem with crazy-jilted astronauts. I have very little to say about either of these stories, but since they feverishly consumed most of this week's news cycles, here they are.

The source of that Hawaii link above deserves its own posting: DISCOVER magazine presents the Top 100 science stories of 2006.

New photos released by NASA from the Mars Global Surveyor seem to suggest the possibility of surface water on Mars, which would make any attempt to visit -- or colonize -- the red planet considerably easier (although, obviously, it's still no walk in the park.)

In "world of the future" news, NASA announces it plans to establish a permanently-staffed base camp on the moon by 2024, preferably at one of its poles. (Here's the rationale.) A moonbase within 18 years? I'm all for it...just keep an eye out for monoliths and make sure Sean Connery runs a tight ship.

Using the thankfully soon-to-be-refurbished Hubble, astronomers find more evidence of "dark energy" in the early universe working along the lines of Einstein's famous fudge factor, the cosmological constant, to combat a gravitational crunch. "'Dark energy makes us nervous,' said Sean Carroll, a theoretical physicist at the California Institute of Technology who was not involved in the supernova study. 'It fits the data, but it's not what we really expected.'"

As threatened in the past, Dubya has apparently signed a new National Space Policy that heavily emphasizes the weaponization of space. "Theresa Hitchens, director of the nonpartisan Center for Defense Information in Washington, said that the new policy 'kicks the door a little more open to a space-war fighting strategy' and has a 'very unilateral tone to it.'"

If you believe they put "a" man on the moon, then there's nothing up my sleeve, and nothing is cool. Also, you'll have no problem with the recent update to Neil Armstrong's famous first words there. Score one for the lunar grammarians.

Sorry, Virginia (and all the other kids out there who just memorized the solar system): As the dust dies down at the recent astronomer's conference, word comes to light that Pluto has in fact been demoted to "dwarf planet," a status it'll hold with UB313 (Xena) and Ceres.

At a meeting of 2,500 astronomers in Prague to determine the appropriate definition of "planet" (in part due to the Xena challenge), it appears Pluto might soon be reclassified as a "dwarf planet" (as opposed to a "terrestrial planet" (Earth, Mars) or a "gas giant planet." (Jupiter, Saturn)) rather than fully being demoted to non-planet status. Said one proponent of the plan: "I think we have done something that will make the Plutocrats and the children of the United States happy."

"'We certainly have not convinced the community, and that's been a little bit disappointing,' said David McKay, a NASA biochemist and leader of the team that started the scientific episode." Ten years later, CNN summarizes the simmering scientific dispute over a Martian meteorite, and the possible (albeit now seemingly quite unlikely) signs of life within.

"'This is the cleanest orbiter than anyone ever remembers seeing," Griffin said in a post-landing news conference. He added that with Discovery's successful completion of all its on-orbit tasks, it had finished 'as good a mission as we have ever flown.'" Congrats to the crew of Discovery on a safe and successful landing.

"Blue Origin proposes to launch its reusable launch vehicles (RLVs) on suborbital, ballistic trajectories to altitudes in excess of 325,000 feet (99,060 meters) from a privately-owned space launch site in Culberson County, Texas." Some details emerge about the New Shepard Reusable Launch System, currently being developed by Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin, where -- full disclosure -- one of my best and smartest friends from college is currently employed. "Also on the group's to do list at the site is putting in place a vehicle processing facility, a launch complex and vehicle landing and recovery area, as well as an astronaut training facility, and other minor support amenities."

A belated happy 230th Independence Day to you and yours, and here's hoping the recent spate of scary news (North Korean missiles, incipent war in Gaza) didn't detract too much from the festivities in your parts. (Also, with regards to more joyous fourth of july rocket launches, congrats to the crew of Discovery STS-121 on a successful return to space yesterday.)

Also in news-of-the-future, China sets a lunar launch date of 2024.

"'It is important for the human race to spread out into space for the survival of the species,' Hawking said. 'Life on Earth is at the ever-increasing risk of being wiped out by a disaster, such as sudden global warming, nuclear war, a genetically engineered virus or other dangers we have not yet thought of.'" Stephen Hawking makes the case for colonies in space. And Stephen Hawking is a very smart man (and, of course, not a bad MC.)

The WP takes a gander at the Southern African Large Telescope (SALT), which "can see 13 billion years back in time, nearly to the big bang. With its 10-by-11-foot hexagonal mirror -- the largest of its type in the world -- SALT concentrates the faintest, most distant light in the universe. If a candle were to flicker on the moon, SALT could detect it."

The European Space Agency releases the first new pics from their recent "Express" mission to Venus. The Venus Express probe entered Venusian orbit on Tuesday.

A very happy belated birthday to my sister Gillian, who turned 27 yesterday. (We celebrated on Monday, but, as y'all might know, I haven't posted here since then.) Update: Also, a very happy Yuri's Night to you and yours -- tonight is the 45th anniversary of cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin's first-ever trip into space, as well as the 25th anniversary of the first space shuttle mission. (By way of Blivet.)

After discovering a disk of gas, dust, and rubble orbiting a pulsar, astronomers believe they've figured out how planets are made. "It shows that planet formation is really ubiquitous in the universe. It's a very robust process and can happen in all sorts of unexpected environments."

"'The idea is to look at Mars and not think of it as a mysterious alien place,' Christensen said." Along the lines of Google Moon, one can now journey to Google Mars.

"I think that this mission will re-write the science books on Mars." More happy space news following the discovery of water on Enceladus: NASA successfully pilots the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter into Martian orbit. "It was picture perfect. We could not have planned it any better." (Phew...looks like everyone successfully converted to metric this time.)

"All these worlds are yours, except Europa...oh, and Enceladus." In very big news, NASA announces that Cassini has found water plumes on Enceladus, Saturn's moon. "This finding has substantially broadened the range of environments in the solar system that might support living organisms, and it doesn't get any more significant than that...I'd say we've just hit the ball right out of the park." What's more, "unlike Europa, which researchers believe harbors a vast ocean beneath kilometers of thick ice, Enceladus' water may be just below the surface."

"Is this the right message to be sending to taxpayers in America, Russia, Europe and Japan -- that it's OK to do a stunt like this?" The Russian space agency weighs the financial pros and safety cons of an orbital chip shot from the ISS. "The golf shot is hardly the first commercial venture in space. The cash-strapped Russian space agency has taken three 'space tourists' to the orbiting laboratory for a reported $20 million apiece. An Israeli company, Tnuva Food Industries, paid the Russians $450,000 to show two cosmonauts drinking milk, and Pizza Hut paid $1 million to slap a logo on the side of a Proton rocket and have cosmonauts deliver a pizza to the space station. The Russians aren't alone. Last year, the Japanese space agency arranged for the filming of an instant ramen noodle commercial on the space station."

More James Cameron news: Harry of AICN has a wide-ranging conversation with the director which, if you can get past the usual Knowlesisms, reveals that Project 880 is in fact Avatar, and that Cameron has been working with NASA on a "Live Video Stereo Motion Image" (3-D) camera for the next Mars Rover.

"It broadens the market, which is important to us because our whole business plan is about getting more people access to space...Space needs to be affordable for all in some way." For a small fee, a number of fledgling private space companies will soon send your remains (or personal mementos) into the cosmos, including Space Services, Inc., Beyond-Earth Enterprises, and ZeroG Aerospace. Families paid $995 to $5,300 to have their loved ones' ashes aboard SS, Inc's maiden flight next month, which sounds eminently reasonable to me given the usual financial costs of bereavement.

The LA Times examines the beginnings of the second lunar space race, which will involve, among others, the US, Europe, China, and India. "Some researchers even have a name for the first lunar city: Jamestown, in honor of the first English settlement in the New World."

Using the relatively new technique of gravitational microlensing, astronomers discover their "most Earth-like planet yet", orbiting a star in Sagittarius 20,000 light-years away. While this planet -- currently named OGLE-2005-BLG-390Lb -- is likely too cold for habitation, "'we may predict with reasonable probability that microlensing will discover planets with masses like that of Earth at a similar distance from their stars and with comparable surface temperature,' said study co-author Bohdan Paczynski from Princeton University."

I've been extremely derelict in my space coverage around here lately. So, as a quick catch-up: Welcome back, Stardust, and Godspeed, New Horizons.

"'As you go back in time, the universe is pushing [outward] less and less,' he said. 'At some point, the pressure of dark energy is zero and is exerting no force on the universe. There is no explanation for it.'" New cosmological research announced yesterday further muddles our understanding of the expansion of the early universe and (once again) casts doubt on Einstein's recently resurrected cosmological constant. "Schaefer based his findings on analysis of ultra-bright cosmic explosions called gamma-ray bursts, detected as far as 12.8 billion light-years away. He found that the most distant explosions appeared brighter than they should have been if the universe were accelerating at a constant rate."

"To become a multiplanet species, we must master the skills of extracting local resources, build our capability to journey and explore in hostile regions, and create new reservoirs of human culture and experience. That long journey begins on the moon -- the staging ground, supply station and classroom for our voyage into the universe." Astrophysicist Paul Sputig eloquently makes the case for a return to manned lunar exploration.

"Suppose the asteroid is traveling 60,000 miles per hour. You want to make it 60,001." Concerned by the possible 2036 impact of 99942 Apophis, two clever NASA astronauts have developed a tractor beam of sorts to pull asteroids off a possible collision course. Namely, send a relatively small (20-ton) ion-powered spacecraft to intercept and hover near the offending asteroid, and then let gravity work its mojo. "Even as the spacecraft counters the asteroid's gravity, he said, its own gravity will pull the asteroid out of orbit."

"'It is now commonly accepted that was not the right path,' Griffin said. 'We are now trying to change the path while doing as little damage as we can.'" In an interview with USA Today, NASA head Michael Griffin calls the Space Shuttle and ISS programs mistakes. Hmmm, interesting. This article reminded me of a quote I've seen attributed to Jerry Pournelle: "I always knew I'd live to see the first man walk on the Moon. I never dreamed I'd see the last."

Via a friend in the program, the VR Milky Way Panorama. Definitely worth a spin.

"'We must deal with our short-term problems while not sacrificing our long-term investments,' Griffin said. 'The space program is a long-term investment in our future.'" While nodding to the funding issues created by Katrina, NASA unveils its ambitious plans to return to the moon by 2018. The plan, involving a lunar-lander like CEV that can carry 4 to 6 astronauts, basically seems to be a hybrid of the Space Shuttle and "Apollo on Steroids," and has been designed with future missions to Mars in mind. In general, I've been impressed with NASA head Michael Griffin despite Dubya's faulty emphasis on space-weapons (and I generally agree with his take on NASA funding), so if he thinks this rocket-hybrid is the way to go to get to the moon and beyond, I'm all for it.

Space Adventures, the firm behind Dennis Tito's 2001 trip to the ISS, is looking for two takers for a $100 million moonshot. Well, that's a pretty penny and no mistake. But if they're forced to switch to a lottery system to procure the necessary funds, I'd buy a ticket or three.

Some intriguing new finds right here in our neighborhood: The ESA posts some very nice images of a frozen Martian lake, and astronomers have found a large object (and its moon) orbiting our sun outside Pluto.

"You have to admit when you're wrong. We were wrong." NASA grounds the shuttle fleet until the now-recurring foam debris problem, which thankfully seemed to spare the Discovery orbiter this time, is satisfactorily resolved. Ugh, that's depressing...but probably for the best.

"'There's very little in life that is 100 percent guaranteed,' said N. Wayne Hale Jr., the deputy manager of the shuttle program, at a news briefing Sunday evening. 'And there's probably less in rocket science.' With Discovery poised to fly tomorrow despite a nagging sensor problem, the NYT examines the durability of the aging shuttle fleet. Update: Back in the blue! Godspeed, STS-114.

Via a friend in the program, Google maps the moon to commemorate the 36th anniversary of Apollo 11.

In a day of fireworks the nation over, the most intriguing flash-bang occurred 83 million miles away, with the successful crashing of NASA's Deep Impact into Tempel 1. (Space.com has gathered together the best pics from the big show.)

"Concealed within his fortress, the Lord of Mordor sees all. His gaze pierces cloud, shadow, earth and flesh. You know of what I speak, Gandalf -- a Great Eye, lidless, wreathed in flame." (Via Supercres.)

(And, while I'm quoting our fallen friend, Saruman of Many Colors: "The hour is later than you think. Sauron's forces are already moving. The Nine have left Minas Morgul...they crossed the river Potomac on Midsummer's Eve, disguised as judges in black.")

"Current U.S. space policy presents a paradoxical picture of high ambition and diminishing commitment...Pursuit of the NASA Plan, as formulated, is likely to result in substantial harm to the U.S. space program." A new report by experts at the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy finds the Dubya space program is a mess. The two writers (both active during the Clinton years) do praise new NASA head Michael Griffin, who may be the only Bush appointee out there that I have positive feelings for. But, in keeping with the general unilateralism of Dubya's tenure, the scientists bemoan the demise of international cooperation in recent years, with our move to weaponize space a particular stumbling block.

All systems are go today for the launch of Cosmos 1, a satellite designed to test the possibility of interstellar travel via solar sail. "Because it carries no fuel and keeps accelerating over almost unlimited distances, it is the only technology now in existence that can one day take us to the stars." (Well, it worked for Chris Lee.) Update: Uh oh...

Twenty-eight years into its tour of the universe, Voyager I reaches the edge of the solar system. "[P]roject scientists, working from models of a phenomenon never before directly observed, finally agreed that data from Voyager 1's tiny 80-kilobyte computer memory showed that the spacecraft had passed through termination shock to the 'heliosheath,' a frontier of unknown thickness that defines the border with interstellar space."

Eager to try out new experimental weapons systems with dubious names like "Rods from God," the Air Force looks to Dubya to greenlight space weapons programs. The Air Force believes 'we must establish and maintain space superiority,' Gen. Lance Lord, who leads the Air Force Space Command, told Congress recently. 'Simply put, it's the American way of fighting." Hmmm. I might feel less uneasy about all this if this fellow Lord didn't sound like he's channeling Buck Turgidson. 'Space superiority is not our birthright, but it is our destiny," he told an Air Force conference in September. "Space superiority is our day-to-day mission. Space supremacy is our vision for the future."'

The Cassini discovers a new moon within Saturn's rings. "Tentatively called S/2005 S1, the moon measures four miles across and is about 85,000 miles from the center of Saturn." (Via Corsairs United.)

A month into his new gig, new NASA administrator Michael Griffin argues for speeding up the shuttle replacement by four years, with a new proposed launch date of 2010. "To execute the new strategy, sources said, Griffin intends to assemble a small, Apollo-style team of NASA experts and scrap the current plan to have two civilian contractors compete for several years for the right to direct development of the exploration vehicle."

"It was a different time, 1957 or '58. America's love affair with racism was in full swing. NASA was no exception." Ted at The Late Adopter sends along a sordid tale of cosmic achievement and racial injustice in this award-winning documentary on The Old Negro Space Program, a film not by Ken Burns.

Finally, a Dubya nominee I can get behind. At his confirmation hearing, Michael Griffin -- the administration's pick for head of NASA -- suggests the Hubble may still be worth saving. "Griffin, a physicist-engineer who holds six advanced degrees, is known as a devotee of human space travel and a firm advocate of Bush's 'Vision for Space Exploration' aimed at the moon and Mars...He bluntly expressed his intention to lead a resurgence in American 'spacefaring,' noting that Russia and China had both put humans into space since the space shuttle last flew."

"I'd give it a 50-50 shot that you could find it somewhere underground. But then that's a guess." The NYT surveys the current thinking about prospects of Martian life, and how astrobiologists plan to go about proving or disproving its existence. (To wit, the European Space Agency plans to send an tricked-up rover to the red planet after 2011...hopefully, it'll get past the Dubya Pentagon's rash of Moonraker weapons.) Update: In somewhat related news (to the second story), Slate's Fred Kaplan assesses the Pentagon's overly enthusiastic vision for ground-based future tech.

Only a decade after the discovery of the first extra-solar planet, two separate teams of scientists manage to "see" exoplanets directly for the first time. "Dr. Geoffrey Marcy, a planet hunter at the University of California in Berkeley, called the results 'the stuff of history books.'"

Alright, stop, collaborate, and listen -- Images sent back by the ESA's Mars Express show the remants of icebergs once floating in a Martian Sea near the equator, and suggest that large ice blocks may well still exist just underneath the dusty surface (increasing both the chances of life on the Red Planet and the prospects for a successful manned mission.) Word to your mother.

After perusing "methane signatures and other possible signs of biological activity," two NASA researchers claim there may well be life presently existing in subsurface Martian caves. We're talking mitochondria, not Morlocks...but still, such a discovery would be exciting stuff, to say the least.

It didn't look good before, but now it seems the Hubble's days are really numbered. NASA, who otherwise comes out ok under the new Bush budget, nevertheless cancelled plans to service the telescope by robot (strangely enough, before the engineers in charge could even present their work.) I have a bad feeling about this.

By way of Blivet and 20-20 Hindsight, the Bush administration announces plans to decommission the Hubble Space Telescope, possibly as an opening salvo in a game of Budgetary Chicken. Grrr...if I give my life-changing $300 tax rebate back, can we keep the Hubble?

Score one for the ESA: The Huygens probe successfully lands on Titan and broadcasts images from the surface for five hours (a.k.a. much longer than expected.) (See, NASA? It's much easier to pull these types of missions off when you don't have to convert from standard to metric and back.) And now, for Europa... Update: 2020 Hindsight has done an exemplary job today of covering the details and implications of the landing.

"'Space is virgin territory,' Branson says, trying out a prospective marketing line and shooting another grin. 'Is that 21st-century enough for you?'" In this month's cover story, Wired checks in with Richard Branson and his ambitions for Virgin Galactic. I am so loving this space race among the mega-rich.

Just as Tom Ridge did in his own resignation a few weeks ago, NASA administrator Sean O'Keefe steps down by citing his need to make more money to put his kids through college. "'It is this [the president's] very commitment to family that draws me to conclude that I must depart public service,' O'Keefe wrote. 'The first of three children will begin college next fall...I owe them the same opportunity my parents provided for me to pursue higher education without the crushing burden of debt thereafter.'" Am I missing something? I know tuition costs have skyrocketed, but is $158,000-a-year really too little money to send a child to college these days? C'mon, now.

"String theory, the Italian physicist Dr. Daniele Amati once said, was a piece of 21st-century physics that had fallen by accident into the 20th century. And, so the joke went, would require 22nd-century mathematics to solve." The New York Times surveys string theory at 20...fascinating stuff, but I still don't get it.

Hmmm...I don't know quite how to feel about this one. "Without a separate vote or even a debate, House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX) has managed to deliver to a delighted NASA enough money to forge ahead on a plan that would reshape U.S. space policy for decades to come...DeLay, a self-described 'space nut,' told Johnson Space Center employees a few days after the vote that 'NASA helps America fulfill the dreams of the human heart.'" It probably doesn't hurt that the Johnson Space Center is now in his district, either...still, this may be one of the only times when I find myself applauding the Exterminator.

Once in a blue moon? Not even. As it turns out, Game 4 of the World Series will be played under a lunar eclipse. I think the Series will go more than four, but if it doesn't...

After SpaceShipOne's historic win yesterday, the X Prize becomes the X Cup. "Teams will compete in five different categories to win the overall cup: Fastest turnaround time between the first launch and second landing, maximum number of passengers per launch, total number of passengers during the competition, maximum altitude and fastest flight time."

Score one for the "model builders"! SpaceShipOne won the X Prize this morning, with nary a barrel roll in sight. This is big news, indeed. Might be time to start saving up my pennies.

Despite an unplanned and disconcerting series of barrel rolls on the way up, FlightTwo and TripOne for SpaceShipOne was a rousing success. Now, if they can repeat the feat within the next ten days, the elusive X Prize is theirs, and the business of space tourism will have reached a watershed moment. (Indeed, Richard Branson has already announced he'll be leasing SS1 tech to kick off Virgin Galactic.) But first, they might want to figure out what's causing that roll.

Alas, on its way back from exploring the solar winds, the Genesis capsule plowed into the Earth today at 100 miles an hour after its chutes failed to open. <Khan>KIRK!!!</Khan>

The International Space Station is soon slated to pick up a princely view.

In something of a breakthrough, astronomers discover a "Super-Earth" that's smaller, rockier, and closer -- a mere 50 light years away -- than the many gas giants previously discovered. Alas, with a surface temperature of approximately 1160 degrees Fahrenheit, it's probably not the best spot for finding any kind of life. Still, baby steps.

"The more black holes eat, the more they spill, and it is widely thought that their feeding frenzies power the violence seen in the nuclei of many galaxies, including the powerful quasars that are so bright they outshine their parent galaxies." The NY Times delves into the strange sounds emanating from black holes. "The frequency of these waves was equivalent to a B flat, 57 octaves below middle C, the astronomers calculated."

In according with the Dubya Mars timetable, NASA gives up on the ISS. Hmmm. "Publicly, NASA's international partners have expressed support...Privately, they have voiced the opinion that the United States is not living up to its commitments."

An outside panel of experts entreat NASA to save the Hubble, "arguably the most important telescope in history." Given it's been both a rare PR victory for the administration and an amazing source of scientific data, one would think the Hubble would remain a top priority, even despite all the new talk of Mars.

NASA's Cassini sends back detailed pics of Saturn's finest.

Space enthusiasts and millionaires alike eagerly await Monday's launch of Burt Rutan's SpaceShipOne, the first private manned foray into the cosmos. I'd best start saving up my pennies. Update: Mission Success!

A White House Commission on NASA will recommend increased privatization as part of the space agency's upcoming redesign. At first glance, this sounds like Dubya kicking more money back to his favorite companies. That being said, my lefty-leaning friends who work in the aerospace industry have told me that NASA's current culture is far too risk-averse and bureaucratic to ever be very efficient, and that privatization may be the only way to make continued space exploration feasible. If so, I guess I'm for it.

The two NASA rovers have completed one facet of their mission, and the results are exciting: There was in fact water on Mars. And where there's water, there's...sea monkeys?

Via a frequent reader, Explore Mars Now, a website which attempts to visualize red-planet-viable spacecraft using existing technology. Well, it's already more realistic than Mission to Mars.

Two anonymous NASA engineers go to the mat for the Hubble. The agency gets so much flak for ants-sorting-screws-in-space-type research, you'd think they go out of their way to preserve a program as popular and wildly successful as the Hubble.

Beware M64: There is an evil there that does not sleep...and the Great Eye is ever watchful.

NASA scores another success on Mars with the flawless landing of the Opportunity. And, in other good news, scientists have determined the Spirit has memory issues, and have upgraded their prognosis from critical to serious.

The good news: The confused and constantly-rebooting Mars Rover pipes up after a two-day vacation (although apparently it still has major issues.) The better news: The Mars Express confirms the existence of water on the red planet. Houston, we're still a go.

"I always knew that I would see the first man on the Moon," once quipped Jerry Pournelle. "I never dreamed
that I would see the last." Hopefully, we can now prove him wrong. Dubya officially announced his space plan in front of NASA's DC headquarters today, and the upshot is this: More scientists, less entertainers, a Research Lab in every city, and he's going to disband all the Spearmen and Pikemen still lying around so he can build the SS Planetary Party Lounge.

Ok, just joking...some of y'all out there might think that was funny. At any rate, the plan is the ISS by 2007, the CEV by 2014, the moon by 2015, and Mars thereafter. Say what you will about election year boondoggles, but I still think creating and funding long-term goals for NASA is a wise investment. (Besides, if you want to cry election-year boondoogle, you don't need to go any farther than Dubya's ridiculous $1.5 billion marriage-promotion plan.) NASA still has serious organizational and cultural flaws, sure, but I think it'll be better able to address them if there's at least some semblance of a "vision thing" to build on.

NASA sets its sights on an Apollo-based Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) to replace the earlier space plane idea, and the Mars rover begins scrounging for water. Meanwhile, the search continues for the missing Beagle.

Perhap's he thinking about the November election, or perhaps he just fell asleep in front of Outland the other night. Either way, next week Dubya will make the case for a moonbase and a Marshot. As y'all might expect, I'm all for it, although Bush, Sr. said much the same thing over a decade ago and it went nowhere. I'm also with the folks who agree that some sort of shuttle alternative may need to be in the works before we can seriously start setting up a lunar settlement...but, hey, let's at least start thinking big again.

W00t. I was on holiday break when the Beagle disappeared on Christmas Day, so now I'm doubly pleased that the Mars Rover has successfully landed on the Red Planet. Not only is it great for space exploration in general, but NASA needed a success in the worst way.

A flurry of probes, headed by the ESA's Beagle 2, prep for christmas on Mars. Let's hope they fare better than the '99 wave.

As space cadets around the nation hoped, it now looks like China's recent foray into the stars will draw dividends stateside...Apparently, Bush is about to announce a US return to the moon. "'You've got the Chinese saying they're interested -- we don't want them to beat us to the Moon. We want to be there to develop the sweet spots,' Republican Senator Sam Brownback says." Now here's a Dubya campaign initiative I can get behind.

Also in science news, CNN examines the cultural divide between the US and Russia over space exploration. My friends who've worked for NASA in some capacity have also complained about a risk-aversiveness bordering on the ridiculous within America's space program, even with regard to unmanned missions. As one put it, for considerably less than the cost it takes to make one probe perfect, we could send up multiple probes -- each with a 90% success rate -- and just play the odds, which turn out to be roughly equivalent. Obviously, the calculus of safety for manned missions should be more stringent, but still, I'd think many astronauts would be willing to accept a greater degree of risk if it meant a reinvigoration of the space program.

Skywatchers prepare for a blood-red moon over the weekend. In case of confusion, the crimson color won't be due to moonmen or monsters, but rather due to the plethora of solar panels on the lunar surface. Ok, not yet.

As Yang Liwei recuperates from his historic mission, China readies for the moon.

Get your origin stories ready: a huge geomagnetic storm is engulfing Earth. And here I just happened to be carrying my toaster next to the bathtub...

Taikonaut and pioneer Yang Liwei joins the ranks of Yuri Gagarin and Alan Shepard in leading his nation into the stars. Yet, despite's China's recent success, analysts on all sides downplay the idea of a renewed space race...for now.

More details surface about China's space ambitions, and they are soon to include manned lunar missions. Interesting...

General Wesley Clark stumps for faster-than-light travel in New Hampshire. "I still believe in e=mc�, but I can't believe that in all of human history, we'll never ever be able to go beyond the speed of light to reach where we want to go. I happen to believe that mankind can do it...It's my only faith-based initiative." Well, I guess he's up on Dubya, who's still trying to work out evolution. At the same rally, Clark introduced Professor John Frink as his potential National Science Advisor. "Suppose we extend the square beyond the two dimensions of our universe... along the hypothetical Z axis, there..."

As Europe goes to the moon (alas, without Tintin), China prepares to choose the first Taikonaut.

As Mars draws closer than it's been in over 59,000 years, the Columbia Accident Investigation Board published its final report, and it doesn't hold back on NASA's institutional failings. As I've said numerous times before, I very much hope we as a nation reaffirm our commitment to space, although I expect very little leadership in this regard from the Bushies -- particularly with all our money currently pouring into Iraq. "'Kennedy was able to relate space exploration to a greater national cause,' a Bush adviser said earlier this week. 'I'm not sure that exists today.'" Well, a greater national cause won't exist unless it's articulated and promoted by our elected officials. (Besides, since when has the non-existence of something ever stopped Dubya before?) At any rate, despite the vacuum of leadership in the White House, hopefully NASA will take this moment at the crossroads to get its act together and work to redevelop its vision. (Mars link via Blivet.)

Astronomers and scientists at NASA contemplate the end of Hubble. "One astronomer compared it to the fate of the faithful dog in the movie 'Old Yeller.'"

Space policy analyst Mark Whittington laments the squandered opportunity of Apollo in the LA Times.

If you thought Manhattan for $24 was a great deal, check this out...Entire galaxies for $19.99 each. Sure, the location's terrible, but think of the space... (Via Footprints.)

NASA discovers a 13-billion-year-old planet in M4, a globular star cluster in Scorpius. I presume it's where the monoliths came from.

After a decade in the dark, SETI finally gets some 'spec from NASA.

Astronomers find a Jupiter-sized planet outside the habitable zone of a solar system not unlike ours. Unfortunately, we'll have to wait until at least 2007 to see what lies closer to HD70642.

Apparently, the forthcoming independent panel report on the loss of Columbia contains some harsh indictments of NASA's current culture. I haven't been covering this story as well as I'd have liked in this space, but, as I've said before, I do hope NASA takes this opportunity to rebuild from the ground up and to return to the big goals and lofty dreams that characterized the agency in the years before Challenger.

Two stories from the Welcome to the Future dept: NASA and the European Space Agency send dueling rovers to Mars in search of life, while scientists perfect gecko tape technology to create real-life "Spiderman" gloves. There's a few origin stories in here somewhere.

Aircraft designer Burt Rutan unveils SpaceShipOne, a rocket plane designed to make private space tourism affordable. The design could garner him the X Prize, to be awarded to the first privately funded manned space flight. If it works like it's supposed to, I expect Rutan will make a good deal more than $10 million.

Might be time to update our tea time traditions...Drinking tea in space, by way of Breaching the Web.

It's not exactly Venice (or Europa, for that matter), but it's a start. Scientists find possible evidence of running water on Mars. And where there's water...

After nearly four years of number-crunching (including 11,000 hours on my own personal PCs), Seti@Home has chosen 150 signals worth a second look, and will be using the Arecibo radio telescope thus next week. (Via Windowseat and Kestrel's Nest.) Apparently, Seti@home will also be posting the names of the users whose computers picked out the 150 best signals, possibly on Friday.

You've probably seen this by now, and it's probably faked, but...amazing nonetheless - Sunset from space, via Pith n Vinegar and Sore Eyes.

Also from Raza, it turns out there's water all over Mars. Excellent news for any potential and upcoming (wo)manned visits to the red planet.

In the wake of STS-107, the NY Times examines the deteriorating institutional culture of NASA. As I said earlier, it's this type of post-Columbia muckraking that might best help America get the space program back in order (although it'd be nice if the piece was less descriptive and more prescriptive, but oh well.)

Big news and bold statements are issuing forth from Greenbelt, MD. "We've now laid the cornerstone of a unified cosmic theory...We have not answered all the questions. But we've certainly turned a corner." Thanks to NASA and the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP), scientists now have visual evidence of the universe's origins with which to test out all the prevailing cosmological theories. Great news! Not only is any new empirical data in this field a boon to science, but, if ridiculous amounts of new information are gleaned from just this one little probe...well, it won't help NASA in the manned space department, but the agency could still use a few unmitigated victories these days. On another note, looking at this map brings back some old memories. For my high school science thesis (required at SCGSSM), I used similar COBE DMR data to figure out that early galaxies displayed a fractal distribution. (Hey, it was the early '90's - fractals were the rage.) I wonder if this new data bears out that old rinky-dink thesis.

With the foam debris explanation suffering in computer modeling, the fate of the Columbia has become a scientific mystery. I haven't had the time to address the space question as eloquently as I would have liked this week, so I'll quit stalling and just repost some of my (slightly-edited) e-mail conversation with Scully on the subject:

I'm actually very much in favor of space colonization, and I think the argument that money spent on space is a senseless waste falls apart on its own premises. Would the money spent on the space program be better spent on conquering disease or ending famine here on Earth? Ideally, of course, we'd spend money doing both - exploring space and alleviating misery. But I think the utilitarian argument being made in this case ultimately doesn't work. If we're talking greatest good for the greatest number, then the space program in fact makes more sense. Spending the money on food saves millions. Space colonization would save untold billions, if not more - the very survival of the species, and in fact all of Earth's species. We know that the sun will wink out of existence one day in the future, and if humankind isn't out of the solar system by then, it's game over.

So, to sum up, I am very much in favor of space exploration and the space program. But I do agree with you that NASA has become a bit bloated and inefficient, and that's for all the reasons that government always gets fat - for one, there's no bottom line. For another, short-term thinking and narrow, remunerative interests have grafted themselves onto the system. Hence, we have a rocket-based shuttle launch system that costs ridiculous amounts of money each time we use it because the check-cashing subcontractors have no real incentive to start working on cheaper, lighter space planes. In fact, I think that it is in this regard that the tragic deaths of the STS-107 crew may not be in vain. The fate of Columbia is going to cause some heads to roll, and hopefully some of NASA's organizational priorities will be reconstituted from the bottom up.

So that' s my piece on the space program. Sorry if it's more inarticulate than I would have liked. To close, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention in passing at least one more reason I support the colonization of space. As Breaching the Web's Wild West cartoon also suggests: Because it's there. Strange and irrational as it might seem, it's always been my dream to look back on Earth from the stars, and, for however infinitesimal and fleeting a moment, attempt to contemplate the striving of countless generations towards outer space. Call it a bias or a misplaced faith in progress, but I believe Humankind has a mission and a destiny to leave the cradle of Earth and to colonize other worlds, allowing all the weird, wild, and wonderful variations of human society to bloom and flourish across the cosmos.

Wildly idealistic and improbable as it might seem, this dream gives me hope. And when the Columbia splintered apart last Saturday, it wounded a portion of my idealism that even the unforgettable horrors of 9-11 couldn't touch. Which is why I am moved to see in the wake of STS-107 that this dream is shared by many, many people, and that - despite the seven tragic deaths that day - the dream will continue.

I have much more to say about the fate of STS-107, but I think I'll wait until I have enough time to do the topic justice. But I will say this now: I am going to get very aggravated if the world does engage in a full-scale retreat from space because of what happened Saturday morning. Such a decision is not only tremendously short-sighted, but also makes a mockery of all the hopes nurtured and risks faced by Astronauts Anderson, Brown, Chawla, Clark, Husband, McCool, and Ramon. They deserve better, as do we all.

R.I.P. Crew of Columbia STS-107

This is terrible. I only hope that NASA rebounds from this tragedy much more quickly than after the Challenger 17 years ago. We owe it to the dreams of the fallen today to continue to pursue the challenges of space.

Astronomers discover a large planetoid in the Kuiper Belt, suggesting it might be time to downgrade Pluto.

Is Lance Bass's space trip over? Not quite yet, according to his spokesperson, but the Russians seem to be sizing up a cargo unit in his stead. Perhaps he should take up a collection from N'Sync fans the world over.

NASA finally goes ga-ga over Lance Bass. "What's exciting about this is getting a creative person up there," said Duane Carey, a space shuttle pilot and father of two teens. "Maybe some songs or some poetry or some type of inspiration can come out of it." Um, I think it's great that Bass is getting a chance to pursue his dream, but let's not get ridiculous here. We're not sending W.H. Auden or Bob Dylan into space...heck, we're not even sending John Tesh. Expecting anything more than "Girl, you knock me outta this world!" from Bass is just wishful thinking.

The asteroid noted here last update will miss Earth in 2019, although it may be coming back circa 2060.

Astronomers find a possible collision course asteroid hurtling toward us. Target date: 2.1.2019.

A three-day conference in Houston argues for a return to the Moon as an integral first step in Martian exploration.

Apparently NSyncer Lance Bass has negotiated a deal to become the youngest person ever in space. As I've said before, if I had that kind of disposable income, I'd probably be trying to do what he's doing. Bully for him.

Russia proposes to NASA and the European Space Agency that we send humans to Mars by 2015. Great idea...and let's get the Chinese involved as well.

Despite what it means for a nuclear non-proliferation treaty with Russia and China, the US refuses to ban arms in space. For what would such a ban entail for Dubya's beloved SDI?

Cindy Crawford ponders edging out Lance Bass as Space Tourist #3.

one measly laser beam at a time. But, hey, it's a start.

An Israeli astronaut attempts to figure out how best to observe Shabbat in space. (Via Looka.) Just think how complicated it'll get when we start orbiting other stars.

Atomic clocks in space might prep the way for post-Einstein revisions to the laws of physics.

NASA gears up for an increased emphasis on astrobiology.

Speaking of which, Backstreet Boy Lance Bass has medical clearance to be the third tourist in space, at a price of $14-20 million. Y'know, if I was in a boy band, I'd spend my money exactly the same way. Update: N'SYNC...Bass is in N'Sync. My bad, y'all.

More on the possibility of Martian ice caverns and what it means for a wo/manned mission to the red planet.