Ken Murphy / 4:12 pm October 14th, 2006

DeGroot, Gerard J.
“Dark Side of the Moon: The Magnificent Madness of the American Lunar Quest” (Uncorrected Proof)
NYU Press
11/01/2006
ISBN: 0-814-71995-3
Publisher’s Web Site

Ken Murphy / 3:28 pm October 13th, 2006

Eckart, Peter
“Lunar Base Handbook, 2nd Ed.”
McGraw-Hill
10/2006
ISBN: 0-073-29444-6
MicroCosm website
[Joint Distributor under the U.S. DoD and NASA Space Technology Series book program]

Librarian’s Note: This is a definitive work on the diverse elements necessary for the success of a Lunar base. 53 space experts, many of them emeritus, assisted in the creation of this book.
For senior college level and above, or rather bright high schoolers looking for a headstart.

Best of the Moon 2006 - Moonbases

Ken Murphy / 6:44 pm October 10th, 2006

Moore, Stuart & Christopher Schon
“Earthlight”
TOKYOPOP
10/10/2006
Publisher’s Web Site
On-line Manga
Sony eBook
Out of the Cradle Review

Best of the Moon 2006 - Moon Manga

READ MORE…

Ken Murphy / 6:12 pm October 9th, 2006

“Lunar Explorer”
VirtuePlay, Inc.
10/16/2006
Publisher’s Web Site
Cosmic Log article
The Space Show interview

From the website:
“The VirtuePlay Lunar Explorer is a realistic interactive visual representation of the moon using actual data collected by NASA spacecraft and earthbound telescopes. It uses real-time 3D graphics techniques to provide an immersive virtual environment for the user to explore our nearest neighbor in a variety of ways - at a distance, in orbit, or walking on the lunar surface.”

Best of the Moon 2006 - Moon Media

Rob Wilson / 4:15 am October 4th, 2006

Anousheh Ansari is safely back on Earth, and still blogging. I strongly recommend that you read everything she has written; her style is lucid and heartfelt, she includes detail and emotion that most astronauts to date have not, and she really conveys the feeling of ‘being there’. If you are interested in space, you will enjoy her blog.

But Shubber Ali of the Space Cynics blog would like us all to take a deep breath (or a cold shower) and get some perspective. Of Ansari’s flight, he says:

This isn’t HISTORIC.
It WON’T get you to space.
She’s RICH, you AREN’T.
She isn’t the first person to BLOG.

Normally, I appreciate the Space Cynics for providing some much-needed counterpoint to all the starry-eyed optimism out there, but on this occasion I think that Shubber has missed the point by a country mile.

You only have to look at the hundreds - and hundreds - and hundreds - of comments. Shubber looks at them and is annoyed by the hyperbole. I look at them and see a great many people, and not just the ‘usual suspects’ pouring out their passion for space. It’s not “Anousheh worship” - she just struck a chord, and reached people in a way that NASA and the other space agencies have never managed to do.

People care about this stuff - people outside the space advocacy community. Give them even the smallest whiff of it, in the personal and accessible way that Anousheh Ansari has, and look at the outpouring that resulted. The overwhelmingly positive response to her flight has been surprising (to me, anyway). I didn’t think that people would care that another rich person flew to space. I’m sure that the blog, and Anousheh’s intimate and evocative descriptions of her experience, are the key. In that, she is unique; I don’t know of anyone else who has related her space experience as powerfully as Anousheh.

As I said, normally the Space Cynics provide a very useful reality check. On this occasion though, Shubber’s response comes across as sour grapes. He’s right that Anousheh’s trip is just one rich woman’s extreme vacation, but he’s looking at the wrong thing.

The point is not that Anousheh is somehow special because she flew to space. What is special is how she has reached people, and tapped into a strong and positive undercurrent of public feeling about space. We need more of that.

Rob Wilson / 2:44 am October 4th, 2006

It’s been two years since SpaceShipOne soared into space on a suborbital trajectory to win the X-Prize. If things have seemed a little quiet since then, you’re probably hearing the silence left over when all the laughing stopped.

If the X-Prize did one thing, it was to strike a decisive blow in the fight to make entrepreneurial space credible.

But those who backed the prize are predictably not content with doing just one thing, and as Alan Boyle points out, they have a lot more in store.

Rob Wilson / 1:05 am October 4th, 2006

… a charter flight to space.

And you can have it, too, for a cool $1.7 million. It’s in this year’s Neiman Marcus Christmas catalog. Your very own SpaceShipTwo flight with five of your closest friends, and a stay at Richard Branson’s retreat in the Virgin Islands to top it all off.

I’d post more, but I feel the need to write an urgent letter to Santa…

Ken Murphy / 3:28 pm October 3rd, 2006

Rusch, Kristine Kathryn
“Paloma: A Retrieval Artist Novel”
ROC
10/03/2006
ISBN: 0-451-46115-0

Ken Murphy / 8:44 pm October 1st, 2006

Appleton, Victor
“Tom Swift #3 The Space Hotel”
Aladdin Paperbacks
10/2006
ISBN: 1-416-91751-9
Publisher’s Web Site
Out of the Cradle Review

Ken Murphy / 5:51 pm October 1st, 2006

Kokh, Peter (ed.)
Moon Miner’s Manifesto #199
October 2006
On-Line Text (pdf)

Librarian’s Note: The Moon Society has made selected issues of the Moon Miner’s Manifesto available to the general public. Full access to the archives requires membership.