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“Dark Side of the Moon: The Magnificent Madness of the American Lunar Quest”Ken Murphy / 4:12 pm October 14th, 2006 DeGroot, Gerard J. “Lunar Base Handbook, 2nd Ed.”Ken Murphy / 3:28 pm October 13th, 2006  Eckart, Peter 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. “Earthlight”Ken Murphy / 6:44 pm October 10th, 2006 Moore, Stuart & Christopher Schon “Lunar Explorer” (PC-DVD)Ken Murphy / 6:12 pm October 9th, 2006 “Lunar Explorer” From the website: Hmmmmm… 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:
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. X-Prize plus two years 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. All I want for Christmas is…Rob Wilson / 1:05 am October 4th, 2006 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… “Paloma: A Retrieval Artist Novel”Ken Murphy / 3:28 pm October 3rd, 2006 Rusch, Kristine Kathryn “Tom Swift #3 The Space Hotel”Ken Murphy / 8:44 pm October 1st, 2006 Appleton, Victor |
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