Barrows, Walter A.
“Dark Side of the Moon”
#1 of 100 Artist’s Web Site
Librarian’s Note: Once again, the ISDC has space art on display, and I stopped short as soon as I saw this one. The original painting is well beyond the Lunar Library’s acquisition budget (because he doesn’t want to sell it), but Mr. Barrows is going to start making limited-edition high quality prints available of his works, and he was kind enough to let me grab the first one for this painting.
Librarian’s Note: And here I was wondering where I was going to find some astronaut-y type miniatures to use with my Star Tiles from Fat Dragon Games. Not astronaut-y, but I do dig the retro stylings. Requires some assembly, and painting, and a bit of imagination doesn’t hurt, either.
Welcome to the next edition of EVA Interviews: The Business of the New Space Age™ with our guest Paul Eckert Ph.D. - Coordinator of the Space Investment Summit Coalition, and International & Commercial Strategist for the Space Exploration division of The Boeing Company. Paul and his colleagues at the Space Investment Summit coalition have created an exceptional series of events focused exclusively on Space and business (my favourite subjects!). Starting in 2005 as Roundtables which explored the potential for Lunar Commerce, they now bring Space entrepreneurs together with investment capital of many sorts – seed, venture capital, Angel investors and corporate finance – and with those who are interested in developments within the emerging new commercial Space industry. Space Investment Summit 6 (SIS-6), the next event, is happening soon! It will be held on Wednesday May 27th, 2009, just prior to, and in conjunction with, the International Space Development Conference (ISDC2009) in Orlando, Florida.
EVA: Hi Paul! Thank you very much for joining us at EVA Interviews and Out of the Cradle. I’m delighted to have you here to talk about the Space Investment Summits. Since 2005, you have created a unique series of events, designed to promote Space commerce and bring together investors and Space entrepreneurs.
Before we discuss the next event, SIS-6, which is quickly approaching, can you tell us how the idea for the Roundtables and Summits came about and how they have evolved since the first Lunar Commerce Roundtable in 2005?
Look for the black hat at this year’s ISDC to say howdy to the Lunar Librarian
(Why yes, I do have permission to use this young man’s photo. You don’t)
Online Registration Closes May 22! Extended to May 24!
even as your Lunar Librarian slacks.
This week’s Carnival pays a visit to the Chandra Blog, a site dedicated to a cousin of Hubble, the Chandra X-Ray telescope. The neat way that they came up with to collect the X-Rays in Chandra is worthy of some investigation in its own right, but this week’s 103rd Carnival of Space is dedicated to the Hubble. Your Lunar Librarian is fond of the Hubble, as it is a perfect example of the fact that Humans and their tools work better together than either one alone. There are many other stories to visit as well, so hustle on over.
But not before checking out the 102nd Carnival of Space, wherein the Spacewriter’s Ramblings wander across the myriad facets of space, moving each in turn into the light of your attention, that you may ponder the deepest mysteries of the cosmos. It’s a celestial delight in five acts as
You’re welcomed back my friend to the Carnival that never ends.
We’re so happy you could attend come inside, come inside.
There behind the glass stands a real blade of grass
Be careful as you pass, move along, move along
Come inside, the Carnival’s start is
Guaranteed to blow your head apart
Rest assured you’ll get your money’s worth
The greatest show on Mars, the Moon or Earth
You’ve got to see the black hole’s dynamo
You’ve got to see the Carnival of Space, yo
Right before your eyes see the solar-sail-filled skies
And the stars that fill your eyes, mesmerize, mesmerize
Come inside, the Carnival’s start is
Guaranteed to blow your head apart
You’ve got to see the black hole’s dynamo
You’ve got to see the Carnival of Space, yo
Then the Astropixie lets us see some galaxy
on galaxy violence, what a scene, what a scene
Next upon the stand will you please extend a hand
To Fraser at Universe Today, Carnival Command
Rocket up, rocket up
See the show
It’s way better than school, it’s like total eclipse cool
Ignorance makes people drool, physics rules, physics rules
We would like it to be known the exhibits that were shown
Were exclusively our own, all our own, all our own
See the Carnival
See the Carnival
See the Carnival
Carnival
Liberally adapted from the the lyrics to the Emerson, Lake and Palmer song “Karn Evil 9 (1st Impression Pt. 2)”. Not so evil any more, huh? Thanks to Gunther Anderson for assistance with the lyrics. Lyric copyright owned by someone, who is probably going to come looking for me…
But wait, there’s more! Let us not forget the 101st Carnival of Space, which had the unenviable task of following the stupendous 100th Carnival. Robot Explorers took us on a remote-control tour of the cosmos with a truly broad array of interesting stories from which to choose.
The easiest way to catch up on any Carnivals you might have missed is to visit the Carnival Command noted in the lyrics above. Or keep checking back with your favorite space blogs as we try to keep up.
Stone, Jerry. Design by Andy Mansfield
“One Small Step: Celebrating the First Men on the Moon”
Flash Point/Roaring Brook Press
2009
ISBN: 1-596-43491-0 Publisher’s Web Site
Librarian’s Note: This one is styled as a scrapbook, with removable elements.
To be released on May 19th, 2009, it weighs in at 124 pages. No errors noted.
I first learned of Jim Ottaviani’s work when I picked up a copy of the graphic novel Two-Fisted Science. Later I found Dignifying Science, and was quite pleased to learn that there was someone out there using the comic form as a way to teach about some of the scientists of history. Adding to his oeuvre, Mr. Ottaviani now brings us a fact-based graphic novel of the inside story of the first trip to the Moon, just in time for the 40th anniversary of Apollo 11. As with his previous works, he takes full advantage of the medium to teach all kinds of facts that sharp young minds will gobble up.
We open at T-minus 12 years. The location is the NACA facilities in Langley, Virginia. (Great place, by the way, and still doing interesting research, and with the coolest urinals I have ever seen) The department head is fiddling with the radio knob to get a good signal from the orbiting Sputnik, noting that President Eisenhower had called a Rand Corporation report on the ‘Preliminary Design of an Experimental World-Circling Spaceship‘ hooey. Not all the engineers saw it that way, and were already pondering the possibilities.
Librarian’s Note: The craters - wow! Looking down at the rocks on the surface is pretty cool too. There’s some obligatory Apollo stuff as well. But those craters! It was even stocked at the local bookbox. I’m going to go geek out now…
Librarian’s Note: Uh-oh - looks like my Rükl is about to be replaced as my go-to reference for finding craters on the face of the Moon. It’s spiral bound, making it easier to fold back on itself for ease of holding at the telescope. The color-coding of the ancillary data is a big help as well. There are thorough descriptions of everything at the publisher’s website. I think this great addition to the Lunar Library may be the kick in the pants I need to get to work on my Lunarobserving certificates.
I’m supposed to be putting together a presentation on ‘Cislunar Space’ for the Fort Worth Mensa (pdf) club’s monthly meeting tomorrow night, and so I’m of course procrastinating. Whilst doing so, I happened to stumble across some interesting videos of recent vintage purporting to purvey strange and interesting facts about our Moon.
The videos are riddled with mainly scientific errors. One example is that heating regolith to 800° does not turn it into water. What it does do is drive off the volatile elements (like C, H, O, and N) that have been implanted in the regolith by the Solar wind. H & O can be combined in a fuel cell to make water.
Readers are encouraged to note other errors in the comments. Strangely, I found that as I was watching the videos I didn’t really care about the errors for some reason. That she even cared enough about our Moon to undertake this project certainly earned some empathy. And, well…golly, I really liked her, uh, glasses! (seriously - I think the shape of the frames complements the curves of her face, and the color works well with the brunette hair) And that beautiful, beguiling Moon behind her.
Howdy everyone! Periodically, I’ll get an e-mail from a deep-pocketed corporate source that want’s me to do free publicity for them. This is kind of annoying, as Lunar Library LLC is trying to see if a business case can be made for space blogging. The generation of cash flows is supposed to come from the purchase of Moon books and other items through the affiliate ads found throughout the site. The idea being that I don’t want to make money off of click-throughs, but rather shaving some pennies from sales that I refer to my advertisers (they make money, so I do). So well-moneyed corporations looking for free publicity because I’m a space blogger always rub me the wrong way. If they want to pay to put a short term announcement in with my ads I’m cool with that. I’m very reasonably priced, too.
But I think I can make an exception in this case. The Smithsonian is running a Photography Initiative program called ‘click! Photography Changes Everything’, and the focus for May is ‘Seeing Other Worlds’. In terms of terrestrial photography of the heavens, nothing beats our awesome Moon! Therefore, I’m proposing that we pull a colbert and stack the submissions with photos of our Moon. Some may differ as to whether our Moon would technically be a ‘world’, but I would offer that were it not a satellite of Earth it would certainly fall within the domain of the Dwarf Planets, being significantly larger than Pluto, and near as big as Mercury. See for yourself. There are innumerable beautiful and moving photos of our Moon, and if you haven’t been by LPOD recently then you need to stop by.
I think I’m also swayed by the fact that I think I first really became enamored of our Moon when I was in Paris, visiting the girlfriend whilst on the way to ISU, and I stopped by the Musee d’Orsay for the first time (I’m more of a Romantic period, pre-Raphaelites and Impressionists kinda guy) to see an exhibit of space photography. There were many fascinating photos of our Moon, and the one below is one of many that enchanted me. It was taken by John A. Whipple and George P. Bond at the Harvard Observatory on February 26, 1852, a daguerreotype measuring 11.9 x 9.7 cm.
So take your photo of the Moon and get it submitted this month. Let’s show them what the Moon’s got!
Robertson, Donald F.
“Getting ready for lunar science”
Spaceflight: The Magazine of Astronautics and Outer Space
British Interplanetary Society
05/2009 Publisher’s Web Site
