Just taking a break here from various projects to point out some consumer culture items helping to set a Moon mood this week.
First up, is Apollo 18. Billed as “found footage” from a secret government mission to the Moon in 1974, it opens Friday around the country:
Looks like I’ll be at the theater this weekend for the first time in ages. As far as ‘found footage’ movies go, I did rather enjoy Troll Hunter, and Cloverfield is still fun…
Fresh out is a new sci-fi novel from Larry Niven & Steven Barnes that is set on the Moon. The year is 2085 and humanity is spreading into the Solar system. On the Moon, Heinlein Crater has been given over to the creation of a gaming environment for the creation of the ultimate live-action role-playing (LARP) adventure ever broadcast.
For those unfamiliar with LARPing, it’s role-playing gaming in a ‘real-world’ (i.e. non-virtual) setting. We’ve come a long way from Mazes & Monsters, and while role-playing still carries a strong geek factor, it is more accepted than it used to be. Still, we’re not as far along as ‘Dream Park‘ (an earlier novel in this series) or ‘Futureworld‘. Holography is still not here in the form everyone wants (although I’d rather use holography for useful things like 3D air traffic control before entertainment), and RPGing still isn’t a spectator sport. FPS shooters seem to be though; more on that anon.
I’m about halfway through the book for an upcoming review, so stay tuned for that in the not-too-distant future.
Also forthcoming is another EVA Interview. Not here at OotC, unfortunately, but rather in the new magazine that the folks over at NASAWatch/SpaceRef are putting together, Space Quarterly. The first issue is scheduled for release on September 1st, and therein you will find her interview with Jeff Greason. Jeff is emerging as a strong spokesperson for the commercial development of cislunar space, couched in terms of ultimately settling off-world in new colonies. Cislunar space is our sandbox for learning how to do things further out. It’s a new marketplace awaiting exploitation, something I hope is highlighted in one of the articles in the first issue: “The Philosophy of Lunar Commercialization and Economic Development”.
Speaking of commercial product, if you haven’t been to your local Hallmark store in a while, you might want to stop in and grab a “The Sky’s the Limit” Snoopy-on-the-Moon figure. Hallmark has been dribbling out a number of astronaut Snoopy items over the last few years, from holiday tree ornaments to figurines to plush toys (a number of which mysteriously turned up in the annual NSS of North Texas Santa Space Toy Drive collection…). I’ve been a big fan of astronaut Snoopy for a while, enough so that when I was interning at Boeing in Huntington Beach during my ISU studies I made a field trip to the Knott’s Berry Farm amusement park specifically to look for whatever astronaut Snoopy stuff I could find. This was of course the precursor to the Astronaut Snoopy Medal still given out to Yuri’s Night volunteers, although the Snoopy isn’t dancing anymore, and is in a white outfit, not blue. More akin to the Silver Snoopy Award given out to team members that went above-and-beyond to assure mission success in the Shuttle program. I was pleased to see a number of Yuri’s Night folks wearing their medals at the party I threw on behalf of The Moon Society at this year’s ISDC in Huntsville.
Way on the other end of the wholesomeness spectrum. I say way, way over there well removed from anything approaching wholesome family entertainment with strong christian overtones (shout out to Robot Chicken), is a new first-person-shooter add-on pack for Call of Duty: Black Ops. Your friendly Lunar Librarian doesn’t normally play FPS games, being more of a Civ-type game player where one tries to build an enduring civilization, one of strong culture and secure borders. But if you’re into shoot-’em-ups (and who isn’t every now and then?), you might want to check out this latest horror. There have been Werewolves on the Moon. There have been Vampires on the Moon. There have been Mummies on the Moon. (I know this because they’re all in the ‘Comics in Space’ art show I have hanging at Frontiers of Flight Museum - you should definitely check it out) Now, it is time for…
Zombies on the Moon!
What can I say - new physics to play with, as when the projectile gun launches the wielder into the air (so to speak). Hopefully the PC version will be on a CD so I can add a physical copy to the Lunar Library.
And since we’re on the topic of Nazi’s on the Moon, there’s an updated trailer from Iron Sky, the forthcoming independent movie currently scheduled to hit theatres on April 4th, 2012.
Speaking of Lunar Library, and art shows, and scary things…as I noted previously I’ve already started on the art show for next year’s Moon Day on July 21st. My medium will be space-themed LP covers. My initial goal is to have 150 LP covers. Each will be mounted in a frame. Each column will have 5 frames, meaning 30 columns in all. Groupings of columns will allow for the telling of stories, but the general progression will be early days, astronauts and rockets and satellites (cislunar space), our Moon, the planets, and our Cosmos. Willie Nelson gets the final frame with ‘Stardust’.
Don’t think you can guess the covers, though. My DITC (that’s Diggin’ In The Crates) is turning up some amazingly unusual items. I promised scary things, and here from the satellites section of the show is one that I find particularly unsettling, even more so than zombies, like something from a SPECTRE crime boss line-up. Whoever said there was no money to be made in space? See if you can guess the year of the LP from the cut of his suit…
Some interesting Lunar news out this last week, about some folks out in California who came up with a computer model that implied a second Moon at some point in the distant past. It was given surprisingly broad coverage in the media:
“The most striking geological feature of the Moon is the terrain and elevation dichotomy between the hemispheres: the nearside is low and flat, dominated by volcanic maria, whereas the farside is mountainous and deeply cratered. Associated with this geological dichotomy is a compositional and thermal variation, with the nearside Procellarum KREEP (potassium/rare-earth element/phosphorus) Terrane and environs interpreted as having thin, compositionally evolved crust in comparison with the massive feldspathic highlands. The lunar dichotomy may have been caused by internal effects (for example spatial variations in tidal heating, asymmetric convective processes or asymmetric crystallization of the magma ocean) or external effects (such as the event that formed the South Pole/Aitken basin or asymmetric cratering). Here we consider its origin as a late carapace added by the accretion of a companion moon.
Companion moons are a common outcome of simulations of Moon formation from a protolunar disk resulting from a giant impact, and although most coplanar configurations are unstable, a ~1,200-km-diameter moon located at one of the Trojan points could be dynamically stable for tens of millions of years after the giant impact*. Most of the Moon’s magma ocean would solidify on this timescale, whereas the companion moon would evolve more quickly into a crust and a solid mantle derived from similar disk material, and would presumably have little or no core. Its likely fate would be to collide with the Moon at ~2–3 km/s, well below the speed of sound in silicates. According to our simulations, a large moon/Moon size ratio (~0.3) and a subsonic impact velocity lead to an accretionary pile rather than a crater, contributing a hemispheric layer of extent and thickness consistent with the dimensions of the farside highlands and in agreement with the degree-two crustal thickness profile. The collision furthermore displaces the KREEP-rich layer to the opposite hemisphere, explaining the observed concentration.”
Seems fairly straightforward, but there are some elements in the story that just don’t add up for me. For full disclosure I am not a Lunar scientist. We aren’t minting them anymore. There’s no school you can go to right now in the U.S. that offers a degree in Lunar science. Planetary Geology is usually your closest option. However, I have read through a fair chunk of the non-fiction section of the Lunar Library, and you can find reviews of many of them in the Book Reviews menu option over on the left.
So my questions are sincere, and not from ignorance. I do want to point out that there is a sharp elevation dichotomy, as they say. Here’s a video of LRO data:
And here is a scan of a postcard I got from the JAXA folks at an LPSC a couple of years ago. You can note that it is not quite as sensitive elevation-wise as LRO in the Mare Orientale region.
The one on the bottom is a gravity map, which highlights that while the far side has generally higher elevations, that doesn’t translate much to heavier when compared with those mascons on the near side.
One thing to be very careful of here is the Aitken Basin. It’s not just a big blue-purple bruise on the far side, it is an enormous chunk that has been taken out of the rear end of the Moon. The movie above is a bit deceiving, as the data is draped onto a sphere, just like you would see in a classroom. If you want to see what the Moon -really- looks like, feed the elevation data into a 3D printer and take a look at the result. Looking at the traditional near side it looks fine, round even. But then turn it sideways. It’ll blow your mind. Shout out to the JAXA kids that blew my mind at LPSC.
So the basic premise is that the reason there is more green-green, yellow and red on the far side as compared with the near side is because, when the Big Splat of Theia hitting the Earth and sloshing off a whole bunch of material into orbit happened, that material coalesced into not one but two large orbiting bodies. Eventually, the second, smaller moon started drifting into the Moon’s gravity well, smacked it at a non-cosmic velocity, and splashed itself on the Lunar far side. And so the far side is higher than the near side.
For more full disclosure purposes, I put very little faith in computer models. Just because I work in the financial industry doesn’t mean I don’t work with models. Budget projections are but one example. Sensitization of financial results another. Value at Risk (VaR) I laughed at when it was introduced, and had to explain to my bosses why it was nonsense. I’m well aware of the limitations of models, as well as their (limited) value.
The first question I have I asterisked in the abstract: “How does a large object stay stable at an Earth-Moon Lagrange point for tens of millions of years when you’ve got the Sun, Jupiter, Saturn et al tugging at and perturbing it?”
I read through the article, and get their point, although it quickly devolves into mathematical tetrapyloctomy. In essence, when the Moon and moon were much closer, the differences in the gravitational “warps” of space caused by the large bodies (which we know in our simple system as the Lagrangian points after the guy who worked out the mathematics) would have been such that a fair amount of material could have accumulated at the L-4 and L-5 points until the Moon reached a certain distance from the Earth, the resonance of the orbit shifts, and all of a sudden the mathematical models start going apeshit, leading to harmonic instabilities that pitch the moon on its course with destiny and our Moon. They do have a good point - 4.0Bn years ago the Moon would have been a lot closer to the Earth, and orbital resonance is a subtle but important part of orbital mechanics.
Interestingly, the paper cited seems to be arguing that any large moon could have broken apart on its way in, providing the large near-side impacts attributed to the “Great Cataclysm” of impacts that formed the nearside basins nigh on 3.9 billion years or so ago. The thinking there is that since there hasn’t been much evidence of the “Great Cataclysm” much of anywhere else in the rest of the Solar system, at least based on current data, and the impactors that created the great basins must have originated near Earth.
Which brings me to my second question - what is the effect of the transition of the second moon through the Moon’s Roche limit? I’m rather disappointed that none of the science articles seemed to address that question.
The Roche limit is the distance from a large body at which the inverse square law of gravity starts to have a significant effect on another large body approaching the first. The second body is experiencing so much different gravity between the near point and farthest point that it starts getting pulled apart. It’s the same basic thing as you getting pulled into spaghetti as you fall into a black hole, ‘cept on a planetary scale. If the body is as big and moving as slowly as they indicate, I guesstimate that it would have spent about eight minutes or so getting taffy-ed transitioning that Roche limit.
My third question has to do with the model. What was the level of granularity of the second Moon? What were the perturbatory inputs other than the Earth and Sun? There are so many things I would have to know about the model before I could put any small amount of faith in its output. And frankly, I don’t feel like paying the $32 for the paper to find out.
So color me as skeptical of the claim of a second early moon. There’s just too many pieces that don’t feel right for me to lend it much credence. My view may change if I ever do get to read the article. I anticipate a trip to Half-Price Books in a few months should prove fruitful, so I’ll let you know if I change my mind.
Which re-minds me, we do have a second moon, called Cruithne, that is currently on a funky potato chip/horseshoe orbit and so doesn’t visit much (and is why some folks deride it as not even a moon). Here’s a cool picture of our second sister and her wacky orbit:
Outstanding. That’s the only way to describe this year’s Moon Day at Frontiers of Flight.
From not even knowing if there was going to be one this year only three months ago, to what actually transpired, was quite a ride.
It’s hard to get an accurate attendance count, as museum members can just wander on in, and the birthday parties they run in the play area leads to an unknown number of extras. I do know that we surpassed last year’s count by 1pm, and if attendance didn’t get to 1,000 it got real frakin’ close.
The museum director noted that attendance at the Moon U. lectures was up a bit from prior years. The inflatable planetarium from the Museum of Nature & Science was a full house for every show but the very last one, and the presenter, Kyle, was singled out for many kudos. The stomp rockets that the Astronaut Training Center brought along were quite popular and there were foam rockets flying down at that end of the museum all day long.
The art show of Comics in Space was well-received, as was the comet-building exercise in one of the Moon Academy classes. All of the speakers seemed happy, and I even got a last minute addition of a local blogger who was at the last Shuttle launch for the Tweetup. Regular readers may remember that OotC got invited to a launch Tweetup back in 2009, which gave our own Rob an excuse to fly up from New Zealand and do a little space tourism while here. Jason of Lights in the Dark gave our last speech of the day, symbolically linking the last talk of Moon Day 2011 with the last Shuttle launch.
The Lunar Sample Bags were gone by early afternoon, but I saw a few towards the end, so people were making a day of it. We even made the 10 o’clock news on Channel 8. Apparently I was on for close to 15 seconds babbling about the event. The PR guy at work said I did a good job, so I should be happy. I don’t watch TV, haven’t for years, and so I miss out on that sort of thing.
I’ve gotten nothing but positive feedback from the exhibitors, and everyone wants to come back next year. So planning has begun for next year.
Since I’ve got so much lead time I can think even bigger. You have to, because most of the plans fall through along the way. Crap happens. So the planning has to encompass massive failure while still providing a top-notch end experience. Being the ambitious sort that I am, I’ve started working a few angles.
The big draw that I want for next year is the ISS Trailers. Of course the e-mail to the address at the webpage bounced, so I’m currently waiting on an inquiry to NASA HQ about whom I should contact. Hopefully I won’t have to wait as long as for the rejection letter for the position of NLSI Director (3+ years and counting). I also want to get some of the display panels to put up on the mezzanine to help get people upstairs.
If I can get the ISS trailers that would be a huge draw and definitely newsworthy. It would also give me leverage to get the museum to ask both Richard Garriott and Anousheh Ansari to talk about their ISS experiences in the auditorium. And if I can get Richard at the event, that gives me leverage to push for more corporate participation to sell the space “business” side of things. Something I’m desperate to do.
My view is that we’re at the ‘Air Show’ stage of development of the space industry. The hardware is there and flying, but for the bulk of the population it’s still sci fi. So the companies need to show off their hardware not just to each other at trade shows, but also to the citizenry of the nation where this is happening. Having their goodwill behind the space industry is a very powerful intangible.
So my goal is to get three companies to participate. I’d love to have SpaceX haul an engine up from McGregor (about a 2.5 hour drive) and spend the day explaining to people how it works. It would be great to have AstroTech come up from Austin (~2.5 hours) and show off some of their flight hardware. I’d have unmentionable biological reactions in my unmentionables if Blue Origin were to show off anything.
If I can get corporate exhibitors, then I can put together something like a space business roundtable for Saturday afternoon, and have Rick Tumlinson of the Texas Space Foundation/Alliance lead the discussion. That’s the sort of thing that would let me advertise Moon Day in the Dallas Business Journal and Dallas CEO.
Speaking of advertisements, I also need a web ad. I know just the guy, from Dallas Mars Society who did the triptych cover (Texas frontier/Moon frontier/Mars frontier - Our theme was ‘From Old Frontiers to New’) for our ISDC program book. Gotta note that in the to-do list.
Next year’s art show is going to be space-themed LP covers. I’ve already got a few dozen in the Lunar Library, Moon-themed of course. I anticipate spending six months DITC (that’s Diggin’ in the Crates) around the D/FW metroplex looking for appropriate covers. Remember - my focus is on rockets and astronauts and planets and Moon exploration. So a random Boston cover of a guitar-spaceship hovering over an alien planet would not be appropriate; the cover from ZZ Top’s Afterburner album would be appropriate. And I’m going to throw in Willie Nelson’s beautiful Stardust album cover well, just because. And somewhere I still have a card with his well-wishes that he sent while I was at Harvard Summer School back in high school, so there is a sentimental attachment.
Any comments suggesting ‘Dark Side of the Moon’ will be deleted. However, Easy Star All-Stars ‘Dubber Side of the Moon’ would be an appropriate suggestion. My brother-in-law, a bass player on the side, flipped when he saw Stan Clarke’s ‘Children of Forever’, a very cool cover that is going in the collection. That one’s getting ripped from the USB turntable in the not too distant future.
The goal is 150 covers. Not sure how many I’ll end up with, but I am being liberal and including laser discs so there is some padding there. There was a prior show up in Seattle that had 117 covers, but of course this is Texas, so everything is bigger and better here. I would dearly love to have that Mel Torme ‘Swinging on the Moon’ cover in the collection, but I doubt I’ll be able to find it around here.
“Why not go online?” you might ask. Too easy, and I like to spread the love around and try to keep small businesses going in my local community. As I would rather that folks were employed around here as compared to anywhere else. And weird things turn up. I was dropping off a flyer for the Comics in Space show at one of the local comic book stores where I had gone extensively through their stock as part of my work on this year’s show. I mentioned that I was working on a different show for next year using LP covers. They replied that they had just gotten over a dozen boxes of LPs for the online business they run in the back of the store. I asked for first dibs on any space-themed ones, so as they process the stock they’ll keep an eye out for appropriate covers and put them aside. How cool is that? Sweet as.
So yeah, I’m really excited about that part of next year’s Moon Day.
I got a call this week from the museum, which is just ecstatic about the turnout. That just doesn’t happen on a midsummer weekend unless there’s something special going on. Which there was, thanks in small part to yours truly.
You know, the Director said, the quality of our Moon U. (or Lunar U., as he prefers) talks is of a sufficient quality that we should look into getting Continuing Education (CE) credits for educators who attend. Good point, and exactly along the lines of my thought to get in contact with the Aerospace Education Services Project (AESP) and see about having Moon rock and meteorite Lucite disks certification classes. Yours truly is certified, and I have the certificate framed and hanging above my desk, as well as our local prof from Brookhaven College who does the Moon rock family-friendly classes at Moon Day. I remember when we had those classes at the 2007 ISDC they were packed. I’m also trying to get the resident Moonatic to talk about looking at the Moon with a telescope, and the AstronomicalLeague and American Lunar Society certification programs.
I also want to plant a Moon Tree at one of the upcoming Moon Days. There is one in the metroplex already, at a high school up in Plano, but I think it would be appropriate for the Frontiers of Flight museum to have a Moon Tree. Planting a sapling in the middle of July in Texas is probably a really bad idea. It needs to be nurtured to sufficient strength where it can either be planted at the event, or planted earlier in the year and dedicated at Moon Day. Hmm…there’s a garden center across the street from the museum. I wonder…
As the beginning of August approaches, so does the close of the ballot box for The Moon Society. A fairly decent percentage of the membership voted, which is an encouraging sign. It looks like I’m a lock, unless there is a last minute stuffing of the ballot box with write-ins, which is always the risk I had when I insisted on being elected versus accepting a hand-off to the VP position after getting myself elected to that post. Next year, when I stand for office again under the normal election cycle for President (every other year), I run the risk of another candidate as well as write-in. Ah, the perils of elected office.
As part of the transition I just got an e-mail to TMS about First Step. This is a Space Renaissance International initiative to get folks celebrating July 20th. It seems this sort of thing is in the air, as NSS of North Texas got an e-mail from AIA encouraging us to celebrate National Aerospace Week from September 11-17. It’s doubtful we’ll be doing anything as I already have a speaker for the September meeting and we’re already committed to a Sci-Fact party room at the sci-fi con FenCon on the 24th. We hand out the same kind of space fact info we hand out at our regular outreach events, but with adult beverages and R-rated movies.
International Observe the Moon Night is October 8th. Not sure what we can do there. Last year the event corresponded with FenCon, which worked out well for us.
After that is Astronomy Day at the UTA Planetarium on October 22nd, in conjunction with the Texas Astronomical Society and this year the Fort Worth Astronomical Society as well, an example of the kind of cross-pollination that can occur at something like Moon Day. Another is the Dallas Mars Society partnering with NSS of NT for the FenCon sci-fact hospitality suite. Both events are also opportunities for our Science Fair Scholarship raffle, and this year we’ve got an early box for our Santa Space Toy Drive. This year’s goal is to match last year’s 100 space toys donated to the local Santa’s Helpers community toy drive.
Things are finally gelling in place for Moon Day this Saturday, and I have a chance to chill a bit and update everyone on what’s happening.
Over a dozen exhibitors lined up (and more on the way next year):
NSS of North Texas (ISS, Cislunar Space, Solar Power Satellites)
The Moon Society (Moon)
Dallas Mars Society (Mars)
Dallas Area Rocket Society (Rockets)
Fort Worth Astronomical Society (solar scopes)
Texas Astronomical Society (telescopes)
UTA Planetarium (programs)
UTD Center for Space Sciences (upper atmosphere)
Solar System Ambassador Kelley Miller (Moon)
Civil Air Patrol (aerospace education)
Museum of Nature & Science (inflatable planetarium)
Astronaut Training Center (floaty chairs, astronaut suits)
Spaceminers (tether climber, robots, gyroscopic engine)
Next year I’m working on getting the Boy Scouts of America, headquartered here in the metroplex, to show off their STEM-related badges (engineering, robotics, space exploration, et al) and highlight a new STEM project on which they’re working. UNT should be back, and I’ve been working on the Monnig Meteorite Gallery over at TCU for the past few years. I’m hoping to get a display and a speaker from them, which would be a big addition to the program (especially as she would be talking about Lunar meteorites. Woo hoo!). We have been including their beautiful info postcard in the Lunar Sample Bags each year.
And, dagnabit, I’m starting next Monday on getting companies to show off their hardware at next year’s Moon Day (July 21st, 2012). We’ve got so many here in the great State of Texas, and it’s truly a shame that the folks of the metroplex (the money center of the state) don’t get to see what’s going on. My goal is a minimum of three company exhibitors (and we don’t charge for the space either, nudge, nudge) and a business panel in the auditorium put together by the Texas Space Foundation/Alliance. I may end up with nothing again, but if this year is something of a success I may be able to use that as leverage. In the interest of STEM I may have to start with non-space companies here in the metroplex like Raytheon and LockMart (who only do aero stuff here) to embarrass them into participating.
For the speakers we’ve got two tracks, what I’ve taken to calling Moon Academy (family friendly all ages) and Moon University (high school or bright middle schooler and up, on more sophisticated topics).
For the Moon Academy we have three programs this year, each run twice:
Moon Rocks w/Chaz Hafey of Brookhaven College (JSC lucite disks)
Toys in Space w/Cynthia Whisennand of SSA and CAP
Exploring the Solar System w/J. David Hale of SSA (incl. comet-building exercise)
1pm
A: Solar System
B: Toys in Space
2:30pm
A: Moon Rocks
B: Toys in Space
4:00pm
A: Moon Rocks
B: Solar System
Next year I’m looking to add classes on Moon Observing and Crater Making, and DARS should be back with a rocket class. Next year works better for them as it doesn’t overlap with their monthly rocket launches up in Frisco as it did this year.
For Moon University (or Moon U.) we’ve got five speakers lined up:
11:00am UTD Geosciences Lecturer Bob Finkelman will talk on “A Microscopic View of the Moon”
lunchtime movie: “Postcards from the Future”
1:00pm Also from UTD, Dr. James Carter will speak on “The Lunar Regolith and Its Maria Simulant JSC-1A”
2:00pm NSS of North Texas member Ken Ruffin addresses “What’s Next?: After the Space Shuttle Program”
3:00pm NSS of North Texas member Pat Hauldren speaks to “Science Fact in Speculative Fiction”
4:00pm Lights in the Dark blogger Jason Major will talk about his recent experience “Tweeting the Last Shuttle Launch”
These will be in the auditorium upstairs. We were going to stream mission coverage there, but the museum looked at the schedule and saw that Saturday is garbage compaction day on the ISS, and was generally finding there was no good way to set up the speakers on the main floor, and so decided to move everyone up to the auditorium. Now we’ve got to work extra hard to get people up to the auditorium so that we don’t have a rehash of last year when Armadillo Aerospace only had a dozen folks show up for their booming rocket videos (gee, why didn’t they return this year…?). I had about as many in my Cislunar Space class across the hall. Luckily we have enough speakers that I don’t have to inflict that talk again this year.
The Moon Academy and Moon U. appellations are just notional this year, but they’re very useful for keeping track of who’s what’s where, and so will probably be formalized next year. I’m also thinking of some kind of certification program where kids who complete say 3 of 5 Moon Academy classes get a certificate of accomplishment. 5 of 5 gets a gold star.
But that’s not all! There are also Moon Day door prizes: vials of JSC-1A from Orbitec, t-shirts from the Great Moonbuggy Race, a planets painting and free art class from G’nosh!, a copy of the lunchtime movie “Postcards from the Future” courtesy of director Alan Chan, and a teensy tiny piece (9 mg) of a Lunar meteorite from the Lunar Library.
If you’re one of the first 200 kids (generally up to about middle school age) at Moon Day you’ll get a Lunar Sample Bag filled with goodies from a whole bunch of folks, and most notably a copy of Make Magazine. All the materials get shipped directly to the museum (and locked in a storeroom), so I haven’t seen them yet, but I’m pretty sure the copy of Make is the space projects issue from last year. We’re all very excited about that one.
Had enough yet? [thank you sir, may I have another?] No? Good, ’cause there’s more. There’s also the Art Show - Comics in Space!
-60 Years of Graphic Space Adventure.
-Over 200 covers spanning six decades.
-Stunning visions of Space Exploration and Human Adventure from 1950 to 2010.
-Action, Excitement, Danger, Thrills, Chills, and the Wonder of Discovery!
-The Most Important Show you will see this year!
And that pretty much covers it! I’ve got to say that I am overwhelmed by the outpouring of generosity and desire to participate this year, which has exceeded all of my expectations. Most of the people I contacted were happy to forward materials on what they’re doing. Some folks didn’t get it though, having gone entirely electronic and expecting me to pay to circulate their materials, and so I can’t highlight their work. It’s one thing for me to flash a web address in a slide presentation, it’s quite another for a kid to go home with a cool bookmark with a web address on it that leads to all kinds of wonderful things.
From my perspective as someone who is trying to sell the idea of the importance of space activities to the citizens in my community, I need something physical to hand out that has a web address on it. And expecting me to pay for your publicity doesn’t fly with me. My budget for this event is $0.
That’s right. Every institution is eating the individual cost of their participation. NSS of North Texas paid to underwrite the Lunar Sample Bags (which consequently have the www.nssofnt.org web address on them). Museum of Nature of Science is paying a staffer to run the inflatable planetarium. I paid to frame the comic books since it is my Lunar Library that is putting on the art show, as it did last year. (I’m still deciding on next year’s project, probably collector cards) FAA Office of Commercial Space Transportation, NASA Innovative Partnerships Program, NASA Lunar Science Institute, Lunar & Planetary Institute, Orbitec, Great Moonbuggy Race, Moon Arts, UTD CSS, and all the others paid to ship their outreach materials to the museum. I also ate the cost of 150 glossy stock flyers posted around the D/FW metroplex, just because this baby is mine and I couldn’t be prouder. My hope is that someday it outgrows me and becomes an institution that families in the metroplex (and around the state, and neighboring states) look forward to each year.
So if you’re in the D/FW metroplex, you need to be at the Frontiers of Flight Museum at Love Field in Dallas (just north of Mockingbird on Lemmon Ave. Look for the big 737 sticking out of the north side) from 10am to 5pm - exploring space!. If you know someone in the North Texas area, tell them where they need to be this Saturday - exploring space! Cost is only regular museum admission - $8 adults, $5 students/seniors, under 3 free. Cheaper than a movie (oh wait, you get one of those too!), lasts longer, is way more informative and healthy for the brain, and the A/C is included!
One of the things I do as part of the prep work for Moon Day is to put the event on as many online local calendars as I can, over 15 so far this year. Turns out one of the event calendars has a nifty countdown widget to help keep track of how long until Moon Day:
I still need to work on getting the attendance numbers up…
Here’s a basic layout of the program so far:
Main Floor:
Museum artifacts
Exhibitors:
NSS of North Texas
The Moon Society
Dallas Mars Society
Dallas Area Rocket Society
UTD Center for Space Sciences
Fort Worth Astronomical Society (solar telescopes)
Astronaut Training Center (Space Camp-type equipment)
Solar System Ambassadors
Civil Air Patrol
UTA Planetarium
Space Miners
Museum of Nature & Science Inflatable planetarium
Speaking area (tentative)
Awakening the Sleeping Giant - Texas, New Space and the Next Frontier - Rick Tumlinson, TXA
Lunar College (Moon U.?; adult-level talks on space topics)
A Microscopic View of the Moon - Bob Finkelman, UTD
The Lunar Regolith and Its Maria Simulant JSC-1A - Dr. James Carter, UTD
A Roadmap of Cislunar Space - Ken Murphy, NSS of North Texas (tentative)
Space Shuttle: What Comes After - Ken Ruffin, NSS of North Texas (tentative)
Science Fact in Speculative Fiction - Pat Hauldren, NSS of North Texas (tentative)
Downstairs Classrooms:
Moon Academy (family-friendly classes)
Moon Rocks - Chaz Hafey, Brookhaven College
Toys in Space - Cynthia Whisennand, Solar System Ambassadors
Exploring the Solar System (+ build-a-comet exercise) - J. David Hale, SSA
Lunar Observing (?)
Art Show (upstairs):
Comics in Space
60 years worth of space-themed comics framed up for display, ~200 in number. 22 panels. It’s going to be an amazing show that I’m about 2/3rds finished putting together.
Auditorium (upstairs)
Moon movies -
Postcards from the Future
GaiaSelene
Coverage of Shuttle’s last flight
Howdy everyone. Just taking a break from all of the NSS of NT chapter stuff, and The Moon Society stuff, and my big project for the next few weeks: Moon Day
Planning has kicked into overdrive, and I’m off to a solid start. The main difference this year is that we’re moving from a four-hour event on a Sunday to a seven-hour event on a Saturday, based on feedback from last year. This means the exhibitors have to staff a display for a longer period, and I have to find a larger speaking pool (or spread out the existing pool that I can retain over a longer period).
I was a little concerned when I sent out my initial request for indications of interest from participants in prior years. The University of North Texas jumped on board right away, and Starman Ron DiIulio is one of our headline speakers, a Solar System Ambassador (SSA) and usually donates a meteorite as a door prize. Last year they brought a display with them, which I anticipate again for this year. Spaceminers.org is bringing their tether climber again this year. NSS of North Texas, co-host of the event, typically has a huge six-table display with videos, display boards, tons of handouts, Ad Astra magazines, and once again our Science Fair Scholarship raffle to raise money to award at next year’s Dallas Regional Science and Engineering Fair.
Dallas Mars Society will be joining us for the first time to highlight the upcoming Mars Society conference in August. Since I’m running for president of The Moon Society, I’m going to put together a separate TMS display with information about the organization and some righteously cool dioramas. The Astronaut Training Center will be bringing a number of their simulations to the event, including a floaty chair like at Space Camp.
One of our biggest ongoing supporters at NSS of North Texas is the UTA Planetarium, where the chapter has done outreach displays and Girl Scout merit badge work. The UNT Planetarium, as noted, will be there as well. This is rather interesting, as it was just announced at three different local school districts here in the metroplex that they are going to shut down their planetariums to save money. I’ve contacted both of the big civic planetariums (Noble in Fort Worth and Museum of Nature & Science in Dallas), but haven’t heard back yet. I did manage to track down the person at MoN&S responsible for their StarLab, and after a quick conversation it took them less than a day to run the idea up to management and get approval. So as a new feature this year we’ll have a large inflatable planetarium running programs throughout the day. Yee-hah!
More new folks will be joining us this year. The Civil Air Patrol, which offers an aerospace education program, will have a display. As will the Fort Worth Astronomical Society, which appears to be moving from a self-maintained website to a JPL-sponsored one. And the UT Dallas Center for Space Sciences just sent an e-mail asking if it would be possible to not only donate copies of their Cindi in Space comic (q.v. infra), but also have a display as well to show off some engineering models and have materials available on UTD science and engineering programs. I quickly called him back and said Yes! Yes! You have tapped into the essence of what this event is all about.
Moving on to speakers, there are three areas to cover: auditorium, conference rooms, and kids classrooms.
The auditorium is for our big name speakers. Starman usually gets the last presentation of the day, typically on the history of the Moon and asteroids, since that’s where we give away the meteorite door prize that he offers each year. The room has full A/V, so that’s where Neil Milburn of Armadillo Aerospace gave his rocket motor presentation last year, to an apparently disappointingly small audience. I’d like to get one of our local ISS tourists to come give a talk, either Anousheh Ansari here in the metroplex, or Richard Garriott down in Austin, but the museum takes point on ultra-VIP matters.
Given that I’ve got three extra hours to work with, I’m seriously thinking about including a screening of ‘Postcards from the Future‘, maybe around lunchtime. I arranged for an early screening of the film at my ISDC back in 2007, which resulted in an article in Wired Magazine. Consequently, the director, Alan Chan, who most recently has been working on the Green Lantern movie, has given me permission to screen the movie at NSS of North Texas events. Or more recently at The Moon Society hospitality party at the ISDC. He also sent us a couple copies of the DVD for chapter use, like in our Science Fair scholarship fundraisers.
The museum is concerned about the low level of turn-out in the auditorium, which they’ve noticed at events other than Moon Day. Their thinking is that people get lost in the main floor, and just don’t get upstairs to the auditorium. So they’re considering sectioning off an area on the Main floor for the auditorium speakers and having them down there where there’s greater visibility. Postcards from the Future would loop in the auditorium. Only problem is that it orphans the art show (q.v. infra) and the conference room speakers.
The conference rooms are used for grown-up level talks on space topics. In prior years we’ve had talks on Lunar regolith simulant, meteorite hunting, the Lunar atmosphere, cislunar space, and the like. This year I’m trying to get things like Moon observing and Moon basics. I do have a couple of NSS of NT chapter members who want to give talks on “Shuttle: What Comes After” and “Science Fact in Speculative Fiction”. If I can find time I may give my Cislunar Space presentation, and it may be that Dr. Carter might be able to give his talk about Lunar regolith simulant again.
On the materials side of things, I’ve had a fair amount of success. One of the things that makes Moon Day unusual is our ‘Lunar Sample Bags’, which we hand out to the youngsters. About 200 of them last year, so we’re preparing 250 again for this year. NSS of NT just approved underwriting this year’s bags, and so they get the chapter website shown on the bag.
Finding stuff for the bags involves writing to a whole bunch of folks, of which about half respond and most of which are able to provide something in the quantities requested. We’ve got our usual supporters, which have provided materials for three years now, like the Lunar & Planetary Institute and the NASA Lunar Science Institute. This year they both tried to send me International Observe the Moon Night materials, so I’m guessing it’s a big outreach priority for them.
I ran into Amanda from Google Lunar X Prize at the ISDC, and they’re going to help out again with materials, including Moonbots. We’re also trying to figure something out with their inflatable globe. My understanding is that it was prepared by Orbis World Globes, who were then going to compress the dataset to fit on a scale Moon to accompany their Earthglobe when they could find the capital to fund the computational time. Amanda remembers the story a bit differently as to who the X Prize Foundation sourced it from. Whatever the case, it’s up in St. Louis and the folks holding it have agreed to ship it down if we pay for the freight. Given that my budget is $0, it’s probably going to be staying in storage for a while.
The Yuri’s Night folks are seeing what they can scrounge up in the aftermath of this year’s event. Space Center Houston is going to be sending up some brochures with 10% off coupons. I ran into the Moon Arts folks at the ISDC, and they are sending some brochures. The UT Dallas Center for Space Sciences is printing up a batch of their Cindi in Space comics to include in the bag, and as noted are now looking at a display as well. I was hoping to get packets of the mini space lettuce that Orbitec includes in their Space Gardens, but they don’t have enough on hand, and are going to send a couple vials of JSC-1a Lunar regolith simulant instead. The Great Moonbuggy Race is sending a couple of t-shirts for door prizes (and the chapter may snag one for their Science Fair Scholarship raffle) as well as some handout materials for the handout tables. And Virgin Galactic is going to see what they can send us.
As I noted, I contact a lot of folks. A few who haven’t responded include Moon Zoo, STScI, TSGC, P&W Rocketdyne, CanSat, NanoRacks, STK, Estes Rockets, and Lunabotics. You have to cast a wide net to capture a few results, but as I often note, while your answer will usually be no, the ONLY way to get to yes is to ask.
Speaking of door prizes, I’m having a hard time with those. As noted, Starman usually gives us a meteorite sample, and Orbitec is sending some JSC-1A vials. I can use a couple of the Great Moonbuggy Race t-shirts they’re sending as well. In years past there would be a relatively recently published juvenile book that I would request a signed copy of from the author, but this year has been pretty arid. Past examples include Moonwake, Lunar Pioneers, and Whatever Happened to the World of Tomorrow? The year that Moon 3-D came out we got some of those as well.
This year I thought I’d try to hit up some local businesses and see if they’d be willing to donate product tax-deductibly to a 501(c)3 organization. The last bookbox standing is totally corporate and won’t post our flyers (Borders at least used to have community bulletin boards near the bathrooms), so I’m not even going to bother with them. I was hoping that the LEGO Store would have some autonomy, but the manager said I had to go through corporate in CT. I’ve dealt with them before, so I knew that was a dead end. (although I am going to have to try again for a project I have in mind at The Moon Society) I tried at Hobbytown USA, but the manager indicated they typically only donate to schools, and then just remainders type items. But they would post a flyer. The local comic shops might be willing to offer up some space-y graphic novels, but I’ve got other plans for them regarding the art show.
This year’s art show is going to be 60 years of space comics. About 200 comics or so, arranged 3×3 on a 32″x40″ black foamcore mount with a black metal frame. The first comic is a 1950 adaptation of the George Pal movie Destination Moon. The show then works its way up chronologically to 2010. There are 22 panels in all (making for 198 comics), although I’m thinking of doing a special kids comics panel to mount down in the play area to point kids upstairs to the rest of the show. Local comic shops that have helped in supplying the source material include Lone Star Comics (my main shop), Keith’s Comics (main back-up), Titan Comics (best boxes to dig through), Big World Comics, and Half-Price Books. I’m also going to use the display case again, this time filling it up with games. Board games, computer games, role-playing games, video games, puzzles, LEGOs and so forth. This serves as a counterpoint to the display downstairs of Apollo-era toys and games.
So the program is rich with content of all kinds, showing the vast diversity of space activities. And it’s all local!
The main thing at this point is to get the attendance numbers up. In 2009 it was somewhere between 500-600 attendees, in 2010 a bit shy of 500. If the exhibitors are going to keep doing this I need numbers in excess of 1,000 this year. I’ve already got folks passing on participating this year because last year was a disappointment, especially from the perspective of the speakers having small audiences. We still don’t have any advertising budget, so we’ve got to go old school.
The main thrust, which began last weekend, is flyers, like the one up top. I personally eat the cost of printing up the flyer on 8.5″x11″ glossy photostock paper, and then these get posted anywhere we can get permission to do so. I’ve printed up 100 so far, but I keep adding new names as more folks come on board, and so I’m up to the third version of the flyer, which will likely be printed up next week as I anticipate running out of my existing stock this week. We target libraries, book stores, record stores, restaurants and cafes, comic book stores, grocery stores, homeschooling supply stores, basically any place that’s non-corporate. I’ve found over the years that you’ll get much more support from the local folks than corporate types that have to run things up through chains of command. Corporates tend to only want to do big-ticket high-visibility type things where they expect significant name-recognition from a large audience to accrue therefrom. 500 attendees is too small, and the demographic isn’t easily distinguished. It’s an all-ages event, with content targeted to kids, families, and grown-ups alike. It’s the D/FW metroplex, so there’s no telling how many people might show up.
The other angle is getting listed on as many local online event calendars as possible. That’s the project for this weekend. The basic strategy there is to Google ‘Dallas event calendar’ and the like and see what websites show up on the first couple of pages. Strong google-fu allows me to winnow down the best candidates pretty quickly, and then you submit the info to each one. Sometimes there’s a no, but usually for something like Moon Day you’ll get listed.
I’ve already contacted the reporter at the Dallas Morning News who wrote up the event last year, but don’t expect expect to hear back until closer to the event. I also need to contact the local Dallas Observer to be sure to be listed in their Night & Day column in the issue that comes out on the 13th. There are other local media to contact as well, like Pegasus News and Star Newspapers.
My big hope is that we’re able to get on a local radio show called Think! on KERA the week before the event. I drove all the way downtown during my lunch hour to drop off a flyer, a Lunar Sample Bag, and a short cover letter to try to pique their curiosity a bit.
My biggest disappointment this year would have to be the lack of response from folks on the business side of the industry. I expected that Armadillo would be a tough sell after the weak turnout at their talk last year. SpaceX down in McGregor has previously indicated that they don’t see their educational mandate extending beyond Waco (it is, admittedly, a 2.5 hour drive or so to get to Dallas), so I took a softball approach and just asked for materials while exploring other avenues for trying to make something happen. Stone Aerospace indicated they wouldn’t be able to make it, and I haven’t heard back yet from the young go-getter at the Houston office of Paragon SDC. AstroTech didn’t respond to my inquiries last year, nor do I expect them to respond this year.
Here’s my view on things: We’re in the age of spaceshows. Back in the 1920s and 30s, airplanes were viewed by the general public as strange mythical things. It took airshows to drive home the point to everyone that aviation was a real industry with lots of applications, as people could actually get close and see the bent metal.
There’s also a larger effect at work as well. I view the space industry as one in which the U.S. of A. has a competitive commercial advantage. I also believe the space industry is one which offers enormous opportunity, which we should be exploiting like crazy to create value (and thereby wealth) for our nation and the world.
Still, it’s regarded as a bit mythical and sci-fi by the populace at large. To overcome that, they need to see the hardware. This builds confidence that yes, this is something our nation can do. In these dark economic times (which I’m cursed with understanding better than 99% of the world’s populace thanks to my day job and work history in the banking and financial sector. Don’t get me started…), the populace needs something that they can be confident in. Industry after industry that we start up quickly rushes overseas for exploitation, but space has high enough barriers to entry that the stable of our competitors is very limited. Very good at what they do, but none of our competitors have the American spirit that can make it happen for everyone, or the markets to make it happen (or at least what battered remnants remain after the last couple of decades of abuse and cancerous rot and corruption).
That spirit is worthless without training and guidance, and that’s why STEM emphasis in education is so important, to cultivate the brightest young minds into training themselves to tackle the tough problems that face our nation. Bridges don’t stand and rockets don’t fly if we ain’t got engineers.
And that’s where events like Moon Day come in - to give people the opportunity to explore all about space in one location, and find out what resources are available in the community. It also gives the local space folks a chance to meet each other, and maybe figure out other opportunities for collaboration. Youngsters go home with a sample bag stuffed with space materials (hopefully most of it with some kind of web address on it) that they can lose themselves in over the following week or so of torrid Texas summer. I was initially concerned that this would be a particularly weak event, and possibly the last of them as I would turn my efforts to other, more productive, ends. As the planning has progressed, though, more and more folks have stepped up to the plate, and it’s really looking like a very exciting event this year. There’s still several weeks to go, and I’ve got other unmentioned leads that I’m pursuing.
To shill for my own cause for a minute, this is the sort of thing that I’m going to try to bring to the presidency of The Moon Society if I get elected (so please join and vote). A focus on basics and being a voice in the community. If I can get membership numbers up, more chapters could be formed, which would be tasked or challenged with arranging talks about the Moon in their local community. What happens is that the first one is usually a fail. The fail is almost always tied to publicity and getting the word out. But the few people who do show up remember the coolness of the content, and might tell a few friends about it. After licking its wounds, the chapter would try again, maybe with a different topic. What’s happening is that they’re building the network of Moon knowledge in their community. The astronomy club guy/gal who does Moon observing and wants to show others how cool it is. The local university professor who harbors a secret obsession with the Apollo Lunar samples. The librarian who has read every Apollo book in the library cover to cover. The local banker who has a huge collection of Moon books and has actually read a good chunk of them, on all topics.
By which point certain audience members will start identifying themselves and you may find some new talent. At about the same time chapter or outpost members will be gaining enough confidence in their Moon knowledge (and will have read enough of theMoon Miner’s Manifestos) to offer their own talks about the Moon. They may create their own, or they may download a generic presentation from the TMS website that I’m going to work on putting together with a team. Eventually they may end up with enough stuff for a Moon Day type event in their own community.
So if you’re in the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex, or know someone in the D/FW metroplex, mark your calendar for Saturday, July 16th, from 10am to 5pm at the Frontiers of Flight Museum at Love Field in Dallas, at of Mockingbird and Lemmon. There’s a big 737 sticking out of the side, a recent gift from Southwest Airlines. You can’t miss it!
The first part of my Moon and Back interview at the ISDC conference is now up. I haven’t watched it yet, as I’m a little worried that I said something phenomenally stupid.
I’m safely back from the road trip to this year’s ISDC in Huntsville, AL. My agenda this year was a little more complicated than in years past:
1) Continue building the Lunar Library
2) Make concrete strides in establishing self as Gen X Moon guy
3) Not screw up my presentation
4) Achieve The Moon Society goals
5) Throw a great party
Tuesday was the drive in. About 10 hours, not too bad. About the same as the drive up to Albquerque to see Mom. Since I was driving I had loaded up the car with goodies for the trip - handout materials for The Moon Society display, Moon-themed alcohol (more on that anon), and stuff for the party. Far more than I could have taken on a plane…
Wednesday was the Space Investment Summit (SIS). I tried to get motivated to go early, but instead spent the morning cruising Huntsville bookstores looking for new additions to the Lunar Library to tackle objective one. The BookLegger, just down the street from my hotel, turned out to be the best of the lot. The rest were either laden with bodice-rippers, or, like Five Points Books, closed. Still, I was happier with the finds at one place in Huntsville than in my entire search across the L.A. basin last month after the Space Tourism Society anniversary dinner for Dennis Tito.
I got to the SIS early in the afternoon, and quickly saw that things have not been progressing much with regards to investment activity. Here’s what I’d like to see:
I have 401K money that is sitting in cash. I refuse to invest in what I view to be corrupted markets, but I would dearly love to invest in some of these new space companies and get cash into projects like Lunabots and sticky-booms.
However, since I am not a “Qualified Investor”, I am not able to do so with my personal investment monies. I may do “Qualified Investor”-level work at the bank, but that does not mean that I personally have the wherewithal either income or asset-wise to put my investment money in anything other than mutual funds and publicly-traded stocks and bonds. I want to put my money where my mouth is, but our current rules and regulations do not permit such a thing.
So I’ve been trying to think of ways to allow individual investors to mutually pool their money into some sort of fund that can invest in non-publicly-traded companies. The best I’ve been able to come up with is a Trust that would hold the actual equity or debt investments. This Trust would register as a publicly-traded company that makes investments in “NewSpace” companies, as well as non-traditional investments like funding a particularly promising CubeSat in return for all commercial and IP rights. (an issue the Google Lunar X Prizecontestants are wrestling with right now)
Though a publicly-traded company, all of the shares would be held by the Fund, which assets are offset by the liabilities of the investments by individual investors and pension and mutual funds in the Fund. The Fund itself would be publicly-traded, which ticker I would buy with my 401K money which is currently earning peanuts, but is at least hedged against principal loss by being in cash.
Other investors of a like mind would also buy into the fund. It would probably have to be set up something like a money market fund, with an NAV of $1 so that the total amount of shares outstanding solely reflects the pool of money invested by the Trust in space companies. But then how do you pass through losses?
This is probably too transparent a structure for the Feds, so it would likely not work. Plus you’d have to fend off all of the lawsuits from entrenched powers that be that don’t like threats to the status quo, even if that status quo is leading us on a road to poverty. So the fundamental issue remains unaddressed: How do we get money from average investors to the space sector to accelerate developments? (and without ending up in the kind of tech bubble we saw in the 90s where capital is squandered and malinvested in really bad ideas)
I did, however, get a chance to speak briefly with Richard Phillips, who ran the Space Economy Leadership Summit (SELS) a little while back down in Austin. He had expressed an interest in taking the SELS model around the country as a means of trying to hook up more venture capital money with the space sector. I suggested he instead take it around Texas to help drum up support for the industry in the state. The reason I was so anxious to speak with him was that one of NSS of NT’s best event partners, the UT Arlington Planetarium, was interested in participating in a Moon Day event this year, and so I’ve committed to organizing the event. I’m getting a much lighter level of interest from the usual exhibitors, so one way to work around that is to add some kind of business track to supplement the family exhibits.
This is not as oddball as it sounds. Rick Tumlinson recently got the ball rolling on the Texas Space Alliance (TXA), and has agreed to have someone from TXA (and possibly himself) up for the event. There is a lot more space industry in Texas than most people realize, with companies like Armadillo Aerospace, SpaceX, Paragon SDC, AstroTech, Oceaneering, Wyle Labs, Blue Origin and many others having operations here in the state. Now if I could just get them to start showing off their stuff so that people can see that yes, this is a real industry with real American hardware being produced. We’re at the time when the space industry version of air shows is going to be a very, very good and important thing, as it gives people hope in dark economic times that there are still things this nation can do better than anyone else (at least for the moment). People need to see that, which means that stuff needs to be shown off. Like at Moon Day… Mr. Phillips said he would see what he could do to help.
Also calling for my attention was an ISU-USA alumni workshop. There were a half-dozen or so alumni at the conference, and the new president of the ISU-USA alumni association, Michael Laine, was looking for ideas on how to revive what has generally been a rather moribund organization. A few of the problems are things like international alumni not knowing that they are welcome to be part of ISU-USA while they are here and help enrich the organization’s activities, or where to find alumni, as e-mail lists fall out of date, data gets lost, and people move on, or what the role of the social networks like LinkedIn should be.
Unable to solve all the problems in one fell swoop, we did what all good alumni do - went out to a dinner party instead. Great camaraderie was had by all, and now we knew who each other were for the rest of the conference. Which was good, as Angela was in charge of the hospitality suites and she struck me as a no-nonsense type. She immediately knew how to manage me and my party, and was even sweet enough to call me problem child.
Thursday was my big day. My speaking gig was at 3pm, so I was able to roll in at a decent hour. Most of the morning was spent setting up The Moon Society’s booth (a last minute freebie from the organizers), and I got to enjoy the lunch talk by Owen and Richard Garriott. I disagree with Owen that the government should choose one or two vehicles and focus on those, and much rather prefer that there be 5+ options and the market, in the form of those who purchase the vehicles, provides the solution. He seems to be falling into the trap of ‘only NASA as a customer for human spaceflight’ thinking, though his own son disproves that notion.
Interestingly, I happened to be seated next to a reporter from the Huntsville Times. So I grilled him.
Last week, I gave a talk about the Moon to an elementary school up in Plano. While getting set up beforehand, one of the teachers came up and asked what was happening with NASA. The reason she asked, she said, was because her elementary school students were coming up to her and asking why it was that the Shuttle was going away and NASA ending?
Think about that for a second. Little kids are getting the message that there is going to be no more space stuff. NASA is ending. That is the distilled essence of what they get from their peers, parents, teachers and -media-. Why was it, I asked the reporter, that this is the message that kids are getting from the media?
He hemmed and hawed a bit about Congress, and National Priorities, and Policy, so I had to pin him down. Luckily, the lovely young redhead from the Space Frontier Foundation seated on my other side, N_______, chimed in that she had been getting the same question, ‘why was NASA ending?’, from folks in her peer group (early 20s) who aren’t space junkies like we are and don’t know any better.
Can there be any more heartbreaking question from a kid than
“Why aren’t we going to do space stuff anymore?”
The reporter couldn’t answer the question. Maybe he understands a bit better that the media is doing an abysmal job of informing the public of what is going on, or maybe I just pissed him off. Whatever. FWIW, I explained to the teacher last week how things got to where they are now, from Columbia disintegrating in the skies above our state, to the VSE and decision to wind down the shuttle program, to the CE&R studies of 2004, to ESAS and ARES and their eventual cancellation (and why), how Congress is currently mandating that NASA build it a ginormous rocket, and how private industry is working hard to provide not one, not two, but three launch vehicles as well as near half-a-dozen different crew vehicles. So there is actually great reason for optimism, and her students have very exciting things to look forward to in the future.
Thursday afternoon was back to getting the Space-Based Solar Power display put up at The Moon Society table. One of the things advocated by TMS is that as much of SBSP as makes sense should be derived from Lunar materials. These would be low-value-added products like extruded girders, trusses, solar cells, those sorts of basic things. And wandering around the exhibit hall to see what kinds of goodies were available, as well as taking a load or two of party stuff up to the hospitality suite.
3pm was getting close, so I headed up to Salon 5, just in time to see the end of Gordon Woodcock’s presentation. Holy guacamole! I’m supposed to follow Gordon Woodcock? WTF?
For those who don’t know why this existential crisis was descending upon me, Gordon is one of the old school Moon guys. He’s got papers in many, many of the books in the Lunar Library. If you’re talking about doing a Moon base, he’s one of the guys you’d want on your team. He’s one of the folks in the Lunar Underground, that kept the selenian flame burning at NASA during the long dark years of Faster! Better! Cheaper! and Mars uber alles! (a/k/a Mars is The Goal), and a planetary science community that basically considers itself (mistakenly in my view) done with learning anything from the Moon.
So, tough act to follow, and I only have 25 minutes to do a 50+ minute presentation. Which I manage somehow to achieve, with a few questions at the end. It’s the same presentation I gave to the kids the week prior, but with the scripting stepped up a few notches for a much more learned audience. Afterwards I stepped out into the hall, and who should Gordon be talking to but Paul Spudis? Who it turns out had also seen my presentation. Dr. Woodcock gave me a thumbs up, good job, and Paul, being the good Moon mentor, noted that “there are a couple of mistakes I need to get with you on, but, fundamentally, a good job.”
Wow. What higher praise can a Moon guy get? Sweet as.
This put a nice warm glow on my evening beer run as I raced to get the hospitality suite set up for the Moon party that night. As one approached the suite, one would see my “Lunar Adventures: See the world in a whole new way” framed poster sitting on a tripod outside the door. As one entered, immediately to the left and behind the door, were the Moon movies. Postcards from the Future looped a few times, and then it was on to classics like Plymouth and Murder by Moonlight. On the left wall was a -large- printout of the oblique view of Copernicus crater. Chris Carson of Luna City had done this for the original photo, but got a LOIRP restored version for the new one from Dennis Wingo. Most excellent. Further down the left wall was the kitchenette area, with a counter facing the front of the room and a bar facing the back, and very little room to maneuver in between.
For libations I had arranged for cases of Blue Moon and Honey Moon beer, as well as a six-pack of an oatmeal stout that had a crescent Man in the Moon face on it, and which was my emergency stash for later. There were seven bottles of wine, including Luna di Luna, Spellbound, Luna, Astrolabe, Luna e Stellae, and one more I can’t remember but which also had a Moon theme. And then there were the liquors. Green Moon absinthe-flavored vodka. Midnight Moon Carolina moonshine. Lunazul tequila. Magic Moon orange liquer. Moon Mountain wild raspberry vodka. You get the picture.
The beer ran out at 10pm. I had left on a beer run at 9:30, but the directions were missing one key element, and by the time I was crossing narrow bridges with trees growing overhead I knew I needed to get back to the party and that there was no way I was going to be able to get more beer in a decent timeframe. The wine ran out next, then the liquor. Every drop was consumed, and then many folks wandered up to the SFF suite to drink their booze.
Back behind the bar was a love seat/chair/table arrangement where I had put out all of the new LEGOs for folks to play with, and a lamp with a black light bulb. Moving to the right side of the suite in the back was the bedroom area. Here I had a flat screen showing Moon documentaries. I had brought several with me, but got so caught up in the party that Direct from the Moon ended up looping all night. There was a blacklight in the bathroom.
Coming back to the open front area, there was a sofa and chair with side tables and a coffee table. There was a GameBoy with Lunar Lander and a Nintendo DS with Moon ready to play, and glow sticks available on the table (very popular - so much so that SFF got some for Friday night). The lamps had faux black lightbulbs in them, and there were also miscellaneous trading cards laying around for folks to take.
I didn’t hear any complaints about the party, other than, you know, Rick shouting for my head when the beer ran out. (just kidding) So I consider it a success. The best compliment came when someone noted later that Apollo was conspicuous by its absence from the party. Mission accomplished!
What was most edifying was how many youngsters were there. SEDS, ISU, SFF, Yuri’s Night, and even the NASA Academy. Special thanks to Omar (one of my charges at the 2002 Goddard Academy) and Nick for bringing the NASA Academy folks out. Not just Thursday night, but Friday for the SFF party and Saturday for the SEDS party as well. One of my objectives for throwing the party was to recruit some younger folks to The Moon Society, which is proving a hard sell. Many of them have experience with joining all sorts of things in college or right out of college, and everyone asking them for money and time and skills and they burn out quick on the whole joining organizations thing.
This is emblematic of a larger societal problem facing many organizations in many industries, and one that boils down to demographics. The Baby Boomers are a huge generation, outnumbering Gen Xers by nearly 2 to 1. The Baby Boomers are notorious for not grooming their successors, and so when companies and organizations get to the point where people start retiring from being active in any particular activity, there’s no one to take over and continue the work of the organization. So they scramble to try to find someone. Except there are only half as many Gen Xers around, and they move in entirely different social circles, so they’re hard to find. Latch key kids grew into latch key adults, and we’ve got our own projects and activities that we’re working on, thank you very much. What exactly is our motivation for working towards your goals?
So the answer that I’ve come up with is to have cool projects to work on. Remember, younger folks have been raised in more team-oriented environments, working together towards success. This is great for projects, and TMS has plenty of them. TMS recently received a bequest to be applied towards projects. Two have come up that hold particular appeal for the organization: a solar-sail comm sat for Lunar orbit, and a lava tube exploration analogue. I gotta tell ya, when I mentioned lava tube exploration, I saw eyes light up. It was only recently that it was pointed out to me that since the lava flows had occurred in successive layers over millions of years, there were likely lava tubes in multiple layers. The challenge is how do you send a robot down a skylight to explore. There’s going to be a messy cone of scree under the skylight, and any exploring is going to be done at a right angle to it. It would be interesting to rappel in a spacesuit down a lava tube skylight.
Other ideas are to have chapters and outposts arrange for Moon talks in their communities, and raise money for science fair scholarships for space projects.
Murphy’s Law continued to flog me after the party was over. I’d run low on beer because I had made the mistake of letting folks start early, before the official 9:30pm start. By which point most of the beer was gone. Now at 2:30 in the morning I discover that the skybridge to the Von Braun Center (VBC) has been locked up, and I have to hike around the VBC to get into the parking garage. Which it turns out has been locked up and I can’t get to my car (legally), and couldn’t get out even if I did. So it turns out I’m crashing in the hospitality suite for the night, or what’s left of it.
Friday morning I’m up with the Sun, as I’m going to be speaking to the international students at 10, and I’ve got to get back to my hotel and shower and change. I’m back with time to spare, which is good because the room is still locked. Having chaired an ISDC myself, I knew exactly what to do - go search for someone who worked there. They were unlocking the doors by the time I got back. Since they were still setting up the A/V & computer I equipment I volunteered to go first, since I needed neither. So with a stiff cup of coffee in hand, I dove into it.
The point of my talk, I was told, was to give the basics of setting up and running a chapter. I pointed out the many different organizations that already exist, like NSS, The Moon Society, The Mars Society, SFF, SGAC, and SEDS. Forming a club associated with one of these organizations allows you to leverage off of their structure, as Moon Society - India has done. You can always strike out on your own, though. I talked about different kinds of projects that can be undertaken in the community to help get the space message out. And I laid a quote on them from a Sci-Fi book. IIRC, Moonrise by Ben Bova.
“If it’s to be, it’s up to me.”
Because seriously, if you don’t step up to the plate and make things happen, then nothing will happen. And history only happens to those who show up. If you want to have a space club, then make it happen. Don’t wait for someone else to do it, because they won’t. FWIW, this is also a way that future leaders are unveiled.
With that, my obligations for the conference were over and I could sit back and relax, or so I thought. I decided to take a closer look at the book table and see what I could find, having already espyed a copy of “Somebody Else is on the Moon”, which the Lunar Library has in paperback, but not hardcover. Chatting with the gentleman behind the counter, it turns out that he is Five Point Books, which closed when the landlord tried to jack up the rent on the PoS clapboard house converted into a business with a paved front lawn in a gentrifying neighborhood, and went virtual instead. Hopefully my purchases helped in that endeavour. And where else but an ISDC would you find a banker talking to a poet about space books?
The Friday luncheon was an eye-opener with Dr. Spudis. He’s really coming around to the idea of not just sprinting to the Moon first and then backfilling cislunar space, but developing cislunar space in a way that facilitates getting back to the Moon, especially with the right transport architecture, which can be leveraged to accelerate cislunar (and translunar) development. There’s a lot of work to be done in cislunar space that has nothing to do with the Moon, something I highlight in my talk, but having the resources of the Moon available in cislunar space greatly facilitates further growth. It was when he said something along the lines of “we have to work together to climb out of the cradle” that I threw my arms up in a silent Yes! Why, you ask? Just scroll to the top of the page.
Cislunar space is where it’s at, folks. It’s where the development is going to happen. It’s where the LEO space and gas stations are going to be. My guess is at 0°, 28°, 40-42°, and 51.6°, corresponding to equatorial, Kennedy, most US spaceports, and ISS inclinations. The next destination is EML-1, which is 3.77 km/s delta-V (approx.) from all of those LEO inclinations, which means even the ISS can be used as a platform for stepping out to EML-1. Actually, if you put gas stations in LEO, EML-1, and on the Moon, 4 km/s will either get you to the next gas station, or to/from many destinations of interest. It’s where the GEO broadcast and power platforms are going to be located (and where we really need to send a garbage crew). It’s the L-5 point where NSS and others would eventually like to see space colonies.
After the luncheon I was trying to get away so I could take a nap at my hotel and be rested and refreshed for the rest of the day, but that was not to be. Alvin over at Moonandback had seen my presentation the prior day and wanted to do an interview. I kept getting questions about one of the images in my presentation, and whether or not it was going to be online. Unfortunately, there is enough copyrighted material in the presentation that while I can claim fair use in a talk, distributing it online is just asking for trouble. Alvin’s going to be using some of the slides in the interview when he posts it online.
The image everyone kept asking about is one I’ve used previously here at OotC, and is from one of the books I picked up at the Xinhua Bookstore by the Forbidden Palace during a business trip to Beijing. What struck me was the number of young men hanging out in the aisles of the book store poring over the engineering books. I was able to pick up about a dozen Moon-related titles while there, and so have access to a vast plethora of information (in a language I can’t read) about China and the Moon. Want to know what their Moon plans are? Here you go:
My basic understanding is that they’re working on five-year plans. Chang’e-1 was in 07, so I would expect the Moon rover sometime around the end of 2012, and the sample return by the end of 2017. I wouldn’t try to pin them to a specific date, as they will launch when they are ready to do so, not when outsiders expect them to. Failure of the mission would cause the Chinese, in their view, to incur loss of face. They’re not too hip on that, so they’ll launch when they feel they have the maximum likelihood of success.
After the interview I did get to retire to my hotel for a nap. I wasn’t going to the gala, so I just kicked about town for a bit before heading back downtown for the SFF party. Since I wasn’t going to be parking in the VBC again, I tried the Holiday Inn across the road from the conference hotel. I was staying at a sister hotel up on University, so I asked if I could borrow a parking spot off in the corner. The manager was a bit surprised that I even asked for permission, but said okay, no prob. I’ve generally found that being courteous and asking for permission generally helps smooth things much better than the situational ethics version of “It’s easier to ask for forgiveness than permission” (or put another way, a fait accompli tilts the balance in your favor). I dabbled in moral relativism and situational ethics back in the 80s when it was really coming into style (it seemed quite popular with the thirtysomething Baby Boomers), but three days in the pen will cure you of that mental illness real quick.
With my Beetle safely parked I could enjoy the SFF party without worry. They’d learned from my experience the night before, and gone with more mixed drinks and only a small amount of beer in an effort to last the night. They also picked up some glow sticks, to use as stirrers in the mixed drinks. One note for those who want to do this in the future - let the recipient of the drink start the chemical process. Running your hands all up and down the stirrer before dropping it in my drink strikes me as a bit unhygienic. Definitely a more classy affair, as befits a post-gala affair, though the booze didn’t last for too much longer than at my party. I got a fair amount of networking done, and was actually able to relax a bit.
Perhaps the oddest moment of the night came when Jessco von Puttkamer came wandering into the much cooler bedroom area. We had met the year prior at the ISU Symposium, where he gave the closing presentation, so I introduced myself again. He ended up asking IT Guru Hugh about his get-up - unshaven and a kilt. My guess is that in Jessco’s view, if Hugh was to be a role-model for the space interested, why would he wear such an ‘outrageous’ outfit. This led to discussion’s of a person’s role in society, and Hugh pointed out that as a Libertarian, he was not necessarilly obliged to live his life by the expectations of Jessco or anyone else. Jessco was confused by this ‘libertarian’ (small l, not ‘Tea Party’) philosophy and wanted to know more.
The variant that I prefer comes from a sci-fi story. Hold on, let me go pull out the graphic novel…here we go, ‘Open Space’ from May 1990. “There Ain’t No Such Thing as a Free Launch!” It’s a Randian tale of bright individuals who decide to leave Earth to create a new civilization founded on the principles of liberty and justness. The founding credo of this society is as follows:
“I may not like the way you wish to live, but injure no other and I’ll defend to the death your right to live as you wish”
A covenant to which all of the citizens of the new society would avow. It’s the best distillation I’ve found so far of the libertarian philosophy, encapsulated in a structure familiar to all fans of the First Amendment: “I may not like what you have to say, but will defend to the death your right to say it”. I’m personally of the belief that it is better if ideas are aired in the market of public discourse, so that people can make up their own minds as to whether any particular meme has merit or not. Bad ideas are quickly unveiled and better solutions can be offered.
The problem arises when the Fourth Estate, the press, devolves into a oligopoly situation where the public discourse is limited to what a handful of individuals decide (so long as everyone continues to use the venues they control), and so things like the provisions of the Patriot Act and the actions of the TSA don’t get the proper airing they need so that our society can determine if those are in fact the best approaches, or if they even conform to the Constitution that underpins the governance of the United States. In that regard I consider Texas Lt. Gov. Dewhurst to be a pussy, in that he so quickly rolled over when a TSA lawyer threatened to turn Texas into a no-fly zone if we stopped TSA agents from groping and manhandling our state’s citizenry.
I am at the point where I refuse to fly. I would dearly like to go to the NLSI and NewSpace conferences at the end of July, but the drive to and from Cali just doesn’t make sense, especially since this year they are not being held contiguously. I will go to the SEDS SpaceVision conference up in Colorado, since I can crash in Albuquerque and see Mom on the way. But I will not fly unless work requires it, which is unlikely in my current role. I got manhandled at LAX on my way back from the Space Tourism Society dinner, and that was the last straw. I am not a criminal; some might even regard me as a benefit to my community because of my civic engagement. I’m one of the emergency coordinators at work, and receive first aid training on a regular basis. I’m the kind of lean and fit Boy Scout lad that you want sitting in your emergency exit row on the flight. Except that now they can’t have me since as a U.S. citizen (and a Texan) I refuse to submit to having my 4th Amendment rights trampled.
Saturday I rolled in late. I knew that today I was going to have to review the student space settlement projects and the students were anxious for me to do so. With my cowboy hat on, of course. It seems to have become iconic, and people don’t recognize me without it. And it seems that my motivational talk on Friday morning may have had more of an impact than was evident at the time, as they were practically treating me like a rock star and asking for my autograph and taking a picture with me. It’s a bit tough for my Aspie brain to wrap around, as nothing I’ve done so far really merits that kind response. It’s also a bit of work as I try to individualize each autograph, which can have freaky effects. For one young lady, when I opened up my mind to see what fell in I kept getting thoughts of equations and algorithms. While flipping through the presentation she was asking me to sign, looking for further inspiration, it kept falling open to a page with a number of equations on it, so I asked her if she had contributed that particular section of the report, which she affirmed. It happened with another young lady where I was getting thoughts of surgical procedures and medical treatments, and she indicated she was interested in biology and medicine. Freaky stuff that makes zero sense and has no scientific basis on any non-quantum level, and humans aren’t supposed to have quantum-level sensory input.
I put on my Science Fair judge hat and got to work, spending at least a quarter hour on each one. I would ask them to sell me on their project, and spend some time using my ISU education to ask questions and uncover errors. I try to take a very laid back style as a Science Fair judge, evaluating each project on its merits, asking them to provide rationales for some of the decisions they made, and discussing how certain aspects of the project may have been more or less appropriate for what they were trying to achieve. It’s less of a judgment and more of conversation on where the project might go or how it might be made even more sophisticated. I did uncover a few things that the actual judges had missed in their evaluation (and which the students can now use to their advantage in future years). It’s an exhausting process, but the students are great, and we did get some cool pictures.
I was debating whether or not to attend the Saturday NSS Awards dinner. I’m not going to be a happy camper until I get one of the NSS Pioneer Awards because, you know, it’s a great Moon sculpture and I want one for the Lunar Library. Still, a buzzing in the back of my brain told me that I should be there, which was proved correct when Larry Ahearn quietly sidled up to me and informed me that NSS of North Texas was going to be getting an award for Excellence in Public Outreach. I was hoping it might be our Santa Space Toy Drive, which over the years has donated hundreds of space and rocket and astronaut toys to disadvantaged kids, that had sold the awards committee. Or perhaps our Science Fair Space Exploration Scholarship, which has donated $600 over the last two years to space-themed projects at the Dallas Regional Science & Engineering Fair. Or perhaps our Moon Day project (now in full swing for 2011), which has brought all the space goodness of the D/FW metroplex to over 1,000 people over the last two years. Or perhaps our work updating the Boy Scout Space Exploration Merit Badge pamphlet for the post-Shuttle era. Or our many outreach displays at cultural institutions in the metroplex. Nope. It was our Perry Middle School project, where we help build an analogue ISS module for the school’s Space Week, and provide speakers for the event, including Carol’s ‘transmission’ from the ISS where she pretends to be floating in microgravity. Carol headed up to the stage first, and I made sure all of my chapter members got up on stage before I did for their moment in the sun. If the video makes it onto the internet that’s me extending my Beaumont in the air and yelling ‘Yee-haa!’ when the award is announced. Gotta represent, know what I mean?
Speaking of mean, the SEDS party once again featured Rocket Juice, which uses a secret formula carefully guarded by the SEDS leadership to super-saturate the alcohol in the drinks, and one shot will seriously mess you up, so it’s best sipped very slowly. I have to say that I particularly enjoyed the SEDS party, as there came a point in the evening where the balance between the old guard and the youngsters came somewhat into parity, for the first time that I’d ever seen, and you could tell that some of the greyhairs were feeling a bit lost in the shifting culture. I was reveling in it, regaling NASA Academy alum with tales of adventure from the ‘02 Goddard Academy, like where I got both the Goddard and Ames Academies in front of Congress, or helped kick start the exchange program with CNES, and Yuri’s Night alum with stories of the dancing astronaut Snoopy awards they were wearing. I was getting folks excited about Lunar lava tubes and The Moon Society. It was a good, good night.
from Whatever Happened to the World of Tomorrow by Brian Fies, an excellent read
Sunday morning was packing up for the trip home. While I had unloaded quantities of alcohol and handouts, I was also picking up a bunch of stuff like the Solar Power Satellite display, and the many books I’d found, so the bug was once again stuffed to the gills. I finally got a chance to talk with Paul at OpenLuna, a network of Canadian Lunar advocates, and we discussed how our organizations could work together to advance our common cause. My search for my cooler, which had been used by the subsequent hospitality parties, kept me around long enough to get caught up in the tornado drill. I’d noticed the dark clouds approaching, but wasn’t too worried as it didn’t look to have enough energy, and the clouds didn’t have any of the weird colors that usually presage a tornado. It was a good opportunity to note that space advocates should get used to this sort of thing, as Solar flare storm warnings and shelters will be common in the inner Solar system.
The drive back was a bit more leisurely, taking 11 hours to get back to Addison. Still, I despise the games that 18-wheelers play on the interstates; it’s dangerous and clogs up the traffic flow. I had taken Monday off to de-conference and unpack, as well as get started on this debrief.
Monday was also a day to get the next project going - Moon Day on July 16th (which corresponds with the launch date of Apollo 11) at Frontiers of Flight Museum at Love Field in Dallas. Regular readers know this is a big project for me, and this year is going to be particularly difficult, as some of my big exhibitors can’t make it, attendance was a bit down last year since it wasn’t an Apollo decadal or semi-decadal anniversary, which trend may well continue this year despite the switch to Saturday, and that switch also gives me three more hours to schedule content for. Working in a business component with a focus on Texas space businesses will help fill that out, and may even facilitate access to underwriting monies. In past years I’ve put together the event with a budget of $0, which makes things like advertising difficult. If I can get some money from an underwriter, I can do things like advertise in the Dallas Business Journal. Still, it’s tough hearing no after no after no after no after no after no after no after no after no after no after no after no after no after no after no after no after no after no. (something the students commented on in their fundraising efforts) It can become quite disheartening, but you have to just keep soldiering on, because if Moon Day is to be, it’s up to me.
Overall a great conference from the National Space Society, and as usual a completely different experience from years past. I don’t think I attended a single session other than the ones at which I spoke, and spent almost the entirety of my time chatting and networking. There was a pleasing surge in younger attendees, and increasing evidence of new ways of thinking on how to tackle this whole space conundrum thing. Shout out to my peeps from ISU, especially my classmates Fujita-san and Nassim, and the NASA Academy. These are networks that are ‘new’ to the status quo, and I’m glad they’re starting to gain recognition. There are a lot of very, very smart individuals, far more so than I, in those networks, and they are the future leaders of the space field. It’s time they started getting more recognition, and I’m strongly considering suggesting a “Next Gen” track at the next ISDC (which I won’t be attending since it’s going to be in D.C. There’s something just wrong about that place, and my karma feels soiled after every visit. Whether it’s the cesspool of Congress, the co-opted by special interests Executive branch, or the corrupted from justice by ideology Judicial branch I couldn’t tell you, but the place is just rotten and I do not like going there)
I’ve also got to buckle down this summer on the transition to president of The Moon Society. I think I’ve scared up enough votes to overcome any write-in threat, so I’ve got to start refining my vision of what to do with the society into action, and there’re so many things to tackle. No rest for the weary.
And that, my friends, is how I spent my 2011 ISDC.
My birthday presents to myself finally arrived! I’ve got to say that set 3368, the Space Launch Complex, looks like a phenomenal build. Love the rocket design. The fairing can hold either an astronaut in a rocket sled, or a satellite. There’s a crawler to carry the rocket to the launch tower, and the tower itself features a retractable hose for fueling the vehicle, as well as an elevator for carrying the payload to the top. Even some countdown flaps. There’s also a poster that seems to be hinting at an ISS and a Hubble set in the future. I’m a thinkin’ I’m going to be taking this one to show off at the ISDC (more on that anon).
Set 3366, the Satellite Launch Pad, is a much smaller set, but I do like the idea of a mobile launch control center.
And of course, my favorite, set 3365, the Space Moon Buggy, with drill attachment on the back for some prospecting in the Lunar outback, and a sat dish to send your assay results back to base to get first dibs on a new strike.
In my view, these are the “NewSpace” Lego sets. Nary a space shuttle or Apollo lander in sight. All clear for future cislunar space adventures!
So yes, I’m in a good mood this evening.
I’d been in a bit of a funk, as the trip to L.A. hadn’t turned out as well as I had expected in the ways I had expected. The Space Tourism Society dinner was okay, a kind of “Hurrah! Things are going great” sort of get-together (and frankly, they are going great). Many, many familiar faces and the usual dearth of Gen X and younger participants. There were some, and I made sure to sit in the back at the kids table to have the more interesting conversations. That was where I happened to meet L______. More on that anon.
Friday was spent canvasing the book stores, starting in the Santa Monica area and arcing north and east-ward as the day progressed, up through Hollywood and into Studio City, over to Glendale (the best of the bunch), hooked back around to the Griffith Observatory, which had undergone an upgrade since I was last in LA in ‘01 for my ISU internship. Then to downtown LA then back out Santa Monica to hit the stores that had been closed when I’d swung by in the morning. The most disappointing was a place up on Sawtelle. There was a nice 14 volume set that was a children’s encyclopedia of aviation and space for $75. I was quite interested in acquiring the set for the Lunar Library, but there was no way it would fit in my luggage. So I asked the clerk about shipping it. Apparently it was too much trouble, as he declined the sale. Unbelievable. And people wonder why the Chinese are going to eat our lunch. Those folks hustle and make the sale.
It was as I was digesting what had been available at the different stops that I came to the conclusion that the reason there’s no good space movies out of Hollywood is because the literature’s not there. I had better luck finding space books in one bookstore near downtown St. Louis last year on the way to ISDC than I had across the entire LA basin this trip. This was wild to me because at the dinner the night before folks had been talking about how SoCal was a space nexus because of the history there. Don’t see how, as I found way more and interesting stuff on the trip to San Fran last October for the Space Manufacturing conference at NASA Ames.
It was on the way back to the hotel that I got the message from L_______ that she wanted to meet for drinks/dinner. How about the Four Seasons in Beverly Hills? Okay, sure. I may not have had date clothes on this trip, but she sure did: a necklace of stars and a silvery gray sweater that shone as if bathed in Moonlight.
Saturday morning I made one last trip, out to south Inglewood near the airport to a little comic/card shop to see what they might have. A couple of items, but not much. Then it was to the airport and the indignities of flight. First, let me praise Frontier Airlines. They fly nice Airbus A319s and A320s, the animals offer a personalizing touch to the planes that you don’t normally get, and so for example I flew under the watchful eyes of Carmen the Blue-Crown Conure (a sort of parrot) and Trixie the Red Fox (the fox being one of my animal totems, by the way). The agents were kind enough to switch me to exit row seating without any hassle. I usually note that I’m exactly the kind of strapping young lad they want in their exit rows (6′4″, lean and fit, emergency coordinator at work, Boy Scout, you get the idea). In fact, I’d even be willing to go through a couple days of emergency training to get preferential access to those seats.
That’s what makes the security so revolting to me. The presumption is that I am a criminal, and I have to offer myself up to them to prove I’m okay to travel. The concept that to my own government I must prove my innocence, rather than requiring them to prove that I am guilty of what they fear, just fills me with opprobrium. It’s to the point where I am going to have to stop going to space stuff in places to which I can’t drive in a reasonable time. Still, L______ is out in Cali…
Looking forward, planning has begun for Moon Day 2011. I won’t know for sure if we’re having one till the middle of the month deadline for indications of interest. They’ve started trickling in, but I’m worried that I won’t get to a critical mass. May 15th is when I’ll commit. Just in time for the ISDC.
I’ve managed to get myself more involved than I had anticipated. I’m giving a talk in the Space Settlement track on Cislunar Space, I’m hosting a Moon Society hospitality party as part of my campaigning for president of The Moon Society, and I’ve been asked to speak to some of the international winners of the Space Settlement design competition about how they can do space advocacy in their communities. Just the sort of thing I talked about at ISU last February for their annual symposium.
Fifty years ago, on April 12th, 1961, at 09:07 hrs Moscow time, the Vostok 1 crewed capsule launched from the Baikonur space center carrying one Yuri Gagarin into orbit. It was on that day that humanity began a new age, the space age, and those born after that date share a common bond in being part of the space generation of humanity.
Thirty years ago, a new type of vehicle was introduced, a Space Launch System that would revolutionize access to space and make it routine and affordable, just what industry needed to tap the promising new field of microgravity science unveiled by Skylab. Which it was working towards achieving until Challenger. While the Baby Boomers have Apollo, Challenger was the defining space moment for my generation, gathered around the television as we showed off our space prowess by sending a teacher into space. And then the long stand down at NASA.
Ten years ago, a new generation of space enthusiasts gathered in Los Angeles and around the world to celebrate these anniversaries and space activities in general. This was the first Yuri’s Night, and what a party it was.
My how things have changed. Now we stand on the verge of shedding the old ways that stifle us, and launching into a new phase of space exploration, one where private industry can engage private industry for access to space. Worried about the security of your lab? Why not move it to a location less accessible to prying eyes? Want to take a honeymoon swing around the Lunar far side? Current market looks to be about $200Mn. What do you want to do in space? It may soon be possible.
All begun 50 years ago when Yuri Gagarin was the first human to touch space.
Once again, I managed to sweet-talk my way into the recent Awards Luncheon for the Dallas Regional Science & Engineering Fair. Awesome, as always.
The choice of introductory speakers was rather interesting, one Misty Giles, who is apparently not only an SMU engineering alumna, but was also part of the cast of Survivor: Panama. Pretty young too. If she was 24 in 2005 for Survivor, then she was born 80-81 or so, which depending on whom is consulted makes her either a tail-end Gen Xer, or a front-end Gen Y. Whichever it is, it’s good to see some younger faces in the chaperone, so to speak, side of the equation. I.e. everyone not a student. Usually it’s all grayhairs. Then began the long list of winners.
When I’m judging at the Science Fair, I don’t really get to see more than the 10 or so projects in my particular section, so it’s nice to see the winners from across the categories. The breakdown is Junior High/High School, then Life Sciences/Physical Sciences, which further break down to:
Life Sciences:
-Animal Sciences
-Behavioral & Social Sciences
-Biochemistry
-Cellular & Molecular Biology
-Environmental Management
-Environmental Science
-Medicine & Health Sciences
-Microbiology
-Plant Sciences
-Team Life Sciences
Each category has a 1st, 2nd & 3rd place winner, who receive a cash scholarship from the event sponsor. All of these are eligible to go to state, and a few are sponsored to participate in the International Science & Engineering Fair. Folks who pay attention may remember Amy Chyao as last year’s winner (visited the White House a few times, was at the State of the Union, likely going to get her own lab before too long…). She came out of last year’s DRSEF, from the Plano ISD.
Which dominated this year, as Plano usually does. The economist in me attributes that to the simple fact that the science teachers in the Plano ISD are incentivized to produce Science Fair participants and winners. The Dallas ISD certainly doesn’t do so, but then again the Dallas ISD is nowhere near as wealthy as the Plano ISD, where the parents are motivated and can afford to ensure that their children have the tools they need for success.
Which is why I was happy that the NSS of North Texas Space Exploration Scholarship went to some bright-eyed and enthusiastic young gentlemen from Greiner Middle School in Dallas for their work on the aerodynamic properties of rocket parts. We had a successful year fundraising through our raffles, so each one got a $175 scholarship from the chapter. They also each got a prepaid one-year student membership in NSS. And since I have a few Lunar Sample Bags left over from last year’s Moon Day, they each got one of those as well, loaded with all kinds of space-related info and goodies.
Why give them a Lunar Sample Bag? I hearken back to the ISU Symposium last year, and the young couple from Colorado who taught in a particularly difficult school district that had to deal with a lot of children of agricultural laborers in town for short periods. One thing they noted in what had to be a pretty demoralizing teaching environment, was that when students took an interest in space topics, there was a notable improvement in academic performance across subject areas. Students perceive the challenge, and that’s something that excites them into trying harder.
So while J___ & J_______ may have done their project on a lark (which I don’t know one way or another as I was not involved in the process), for extra credit or whatnot, having that lark turn into such a cool and unexpected result can only be a good thing.
I’m actually rather envious of the chapter judges. I help all year with the fundraising and donating prizes for the raffles and so forth, and I don’t get to be one of the folks giving it away. Oh well.
One of the ideas I’m pondering for if I get elected Moon Society President is the idea of a matching fund program, where Moon Society chapters would be encouraged to raise funds for a Science Fair scholarship in their local community, and the funds would be matched from the national level. It wouldn’t necessarily be a Moon project, but something space related. That would also burden me with having to raise funds at the national level to cover the ‘cost’ of matching the local scholarships.
One thing I’ve insisted on for the last two years is that NSS of North Texas raise the funds externally and not use internal funds. I was able to get away with it the first year, but this year the chapter overruled me and used chapter funds to cover the administrative cost of the winners going to the awards luncheon ($35, quite reasonable given that we’ve sent two each of the last two years). I did manage to cover their one-year student memberships in NSS personally, but the chapter will probably over-rule me on that one next year. I’m just worried that they’re going to start using chapter funds to match the fundraising sums, or just donate outright, which would drain the treasury before too long.
I would take the same approach at the national level; if I initiate a new project I need to find funding for it. Which shouldn’t be too hard - who wouldn’t want to be associated with a science fair scholarship? In a world of too few really good causes anymore (that aren’t just strip-mining donations to pad management lifestyles), it’s hard to argue with the merits of a solid science fair culture in a community, that community’s region, and on up the administrative levels to the national and international level. I’m not joking here, either.
There’s a lot of lip service about the importance of “STEM education”, but one does have to wonder to what extent folks are actually working towards that end, versus hitching up to the gravy train. The reason I say that is that one of my fellow judges was a recent SMU alumna with a Master’s degree in Engineering who was having a devil of a time finding employment.
I noted to her that an engineering career tends to be more project oriented than career oriented, so find the coolest team/project she can think of and try to associate with it. I also told her to seriously consider international opportunities. New Zealand is going to need engineers in the reconstruction of Christchurch. I saw enormously, megalithically, brobdignagianly huge construction projects in Beijing. Africa is building up their infrastructure. There’s a world of opportunity out there.
I also suggested she submit her resume to the bank. We do have a history of hiring engineering and science types as financial analysts, as they bring a discipline and rigor to the position that is otherwise hard to find.
One interesting note from the fair itself. Well over half the judges were new this year, and the general age seems to finally be trending downward. This is both good and bad, as you want to have folks with some experience judging to share the knowledge of how to do so, which counsels against too high a turnover, but you also need fresh faces as the older judges retire.
If you have a technical background in one of the fields above, please consider judging at your local science fair. It’s an enriching experience, and an easy way to directly contribute to the technical sophistication of your community, your region, and your nation. And look at the smiles on those faces - wouldn’t you want to be a part of that?
Many years ago, while living in Manhattan, I was trying to figure out ways to meet girls. I don’t really drink alcohol (except as the occasion merits, like a wedding or gala), so bars were pretty much out of the question. I don’t get to do church socials, so there was another swath of society ruled out. I decided to try my luck with civic organizations, figuring I would meet women who cared about their communities and are probably pretty smart. Given my international background, I figured the United Nations Association would be a place to try. Of course, as is true with most civic organizations, it was mostly greyhairs, but I was learning international stuff and got to do stuff at places like UN headquarters so I was pretty okay with it.
At one point, one of the Directors of the NYC chapter invited me out to dinner, where he asked me to consider running for the BoD. The national organization had done an analysis of their membership rolls, and quickly decided to engage in a marketing campaign of having members make bequests to UNA in their will. Turns out most of them had been around when the UN was formed, and there was a dearth of young blood in the ranks. So they were also engaged in a campaign of rejuvenating the organization, and the local chapter wanted some new blood on the Board. Somehow they saw promise in me, and I ended up serving on the BoD for many years. Through UNA-NYC I participated in the charter meeting of the Rotaract Club at the United Nations, which was a terrific experience, and also had a hand in the formation of the UNA-NYC Young Professionals Group, which has expanded to a national initiative through YPIC.
Ken does space stuff because he loves his planet
It was through these organizations that I got to do things like plant flowers in Morningside Park, clean up an elementary school in Queens, play Santa Claus for disabled kids in Harlem, plant trees in the Bronx, collect books for orphans in Haiti, and help organize volunteers for the NY Citywide Model UN each year. My job was to round up volunteers to prepare the briefing books, and chaperon the event. In return, I got to serve as Secretary-General for the General Assembly (GA) meetings, which were held at UN headquarters. I was either Boutros Boutros-Murphy, or Kenni Annan depending on which year we’re talking about. [Full Disclosure: While in high school I won Outstanding Delegate in the Capitol Area Model UN in 1984]
It was in 1999 that I single-handedly wrote the GA Briefing Paper on the Outer Space Treaties (as the funding hadn’t come through until late in the process, and I couldn’t organize volunteers to write a paper for an event that might not happen), which research led me to the Space Generation Forum at UNISPACE III, and then I went to Adult Space Camp and got the Right Stuff medal for my class, then STAIF 2000 with all the cool technology way cooler than finance and credit, and then on to International Space University for a year of Masters studies, and NASA Academy, and ISDC 2007 and the adventure just goes on and on.
One thing I made sure to do after ISU was to join the space advocacy groups that most closely align with my interests. That would be The Moon Society and the National Space Society. My work to date has been largely with NSS and especially our local chapter, NSS of North Texas. Sure I co-chaired the 2007 ISDC, and recently spent two years on the NSS Board of Directors, but I’m most proud of my work locally. I’ve organized a World Space Week event, two Moon Days, done countless outreach displays, initiated our Santa Space Toy Drive which over the last five years has given over 400 outer-space-themed toys to the local Santa’s Helpers program, initiated the Science Fair Scholarship, which has donated $550 over the last two years to projects at the Dallas Regional Science and Engineering Fair, initiated book drives for the play area at the local Frontiers of Flight museum, and many more projects. Our membership level is at least flat, impressive given the number of older members we’ve lost over the last few years. Our chapter has done a lot of work to educate the people of the D/FW metroplex about the importance of space. And the chapter budget is in a much stronger position than it was was when I joined. Enough so that the chapter can commit advertising dollars to the Dallas Mars Society, which is hosting this year’s Mars Society annual conference.
I got a phone call recently from one of the Directors of the Moon Society who was passing through Dallas on his way down to Houston for the Lunar & Planetary Science Conference (LPSC) and who invited me out to dinner. Hmm, where had I seen this scenario before? Long story short, he asked me to consider running for President of the Moon Society.
After consideration, I’ve decided that I’m going to throw my hat in the ring and run for the office of President of the Moon Society.
I think I can make a difference in how the Moon is perceived as an object of importance, not just here in the U.S. but around the world.
My goal is for a much better informed citizenry with regards to the Moon. It’s the same fundamental motivation that led me to put the Lunar Library online. Informing the citizenry means lots of outreach efforts, something with which I am not unfamiliar. It means talks and lectures in small towns and big cities across the U.S. and around the world. It means content for various media.
To that end, the first item on my agenda is to increase the membership numbers. This will be done through a variety of measures, both online and off. As membership numbers increase, this facilitates the formation of more local chapters around the country and around the world. India is a phenomenal example of what the Moon Society can achieve when it comes to forming chapters. These chapters would be tasked with organizing public lectures about our Moon and related topics in their local communities.v
Organizing public events help to develop the skillsets of the members, as well as establish links into the community. Who might speak at these events? Members might reach out to scientists at local universities, Moon-watching astronomers from the local astronomical society, local Solar System Ambassadors with strong Moon interests, and others in the community. Where might these be held? Any town with an airport likely has a flight museum associated therewith. Libraries are another option. Oftentimes restaurants will let you use their community rooms if attendees buy enough food. Science museums and planetariums are yet more possibilities.
Why would they do this? To teach more people about the importance of the Moon. The Moon is humanity’s sandbox for learning how to spread out into the Solar system, how to tap the resources of space, and can serve as an anchor tenant for the development of cislunar space.
What would I bring to the position of Moon Society president? Over 15 years experience with not-for-profit organizations in leadership roles, including a decade in space advocacy. A 20+ year professional background in international business, economics, banking and finance. Global networks of space professionals from Space Generation Forum, International Space University, and NASA Academy. And a passion for and knowledge of the Moon unparalleled in my generation.
I will also bring a strong history of working with other space advocacy groups to advance the common cause of people moving into space to better tap the resources and opportunities that the Solar system offers.
I’ve been told that I was propped up in front of the TV set for the Apollo Moon landings, but my experience is closer to that of the young ladies who won the Pete Conrad Spirit of Innovation award for their energy bar, who at last year’s ISDC declared “Do you remember Apollo? Well, we don’t!” I don’t either. For me, Apollo is something in history books, and my interest in the Moon has always been forward looking; how can we use the resources of the Moon to make life better here on Earth?
There are many answers, including the use of water to enable increased cislunar activity, and use of regolith to make the structural elements of Solar power satellites in GEO. Even things like shipping raw regolith back to Earth to be used in fertilizers for all of the trace elements.
There is also significant science to be done on the Moon, as many know, and initiatives like the Google Lunar X Prize are offering new avenues to achieving those science ends. Our robotic tools are progressing in their capabilities, and offer increasingly sophisticated solutions. Ultimately it is people living, working and playing on the Moon that is the goal of the Moon Society, and my own as well.
If anyone is curious about how I perceive the road going forward, I just got word that I’ve been approved for a speaking slot at the 2011 ISDC, and so will be giving an abbreviated (25 min. + 5 min questions) version of my infamous “Introduction to Cislunar Space” talk in the Space Settlement track. Not sure which day yet, so stay tuned for updates. I’m also working with NSS on arranging a hospitality room so we can throw a Moon party on Friday or Saturday.
So as every leader must do, I must ask for your support. (or as Heinlein put it: “Follow me!”) Please consider joining the Moon Society, and giving me your vote in the upcoming election. Maybe even stick around, and help make the future happen.
Suddenly, writing a debrief of my trip to New Zealand, and the acquisitions for the Lunar Library, has become much more difficult. My heart is rent by the devastation there, a beautiful city I had left not even hours before after a wonderful week.
This was my first real non-space vacation in a long, long time. It was an opportunity to visit the Southern Hemisphere for the first time, and see the country where the Lord of the Rings movie was filmed. How could I pass that up?
With no particular reason to celebrate St. Valentine’s Day, I flew out on a new adventure. Rob had recommended that I fly Air New Zealand, but that involved a transfer through Denver, which is always a bit iffy in the depth of winter when you have to book ahead. Qantas was okay, but they seem to have adopted many of the practices of the U.S. airline companies. The A330 I was on was giving me distinct flashbacks to a 767 flight to Paris from a few years ago. Definitely cattle class. Arriving in Auckland on Wednesday I saw numerous Air New Zealand 747s and decided I was definitely going to fly them next time around.
Thursday, W Day - 1, was spent in the central business district in Christchurch. The agenda was the Lunar Library, and acquiring new holdings. I had mapped out a number of bookstores, comic book shops, and other points of potential interest. After Rob dropped me off at the library I hit the streets for a long day of walking and checking out the local architecture. First up was Scorpio Books. This was the first place that at which I heard an oft repeated response to inquiries for science books, particularly space & astronomy - “Oh, we don’t get much demand for that sort of thing down here”. Though I usually was able to find a few things of interest. Smith’s Bookshop down on Manchester was good for some older stuff, and the Children’s Bookshop up on Victoria Street was a bonanza. That’s where I found the board game “Expedition Halley“, which bills itself as “Invest in space companies to make money, buy a space ship, travel to Halley’s Comet and photograph it. If you can!” I also picked up a Sevi Space Shuttle and numerous kid’s books. Definitely a top-notch shop.
There were a number of other small shops tucked in here and there as well, and now I’m wondering how many of them may have survived the last shake. In a sense, I may have saved some of these space books and documents sitting in a big pile next to my desk from destruction, and just in the nick of time. The coolest find was on Saturday, when I returned for a more cultural swing through town. In a small little collectibles shop, somewhere in downtown, I popped in to look at medals and coins and whatnot. After a while of browsing the owner wandered over to see if there was anything in particular for which I was looking. “Space, rockets, astronauts, that sort of thing. Which I understand is a not particularly popular topic in down here, so I’m not expecting to have much luck” I replied. Au contraire, he replied, and recounted how a couple of years ago someone had come to him with a couple boxes of space stuff, for which he had paid a nominal price. Now, two years later, he was basically cleared out of the stuff and for six times his investment. So he wasn’t buying the whole “space isn’t popular in NZ” line. We ended up with a number of postal covers, magazines, and a super-cool sheet of ten hologram astronaut on the Moon stamps. The scan doesn’t do it justice. The hella-coolest find is the “ticket” advertisement from the Regent movie theatre for their screening of the famous 1950 movie “Destination Moon”. Unfortunately, the theatre didn’t do so well this last time around.
W Day: Friday was the wedding, which meant getting everything set up. After working around the house, it was off to the community center to set up tables and chairs and place settings and glasses and nameplates. Unbelievable how many details go into a wedding. It did give me frequent opportunity to use the line “I’m an American and I’m here to help”. Heh, heh.
Rob and Lisa met through science fiction, and so they wanted it to be an important part of their wedding. Thanks to a local sci fi shop they were able to have a TARDIS (time and relative dimensions in space) backdrop. Another friend has a hobby of building replica Daleks. For those who didn’t grow up with Dr. Who, the Daleks are an evil race of robot/bio-organisms who have a genetic superiority complex and intend to rule the galaxy alone in racial purity. Nasty fellows, and the good Doctor can never seem to quite do away with them. The ringbearer, though, was theoretically under robotic control. Theoretically. You know how it usually goes with robots…
Mommy!
Afterwards everyone retired to the community center in Rolleston for fun and festivities. The Three Poplars Riesling was particularly tasty. I don’t much like white wines, except for Pinot Gris, of which I grew quite fond whilst studying at ISU. The Riesling was a notable exception. One gentleman, upon hearing that I’d been to China, asked whether I knew of the Tea Scam. Um, yeah. Then a quick clean-up afterwards and you couldn’t even tell that we’d been there. It was while hanging around afterwards and was checking out the sky (partly cloudy, as usual) that I noticed that the Moon looked wrong. It was different, somehow.
As noted, Saturday was spent on more cultural activities. The morning press was filled with content from the wedding, or at least a quarter of page 4. The last of the Twinkies were devoured for breakfast (the candy corn was much better received). After being dropped off again at the library I did a quick tour of some of the shops for souvenirs. I’d been told to ask in particular for a ‘Willie Warmer’. Mmm…warm fur. The one nephew got a fierce All Blacks rugby shirt that he loves. They also got lambswool slippers that they really liked the feel of. I’d already taken care of the adults at the factory outlet down the road from Rob & Lisa’s place out in the country, Knitworks. For me I got a merino wool/possum fur pullover that is soooo soft and so warm.
I wandered through the Arts Centre, and the open air market is where I first experienced L&P soda, world famous in New Zealand. The L stands for Lemon; the P stands for Paeroa, the town where the drink was conceived. The exact taste is hard to describe, but it is quite tasty. Sort of like a regional variant of Sprite. A few hours were spent in the Canterbury Museum, which has a surprisingly large number of really cool displays. I learned that we’re up to five Rs now. When I was a kid growing up it was all about the 3 Rs - Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. Now there’s also Refuse (which I’ve been doing for years and years) and Recover. I still have to work a bit on that last one.
The map of aftershocks was a bit intimidating. I knew about the one on Friday morning, the 18th. I didn’t really feel it so much as hear it. The sound is unique. Sort of like a freight train, but not really. Sort of like an extended explosion, but not really. It defies easy comparison.
Afterward was a walk through the Botanic Gardens. I hadn’t enjoyed a walk in the park that much since the Vondelpark in Amsterdam. I made sure to ring the Peace Bell while I was there, which I’ve also seen at UN headquarters in NYC and I’m pretty sure the one in Vienna as well, while I was at the Space Generation Forum.
They roll up the sidewalks early in Christchurch, so it was off to dinner at the Lone Star restaurant at the Papanui location. I decided to play up the part and wore the Beaumont out for an evening on the town. The margaritas needed more tequila. The chicken nachos were good, and I enjoyed my steak. We stayed well into the evening, and I was introduced to the Pav, a dessert invented in NZ.
Sunday was off to a late start for an afternoon luncheon at the relatives, and then the Ko Tane Maori experience at the Willowbank Wildlife Reserve. Yes, I did dance a haka. To top off the evening I gave my Moon presentation on Rob’s big screen TV.
Monday was nature day. I had indicated an interest in bungee jumping and horseback riding. The bungee jumping turned out to be a mere $190 for a couple minutes of sheer rush, as compared with $75 for an hour and a half of horseback riding up a valley and along a ridge. How hard is the economics of that decision?
We headed out to Hanmer Horses and after fording a couple of cricks in the minivan we arrived at the farmstead. Hand raised sheep greeted us as we walked to the office. There were the usual warnings of risk, although nothing as blatant as the last one I did down in Manor, TX, where the form basically said ‘You can die doing this. We’re not responsible, you are. Sign here.”
I was matched up with Nell, a fine Clydesdale, while the trailmistress took Ben, with whom Nell stabled, and Dan ended up with Shawma, a smaller gray that was a bit piqued at being teamed up with a couple of alpha horses. To my absolute dismay I was not allowed, by NZ law, to wear my much better Sun protection cowboy hat, and had to make due with a girlie helmet. Did I indicate already that I understand that you can die and/or become seriously maimed while horseback riding?
Off we headed up the valley, with the trailmistress in the lead and the more experienced of the two rookies taking up the rear, which suited Shawma fine. I tend to be indulgent with animals, and they all seem to like me, so Nell had pretty free rein most of the way, as long as she stayed in back. I could tell she wanted to run, though. She was just itching for it; I could feel it.
The valley was beautiful, with thickets of wild blackberries lining the way. Aound us steep hills climbed into the sky above the thick trees. After a while it was time to head up for a ride along a ridge, which offered spectacular views of the verdant valley below, until finally we reached the highest point of the ride. It was about that time that I noticed a peculiar effect. A couple of years ago we had a really good health plan at work, and so after over twenty years of patiently nurtured desire I finally got myself a set of prescription Ray Ban Wayfarer sunglasses, loaded with all the protection. When I tilted my head to the left the sky would go white-blue, and when I tilted my head to the right the sky went blue-blue. So I proceeded to wobble my head back and forth playing with the polarization. It also renewed my annoyance at not being allowed to wear my Beaumont for the ride.
Descending through some gentle hillside pasturage, our trailmistress gave us a chance to run back uphill, but Nell decided she was going downhill, and off we went at a gallop. One thing to note - the saddles didn’t have pommels, so no emergency handhold. Getting to the bottom of the hill I could hear Dan yelling ‘Stop! Stop!’, as his horse had taken off in pursuit and wasn’t responding to Dan’s attempts to rein him in. Good thing too,as Nell was setting herself up for a jump that I wasn’t prepared to let her take, even if it was just a little one. While I had been indulgent with the reins throughout the ride, I had also subtly let her know that I would use them should it be necessary. So stopping wasn’t too tough.
It was a thoroughly enjoyable experience, one that I would happily do again,maybe the 2.5 hour ride next time around. I’m convinced that humanity’s contract with the horses is the second best one we ever did (dogs being the best compact, hands down). I wish I had more time and budget for horseback riding, but such tends to be the case with life’s real pleasures. Dan had a great time, and is thinking about looking into working at a local stable.
It helps to have thermal springs to which to retire afterward, which we did for a few hours. Aaaaahhhhhhhhhh…
And just like that, it was all over. Monday night was the final cramming of the souvenirs into the suitcases. Tuesday morning we woke to showers, and I made a comment, that I now regret, that the Maori spirits were crying to see me leave so soon. I was just trying to be a bit poetic, but it also reflects a certain arrogance and assumption that the universe actually cares about my existence. Given what happened less than an hour and a half after I flew out, I feel particularly terrible. The whole thing is only made cosmically weirder by the fact that the fortune cookie that came with the Chinese takeout after I got back said “Luck is with you now. Act upon your instincts.”
Let me just say that flying internationally is still something of a pleasure. Just as on the way out of Texas, I forgot about the soda bottle in the web pouch on the side of the backpack. The security officer saw me notice it just in time and whip it out in preparation for chugging it, and he indicated that it was okay, it could go through. Sweet as. It may have been because it was a bottle of L&P soda - Lemon and Paeroa, world famous in New Zealand. He also commented on the cowboy hat, and I showed the guard on the other side all of the cool pictures in the new passport, including the Moon one.
There were delays in Auckland, but no one was complaining. Everyone seemed to sense the gravity of the situation. It was also announced that much of the air traffic control for this particular section of the globe is run out of Christchurch. During check-in in Auckland the agent was kind enough to move me to a slightly less bad seat, and I ended up sitting next to a young Fireman/EMT from Florida who had just done a turn on the ice down in Antarctica. That’s got to be such a cool experience. I remember a couple of the RAs at the NASA Academy were trying hard to arrange for postings down there. I told him to make sure to watch “Inside Job” during the flight. Afterwards, I told him as pissed off as he was, the documentary only scratches the surface of the shenanigans and chicanery, the pillaging and looting that has been going on over the last couple of decades in the U.S. And isn’t it a pity that you have to go out of the country to see a documentary on all of the rotten stuff that has been going on. I wrote a post about the shenanigans a couple of years ago over at the Selenian Boondocks (you have to read down a bit), but ZeroHedge is a good place to get more current info.
Arriving back in the states was of course a horrific experience in comparison with the international travel. We are not friendly to the people who come to visit us, nor even particularly to our own citizenry. Lines, lines and more lines. The agents weren’t necessarily unfriendly, but nor were they particularly amicable. I had to go through extra bio-screening for my boots since they’d been on a farm the day before, but they didn’t ask any questions about the Manuka honey I’d picked up. According to Rob it has certain beneficial properties, and that some folk soak bandages in the honey to help keep wounds clean. He said they’re trying to figure out a way to develop a coating for mass producing the special bandages.
One of the points that I make in my Moon presentation is the concept of terroir. In the case of Lunar greenhouses, edible plants grown with Lunar regolith are going to have a different flavor to them. In the case of honey, the taste is affected by the types of flowers the bees visit during their work, a fact I learned to appreciate while living in Brooklyn. In this case it’s the flowers in Hanmer Springs, home of the thermal baths. So when I’m traveling I like to keep an eye open for local honey for a unique taste treat. The Manuka honey is pretty tasty, so I don’t think the jar is going to last too long.
I still hate traveling by air domestically, and would really rather not do so. I may not have a choice though, as through some bizarre fluke of fate I’ve been invited to an invite-only Lunar conference at NASA Ames in April, and then there’s the Dennis Tito dinner later in the month in LA. I’m just trying to figure out how to fly in and out the same day. At least I can drive to the ISDC in May.
First though, I’ve got to get through the Dallas Regional Science and Engineering Fair tomorrow morning, bright and early in Fair Park. This will be my fifth year judging in the Physics & Astronomy category, though I don’t know yet if I’m doing Junior High or High School projects, but usually I’m Jr. High. There’re also the NSS of North Texas judges, who will be giving away $350 on behalf of the chapter to the project that best aligns with NSS’s goals of humans living and working in space.
So, overall, a most excellent holiday. I was able to find a sense of karmic peace and relaxation that I’ve found in few other places (Paris & Austin come to mind), but of course it’s back to work. Next time it’s going to have to be for a longer visit, so we can caravan around and Rob & Lisa can show off the rest of the rest of the island. I’m certainly not going to need a wedding to get me back there again.
I just wanted to give a quick update to those who care that I was not in Christchurch when the quake hit.
My plane left Christchurch at 11:35, Rob & Lisa having dropped me off with plenty of time to spare. Both are alright, as is their family. Things are not so good for others, and I would request that everyone please send whatever well-wishes their particular belief system advocates. There’s a lot of rebuilding to do.
The quake hit at 12:51. My plane landed in Auckland at 12:55. The usually annoying turning-on-of-the-cellphones-as-soon-as-wheels-hit-pavement took on an entirely different tone as text messages rolled in of a major shake on the south island, and requests for updates.
I did experience an aftershock of last September’s quake; more on that anon when I post the full debrief.
P.S. It was a bonanza for the Lunar Library. You wouldn’t believe some of the stuff I found there.
Back when I was a youngster, we would drive every other year from Texas up to Buffalo, NY to visit the grandparents. One of my Dad’s favorite phrases, being a military guy, was that we would be hitting the road at “Oh dark thirty” (and we did). To wake me up at such an unnatural hour he would pop a cassette into my stereo, crank up the volume, and play Willie Nelson’s “On the Road Again” to wake me up.
This time around I’m traveling to New Zealand. I’m not taking my computer with me, so don’t expect any updates over the next couple of weeks. I’ve got things like horseback riding, bungee jumping and Maori experience on my mind, as well as checking out an entirely new sky’s worth of constellations.
While I’m generally loath to bandy about the phrase “NewSpace”, it seems particularly fitting in the context of a just-released video that does a darn fine job of summarizing where we are at this particular moment in time in developing a more commercially-oriented space industry in the U.S.
Were I a couple of decades younger, I might consider the industry a great place to be a part of something new and growing, sort of like how the computer industry was back in the late 70s/early 80s, when I was plugging away on a TI-99/4A and a Kaypro IV at home and TRS-80s, Apple IIcs and IIes in junior high and high school. Even tried to teach myself CP/M. (unsuccessfully)
Thing is, there was a fledgling private space industry back in the 1980s, too. Microgravity science payloads were lining up to fly on the Shuttle (till Challenger), the Conestoga launched from Texas (unsuccessfully), and folks were trying to get a crew-tended space station to orbit, the Industrial Space Facility (unsuccessfully).
There is great promise in the human spaceflight industry, but that promise is fragile. It needs nurturing and careful cultivation if it is to grow to become a significant contributor to U.S. (and global) prosperity. One way that everyone can support the space industry is to join a space society. Doesn’t matter which one - just join one if you haven’t already. Now is the time.
About a month and a half ago, I noted that LEGO had a splash page up at www.legospace.com hinting at some new space-themed LEGO sets to come out around the end of January.
Real space stuff, like the sets they had out around the end of the 1990s, not the silly stuff like the Mars or Space Police sets of the last decade, but real rockets and satellites and Moon rovers and astronauts not aliens. What was even cooler was that they were going to be coming out around my birthday, so I could treat myself right and buy myself some nice new space LEGOs for myself. The countdown clock hit zero yesterday, so during lunchtime at work today I jaunted off to the mall to visit the local LEGO store, VIP Card in hand.
Where I found nothing. Zero. Zip. Zilch. Nada.
One of the young ladies at the store happens to be a bit of a space geek, and recognized me from prior inquiries. She said she hadn’t seen or heard anything.
What a major bummer! WTF, LEGO? Then I get home from work, check the legospace website linked above, and find that they’ve reset the countdown clock to over a month from now. (and what happens then? It gets reset again?)
Aaaaaaaaaaaargh!
In some respects it shouldn’t surprise me. I’ve alleged previously that space stuff gets short shrift in the marketplace. I’m not saying that this is an intentional example, but by default it gets added with the others.
Part of why this makes me sad is that I have to wait longer to get some for the Lunar Library, but also to donate to NSS of North Texas to use as part of our kids program/activities. We used to have a small tub of space LEGOs from the 1990s sets, including a Saturn V rocket that was built over and over and over in varying configurations by countless kids at our outreach events. Here’s an example from the ‘Festival of Stars’ we helped out with at a community center in South Dallas:
This was of course part of a much larger display that we had:
Most of the places that we work with know that we can set up over 8 tables worth of displays, mainly handouts backed by info boards. We have a new ISS info board that complements the older one you see in the above photo.
Unfortunately, those LEGOs went missing after one of our later events and we’ve never been able to find anything comparable. We have gotten donations of Star Wars LEGO sets, but we usually pass those straight through to our Santa Space Toy Drive. Frankly, they don’t pay us enough to perpetuate the Star Wars mythology in our NSS of North Texas play areas.
What we do provide is a bean bag toss, some non-franchise-specific rocket playsets, coloring pages, inflatable planets, a feltboard, and that sort of thing to occupy the kids with space adventures while we chat with the grown-ups about different space topics in which they might be interested. There is the occasional meltdown as a youngster will vigourously rebel against having to leave their space wonderland in which they are so enthralled, but generally the kids are good about sharing and playing well together, and leaving gracefully when it’s time to go. I can only ponder what happens afterwards, as the child starts dropping hints: Wow, that rocket was sooo cool; you know my birthday/a holiday is coming up; gee whillickers, I really wish I had one of those rockets with which to play; Mom, can I have one of those rockets? Please? ad infinitum
Which is all part of my sinister master plan to promote the purchase by consumers of space toys, with the evil design of convincing retailers to put more space product on their shelves, so that more people with have the opportunity to buy space-related goods, which turnover prompts the production of more space stuff, and thus is a virtuous (evil, I meant evil) cycle born leading to greater prosperity all around as everyone is happy.
Although the more jaded and realistic view is that space people don’t buy much space stuff, so why should anyone else? The only thing that sells and produces profits (mostly) is franchise-related consumer goods, which is why you’ll see gobs and gobs of Star Wars stuff on the shelves, and very little real space stuff like rockets and launch towers. Sad but true.
Look at it from a non-LEGO perspective. What kind of rocket models can you find at your local hobby shop? Two, maybe. A Saturn V and a Shuttle stack. If you’re really lucky you might find a Redstone from the first Mercury flights. Same old, same old. How about new rockets like an Atlas V, or a Delta IV, or a Falcon 9? Maybe with a Dreamchaser on top? You can put together a model of a V-8 engine, the insides of a horse or a person, but how about a model of a rocket motor? I’ll admit that there is an Ariane V model out there, which was kinda fun to put together, but in general you’d be hard-pressed to find it in a shop. Which reminds me - check hobby shops as well as used book stores whilst in New Zealand.
So now apparently we have some new LEGO rockets to look forward too. Here’s an advert from the, I’m guessing, British tele that was posted on YouTube:
Which makes me even less happy about having to wait over a month for what I thought was going to be my birthday present to myself. Total birthday bummer, dude.
Having had my identity stolen, I tend to be a bit cagey about giving out private information, and take extreme measures to try to safeguard it so that I don’t have to deal with another instance of someone stealing $50,000 of stuff in my name. I’m also rather uncomfortable with the overbearing security apparatus that we’re building here in the U.S., so when my passport expired I was rather disinclined to get one of the new ones with the computer chip that can be read by nefarious parties. Besides, I’m really not flying at this point, as I prefer not to subject myself to the violation of my 4th Amendment rights that is the security theater. For the ISDC in May I’m driving to Huntsville, just like I drove to Chicago for last year’s conference.
Then the invite arrived. Rob’s getting married down in New Zealand. For those unfamiliar with Rob, he is the person who created the Out of the Cradle (OotC) website many years ago, and posted about SpaceX activities when they were flying out of Woomera [Oops - Clark points out I meant Kwajalein]. He is a big fan of the commercial space sector, and would very much like to see more of it down under. He’s also a bibliophile and was quite fond of the Lunar Bibliography that Clark Lindsey was kindly hosting at Hobbyspace. He asked me to move it over to OotC and put it into a blog format. I wasn’t too keen on the idea, but by September 2006 I had encoded a couple hundred ‘filecards’ and we were ready to go live. I have to admit, having it ordered chronologically makes research a bit easier in some regards, like the evolution of Moon fiction and what kind of stories were being written when. And so began my tenure here at OotC.
It’s hard maintaining a blog, and by early 2008 Rob was ready for a sabbatical. I was running the Lunar Library in one of the back rooms, and he handed over the keys to the website mid-year. He did get the invite from NASA to attend one of the Shuttle launch tweet-ups, and flew quite a ways to see it, something noted by most of the major media (and a few idiots who got their noses bent out of shape because they thought NASA had paid to fly him up. Idjits). We met for the first time up in D.C. just prior, where I was at an NSS Board of Directors meeting, and we also had some recent NASA Academy folks stop by (including the most recent RA from CNES, a transfer program I helped jump start in 2002) making for an interesting discussion all around. Afterward, Rob went and saw a Shuttle launch, something I have yet to experience.
Then, late last year, the invite to the wedding came. After much procrastination, as is my wont, I finally tried to dig up my expired passport, which had become buried in papers somewhere in my apartment. Which is full of books and papers.
Finally, the weekend of MLK, Jr. Day, I found it, filled out the paperwork, and put it in the mail on the 18th. I paid extra for an expedited 2-3 week turnaround, which on the outside would put its arrival in the week I needed to leave for NZ for the nuptials. Then I started the nervous wait. On the agenda - horseback riding and trawling the bookstores for Moon books for the Lunar Library.
Lo and behold, I already have my new passport. I have to admit that it is quite impressive, a work of art even. The pages have images from across the U.S., from the Saguaros of the Southwest that I remember from my early youth in Tucson, to the Rocky Mountains I’ve crossed many times back and forth. Independence Hall in Philadelphia, not too far from where I was born in Valley Forge, and the lighthouses of Maine I have yet to visit. The mighty Mississippi I’ve also crossed many times back and forth, and the farmlands of Kansas I’ve passed through during visits to Mom up in Leavenworth (the town, not the prison). A West Texas longhorn herd, and the Statue of Liberty which I’ve seen from the Windows on the World restaurant in the old World Trade Center. Then there’s the last page.
I’m probably going to get in so much trouble for this, but it is beautiful
Just…wow. On the facing page is a quote from Ellison S. Onizuka:
“Every generation has the obligation to free men’s minds for a look at new worlds…to look out from a higher plateau than the last generation”
You know, I think I may just be okay with this passport, even if I still don’t like the idea of a chip that can be read by nefarious means. And breaking it in with my first trip to the Southern Hemisphere is kind of cool.
For some reason I don’t seem to be able to post comments or vote over there, so I decided “Why not throw an article together and offer some suggestions of useful things to do there?”
Since I still don’t seem to be able to post there, I thought I’d offer up some additional commentary here at Out of the Cradle that addresses some of the criticisms raised in the comments.
[Update: Huh. Now the comments are up. Maybe Jeff checked the spam filter and okayed them?]
CharlesHouston notes the very real difficulty of “explaining to the voting public that you are going to a point that does not have “anything” there. The technical challenges are miniscule in comparison to the task of getting people to understand what you are doing.”
I know this first hand from talks I’ve given here in the metroplex. It’s quite a sight to see a room full of Mensa folks with their minds blown. When I talked at a Rotary Club it went right over most heads. The talk at Moon Day went well, but it was a much smaller audience and so more personal and interactive. If only I had access to a TV station and super-duper CGI technology, I could convert millions.
DerekL sniped: “Yep. And we’re ‘blind’ on the sunward side because a) it’s *much* harder to look in that direction, and b) the lighting on the objects we’re looking for is *much* less than ideal. Being at EML-1 does nothing to solve either of those problems.
Before proposing a mission/function, the author would be advised to know much more about the ‘how and why” of said mission/function before blithely going on about it.”
To address DerekL’s argument:
a) Of course it is much harder to look Sunward. Were it not the video in the article would look a lot different. For some folks, though, the ‘hard’-ness of space stuff is what gets them interested in the field, a challenge to tax their intellectual capabilities. My off-the-cuff suggestion would be a de-spun portion of a spin-stabilized spacecraft that would hold a sunshield between the instruments and the Sun.
b) Of course the lighting of objects sunward of the instruments would be much less than ideal - in the visible wavelength. Objects on the other side of the Sun would of course have varying degrees of illumination - in the visible wavelength. I’m not sure why the commenter seems to think that’s the only wavelength to which we’re constrained. Especially given that I mention looking across wavelengths. I am, though, assuming that the objects are spinning, and that we can look for infra-red traces on those rotating objects.
Harris Tweed further piled on with:
“The idea posed here, that you need a pole sitter to enable communication with the lunar far side, is pretty ridiculous. In fact, a relay satellite in a halo orbit around Earth-Moon L2 does that very nicely. A pole sitter is irrelevant to the lunar farside.”
This is a misreading of what I wrote, but I think less due to the language of the writing and more to the preconceptions of the commenter. At no point did I indicate that a pole sitter would be needed for communication with the far side, only that a pole-sitter would enable such. However, the commenter needs for me to have said ‘need’ for his criticism to have support, so that’s how he frames it.
“This idea has been floated by many others, including in very recent papers in the Space Review. This piece doesn’t add anything new. In fact, a habitat at Earth-Moon L1 was the notional architecture for the Decadal Planning Team ten years ago. This particular piece is somewhat unfortunate, though, because it makes a few mistakes with regard to optimal NEO sensing (L1 is really a pretty poor place from which to do that) and the prospects for pole-sitters (which are certainly not needed for farside communication, and don’t look anything like terrestrial pole sitters).”
The commenter indicates that I made a “mistake” regarding “optimal NEO sensing”, as apparently he considers EML-1 a “pretty poor place from which to do that”. A careful read indicates that what I actually wrote was that looking for NEOs would be an “ideal “first mission” for instruments emplaced at EML-1″. Not the same thing at all, and I would aver that anything out past the clutter of cis-GEO space is way better than anything we’ve got now. If the commenter has an optimal location for looking for NEOs, he does not identify it.
In the same paragraph in which he asserts that I offer nothing new, he also derides the pole-sitter suggestion for farside communications, indicating they’re not needed when I made no so such claim. He does at least offer up the usual trope of a comm sat in EML-2 orbit, an idea I try to avoid, as I would prefer that at least part of the farside be relatively quiet for the radio astronomers, and having a big old comm sat parked above the farside kind of defeats all of that. And yes, I know computers can filter interference.
Commenter Tom D does add that bouncing the signal off a pole sitter would shorten relay times to the farside versus off a sat in a halo orbit out at EML-2, something I hadn’t considered.
fritz wants to know why I don’t mention a Lunavator, a space elevator that would ascend through the Lagrange point to a counterbalance in the Earth’s gravitational sphere of influence. It’s a good idea for testing out the space elevator concept with minimal risk to Earth (other than, you know, the counterbalance, which would likely be mounted with rockets to kick it into Earth orbit if something goes wrong. The idea gets treatment in Schrunk et al’s “The Moon: Resources, Future Development, and Settlement” (which also notes the “sitting” capabilities of solar sails). In all honesty, while I like the idea, I think it’s a bit further in the future than what I was talking about
spacechampion wants to know “So how many years constructing things at EML1 would we have to do before we can go some place interesting? 20? 30?” spacechampion doesn’t indcate what he/she thinks is an interesting destination, but as far as I’m concerned we’re not in a race anywhere. We’ll get there as fast as we have the will, and the more options we build in in the interim the better off we will be in the long run.
astronist counters “But its utility for manned access to the Moon and beyond is limited. The key requirement driving any architecture for a safe passenger-carrying system above LEO is shielding against solar storm radiation, and this forces the solution of Earth-Moon cyclers (or, for Mars, Earth-Mars cyclers).”
I disagree that any solution is “forced” by the presence of radiation, and 24/7 access to the entirety of the Moon’s surface is not something to be dismissed lightly. One byproduct that has been proposed for oxygen processing is cladding for crewed assets in space to address that very issue. It’s not like no one has ever thought of the idea of radiation in space, and countermeasures. By the same token, nothing in an EML-1 architecture precludes the establishment of a cycler, and the first thing I’d look into would be a taxi service between the cycler and any crewed EML-1 facilities.
YetAnotherBob points out that:
“One problem with L1 that I didn’t see mentioned in the Article. The Lagrange Points L1, L2 and L3 are dynamically unstable. Gravity pulls everything there away from the point. There would need to be near constant station keeping. that means fuel. L4 and L5 are dynamically stable, meaning that an object inserted there will be pulled back into the Lagrange point. It’s a weird orbit, but it is an orbit. ”
I actually do mention it in the article, though indirectly. The whole point of the halo orbit is to induce some stability into something staying there. There are station keeping requirements, but as I note, it’s orders of magnitude less than for the ISS or other stations in LEO. He’s right that L-4 and L-5 are stable, though it’s more like wandering around on top of a gravitational mesa. Unless something changes the energy of the object, it’s going to stay in that general vicinity. Getting nudged around by the gravitational influences of the large bodies of the Solar system the whole while, but generally constrained to a particular volume of space.
He continues “And yes, the gravitational manifolds do connect the Lagrange Points for all of the planets. But, it can take decades to arrive there. Probably not good for passenger service.”
Which I don’t propose at all, though I have heard talks of using modified IPS trajectories for crewed trips to Mars, which I’m rather skeptical about.
He further adds “Finally, NASA has proposed a satellite for finding sun ward asteroids. However, it is at the Earth Sun L1, not one of the Earth Moon ones. That point is further Sun ward, and so would see more of the asteroids between Earth and Venus. With station keeping requirements, it would be able to stay on station for about 2 years.”
Which, in the tradition of NASA, is likely going to be another throwaway mission, another very expensive tool tossed into the void, just as they’ve done in the past. What I tried to suggest was that we can have ongoing data if we do things differently.
I think the problem really is the depth to which ‘traditional’ thinking in the space sector focuses on optimized solutions to specific issues. Want to put 20 metric tonnes at the South Pole of the Moon? An engineer can provide an optimized solution. Need a reason for that 20 mT? A scientist can provide a specific solution. Need some fundage? There’s a politician willing to look for a pork angle. Need an explantion of how value is added to the commonweal? Well, ummm…
There’s the rub. One thing I tried to address in my article was particular problems and possible solutions that address those problems.
1) If a crewed vehicle for exploration is being put through its paces on some test runs, EML-1 is a great location for a test run - close to home, but with a bit of a challenge to the mission - the establishment of a halo orbit.
2) While you’re there, might as well drop off some instruments. ‘Cause, you know, you’re there. Why wouldn’t you?
3) One thing that the instruments could do is look for NEOs in an unusual way.
1) There’s a lot of junk floating around in GEO space. Dead sats, expended kick stages.
2) From EML-1 it is way easier to get to GEO and back than to try to stage such missions from LEO.
3) So over the long term, you get a lot of benefits from staging such missions from EML-1.
I don’t know. Maybe my logic’s too complicated. Nevertheless, I do want to thank Jeff Foust for including the article in The Space Review.
According to the Associated Press (q.v. also NASAWatch), Buzz Aldrin has decided to sue that beloved icon of youth, the Topps trading card company, for having profited from the use of a photographic image of Buzz on the Moon. This is, of course, retarded (in that it will hamper, slow down, or cause to fall behind, efforts at space popularization) and he should fire his lawyer (or his lawyer him).
One presumes that next up on the list are any and all books that contain an iconic image of Buzz on the Moon. For a reasonable fee the Lunar Librarian could go through the stacks of the Lunar Library and catalogue any and all instances as well as note the publishers so that the lawyers could go after them as well. I guarantee the Apollo and Youth sections of the Lunar Library would be veritable gold mines.
This is, of course, just an opportunistic grab for cash. Topps is by no means the only company to have featured Buzz on a trading card. There are a number of examples in the Lunar Library, a few of which are featured here. Space Ventures, Inc., which published the SpaceShots series, appears to still be around - why not go after them? Or how about the World Space Museum folks?
So if Buzz needs money, why doesn’t he just do what the youngsters do? Put up a bleg on his website alongside a tip jar. I have no doubt that there are many in and out of the space industry who would be more than happy to send a few bucks his way, and if the media picked up on it he’d have it made. Crowdsourcing can accomplish some amazing things.
Speaking of tip jars, I’m often asked why I don’t have a tip jar here at Out of the Cradle. My philosophy on the matter is a bit complex, so let me explain. I do want to make money from the website, which is why I have adverts on the left and right sides. I believe that the space industry is underserved in the marketplace, likely from merchandise buyers having been burned over the years with excess Apollo-related product, but I don’t think the problem is that simple. I keep an eye out for Moon-related product to add to the Lunar Library, as well as to donate to various NSS of North Texas projects. (I did insist that our webmistress add a tip jar to the homepage, which I encourage everyone to hit to support our space education and outreach efforts in the D/FW community) ‘It’s hard to find’ would be an understatement.
One of the bookboxes was the only place locally that had a copy of the new Baen book “Back to the Moon” by Taylor & Johnson. I visit that particular store every week, but hadn’t seen it in the New Releases section. Which I would not have given that it was immediately filed away alphabetically in the Sci-Fi/Fantasy section, which I go through much less often. If I relied on my local bookbox (instead of Hobbyspace and others) to let me know that there was a new Moon book out I would be out of luck. Now go into the Kids section and find the Choose Your Own Adventure books. Look for #26 - Moonquest. I’m willing to bet anyone who reads this a dollar that their local bookbox will not have it in stock. They’ll have books after 26, but not #26. Go ahead, try it. Then see if they even stock any of the new Tom Swift series, which feature orbital hotel and rocket racing stories.
Perhaps most frustrating was Kids to Space. Sure I’m proud of my contribution to the book (the Moon chapter). However, it was disheartening to find that even though the local bookboxes had the book in their warehouses, they would not stock it in the local stores. As a result, most of the sales were done through Amazon, with pretty much all of the tail-end sales of the first edition coming from B&N warehouses. Basically zero market awareness for what is an excellent middle-school age reference book about space (even without my contribution).
There are other examples from other types of product, but generally in the retail marketplace space is woefully underrepresented amongst consumer choices. So I want to encourage people to purchase more space-related product, which sends, above a certain threshold, a definite sign to the retail industry, which will then stock more space product, which brings awareness of space to a broader audience. That’s why nearly every one of the over 2,000 entries in the Lunar Library has an Amazon link (which unfortunately you don’t see if you use AdBlocker in Firefox). I make my money when readers purchase space product and I get a thin slice of the proceeds. Which serves my larger goal of building support in the retail industry to merchandise space-related product to a larger audience of consumers. P.S. Unfortunately I don’t get cuts from purchases directly from the publisher, but those links are mainly for the educators that visit the Library that might want to get a review copy for consideration for use in their curriculum.
That’s why I don’t have a tip jar.
It’s also why I don’t appreciate things like Buzz’s little lawsuit. Because if it gains any traction any producer of product that might feature Buzz’s likeness, even educational, is going to waste time and money trying to figure out what their exposure might be. Which will discourage others from even doing space-related product. Who wants the hassle?
This sort of thing is also why copyright used to be for a fixed and limited period of time. 21 years, IIRC. Our copyright laws are so screwed up right now it’s ridiculous, and it’s part of why our creative output has been stagnant at best of late. Everything gets tied up in corporate knots as people try to peel off cash flows from the revenues associated with the use of any particular creative widget. In this case Buzz is trying to capture a slice of any and all cash flows associated with the use of a historical image, which is by the way over 40 years old.
I wish I did have the trading card in question for the Lunar Library collection, but I haven’t found it at the local card shop as yet, and so you’ll have to settle for the scans of these other iconic ‘Buzz on the Moon’ trading cards from various series over the years. I wonder what would happen if I asked him to autograph one…
NSS of North Texas had its annual Holiday Party this last Sunday, and it turned out too be quite productive. We’ve had quite a year in 2010, and this was the time where we lay out some projects for 2011.
We were joined by several members of the Dallas Mars Society (DMS), as we look forward to the Mars Society annual convention coming up August 4-7, 2011. We’re going to be looking at ways to play up the event in the local community, something that was kind of bungled for our ISDC back in 2007, so we have lots of lessons learned. Of course it didn’t help that the local news stations didn’t show up until Sunday afternoon, when the event was 85% over and most of the big names had left for other commitments.
Our first project is ConDFW, February 18-20, 2011. The chapter had already approved a half-page ad in the con program book, and DMS agreed to pick up the marginal additional cost to move it up to a full page ad, giving us a lot more flexibility and visibility. Last year we arranged two one-hour panels on space exploration and Mars settlement which apparently went very well, so we’re going to request two more hours for this year and have another Mars settlement panel that can play up the upcoming conference.
The ad also gives us space to announce another project that our chapter is launching at ConDFW - a space poetry contest. ConDFW is a writer’s sci-fi con, where authors get together to bat around ideas, so it’s a good place to launch a poetry contest. The theme is “The Next Continent”, and the chapter has voted a project budget for cash prizes. The winners are going to be recognized at FenCon in September, where we’ll launch the next round of competition.
Speaking of budgets, we managed to raise $353 over the course of the year for our Space Exploration Scholarship for the 2011 Dallas Regional Science & Engineering Fair. This well exceeds the $200 we gave away last year. At the end of February, several chapter members will go to the Science Fair and wander around the more than 800 displays to find the one that best supports NSS’s goals of people living and working in space. Of course, the judges have pretty broad latitude in the giving of the prize, so it might go to a team, or a high school and a junior high school project. The chapter members gave themselves pretty broad latitude when they voted for the chapter to pay the luncheon cost of the winner(s) so that the full $350 could go towards the scholarship(s). [Disclosure: I’m a regular judge in Physics & Astronomy at the Science Fair]
And we had another good year for the Santa Space Toy Drive. The local Star Trek chapter (USS Trinity River) donated a box of toys, which brought our total for the year up over 100.
Now I’ve got a car stuffed with space toys to be dropped off tomorrow night at the Santa’s Helpers collection point at Victory Plaza downtown.
Other projects for the new year:
-we’re starting a new push for our Space Camp prize. You have no idea how hard it is to design a space settlement design competition that will shake out one winner that we will send to Space Camp.
-we’re expecting comments back from the Boy Scouts on our first round of suggested revisions. I told folks to focus on weblinks and appropriate images for the next round of suggested changes.
-we’re going to try to scare up some speakers from the local academic community.
-our work with a local middle school in the Carrolton ISD got moved from March to May, which actually bumps it up against the 2011 ISDC. Given that I’m not interested in flying with all the “security” nonsense and so intend to drive from Dallas to Huntsville, which looks to be about a 10-12 hour trip, so one long day but definitely interesting changes in topography.
-we’re probably going to try for another Moon Day in July, especially if we can get some more speakers lined up this Spring. It would be the last big chance to advertise the Mars Society convention.
-if we had more younger and energetic members we could think about things like a Yuri’s Night party in April and maybe a Space Day event in early May.
We also got a tip jar up on our website, so if you want to encourage and support our efforts head on over to the new NSS of North Texas website and hit that tip jar!
Back when I was working in NYC, one of the fun features of the holiday season was being able to pop out at lunch and check out the decorated windows at the major department stores. While at NatWest in the Empire State Building, Macy’s was just a block over in Herald Square, and while at BNP over on Park Ave, Lord & Taylor and Sak’s were right over on 5th Ave., and FAO Schwartz was on the corner of Central Park.
Dallas certainly isn’t NYC, but we do have our own home-grown major department store, Neiman Marcus, and they do do holiday windows.
If you’ve read today’s Wall Street Journal, then you probably saw the article on “Designing Holiday Windows 2.0“, which notes that this year the store’s windows will have an outer space theme.
Being the opportunistic young man I am, I quickly called up Neiman Marcus (NM) to see if I could talk to whomever is in charge of the windows and see if NSS of North Texas could help out in any way, or possibly participate in some fashion.
This turns out to be a gentleman by the name of Ignaz Gorischek, who was quite courteous in taking a few minutes out of his busy day to speak with me. NM works with local charity groups each year to come up with a theme for their holiday windows, and this year they worked with Big Brothers/Big Sisters (BB/BS). During brainstorming, it was noted that the beneficiaries of the BB/BS program tended to regard their big brothers and sisters as “stars” (which they are). This was seized upon as important, and served as the kernel for the idea of an outer space theme.
Mr Gorischek described all kinds of neat little space goodies they’ve included in the display, which I have no intention of revealing (except for the 200 ft crawl tube you can see in the illustration, for kids ages 4-10 only) - you’ll just have to come see it for yourself. To rub salt in the wound, he has offered me a chance at a sneak peak behind the scenes before the formal unveiling on Saturday evening at 7pm (if I can find a couple of free hours over the next two days; long lunch or duck out early?). That’s the sort of thing that happens when you serve as chapter president for four out of the last five years (the exception being 06/07, the year I was working on our ISDC), and get the chapter to undertake projects like space toy drives and Science Fair scholarships.
The holiday season is rapidly approaching, and so your Lunar Librarian finds himself pondering what he’s going to get the nephews, and the godkids, and my Buckner Bear this year. Also to be considered is space toys for the NSS of North Texas Santa Space Toy Drive.
Since 2005, the chapter has made it an annual project to collect space-themed toys to donate to the Santa’s Helpers program here in Dallas. The first year (above), while modest, was nevertheless an impressive start, and gave us the impetus to do it again in 2006.
We gather these together at our annual holiday party, where these photos were taken, and then I usually drive down to Victory Plaza on one of their public collection nights. At random times the camera crews will visit the drop off line and someone will be lucky enough to be on TV.
My hope is that when I drive up and drop the top on the Beetle that will catch the attention of the camera crew and reporter, who will come over and all of a sudden NSS of NT will be famous for their space toys, boxes of them.
I’ve already found a couple of interesting deals. One of the lineny/bathroomy big boxes had some ‘Moon in my Room’ nightlights (w/ Mining the Moon DVD) for $10 (normally ~$30). The big Toys box had the set of SLOOH cards on sale for $7 (reg. $10). I found some astronaut Snoopys at a local Hallmark.
There are rocket/astronaut/planet/asteroid type toys out there (see the Fun & Games section of the Lunar Library, for example), you just have to look for them.
So please, this holiday season, consider donating a space toy to a local toy drive this year. Doing so helps to imbue a space and frontier-oriented culture in our society which, frankly, will help the industry in the long run. What’s important to kids in their world view will be important to their parents.
And a recommendation to all of the space societies out there - make it easy for your current members to give prepaid blank membership cards as a gift. Throw some tchotchke in there for good measure. The easiest way for anyone to show their support for space is to join a space society. Doesn’t matter which one, they’re all doing different things, join the one that is of most interest to you. Or give a membership to someone you know.
Just got word that applications are now being accepted for the 2011 NASA Academy, and they certainly have more programs available than when I worked program support at the 2002 Goddard Academy. Back then it was basically us and the Ames Astrobiology Academy.
For those unfamiliar with the NASA Academy program, it was formed back in 1994, when Dr. Gerald Soffen, one of the PIs on the Mars Viking Lander program, realized that NASA was going to experience a shortfall in trained scientists and engineers in the future (like, right about now) and wanted to establish a pipeline of promising young talent for the NASA folks to look over. He drew on the ISU summer session model to structure a ten-week program of education and research alongside NASA PIs.
In 2011 there are four regular Academies, one each at Goddard, Ames, Glenn and Marshall. Glenn and Langley are also each offering an Aeronautics Academy. Given recent advances in holography, maybe they’ll get to work on designing a 3-D holographic flight control system to replace our current 2-D one. Goddard is hosting a Lunar & Planetary Science Academy while Marshall has Propulsion and Robotics Academies.
This is a terrific summer program that imparts a wealth of experience. Alumni range from advanced exploration folks at Orbital Sciences, to mission control folks at JSC, to X Prize Foundation VIPs. Those who survive the program become part of the NASA Academy Alumni Association network.
You have until January 18th, 2011 to get your applications in, so it’s not too early to get started on the paperwork and rounding up letters of recommendation. Good luck!
Welcome everyone to this, the Dodransbicentiquasihebdomadibus Carnival of Space. Dodransbicentiquasihebdomadibus is my bad linguistics and butchered Latin for “175th sort-of-weekly”, and it sets the quasi-silly tone for this week’s Carnival.
We’re always happy to host the Carnival of Space here at Out of the Cradle. I’m Ken, the Lunar Librarian here at OotC,and I’m proud to be hosting the CoS for a seventh time in its ongoing saga, in which OotC has participated since its inception so many Moons ago. Your friendly Lunar Librarian is actively engaged in promoting space exploration and development, both locally in my community, as well as worldwide through the internet.
The Boy Scouts are in the process of doing a periodic update to their Space Exploration merit badge pamphlet. The last major revision was in 2003, and quite a bit has happened since then. The Boy Scouts reach out to organizations relevant to a particular merit badge to help with the updates. Since BSA is headquartered in Irving, TX, plumb in the middle of the D/FW metroplex, they reached out to the North Texas chapter of the National Space Society. This is a particularly delicate update, as it corresponds with the end of the Space Shuttle era, and no one is really sure what is going to come next. How to address that in the merit badge pamphlet falls squarely on the shoulders of yours truly, who is the project lead for the chapter on this one. Our first draft of updates and changes for the next edition was due this last Wednesday, and was delivered on time, which elicited a nice thank you from the Scouts:
“Ken, et al., thank you so much for your detailed review. I think the format you provided is just fantastic. I can see what the proposed changes to requirements are, and you have already provided the information necessary to see those changes through, as well as general updates to the text. This is wonderful!
I am so thankful for your input, everyone. I don’t want to say you all went overboard, but you certainly went above and beyond the call of duty!”
While basking in the afterglow of project well done, the weekend approached, and that meant the Fall UT Arlington Planetarium Astronomy Day. NSS of NT got to co-host this time around (Texas Astronomical Society usually takes the honor), and we had a great time. We set up a play area over in one corner with some toys including our Rocket Ship Adventure playset, which proved to be a big hit. One mother commented that something she likes about space toys is that they’re equally appealing to both boys and girls. Which was proved out throughout the day as both boys and girls engaged their imaginations in creating rocket ship adventures.
We also held another raffle for our Science Fair Scholarship, and had our best single day ever, raising our total for the year to over $250. Several chapter members will go to the Dallas Regional Science & Engineering Fair in February and award a cash scholarship to the best space exploration project. Unfortunately, yours truly doesn’t get to be one of the chapter judges, as I’m already a regular judge in Physics & Astronomy (coming up on my 5th year). I can tell you first hand that people are more than happy to buy lots of raffle tickets when they find out that the money is going to a science fair prize.
And we handed out a lot of space information. Several chapter members had such a good time that they’re going to try to arrange a display at the upcoming Sally Ride Science Festival on October 30th at UT Arlington, which will feature Barbara Morgan. Too bad UTA doesn’t have a SEDS chapter, as then we could really have some fun. One student did approach me at Astronomy Day and asked about student space organizations, so I made sure to point him to the SEDS website. Maybe he’ll be interested enough to go to the annual conference, SpaceVision 2010, coming up November 5th at the Univ. of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
Your Lunar Librarian can’t make it this year, as he’s going to be heading to NASA Ames this next weekend for the Space Studies Institute’s Space Manufacturing 14: Critical Technologies for Space Settlement conference on October 30th & 31st. Loaded with top names in the field, it comes at a time when the space industry is trying to define a path forward in building our space capabilities. It’s nice to talk about mining Lunar volatiles, but the fact is that no one has yet written the “Engineering Handbook for the Lunar Environment”, although Peter Eckart’s “Lunar Base Handbook” comes closer than most. It’ll be interesting to see what kind of direction for the next steps forward comes from the conference.
Another exciting conference was this last week’s International Symposium for Personal and Commercial Spaceflight in Las Cruces, NM, which looked at things from suborbital to orbital, and featured a keynote from NASA deputy administrator Lori Garver, who is notable in part for having been the Executive Director of the National Space Society in the past, an organization working towards people living and working in space. The NewSpace Journal has the roundup of bothdays. They also have coverage from the Spaceport America dedication that was just up the road.
Further exploring the developments occurrring in the space industry, D Minus Zero shares his experience working on a video for the USAF on “Everyday Sci-Fi” that features XCOR Aerospace and Masten Space Systems.
An example of getting more science payloads to orbit comes to us from Wayne at Kentucky Space, where they are checking over an elegant plant growth two-unit CubeLab designed by students at Valley Christian High in California that should fly early next year to the ISS. Plants in space is something that has fascinated scientists, and kids, for a long time. Plants on the Moon has been an intriguing idea since the tantalizing studies by Dr. Walkinshaw with Lunar regolith back in the 70s.
Speaking of the Google Lunar X Prize, Amanda’s posted a video update of their team summit earlier in the month on the Isle of Man
In the Isle of Man, there are specifically no corporate taxes for space related activities, and as a consequence it has a developing international space industry domiciled there.
Space art is almost always a part of the ISDC. Fellow NSS member Jim over at ArtsNova gives us a roundup of various current art contests with space-related themes in Space Art Contests Galore, including NASA Langley’s annual art contest (this year on “The Future of Flight”) and the (now) short-deadline ETSY contest.
This last summer has amply demonstrated that NASA is as much about politics as it is about space, unfortunately. David over at Beyond Apollo shows us that this has pretty much always been the case with his post on “Apollo 15 and Apollo 19 cancellations (1970)“. I don’t have anything good to say about politics, so let’s just leave it at that.
Down in Houston, Louise of A Babe…in the Universe brings us a tale of the sad end of the Outpost Tavern near JSC. It was long the watering hole of astronauts and others from NASA, and it became part of the mythology and folklore of the Shuttle program. The walls were decorated with astronaut photos, memorabilia and a Navy tailhook. It was location for movies including Space Cowboys. It even hosted a few Yuri’s Night celebrations over the years. Its passing serves to further highlight, in the views of some, the nexus of change that we’re currently experiencing in space endeavours, and how the “old ways” have to make way for the new, although the fewer conflagrations that involves the better.
A good kind of conflagration is the fire of a rocket motor. To help spur development of rockets to take crew to orbit once the Shuttle has retired, NASA recently released details for the 2nd round of CCDEV, or Commercial Crew Development. Details can be found here.
Brian over at Next Big Future looks at a project between Darpa and NASA to examine some near term beamed-energy space propulsion (i.e. microwave thermal and electric propulsion). The comments note that the visionary Konstantin Tsiolkovsky considered such a thing, but the technology just wasn’t there…
Leaving Earth, we travel first to the single most important element for human life - the Sun. It fuels our food and we use both current and stored Solar energy to power our civilization. There’s a new Sunwatcher at work to replace the venerable SOHO. While SOHO was stationed at the Sun-Earth L-1 to have a nice unimpeded view of the Sun for continuous coverage, its replacement, SDO, or Solar Dynamics Observatory, collects so much data that they had to park it in GEO to handle the downlink bandwidth. It is already returning stunning imagery, and Alan over at Cosmic Log provides an example in “Stunner from the [S]un“.
The Sun gets all kinds of visitors from space, as SOHO has shown us over the years. A recent example is Bo Zhou’s comet, which did not survive its close encounter with Sol. From down under, Ian of Astroblog tells us of the sundiving Kruetz comet meeting its end in “…And the Comet goes Crash!“.
Another comet of interest is Hartley 2, which had a (relatively) close approach to Earth recently, although that’s not the end of the story as Alan details in the Cosmic Log: “Comet’s tale isn’t over yet“.
Turning our gaze to a more constant, if inconstant companion, our sister Moon. Long neglected since Apollo days, she has been slowly unveiling delicious secrets under the gaze of many spacecraft from many nations. Anyone who goes to the LEAG and LPSC meetings already knew about stuff like volatilized mercury a year ago. However, it seems to take a bit longer for the news to reach a wider audience, and now that it has it is catching attention all over the place.
Dr. Spudis from the Lunar & Planetary Institute has his own blog, The Once & Future Moon” over at the Air & Space Magazine website. He’s in the trenches of current Lunar scientific research, and he gives his personal perspective on the results in “Strange Lunar Brew“.
Speaking of Sally Ride Science, they’re offering an Educator’s Conference in December on the topic of “Explore our Moon” (pdf). I’m thinking about checking this one out to see if it’s any good.
Your host and Lunar Librarian is very much in favor of the development of Lunar resources. Working in the financial industry, I can see how much of finance is geared towards speculation and value-extraction, and how little of it is geared towards investment and value creation. The microgravity of cislunar space, coupled with the resources available in relative abundance on the vacuum and radiation-bathed lifeless surface of the Moon, offers enormous opportunity for the creation of value. While I know many people personally in the scientific community who are appalled and repelled at the idea of “turning the Moon into a strip mine”, I would rather have the strip mines There instead of Here, and the pragmatic fact is that there are many, many companies that employ scientists for things like resource identification, analysis and extraction. The more commercial activities there are on the Moon, the more opportunities will there be for scientists to go there to conduct research. Or you can wait for Congress to get their act together. I’m just saying…
Tranquility Base Memorial Center by Bill Wright
Still on the scientific frontier of space, Mars continues to be one of the most intensely studied features in the Solar system. While the 2nd-Gen rovers Spirit and Opportunity continue their long trek across the Arean landscape (or not), the 3rd-Gen Mars rover is being assembled as we speak. Over at Cumbrian Sky, Stuart tells us how to watch the Curiosity rover being assembled in real time in “Watch “Curiosity” being built – LIVE!“.
Moving farther afield in our Solar system, Jupiter offers an interesting lesson in moon-making and planetary geology in “Meteorite tea, and the failures of genius“. Chuck, hanging out in the Lounge of the Lab Lemming, relates how tea-time served to solve the mystery of Io’s formation.
Looking beyond our Solar system, one of the potential dangers lurking in the uncharted void may be Brown Dwarfs. Dim and not-so-hot, they’re hard but not impossible to find. Steve over at Cheap Astronomy discovers that even brown dwarfs are magnetic and podcasts thusly:
(Just push the play button to listen)
Once we’ve braved the dangers of uncharted inter-stellar space we will discover incredible wonders and new beauties heretofore unimagined. One such vision is a double sunset, and Ian over at the Discovery News blogs discusses how researchers may have found just that, as well as theories of planetary formation (from which to watch said sunsets) in “The Rare Exoplanet with a Double Sunset“.
Bruce over at Weird Sciences takes a detailed look at the current darling of the astrobiology clique, the exoplanet Gliese 581g. Scientists can use the limited data gathered so far to extrapolate things like potential thermal zones and other characteristics that might shape the environment for any potential xenoforms extant on the surface.
Speaking of Xenoforms, there are folks out there that want to actively send messages into the void in the hope that alien life might stumble across it in the background noise and decide to return the call, a Message to Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence, or METI. Bruce looks at some doom and gloom hype associated therewith.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, brings us to the end of this week’s amazing Carnival of Space here at Out of the Cradle. Each week brings exciting new developments of all kinds in the space field, and the Carnival of Space contributors are always there to bring them to you.
The Carnival is always looking for new hosts! If you have a space-themed blog and want to host your own Carnival of Space and put your own spin on it, then drop a line to Fraser over at Universe Today and let him know when you can do it.
The Carnival is always looking for new content and new websites! If you write space-themed articles or blog posts on the internet, be sure to submit one for the next week’s Carnival of Space! Just drop a line to Fraser over at Universe Today and let him know that you want to be added to the weekly call for articles.
Be sure to stop by the Carnival of Space archives! Gathering together all of the past Carnivals of Space in one location, it is a unique resource for educators, homeschoolers, and researchers.
