Wow, this is a great day for SpaceX and the culmination of an enormous amount of work by a great team. The data shows we achieved a super precise orbit insertion — middle of the bullseye — and then went on to coast and restart the second stage, which was icing on the cake.

I will have a more complete post launch statement tomorrow, as right now I’m in a bit of a daze and need to go celebrate

This is a pretty great day for any space enthusiast.  Another private company has gotten off of this planet.  I’m still of the opinion that while NASA’s research and their achievements shouldn’t be overlooked, what is going to get us off of this planet and into a permanent position in our solar system is going to be the private corporations.

This is great news!  If it weren’t for the past 4 days being completely cloudy, I’d be staring up at the skies right now.  Congratulations to those at SpaceX and all of the folks anywhere who labor and give towards the goal of getting up there.

Technorati Tags: spacex, falcon 1, orbit, space, successful launch, civilian space effort, blast off

Let’s hope for no explosions there either!  Way to go SpaceX!

Technorati Tags: spacex, space, civilian space flight, rockets, it really is rocket science

Click here for ultimate satellite tracking power!

This is not only fun for folks like me who could easily burn an hour or two finding out where sattelites are in real time but it’s also useful.  Planning on placing a bet on whether or not the Shuttle will collide with something on the way up?  Use this tool to calculate your odds before Vegas does it for you!  Want to create your own rocket/space program in your barn?  Well you’ll need to know what is up there so you can avoid it on the way up and down.

Once you launch the app, here are some useful shortcuts:

Shift+Click      Zoom In
Ctrl+Click     Zoom Out
Click on satellite     show trace
Click in list     show trace
Drag     rotate in 3d

While graphically this is no Crysis, the program is simple and easy to use.  You can track numerous sattlelites via a drop down menu or simply click on the dot in the app.

Enjoy!

Technorati Tags: space, science, nasa, sattelites, DIY Space Program, science geeks

The new book by Nick Sagan (son of Carl Sagan), You Call This the Future?: The Greatest Inventions Sci-Fi Imagined and Science Promised, is characterized by explanations of some of the fascinating technologies envisioned in classic science fiction along with explorations of the progress modern science has made towards achieving those visions. Classic science fiction references appear side-by-side with summaries of state of the art scientific research.

The book is divided into 5 broad chapters, each covering 10 technologies that we have made progress towards realizing. The chapters are Travel and Transportation, Computers, Cyborgs, and Robots, Communications, Weapons and Security, and Life, Health, and Sex.

The Pros

This book is very well written. Each technology is described with multiple fictional appearances as well as detailed accounts of modern advances involving that technology. I was also surprised at how realistic many of the concepts once considered impossible have become. There were also detailed diagrams and high-quality images for all of the sections, which made the content much more engaging.

The Cons

Some of the technologies in the book were much less interesting than others. In a desire to have the same number of sections in each chapter, some sections were added that probably could have been left out - language translators, watch toys, and sex toys, for example.

I definitely recommend this book. It was a quick read, and each section was engaging and interesting. The price is very reasonable, as well.

The Stats

Title: You Call This the Future?: The Greatest Inventions Sci-Fi Imagined and Science Promised
Author(s): Nick Sagan, Mark Frary, and Andy Walker
ISBN10: 1556526857
ISBN13: 978-1556526855
Publisher: Chicago Review Press
Cost: $11.21 (from Amazon)
Format: Paperback, 160 pages
Published: April 1, 2008

Technorati Tags: Carl Sagan, Nick Sagan, Mark Frary, Andy Walker, science fiction, technology, books, book reviews, You Call This the Future?: The Greatest Inventions Sci-Fi Imagined and Science Promised

We have no way of knowing what it is that the inhabitants of the Death Star want, or even if they are friendly. But one thing is for certain. On the fateful day when we must finally engage our enemy in combat, the greatest weapon available to us will be Jeff Goldblum and his Macintosh of Doom.

Technorati Tags: Jeff Goldblum, Star Wars, Independence Day, Macintosh, Death Star, San Francisco, video

THE Singularity, that’s what he’s talking about.  You know, the point where machine intelligence jogs past human intelligence and brings us to a new era where combined computer cognition is the equivalent of a minor deity.  Not only that, but it’s Kurzweil, without the T.  I don’t know if that’s Intel’s fault or Cnet’s on the transcription.

What is the Singularity really?  It’s where machine intelligence surpasses human intelligence - even by just a tiny bit.  At that point, the machines, which are now more knowing than we are, can recursively improve on themselves in a never ending and rapidly accelerating cycle of getting better and better.

Kurzweil tones it down a bit and simply says it’s going to be a time where machines can manifest their own rapidly advancing technology.  The implications of a meteoric rise in technology, self replicating smarter than human intelligences and you know, superbeings. . . it’s all still there though.  Perhaps in Intel’s mind, the Singularity involves computers designing processors for their next of kin to the point where we have the 1nm Intel processors featuring 10,000 cores.

Is this something we really want to work towards?  Is it inevitable?  And will these machines become self aware?  No one really knows but it’s certainly an interesting concept to think on.

For their part, I’ve awarded the first ever ArsGeek Overreaching Statement Award to Intel.  Congratulations Intel! Stating that they are actively working on the Singularity goes a bit beyond miniaturizing processors and coming up with interesting ways to optimize code for multiple cores.  It’s a bit like casually stating that your experiments on family dog have yeilded a doberman with the intelligence of your or I and the ability to speak several languages.

Technorati Tags: singularity, intel, ray kurzweil, ai, overraching statement award, computers, technology, other geeks, our future overlords

Technorati Tags: space, mars, web cams, 90s, science, technology

He was not forthcoming on probings.

Edgar Mitchell is not only an astronaut, but someone who’s interested in paranormal phenomena.  While on Apollo 14, in addition to doing cool back flips and science stuff, he conducted private ESP experiments with friends back on Earth.  He’s also a founding member of the Institute of Noetic Sciences.  Here’s a guy who’s been places and seems to think that there’s a connection between the spirit and all that provable science stuff.

The IONS is, in their own words:

A nonprofit membership organization located in Northern California that conducts and sponsors leading-edge research into the potentials and powers of consciousness—including perceptions, beliefs, attention, intention, and intuition. The Institute explores phenomena that do not necessarily fit conventional scientific models, while maintaining a commitment to scientific rigor.

In my words that translates out to “Crap we can’t prove“, but hey each to his own.  The guy’s ex-military and has been in space and that’s gotta be worth something.

The Daily Mail is reporting on Dr. Mitchell’s beliefs that aliens are here, have way better toys than us and do indeed have large eyes.

Aliens have contacted humans several times but governments have hidden the truth for 60 years, the sixth man to walk on the moon has claimed.

Apollo 14 astronaut Dr Edgar Mitchell, said he was aware of many UFO visits to Earth during his career with NASA but each one was covered up.

Dr Mitchell, 77, said during a radio interview that sources at the space agency who had had contact with aliens described the beings as ‘little people who look strange to us.’

He said supposedly real-life ET’s were similar to the traditional image of a small frame, large eyes and head.

Chillingly, he claimed our technology is ‘not nearly as sophisticated’ as theirs and “had they been hostile”, he warned ‘we would be been gone by now’.

Dr Mitchell, along with with Apollo 14 commander Alan Shepard, holds the record for the longest ever moon walk, at nine hours and 17 minutes following their 1971 mission.

‘I happen to have been privileged enough to be in on the fact that we’ve been visited on this planet and the UFO phenomena is real,’ Dr Mitchell said.

‘It’s been well covered up by all our governments for the last 60 years or so, but slowly it’s leaked out and some of us have been privileged to have been briefed on some of it.

‘I’ve been in military and intelligence circles, who know that beneath the surface of what has been public knowledge, yes - we have been visited. Reading the papers recently, it’s been happening quite a bit.’

Dr Mitchell, who has a Bachelor of Science degree in aeronautical engineering and a Doctor of Science degree in Aeronautics and Astronautics claimed Roswell was real and similar alien visits continue to be investigated.

He told the astonished Kerrang! radio host Nick Margerrison: “This is really starting to open up. I think we’re headed for real disclosure and some serious organisations are moving in that direction.’

Mr Margerrison said: ‘I thought I’d stumbled on some sort of astronaut humour but he was absolutely serious that aliens are definitely out there and there’s no debating it.’

Officials from NASA, however, were quick to play the comments down.

In a statement, a spokesman said: “NASA does not track UFOs. NASA is not involved in any sort of cover up about alien life on this planet or anywhere in the universe.

‘Dr Mitchell is a great American, but we do not share his opinions on this issue.’

Technorati Tags: aliens, among us, astronauts, nasa, ions, space, technology, the final frontier, lgm

From the European Space Agency:

Echus Chasma is bounded to the west by the Echus Chasma plateau which lies about 4 km above the Echus Chasma floor. On the plateau are deeply incised valleys which connect to the Echus Chasma valley.

Technorati Tags: space, mars, echus chasma, mars express, picture

Arecibo Observatory, the world’s largest radio telescope and the source for
the SETI@home data that your computer analyzes, faces massive budget cuts that
will END its ability to continue the search for life beyond Earth. The decision
to ensure full funding currently rests upon votes in Congress on Senate Bill S.
2862 and House Resolution H.R. 3737. These bills desperately need more support.

Please take a moment to help us SAVE ARECIBO.

Clicking THIS LINK will direct you to a web page that allows you print
out letters prepared for your Senators and Congressional Representative urging
them to support Arecibo. Printing and mailing the letters is really easy, too!
You will also have the chance to add a few personal thoughts, if you wish, to
let your Senators and Representative know why this funding is important to you!
And if you’re really feeling passionate about saving Arecibo, please use these
letters as the basis for letters you write yourself, urging your congressmen
and women to vote to save Arecibo.

Because our representatives in Congress rarely give much attention to all the
email they receive, printing out and MAILING these letters via standard U.S.
Postal mail remains our best option for contacting them and our best hope for
saving Arecibo (The second best option is to call your representatives). Your
42 cent stamps on these letters could help us get the millions of dollars
needed to save Arecibo.

Our search cannot continue without the necessary support. Your work, as
SETI@home participants, represents an indispensable resource for conducting the
search. Now, we need your help to ensure that our other most valuable resource
- our eyes and ears to the cosmos - can continue to probe the universe as we
seek to answer the question: Is there anybody out there?
Photo courtesy of the NAIC - Arecibo Observatory, a facility of the NSF

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Pluto, demoted from planet status in 2006, got a consolation prize on Wednesday — it and other dwarf planets like it will be called plutoids.

The International Astronomical Union said in a statement that its executive committee meeting in Oslo, Norway, decided on the term.

Plutoids will be defined as celestial bodies in orbit around the Sun farther away than Neptune. They must have near-spherical shape, and must not have swept up other, smaller objects in their orbits, said the organization, which names newly discovered planets and other celestial bodies.

The two known and named plutoids are Pluto and Eris, but astronomers expect to find more.

Another dwarf planet, Ceres, does not merit the plutoid designation because it is in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

(Reporting by Maggie Fox)

Technorati Tags: Pluto, plutoids, Mickey Mouse

Technorati Tags: nasa, moon, name, yours, send, vroom, space, cool, technology

Okay, it’s really a cloud, but given our tendency to take abstract patterns and glom them into something relatively familiar - we get the Starship Enterprise. It’s nice to know that while we fumble about with space flight and much, much slower than light travel that the boys and girls from Starfleet are keeping Mars safe. (Click the picture for a larger version)

While I’ve never been a huge Star Trek fan myself, the show did do a lot for me in a round about way by getting lots of other folks thinking about spaceflight, science fiction and what have you. It certainly helped birth several generations of scientists, authors and creative media types. I think it’s only right to pay some respect to the old ship and somehow fitting that the MGS should have come up with this photo.

The photo was captured by Mars Global Surveyor on March 27, 2001 as it was performing a slewing maneuver (an “off-nadir spacecraft reorientation”). The camera captured both the surface of Mars (bottom part of the image) and black space at the top of the image; features appear distorted because of the motion of the spacecraft. During the maneuver Mars Global Surveyor happened to catch some high clouds silhouetted against space. Humans have a propensity to see faces and other meaningful shapes in randomly occuring natural patterns, a phenomenon known as pareidolia.

Thanks to the Planetary Society.

Technorati Tags: star trek, enterprise, mars, surveyor, klingons, spaceflight, boldly going