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9 October 2009
Bomb the Moon!
With 23 minutes left before LCROSS impacts the south pole of the moon, I want to direct you to a post by Emily Lakdawalla at the Planetary Society blog, showing photos of the crater formed back when Apollo 14 smashed its upper stage booster into the moon. Yes, that’s right, we’ve been smashing things into the moon for quite a while now. So all the people freaking out about NASA …
15 August 2009
Up North
Hi folks, Just a quick note to say that I will be completely off the grid for the next week, visiting with family at our cottage in the upper peninsula of Michigan. No power, except by generator, and definitely no internet. So, alas, no new posts for the next week. I’m sure somehow you will find a way to live without me. -Ryan
20 June 2009
Fun with Lasers
Ladies and gentlemen: I just spent a week vaporizing rocks with a laser! Now, after your first thought of “Whoa, awesome” wears off, you may be wondering why I would do such a thing. Because it’s fun, obviously. But also because the Mars Science Laboratory rover “Curiosity” will be doing the same thing on Mars. The ChemCam instrument uses an infrared laser to shoot pulses of light at rocks. The …
23 April 2009
Spirit and Opportunity in the Robot Hall of Fame
On Tuesday, day 1884 of the Mars Exploration Rover mission, Spirit and Opportunity were inducted into Carnegie Mellon’s Robot Hall of Fame . Who else made the cut? Everyone’s favorite Austrian-accented T-800. So it’s settled: Spirit and Opportunity are officially as badass as the Terminator. The fact that they were inducted with along with the floor-cleaning Roomba, however, makes the honor slightly less cool (I mean, that robot really sucks).
22 March 2009
Cosmos on Hulu!
I just heard the other day that the entire Cosmos series is available for free on Hulu now! Carl Sagan inspired many of today’s astronomers, and making the series available ensures that his influence will continue to last. Take a look, and share the link with your friends.
19 February 2009
NASA/ESA Mission to Europa
In case you haven’t heard yet, NASA and ESA have decided that the next big outer planets flagship will be going to Jupiter. I’m generally in favor of this decision. Titan is fascinating, but Cassini is still in the process of studying it. We’ve learned pretty much all we can about Jupiter and its moons, and it’s high time we went back there. Also, my mouth is already watering over …
16 February 2009
The Big Picture: Progress on NASA's Constellation
The Big Picture has a cool series of photos today showing NASA’s progress on the constellation program. From the article: NASA’s Constellation program, established in 2005, continues its work toward the building the future of manned space exploration in the U.S. The first test flight of the Ares I-X rocket – a functional mockup of the actual Ares I rocket, similar in shape and mass – is scheduled for July, …
12 January 2009
Ooops
Update: The panorama is back up! Or, check out the NASA press release. Ooops… Unfortunately, I had to take down the full-res Santorini pan that I had posted here because JPL hadn’t done their press release on it yet, and that made someone upset. I will post it as soon as it is officially ok to do so…
18 December 2008
AGU Bad News
Today there were some excellent presentations about Mars, but unfortunately I can’t share them with you! My computer’s power adapter broke and so I am cut off from long-duration internet access; I’m writing this on the computer at my hostel. So, AGU posting will be significantly decreased until I can get my computer working again. But fear not, I’m taking notes and will post everything as soon as I can!
31 October 2008
Spooky Sounds from Saturn
Happy Halloween! To celebrate, you should go listen to these spooky Saturn sounds.
