Well, it’s that time of year again. Against my better judgement, I have decided to participate in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) again this year. For those unfamiliar with NaNo, the idea is to write a >50,000 word novel in the month of November. It’s a great way to get over the inner editor and [...]
Archive for October 2009
NaNoWriMo 2009
October 31, 2009Big Picture: Ares 1-X Launch
October 30, 2009The Big Picture has a great series of photos of the Ares 1-X launch, including some really fascinating shots of all the preparation that went into it. Check it out!
New Photos of Stuff on Other Worlds
October 29, 2009I always make the mistake when on vacation of taking too many pictures of scenery and not enough pictures of people. Years down the road, the most interesting photos are not landscapes, but the ones that we can look at and say “I remember when we did that!”. And that’s why I think it’s great [...]
Ares-1X Test Launch Successful!
October 28, 2009In case you missed it, this morning NASA launched the Ares-1X test rocket from Cape Canaveral. It was originally supposed to launch yesterday morning, but was delayed due to: a stuck cable, a boat that got within the danger zone where the rocket was expected to splashdown, and my new favorite vocabulary word “triboelectrification”. Triboelectrification [...]
NASA Human Spaceflight Review Final Report
October 22, 2009Today, the “Augustine commission”, a group of aerospace and space exploration leaders tasked by president Obama to review NASA’s human spaceflight efforts, released their final report. It is available here, and I encourage you to read it. The set of recommendations in the report will form the foundation upon which the future of space exploration [...]
Dozens of new Extrasolar Planets
October 19, 2009The universe just got a little more crowded! Space.com is reporting that Astronomers using the European Souther Observatory’s 3.6m telescope in Chile have discovered 32 new extrasolar planets. The smallest of these could be ~5 earth masses, while the largest would dwarf Jupiter! Check out the full story here.
Mars Art: HiRISE Dust Devils and Dusty Dunes
October 15, 2009It’s been a while since I posted any “Mars art” but I just came across this Bad Astronomy post and had to share. The short explanation of the photo is that dust devils spiraling across these sand dunes have removed the red dust but left behind dark sand in artistic swirls. For a more detailed [...]
MSL: Mars Action Hero
October 15, 2009MSL is like James Bond. Want to know why? Check out my new post over at ScientificBlogging. I’ve submitted it to their University Science Writing Competition, so head on over and check out my entry, and while you’re there take a look at the many other excellent entries. As I understand it, the folks at [...]
Carnival of Space #124
October 13, 2009We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars. – Oscar Wilde In fact, some of us have managed not only to look at the stars, but to blog about them. Luckily, there is a nice one-stop-shop for space-related blogs from the past week: the 124th Carnival of Space, [...]
Bomb the Moon!
October 9, 2009With 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 [...]
