MarsBlog - Part 55

Fire Tower Blogging

Regular blogging will resume soon — as soon, that is, as Qwest gets around to hooking me up to DSL.

In the meantime, here is a scenic view from today’s hike to the Devil’s Head Fire Tower:

Pre-DSL Blues

Posting will continue to be light (read: mostly nonexistent) for the next two weeks…I’m assured that Qwest will finally have DSL up and running in the neighborhood by Thanksgiving.

Red Moon?

Michael Griffin spoke at JSC today, and is reported to have said that the Chinese are “five or six years closer to the Moon than we are”.

Interesting.

Drought to Continue, With Chance of Blogging Later in the Week

Between working on two projects and starting this program last week, I’m swamped for the next few days…just when there is a bunch of juicy space stuff to discuss.

In particular, Rand is liveblogging a great deal of interesting news from the Space Frontier Conference (go here and scroll up through following posts), while SpaceX is suing to stop the ULA joint venture (go on, wrap your brain around the absurd notion of a company that has never flown demanding compensation from a company that doesn’t exist).

BBC Needs Remedial Physics Lesson

Or else they need to more carefully fact-check stories they reprint from Xinhua — China’s spacecraft orbit ‘slips’:

Gravity has drawn Shenzhou VI too close to earth, the agency said.

Shenzhou VI, which has two astronauts on board, is in a low enough orbit to be affected by the Earth’s gravitational pull.

I should hope so, since I don’t think an escape trajectory was quite what the Chinese were planning for their second manned spaceflight.

Sometimes…

…being all daring and transgressive and clever-like just makes you look juvenile.

(Heard this on Randi Rhodes this afternoon. Not surprisingly.)

The Competition Puts Up Another One

China has now launched
twice as many manned spacecraft in the past two and a half years as the US:

China’s second manned spacecraft blasted off from a remote northwestern launch site on Wednesday, just two years after the country joined an elite club of space powers.

Astronauts Fei Junlong, 40, and Nie Haisheng, 41, were handpicked from 14 fighter pilots and had been in the running for China’s first manned space launch in 2003. Their mission is due to last five days.

“There is nothing to worry about,” state television quoted the two as saying before the launch as a light snow fell. “We will accomplish the mission resolutely. See you in Beijing.”

They still have to come back, of course.

Here’s wishing them well in their efforts to build up a state-directed, centrally-planned space program.

‘Ekki mun mer ætlat at finna lond fleiri en þetta er nú byggjum vér.’

In case you didn’t know it, today is Leif Erikson Day.

The journey of Leif Erikson reflects the spirit that has made America strong, as the desire to explore and understand is part of our national character. Today, we continue to push the frontiers of knowledge in many areas and especially with our exploration of space, drawn to the heavens as we were once drawn to the open seas.

Missed Anniversary

It’s hard to believe that it’s already been ten years since the publication (on September 19, 1995) of that famous distillation of luddite nuttery, the
Unabomber Manifesto.

As for the negative consequences of eliminating industrial society — well, you can’t eat your cake and have it too. To gain one thing you have to sacrifice another…

It would be hopeless for revolutionaries to try to attack the system without using SOME modern technology. If nothing else they must use the communications media to spread their message. But they should use modern technology for only ONE purpose: to attack the technological system…

With regard to revolutionary strategy, the only points on which we absolutely insist are that the single overriding goal must be the elimination of modern technology, and that no other goal can be allowed to compete with this one.

I think it’s safe to conclude that Mr. Kaczynski for one is against space settlement and development.

Light Posting To Continue…

…for another week or two, until Qwest finally (hallelujah!) gets DSL hooked up at my place.

Kinda hard to get motivated to spend hours digging around for something to opine on, knowing that the 24.0kbps connection I’ve been suffering under for the past year and a half is about to be replaced with a 3Mbps firehose.

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