Friday:
If you're reading this at all, then snappily-named asteroid 2012-BX34 has probably NOT smashed into the Earth obliterating what we laughingly describe as "civilisation".
Or possibly: "hello to our new cockroach overlords!"
Anyway, just time before closest approach / impact at 1600 GMT to congratulate the Canadian students who managed to get a man into space. OK, he was a LEGO man, but you can't not give 'em credit for that!
And while I'm talking SPACE, if you STILL need convincing about a British Space Programme... do you REALLY want the NEO-CONS turning the MOON into a DEATH STAR?!
Run VT!
.
Showing posts with label Space. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Space. Show all posts
Friday, January 27, 2012
Monday, January 23, 2012
Day 4039: If this is an Answer what is the Question?
Sunday:
I see that Auntie Jennie and Mr Steven o' the Glenn have popped "The Question". No, no, no – THIS Question:
Because if it's a what-would-you-do-but-lack-of-confidence-is-holding-you-back kind of "could not fail", then the answer is: "be a best-selling fantasy author".
But if this is a rub-the-lamp-and-get-three-wishes sort of "could not fail" then it's: "design and build a workable, affordable (non-polluting) faster than light space drive and initiate the human exploration of the galaxy".
In all honesty, it would be nice to see one Daddy elected to FPC and one elected to Parliament. Either way around would do.
But getting millions of people to read my writing would, hopefully, get the Liberal message into people's heads and get them THINKING about it better than yet another nice middle-class Daddy in the "Big Shouting Club". Or Parliament, for that matter.
But if we're going to get full on wishes, it's got to be travel to the stars, for exploration and colonisation. There is so much to see out there – you only have to watch Stargazing Live to know there is more to "ooh" and "ahh" at than even Professor Brian Cox can manage in one lifetime. And let's face it, there are practical reasons too. Even if we don't destroy the planet ourselves, the chances of an extinction level even in the next thousand to ten-thousand years are frighteningly high. Moving to first the Moon, and then Mars and maybe Europa (near Jupiter) and then ultimately somewhere Keppler 22-b like… it's the ultimate in NOT keeping all your EGGS in one PLANET.
And if the ROMANCE doesn't convince you and the SELF-PRESERVATION doesn't sell you on space, then let's go all HAN SOLO and think about the MONEY. There is an asteroid up there called Eros containing precious metals to the value of TWENTY TRILLION DOLLARS. That's the world economic crisis sorted right there; that's all the banks AND the Euro bailed out tomorrow. And that's just one of the NEARBY ones!
The exploration of space can ENRICH us AND make us RICH at the same time.
So if it couldn't fail, THAT's what I'D do.
.
I see that Auntie Jennie and Mr Steven o' the Glenn have popped "The Question". No, no, no – THIS Question:
"What would you attempt if you knew you could not fail?"Well, the answer depends on how much MAGIC you're investing into the phrase "could not fail".
Because if it's a what-would-you-do-but-lack-of-confidence-is-holding-you-back kind of "could not fail", then the answer is: "be a best-selling fantasy author".
But if this is a rub-the-lamp-and-get-three-wishes sort of "could not fail" then it's: "design and build a workable, affordable (non-polluting) faster than light space drive and initiate the human exploration of the galaxy".
In all honesty, it would be nice to see one Daddy elected to FPC and one elected to Parliament. Either way around would do.
But getting millions of people to read my writing would, hopefully, get the Liberal message into people's heads and get them THINKING about it better than yet another nice middle-class Daddy in the "Big Shouting Club". Or Parliament, for that matter.
But if we're going to get full on wishes, it's got to be travel to the stars, for exploration and colonisation. There is so much to see out there – you only have to watch Stargazing Live to know there is more to "ooh" and "ahh" at than even Professor Brian Cox can manage in one lifetime. And let's face it, there are practical reasons too. Even if we don't destroy the planet ourselves, the chances of an extinction level even in the next thousand to ten-thousand years are frighteningly high. Moving to first the Moon, and then Mars and maybe Europa (near Jupiter) and then ultimately somewhere Keppler 22-b like… it's the ultimate in NOT keeping all your EGGS in one PLANET.
And if the ROMANCE doesn't convince you and the SELF-PRESERVATION doesn't sell you on space, then let's go all HAN SOLO and think about the MONEY. There is an asteroid up there called Eros containing precious metals to the value of TWENTY TRILLION DOLLARS. That's the world economic crisis sorted right there; that's all the banks AND the Euro bailed out tomorrow. And that's just one of the NEARBY ones!
The exploration of space can ENRICH us AND make us RICH at the same time.
So if it couldn't fail, THAT's what I'D do.
.
Friday, July 08, 2011
Day 3841: Goodbye Cruel World*
Friday:
It turns out that we owe an apology to Harold Camping, of all people, for LO the End of the World has arrived and the Elect has indeed been lifted to Safety!
In other news…
We may be in the gutter…
…but some of us are looking at the stars!
To the Space Shuttle Atlantis: go to Heaven.
To the News of the World: do the maths!
.
It turns out that we owe an apology to Harold Camping, of all people, for LO the End of the World has arrived and the Elect has indeed been lifted to Safety!
In other news…
We may be in the gutter…
…but some of us are looking at the stars!
To the Space Shuttle Atlantis: go to Heaven.
To the News of the World: do the maths!
PS:
*In the absence of the Current Bun covering this appalling phone-hacking story, it seems the Tell-lies-o-Graph have decided to take their place. Says it all, really..
Saturday, June 25, 2011
Day 3828: The Deadly Sin of Sloth
Saturday:
We wake at the tellingly-lazy hour of half-past-eleven to hear the Weak (sic) In Westminster debating the House of Lords Club and NEVER have we heard such a smug, selfish, self-interested, inward-looking, ignorant proof that the place needs totally abolishing down to the ground!
Last weekend, we were with our families for Daddies Day, and – as can happen – one of our relatives went off on a bit of a "right-wing rant". "The trouble with this country is lack of leadership!" was the thesis. This, of course, is total HONK; the REAL problem of this country is CONTENTMENT.
The "strong leadership" canard itself implies lack of fault in the PEOPLE. I mean even if we didn't all know that "strong leadership" is a shortcut to poor by which I mean insane policy choices – Iraq, Poll Tax, World War Part II and we're straight into Godwin's Law – the implication is that the fault is in the LEADERS not providing answers rather than the PEOPLE for not getting off their fluffy bottoms to CHANGE things!
And people DON'T want, can't be BOTHERED to want CHANGE.
And I don't even mean Great Britain; I mean England. Because if you look at Scotland, whether you agree with independence or oppose it, there is a real yearning for change and a seizing of their own destiny, while England is content just to sink into our own apathy.
With basically only TWO political arguments – "time for change!" and "don't rock the boat" – you can make a case that the recent LOSS of the AV referendum, and certainly the insultingly low turnout, are a sign that people are complacently content as they are. Enough people are pretty much enough satisfied that things are "okay enough as they are". There is no… OOMPH for getting behind something new.
That same lack of drive may even explain the poor recovery from recession. The case made is "oh, people are just struggling to carry on in the face of austerity". No, people are wrapping the blankets around them and trying to IGNORE it; they're not going out there and starting new enterprises FIGHTING it!
The terrible thought strikes me that the one success of Thatcherism was not its economic insight (which was non-existent) nor its populism (which mostly came about by accident) but that it made SO MANY people MISERABLE that it meant they had to DO something, to FIGHT FOR something. The misery lead to STRUGGLE and the struggle led to on the one fluffy foot an EXPLOSION of creative arts from the oppression and injustice and yet on the other fluffy foot an explosion of entrepreneurialism and invention from the wideboys and chancers who took their opportunity. They may have been "nouvs" and absolutely ghastly, but they created new wealth and dynamism in a way that the settled establishment didn't.
The contented establishment have used the decades since to SMOTHER that. THAT is why Alan Sugar is now a LORD, and comfortably PARASITISING the creative insanity of his "Apprentices".
It is all too telling that the only things that will get our UNIONS out on the streets nowadays are a threat to make their PILLOWS slightly less PLUMPTIOUS!
(At least the students were rioting for the right to DO something!)
And the House of Lords is TOTALLY symbolic of all of that: a warm and cosy retirement palace, you don't even have to turn up, where you can be coddled while you congratulate yourself on your own wisdom.
So we woke up hearing the voices of Mr Fraser Half-Nelson guests Dame Joan Bakewell Tart and Mr Michael "FU" Dobbs telling us how SILLY it was of Captain Clegg to consider replacing the House of Lords with something THAT WORKS.
"There are so many people who want to get in, even though there is no pay."
Oh, well have you considered the possibility of having some sort of DECISION about who gets in and who stays in? If people WANT it so badly then they can stand up and prove they deserve it. Oh no, they don't want to go to the trouble of obtaining a MANDATE. They want it handed to them on a plate. Together with a cat-trim bed-blanket to prove they're part of the CLUB.
Yes, you'll only end up with "elected politicians"… as opposed to the UNELECTED politicians that we've got there now!
What could be WORSE in your governing political class than this exceeding smug self-assurance that they're not "politicians" they're "wise people" just because they don't have to face an electorate?
The House of Lords is ENTIRELY composed of "the ESTABLISHMENT", talking to themselves and most ABOUT themselves. Frankly, the House of COMMONS is ALMOST AS BAD, but at least elections mean there is a REMOTE CHANCE that someone INTERESTING can CRASH THE PARTY.
"You couldn't have people of 20 in the House of Lords…" says Joan Bakewell, JOAN BAKEWELL!, "…or it would turn this place into a bear pit!"
Well of course how shocking, we'd best not threaten to interrupt the gentle snoring of our self-appointed gerontocracy with anything that might approach REPRESENTATION for people less than a quarter of your age. It might disturb the horses.
"There are more important things to deal with."
You know, there really ARE. But Parliament doesn't debate them.
The problems that our Parliament chooses to trouble itself with are TRIVIAL, quite literally they are reduced to arguing over how to manage our pensions. This country that once RULED the WORLD, our greatest aspiration now amounts to RETIREMENT.
THIS is why SLOTH is DEADLY. It is killing us.
Not depressing because it claims that the Moon landing was basically a WILLY-WAVING exercise by the military-industrial complex as a proxy for fighting a nuclear war. (And let's face it a Saturn V rocket is a pretty IN YOUR FACE statement of "my Freudian rocket is bigger than your Freudian rocket"!).
No, this piece was depressing because of the suggestion that space is OVER. We've done that and we're BORED now. Exploration is for geeks and weirdoes; there are "more important" things to deal with here on Earth.
NO.
There are only two possibilities: life exists in great abundance everywhere in the Universe; or life is vanishingly rare and may be unique to this Earth.
To the very best of our knowledge, from all we have leaned so far, there is NO evidence for the former.
That makes the life on Earth the most VITAL and PRECIOUS thing that there is anywhere. And our most pressing duty must be to take life to the stars.
Chinese philosophy tells us there are two competing impulses, two "directions": "inwards" and "outwards". "Outwards" is chaotic, aggressive, creative, exploratory, inventive. "Inwards" is peaceful, calm, settled, content.
The "West", and that basically meant the British Empire and later the Americans, used to be synonymous with "outward" and the "East", namely China, with "inward". And we PITIED China for it: for being so INDOLENT, so fat and lazy and OLD.
And look at us now.
.
We wake at the tellingly-lazy hour of half-past-eleven to hear the Weak (sic) In Westminster debating the House of Lords Club and NEVER have we heard such a smug, selfish, self-interested, inward-looking, ignorant proof that the place needs totally abolishing down to the ground!
Last weekend, we were with our families for Daddies Day, and – as can happen – one of our relatives went off on a bit of a "right-wing rant". "The trouble with this country is lack of leadership!" was the thesis. This, of course, is total HONK; the REAL problem of this country is CONTENTMENT.
The "strong leadership" canard itself implies lack of fault in the PEOPLE. I mean even if we didn't all know that "strong leadership" is a shortcut to poor by which I mean insane policy choices – Iraq, Poll Tax, World War Part II and we're straight into Godwin's Law – the implication is that the fault is in the LEADERS not providing answers rather than the PEOPLE for not getting off their fluffy bottoms to CHANGE things!
And people DON'T want, can't be BOTHERED to want CHANGE.
And I don't even mean Great Britain; I mean England. Because if you look at Scotland, whether you agree with independence or oppose it, there is a real yearning for change and a seizing of their own destiny, while England is content just to sink into our own apathy.
With basically only TWO political arguments – "time for change!" and "don't rock the boat" – you can make a case that the recent LOSS of the AV referendum, and certainly the insultingly low turnout, are a sign that people are complacently content as they are. Enough people are pretty much enough satisfied that things are "okay enough as they are". There is no… OOMPH for getting behind something new.
That same lack of drive may even explain the poor recovery from recession. The case made is "oh, people are just struggling to carry on in the face of austerity". No, people are wrapping the blankets around them and trying to IGNORE it; they're not going out there and starting new enterprises FIGHTING it!
The terrible thought strikes me that the one success of Thatcherism was not its economic insight (which was non-existent) nor its populism (which mostly came about by accident) but that it made SO MANY people MISERABLE that it meant they had to DO something, to FIGHT FOR something. The misery lead to STRUGGLE and the struggle led to on the one fluffy foot an EXPLOSION of creative arts from the oppression and injustice and yet on the other fluffy foot an explosion of entrepreneurialism and invention from the wideboys and chancers who took their opportunity. They may have been "nouvs" and absolutely ghastly, but they created new wealth and dynamism in a way that the settled establishment didn't.
The contented establishment have used the decades since to SMOTHER that. THAT is why Alan Sugar is now a LORD, and comfortably PARASITISING the creative insanity of his "Apprentices".
It is all too telling that the only things that will get our UNIONS out on the streets nowadays are a threat to make their PILLOWS slightly less PLUMPTIOUS!
(At least the students were rioting for the right to DO something!)
And the House of Lords is TOTALLY symbolic of all of that: a warm and cosy retirement palace, you don't even have to turn up, where you can be coddled while you congratulate yourself on your own wisdom.
So we woke up hearing the voices of Mr Fraser Half-Nelson guests Dame Joan Bakewell Tart and Mr Michael "FU" Dobbs telling us how SILLY it was of Captain Clegg to consider replacing the House of Lords with something THAT WORKS.
"There are so many people who want to get in, even though there is no pay."
Oh, well have you considered the possibility of having some sort of DECISION about who gets in and who stays in? If people WANT it so badly then they can stand up and prove they deserve it. Oh no, they don't want to go to the trouble of obtaining a MANDATE. They want it handed to them on a plate. Together with a cat-trim bed-blanket to prove they're part of the CLUB.
Yes, you'll only end up with "elected politicians"… as opposed to the UNELECTED politicians that we've got there now!
What could be WORSE in your governing political class than this exceeding smug self-assurance that they're not "politicians" they're "wise people" just because they don't have to face an electorate?
The House of Lords is ENTIRELY composed of "the ESTABLISHMENT", talking to themselves and most ABOUT themselves. Frankly, the House of COMMONS is ALMOST AS BAD, but at least elections mean there is a REMOTE CHANCE that someone INTERESTING can CRASH THE PARTY.
"You couldn't have people of 20 in the House of Lords…" says Joan Bakewell, JOAN BAKEWELL!, "…or it would turn this place into a bear pit!"
Well of course how shocking, we'd best not threaten to interrupt the gentle snoring of our self-appointed gerontocracy with anything that might approach REPRESENTATION for people less than a quarter of your age. It might disturb the horses.
"There are more important things to deal with."
You know, there really ARE. But Parliament doesn't debate them.
The problems that our Parliament chooses to trouble itself with are TRIVIAL, quite literally they are reduced to arguing over how to manage our pensions. This country that once RULED the WORLD, our greatest aspiration now amounts to RETIREMENT.
THIS is why SLOTH is DEADLY. It is killing us.
PS:
This week Daddy Richard read a really DEPRESSING piece of analysis about the Space Race to the Moon. I'm not saying it was WRONG; it's well-argued and well-written (and I recommend the "TARDIS rude-room" blog as a whole!) but it was depressing.Not depressing because it claims that the Moon landing was basically a WILLY-WAVING exercise by the military-industrial complex as a proxy for fighting a nuclear war. (And let's face it a Saturn V rocket is a pretty IN YOUR FACE statement of "my Freudian rocket is bigger than your Freudian rocket"!).
No, this piece was depressing because of the suggestion that space is OVER. We've done that and we're BORED now. Exploration is for geeks and weirdoes; there are "more important" things to deal with here on Earth.
NO.
There are only two possibilities: life exists in great abundance everywhere in the Universe; or life is vanishingly rare and may be unique to this Earth.
To the very best of our knowledge, from all we have leaned so far, there is NO evidence for the former.
That makes the life on Earth the most VITAL and PRECIOUS thing that there is anywhere. And our most pressing duty must be to take life to the stars.
Chinese philosophy tells us there are two competing impulses, two "directions": "inwards" and "outwards". "Outwards" is chaotic, aggressive, creative, exploratory, inventive. "Inwards" is peaceful, calm, settled, content.
The "West", and that basically meant the British Empire and later the Americans, used to be synonymous with "outward" and the "East", namely China, with "inward". And we PITIED China for it: for being so INDOLENT, so fat and lazy and OLD.
And look at us now.
.
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Day 3754: We Salute the Conquerors of Space
Tuesday:
Peoples of Russialand and all across planet Earth celebrate the Fiftieth Anniversary of the first ever space trip by one of you monkey people, when Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin was strapped into a tin ball, plonked on top of an enormous firework and blasted into orbit.
In Moscow, capital of Russialand, this amazing achievement is rightly celebrated by this statue in tribute.
It is called the "Monument to the Conquerors of Space". Which clearly puts the DALEKS in their place!
But wait, Daddy says we are receiving an incoming communication about this… run VT!
(ashamed now!)
.
Peoples of Russialand and all across planet Earth celebrate the Fiftieth Anniversary of the first ever space trip by one of you monkey people, when Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin was strapped into a tin ball, plonked on top of an enormous firework and blasted into orbit.
In Moscow, capital of Russialand, this amazing achievement is rightly celebrated by this statue in tribute.
 |
| To Infinity? |
It is called the "Monument to the Conquerors of Space". Which clearly puts the DALEKS in their place!
But wait, Daddy says we are receiving an incoming communication about this… run VT!
(ashamed now!)
.
Saturday, December 19, 2009
Day 3275: His Dark Materials
Saturday:
Previously, I have mentioned how the universe is made of CHOCOLATE.
It surrounds us and penetrates us and binds the galaxy together… no wait, that's the FORCE!
Anyway, scientists call this delicious substance DARK MATTER, because it appears – or rather DISappears – to be invisible. Yet it makes up FAR MORE of the Universe than bits we can see.
(In fact, 70% of the universe is dark ENERGY which is even MORE mysterious but if the sums add up right then a quarter of everything is dark matter; that's FIVE TIMES as much dark matter as light matter!)
So you can't see it but you CAN see the effect that it has. In fact, using the Hubble Space Telescope, you can photograph a bit of a GLOW around distant galaxies caused by the Dark Matter BENDING LIGHT around the edges!
Now, there's a BIT of a puzzle about what dark matter is really made of.
Some people think it might just be ORDINARY matter bundled up into super-heavy lumps that, for some reason we don't understand, don't heat up and radiate light.
('Cos that's what USUALLY happens when ordinary matter gets bundled up into super-heavy lumps… we call them STARS.)
These bundles of ordinary-but-lumpy stuff are referred to as Massive Astrophysical Compact Halo Objects or MACHOs. Yes, scientists are like that; live with it.
Others think that there are a whole new farm of sub-atomic particles that carry MASS (so can affect gravity) but none of the other fundamental forces (so they DON'T interact with ordinary matter in any other way). These are called weakly interacting (because they don't really interact) massive (because they have mass, not because they are enormous) particles. Or WIMPs. Yes, I know; never mind.
Detecting the presence of actual invisible particles, though, would mean that there actually ARE invisible particles, and would settle that argument.
But how do you detect them if you can't see them.
Well, you CAN, if you are very, very careful, detect a teeny-tiny bit of a REBOUND in a bit of light matter, something that you CAN see, if a dark matter particle happens to collide with it!
And that is just what scientists at the bottom of a very deep mine in Americaland claim to have done.
Alternatively, it's students from the FUTURE messing about with the Large Hairdo Collider!
.
Previously, I have mentioned how the universe is made of CHOCOLATE.
It surrounds us and penetrates us and binds the galaxy together… no wait, that's the FORCE!
Anyway, scientists call this delicious substance DARK MATTER, because it appears – or rather DISappears – to be invisible. Yet it makes up FAR MORE of the Universe than bits we can see.
(In fact, 70% of the universe is dark ENERGY which is even MORE mysterious but if the sums add up right then a quarter of everything is dark matter; that's FIVE TIMES as much dark matter as light matter!)
So you can't see it but you CAN see the effect that it has. In fact, using the Hubble Space Telescope, you can photograph a bit of a GLOW around distant galaxies caused by the Dark Matter BENDING LIGHT around the edges!
Now, there's a BIT of a puzzle about what dark matter is really made of.
Some people think it might just be ORDINARY matter bundled up into super-heavy lumps that, for some reason we don't understand, don't heat up and radiate light.
('Cos that's what USUALLY happens when ordinary matter gets bundled up into super-heavy lumps… we call them STARS.)
These bundles of ordinary-but-lumpy stuff are referred to as Massive Astrophysical Compact Halo Objects or MACHOs. Yes, scientists are like that; live with it.
Others think that there are a whole new farm of sub-atomic particles that carry MASS (so can affect gravity) but none of the other fundamental forces (so they DON'T interact with ordinary matter in any other way). These are called weakly interacting (because they don't really interact) massive (because they have mass, not because they are enormous) particles. Or WIMPs. Yes, I know; never mind.
Detecting the presence of actual invisible particles, though, would mean that there actually ARE invisible particles, and would settle that argument.
But how do you detect them if you can't see them.
Well, you CAN, if you are very, very careful, detect a teeny-tiny bit of a REBOUND in a bit of light matter, something that you CAN see, if a dark matter particle happens to collide with it!
And that is just what scientists at the bottom of a very deep mine in Americaland claim to have done.
Alternatively, it's students from the FUTURE messing about with the Large Hairdo Collider!
.
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Day 2998: Gravity of the Situation
Tuesday:
The European Space Agency have launched a new GRAVITY-MAPPING satellite called Goce.
(Not to be confused with the PASTA-mapping satellite called Gnocchi!)
Allegedly sensitive enough to measure the impact of a snowflake on a super-tanker, Goce will be on the frontline in monitoring CLIMATE CHANGE, tracking every butterfly on Earth and predicting the HURRICANES that they are going to cause… er, maybe.
.
The European Space Agency have launched a new GRAVITY-MAPPING satellite called Goce.
(Not to be confused with the PASTA-mapping satellite called Gnocchi!)
Allegedly sensitive enough to measure the impact of a snowflake on a super-tanker, Goce will be on the frontline in monitoring CLIMATE CHANGE, tracking every butterfly on Earth and predicting the HURRICANES that they are going to cause… er, maybe.
.
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Day 2972: Pilots of the Future?
Thursday:
Excellent news! The European Space Agency is to invest in this THRILLING new British Rocket Ship project!
Dare... to be different
That's eight shillings well spent, I'm sure you'll agree!
.
Excellent news! The European Space Agency is to invest in this THRILLING new British Rocket Ship project!
Dare... to be different
That's eight shillings well spent, I'm sure you'll agree!
.
Saturday, December 06, 2008
Day 2896: Star Bears: Return of the Tedi
Friday:
Sorry for the delay: the Government has changed a tax called VAT and gave Daddy Richard just seven days to change all the sales and purchases systems at his work. Believe it or not, this was slightly time-consuming.
THEN Daddy Richard and Daddy Alex went and got SURVIVORS flu and were very poorly. However, when we emerged, we were pleasantly surprised to find that 99.9% of the world WEREN'T already dead. Phew!
We hope that, one day, normal service will be resumed. In the meantime, here are some Teddy Bears in space…
Another triumph for the British Rocket Group
Tips Daily Helograph
Sorry for the delay: the Government has changed a tax called VAT and gave Daddy Richard just seven days to change all the sales and purchases systems at his work. Believe it or not, this was slightly time-consuming.
THEN Daddy Richard and Daddy Alex went and got SURVIVORS flu and were very poorly. However, when we emerged, we were pleasantly surprised to find that 99.9% of the world WEREN'T already dead. Phew!
We hope that, one day, normal service will be resumed. In the meantime, here are some Teddy Bears in space…
Another triumph for the British Rocket Group
Tips Daily Helograph
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Day 2875: Happy Birthday Chuck
Friday:
His Most Britannic Fifth-Wheeledness has reached the age of the bus pass.
As Mr Rory Bremner has joked in the past: Mrs the Queen has told the Prince that he will ascend to the throne in the traditional manner… or in her PRECISE words: "over my dead body".
What, then, to get for the Man Who Has Everything (except a Job)?
Well, how about a PLANET of his very own!
Behold: Formalhaut Prime!
Untainted by architectural carbuncles; unlikely to be reduced to grey goo by nanotechnology; almost certainly immaculate of GM agriculture. And a full twenty-five light years away, well outside any territory currently ruled by Mrs the Queen.
OK, so it's probably a GAS GIANT – but what better place to practice being a Right Royal Windbag?
Happy Birthday, Your Highness! Now, someone blast him into space!
His Most Britannic Fifth-Wheeledness has reached the age of the bus pass.
As Mr Rory Bremner has joked in the past: Mrs the Queen has told the Prince that he will ascend to the throne in the traditional manner… or in her PRECISE words: "over my dead body".
What, then, to get for the Man Who Has Everything (except a Job)?
Well, how about a PLANET of his very own!
Behold: Formalhaut Prime!
Untainted by architectural carbuncles; unlikely to be reduced to grey goo by nanotechnology; almost certainly immaculate of GM agriculture. And a full twenty-five light years away, well outside any territory currently ruled by Mrs the Queen.
OK, so it's probably a GAS GIANT – but what better place to practice being a Right Royal Windbag?
Happy Birthday, Your Highness! Now, someone blast him into space!
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Day 2767: NASA Gold
Tuesday:
We announce an album of all their greatest hits, including: Money Money Money (is what it costs to build a space station); Take a Chance on Me (aboard Apollo 13); and Dancing (Martian) Queen!
Mama Mia! It's SURE to be the basis of a hit musical and film staring Mr Pierce!
But really, HOORAY for the Fiftieth Anniversary of the American Space Agency!
We announce an album of all their greatest hits, including: Money Money Money (is what it costs to build a space station); Take a Chance on Me (aboard Apollo 13); and Dancing (Martian) Queen!
Mama Mia! It's SURE to be the basis of a hit musical and film staring Mr Pierce!
But really, HOORAY for the Fiftieth Anniversary of the American Space Agency!
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Day 2718: The Universe before ours
Tuesday:
It turns out that the entire operating system for the Universe is ripped off from Mr Lawrence "Mad Larry" Miles.
Which makes sense of a lot of things, actually.
Meanwhile, and closer to home, Daddy Alex thinks that the discovery of a trio of super-Earth X-Planets sounds like a cartoon for CBBC!
But he is very pleased that Britain's all-new army robots appear to be being named after Doctor Who monsters…
…though with Skynet now completed it cannot be long before these robots turn against us. Anticipate termination!
It turns out that the entire operating system for the Universe is ripped off from Mr Lawrence "Mad Larry" Miles.
Which makes sense of a lot of things, actually.
Meanwhile, and closer to home, Daddy Alex thinks that the discovery of a trio of super-Earth X-Planets sounds like a cartoon for CBBC!
But he is very pleased that Britain's all-new army robots appear to be being named after Doctor Who monsters…
…though with Skynet now completed it cannot be long before these robots turn against us. Anticipate termination!
Saturday, May 31, 2008
Day 2703: The Phoenix Has Landed
Monday:
Daddy let me stay up REALLY late to watch the NASA spaceship landing on Mars. Okay, it's not QUITE the Moon Landing, but I was excited!
Landing on Mars is quite TRICKY. Unlike the Moon, Mars is quite BIG so the gravity is quite STRONG. But unlike Earth, Mars has a thin atmosphere so it's not much use for slowing you down with PARACHUTES.
In recent years, NASA lost the Mars Polar Explorer and the European Space Agency lost their Beagle 2. So you'll understand why the scientists at mission control were so RELIVED that Phoenix hadn't gone BLATT!
The really HAIRY part is that for the seven minutes of the descent you have to rely entirely on the robot brain flying the spaceship. Mars is too far away to work it by remote control – by the time your signal saying "left a bit" got back there, you'd have already ploughed into the ground!
Fortunately it all worked out FINE. Phoenix didn't quite hit the target landing site – a parachute opened slightly late – but it found a good solid place to set down and was able to open up its solar panels and start taking photos. Just like any other tourist!
The BBC has some of the pictures.
Phoenix was sent to the north pole of Mars because that is where our orbital scans have show there to be WATER only a little way under the surface. So if there IS a chance of finding life on Mars then that is the best place to look.
Even BETTER news: our latest Martian landing has not resulted in a flash of green fire and a cylinder being launched back at us.
Ulla!
Daddy let me stay up REALLY late to watch the NASA spaceship landing on Mars. Okay, it's not QUITE the Moon Landing, but I was excited!
Landing on Mars is quite TRICKY. Unlike the Moon, Mars is quite BIG so the gravity is quite STRONG. But unlike Earth, Mars has a thin atmosphere so it's not much use for slowing you down with PARACHUTES.
In recent years, NASA lost the Mars Polar Explorer and the European Space Agency lost their Beagle 2. So you'll understand why the scientists at mission control were so RELIVED that Phoenix hadn't gone BLATT!
The really HAIRY part is that for the seven minutes of the descent you have to rely entirely on the robot brain flying the spaceship. Mars is too far away to work it by remote control – by the time your signal saying "left a bit" got back there, you'd have already ploughed into the ground!
Fortunately it all worked out FINE. Phoenix didn't quite hit the target landing site – a parachute opened slightly late – but it found a good solid place to set down and was able to open up its solar panels and start taking photos. Just like any other tourist!
The BBC has some of the pictures.
Phoenix was sent to the north pole of Mars because that is where our orbital scans have show there to be WATER only a little way under the surface. So if there IS a chance of finding life on Mars then that is the best place to look.
Even BETTER news: our latest Martian landing has not resulted in a flash of green fire and a cylinder being launched back at us.
Ulla!
Saturday, April 19, 2008
Day 2664: Flowers on the Moon
Thursday:
No, I have NOT blasted Daddy Richard into orbit!
This is SCIENCE and news that the European Space Agency has discovered a way to let marigolds grow on moonrock.
I'm sure you must realise that this is quite IMPORTANT if we are ever going to build a successful MOONBASE.
In the CARBON CYCLE, plants absorb CO2 and water and sunlight to make carbohydrates and oxygen; elephants and people and animals then eat carbohydrates and breathe oxygen to get energy and make CO2 and water as by-products. If you want to keep breathing you have to keep these in BALANCE.
Unfortunately, the Moon does not have any atmosphere at all. So we will still have to import lots of air and water in order for plants to grow, unless we are able to FIND some up there: deposits of WATER (or at least ICE) on the moon are much sought after as they would provide not just drinks but Oxygen for breathing and Hydrogen for rocket fuel.
But that wouldn't be enough on its own.
There is also a NITROGEN cycle, because all living things build their bodies out of PROTEINS which are big carbon-based molecules that are like carbohydrates BUT have extra NITROGEN as well as Carbon, Hydrogen and Oxygen. Fortunately there is LOTS of Nitrogen about because the Earth's atmosphere is mostly (more than 70%, in fact) made of it! Unfortunately, plants CANNOT turn nitrogen GAS (N2) into protein directly; they need help to turn the Nitrogen into a NITRATE that they can absorb and use, help that comes either from special bacteria or occasionally from a blast of LIGHTNING! Nowadays they ALSO get help from FERTILISER.
So, you will need to ship a load of fertiliser to the Moon too. (Don't think I don't know what you're thinking!)
All of which makes it VERY SILLY for the Head of the ESA to dismiss lunar colonisation as "Science Fiction"; things are RARELY this difficult in FICTION!
Meanwhile, a Dr Watson of East Anglia has estimated that the chances of meeting another intelligent life form are "extremely low".
Clearly, he needs to try moving away from the University of East Anglia.
No, sorry, apologies to the good people of UEA, the thing is that this is a very SILLY estimate, because we have almost no EVIDENCE on which to base it.
For a start, it seems that Dr Watson has said that the chances of intelligent life emerging on a planet like Earth inside of four billion years are 1/10 (for the chance of simple single-celled animals evolving) times 1/10 (for the chance of complex cells evolving) times 1/10 (for the chance of complex, multi-celled animals evolving) times 1/10 (for the chance of an intelligent species with language evolving) which makes 1/10,000 or 0.01%.
Well, this is the sort of "plucking numbers from the air" that CREATIONISTS do when they want to "prove" life evolving by chance is "impossible". WE simply DO NOT KNOW what are the chances of self-replicating chemicals occurring (like DNA did on Earth). It may be VERY COMMON, it may even be CHEMICALLY INEVITABLE given the right mix of elements; or it could be remotely IMPOSSIBLY unlikely without some fluke event like a comet strike or passing Spaghetti Monster with a whim. Without assessing more than one Earth-like planet we aren't going to be able to find out, either.
Similarly, we are only BEGINNING to understand what drives evolutionary processes. Intelligence and language may be rare or common in terms of things that crop up, we can't be sure – although the distinct possibility that dolphins, whales, elephants and humans have all developed communicating intelligences ought to be taken into some consideration.
And even if these ever-so-arbitrary looking numbers are SPOT ON, we do not know even vaguely how may Earth type planets that there ARE even in our own galaxy.
But we do have some evidence that our planetary system isn't UNIQUE. So, since we're not living entirely by chance on an unnatural fluke, it's not unreasonable to assume that other systems of planets like ours have developed.
With at least two-hundred billion stars in the Milky Way (never mind any of the trillions of other galaxies) even if the chances of another star having a Solar-System-like system of planets are ALSO 1/10,000, there could STILL be over a THOUSAND worlds with intelligent life on them, probably avoiding us because of CRICKET!
Anyway, this ENTIRELY overlooks the possibility that it only takes ONE intelligent species to go INTERSTELLAR and the galaxy will be FULL of inhabited planets. Which brings us back to colonisation, and apparently it's quite urgent as there are only a billion years until the shops close. And melt.
No, I have NOT blasted Daddy Richard into orbit!
This is SCIENCE and news that the European Space Agency has discovered a way to let marigolds grow on moonrock.
I'm sure you must realise that this is quite IMPORTANT if we are ever going to build a successful MOONBASE.
In the CARBON CYCLE, plants absorb CO2 and water and sunlight to make carbohydrates and oxygen; elephants and people and animals then eat carbohydrates and breathe oxygen to get energy and make CO2 and water as by-products. If you want to keep breathing you have to keep these in BALANCE.
Unfortunately, the Moon does not have any atmosphere at all. So we will still have to import lots of air and water in order for plants to grow, unless we are able to FIND some up there: deposits of WATER (or at least ICE) on the moon are much sought after as they would provide not just drinks but Oxygen for breathing and Hydrogen for rocket fuel.
But that wouldn't be enough on its own.
There is also a NITROGEN cycle, because all living things build their bodies out of PROTEINS which are big carbon-based molecules that are like carbohydrates BUT have extra NITROGEN as well as Carbon, Hydrogen and Oxygen. Fortunately there is LOTS of Nitrogen about because the Earth's atmosphere is mostly (more than 70%, in fact) made of it! Unfortunately, plants CANNOT turn nitrogen GAS (N2) into protein directly; they need help to turn the Nitrogen into a NITRATE that they can absorb and use, help that comes either from special bacteria or occasionally from a blast of LIGHTNING! Nowadays they ALSO get help from FERTILISER.
So, you will need to ship a load of fertiliser to the Moon too. (Don't think I don't know what you're thinking!)
All of which makes it VERY SILLY for the Head of the ESA to dismiss lunar colonisation as "Science Fiction"; things are RARELY this difficult in FICTION!
Meanwhile, a Dr Watson of East Anglia has estimated that the chances of meeting another intelligent life form are "extremely low".
Clearly, he needs to try moving away from the University of East Anglia.
No, sorry, apologies to the good people of UEA, the thing is that this is a very SILLY estimate, because we have almost no EVIDENCE on which to base it.
For a start, it seems that Dr Watson has said that the chances of intelligent life emerging on a planet like Earth inside of four billion years are 1/10 (for the chance of simple single-celled animals evolving) times 1/10 (for the chance of complex cells evolving) times 1/10 (for the chance of complex, multi-celled animals evolving) times 1/10 (for the chance of an intelligent species with language evolving) which makes 1/10,000 or 0.01%.
Well, this is the sort of "plucking numbers from the air" that CREATIONISTS do when they want to "prove" life evolving by chance is "impossible". WE simply DO NOT KNOW what are the chances of self-replicating chemicals occurring (like DNA did on Earth). It may be VERY COMMON, it may even be CHEMICALLY INEVITABLE given the right mix of elements; or it could be remotely IMPOSSIBLY unlikely without some fluke event like a comet strike or passing Spaghetti Monster with a whim. Without assessing more than one Earth-like planet we aren't going to be able to find out, either.
Similarly, we are only BEGINNING to understand what drives evolutionary processes. Intelligence and language may be rare or common in terms of things that crop up, we can't be sure – although the distinct possibility that dolphins, whales, elephants and humans have all developed communicating intelligences ought to be taken into some consideration.
And even if these ever-so-arbitrary looking numbers are SPOT ON, we do not know even vaguely how may Earth type planets that there ARE even in our own galaxy.
But we do have some evidence that our planetary system isn't UNIQUE. So, since we're not living entirely by chance on an unnatural fluke, it's not unreasonable to assume that other systems of planets like ours have developed.
With at least two-hundred billion stars in the Milky Way (never mind any of the trillions of other galaxies) even if the chances of another star having a Solar-System-like system of planets are ALSO 1/10,000, there could STILL be over a THOUSAND worlds with intelligent life on them, probably avoiding us because of CRICKET!
Anyway, this ENTIRELY overlooks the possibility that it only takes ONE intelligent species to go INTERSTELLAR and the galaxy will be FULL of inhabited planets. Which brings us back to colonisation, and apparently it's quite urgent as there are only a billion years until the shops close. And melt.
Friday, April 11, 2008
Day 2656: Jodrell Bank UPDATE
Wednesday:
You may remember that a month ago I protested that the most important scientific instrument in Great Britain – or even THE WORLD, give or take a hadron collider at CERN and a neutrino observatory in Sudbury, Ontario – was under THREAT.
Well, this week there was new news, with two BBC programmes covering the calamity: The Sky at Night and the Newsnight at Night.
For the Newsnight Show, Ms Susan "mega" Watts reported on the brouhaha with an introduction that you may find EERILY FAMILIAR.
(Nothing wrong with that, though – there are worse jobs than being Newsnight's Unpaid Scientific Advisor… I wonder if I get a sprightly yellow roadster™!)
In The Sky at Night, available now – as the advert goes – on the BBC's iPlayer Sir Patrick Xylophone (Professor X!) told us all about Jodrell Bank's current work, the astonishingly exciting measurements of a pair of spinning quasars that are proving Mr Einstein's theory to a degree previously thought impossible, and then quizzed Mr the Astronomer Royal on what was going on.
(You might also be excited by the photography of a Gamma Ray Burst – at a million times brighter than a GALAXY, it's the cosmic phenomenon that makes a super-nova look like a far… bad-word in a bathtub!)
The good news is that Jodrell Bank is a bit less in danger than we thought, and Mr the Astronomer Royal seems to think that it will be saved. The bad news is that Mr Frown's new science-funding quango* messed up the funding in a big way and it might still put the tin hat on the eMerlin array (where you get radio telescopes from all over the country and link them up to the Lovell Telescope at Jodrell Bank and make a super-telescope out of them – you know, the project on which they've already spent millions of pounds for the plugs).
(*This quango was made from two other quangos… probably by colliding them in CERN's super-collider.)
As Ms "mega" Watts explains in her piece, Mr Frown's precious "knowledge economy" depends on actual people WITH actual knowledge. So-called "big ticket" toys, like the Jodrell Bank telescopes, are what you need to attract the very best talents in practical and theoretical science, and you need to attract THEM so that they will inspire a generation of students who will go on to be the people who keep our economy going!
(Assuming Mr Frown hasn't FLAT-LINED it by then!)
BUT… I've said it before and I will probably say it again: the search for knowledge, the exploration of our universe and the quest to understand how it works and what it is made of… these things are GOOD in and of themselves.
As you may have noticed, I am not a particularly RELIGIOUS baby elephant, and so do not believe that our PURPOSE in being here is to sit on this rock singing praises to an invisible friend. In which case, we have to make OUR OWN purposes, and for me, that purpose is "finding stuff out".
In just the same as Radio Three enriches us and Tate Modern enriches us – not everyone wants to go there, but it is reassuring that you COULD – expanding our knowledge ENRICHES all of us. That makes it worth doing.
You may remember that a month ago I protested that the most important scientific instrument in Great Britain – or even THE WORLD, give or take a hadron collider at CERN and a neutrino observatory in Sudbury, Ontario – was under THREAT.
Well, this week there was new news, with two BBC programmes covering the calamity: The Sky at Night and the Newsnight at Night.
For the Newsnight Show, Ms Susan "mega" Watts reported on the brouhaha with an introduction that you may find EERILY FAMILIAR.
(Nothing wrong with that, though – there are worse jobs than being Newsnight's Unpaid Scientific Advisor… I wonder if I get a sprightly yellow roadster™!)
In The Sky at Night, available now – as the advert goes – on the BBC's iPlayer Sir Patrick Xylophone (Professor X!) told us all about Jodrell Bank's current work, the astonishingly exciting measurements of a pair of spinning quasars that are proving Mr Einstein's theory to a degree previously thought impossible, and then quizzed Mr the Astronomer Royal on what was going on.
(You might also be excited by the photography of a Gamma Ray Burst – at a million times brighter than a GALAXY, it's the cosmic phenomenon that makes a super-nova look like a far… bad-word in a bathtub!)
The good news is that Jodrell Bank is a bit less in danger than we thought, and Mr the Astronomer Royal seems to think that it will be saved. The bad news is that Mr Frown's new science-funding quango* messed up the funding in a big way and it might still put the tin hat on the eMerlin array (where you get radio telescopes from all over the country and link them up to the Lovell Telescope at Jodrell Bank and make a super-telescope out of them – you know, the project on which they've already spent millions of pounds for the plugs).
(*This quango was made from two other quangos… probably by colliding them in CERN's super-collider.)
As Ms "mega" Watts explains in her piece, Mr Frown's precious "knowledge economy" depends on actual people WITH actual knowledge. So-called "big ticket" toys, like the Jodrell Bank telescopes, are what you need to attract the very best talents in practical and theoretical science, and you need to attract THEM so that they will inspire a generation of students who will go on to be the people who keep our economy going!
(Assuming Mr Frown hasn't FLAT-LINED it by then!)
BUT… I've said it before and I will probably say it again: the search for knowledge, the exploration of our universe and the quest to understand how it works and what it is made of… these things are GOOD in and of themselves.
As you may have noticed, I am not a particularly RELIGIOUS baby elephant, and so do not believe that our PURPOSE in being here is to sit on this rock singing praises to an invisible friend. In which case, we have to make OUR OWN purposes, and for me, that purpose is "finding stuff out".
In just the same as Radio Three enriches us and Tate Modern enriches us – not everyone wants to go there, but it is reassuring that you COULD – expanding our knowledge ENRICHES all of us. That makes it worth doing.
Friday, March 07, 2008
Day 2622: SAVE JODRELL BANK!
Thursday:
This news is OUTRAGEOUS!
Jodrell Bank, Great Britain's FOREMOST astronomical research centre – and a NATIONAL INSTITUTION to boot – is under threat of closure because the government and their Science and Technology Facilities Council quango have decreed that it is of "low priority".
"Low Priortity"! This is the telescope that detected the Sputnik, monitored the Moon landings, discovered pulsars and quasars and now observes distant galaxies.
The UNITED NATIONS is considering recognising Jodrell bank as a WORLD HERITAGE SITE, ranking it alongside the TAJ MAHAL and the PYRAMIDS.
And in 1981 Dr Who used it to save the ENTIRE UNIVERSE!
It needs funding of two-and-a-half million pounds a year to keep going. Now that is a LOT of sticky buns, but it is CHICKEN FEED compared to the sort to big bucks that the government spends. You could fund it for a THOUSAND YEARS on the price of one Middle Eastern Invasion for starters.
The Lovell Telescope, that's the big FAMOUS dish telescope, was completed in 1957 just months ahead of the Russian's launch of Sputnik. It is, even today, the third largest steerable radio-telescope in the world, and when linked via the MERLIN network with the smaller Mark II at Jodrell and five other telescopes across England and Wales, it forms part of the most powerful telescope on the FACE OF THE PLANET, the ONLY telescope capable of matching the Hubble Space Telescope, and like Hubble is used to study distant galaxies.
Eight million pounds has ALREADY been invested in upgrading the network using super-fast optical cabling and they are swamped with requests to have a go from researchers from all over the world, more than twice as many as they have time for.
So not only would it be stupid it would waste a whole lot of money that they've already spent.
This is a dumb decision, but worse than that there is real concern that the period for consultation is too short for any serious case to be made.
Don't just take MY word for it, the Royal Society of Astronomers says so too.
For years the government has made excuses for not getting more involved in space programmes by saying that we are committed to astronomy and robot missions. Well it seems we are going to surrender our position as world leaders in science and give up on even LOOKING at the Stars.
It is an OUTRAGE!
This news is OUTRAGEOUS!
Jodrell Bank, Great Britain's FOREMOST astronomical research centre – and a NATIONAL INSTITUTION to boot – is under threat of closure because the government and their Science and Technology Facilities Council quango have decreed that it is of "low priority".
"Low Priortity"! This is the telescope that detected the Sputnik, monitored the Moon landings, discovered pulsars and quasars and now observes distant galaxies.
The UNITED NATIONS is considering recognising Jodrell bank as a WORLD HERITAGE SITE, ranking it alongside the TAJ MAHAL and the PYRAMIDS.
And in 1981 Dr Who used it to save the ENTIRE UNIVERSE!
It needs funding of two-and-a-half million pounds a year to keep going. Now that is a LOT of sticky buns, but it is CHICKEN FEED compared to the sort to big bucks that the government spends. You could fund it for a THOUSAND YEARS on the price of one Middle Eastern Invasion for starters.
The Lovell Telescope, that's the big FAMOUS dish telescope, was completed in 1957 just months ahead of the Russian's launch of Sputnik. It is, even today, the third largest steerable radio-telescope in the world, and when linked via the MERLIN network with the smaller Mark II at Jodrell and five other telescopes across England and Wales, it forms part of the most powerful telescope on the FACE OF THE PLANET, the ONLY telescope capable of matching the Hubble Space Telescope, and like Hubble is used to study distant galaxies.
Eight million pounds has ALREADY been invested in upgrading the network using super-fast optical cabling and they are swamped with requests to have a go from researchers from all over the world, more than twice as many as they have time for.
So not only would it be stupid it would waste a whole lot of money that they've already spent.
This is a dumb decision, but worse than that there is real concern that the period for consultation is too short for any serious case to be made.
Don't just take MY word for it, the Royal Society of Astronomers says so too.
For years the government has made excuses for not getting more involved in space programmes by saying that we are committed to astronomy and robot missions. Well it seems we are going to surrender our position as world leaders in science and give up on even LOOKING at the Stars.
It is an OUTRAGE!
PS:
Daddy says that I must declare an interest. My Granddaddy Eric works there hosting the Planetarium Show. He is very good and almost as fluffy as me!Saturday, February 16, 2008
Day 2601: I (Heart) Technology
Valentine's Day
I just LOVE new technology. For example Europe is getting ready to launch an exciting new SPACE TELESCOPE, called Herschel (named after the German born, British Astronomer who discovered Uranus), to work alongside the existing Hubble Telescope (named after the American astronomer who discovered galaxies beyond our own, and indeed that the Universe is EXPANDING).
Working in the INFRARED (unlike Hubble which sees the same light that WE do) it is hoped that Herschel will be able to see out to the EDGE of the KNOWN UNIVERSE. Which actually means looking BACKWARDS IN TIME to the Big Bang.
(Though I am sure that you KNEW that already!)
Things to see in SPACE include PLANETS, and there is more exciting news, because it seems that we have spotted a new solar system. I know that this is getting to be a bit OLD HAT, but the reason that this one is ESPECIALLY exciting is that it looks a lot more like OURS.
So far, a lot of the EXOPLANETS that we have spotted have been Gas Giants, like Jupiter or Saturn, but ones that orbit very CLOSE to their stars. A large object moving close to, and therefore very fast around, a star causes a more NOTICEABLE disturbance in the Force light that reaches our telescopes, so these are more OBVIOUS.
But it had made scientists wonder if MOST solar systems formed that way – with big gas giants close in. This would make OUR system seem rather UNUSUAL. In cosmic terms this is bad news because it would mean that all the things that we have learned about how OUR star system came to be like it is would not GENERALISE.
But now that we HAVE found another system that looks like it looks like ours – one that has two large gas giants further out, with the possibility of rocky iron-cored planets forming in the temperate zones, then we can all breathe a sigh of relief… and start concentrating our investigations there.
In the LONG RUN – and at six billion years away that is a VERY long run, at the moment – we will want to send explorers out there, and maybe even colonists!
In the meantime, though, we have not even started properly to explore our own back yard! The Americans, I know, are preparing to return to the Moon, with their next generation Orion space craft, but Great Britain has not even got a proper space programme. At least, not yet… but we are apparently THINKING about it.
I say it is time to call in Professor Quatermass and the British Rocket Group. Britain needs YOU, Professor Q!
Anyway, the BEST gadget of ALL is a genuine JAMES BOND car. And LOOK – here is one!
I just LOVE new technology. For example Europe is getting ready to launch an exciting new SPACE TELESCOPE, called Herschel (named after the German born, British Astronomer who discovered Uranus), to work alongside the existing Hubble Telescope (named after the American astronomer who discovered galaxies beyond our own, and indeed that the Universe is EXPANDING).
Working in the INFRARED (unlike Hubble which sees the same light that WE do) it is hoped that Herschel will be able to see out to the EDGE of the KNOWN UNIVERSE. Which actually means looking BACKWARDS IN TIME to the Big Bang.
(Though I am sure that you KNEW that already!)
Things to see in SPACE include PLANETS, and there is more exciting news, because it seems that we have spotted a new solar system. I know that this is getting to be a bit OLD HAT, but the reason that this one is ESPECIALLY exciting is that it looks a lot more like OURS.
So far, a lot of the EXOPLANETS that we have spotted have been Gas Giants, like Jupiter or Saturn, but ones that orbit very CLOSE to their stars. A large object moving close to, and therefore very fast around, a star causes a more NOTICEABLE disturbance in the Force light that reaches our telescopes, so these are more OBVIOUS.
But it had made scientists wonder if MOST solar systems formed that way – with big gas giants close in. This would make OUR system seem rather UNUSUAL. In cosmic terms this is bad news because it would mean that all the things that we have learned about how OUR star system came to be like it is would not GENERALISE.
But now that we HAVE found another system that looks like it looks like ours – one that has two large gas giants further out, with the possibility of rocky iron-cored planets forming in the temperate zones, then we can all breathe a sigh of relief… and start concentrating our investigations there.
In the LONG RUN – and at six billion years away that is a VERY long run, at the moment – we will want to send explorers out there, and maybe even colonists!
In the meantime, though, we have not even started properly to explore our own back yard! The Americans, I know, are preparing to return to the Moon, with their next generation Orion space craft, but Great Britain has not even got a proper space programme. At least, not yet… but we are apparently THINKING about it.
I say it is time to call in Professor Quatermass and the British Rocket Group. Britain needs YOU, Professor Q!
Anyway, the BEST gadget of ALL is a genuine JAMES BOND car. And LOOK – here is one!
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Day 2594: Carry On Columbus
Friday
News from space, as the American shuttle Atlantis lifts off to carry the new European space laboratory to the international space station.
The laboratory is called Columbus after the director of the Harry Potter films, and will be using Wingardium Leviosa to get into orbit.
No, sorry, I made that last bit up. ACTUALLY, hard-working 24-hour Polish plumber-nauts have now bolted the Columbus onto the rest of the space station and it is ready to begin its ten-year mission to boldly… oh, you know the drill.
Meanwhile, preparations are being made for the launch of the European Space programme's brand-new spaceship: the Jules Verne.
Not so elegant as the delta-winged, reusable (ish) Space Shuttle, the Jules Verne – or more prosaically ATV (Automatic Tin Vessel) – is basically a great big can of beans with a rocket on the back. It will provide all of the FOOD and FUEL for the International Space Station mission – hence can of beans. Plus there is room for water, oxygen and all-important air-freshener.
If successful – and it had better be! – the ATV will be taking up the slack in keeping the Space Station running once the shuttle fleet reaches the end of its working life and is retired in 2010.
Possibly a LITTLE bit disturbing is the news that the launch window has to be determined by the Shuttle missions: the ATV and the Shuttle cannot both be in space at the same time… because they use the same SAT NAV.
Why am I now expecting to hear that seven-and-a-half tonnes of beans and rocket fuel has ended up ditching in a canal near you?
News from space, as the American shuttle Atlantis lifts off to carry the new European space laboratory to the international space station.
The laboratory is called Columbus after the director of the Harry Potter films, and will be using Wingardium Leviosa to get into orbit.
No, sorry, I made that last bit up. ACTUALLY, hard-working 24-hour Polish plumber-nauts have now bolted the Columbus onto the rest of the space station and it is ready to begin its ten-year mission to boldly… oh, you know the drill.
Meanwhile, preparations are being made for the launch of the European Space programme's brand-new spaceship: the Jules Verne.
Not so elegant as the delta-winged, reusable (ish) Space Shuttle, the Jules Verne – or more prosaically ATV (Automatic Tin Vessel) – is basically a great big can of beans with a rocket on the back. It will provide all of the FOOD and FUEL for the International Space Station mission – hence can of beans. Plus there is room for water, oxygen and all-important air-freshener.
If successful – and it had better be! – the ATV will be taking up the slack in keeping the Space Station running once the shuttle fleet reaches the end of its working life and is retired in 2010.
Possibly a LITTLE bit disturbing is the news that the launch window has to be determined by the Shuttle missions: the ATV and the Shuttle cannot both be in space at the same time… because they use the same SAT NAV.
Why am I now expecting to hear that seven-and-a-half tonnes of beans and rocket fuel has ended up ditching in a canal near you?
Sunday, February 03, 2008
Day 2583: Phew! That Was Close
Monday:
I understand that it would IRONIC if the Earth was smashed to pieces on Daddy Richard's birthday.
I understand that it would IRONIC if the Earth was smashed to pieces on Daddy Richard's birthday.
Thursday, November 22, 2007
Day 2517: Fly Me to the Moon
Thursday:
Today's paper was full of pictures of Mr Sir Richard Branston-Pickle's new base for his Virgin Galactic rockets: TRACEY ISLAND.
[R: it says Spaceport America on this press release, Millennium!]
Up, up and away!
Like all good BLUE PETER PLAYSETS, this one comes with detachable roof:
Here's one we made earlier!
Set course for SPACE, I say!
Today's paper was full of pictures of Mr Sir Richard Branston-Pickle's new base for his Virgin Galactic rockets: TRACEY ISLAND.
[R: it says Spaceport America on this press release, Millennium!]
Up, up and away!
Like all good BLUE PETER PLAYSETS, this one comes with detachable roof:
Here's one we made earlier!
Set course for SPACE, I say!
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