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Besides this, a nulling interferometer gives you an image with two spots for each planet. One is in the real position, and the other one in the mirror-reversed by the star position. AFAIK there is no way right now to find out which one is the correct one.

So, the Keck interferometer will probably not be able to see terrestrial planets around other stars (altho it will be able to see Jovian ones, including ones far from their star, which should complement radial-velocity searches nicely). The proposed Terrestrial Planet Finder, consisting of four 3.5 m mirrors in space separated by a baseline of up to 1000 m, working in IR (3-30 um) would not only be able to detect Earth-sized planets, but take their spectra and detect absorption bands from H2O, O3 and CO2, that is, detect the presence of life.

/Dervak

The resolving power of this combined telescope will apparently be sufficient to see earth-sized planets

Whereas the article says:

The Keck Interferometer will be able to detect planets farther from their parent stars, helping to pave the way for future interferometers in space that will look for Earth-like planets, NASA said

To find Earths (at least directly) you have to go to space Don't expect this for another 10 years or so.

Perl Is Bigger, But Python Is Growing Faster.

Python Is More Deeply Object-Oriented.

Perl Is more Powerful And More Mature In Some Ways.

Perl Lacks A Killer App, Zope Is Python's Killer App.

Python Is Designed To Be A Good First Language For A Beginning Programmer, Whereas Perl Is Most Useful To Programmers Familiar With C, Sed Or Awk, And UNIX Command Idioms.

His complete write up is here. (warning the article is a bit long... 4 pages)

And finally Python Humor

Mind you, in my opinion (as an AirMISR user) they would have been better off using a real RTOS...

Nick

There is another school of thought that believes earth's temperature, and even weather (clouds, to be exact), is affected by Sunspots.

Sunspots increase the Sun's magnetic field which acts as a kind of barrier helping to protect the Earth from cosmic rays. This acts as insulation and increases the Earth's overall temperature. When there are fewer Sunspots on the Sun's surface, it's magnetic field reduces allowing more cosmic rays to reach the Earth which cools the Earth. For example, in the late 17th century, there was hardly any Sunspot activity on the Sun's surface. This period coincided with the "Little Ice Age" when rivers on the Earth remained frozen all year round.

This research is on-going. At CERN, for example, tests are being undertaken with the particle accelerator to see if cosmic rays can affect cloud formation.

What this all means is that our predictions about global warming due to the Greenhouse Effect may have been greatly exaggerated.

----------------------------

There is another school of thought that believes earth's temperature, and even weather (clouds, to be exact), is affected by Sunspots.

Sunspots increase the Sun's magnetic field which acts as a kind of barrier helping to protect the Earth from cosmic rays. This acts as insulation and increases the Earth's overall temperature. When there are fewer Sunspots on the Sun's surface, it's magnetic field reduces allowing more cosmic rays to reach the Earth which cools the Earth. For example, in the late 17th century, there was hardly any Sunspot activity on the Sun's surface. This period coincided with the "Little Ice Age" when rivers on the Earth remained frozen all year round.

This research is on-going. At CERN, for example, tests are being undertaken with the particle accelerator to see if cosmic rays can affect cloud formation.

What this all means is that our predictions about global warming due to the Greenhouse Effect may have been greatly exaggerated.

----------------------------

I seem to remember reading somewhere that NASA's official position on this was that 'geology' would be used for any planet or moon for exactly your reasons.

The only link I can find is http://lunar.arc.nasa.gov/science/selenology.html

So they spent the last two hours in the airlock, they were still in the suits and unable to deal with such niceties as food or potty breaks.

Actually, everything is planned for; see NASA's FAQs about extravehicular activity ("spacewalking") and extravehicular mobility units ("spacesuits").

So they spent the last two hours in the airlock, they were still in the suits and unable to deal with such niceties as food or potty breaks.

Actually, everything is planned for; see NASA's FAQs about extravehicular activity ("spacewalking") and extravehicular mobility units ("spacesuits").

Why stop there -- I'm gonna put up a crap load of paper satellites. They burn better on reentry, use less fuel to manuever, and best of all, they might not completely destroy the ISS if they change their orbit.

---
In a hundred-mile march,

Been there, done that. Voyager 2 visited Uranus in 1986. Indeed all the major bodies in your Solar System have been visited, with the exception of Pluto and its moon Charon.
--

Yes, NASA faces budget cuts. NASA is illegal. It shouldn't have a budgegt AT ALL.

Of course, the legality of NASA clearly has nothing to do with its budget. And the word you're looking for is "unconstitutional", not "illegal".

The National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958 justifies the establishment of NASA by stating "The Congress declares that the general welfare and security of the United States require that adequate provision be made for aeronautical and space activities."

The Congress was given by the Constitution "Power To...provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States".

The tenth amendment does not abridge that power.

Here's a transcript of an excellent panel discussion on the concept of federalism, states' rights, and the enumerated powers doctrine; with such gems as:

The states are in fact in favor of federalism - of a sort. Witness the support for devolution, the fight over unfunded mandates, and an endless stream of 10th and 11th Amendment cases. But the federalism they want isn't competitive federalism. It's what the antitrust lawyers among you will recognize as a horizontal-vertical conspiracy.

As Gordon Wood once put it, if you ask about the relationship of this federal Constitution to democracy, you have to understand that democracy was the problem to which the Constitutional Convention was called to frame a response. The problem of populist democracies in the state legislatures was part of the Convention debate as early as May 31. Randolph of Virginia observed that the general object of the Convention was to provide a cure for the evils under which the states labored - that in tracing these evils to their origin, every man had found it in the turbulence and follies of democracies.

What speaks cleanest, the supremacy clause, actually binds state officers directly to federal law. As the Supreme Court said back at a time when it was a little closer to the beginning -- 1876, to be exact -- the laws of the United States are the laws in the states.

The choice is this -- are the basic decisions of Government going to be made by judges or by the people you elect? If judges insist that the propriety of legislation, or the necessity of it, be demonstrated to them, then they are really in charge. And you are not going to like that because you don't get to throw us out of office every two years or every four years or every six years. You know, it takes murder to get rid of a federal judge.

--

I am not an astronomer either, but I did watch a BBC Horizon documentary on the construction, failure and repair of the Hubble Space Telescope yesterday evening (sadly, the transcript is not available anymore, it appears). The Hubble has two advantages: no image distortion due to turbulence in the atmosphere, and the ability to detect light frequencies that are completely filtered out by the atmosphere (ultraviolet and infrared, amongst others). Ground-based telescopes are indeed catching up in the first area, but they still can't detect light that never reaches them. Of course, plans are already being made for the Next Generation Space Telescope, which will have an eight-meter mirror.

these programs were not just nasa...they were ventures made up of several leading aerospace companies, many of whose shareholders are rich, and were hoping (obviously) for a nice production run, as well as high tech spinoffs that would keep the USA and her economy strong.

In recessive times, sometimes it's not best to go into production, but just stick with r&d.

the X34 and X33 were both fairly close to production, so a lot of r&d is already done.

Here are linx for anyone interested :

X33 and X34 and more in-depth stuff at x33 (nasa) and X34 (nasa)

What a shame. The linear aerospike engine was in test, the frame and skin were waiting for the tank, and the launchpad is almost done.

These technologies and programs would have created thousands of jobs as they trickled down through the US economy.

these programs were not just nasa...they were ventures made up of several leading aerospace companies, many of whose shareholders are rich, and were hoping (obviously) for a nice production run, as well as high tech spinoffs that would keep the USA and her economy strong.

In recessive times, sometimes it's not best to go into production, but just stick with r&d.

the X34 and X33 were both fairly close to production, so a lot of r&d is already done.

Here are linx for anyone interested :

X33 and X34 and more in-depth stuff at x33 (nasa) and X34 (nasa)

What a shame. The linear aerospike engine was in test, the frame and skin were waiting for the tank, and the launchpad is almost done.

These technologies and programs would have created thousands of jobs as they trickled down through the US economy.

...keeping a fleet of shuttles in existance which were built before the pilots were born.

The first shuttle was built in 1976. That would make it about 25 years old. The ones flying now are a bit younger and are updated dramaticly between each mission.

I haven't been able to find a shuttle pilot in their 20's. Most are about 35 or 40, it seems. Which ones are you referring to as being younger than the shuttles they fly?

All your event are belong to us.

The X-33 is actually a pretty cool little craft that would have proven extremely useful in NASA's future plans. (The X33 site still features a very positive status report regarding the engine testing mentioned in the article, and no mention of the program's termination...yet.)

One happy byproduct of the current US administration, I had hoped, would be that NASA would gain a bit more funding--if for no other reasons than new technology development for defense/military concerns. From the few actions we have seen regarding the US space program so far, however (not to mention the problems eternally plaguing the deployment of the ISS), it looks like the hope many of us harbor for a renewed push toward deeper and more pervasive space exploration will have to wait awhile. Again.

The X-33 is actually a pretty cool little craft that would have proven extremely useful in NASA's future plans. (The X33 site still features a very positive status report regarding the engine testing mentioned in the article, and no mention of the program's termination...yet.)

One happy byproduct of the current US administration, I had hoped, would be that NASA would gain a bit more funding--if for no other reasons than new technology development for defense/military concerns. From the few actions we have seen regarding the US space program so far, however (not to mention the problems eternally plaguing the deployment of the ISS), it looks like the hope many of us harbor for a renewed push toward deeper and more pervasive space exploration will have to wait awhile. Again.

For fans of these kinds of pictures, Astronomy Picture of the Day is hard to beat. They have a this same picure for today.
--

For fans of these kinds of pictures, Astronomy Picture of the Day is hard to beat. They have a this same picure for today.
--

CAM is the small module that will berth to Node 2's zenith port. Part of the internal volume of the CAM is a centrifuge that is big enough to hold 2 standard ISS racks.

While we normally tend to think of centrifuges as places to subject experiments to much more than 1G, the CAM in a microgravity environment can also spin slowly to create, say, 0.5G.

We already know that microgravity is bad for people. No amount of excercise and nutrition will offset all the negative effects like bone loss, muscle deterioration, or fluid imbalance. But we don't yet know if humans or other living things can get along well in a fractional gravity environment.

Collecting new data points between 0 and 1 G's will help immensely in figuring out what would happen to living things in a long term expedition to Mars or the Moon.
--

According to NASA:

2000/09/13 - A NASA stop work order has been issued for The Pluto-Kuiper Express mission as currently envisioned. Further direction from NASA has been given to develop a new mission to reach Pluto before 2020.

Note that the date is last September, which is before the US Election debacle. To you Bush haters out there, please understand the facts of the situation before you immediately jump all over Dubya.

This particular budget cut is a travesty of magnificent proprtions. The celestial clock happens to be perfectly in tune with our technological advancement, to offer us this rare glimpse of our environment, as a species. To decide that we can't afford to redirect a few paltry resources to the task strikes me as narrow and crude. It's almost as if, as a species, we are too lazy to bother craning our necks a little to see what's outside the crib.

But it doesn't have to be this way. NASA isn't the only agency capable of sendiing the probe. in fact, maybe this feat could be accomplished on a voluntary basis? We have theories/plans for magical technology at our disposal, commercial support services to pester, potential launch capabilities and a wide variety of legal launch facilities around the world.

Consider: we have, just here at slashdot, the ears of a number of very technically capable individuals that might be persuaded to help create a Pluto Probe in an open sourced, ameteur manner. Corporate sponsorship would be soon to follow. Perhaps I haven't thought it out too carefully, but it is apparent to me that the potential to deploy a probe exists, despite the government.

Also check Internet Society IPN Special Interest Group ....

Hey, why stop at Mars eh?

• spaceflight.nasa.gov, where you can keep track of current/upcoming NASA missions in realtime.
• Earth from Space, where you can find many high-resolution (4000x4000!) images.

• spaceflight.nasa.gov, where you can keep track of current/upcoming NASA missions in realtime.
• Earth from Space, where you can find many high-resolution (4000x4000!) images.

• spaceflight.nasa.gov, where you can keep track of current/upcoming NASA missions in realtime.
• Earth from Space, where you can find many high-resolution (4000x4000!) images.

--

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap010225.html is the correct link for the APoD picture of the giant neutrino detector. That site's worth checking out further though, lot's of interesting pics and info like sand dunes on mars, and sonic booms.

--
"Don't trolls get tired?"

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap010225.html is the correct link for the APoD picture of the giant neutrino detector. That site's worth checking out further though, lot's of interesting pics and info like sand dunes on mars, and sonic booms.

--
"Don't trolls get tired?"

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap010225.html is the correct link for the APoD picture of the giant neutrino detector. That site's worth checking out further though, lot's of interesting pics and info like sand dunes on mars, and sonic booms.

--
"Don't trolls get tired?"

See correct Astronomy Picture of the Day link. (It changes every day.)

Images of the magnetite chains inside the ALH84001 meteorite and, for comparison, inside a modern magnetotactic bacterium are at:
http://amesnews.arc.nasa.gov/releases/2001/01image s/magneticbacteria/bacteria.html

The link on the NASA page to the full article is incorrect. It should point to here.

Even more humorous than the bad link n the page, is that the page was generated by:
<META NAME="Generator" CONTENT="Microsoft Word 73.1">

The link on the NASA page to the full article is incorrect. It should point to here.

Even more humorous than the bad link n the page, is that the page was generated by:
<META NAME="Generator" CONTENT="Microsoft Word 73.1">

For those that can't be bothered to read the articles, at least check out the pics. This could be really huge. The arguments will surely go on until more blatant evidence comes out, but this looks pretty solid - magnetotactic bacteria leave pretty distinctive, if small and fragile, artifacts, and the stuff buried in these rocks sure look like it.

The NASA guys have been studying the artifacts since 1996, and they are now convinced enough to put their reputation on the line. These aren't people to do that lightly.

The odd thing is if you look at Las Vegas, you see a skinny, tenous tendril reaching between Vegas and LA and a much thicker pipe reaching up to Salt Lake City.

"And where did you spend your weekend Elder Smith?"
"In the desert wasteland refreshing my soul..."

You are correct regarding subsonic operation of ramjets. What differentiates the two is that scramjets have supersonic flow all the way through the engine flowpath, whereas scramjets turn their flow subsonic before combusting it. Both engines use the exact same principle for air compression -- setting up a shockwave system that the air passes through. As the air passes through the shock wave, it slows down and its static pressure goes up. The ramjet must have the flow following the last shock be subsonic, whereas in the scram it is supersonic. However, the air gets slowed down in both cases (if it didn't, there would be no compression).

While an engine that could do ram/scram certainly would have a larger operational flight Mach number range, it wouldn't be able to get off the ground on its own (i.e. no static or subsonic thrust). Research has indeed been done on combined gas-turbine ("conventional jet")/(sc)ramjets (known as "combined-cycle" engines), and that kind of beast could potentially have the the full envelope capability. Also, don't confuse the SR-71's so-called "turboramjet" as being a combined-cycle engine. It doesn't have a true ramjet-type flowpath, and the compressor would start to melt if the flight speed reached "true" high-speed ram/scram speeds.

All this kind of talk, though, is sort of pie-in-the-sky and ignores the fact we've still not yet demonstrated a free-flight scramjet-powered vehicle. That's what NASA's Hyper-X project is supposed to address. You can get more info on Hyper-X via http://www.dfrc.nasa.gov/

BTW, as you might have guessed, IAAE (I am an Aerospace Engineer)... :)

Overview:

Hypersonic Experimental Vehicle

More details:

Hyper-X Images on Dryden's Research Aircraft Photo Server Hyper-X Images on NASA Langley's LISAR Server Quicktime Movies: Hyper-X Launch and Flight Animation NASA Langley Research Center's Aerothermodynamics Branch

Overview:

Hypersonic Experimental Vehicle

More details:

Hyper-X Images on Dryden's Research Aircraft Photo Server Hyper-X Images on NASA Langley's LISAR Server Quicktime Movies: Hyper-X Launch and Flight Animation NASA Langley Research Center's Aerothermodynamics Branch

Overview:

Hypersonic Experimental Vehicle

More details:

Hyper-X Images on Dryden's Research Aircraft Photo Server Hyper-X Images on NASA Langley's LISAR Server Quicktime Movies: Hyper-X Launch and Flight Animation NASA Langley Research Center's Aerothermodynamics Branch

Overview:

Hypersonic Experimental Vehicle

More details:

Hyper-X Images on Dryden's Research Aircraft Photo Server Hyper-X Images on NASA Langley's LISAR Server Quicktime Movies: Hyper-X Launch and Flight Animation NASA Langley Research Center's Aerothermodynamics Branch

Overview:

Hypersonic Experimental Vehicle

More details:

Hyper-X Images on Dryden's Research Aircraft Photo Server Hyper-X Images on NASA Langley's LISAR Server Quicktime Movies: Hyper-X Launch and Flight Animation NASA Langley Research Center's Aerothermodynamics Branch

NASA is preparing to test a hypersonic scramjet Real Soon Now (tm). The difference is that NASA's scramjet will be propelling itself, not falling from near LEO altitudes after being launched by a rocket.

That's all well and good, but even NASA's test is going to be launched from an in-flight B-52, rather from the ground. Until one of these things is self-propelled from the ground to hypersonic speeds and then lands in a condition suitable for re-use, this technology won't be ready for prime time.

NASA has an article pointing the unexpected danger even from meteorites.

The first stage used Kerosene and LOX.

Saturn V Press Kit

Make sure you equip your next satellite with a Termination Tether. It won't work in geosynchronous orbit, but you'll be moving your bird out of the slot with the last of its fuel anyway.

Check out Orbital Debris Quarterly News, a publication of NASA/JSC. Lots of details including a useful FAQ, all of it up to date.

Check out Orbital Debris Quarterly News, a publication of NASA/JSC. Lots of details including a useful FAQ, all of it up to date.

Check out Orbital Debris Quarterly News, a publication of NASA/JSC. Lots of details including a useful FAQ, all of it up to date.