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In relation to your 'I'd like to see him try' comment - Elon Musk named the Dragon spacecraft after "puff the magic dragon".. because of all of his critics who said his projects couldn't succeed.. http://www.space.com/15799-spacex-dragon-capsule-fun-facts.html

Here's a good one:
http://www.space.com/22996-spacex-launches-falcon-9-rocket-test-flight.html

Some plumes of methane were detected by Mars orbiters and terrestrial telescopes 10 years ago, thus the expectation of the rover detecting the methane.

http://www.space.com/6319-mars-methane-geology-biology.html

I dunno, Kirobo is more adorable than most humans, and I suspect Japan is just getting started with the cuteness factor. Plus, robots can be programmed to never be assholes.

THIS article finally confirms my suspicion that it is a normal response within some individuals to easily perceive light in an auditory fashion. Perhaps this is why mood lighting is so effective and disco balls were such a hit though they are essentially useless.

All though this explanation from some scientists defies this logic, I have been with other people in the pitch dark watching the lights at the same time and they did not hear the sounds I was experiencing and the sound was not at all as described in the article on Space. The sounds that happen to me are definitely like an electrical spark crackling not at all like applause!

hello nice LADEE! http://www.space.com/22639-moon-dust-mystery-nasa-spacecraft.html

The Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) spacecraft is expected to investigate lunar dust and the moon's extremely thin atmosphere once the craft makes it into orbit around Earth's closest celestial neighbor about 30 days after launch.

that's right, the moon has an atmosphere kinda. it's technically an exosphere.

In the moon's atmosphere, there are only 100 molecules per cubic centimeter. In comparison, Earth's atmosphere at sea level has about 100 billion billion molecules per cubic centimeter. The total mass of these gases is about 55,000 pounds (25,000 kilograms), about the same weight as a loaded dump truck.

before you ask, neither LADEE nor the internet is a big truck.

what they aren't telling you is that the NSA is coercing NASA to ***CARRIER LOST***

hello nice LADEE! http://www.space.com/22639-moon-dust-mystery-nasa-spacecraft.html

The Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) spacecraft is expected to investigate lunar dust and the moon's extremely thin atmosphere once the craft makes it into orbit around Earth's closest celestial neighbor about 30 days after launch.

that's right, the moon has an atmosphere kinda. it's technically an exosphere.

In the moon's atmosphere, there are only 100 molecules per cubic centimeter. In comparison, Earth's atmosphere at sea level has about 100 billion billion molecules per cubic centimeter. The total mass of these gases is about 55,000 pounds (25,000 kilograms), about the same weight as a loaded dump truck.

before you ask, neither LADEE nor the internet is a big truck.

what they aren't telling you is that the NSA is coercing NASA to ***CARRIER LOST***

We use kelvin in space. Not old and outdated Fahrenheit.

About Kelvin, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kelvin

Based on the moon, the space temperature is around 120K (-153C) in our solar system this close to the sun on the dark side.

Temperature on the moon, http://www.space.com/18175-moon-temperature.html

You might want to look at these visibility charts. Antares will go more North, but this should give you an idea of visibility.

Even though there's a thin atmosphere on the Moon it is constantly hammered by Solar Heating and the Solar Winds. It's really an exosphere rather than an atmosphere. I doubt any dust raised by impacts would last there very long at all but also remember that it's constantly pelted by all kinds of cosmic detritus hence all the craters so it would be difficult to discern if any debris co-mingling with the gases was man-made or a natural occurrence.

Even when you spend all the time and money to get the right nut for a device you can learn that you did not understand the load case and environment. SpaceX lost the Falcon 1 flight 1 due to the failure of a nut. http://www.space.com/2643-falcon-1-failure-traced-busted-nut.html

The cost of space rated hardware is the cost to understand the load case, not the cost of the item.

Astronomers were proposing to use Ares V to launch an 8 meter reflector into space. 1.5 meters larger than Megellan; 35% more collecting area and far above the atmosphere. That mirror would have been able to detect biosignatures on extrasolar planets.

Then Obama cancelled it, so you probably won't live to see such a thing.

Well, it's certainly cheaper than having some internet billionaire salvage your rocket parts off the sea floor for you.

Of course with precedents like Howard Hughes, the Glomar Explorer and project Jennifer and Robert Ballard finding the Titanic while secretly researching the Scorpion & Thresher wrecks , it leads one to wonder what internet billionaire Jeff Bezos is really up to.

To give a practical perspective on meteor sizes, recall that the Chelyabinsk meteor which arrived at Russia this same year had around 15-20 m of diameter
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chelyabinsk_meteor

And the space rock that carved Meteor Crater (or Barringer crater) in Arizona, around 50 K years ago, had about 40 meters of diameter.
http://www.space.com/834-mystery-arizona-meteor-crater-solved.html

So, a 60 meters meteor will probably create a big, big, hole (depending on the velocity at arrival and landing angle) if it falls to Earth. I also remember reading that the impact in Arizona caused much devastation in the surrounding areas, up to several tens of miles from the crater.

Finally, the meteor that "created" the gulf of Mexico and "killed" most of the dinosaurs, about 66 million years ago, had probably around 10 km of diameter.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicxulub_crater

They could do a 'reverse-slingshot' maneuver to bleed off speed using one of Mars's moons.

Mars' moons are way too small to do any kind of gravitational slingshot manoeuvre. You'd probably use an inflatable heatshield and aerobrake into orbit.

Define "meaningful".

The beauty of the Star Trek universe is that people have the capability to define themselves what is meaningful to them and pursue it without having to worry about if they will be able to afford to feed, clothe, and house themselves. For some people, that might be nothing but seeing how many other people they can fuck. I believe for a lot more people, that meaning will come from creative or scientific endeavors.

I'm sorry, but you have some sort of noble-savage view of human beings, or a view that supposes the existence of a soul (i.e a view based on philosophy or religion).

LOL. There aren't enough LOLs in the world for this sentence.

If there really was such a thing as "post-scarcity", or if it were even physically possible, we would still be just another species of animal. We would still be nothing more than biological organisms following our perceived self interest.

Nanotechnology research aims at this very goal with our very biology as proof of concept showing that atomically precise manufacturing is possible, and I believe it's just a matter of when, not if. So we're animals. So what? You think that we're constrained by biology to have no other interests than eating and fucking?

The number of people who would risk their lives for some "meaningful" reason - when there was no material one - in deep space for no material benefit would be in the fraction of single digits.

These people would probably disagree. Thankfully, not everyone has the same outlook on life as you do.

Nobody cares enough about Africa to listen in on them. The only thing Africa has is resources, and China already is buying them. Is the infrastructure subject to surveillance? Sure, but every infrastructure is, even heterogeneous ones like the US.

So, nothing to see in Africa? Just move along? I don't think so.

Just like Europe, South America, and Asia, Africa is an entire continent of nations, some of which have drawn considerable attention in the last couple of years. I assume you've heard of Libya? Egypt? Algeria? South Africa? There is a lot going on in Africa, and the Chinese are heavily involved. There are plenty of things they might want to listen to.

Africa has more mobile phone users than the U.S. or E.U.
How mobile phones are making cash obsolete in Africa
European Rocket Launches 2 African Satellites

China and Africa: What the U.S. doesn't understand

Seven out of the world's 10 fastest growing economies are African. According to a 2010 report by consulting firm McKinsey & Company, the rate of return on foreign investments in Africa was, in the first decade of this century, higher than in any other region. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) projected that Africa is now growing faster than Asia.

Sino-African trade volumes have grown accordingly. Negligible in 2000, trade hit $198.5 billion in 2012. By comparison, U.S.-Africa trade volume was $108.9 billon, and is slated to fall further behind: Research from Standard Chartered estimates that trade between China and Africa will hit $385 billion by 2015

MAP: Here Are All Of The Big Chinese Investments In Africa Since 2010
China’s Increasing Interest in Africa: Benign but Hardly Altruistic

South Africa Could Have a Spaceport

The Republic of South Africa has considered using Israel's Shavit space booster to send a satellite to orbit. The South Africans have tested the Israeli Jericho 2 intermediate-range ballistic missile which converts to the Shavit space rocket.

International Effort Seeks to Counter Jihadists in Africa

China To Establish A Naval Base Around Somalia

As the threat of piracy continues. And as Somali pirates continue with their awkward trade to kidnap foreign ships, a Chinese Admiral has revealed China’s proposal to establish a naval base in the region in its commitment to thwart piracy and finally end this tragedy in the gulf of Eden. The lazy pirates who have no intentions to pursue an education or employment see piracy as an easy way to make money. About 75% of piracy in the region is being masterminded by terror groups to finance their illegal activities.

Rear Admiral Yin Zhou’s, a senior Chinese naval officer has suggested that China will establish a permanent base in the Gulf of Aden to aid its anti-piracy operations. The proposal was posted on China’s Defence ministry website. The Admiral went on to say that supplying and maintaining the fleet off Somalia was challenging without such a base, and said other nations were unlikely to object. The Chinese navy curr

Boeing has had other recent problems in quality and reliability, with some recent Boeing-managed programs being cancelled, because they were going so badly.

In 2005, FIA (run by Boeing) was canceled. The New York Times called it "perhaps the most spectacular and expensive failure in the 50-year history of American spy satellite projects. ... A torrent of defective parts, like gyroscopes and electric cables, repeatedly stalled work. Even an elementary rule of spacecraft construction — never use tin because it deforms in space and can short-circuit electronic components — was violated by parts suppliers. By the time the project, known by its initials, F.I.A., was killed in September 2005 — a year after the first satellite was originally to have been delivered — cost estimates ran as high as $18 billion."

From space.com, "But Boeing quickly ran into troubles on the highly ambitious and complex FIA program, which fell years behind schedule and overran its budget by billions of dollars. In 2005, having concluded that Boeing’s problems were intractable, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence directed the NRO to terminate the optical portion of the contract."

In 2011, the Boeing-run SBI Net program was canceled, because it was going so badly. From stltoday.com, "It was originally envisioned to stretch the 1,969-mile border between the U.S. and Mexico but initial phases of the $1 billion project took longer than anticipated to complete and covered just a small portion, 53 miles, since the project began."

In 2011, the "Joint Tactical Radio System’s Ground Mobile Radios (GMR)" project, run by Boeing, was canceled. From a Bloomberg article: "Based on growth in the unit procurement costs, I am terminating the program," Frank Kendall wrote in a letter to Congress. "... The GMR program last year was estimated to cost $19.5 billion."

And a USA Today article tells about other recent problems with Boeing. For example, "V-22 Osprey. The tilt-rotor aircraft, made in partnership with Bell Helicopter, is under congressional scrutiny because of concerns about its high cost of operation, reliability and safety". And "Joint Tactical Radio System Cluster 1. Boeing's management of the project for the military was so bad it received a stop-work order from the Defense Department. Eventually, the program was restructured rather than canceled but with Boeing in a diminished role."

it's great that US mil think they are hot shit with unmanned drones but the japanese beat them a year ago in a big way. The stakes are waaay higher in space. Worst case for a drone crash on a carrier is billions in damage. Worst case in space is taking down our only space station that took over a decade and 100 billion dollars to build and turn the station into a massive hazard for all future space missions.

and if you think getting Hellfire missile dropped on you is bad, just wait 'til you get hit by a Rod From God. ;)

If we had continued working towards colonizing the moon and Mars, our technology would have grown better to meet those goals.

The horse carriage would have never grown into the horseless carriage, and finally the modern automobile, if we all lived together on a 2 square mile island. There's no reason to drive 150mph, if it would shorten your trip to under 1 minute.

If there were regular commuter flights from Earth to Mars, you can be sure we'd have improved. Look at the difference between a Model 14 Benoist and the Concorde, Airbus A380, or Boeing 787.

The demand drives innovation. Over the last century, we redefined the demand from crossing a small body of water faster, to being able to fly around the world faster.

We want to get from Point A to Point B in something bigger, faster, and cheaper. The Concorde won on the faster, but died because it was anything but cheaper. That, unfortunately, is the fate of suborbital aircraft.

When we redefine Point A and Point B to be Earth to another planet, we'll find better ways to do it. When that is extended out to other stars, our technology will grow even more.

As you said, our space technology isn't much more than a horse in carriage. Without a goal and a reason to do it, it will never become a reality. We're all one planetary ELE away from being the last of our species. We didn't even know about the meteor that hit Russia, until it came down, damaging 7,200 buildings, and injuring almost 1,500 people. They're considered too small... Imagine the damage from a few of these, if they made impact on more populated areas.

We will never travel faster than the speed of light. That, however, does not mean we can not reach distant star systems. It will simply be a very, very, long trip.

That depends. There are theories that show that "warp travel" of varying definitions may be possible. I recall one in which maintaining a stable "warp bubble" for what is effectively faster than light travel was feasible. The problem is getting into the bubble itself, which required enormous energy - far more than maintaining it or traveling in it. There are other theories and studies under way. And given that there is still a lot of physics we don't understand (dark energy, dark matter, unification of quantum mechanics and relativity), it may be the answer is out there. The article below discusses one such idea that may be unrelated to the one I mentioned.

Warp Drive May Be More Feasible Than Thought, Scientists Say

More likely this

Because the summary couldn't be bothered.

Five are military (four are Navy test pilots, surprising no one, the fifth is a doctor), and the other three are useful Ph.D.s. Cassada really is the only standout among them, because he's a physicist, not a CTO, by training (which will make the scientific community at least a little happier about manned space missions). Meir is an enigma for sure, but makes sense from a strategic standpoint: she's done some time for NASA at JSC and Lockheed Martin doing human experiments and working with astronauts on the ISS, is interested in astrobiology, and worked at Aquarius Underwater Laboratory, which was later used to simulate an asteroid mission last year.

All of them are mostly in their mid to late 30s, which means the next class of astronauts are likely to be Millenials: all you shiny new Ph.D.s should start polishing your resumes for space!

It's also closing in on the off-planet driving record. However, the current record was set by Lunokhod 2 on the Moon and isn't known very exactly.

Is this even a new idea?

I've heard this for quite some time now, and I thought this was a prevailing understanding.

No, it's not new at all, but there is at least one "news" story on it every year.

See here for 2012's, or here for 2011's, here for 2010's, etc., etc.

The lack of a magnetic field might indeed be the explanation, but right now the case for it is not very strong. At least with the current solar activity, the observed atmospheric mass loss rates from Earth, Venus and Mars are comparable, even though only Earth has a significant magnetic field. There is a good article about these issues here

I recall this being due to an ancient impact that blasted away most the atmosphere, etc. I was watching some show (perhaps The Universe) that explained that there in fact lies a huge impact crater on most of the face of Mars that coincides with this theory. Just a quick Google gave me this link -- though I got my information from the aforementioned tv show and not the link.

Best source I can find is this article, which lists the surface radiation as around .7 millisieverts a day, or around the same as low Earth Orbit (Mars atmosphere is extremely thin, so it doesn't give as much protection as Earth's does from cosmic rays). This is vastly more than people are exposed to on Earth, and could definitely pose long-term health risks for a colony or other one-way mission.

If someone figures out how to capture and store antimatter on long timescales (even just positronium), this could be an orbital energy source. It's known that lightning creates antimatter and ejects it into space.

Once a method to capture and store antimatter from lightning has been created, this could be used for a low orbit fuel station. Just because there's a tiny amount detected doesn't mean that a much larger quantity isn't created by thunderstorms and lost to space and/or annihilation events from collisions with matter.

After a design is known to work, a station could be placed in orbit over Jupiter's great red spot for continuous collection.

Sources:
http://www.spaceflightnow.com/news/n1304/19bionm1/#.UZlBX39dAbE
http://www.space.com/20732-russia-launches-animals-space-bion-m1.html

If the IAU can't get off their collective asses and start doing their job properly, then they'll soon find themselves outvoted by the likes of Uwingu who are going to do it for them. The IAU only has the position it has because they did a good job of gaining consensus until recently with the whole Pluto fiasco. And if you don't think that was a fiasco, then you don't know enough about it. If they screw up exoplanet naming, then people are going to start looking to someone else or just ignore the IAU. Nobody wants that, so perhaps the IAU should stop acting like entitled pricks and do their damn job.

http://www.space.com/20665-planet-naming-controversy-iau-uwingu.html

The IAU called it a scam and space.com called it a scam. So its a scam.

NASA has a small research project going looking at some fundamental aspects of a warp drive based on the theories of Miguel Alcubierre. Many people openly deride such an effort, others are merely skeptical, a smaller number curious, and even fewer cautiously optimistic.

Where to do fall in this spectrum and why?

Lightning also creates small quantities of natural antimatter that gets ejected to space. If only containment lasted longer than 16 minutes, orbital refueling stations around planets with dense atmospheres could become a real possibility (i.e. every local planet except Mercury and Mars).

That "crispy" look is just soot/ash from the heat shield. You can see several places below the channel for the drogue chute's cord (the diagonal groove) where it has been rubbed off, showing a pristine white underneath. Besides, that picture only shows the bad side of the capsule. Take a look at the capsule from a few different angles. You see, contrary to popular belief, capsules like this do not traverse through the atmosphere straight on. They "fly" in a tilted orientation. That's why the soot marks are on an angle, and one side of the capsule looks charred, while the other looks barely singed.

http://www.space.com/19853-space-station-contact-lost-nasa.html

Update: NASA has reestablished contact with the International Space Station. For the latest news, read: NASA Restores Contact with Space Station

As far as NASA officials can tell, the space station's loss of communications was unrelated to the software update, Kelly Humphries, a public affairs specialist at NASA told SPACE.com. It was a coincidence that the space agency lost contact with the station as the computers were being updated.

That meteorite was only 15 to 17 meters long.

The size of its blast was due to its tremendous energy (a.k.a. speed) when it penetrates our atmosphere....

Reference.

As fast as that thing was moving I don't think you'd have a chance of hitting it with a missile. I mean the whole video was only 49 seconds long. Even with the part of the meteor's path that wasn't in the video it undoubtedly lasted less than a minute. Checking Space.com it says the meteor entered the atmosphere as a speed of about 64,800 kph (40, 260 mph) and exploded over Chelyabinsk at an altitude of 15-20 km (50,000-65,000 feet). Pretty tough for a missile to catch I'd say.

http://www.space.com/19708-mars-rover-curiosity-rock-drill-sample.html

http://m.usatoday.com/article/news/1902009

And a Bonus link!

http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=l8O1j2EBkqI&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3Dl8O1j2EBkqI

And they are complete and helpless victims of "open spying by satellites", with no spy satellites of their own.

When China finally reaches the modern era and actually lets its people have free access to information, such ignorant posts as yours might become less common. Well, no, this is Slashdot.

One was left behind by an unmanned rover actually. No conspiracy theory needed.

http://www.space.com/8295-lost-soviet-reflecting-device-rediscovered-moon.html

I thought this was a done deal. http://www.space.com/5546-proof-water-ice-mars.html Curiosity should be finding underground caverns full of Martians. :)

of $100,000 tool bags http://www.space.com/7088-tool-bag-lost-space-meets-fiery.html Or maybe the Russians will buy theirs at a local hardware store

Sorry, I pasted the wrong link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_orbital_launch_systems . The source for the Atlas V cost is a PDF with various data estimated by the FAA. For the PSLV there are multiple sources: http://www.space.com/1777-israel-chooses-indian-pslv-launch-spy-satellite.html , http://techie-buzz.com/science/isro-pslv-launch.html etc.

Unlike Earth, whose temperature varies as one moves closer to or farther from the equator, Jupiter's temperature depends more on height above the surface. This is because heat is driven not by the sun but by the interior of the planet. Nice try, though!

Mail Online link: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2250548/Nasa-reveals-new-spacesuit--designed-fan-Buzz-Lightyear.html

Slashgear link: http://www.slashgear.com/nasa-testing-on-prototype-z-1-space-suit-is-complete-20261770/

HuffingtonPost U.K. link: http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/mobileweb/2012/12/21/nasa-new-space-suit-buzz-lightyear-toy-story_n_2343677.html?utm_hp_ref=uk

How can 3.2km be the closest asteroid flyby when Hayabusa returned a sample from an asteroid?
http://www.space.com/9538-asteroid-dust-successfully-returned-japanese-space-probe.html
I guess I'll have to RTFA...

Arguably that's a fly-to, not a fly-by.

[you posit that its hyperbolic to say there is a risk of satellite collisions] "I mean, it's probably technically true The odds may be infinitesimal, but still higher than the odds of any other danger."

You must not have seen space junk 3d
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUZO5pW7-5U

http://www.space.com/14132-space-junk-3d-film-orbital-debris.html

Because in it, they discuss at length, and 3d model, the 2009 collision of Iridium 33 and Kosmos-2251. ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_satellite_collision ) which most certainly did occur recently and definitely in our lifetimes.

Their thesis was that it will become more and more of a problem unless people start taking it seriously and not just writing it off as a one time fluke, as you are.

There are habitable planets out there. Seven confirmed and over two dozen being researched. *That* should be the story.

http://www.space.com/15310-nasa-budget-future-space-exploration.html
http://thechrissanchez.com/journal/2012/3/11/the-reality-of-american-space-exploration-why-we-should-imme.htm
http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense