NASA looking for the next Sagan

I think that this is a wonderful idea. NASA and space exploration in gerneral needs more of a face, or champion that can bring attention to it.

The times I have heard Sagan speak on TV he always caused me to think…what are the possibilities? Is there live out there, are we alone? …and I think that is something that we need to energize younger minds.

NASA Looking for New Sagan : Slice of SciFi

In an effort to find the next Carl Sagan, someone who can not only inspire the next generation of space scientists but also make the discipline more popular again, The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is creating the Carl Sagan Postdoctoral Fellowships in Exoplanet Exploration.

Star Trek Experience Photos and Audio Tour

While Chuck and I were in Last Vegas for the New Media Expo 2008, we knew that we had to make a special stop while we were there..The Star Trek Experience.

For 10 years The Star Trek Experience located at the Las Vegas Hilton has been captivating trekkers/trekkies with an immersive world that literally drops you from one reality into another walking down corridors and right onto the bridge of the enterprise. Well the time has come for it to move along, but before that happened Chuck and I had the opportunity to take the ‘Behind the Scenes’ tour and take you along with us.

This is part 1 of a 2 part series where we talk to April Herbert, a tour guide with the Star Trek Experience who has been there from the begining, and we talk about the History of the attraction and how it all works.

I missed the Shuttle

I finally had a chance to watch the shuttle launch! I was in Florida and it was scheduled, and this morning I was at a park in Titusville, FL with a view at 10:45a. I sat in my beach chair and no less than 5 minutes later, I heard on someone’s radio that it was scrubbed.

Oh well, maybe next time.

The Russian Shuttle Buran

I have seen pictures of this in the past, however it just is hard to believe that the Russians almost had a working shuttle. Not for any cold war fears, but seeing this thing seems like I am peering into an alternate reality or something.

Shuttle Buran – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Soviet reusable spacecraft program Buran (“Бура́н” meaning “snowstorm” or “blizzard” in Russian) began in 1976 at TsAGI as a response to the United States Space Shuttle program. Soviet politicians were convinced that the Space Shuttle would be an effective military weapon since the DoD took part in the project, and could pose a potential threat to the balance of power during the Cold War. The project was the largest and the most expensive in the history of Soviet space exploration.

The Space Shuttle is Away!

I just watched Nasa TV using realplayer and at 10:39a like clock work, the shuttle took off. That is engineering at it’s best.

Besides the take off, watching the shuttle peal off from the large external tank was amazing. There was a camera attached to the external tank to facilitate seeing the under side of the shuttle as the orange tank fell away.

Congratulations Nasa and Shuttle Crew! Welcome back to space.

Deep Impact: Not the Movie!

Deep Impact is a NASA project to impact a comet with a projectile, and have it expel gas and material into space so it can be analyzed by the fly by part of the Deep Impact.

This morning I was checking out NASA’s site to see how Deep Impact faired…and it looks like it did exactly what it was expected to, and this video shows it. Amazing.