New Mexico Spaceport Authority unveiled the design for the world’s first public launching and landing site for space vehicles, Spaceport America

Virgin Galactic Preps for Liftoff at World’s First Commercial Spaceport

Tight.  I’ve always enjoyed reading articles about astronomy and wanted to be an astro-physicist (actually just wanted my name in Discover Magazine)…   I’m glad that soon we’ll be able to fly so high…

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Tags: spaceport, astro, plans

We should explore the possibility of generating electric power through single cycle fusion process using Helium-3 on the moon,” Kalam said.The former president, who led India’s successful missile programme, said energy production through fossil fuel generates 30 billion tonnes of CO2 annually and countries should look for cleaner energy.

The Hindu News Update Service

http://ma.gnolia.com/badoscici

I quoted above the part with which I agree most.  I’m glad some world leaders are suggesting stuff like this.

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Tags: future, space

The location and orbit of Sedna shown in context with the orbits of the Solar System.

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Wow wow wow.  Quite amazing to see this orbit *so* elliptical and *dwarfing* pluto’s orbit..

How We’ll Get Back to the Moon

NASA – How We’ll Get Back to the Moon

This looks pretty cool.  I’m intrigued by the cargo and crew launching separately, but I guess it makes sense to keep the crew away from the heavier launch thing.  It will be interesting to see how they will handle disruptions in launching the second vehicle.  If the first one is in orbit and then the second can’t be launched, how long can the first one stay in orbit to wait?

I look forward to visiting the moon myself.

I want to see the alien ships on the far side of the moon!

No more need for pesky undetectable dark matter!

What I can’t understand is why they used Newtonian physics to confirm Einstein’s theories!

My brother explained thusly:

I actually have no idea about this dark matter stuff, and don’t know much about relativity and quantum physics, but I can mention two things:

1, Newtonian physics isn’t actually wrong in relativistic conditions. It just isn’t as explicit (and therefore isn’t as useful) as the versions with the relativistic terms when you’re talking about stuff that’s going very fast or is very very massive. In particular, Newton did NOT write F=ma, which is what people usually refer to as Newton’s First Law. What he wrote was F=d(mv)/dt, which does NOT assume that mass is constant. He was far too cautious a man for that. So using Newtonian physics to confirm relativity isn’t completely wack.

2, the big String theory debate goes like this:
proponent: "Hey, look, string theory can express all things simultaneously!"

skeptic: "Hmm, very promising!  Let’s see how well it works.  If I set up this experiment, what does String theory say will happen?"

proponent: "Uh, string theory doesn’t make predictions."

skeptic: "????  So there’s no way for me to test to see if it’s right?"
proponent: "No."

skeptic: "Then what good is it?  You’re not talking physics any more, you’re talking philosophy."

purist: "If you can’t apply the scientific method, then it’s not a science.  Go away, fanatic, and take your representations with you.  I don’t care if they do combine all the forces of nature into one neat form."

proponent: "Well, maybe we’ll figure out a way to do predictions one day."

3. When I think of quantum physics, I think of Dave Hamm, our high school physics teacher: "You can’t just throw a basketball up to any old height.  You can only throw it so high."  He had other gems like, "Friction is a big, hairy monster that lives on surfaces, gobbles up kinetic energy, and spits it back out as heat."  Crazy as it’s phrased, send that to your college physics prof–he’ll have to agree.  I also think of those little ketchup packages you get from fast food places.  Why are they so small?  Everyone needs more than one, and they don’t even make a good quantum.

(Fred’s pretty smart.)

In general, this article tells me we know *nothing* about the universe.

Even so, I like how they’re using the atmosphere to detect the gamma rays via Cherenkov light. wow.