Andrew Kolb´s Space Oddity children´s book
“Have you ever listened to a song and your mind’s eye is immediately filled with visuals? David Bowie’s classic space epic is one such song for me. Every lyric paints such a vivid picture that I figured ‘Oh hey, I guess I’ll make that into a children’s book!’ Yes, I talk like this. Although I haven’t heard from Mr. Bowie (yet), why wait to share the full book?”
astralnocturne
Obama acknowledged criticism for his drastic changes to the space agency’s direction. But, he said, ”The bottom line is: Nobody is more committed to manned space flight, the human exploration of space, than I am. But we’ve got to do it in a smart way; we can’t keep doing the same old things as before.”
Obama said that by 2025, the nation would have a new spacecraft ”designed for long journeys to allow us to begin the first-ever crewed missions beyond the moon into deep space.”
”We’ll start by sending astronauts to an asteroid for the first time in history. By the mid-2030s, I believe we can send humans to orbit Mars and return them safely to Earth. And a landing on Mars will follow,” he said.
Obama said the space program is not a luxury but a necessity for the nation.
He noted that the Kennedy Space Center has inspired the nation and the world for half a century. He said NASA represents what it means to be American — ”reaching for new heights and reaching for what’s possible” — and is not close to its final days. (via Obama Sees Manned Missions to Mars - NYTimes.com)
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Another way to prod NASA would be to set specific goals. Robert Zubrin, the president of the Mars Society, argues that NASA has been effective only when given a definite destination and hard timetable — the Apollo Mode, as he calls it, which is still used successfully on robotic missions.
But since the moon landings, he said, the human spaceflight program has been stuck in the Shuttle Mode, in which the agency develops technologies to please bureaucratic and political constituencies. Instead of looking for the best ship to reach a goal, it looked for a goal (like the space station) to justify the ship. To Dr. Zubrin, the new Obama plan looks like more of the Shuttle Mode.
Space Chair Project (via uktoshiba)
From VSL: “Isn’t it fun when an advertisement is more exciting than the product it’s pushing? Just take a look at the riveting Toshiba UK commercial for their 2010 REGZA SV LCD TV, titled “Space Chair.” The one-minute clip dreamed up by the Grey London agency documents one armchair’s 98,268-foot assent into the stratosphere.
The engineers at Toshiba designed a 4-pound rig that included a biodegradable balsa wood chair (for a cost around $4,000) and eight HD cameras; attached them to a helium balloon about the size of a cubicle; and let the whole thing sail over the Nevada desert. The effect is surprising—it’s a bit, shall we say, unnerving to watch a household item float quietly above the curve of the earth. And be sure to watch to the very end for a startling surprise.”
