Friday, February 27, 2009
Politics in Science
I usually steer clear of political posts, seeing the impact they have on comments in other blogs. To me,
this article describes the spiral we're going through with increasingly politicized science. Unfortunately, most people who complain
about it when one political party is in office grow strangely silent when the other party enters office and the skewed science
is more in the complainer's favor. This article deals more with the scientists, and what they should do.
The Story of a Place I Once Lived
Came across this
history article a couple days ago, related to the radar site in Turkey where I was stationed. The radar described here, the 'fences' used
for early tracking were deactivated 1 week before I showed up. I love how the contract to build the site stipulated that
it needed to be built in 9 months.
Thursday, February 19, 2009
New Machine
Normally I don't weigh in too much on the computer wars (Mac vs. PC). I'm functional on both systems and think that each
has their pros and cons. When I'm spending my own money, however I purchase Apple equipment. I just did so again (it's my
6th Mac/Clone since 1990) and this is my first posting using the new MacBook Pro.
10:36 pm est
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
POW!
It appears as though two satellites have
collided, leaving behind a spreading debris field. I have to say I'm surprised that CBS is the first news agency to pick this up.
The good news: It's not an immediate threat to the space station.
The bad news: The cloud is starting at an altitude above the ISS's (and the satellites I work on, Landsat), so it will be
a threat sometime in the future.
Decision Point
Two missions are being considered as the next
flagship mission to the outer planets. One would go to the Jupiter system (Europa and Ganymede), while the other would head to Saturn and
Titan. Expect an announcement soon.
Note the artist who did the cover of one of the studies also did the TEMPO artwork to the right on this page.
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
How a good idea can die
Here is an interesting story about the culture within (some segments of) NASA.
6:39 pm est
Lunar Mission Archaeology
Why do people working on our next generation lunar rovers have to resort to squirreled-away wheels in someone's closet? Answer
here.
Thursday, February 5, 2009
A Lady to the end
My mom died on Monday. She'd been fighting cancer for a while, but the big crash came as a surprise. Rough times. Obituary
here.
