From larry.kellogg at gmail.com Wed Apr 2 13:07:14 2008 From: larry.kellogg at gmail.com (Larry Kellogg) Date: Wed, 02 Apr 2008 10:07:14 -0700 Subject: [lunar-update] Virgle - Take me to Mars - April Fool - OR - Message-ID: <47F3BD42.4010009@gmail.com> Virgle - Take me to Mars - April Fool - OR - Wouldn't it be nice if it were true. It is probably going to take popular support and companies like Virgin and Google to help make it happen. Just send in your 30 second YouTube clip explaining why you would like to go live on Mars. http://www.youtube.com/projectvirgle http://www.google.com/virgle/opensource.html http://groups.google.com/group/virgle/ And my Google News Alert for Mars picked up the link below and I copied the list of stories below just to let you know there was some response. - LRK - -------------------------------------------------------------- Richard Branson dupes entire wireless industry with Google on *Mars* gag > Register - London,England,UK And the idea is to head towards *Mars* with the plan - in our lifetime, hopefully - to actually put people on *Mars* and build a city on *Mars*. *...* See all stories on this topic > snip -------------------------------------------------------------- Now back to reading Arthur C. Clarke's 2001: A Space Odyssey, 2010: Odyssey Two, 2061: Odyssey Three, and 3001: The Final Odyssey We should be able to go from Mars to Jupiter and its moon Europa, right? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010:_Odyssey_Two Thanks for looking up with me. Larry Kellogg Web Site: http://lkellogg.vttoth.com/LarryRussellKellogg/ BlogSpot: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/ RSS link: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/atom.xml Newsletter: https://news.altair.com/mailman/listinfo/lunar-update ============================================================== Cassidy: Valley takes April Fool's jokes far too seriously > San Jose Mercury News, USA - 1 hour ago By Mike Cassidy April Fools' Day 2008 had me longing for the days of hand buzzers, whoopie cushions and plastic flowers that shoot water. *...* A daily dose of postings from The Chronicle's technology blog *...* > San Francisco Chronicle, USA - 11 hours ago Google introduced a handful of initiatives Tuesday that draw on the Internet search company's singular technology to "resolve the issues of causality," *...* Richard Branson dupes entire wireless industry with Google on Mars gag > Register, UK - 14 hours ago By Cade Metz in Las Vegas ? More by this author CTIA Wireless Speaking this morning (Tuesday) at the CTIA Wireless trade show in Las Vegas, *...* April Fooled by Google and Virgin? > TIME - 15 hours ago If you don't buy this joke, we'll kill this billionaire. Now, that's satire! Now that Google has effectively conquered Earth, the all-powerful Web giant is *...* Google, Virgin Launch Hoax Mars Settlement > Red Herring, CA - 20 hours ago by Cassimir Medford Google and Virgin Group in an April Fool's Day prank on Tuesday launched Virgle, a joint venture that touts open-source development to *...* Google even raises the bar on April Fool?s Day > San Jose Mercury News, USA - 21 hours ago Jens Hussey: If you haven?t been to Cinequest before then I highly recommend it. The films are better than ever... Lina Broydo: Life is really glamorous in *...* > That day of the year, again > Hindu Business Line, India - 22 hours ago Chennai, April 1 How will you feel if you can get tomorrow?s news today? Of course, with some technical help. It is called gDay and apparently is powered by *...* Beware of April Fools' Day jokes today > Detroit Free Press, United States - 23 hours ago Keep your eyes peeled for an impending hoax, for today is the national holiday of office pranksters. Virgle -- a joint effort between Google and Virgin *...* Open Sauce Software > ZDNet UK, UK - Apr 1, 2008 Anyone who's been to BA Terminal 5 will have shown enough fortitude and courage to earn a priority place on the open source Mars colony, announced today by *...* > Google does April Fools': 'Custom time' and a Mars trip > CNET News.com, CA - Apr 1, 2008 'Custom Time' in action. Darn, I wish I'd had this when I forgot to ask my boss for some days off. As expected, Google's Gmail rolled out a fake "custom *...* Google and Virgin Team Up to Spell 'Virgle' > Wired News - Apr 1, 2008 By Loretta Hidalgo Whitesides April 01, 2008 | 8:14:45 AMCategories: Humor, Space In about the funniest April Fools Day spoof I have seen, *...* After Google Earth, search giant sets April 1 sights on Mars > Reuters - Apr 1, 2008 Google showed how funny its plans for world domination could be by issuing an April Fool?s invitation to establish a human colony on the planet Mars in an *...* Virgin and Google to put men on Mars, via Virgle > Guardian, UK - Apr 1, 2008 As Sir Richard Branson writes on the Official Google blog: "Virgle's goal is simple: the establishment of a permanent human settlement on Mars. *...* Google's April fool is out of this world > Times Online, UK - Apr 1, 2008 Google and Virgin Group this morning announced a joint-venture aimed at creating a human settlement on Mars by 2050, in a project the two companies called *...* Ganksters: Google Pranks Users Your Tech Today, NC - 1 hour ago If you have visited Google or Gmail yesterday, you might have seen the new features that Google is providing. The first is ?Custom Time?. *...* > Best Web Pranksters: Google and Virgin > Enews 2.0, UK - 3 hours ago By Alexandre Carst Many, including major web companies, took advantage of April Fools? Day in 2008 as well. Several search engines, news websites and video *...* Google attacks! Latest prank talks up mission to Mars > CBC News, Canada - 5 hours ago by Paul Jay, CBCNews.ca When it comes to April Fool's Day jokes, Google remains to king, or rather, the court jester. Today the company's elaborate prank *...* Google/Virgin Venture Time And Space On April Fools? Day > eBrandz, India - 6 hours ago Mountain View -- Continuing an April Fools? Day tradition, Google and Virgin have joined in a co-venture called Virgle to settle humans on Mars by the year *...* > April Fool's 2008: Web Roundup > TrustedReviews, UK - 7 hours ago Love it or loath it, April Fool's Day has become something of a phenomenon in Internet circles. Many of the larger sites now dedicate a considerable amount *...* Worst of the Day > RCRNews.com, CO - 7 hours ago By Mike Dano Well, April Fool?s Day came and went without much notice during the CTIA Wireless 2008 show. I find this disheartening; the CTIA show presents *...* Branson and Google team up... and play the best April Fools trick > Tech Digest, UK - 7 hours ago At yesterday's CITA Wireless Trade Show, Sir Richard Branson used his keynote to announce a prank partnership with Google, whose purpose is to build a *...* Google does it again; Virgin joins the party > CIOL, India - 10 hours ago It?sa Fools? Day hoax, yet it?s not! It?s man?s hope to set up out-of-the-world colonies: on Mars, for instance. Enter Virgle, a ?joint venture? between *...* It's time to leave this rock > The University of Alabama Crimson White, AL - 10 hours ago I was planning to write this column about the Internet. As I've gone out of my way so many times to mention, I work for a movie news Web site. *...* Virgle Fool?s Day > Gear Live, WA - 16 hours ago When we saw Virgin founder Richard Branson on Craig Ferguson?s show last night announcing his new project ?Virgle? we knew it had to be an April Fool?s Day *...* > Virgin Teams Up With Google to Form Virgle - An Effort to Colonize *...* > Gambling911.com, FL - 18 hours ago Want to be a Virgle pioneer? Sergey Brin and Richard Branson were offering the opportunity all day Tuesday for the lucky few. Virgin, a Gambling911.com *...* Branson's Mars Mission: Prankster Or Pathfinder? CNBC, NJ - 20 hours ago AP Is he or isn't he, that is the question. I'm talking about Sir Richard Branson and his lofty (extraterrestrial?) goal of a manned mission to Mars, *...* Please Help Us Send Google To Mars > io9, CA - 22 hours ago If only today's announcement from Google and Virgin were true. Supposedly Google and Virgin Inc. are teaming up to create Virgle, a scheme to settle Mars by *...* Google Tackles Time and Space on April Fools' Day > CIO Today, CA - 22 hours ago By Barry Levine Continuing an April Fools' Day tradition, Google offers e-mails to the past and a co-venture with Virgin called Virgle to put humans on Mars *...* CTIA 2008: Richard Branson Said "Martians," Not "Marketers" > Gearlog, NY - 22 hours ago In a rambling but highly entertaining CTIA keynote address, super-entrepreneur Richard Branson recounted the history of his more than 300 Virgin companies, *...* Google gets funny, too > Waco Tribune Herald, TX - 23 hours ago By Ken Sury | Tuesday, April 1, 2008, 11:58 AM Australian and British newspapers aren?t the only ones having fun with April Fool?s Day as I noted in a *...* Fools at Google announce Mars settlement > Philadelphia Inquirer, PA - 23 hours ago By Sam Wood Google, the multi-billion dollar company that dominates cyberspace, announced today that it's extending its reach into outer space - to Mars. *...* Google/Virgin venture, custom time creation part of April Fool's > TG Daily - 23 hours ago By Mark Raby Mountain View (Mars) - Google and Virgin have joined up to settle on Mars by the year 2050, Sophos can now recognize hackers based on their *...* > Penguins can fly ... on April Fool's Day > CBC Toronto, Canada - Apr 1, 2008 Plans to start a new community on Mars and video of flying penguins were some of the hoaxes and false news stories marking the spring silliness of April *...* > Virgle Seeks Mars Attack > eFluxMedia - Apr 1, 2008 By Jane Ivory The newly formed partnership between Virgin and Google ? poetically named Virgle ? seeks to expand the human race?s dominion into outer space, *...* Google and Virgin Announce Mars Expedition and Colony > Space Ref (press release) - Apr 1, 2008 Editor's note: Yes, I know, it is April Fool's day - but this is fun ... so why not play along! MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. and LONDON, England (April 1st, *...* > Roundup: Tech firms produce bumper crop of April Fool's tricks > IT PRO, UK - Apr 1, 2008 It's been a busy and fun day in the technology sector, as Google and Virgin lead the field of companies trying to trick us all in the spirit of April Fool's *...* Don't Just Join a Startup; Start Up a New Chapter for Man. > Adrants, MA - Apr 1, 2008 Last year Google turned your love life into an algorithmically solvable search problem. This year it's teamed up with Virgin to give us Virgle: the *...* > Is it April 2nd Yet? Google Launches Mars, Time Travel Initiatives > Appscout, NY - Apr 1, 2008 It's an odd thing when, as a company, it becomes difficult to draw the line between your day-to-day announcements and those that you launch on the first of *...* Mars Needs Google > Conde Nast Portfolio, NY - Apr 1, 2008 Google has become famous for its annual April Fool's hoaxes. This year, the search giant has dialed the amp up to 11. Last year's pranks, it must be said, *...* > Branson unveils plans for another new space venture: one-way *...* > Daily Mail, UK - Apr 1, 2008 Not content with setting up commercial flights to space, Virgin boss Sir Richard Branson has revealed he hopes to send people to Mars in a Noah's Ark. The *...* > Google whacks out double April fool > ITProPortal, UK - Apr 1, 2008 As it is the case every year, Google has made two April fool announcements with one of them actually involving a company outside Google for the first time *...* Virgle April Fools Day: Join Google and Virgin on mars > Product Reviews, UK - Apr 1, 2008 Both Virgin and Google are pulling their resources together in the hope of starting up the permanent human colony on Mars; the project will be called Virgle *...* > Project Virgle Launched by Google and Founder of Virgin Group > Chiropractic News (press release) - Apr 1, 2008 by Michael Dorausch, DC The Founder of Virgin Group, Sir Richard Branson (one of my heros) and Google have announced Project Virgle, for the establishment *...* Virgle launched by Google and Virgin > I4U - Mar 31, 2008 Virgle, Inc., a joint venture between the Virgin Group and Google. Virgle's goal the establishment of a permanent human settlement on Mars. *...* snip ============================================================== WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK ============================================================== This is the lunar-update at news.altair.com https://news.altair.com/mailman/listinfo/lunar-update This list is a moderated list. The moderator is Larry Kellogg (larry.kellogg AT gmail.com ) Please send suggestions for postings directly to Larry. ============================================================== From larry.kellogg at gmail.com Sat Apr 12 23:04:29 2008 From: larry.kellogg at gmail.com (Larry Kellogg) Date: Sat, 12 Apr 2008 20:04:29 -0700 Subject: [lunar-update] NASA Lunar Science Institute Message-ID: <9bb827dc0804122004n2d3a26afq12cca775f27cbd2b@mail.gmail.com> NASA Lunar Science Institute http://lunarscience.arc.nasa.gov/ The NASA Lunar Science Institute is a new organization that supplements and extends existing NASA lunar science programs. Competitively selected team investigations will focus on one or more aspects of lunar science -- investigations of the Moon (including lunar samples), from the Moon, and on the Moon. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ http://lunarscience.arc.nasa.gov/index.php?fuseaction=home.about#mission The Mission of the NLSI and its member investigators is to advance the field of lunar science by: 1) carrying out and supporting collaborative research in lunar science, investigating the Moon itself and using the Moon as a unique platform for other investigations; 2) providing scientific and technical perspectives to NASA on its lunar research programs, including developing investigations for current and future space missions; 3) supporting development of the lunar science community and training the next generation of lunar science researchers; and 4) supporting Education and Public Outreach by providing scientific content for K-14 education programs, and communicating directly with the public. snip ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ http://www.nasa.gov/ http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html Well, well, I see that NASA Ames still has a role to play in our learning more about the Lunar Missions. Will look forward to see what comes of this as we approach 2008 and the election of a new President of USA. Hope we in the USA make sure we let the new administration know our interest in the development of space. - LRK - Thanks for looking up with me. Larry Kellogg Web Site: http://lkellogg.vttoth.com/LarryRussellKellogg/ BlogSpot: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/ RSS link: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/atom.xml Newsletter: https://news.altair.com/mailman/listinfo/lunar-update ============================================================== http://www.spaceref.com/calendar/calendar.html?pid=4876* NASA Ames Lunar Science Institute Dedication Ceremony * News media are invited to interview key NASA officials and attend a dedication ceremony for the new NASA Lunar Science Institute at NASA Ames Research Center on Friday, April 11, 2008. The NASA Lunar Science Institute is modeled after the successful NASA Astrobiology Institute, also managed by Ames, and features teams of scientists across the country collaborating in lunar science and future lunar exploration. snip ============================================================== http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2008/apr/HQ_08095_LADEE.html Dwayne Brown Headquarters, Washington 203-358-1726 dwayne.c.brown at nasa.gov Deborah Robin Croft Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif. 650-604-6787 dcroft at mail.arc.nasa.gov April 9, 2008 RELEASE : 08-095 NASA Sets Sights on Lunar Dust Exploration Mission WASHINGTON -- NASA is preparing to send a small spacecraft to the moon in 2011 to assess the lunar atmosphere and the nature of dust lofted above the surface. Called the Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE), the mission will launch before the agency's moon exploration activities accelerate during the next decade. LADEE will gather detailed information about conditions near the surface and environmental influences on lunar dust. A thorough understanding of these influences will help researchers understand how future exploration may shape the lunar environment and how the environment may affect future explorers. "LADEE represents a low-cost approach to science missions, enabling faster science return and more frequent missions," said Ames Director S. Pete Worden. "These measurements will provide scientific insight into the lunar environment, and give our explorers a clearer understanding of what they'll be up against as they set up the first outpost and begin the process of settling the solar system." LADEE is a cooperative effort with NASA's Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, Calif., Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., and Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. The total cost of the spacecraft is expected to be approximately $80 million. Ames will manage the mission, build the spacecraft and perform mission operations. Goddard will perform environmental testing and launch vehicle integration. The mission will be established within Marshall's newly created Lunar Science Program Office. Marshall will draw upon experience gained from managing a larger suite of low-cost, small satellite missions through NASA's Discovery and New Frontiers Program. snip ============================================================== April 10, 2008 JD Harrington Headquarters, Washington 202-358-5241 j.d.harrington at nasa.gov RELEASE: 08-097 NASA LAUNCHES NEW SCIENCE WEB SITE WASHINGTON -- NASA's Science Mission Directorate has launched a new Web site that provides enhanced and engaging information about NASA's vast scope of scientific endeavors and achievements. The site will provide in-depth coverage of NASA's past, present and future science missions with features that include: - Interactive tables and searches for Earth, heliophysics, planetary and astrophysics missions - Insight into dark matter and dark energy, planets around other stars, climate change, Mars and space weather - Resources for researchers including links to upcoming science solicitations and opportunities - A mapping of science questions for NASA science missions and the data they produce - A citizen-scientist page with access to resources that equip the public to engage in scientific investigation - Expanded "For Educators" and "For Kids" pages to provide access to a broader range of resources for learning the science behind NASA missions - Easy-to-navigate design and an improved search engine to help find information Visit the new NASA science Web site at: http://nasascience.nasa.gov ============================================================== April 10, 2008 Dwayne Brown Headquarters, Washington 202-358-1726 dwayne.c.brown at nasa.gov Guy Webster Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. 818-354-6278 guy.webster at jpl.nasa.gov Sara Hammond University of Arizona, Tucson 520-626-1974 shammond at lpl.arizona.edu RELEASE: 08-100 NASA SPACECRAFT FINE TUNES COURSE FOR MARS LANDING PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA engineers have adjusted the flight path of the Phoenix Mars Lander, setting the spacecraft on course for its May 25th landing on the Red Planet. "This is our first trajectory maneuver targeting a specific location in the northern polar region of Mars," said Brian Portock, chief of the Phoenix navigation team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. The mission's two prior trajectory maneuvers, made last August and October, adjusted the flight path of Phoenix to intersect with Mars. NASA has conditionally approved a landing site in a broad, flat valley informally called "Green Valley." A final decision will be made after NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter takes additional images of the area this month. snip For more information about Phoenix, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/phoenix snip ============================================================== WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK ============================================================== This is the lunar-update at news.altair.com https://news.altair.com/mailman/listinfo/lunar-update This list is a moderated list. The moderator is Larry Kellogg (larry.kellogg AT gmail.com ) Please send suggestions for postings directly to Larry. ============================================================== -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://news.altair.com/pipermail/lunar-update/attachments/20080412/8e1c5809/attachment.htm From larry.kellogg at gmail.com Fri Apr 18 21:03:23 2008 From: larry.kellogg at gmail.com (Larry Kellogg) Date: Fri, 18 Apr 2008 18:03:23 -0700 Subject: [lunar-update] Out Of The Cradle - EXPLORING THE FRONTIERS BEYOND EARTH Message-ID: <9bb827dc0804181803r5576192l6fceebc37982bb9a@mail.gmail.com> Out Of The Cradle - EXPLORING THE FRONTIERS BEYOND EARTH We mentioned this 1984 book, by William K. Hartmann, Ron Miller & Pamela Lee, back in November of 2006 and having received an e-mail from Dr. Hartmann, have re-read it and looked again at the beautiful pictures. I find it interesting to compare where folks thought we might be in the year 2000 and where we are now that it is already 2008. There were predictions that we would be running out of our natural resources. All the oil is not gone, but the price is over a $100 a barrel, so something to consider. Events have slipped a bit but much has been accomplished. We have communication satellites, cell phones, and the Internet. We are connected and we are part of an ever growing global economy. Do you raise cattle, sugar cane or soy beans, here or over there or down under? Going to space hasn't always matched time tables as predicted, but a lot has happened since 1984. I no longer have a job, for one. :-) The Galileo spacecraft did finally get launched, not the way described in the book, but launched and mission completed. http://www2.jpl.nasa.gov/galileo/ There is a mission to Saturn. http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm We have nations with their spacecraft orbiting the Moon and more planned. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Lunar_spacecraft Mars has several missions on going. http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/ There is a mission to Pluto and to Mercury. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/ http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/ A big question that remains open is whether humans will go to all these places that writers have described and space nicks have dreamed about. Launching humans to orbit and beyond costs a lot of money and not many will get to participate first hand. Launching rovers and orbiters has let a lot of folks look at what they can do, so at least the dream is being kept alive. In countries that have the resources and money to launch these kinds of missions, we aren't starving yet, and we still drive our cars, but we haven't launched humans to Mars either. Spacecraft have touched down on an asteroid but no mining started. http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/missions/nearlanding_preview_010212.html In the countries that might want other resources developed, they don't have the money and finding their next meal is more important than looking up to the Moon and Beyond. How this all plays out in the future will probably be in the hands of the kids coming up through the educational system. Will they have the dream? Some have said we can't or shouldn't be thinking of sending humans to space. I don't think it hurts to dream, and dreaming comes before drawing up plans. As kids we dream and we aren't afraid to build things out of cardboard boxes. Building spaceships takes a lot more money, but the dream still needs to be there. So I say, Dare to Dream. If you have not read "Out Of The Cradle" may I suggest you take a look at Amazon.com or as Bill mentions, the PSI website. (although I see the "GRAND TOUR" and not "Out Of The Cradle") There are 68 available from 1 cent plus $3.99 shipping and handling. (Soft cover) :-) http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/0894807706/ref=dp_olp_2 http://www.amazon.com/Out-Cradle-Exploring-Frontiers-Beyond/dp/0894807706 http://www.psi.edu/bookshop/ You might just catch the dream. Thanks for looking up with me. Larry Kellogg Web Site: http://lkellogg.vttoth.com/LarryRussellKellogg/ BlogSpot: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/ RSS link: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/atom.xml Newsletter: https://news.altair.com/mailman/listinfo/lunar-update ============================================================== ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: "William K. Hartmann" To: lunar-update at news.altair.com Date: Mon, 14 Apr 2008 12:26:34 -0700 (MST) Subject: Out of the Cradle Greetings -- I was checking (on the web) the publication date of my book, Out of the Cradle, when your site turned up as the first reference. Glad to see my book was of interest to you. That book had an interesting history. (Feel free to share this!) It didn't do nearly as well as it's companion book, Grand Tour, which is now in its third edition 25 years later, but in a way it was more a labor of love and more prescient and (sez me) maybe more important. Grand Tour is pure "science" of the solar system, a tour of the planets, but Out of the Cradle is about what humans might do in the solar system. Out of the Cradle was not only an early account of asteroid resources and solar power satellite possibilities, but one of the first (maybe the first?) to consider seriously that then-popular "Club of Rome"-style projections of Earth resources, assumed a finite-sized economic system -- the Earth; and that therefore the availability of space-based resources might change the whole picture. I think the Club of Rome projects, viewed within that limitation, were essentiallly true. If we limit Earth's economy to Earth itself, and consider resource bases and population/lifestyle/consumption trends, it's not hard to project that serious disruptions in lifetyle and economic conditions will occur in the mid-21st century. We may be starting to see the beginnings of that. For example, for the first time, not just environmentalists but also petroleum company geologists have begun to talk about an imminent flattening of planetary petroleum production. We argued that our society will have to deal with that either in a smooth evolutionary way (if we get busy and deal with it) or with a catastrophic disruption (if we stay asleep at the switch.) One of our points in Out of the Cradle was that the "free" 24/hour/day solar energy flow accessible in space, and the known presence of metal resources in asteroids, might start to change all that, if we can figure out a way to access and distribute those resources. As you noted, the book is still available at Amazon, and it is also available direct from Workman Publishing in New York. We also have autogrpahed copies from the "bookstore" at our non-profit Planetary Science Institute (See www.psi.edu). Cheers (I guess!) -- and thanks for your interest! Bill Hartmann Senior Scientist Planetary Science Institute, Tucson ============================================================== What I think Bill found from post back in November of 2006. - LRK - http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/2006/11/out-of-cradle-exploring-frontiers.html http://news.altair.com/pipermail/lunar-update/2006-November/001095.html ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Out of the Cradle: Exploring the Frontiers Beyond Earth http://www.amazon.com/Out-Cradle-Exploring-Frontiers-Beyond/dp/0894807706/ by William K. Hartmann, Ron Miller, Pamela Lee Well I think I found the book I had copied pages out of that dates back to 1984. What had caught my eye was the many paintings of scenes on the Moon with human figures portrayed. Since what I have here is only a black and white copy I thought I would order the book. I see that William K. Hartmann is an astronomer, writer, and painter. You can see some of his works on-line. - LRK - -------------------------------------------------------------- http://www.psi.edu/hartmann/ Bill Hartmann's Home Page My creative work in the last few years has been divided among three areas: scientific research at PSI, my paintings, and my writing. I am currently on the imaging team of NASA's Mars Global Surveyor mission. My paintings include astronomical scenes (used for magazines, book covers, etc.) and my writing includes popular science books and two recent novels. You can explore all these efforts in more detail by clicking on the listings below Snip http://www.psi.edu/hartmann/planets.html http://www.psi.edu/hartmann/painting.html -------------------------------------------------------------- snip ============================================================== Dr. Hartmann responded to these comments. - LRK - snip With the price of fuel going up every time I get gas one would think that developing resources from space would be of more interest. Copper at $4.00 a pound it creating a lot of concern for folks that get their wiring ripped off. We use to complain about the Amazon forests being cut down for cattle and now it is for soy beans to make alternate fuels. The price of corn is going up because it is being to make ethanol. (and subsidized as well) My wife, Sangad, is Thai and so we go through a lot of rice. A 50 pound bag use to cost $17, then $22, last bag cost $30 and has been reported at $50 in the SF Bay area. In Thailand we have had complaints of high food prices because it costs more to fuel the tractors. (not so many water buffalo pulling plows) As a kid I was thrilled with Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon and Saturday Matinees with Gene Autry. The illustrations in the Colliers magazine and books like yours gave you something to stick in your mind and wish for. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collier's_Weekly http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man_Will_Conquer_Space_Soon%21 http://www.psi.edu/hartmann/painting.html http://www.psi.edu/hartmann/index.html snip ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hi Larry, Good old Colliers articles about the von Braun mission designs, with Bonestell's paintings! I had them when I was a kid, along with The Conquest of Space by Willy Ley and Chesley Bonestell. I had an interesting experience in during a meeting at the Huntsville NASA center. They have an archive of von Braun's papers and I found some magazines in which von Braun wrote series of articles aimed at kids, explaining principles of rocketry and space flight -- and picking them up triggered a memory that I had copies of them as a kid, too. As a result of those articles by von Braun, Ley, and others, I recall reading about, and asking my teachers around 7th grade about, parabolas, gravity, mass ratios of payload to vehicles, etc. What it really makes me wonder about is: who is producing that kind of material today. There's a tremendous number of interesting documentaries on TV, but it is mostly designed as rapid fire visual material to entertain, & it's not clear to me if much real science or technology comes across. Of course...I recognize too that in every generation there's a tendency that as one gets older, one starts complaining that "kids today" and society in general are going to wrack and ruin! Maybe the main thing about my email and your email is that it's important to have people articulate a vision of what can be done. I think that was the main result of, for instance, Bonestell's famous cover painting on The Conquest of Space in 1949, showing that silver rocket on the moon. It's amazing when I ask among my science colleagues of that generations, and the NASA engineers who put Apollo on the moon, how many of them had that book when they were 10 or 14, and were inspired by it! Cheers, Bill PS (Feel free to share above if you want to post it). snip ============================================================== WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK ============================================================== This is the lunar-update at news.altair.com https://news.altair.com/mailman/listinfo/lunar-update This list is a moderated list. The moderator is Larry Kellogg (larry.kellogg AT gmail.com ) Please send suggestions for postings directly to Larry. ============================================================== -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://news.altair.com/pipermail/lunar-update/attachments/20080418/9a56e55e/attachment.htm From larry.kellogg at gmail.com Mon Apr 21 13:16:58 2008 From: larry.kellogg at gmail.com (Larry Kellogg) Date: Mon, 21 Apr 2008 10:16:58 -0700 Subject: [lunar-update] Moon is younger and more Earth-like than thought Message-ID: <9bb827dc0804211016n5e6984b8mdb77a317504ade2c@mail.gmail.com> Moon is younger and more Earth-like than thought Geoff Heaps in New Zealand passed my an article written last December about how one might determine the age of the Moon. Rocks brought back by the Astronauts have been looked at by scientists and from what is seen in their composition, have made some interesting observations about how old the Moon might be. I hope we get a chance to get a better sampling from more areas of the Moon, both near and far side. What the poles look like will certainly be of interest as well. - LRK - Moon is younger and more Earth-like than thought 20:13 19 December 2007 NewScientist.com news service Maggie McKee (see more below) Thanks for looking up with me. And thanks even more to you who have woken me up from time to time. :-) Larry Kellogg Web Site: http://lkellogg.vttoth.com/LarryRussellKellogg/ BlogSpot: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/ RSS link: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/atom.xml Newsletter: https://news.altair.com/mailman/listinfo/lunar-update Trying to figure out where the time goes. --- http://twitter.com/CdrLuna ============================================================== Moon is younger and more Earth-like than thought 20:13 19 December 2007 NewScientist.com news service Maggie McKee It's a good thing the Moon doesn't have any feelings to hurt. New research suggests it is actually 30 million years younger than anyone had thought, and that it is merely a 'chip off the old block' of Earth rather than being made up of the remnants of a Mars-sized body that slammed into Earth billions of years ago. That violent impact was thought to have taken place 30 million years after the solar system began to condense from a disc of gas and dust 4.567 billion years ago. The event was thought to have melted the Earth, generating a magma ocean that covered the planet and allowed iron and other metals to sink to its centre, forming a core. At the same time, the Moon was thought to have coalesced from a disc of molten debris blasted off the Earth and the Mars-sized interloper. But new research led by Mathieu Touboul of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich suggests that picture is not so simple. The researchers base their analysis on studies of an isotope of the metal tungsten in lunar rocks. That isotope, tungsten-182, is produced by the decay of two other elements: hafnium-182, which has a half-life of 9 million years, and tantalum-182. Tantalum-182, however, is not an intrinsic component of the Moon ? it forms when energetic charged particles from space, called cosmic rays, slam into the lunar surface. Previous estimates of the Moon's age were based on tungsten measurements that did not subtract the effect of the decay of tantalum. "It is crucial to remove all the tungsten-182 coming from the cosmic-ray production," Touboul told New Scientist. "Otherwise, the age one gets is too old." Lengthy formation When Touboul's team accounted for tantalum, they found that the giant impact had to have occurred at least 50 million years after the solar system began to form, and that the Moon had completed its formation within the next 10 million years ? about 30 million years later than thought. The revised timing of the impact implies the terrestrial planets, such as the Earth and Mars, took longer to build up from the collision of smaller 'planetesimals' than previously thought. "The age of the Moon is also the age of Earth because the Moon-forming giant impact was the last major event in Earth's formation," says Touboul. Alan Brandon, a scientist at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, US, agrees. "It may mean that Earth and Mars took at least 50 million years, and possibly hundreds of millions of years, to reach their final mass," he comments. The researchers also found that the composition of the Moon appears identical to that of the Earth's rocky mantle, "such that a major portion of the Moon must have been from proto-Earth", Brandon told New Scientist. Similar makeup He says this runs counter to some computer models showing that at least 80% of the Moon is made up of material from the Mars-sized world, which is expected to have a different makeup from the Earth. "I think the Moon-forming impact models will have to be redone to try to get an explanation for why the Earth and Moon are so compositionally similar," he says. Intriguingly, the new work suggests the Moon formed at least 16 million years after the Earth's core formed. That raises questions about how the planet's iron-rich core could have coalesced in the absence of global magma oceans produced by the Moon-forming impact. "It could be that there were several generations of magma oceans in Earth," Brandon says. "My guess is ? that the Earth probably had a magma ocean at the time the Earth's core formed," he says, adding that the giant impact may have re-melted the material millions of years later. Journal reference: Nature (vol 450, p 1169 and 1206) snip ============================================================== http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v450/n7173/abs/nature06428.html Letter Nature 450, 1206-1209 (20 December 2007) | doi:10.1038/nature06428; Received 12 July 2007; Accepted 24 October 2007 Late formation and prolonged differentiation of the Moon inferred from W isotopes in lunar metals M. Touboul1, T. Kleine1, B. Bourdon1, H. Palme2 & R. Wieler1 Institute for Isotope Geochemistry and Mineral Resources, Department of Earth Sciences, Eidgen?ssische Technische Hochschule Zurich, Clausiusstrasse 25, 8092 Zurich, Switzerland Institut f?r Mineralogie und Geochemie, Universit?t zu K?ln, Z?lpicherstrasse 49b, 50674 K?ln, Germany Correspondence to: M. Touboul1 Correspondence and requests for materials should be addressed to M.T. (Email: touboul at erdw.ethz.ch). The Moon is thought to have formed from debris ejected by a giant impact with the early 'proto'-Earth1 and, as a result of the high energies involved, the Moon would have melted to form a magma ocean. The timescales for formation and solidification of the Moon can be quantified by using 182Hf?182W and 146Sm?142Nd chronometry2, 3, 4, but these methods have yielded contradicting results. In earlier studies3, 5, 6, 7, 182W anomalies in lunar rocks were attributed to decay of 182Hf within the lunar mantle and were used to infer that the Moon solidified within the first 60 million years of the Solar System. However, the dominant 182W component in most lunar rocks reflects cosmogenic production mainly by neutron capture of 181Ta during cosmic-ray exposure of the lunar surface3, 7, compromising a reliable interpretation in terms of 182Hf?182W chronometry. snip ============================================================== http://www.spacedaily.com/news/lunar-01d.html Boulder - August 15, 2001 The "giant impact" theory, first proposed in the mid-1970s to explain how the Moon formed, has received a major boost as new results demonstrate for the first time that a single impact could yield the current Earth-Moon system. Simulations performed by researchers at Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) and the University of California at Santa Cruz (UCSC) show that a single impact by a Mars-sized object in the late stages of Earth's formation could account for an iron-depleted Moon and the masses and angular momentum of the Earth-Moon system snip http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0108/15mooncreate/ snip ============================================================== http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/12/071219-moon-collision.html Earth-Asteroid Collision Formed Moon Later Than Thought Richard A. Lovett for National Geographic News December 19, 2007 The moon was formed from fragments of Earth after a collision with a giant asteroid relatively late in our planet's formation, new tests of moon rocks show. The finding upends many of the prior theories for how the moon came to be, researchers say. Scientists have long believed that the moon was formed by a collision between our planet and a Mars-size object. Computer models have shown that in this scenario 80 percent of the moon's material should have come from the asteroid, with only 20 percent from Earth. But the new study of moon rocks collected three decades ago by Apollo astronauts, however, found that Earth and the rocks were too similar for that to be the case. Earthly Material The most likely explanation is that the moon was formed primarily of Earthly material, the authors say. Lead author Mathieu Touboul of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich said there is another theory that may explain its formation. snip http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/12/071219-moon-collision_2.html Page 2 has more information. - LRK - snip ============================================================== http://www.psi.edu/projects/moon/moon.html PSI's role: Two PSI senior scientists, Dr. William K. Hartmann and Dr. Donald R. Davis, were the first to suggest the leading modern hypothesis of the moon's origin, in a paper published in 1975 in the journal Icarus. snip ------------------------------------------------- How interesting, just finished reading Dr. Hartmann's book "Out Of The Cradle". -LRK - snip ============================================================== WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK ============================================================== This is the lunar-update at news.altair.com https://news.altair.com/mailman/listinfo/lunar-update This list is a moderated list. The moderator is Larry Kellogg (larry.kellogg AT gmail.com ) Please send suggestions for postings directly to Larry. ============================================================== -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://news.altair.com/pipermail/lunar-update/attachments/20080421/bbf08eda/attachment.htm From larry.kellogg at gmail.com Mon Apr 21 20:04:07 2008 From: larry.kellogg at gmail.com (Larry Kellogg) Date: Mon, 21 Apr 2008 17:04:07 -0700 Subject: [lunar-update] =?windows-1252?q?Phil_Plait=92s_Moon_Hoax_London_S?= =?windows-1252?q?peech_-_Report?= Message-ID: <9bb827dc0804211704i79e42880pb09d83e27995964f@mail.gmail.com> Phil Plait's Moon Hoax London Speech - Report http://omnologos.wordpress.com/2008/04/21/phil-plaits-moon-hoax-london-speech-report/ Maurizio sent me a copy of his post about seeing Phil Plait talk about the Moon Hoax. Copied below. There are still some that seem to think we never went to the Moon and yet scientists have been studying the materials brought back for some time. Maybe we should just action off Moon Rocks and make some expensive Lunar Jewelry. Hope we start bringing stuff back again and that it goes on a World Tour. :-) Thanks for looking up with me. And thanks even more to you who have woken me up from time to time. :-) Larry Kellogg Web Site: http://lkellogg.vttoth.com/LarryRussellKellogg/ BlogSpot: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/ RSS link: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/atom.xml Newsletter: https://news.altair.com/mailman/listinfo/lunar-update Trying to figure out where the time goes. --- http://twitter.com/CdrLuna ============================================================== Hello Larry Just back from attending a speech on the Moon Hoax by renowned Phil Plait aka "The Bad Astronomer". Perhaps your reader may find it interesting? regards maurizio http://omnologos.wordpress.com/2008/04/21/phil-plaits-moon-hoax-london-speech-report/ I had the honour to attend tonight in London a speech by Phil Plait "The Bad Astronomer" on the "Moon Hoax Hoax" (i.e. the hoax perpetrated by those that believe the Apollo manned lunar landings were a fake). The presentation was organized by the UK's Skeptic Magazine as part of their Skeptics in the Pub's monhtly gathering, taking advantage of Plait's schedule in-between his Colorado home and a visit to the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva. In front of a large crowd downstairs at the in Holborn, Plait chose to wear a hat after dazzling us with an impressive hairdo (or lack thereof). So how to respond to people still clinging to the odd notion that NASA has been able to pull off a multi-decadal hoax involving tens of thousands of people, something much more difficult that actually landing on the Moon itself? The Bad Astronomer went through familiar questions and answers, here summarized: (1) No stars in Moon photographs? Obviously not. Those are pictures of bright spacesuits and a bright terrain directly hit by the Sun's rays. (2) Shadows are not parallel, "demonstrating" multiple light sources? First of all, multiple light sources cause multiple shadows, and there is none of that in the Apollo pictures. Furthermore, shadows are not parallel on Earth either: it's called perspective!!! (3) Astronaut's suits in the dark shadows on the Moon are not black? Of course not, they are illuminated by the surrounding, bright lunar surface. (4) Waving flags on the Moon? Sure, with nothing much to dampen any vibration, that's exactly what to expect. (5) No crater from the LEM's landing engine? Large thrust, over a large surface, means low pressure, hence... (6) No flames from departing LEM's upper half in Apollo 17 video? Flames are only visible for certain types of rocket fuel. Even the Space Shuttle's main engines produce a barely visible blue flame at take-off. There are two main problems with "moon hoaxers": one, as Plait pointed out, is that they choose to tell only that part of the truth that suits them. The second, if I may add, is that they invariably never ever reveal what evidence would convince them to change their mind. ================= I have only one remark for the Bad Astronomer: sometimes he goes too hard for it. All Moon-hoaxers' claims I have seen so far are already ridiculous enough. Is it really necessary to build jokes around stuff that is already laughable on its own? Anyway...it's been great to meet somebody that enrolled me some time ago as one of his minions. Here some pictures from the evening? [see at the bottom of Maurizio's blog. - LRK -] Maurizio - Omnologos snip ============================================================== WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK ============================================================== This is the lunar-update at news.altair.com https://news.altair.com/mailman/listinfo/lunar-update This list is a moderated list. The moderator is Larry Kellogg (larry.kellogg AT gmail.com ) Please send suggestions for postings directly to Larry. ============================================================== -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://news.altair.com/pipermail/lunar-update/attachments/20080421/b09f939b/attachment-0001.htm From larry.kellogg at gmail.com Tue Apr 22 13:37:58 2008 From: larry.kellogg at gmail.com (Larry Kellogg) Date: Tue, 22 Apr 2008 10:37:58 -0700 Subject: [lunar-update] Preliminary thermal modeling accounts for some (but not all) of the Pioneer Anomaly Message-ID: <9bb827dc0804221037l55a53f84m334b378bcf9aa716@mail.gmail.com> Preliminary thermal modeling accounts for some (but not all) of the Pioneer Anomaly Apr. 17, 2008 | 19:59 PDT | Apr. 18 02:59 UTC On Tue, Apr 22, 2008 at 9:45 AM, LARRY KLAES wrote: To quote from The Planetary Society blog: The Pioneer Anomaly: April 13, 2008 presentation Slava Turyshev reported on the progress of thermal modeling of the Pioneer 10 spacecraft at the American Physical Society Meeting in St. Louis, Missouri on April 13, 2008. The complete presentation may be downloaded here (PDF format, 7.2 MB). http://planetary.org/blog/article/00001400/ Thanks for the link. - LRK - Thanks for looking up with me. And thanks even more to you who have woken me up from time to time. :-) Larry Kellogg Web Site: http://lkellogg.vttoth.com/LarryRussellKellogg/ BlogSpot: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/ RSS link: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/atom.xml Newsletter: https://news.altair.com/mailman/listinfo/lunar-update Trying to figure out where the time goes. --- http://twitter.com/CdrLuna ============================================================== If anyone is interested in the Pioneer Anomaly paper that provides the information as to where the data Slava Turyhev is using came from, you can down load the paper here. - LRK - http://arxiv.org/abs/gr-qc/0512121 The Study of the Pioneer Anomaly: New Data and Objectives for New Investigation Authors: Slava G. Turyshev, Viktor T. Toth, Larry R. Kellogg, Eunice. L. Lau, Kyong J. Lee (Submitted on 21 Dec 2005 (v1), last revised 6 Mar 2006 (this version, v2)) http://arxiv.org/PS_cache/gr-qc/pdf/0512/0512121v2.pdf The file on the complete APS presentation seemed to take a very, very long time to access the Amazon.com server. http://planetary.s3.amazonaws.com/misc/Pioneer-Anomaly-TPS-20080417.pdf Nice presentation, brings back memories of NASA Ames. Recognize Viktor Toth's work with MDR data. - LRK - snip ============================================================== WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK ============================================================== This is the lunar-update at news.altair.com https://news.altair.com/mailman/listinfo/lunar-update This list is a moderated list. The moderator is Larry Kellogg (larry.kellogg AT gmail.com ) Please send suggestions for postings directly to Larry. ============================================================== -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://news.altair.com/pipermail/lunar-update/attachments/20080422/a612ef52/attachment.htm From larry.kellogg at gmail.com Fri Apr 25 12:30:41 2008 From: larry.kellogg at gmail.com (Larry Kellogg) Date: Fri, 25 Apr 2008 09:30:41 -0700 Subject: [lunar-update] Popular Mechanics Analyzes the Candidates Message-ID: <9bb827dc0804250930y6121cb7dn6cc6b0831f1249bc@mail.gmail.com> Popular Mechanics Analyzes the Candidates http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/air_space/4260504.html I suppose I should not stand on a political soap box - BUT - if you live in the USA you in the middle of much political debate. Where NASA and the thought of going to the Moon, Mars, and Beyond is going will be tempered by what is happening in the real world, both local and global. The Popular Mechanics article has some links where you may choose to add your 2 cents worth to the candidates. Will be interesting to see what will be left to look up at after the elections. The return on investment may well need to contribute to solving the energy crises. Maybe someone will come up with a way to send a mechanical spider to space that can spin a solar net that will capture the energy from the Sun and space and know how to repair itself when hit by space debris. You too may be able to catch some rays. Thanks for looking up with me. Larry Kellogg Web Site: http://lkellogg.vttoth.com/LarryRussellKellogg/ BlogSpot: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/ RSS link: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/atom.xml Newsletter: https://news.altair.com/mailman/listinfo/lunar-update Trying to figure out where the time goes. --- http://twitter.com/CdrLuna ============================================================== http://actionforspace.blogspot.com/2008/04/popular-mechanics-analyzes-candidates.html Thursday, April 24, 2008 Popular Mechanics Analyzes the Candidates Popular Mechanics systematically exposes that all 3 presidential candidates are soft on space. McCain will freeze the budget, Hillary focuses on a ensuring expensive government capability to do what COTS is trying to do, and Obama is stately against expensive and dangerous human spaceflight. snip ============================================================== http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/air_space/4260504.html How Clinton, Obama and McCain Could Change U.S. Space Policy: Geek the Vote Guest Analysis snip The Bottom Line For voters already behind NASA's targeted human spaceflight, don't get your hopes up?none of the three major candidates are likely to fund the current plan, because they'll all face the budgetary pressures impliedby an aging population and a burgeoning federal deficit. snip ============================================================== http://www.spacepolitics.com/2008/04/14/the-coming-nasa-budget-crunch/ The coming NASA budget crunch April 14, 2008 at 8:01 am ? snip [The comments to the above post are interesting as well. - LRK -] ============================================================== WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK ============================================================== This is the lunar-update at news.altair.com https://news.altair.com/mailman/listinfo/lunar-update This list is a moderated list. The moderator is Larry Kellogg (larry.kellogg AT gmail.com ) Please send suggestions for postings directly to Larry. ============================================================== -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://news.altair.com/pipermail/lunar-update/attachments/20080425/c6e2e983/attachment.htm