The Ultimate Spaceship Face-off

If you're a Star Trek, Star Wars, Dr. Who, or science fiction aficionado, you may like this interactive chart.

Author, Chris Kirk over at Slate has created a "highly speculative search for the fastest ship in science fiction" by comparing the speeds of the Star Trek Enterprise NCC-1701, Star Wars' Millennium Falcon, the TARDIS from Doctor Who, the Heart of Gold from Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, the Jupiter 2 from Lost in Space, and even our very own Voyager 1 from NASA.

Kirk gives a very detailed account of his research in reference to each ship; You will find this by clicking on the image to the right, where you can set a course for the Alpha Centauri, Galactic Center, or Andromeda Galaxy.  

Surprisingly, what may take the Enterprise decades to reach, the Millennium Falcon can reach in hours, the TARDIS in just seconds.

The Sun As You've Never Seen It Before!

This video is pretty darn amazing.  I love science, the planets, and Star Trek!!!  LOL.  Seriously though, NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory put this together and it's absolutely stunning.

About the video - "This extraordinary video looks back on the 3rd year of operation of NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory. Since its launch in 2010, SDO's data and imagery have exceeded everyone's hopes and expectations, providing stunningly detailed views of the sun. The observatory has continued to return breathtaking pictures and movies of eruptive events on the sun. These images are more than just pretty. By highlighting different wavelengths of light, scientists can track how material on the sun moves. Such movement, in turn, holds clues as to what causes these giant explosions."

WTF Has Obama Done? - Issue No. 008 - Scientific and Medical Research

Okay, okay, I didn't post an issue of "WTF Has Obama Done?" yesterday, but it was the Superbowl and Madonna at half-time, can you really blame me? LOL.  There's going to be days I'll probably miss "here and there," because of personal events in my life, but I will continue posting them until election day, I promise.

In the last 7 issues I brought up the top 7 most important issues concerning Americans today - Civil Rights, Health Care, Immigration, our Military, Taxes, the Economy, and Foreign Policy.  I listed all of our President's achievements in regard to his broad policies and targeted actions for each topic.  I included an excerpt from each reference and listed the sources for each.

In today's issue I will cover 3 of the President's broad policies concerning Scientific and Medical Research.

WTF-20

Removed restrictions and provided support for embryonic stem-cell research and new biomedical research.

Pledging that his administration will “make scientific decisions based on facts, not ideology,” President Obama on Monday lifted the Bush administration’s strict limits on human embryonic stem cell research. [Reference-1]

"I believe that the restrictions that President Bush has placed on funding of human embryonic stem cell research have handcuffed our scientists and hindered our ability to compete with other nations. As president, I will lift the current administration’s ban on federal funding of research on embryonic stem cell lines created after August 9, 2001 through executive order ... .." [Reference-2]

"In recent years, when it comes to stem cell research, rather than furthering discovery, our government has forced what I believe is a false choice between sound science and moral values," Obama said at the White House.   In this case, I believe the two are not inconsistent. As a person of faith, I believe we are called to care for each other and work to ease human suffering. I believe we have been given the capacity and will to pursue this research -- and the humanity and conscience to do so responsibly." [Reference-3]

Launching a dramatic expansion of government support for one of the most promising but most contentious fields of biomedical research, the National Institutes of Health on Wednesday authorized the first 13 lines of cells under the administration's policy...[Reference-4]

WTF-21

Extended the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, and in order to establish an advisory council on science, technology, and innovation, it is hereby ordered as follows:

The President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) is hereby established. The PCAST shall be composed of not more than 21 members, one of whom shall be the Assistant to the President for Science and Technology (the ‘‘Science Advisor’’), and 20 of whom shall include distinguished individuals and representatives from sectors outside of the Federal Government appointed by the President. These nonfederal members shall have diverse perspectives and expertise in science, technology, and innovation. The Science Advisor shall serve as a Co-Chair of the PCAST. The President shall also designate at least one, but not more than two, of the nonfederal members to serve as a Co-Chair of the PCAST with the Science Advisor. [Reference-1, Reference-2]

President Barack Obama said, "This council represents leaders from many scientific disciplines who will bring a diversity of experience and views. I will charge PCAST with advising me about national strategies to nurture and sustain a culture of scientific innovation."

PCAST will be co-chaired by John Holdren, Assistant to the President for Science and Technology and Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy; Eric Lander, Director of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard and one of the principal leaders of the Human Genome Project; and Harold Varmus, President and CEO of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, former head of the National Institutes of Health and a Nobel laureate. [Reference-3]

WTF-22

Supported Landsat Data Continuity Mission to enhance earth mapping.

Landsat is a satellite program, jointly run by NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey, that has been used for climate research, natural resources management, land development, public safety, homeland security and disaster recovery. It has operated for more than 25 years, with two satellites — Landsat-5, launched in 1984, and Landsat-7, launched in 1999 — still in orbit. But they are operating beyond their planned life and are subject to failure.

To ensure that the program survives, NASA and USGS are developing the Landsat Data Continuity Mission, or LDCM, which is planning to launch a spacecraft in December 2012, according to the Congressional Research Service.  [Reference]

As promised, I will come back to this topic in another issue.  Please make sure to read Issue No. 009 as I continue with WTF-23
Posted daily or weekly on BLADE 7184 until Election Day!

Final Images of the Space Shuttle Atlantis Flight Deck

Well, the stripping has started for the Space Shuttle Atlantis.  The shuttle will be stripped of it's interior to make it lighter for it's public display at The Kennedy Space Center.  On July 8, the Space Shuttle flew it's final mission which also concluded NASA's 30-year program.  At that time, I posted a video of the Space Shuttles' illustrious career. Feel free to check it out.

The lovely folks at collectSPACE were were able to take final images of the Space Shuttle's flight deck, airlock, bay, and a few with the engines out and wheels down.

According to collectSPACE, it is now being prepared for its public display at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida. Its insides being pulled out to ensure it is safe for exhibit, as well as significantly lighten it for its planned steep-angled display, Atlantis is scheduled to be powered down this week for the final time.

collectSPACE had the rare opportunity recently to tour Atlantis to photograph its preparation and capture its glass cockpit powered and lit for one of its last times.

The following photo gallery starts on Atlantis' flight deck, and then proceeds to its now mostly empty middeck, out into and above the 60-foot payload bay, and then around and under the winged spacecraft.

These photographs were taken inside Orbiter Processing Facility-2 (OPF-2) at the Kennedy Space Center, where access platforms envelop Atlantis.

 

Make sure to check out collectSPACE's website to see the entire gallery.

Alien Worlds

According to Space.com, astronomers have discovered more than 700 alien planets beyond the solar system, and the count is rising all the time. Some are large and hot, and others are smaller and cooler, but scientists are still on the lookout for an Earth twin.

They just got closer, with the announcement Dec. 5 of a planet found by NASA's Kepler space telescope to lie in the habitable zone around its star where liquid water, and perhaps life, could exist.

click on picture to visit space.com

One Giant Leap For Mankind

On Friday I blogged about the last space shuttle mission that occurred on July 8th, and the lasting impact it has left on all of us. It was an era in space exploration that spanned over 3 decades.

Today, I bring you a video courtesy of NPR.  It covers the Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, Atlantis, and Endeavour Space Shuttles, which flew a little over 100 missions in it's illustrious career - it really is a sight to behold.

"Let's Light This Fire One More Time"

Sadly, yesterday's successful launched marked the last shuttle flight for the NASA program.  

In what spanned 3 decades, it is constant reminder of how much our country has achieved in such a short amount of time.  

I have lived through these 30 years, and the stories I will share with my nieces and nephews will be beyond measure.  We have seen, happiness, we have seen tragedy, but through it all, we stuck together as one nation.  God Bless the USA.

From the Associated Press:

"Let's light this fire one more time," Commander Christopher Ferguson said just before taking flight.

The shuttle was visible for 42 seconds before disappearing into the clouds.

It will be at least three years - possibly five or more - before astronauts are launched again from U.S. soil, and so this final journey of the shuttle era packed in crowds and roused emotions on a scale not seen since the Apollo moon shots. NASA has set of long-term goal of flying to an asteroid and eventually Mars.

"Take a deep breath. Enjoy a little time here with your families again. But we've got a lot of work to do. We've got another program that we've got to get under way," NASA Administrator Charles Bolden told the launch control team after Atlantis reached orbit. He added: "We know what we're doing. We know how to get there. We've just got to convince everybody else that we know what we're doing."