I know, it is TV, but still, an interesting program that shows how mathematics can be useful, well if you are a math genius. :-)
http://www.cbs.com/primetime/
At the same time I am watching on my laptop the live TV of the STS-129 crew and the those on the ISS with a Bluetooth wireless headset so as not to bother others.
This has been from launch to docking to working on EVAs.
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_
http://www.nasa.gov/
http://tinyurl.com/ykh2hb8 for Plantronics
Then there is Google's new Wave where a YouTube of NASA TV live has been made available to those that have received invitations to the pre-Beta release of Wave.
https://wave.google.com/wave/#
And a Wave that has useful links for the STS-129 mission.
https://wave.google.com/wave/#
We now have intelligent cell phones where you can send pictures, use GPS navigation, play games, search the Internet, and even call a friend by way of voice or text.
http://www.verizonwireless.
http://www.wireless.att.com/
http://pocketpccentral.net/
http://reviews.cnet.com/
Missions are now taking place at our nearest neighbor, the Moon or have recently ended.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/
http://news.cnet.com/8301-
http://www.kaguya.jaxa.jp/
http://www.astrobio.net/
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/
And of course there have been and are deep space probes.
http://www.vttoth.com/probes/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
http://www.nasa.gov/missions/
Now when do we as Earth bound citizens learn to live off world and establish a human presence?
http://lkellogg.vttoth.com/
http://www.lpi.usra.edu/
http://www.nss.org/settlement/
Thanks for looking up with me.
Larry Kellogg
Web Site: http://lkellogg.vttoth.com/
BlogSpot: http://kelloggserialreports.
RSS link: http://kelloggserialreports.
Newsletter: https://news.altair.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/lrkellogg
Google Wave Invite info: http://mashable.com/2009/09/
http://www.googlewaveinvite.
https://services.google.com/
http://www.googlewaveinvite.
==============================================================
http://writings.mike-combs.com/deaddebr.htm
Deadly Debris
By Mike Combs
mikecombs@aol.com
Copyright © 1995
In a low Earth orbit, a glove slowly tumbled in the brilliant sunshine. The glove's career as a tiny artificial satellite of the earth began on the day an astronaut of the early American space program had neglected to keep up with it. While the spacewalker was distracted with other matters, the glove had decided to venture out of the space capsule. By the time he took note of this, it had drifted beyond his reach.
The orbiting item of apparel had even deserved mention in books and magazine articles as an example of the kind of objects Space Command could track with its space-scanning radars. The glove dutifully returned every radar signal bounced up to it. As it rounded the blue-and-white globe below, it was privy to the kind of view which had never failed to deeply move the humans who had made it. The glove alternately warmed in the unimpeded rays of the sun and chilled in the shadow of the Earth as it progressed through innumerable ninety-minute days.
On this day, however, its circular journeys were coming to an end. The glove's path was intersecting with that of a defunct Russian weather satellite. It hit the bulky space platform almost dead-on with a velocity which would have made a rifle bullet seem a dawdler. The metal and plastic structure erupted with myriad pieces of debris. Mere minutes later, that swarm of fragments began slamming into the abandoned lower stage of a rocket launched over a decade ago. The giant cylinder pitched about crazily before being riddled and then disintegrated by the densest part of the swarm. It added its particles to the rapidly-moving cloud of space junk, and now the swarm was more dangerous still. Satellites, both functional and long disused, fell to the rapid attack and in turn became part of the Kamikaze assault themselves. Like a splitting nucleus which split other nuclei which split still more in an out-of-control nuclear chain reaction, the belt of speeding debris grew and spread along its orbit, devastating everything in its path.
* * *
snip
==============================================================
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-sci-moon14-2009nov14,0,2036369.story
'The moon is alive,' NASA says after water discovery
The mission that plunged a rocket into the moon's surface last month detected about 25 gallons of water in the form of vapor and ice --enough to inspire hope for a lunar colony.
Scientists have found "significant" amounts of water in a crater at the moon's south pole, a major discovery that will dramatically revise the characterization of the moon as a dead world and likely make it a more attractive destination for future human space missions.
"The moon is alive," declared Anthony Colaprete, the chief scientist for the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite mission.
snip
==============================================================
http://www.orbitaldebris.jsc.nasa.gov/index.html
NASA Orbital Debris Program Office
The NASA Orbital Debris Program Office, located at the Johnson Space Center, is the lead NASA center for orbital debris research. It is recognized world-wide for its initiative in addressing orbital debris issues. The NASA Orbital Debris Program Office has taken the international lead in conducting measurements of the environment and in developing the technical consensus for adopting mitigation measures to protect users of the orbital environment. Work at the Center
continues with developing an improved understanding of the orbital debris environment and measures that can be taken to control debris growth.
snip
Deadly Debris
By Mike Combs
mikecombs@aol.com
Copyright © 1995
In a low Earth orbit, a glove slowly tumbled in the brilliant sunshine. The glove's career as a tiny artificial satellite of the earth began on the day an astronaut of the early American space program had neglected to keep up with it. While the spacewalker was distracted with other matters, the glove had decided to venture out of the space capsule. By the time he took note of this, it had drifted beyond his reach.
The orbiting item of apparel had even deserved mention in books and magazine articles as an example of the kind of objects Space Command could track with its space-scanning radars. The glove dutifully returned every radar signal bounced up to it. As it rounded the blue-and-white globe below, it was privy to the kind of view which had never failed to deeply move the humans who had made it. The glove alternately warmed in the unimpeded rays of the sun and chilled in the shadow of the Earth as it progressed through innumerable ninety-minute days.
On this day, however, its circular journeys were coming to an end. The glove's path was intersecting with that of a defunct Russian weather satellite. It hit the bulky space platform almost dead-on with a velocity which would have made a rifle bullet seem a dawdler. The metal and plastic structure erupted with myriad pieces of debris. Mere minutes later, that swarm of fragments began slamming into the abandoned lower stage of a rocket launched over a decade ago. The giant cylinder pitched about crazily before being riddled and then disintegrated by the densest part of the swarm. It added its particles to the rapidly-moving cloud of space junk, and now the swarm was more dangerous still. Satellites, both functional and long disused, fell to the rapid attack and in turn became part of the Kamikaze assault themselves. Like a splitting nucleus which split other nuclei which split still more in an out-of-control nuclear chain reaction, the belt of speeding debris grew and spread along its orbit, devastating everything in its path.
* * *
snip
==============================
http://www.latimes.com/news/
'The moon is alive,' NASA says after water discovery
The mission that plunged a rocket into the moon's surface last month detected about 25 gallons of water in the form of vapor and ice --enough to inspire hope for a lunar colony.
Scientists have found "significant" amounts of water in a crater at the moon's south pole, a major discovery that will dramatically revise the characterization of the moon as a dead world and likely make it a more attractive destination for future human space missions.
"The moon is alive," declared Anthony Colaprete, the chief scientist for the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite mission.
snip
==============================
http://www.orbitaldebris.jsc.
NASA Orbital Debris Program Office
The NASA Orbital Debris Program Office, located at the Johnson Space Center, is the lead NASA center for orbital debris research. It is recognized world-wide for its initiative in addressing orbital debris issues. The NASA Orbital Debris Program Office has taken the international lead in conducting measurements of the environment and in developing the technical consensus for adopting mitigation measures to protect users of the orbital environment. Work at the Center
continues with developing an improved understanding of the orbital debris environment and measures that can be taken to control debris growth.
snip
=========================================================
WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK
=======================================================
