January 3, 2007: Another meteor shower, another bunch of lunar impacts...

A day late and a shower short - once again I don't know what hit us or the
Moon.

Just bits of rock out there waiting for us to plow through the debris.
If they aren't hitting us we are hitting them.
- LRK -

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http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2007/03jan_lunargeminids.htm
January 3, 2007: Another meteor shower, another bunch of lunar impacts...

"On Dec. 14, 2006, we observed at least five Geminid meteors hitting the
Moon," reports Bill Cooke of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office in
Huntsville, AL. Each impact caused an explosion ranging in power from 50 to
125 lbs of TNT and a flash of light as bright as a 7th-to-9th magnitude
star.

The explosions occurred while Earth and Moon were passing through a cloud of
debris following near-Earth asteroid 3200 Phaethon. This happens every year
in mid-December and gives rise to the annual Geminid meteor shower: Streaks
of light fly across the sky as rocky chips of Phaethon hit Earth's
atmosphere. It's a beautiful display.

Snip
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While watching the news this morning they showed a video of streaks in the
sky from meteors or space debris.  Impressive.  No holes in my roof, so no
worry.  They seldom hit you unless it is your car parked out front.
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap021118.html
- LRK -

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http://www.kodiakdailymirror.com/?pid=19&id=4210
Look northeast to catch falling star tonight
Article published on Wednesday, January 3rd, 2007
By SCOTT CHRISTIANSEN
Mirror Writer

Clear skies are expected over Kodiak tonight. That's good news for
stargazers as Earth's orbit is in the midst of an annual crossing of a band
of rock, ice and dust known as the Quadrantid meteors.

Quadrantids put on a notoriously short show, one most astronomers say peaks
with just about four to six hours of action.

"Meteor showers are actually bands of debris that orbit the sun," Denver,
Colo. astronomer Larry Sessions said, "In the case of the Quadrantids, we
pass through on a perpendicular path."

Sessions' prediction for the peak viewing time falls at 4 p.m. Alaska
Standard Time. Kodiakans could catch the tail end of the Quadrantids' peak
over two to three hours following tonight's 4:37 sunset. Stargazers should
look northeast for a chance to see the show.

Local resident Carolyn Heitman reported two meteors sighted early Tuesday
morning. Heitman said she awoke at about 4:30 and got out of bed for a glass
of water, eventually deciding on water, chocolate and a bit of stargazing.

She saw two distinct streaks across the sky bright enough to be visible even
with city lights and the full moon.

"Of course they were passing over Earth, but they were in that area where it
looked like they were passing right over Pillar Mountain," Heitman said.

Sessions said it's possible, but not likely, that Heitman saw the first of
the Quadrantids arriving.
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WHAT, ME WORRY, WHAT I DON'T KNOW ABOUT CAN'T HURT ME --- RIGHT!

What I don't know about, can't hurt me, hurt me.

Here we have a cushion of air to help slow the missiles.  Best prepare for
an exciting time on the Moon or your orbiting home away from home.  Would
help to know what is out there and a personal force field might be nice too.

And GOOGLE says to [meteor protection force field] ---
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http://www.buddhistinformation.com/a_protective_force_field_emitted.htm

http://quest.nasa.gov/lunar/outpostchallenge/prelim/jamison.html

http://abob.libs.uga.edu/bobk/meteor.html

http://www.kitsune.addr.com/Rifts/Rifts-PW-Vehicles/Elven_Celebrimbor_Cruiser.htm

http://www.dcmstarships.com/site%20map.html

Snip
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Hmmmm. Need to work on that force field.  Looks like there would be a good market
for one.
- 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://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ned=&q=meteor+shower+denver&ie=UTF-8
Key words search - meteor shower Denver -
- LRK -
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http://cbs4denver.com/topstories/local_story_004101829.html
Meteor Shower Or Space Junk Fly Across Denver Sky
cbs4denver.com, CO - 1 hour ago
(CBS4) DENVER Brilliant streaks of light raced across the sky over Denver
Thursday morning as either a meteor shower or space junk entered the Earth's
...

http://www.myfoxcolorado.com/myfox/pages/News/Detail?contentId=1961501&version=2&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=TSTY&pageId=3.2.1
Watch Spectacular Video of A Meteor Shower
My Fox Colorado.com, CO - 2 hours ago
DENVER -- Here is something you do not get to see everyday. Absolutely
amazing video of a meteor shower in the predawn sky. ...
Spectacular Video of A Meteor My Fox Colorado.com
all 3 news articles >

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5256178,00.html
Meteors light up morning sky, or was it something else?
Rocky Mountain News, CO - 50 minutes ago
Chris Peterson, an astronomer and research associate with the Denver Museum
of Nature and Science, told CBS 4 News the event was most likely a meteor
shower.
Bright meteor a sight for Coloradans The Coloradoan
all 2 news articles >
Look northeast to catch falling star tonight
Kodiak Daily Mirror, AK - 16 hours ago
The Quadrantid shower is one of the strongest meteor showers of the year,
producing between 50 and 120 meteors per hour. One report from 1909 recorded
200 ...

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http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/lunar-impact/
============ ========= ======
IMPACT ALERT 4 JANUARY 2007
============ ========= ======
Go to:
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2007/03jan_lunargeminids.htm
for more details (I am stressing this part: "Soon,
they plan to release software that will help amateur
astronomers see these explosions for themselves")

The next earthshine campaign runs from January 9 to
16, and any interested parties are encouraged to
participate on at least one or two of these mornings
(yes...they are predawn). I will probably only have
time for a handful myself, but if we can get many
doing a night or two, we can easily cover the
interval...

So far 5 lunar geminid impacts have been reported. I
have not yet checked my videotape from the morning of
the 14th and may not have a chance until after I
return from the American Astronomical Society /
American Association of Physics Teachers conference in
Seattle, Washington 5 to 10 January.

What follows are the times of impact from lunar
Geminids, each occurring on 14 December. The number in
parenthesis after the UT is the magnitude of the
impact candidate. 8:12:40 (TBD), 8:50:36 (8.5),
8:56:43 (TBD), 9:03:33 (TBD), 10:56:42 (8.7), 11:28:08
(7.5). If you happened to have videotaped the moon
during the Geminid run, please check your tapes...I
was videotaping during part of this time.

Cheers...Brian Cudnik

Snip
==============================================================
http://www2.jpl.nasa.gov/calendar/#0701
Snip
# Jan 01 -Hot[Dec 28] International Lunar Decade Begins
# Jan 01 - Dwarf Planet Ceres Occults TYC 6388-00675-1 (11.6 Magnitude Star)
# Jan 01 - Asteroid 5143 Heracles Closest Approach To Earth (0.380 AU)
# Jan 02 - Comet P/2006 HR30 (Siding Spring) Perihelion (1.226 AU)
# Jan 02 - Asteroid 2006 UQ17 Near-Earth Flyby (0.029 AU)
# Jan 02 - Asteroid 2006 YD12 Near-Earth Flyby (0.092 AU)
# Jan 03 -Updated[Jan 02] Earth At Perihelion (0.983 AU From Sun)
http://www.space.com/spacewatch/301206_happy_perihelion.html
# Jan 03 - Quadrantids Meteor Shower Peak
http://comets.amsmeteors.org/meteors/showers/quadrantids.html
# Jan 03-06 - Chapman Conference on Mid-latitude Ionospheric Dynamics and
Disturbances, Yosemite National Park, California
http://www.agu.org/meetings/cc07acall.html
# Jan 04 - Comet C/2005 EL173 (LONEOS) Closest Approach To Earth (3.310 AU)
# Jan 04 - Asteroid 3 Juno Occults TYC 4972-00313-1 (10.6 Magnitude Star)
# Jan 04 - Asteroid 2001 YE4 Near-Earth Flyby (0.033 AU)
# Jan 04 - Asteroid 7853 Confucius Closest Approach To Earth (1.662 AU)
# Jan 04 - Wilhelm Beer's 210th Birthday (1797)
Snip
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WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK

==============================================================

Year of the Moon: China, Japan Ready Lunar Probes for 2007

Sounds fitting.  Larry Klaes passed these two notes from space.com and I'll
pass along.
- LRK -

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Year of the Moon: China, Japan Ready Lunar Probes for 2007

A renewal of robotic lunar exploration is ready for liftoff in 2007 - and
not by the United States. This year, China is set to launch its first lunar
orbiter, followed by the summer sendoff of a mega-powerful mooncraft from
Japan.

http://www.space.com/news/070102_asia_moonprobes.html


Full Moon Names for 2007

Full Moon names date back to Native Americans, of what is now the northern
and eastern United States. Those tribes of a few hundred years ago kept
track of the seasons by giving distinctive names to each recurring full
Moon. Their names were applied to the entire month in which each occurred.

http://www.space.com/spacewatch/061229_moonnames2007.html
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Where you are you probably have names for the full moons too.

We have been looking up at the moon and marking the completion of cycle
after cycle.  Strange that the rising marked a different spot on the horizon
that marched back and forth as the year marched on. 

As you thought about that you also noted the Sun rose at different spots on
the horizon each day.  Why was that?  There was that itch you got in your
head that made you question and search for answers to where we were and what
was our place in the Universe.

How would that itch change if you were on the Moon looking out into space?
- LRK -

Here is another link from L. Klaes.  Thanks much.
- LRK -

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Sputnik 4 Crashed Here

Manitowoc, Wisconsin

The galleries of the Rahr-West Art Museum contain paintings by Georgia
O'Keeffe, Picasso, and Andy Warhol. They also contain a piece not even the
Met or the Getty or the Louvre can equal -- a piece of space junk. It's not
here because it's art. It's here because it crashed right outside.

Full article with images and road map here:

http://www.roadsideamerica.com/sights/sightstory.php?tip_AttrId=%3D12959
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When I read the above I thought about how little we value the events in
history when they happen and it isn't until later that we recognize what has
happened.  Pioneer 10 leaves the solar system, we toss the data, sputnik
crashes with a piece landing in the street and is kicked into the gutter.

Don't feel bad if you make history and it isn't recognized, but do it
anyway. 

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
==============================================================
In our discussions on how to interest folks in building for living in space
you can do brain storming and just throw out ideas with no fear of reprisal
for those that don't work.  Creative ideas may show themselves.

You can also look at what motivated folks in the past to leave their homes
to strike out for new lands.  The human has been an adaptive animal which
has helped when things got rough.  Looking for food and shelter may be the
most important thing on your mind if you don't have the necessities.

If you are secure, then there is room for innovative ideas to excel.
Recognizing where you are in your ladder of needs can help in deciding what
course to take.
- LRK -

http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/maslow.html
Maslow hierarchy of needs.
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A New Year and time to reflect and maybe, if too much bubbly - LRK -


The weather changed,
the mountains rose,
Out Of Africa we see.

The potatoes rotted,
a new home for those who were left.

The seas rose, the atoll is soon under, chip away at
that log, we are going to a new island.

The ore field, a result of direct hit, is being
depleted, best we launch to find a new asteroid and
pick away at it before it picks at us.

Life is getting a bit crazy, let us take the
inflatable to a new height, maybe we can add it to the
new colony we see up there.

What are my options in this New Year, 2007, aaah, here
is to looking up.

Larry Kellogg
http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/

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WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK

==============================================================

Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) mission - Launch Date: October 31, 2008
http://lunar.gsfc.nasa.gov/missions/

Happy New Year.  I know, it is 2007, not 2008, BUT, I think someone said,
"WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK".

Many folks have enjoyed looking at the down loaded images of Mars and
through the Internet have participated in missions with spacecraft in orbit
and rovers on the surface.

Soon we will have some more images of the Moon to add to those of the
Clementine mission and those from earlier orbiters and the Apollo images.

So it should be an interesting year as we get closer to launching LRO.

Will Congress continue to fund, will the public care, will you be
interested, will I still be typing?

All those questions, see should be an interesting year, YES?
- LRK -

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http://lunar.gsfc.nasa.gov/missions/
MISSION OVERVIEW

The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) mission emphasizes the overall
objective of obtaining data that will facilitate returning humans safely to
the Moon and enable extended stays.

Snip

LAUNCH
+ Launch Date: October 31, 2008
+ Launch Vehicle: Atlas 401
+ Launch Site: Kennedy Space Center

NASA announced the award of launch services for the LRO mission to Lockheed
Martin Commercial Launch Services Inc. The spacecraft are scheduled for
launch aboard an Atlas V 401 rocket at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station
during a launch window that opens on Oct. 31, 2008.
http://lunar.gsfc.nasa.gov/missions/launch.html

Snip
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So what is in your mind?
What do you believe?
What do you want to see achieved?

Let me ask, what gets you churned up in your gut enough to talk to someone
else about what you want to see happen with our leaving LEO?

What do you really want me to report on?
If I get to far a field, what would cause you to leave me talking to myself?

I want this to be an exciting year that makes life interesting.

Your ideas are greatly appreciated and I thank all of you that have sent me
material over the years.  This is your lunar-update list.
- 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
==============================================================
The NSS website in the settlements section http://www.nss.org/settlement/ is
being worked on and I have been reading emails from a growing group of
volunteers.  Having added my 2 cents worth, Gordon sent me a reply, which I
would like to share with you.
- LRK -
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Larry,

The first thousands to at least a few millions of space settlers will
probably take up residence on the Moon or Mars; being close to the
resources is important until a substantial space economy exists.  In
the long run, the ability of the solar system to support humans is
probably pretty large.  As O'Neill pointed out, pressurized
structures are much more economic of resources than planetary bodies
in terms of tons of stuff per human life supported.  But it will
require a big space industry to make these things.  The resources are
plentiful.  There is at least one large asteroid in the asteroid
belt, Kleopatra, which is "about the size of the state of New Jersey"
and it's believed to be mostly nickel-iron.  That one asteroid has
enough metals to build hundreds to thousands of O'Neill-type
settlement vessels.  Where we find enough nitrogen to fill them with
breathable air is an interesting question (oxygen is, of course,
plentiful).  Oxygen condenses in the form of oxide-containing
minerals, i.e. rocks.   So there's lots everywhere.   Nitrogen
doesn't, it's a volatile.  There is probably lots of nitrogen in
cometary bodies in the outer solar system, but that's a long way to
go to get it.  It has been estimated that there are enough resources
in the asteroid belt (with the possible exception of nitrogen) to
build settlements that could support "hundreds of times Earth's
population".

The economics issues attendant to making this real are very complex
and I don't think anyone understands them yet.

I think a real settlement of only thousands, especially if growing,
would excite a lot of people about the possibility of going.  How
many people play basketball for the NBA?  On the order of hundreds, I
think.  How many kids are motivated to play street and gym basketball
by the possibility, slim but real, that they could someday make it?
The problem with today's space program is that the astronaut corps
tends to be seen as an elite almost impossible to break into.

Gordon W.

p.s.  Please feel free to forward to anyone on your list that would
be genuinely interested.  My ISP won't let me send an email to a long
list, as they are trying to control spam.


On Dec 31, 2006, at 17:40 , Larry Kellogg wrote:

> Larry Kellogg here.
> PLease use larry.kellogg @ gmail.com
> as the SBC account will bounce shortly with an ISP
> change.
>
> To the discussion, I think part of the problem with
> getting a lot of people interested in any space
> settlement is that there won't be that many
> opportunities for them to go to one.
>
> In the little town of Tracy California there are
> 74,000 residents and 4 years ago there were 70,000.
> When you talk about a structure or place that will
> only hold 10,000 and cost a bundle to get there, you
> sort of pass over the idea with little thought.
>
> The idea that it is the emotions that move us fits.
> Now how do you "MOVE" someone to act for someone else
> who just MIGHT move off world to a rotating structure
> in the sky/space?
>
> The length of time it has taken to build the ISS is
> not encouraging either if you want to translate that
> into figuring out how long it would take you to build
> a structure in space.
>
> Maybe upcoming inflatable rooms in the sky will let
> folks know that you could make and inflatable MOTEL in
> the sky and from there SEE that you could build
> something to live in as well.
>
> Those folks that are in the Navy, manning submarines
> that stay under water for 90 days at a time, could
> tell you what it is like to live in isolation.
>
> So what would cause you to move to a city in the sky?
>
> The answer to that question would be items worth
> promoting.
>
> Larry


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WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK

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