Japan probe approaches moon; who's next?

Nice collection of images and thought provoking paragraphs at CNET.com
See links below.
- LRK -

Mark Gray of Spacecraft films posted a link to short video clip they put
together for remembering 50 years in space.
Needs Quicktime 7 H.264 codec which there is a link to Apple.com to down
load if you don't have.
See link below.
- LRK -

Natasha Dantzig for the TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design)
Conference dropped me a line alerting me to a new talk that they have up
on their web site by Carolyn Porco about her ongoing work at the Cassini
Imaging Central Laboratory for Operations (CICLOPs).  Exciting times.
You may enjoy.
http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/178

See Natasha's note below.  Also you may like to look at the many other
TED/Talks at this list.
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/list

BOY ARE WE EXCITED!

Thanks for looking up with me.
- LRK -

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
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http://www.news.com/2300-11397_3-6211234-1.html?tag=nefd.also
Japan probe approaches moon; who's next?
October 4, 2007 12:01 PM PDT

The Kaguya spacecraft, aka Selene, was launched September 14 by the
Japanese Space Agency and is expected to reach lunar orbit Thursday.
This is the first of many planned trips to the moon by a new cast of
space explorers.

China is expected to launch its first lunar exploration satellite later
this month; India has plans for a moon launch in April 2008; the next
U.S. moon mission is slated for 2008; and Russia could be flying private
citizens around the moon and back as early as 2009. All of those
countries are making plans to land a spacecraft on the moon by
2012--with astronauts and cosmonauts to follow soon after. Reports say
Germany is also interested in joining the space community. Meanwhile,
Google is offering $30 million to encourage private teams to land a
rover on the moon by December 2012.

JAXA and the Japanese Broadcasting Corporation released the furthest
high-definition image of the earth (left)--from about 68,000 miles away.
It was taken by the Kaguya explorer from the halfway point of its
journey to the moon.

Click here for CNET News.com's special coverage celebrating the
anniversary of Sputnik's launch.

Captions by CNET News.com's Andy Smith

Credit: JAXA
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Mark Gray of www.spacecraftfilms posted a link on the
ProjectApollo@yahoogroups.com a
link to small piece he put together as a retrospective of the first 50
years in space.
- LRK -

50 Years of the Space Age
http://www.spacecraftfilms.com/index.asp?PageAction=Custom&ID=23

Snip
http://www.spacecraftfilms.com/

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/04/AR2007100401922.html
What Sputnik Launched
By Charles Krauthammer
Friday, October 5, 2007; Page A21

Fifty years ago this week, America was shaken out of technological
complacency by a beeping 180-pound aluminum ball orbiting overhead.
Sputnik was a shock because we had always assumed that Russia was
nothing but a big, lumbering and all-brawn bear. He could wear down the
Nazis and produce mountains of steel but had none of our savvy or
sophistication. Then one day we wake up and he has beaten us into space,
placing overhead the first satellite to orbit the Earth since God placed
the moon where it could give us lovely sailing tides.

At the time, all thoughts were about the Soviets overwhelming us
technologically. But the panic turned out to be unwarranted. Sputnik was
not subtle science. The Soviets were making up for their inability to
miniaturize nuclear warheads -- something that does require
sophistication -- by developing massive rockets. And they had managed to
develop one just massive enough to hurl a ball into Earth orbit.

We had no idea how lucky we were with Sputnik. The subsequent panic
turned out to be an enormous boon. The fear of falling behind the
Communists induced the federal government to pour a river of money into
science and math education. The result was a vast cohort of scientists
who gave us not only Apollo and the moon, but the sinews of the
information age -- for example, ARPA (established just months after
Sputnik) created ARPANET, which became the Internet -- that have ensured
American technological dominance to this day.

Snip

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/video/2007/10/02/VI2007100201937.html
Sputnik 50 Years Later
Snip
==============================================================
Hello Larry,

This is Natasha Dantzig for  the TED (Technology, Entertainment and
Design) Conference.

I'm writing to let you know that we've just released a new talk by
Carolyn Porco in which you may have an interest.

Below you'll find the link to her TEDTalk, as well as a talk
summary and a speaker bio. I'm contacting you because we occasionally
reach out to specific bloggers when we see an intersect between the
topics of our releases and the subject matter covered in your blog.
As such, we're providing these links for your review and consideration
for blogging purposes.

Many thanks for your consideration, and please don't hesitate to get
in touch with me directly if you need more information.

Best,
Natasha

TEDTalk Details:

TALK: http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/178

BIO: http://www.ted.com/speakers/view/id/160

About this Talk

Planetary scientist Carolyn Porco says, "I'm going to take you on a
journey." And does she ever. Showing breathtaking images from the
Cassini voyage to Saturn, she focuses on Saturn's intriguing largest
moon, Titan,with deserts, mudflats and puzzling lakes, and on frozen
Enceladus, which seems to shoot jets of ice.

BIO
Planetary scientist Carolyn Porco studies and interprets the photos from
the Cassini-Huygens mission, orbiting Saturn and its largest moon,
Titan. She and a team of scientists from NASA and the European Space
Agency have been analyzing the images that Cassini has been sending back
since it left Earth in 1999. They've found many new rings and four new
moons (so far). And they've produced breathtaking images and animations
of the stormy face of Saturn, its busy rings, and its jumble of moons
and moonlets.

Back in the mid-1980s, while still working on her doctorate, Porco was
drafted onto a team at JPL that was crunching the mountains of data
coming back from the Voyager fly-by of Saturn. Her work on the planet's
"ringlets," and on a spoke pattern noticed in the rings, made an
important connection between Saturn's rings and its magnetic field --
and cemented her connection with Saturn.

Her ongoing work at the Cassini Imaging Central Laboratory for
Operations (CICLOPs) has two goals: to process and interpret the Cassini
images for other scientists, and to make sure the images -- in all their
breathtaking poetry and mystery and sheer Save-Image-As-Desktop
awesomeness -- connect with the general public. She is an advocate for
the exploration and understanding of planetary space, and her frequent
talks (as well as her "Captain's Log" memos on the CICLOPS website)
speak to everyone, scientist and nonscientist alike.

--
Natasha Dantzig
t: (212) 260-3707
c: (415) 425-6378
Snip
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WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK

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