Thursday, January 24, 2008

Space Update I

Since I read so much space news, I'm going to condense my blogs on space stories into one post, unless something large happens that prompts it's own post. Enjoy : )

SpaceShipTwo: Mark Two

Being the space enthusiast I am, I'm obligated to report on this story. On 23 January, Virgin Galactic and Scaled Composites released their new design for SpaceShipTwo. I have to admit, given it is a complete reversal from their original design that remained true to SpaceShipOne, this new design is quite sleek and sexy from my standpoint.

It still will carry 6 paying passengers on a two and a half hour flight with nearly 5 minutes of weightlessness. They expect to construct two launch craft, White Knight Two, and up to 40 SpaceShipTwo's, a veritable fleet. Test flights are expected to start this June, with the first commercial flights starting sometime next year.

As Richard Branson said, "2008 will be the year of the spaceship."



Martian Sasquatch?

You decide. This photo was taken from the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit earlier this month.

This image has been significantly enlarged. The reddish blue object below the "Sasquatch" is a rock that is probably quite small in reality. I've looked at the larger image at NASA's JPL website, but I was unable to see it. There are some people now suggesting that it could be a Danish mermaid.
NASA has yet to comment, but I have a solution to solve this, it's out there, but it just might work. Take another picture.
Large Asteroid to Pass Earth

Interesting how the most threatening story in this post ended up at the bottom. Asteroid 2007 TU24 will pass nearly 334,000 miles from Earth on 29 January. The object is comparable in size to several football fields and will be visible to those with small satellites.

To fully realize how close this asteroid pass will be, the Moon orbits at about 240,000 miles. This will be the closest asteroid pass of such a large rock until 2027, unless something is discovered between now and then.
Objects this size are estimated to hit Earth every 37,000 years or so.
This should make for an interesting target for amateur astronomers out there.

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