Hi, my name is AronSora and this is the Carnival of Space #161.
Quick Version:
1: Astroblog; Music, Moons and a Partial Eclipse
2: Astroblog; Ian's Guide to Photographing Iridium Flares
3: Urban Astronomer; What was the Star of Bethlehem?
4: Chandra Blog; A Black Hole Slingshot?
5: Music of the Spheres; Cité de l'Espace (Space City)
6: Collect Space; Rare rocket delivery: Gemini-Titan display arrives in Houston
7: (mp3) Cheap Astronomy; Favorite Shuttle Missions
8: Next Big Future; Diamond Methane Impact Nuclear Fusion
9: Weird Sciences; Surviving Alien Invasion: Filmmaker's Worst Nightmare
10: Next Big Future; Lawrence Livermore Simulating Viable Nuclear Bomb Asteroid Deflections
11: Rocket Scientist; RS Classic: Science faux pas (and my movie pet peeves)
12: Habitation Intention; Two Call for Papers
13: 21st Century Waves; How the Sun is Influencing Climate and the New Space Age
14: Universe Today; Graphite 'Whiskers' Found in Apollo Moon Rocks
15: Out of the Cradle; Review: "Platinum Moon"
16: A Babe in the Universe; Earthrise, Gusev Crater
17: The Space Writer's Ramblings; Planetary Habilitability
18: Weird Sciences; Hyperluminal Spaceship, Tachyons and Time Travel
19: Crowlspace; E-Eyes on the Cosmos
20: Centauri Dreams; Costs of an Interstellar Probe
21: Armagh Planetarium Blog; Alternative Space
22: (PDF, 41 Page E-Mag) Universities Space Research Association's Lunar and Planetary Institute; The Trouble with Titan
My Spotlight:
The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautic's Design/Fly/Build Competition
The Portal to the Universe
Inspired by the Sky
There are two Submissions are from Astroblog. The first article, Music, Moons and a Partial Eclipse, has this blogger running around and spreading the news about an upcoming lunar eclipse during a school concert night. The question is, will he have time after going to a restaurant to set up his cameras and record this event. Check out his blog to find out whether or not he got the shot and to read his other submission where he shares his knowledge about photographing the light reflected off of Iridium communication satellites.
Next up, we have the Urban Astronomer who tries to find what event caused the Star of Bethlehem. Was it a comet, a supernova, a planetary conjunction or divine intervention. You'll have to check out the article to find out!
The people who are lucky enough to operate the Chandra telescope have found a recoiling black hole. Basically, they saw a galaxy with multiple blackholes with one of the blackholes getting slung out of the galaxy at high speed. Nice work guys!!!
Celebrate Space History
FlyingSinger visits the Space City, an epic space museum. They have a full mock up of the MIR space station, stunning even this veteran space cadet with its size. Go forth to his site, and experience the epic.
The ninja reporters at Collect Space have documented the delivery of a Gemini-Titan rocket to NASA's Johnson Space Center, completing the story of local involvement in space told through the many rockets displayed. However, this rocket has suffered damage and, because it is so rare, will take some effort to fix everything. Check out the site to find out how the rocket is doing.
With the shuttle program winding down, The author of Cheap Astronomy and the senior editor of Universe Today reminiscence about their favorite shuttle missions. They recall the greatest moments and the times when they had to bite their nails. Take a trip down memory road, check out this interview!!
Space Cadets Who Ponder about the Future
Of course, to get to the future, we need to manage to survive and that will take a ton of energy. With oil running out, Next Big Future alerts us to a method to create nuclear energy by firing a diamond bullet into a methane crystal, overcoming many of the problems with fusion energy. Read the article if you want to learn more about this game changing technology.
Ever if we deal with our energy needs, an alien invasion will basically alienate the human race. The blogger at Weird Sciences gives ways the human race can survive, from an AI to rebuild after everything is gone to establishing stealthy space colonies, where there is a will, there is a way. Read the article, it could save your life if scifi becomes real.
The most realistic threat from space is not a bunch of aliens, but asteroids. However, just like the movies, we could just nuke the problem away. Can't we?... But would it work? Won't it just create smaller pieces of flaming death! Read about the asteroid nuke simulation over at Next Big Future!
Unfortunately, space won't be like the movies, the Rocket Scientist explains all the contradictions with physics most scifis have.
Leave Earth?
My blog, Habitation Intention, covers two call for papers that you can submit your high-quality ideas to, one of the conferences is a historic icon in the space world, check out my blog to learn how to submit your papers.
Of course, we will need the economic strength to become spacefaring. But will the sun's patterns effect the economic cycles that lead to periods filled with exploration, find out at 21st Century Waves.
Graphite whiskers have been found in a few moon rocks, were those whiskers indigenous to the moon? Join the discussion at Universe Today.
To find out how the commercialization of space might go, Out of the Cradle submits a review of a fiction about a group of astronauts who go to the moon to find platinum to help energy needs on Earth. This is fun scifi filled with political drama. I won't give away much, but the crew gets stuck in a sticky situation, find out more at Out of the Cradle.
Maybe all the political drama would go away if those politicians experienced the Overview effect, a feeling of insignificance when viewing the planet from a far. A Babe in the Universe brings us the awe-inspiring picture of the Earth, viewed from mars. It is an amazing picture.
But it will take more than exploitable materials to settle a planet, we will need water, warmth and food. The Space Writer takes a look at our closest neighbors, Mars and Venus, to see if life could have survived on those planets.
Of course, we can't stay in this solar system, that are really cool things else where in the universe. Yet, they are so far away. Traveling faster than the speed of light could allow us to explore other system, but it could cause weird paradoxes with the flow of time itself... or so we thought, Weird Sciences shows us that the paradoxes might not exist.
But, we will need to see where we are warping off to. Crowlspace discusses the technology being used to map Pluto that could be useful in mapping exoplanets.
Centauri Dreams gets down to the dollars and cents, mapping out how long and how much money it will take to build an interstellar starship. It is not as long or as much as you think, learn how close we are by reading their submission.
The Armagh Planetarium Blog reports on all the cool things we would have achieved all these epic things if funding for NASA wasn't slashed in the 70's, check out this submission to read about the creative projects NASA engineers dreamed up.
Want to Join Us?
Have all these legendary articles have you itching the ranks of the Space Cadets? Then the Universities Space Research Association's Lunar and Planetary Institutehas published a 41 page e-magazine with all the recent developments and conferences in the space field. You'll be in the know in no time.
My Spotlight
Almost done! I would like to spotlight 3 organizations. The AIAA Design Build Fly is a really amazing aerospace competition for undergrads, I had a lot of fun participating in the event and, after talking with them, I believe all the participants are the next set of aeronautics leaders. Registration for this year is opening in about a month, so keep your eye on them. Next, The Portal to the Universe is a hub for all space blogs, check them out to see the whole space community shine. Finally, I would like to thank Princeton Community Television for letting me use their equipment and my parents for their camera (Check out my dad's contracting company) to put this edition of the Carnival of Space together. Thank you!
All photos by Flickr user Lunar and Planetary Institute
