1. - Thursday, May 17, 2012 - 13:07 - 2 notes

  2. (Source: commons.wikimedia.org)

  3. - Tuesday, May 8, 2012 - 00:43 - 1 note

  4. “

    Why bother with human spaceflight, when robots do such a good job and do it so much more cheaply? Proponents of human spaceflight argue that only humans have the supple physical coordination and mental agility to get the most from an expedition. But the most compelling argument for human spaceflight may remain the one that worked at the beginning. Space exploration is ultimately about human dreams.

    The United States owned the Louisiana Purchase as soon as Thomas Jefferson bought it from the French, but the first thing he did was send Lewis and Clark to walk the property. It isn’t really yours until you’ve been there, say advocates of human space exploration. “I do not see any need at all to justify human spaceflight on the grounds of what it’s going to do for science. It will do a lot for science, but that’s an ‘oh, by the way,’” [former NASA administrator] Griffin says. “The drive to extend our reach—human destiny—is reason enough to go.”

    ”

    — Guy Gugliotta

    (Source: National Geographic)

  5. - Thursday, March 22, 2012 - 23:11 - 9 notes

  6. (Source: commons.wikimedia.org)

  7. - Sunday, March 4, 2012 - 15:53 - 1 note

  8. (Source: commons.wikimedia.org)

  9. - Friday, February 17, 2012 - 14:18 - 2 notes

  10. “I am 100 percent committed to the mission of NASA and its future. Because broadening our capabilities in space will continue to serve our society in ways that we can scarcely imagine. Because exploration will once more inspire wonder in a new generation — sparking passions and launching careers. And because, ultimately, if we fail to press forward in the pursuit of discovery, we are ceding our future and we are ceding that essential element of the American character.”

    — President Obama

    (Source: nasa.gov)

  11. - Monday, February 13, 2012 - 22:36 - 5 notes

  13. - Sunday, January 29, 2012 - 00:17 - 2 notes

  15. - Thursday, January 26, 2012 - 21:42 - 5 notes from Notes from the Underground (originally from Notes from the Underground)

  16. Man on the moon: Newt Gingrich’s lifetime fixation with space

    Newt Gingrich’s promise to put a colony on the moon is only the latest in a long history of space-related ideas from the former House speaker.

    Some highlights, from moon mirrors to space lasers:

    * 1981: As a young member of Congress, Gingrich sponsored the National Space and Aeronautics Policy Act of 1981, his first attempt to create a path toward statehood for the moon. The bill had 12 co-sponsors but died in subcommittee.

    * 1984: Gingrich published his first book, “Window of Opportunity: A Blueprint for The Future.” In it he approvingly cited a proposal aired at a NASA conference to manipulate the climate and light highways with mirrors on the moon. He also advocated space tourism, suggesting the moon as an ideal honeymoon spot: “Imagine weightlessness and its effects and you will understand some of the attraction.”

    * 1986: Gingrich proposed taking the money we spend on farm subsidies and investing it in space travel. Former farmers could get jobs in factories orbiting space stations, Gingrich said at the World Science Fiction Convention in Atlanta.

    * 1994: Gingrich proposed a $20 billion prize for the first private organization to land a crew on Mars and return it to Earth. His think tank, the Progress and Freedom Foundation,worked with Mars-exploration advocate Robert Zubrin on the idea. It’s an idea Gingrich has returned to over the years; he has also proposed prizes for moon exploration.

    * 1995: Gingrich worked on a novel with science fiction author Jerry Pournelle called “The Faction,” in which “anti-American Japanese team up with international terrorists and get a hold of advanced space weaponry,” according to a Washington Post article. The book was never published.

    * 2002: In a Frontline interview, Gingrich predicted that within the next 10 years, we could fend off missile attacks from Iran or North Korea with “energy weapons and laser pulsing systems” that operate from space.

    (Source: dokimasia)

  17. - Sunday, January 8, 2012 - 15:38 - 28 notes

  18. (Source: commons.wikimedia.org)

  19. - Saturday, January 7, 2012 - 00:42 - 496 notes from Newsweek (originally from The Weather Channel)

  20. newsweek:

    wxchannel:

    On the evening of Wednesday, January 4, the International Space Station passed right over the city of Houston which gave Lauren Harnett, a photographer at NASA’s Johnson Space Center, a great photographic opportunity.  With a waxing gibbous phase of the moon in the night sky, she snapped a few stunning photos of the ISS passing overhead with the Moon as a stunning backdrop.