Mars flyby and other links

This was supposed to be a secret until this coming Wednesday, and it was secret, right up until someone spilled the beans almost a week early:

Buzz is building about a planned 2018 private mission to Mars, which may launch the first humans toward the Red Planet. A nonprofit organization called the Inspiration Mars Foundation — which is led by millionaire Dennis Tito, the world’s first space tourist — will hold a news conference on Feb. 27 to announce the 501-day roundtrip mission, which will aim for a January 2018 launch.

Yes, there are many unresolved questions. But these people are not flakes; they are serious veteran space travel professionals. I think they’re really thinking about doing this. There will be more info soon. [Read more…]

Mr Cruz goes to Washington, & gets in hot water real fast

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I’ve been watching this clown with interest ever since he ended up being one of our two wackaloon senators from Texas. Cruz has a big problem in the Lone Star State. It’s one of the last hold outs of the dying Teaparty, and a bunch of those crazy mother fuckers hate Hispanics. They just despise them, for no reason other than pure, evil, xenophobic racism. A guy with the last name of Cruz gets a shot with that bunch for two reasons only: first he helps put a thin veneer of non racism on an overtly racist sub party, and two, he has to be or at least act like he is snake venom spitting crazy. It seems Cruz has chosen to serve that last goal by playing Joe McCarthy: [Read more…]

I may have been bitten by a radioactive spider

Two things, first it’s my birthday. The 51 year-old milestone doesn’t carry quite the heft of age 16, or turning 21, but it’s a big deal to me because I had a massive heart attack a few weeks ago that kills roughly a third of the people who get it. So I’m celebrating by doing some bragging today. On that heart attack, I have a question … I seem to have developed super human powers! [Read more…]

Siberia takes another big hit from space, shock waves hit nearby towns

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Second Update 7 PM Cdentral: This is now looks completely unrelated to the larger NEO. But interestingly, there are conspiracy theories now popping up, mostly in Russia, that this was an attack or test attack of some sort from an unfriendly nation and the Russian government is covering that up for political reasons. Or variations on that. I’ve only seen it so far on some weird sites, that I had to badly translate, so I’m gonna have to dig around to get some details and better links. Anybody heard anything about this?

Update: Video now emerging, see below, more to come. One researcher told me it’s possible an NEO making a close pass today may have calved off some small chunks. Unconfirmed, reputable sources say unlikely at this time.

It wasn’t in the same class as the 1908 Tungaska Event, but Siberia got clobbered good with at least a ten ton space rock. Astronomers are scouring the region already for clues to its exact size, composition, and origin: [Read more…]

Name that dwarf planet moonlet!

Pluto

 

The debate about Pluto’s planetary status has simmered down, although I was always partial to the way Alan Stern, the Director of New Horizons mission to Pluto, explained it to me: it’s just a dwarf planet. We don’t call a small dog a different species just because they’re small, we just call it a miniature, something like that makes sense for Pluto and its cohorts like Sedna or Ceres. But we now know Pluto has two new moons, or dwarf moons or moonlets if we want to extend the debate, and SETI wants your help naming them! [Read more…]