With the closest approach until 2018 of the planet MARS this month, you might want to bone up on Martian lore and history (from an Earthbound perspective). This is a link to a very entertaining and informative site called Mars Madness!
Aerospace
Astronaut Walt Cunningham – Ambassador of Exploration
NASA will honor former astronaut Walt Cunningham as an “Ambassador of Exploration,” an award which provides recognition for the astronauts of the space agency’s first manned spaceflight programs: Mercury, Gemini and Apollo.
On Friday, October 7, at 12:00 p.m. EDT (1600 GMT), NASA officials will present Cunningham with the award, a lucite-encased moon rock, at the Frontiers of Flight Museum in Dallas. He is donating the rock to the museum, which presently displays the Apollo 7 Command Module on loan from the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC.
Read More . . .
This is too cool! Walt Cunningham’s family lived up the street from us when I was a kid. One of his sisters used to babysit my brother and me and another sister went to the same high school I did. Congratulations Walt Cunningham!
Don’t Worry – The Sky Isn’t Falling – Yet
But if it starts to, the European Space Agency will call Don Quixote to the rescue . . .
From Science Daily: ESA Selects Targets For Asteroid-deflecting Mission Don Quijote
Based on the recommendations of asteroid experts, ESA has selected two target asteroids for its Near-Earth Object deflecting mission, Don Quijote.
Don Quijote is an asteroid-deflecting mission currently under study by ESA’s Advanced Concepts Team (ACT). Earlier this year the NEO Mission Advisory Panel (NEOMAP), consisting of well-known experts in the field, delivered to ESA a target selection report for Europe’s future asteroid mitigation missions, identifying the relevant criteria for selecting a target and picking up two objects that meet most of those criteria. The asteroids’ temporary designations are 2002 AT4 and 1989 ML.
A Psychedelic UFO Sighting
This morning, the dogs raced out of the patio into the back yard, barking frantically. Damsel went out to see what the ruckus was about. When Damsel got out there and saw what it was, she raced back in the house to get the camera. She raced back out just in time to get this photo just before the thing disappeared behind the neighbor’s garage:
When I got home from work, I Googled “Psychedelic Blimp” and found a link to Soaring Dreams.
Interestingly, the behavior of our dogs with regard to things flying over is inconsistent; they bark at banner tows, blimps and flights of geese or ducks. They do not bark at airplanes or individual birds. Sorta weird – but Damsel points out that if we’re ever attacked by paratroopers or something like that, we have a built-in early warning system.