It looks like the Huygens probe may have landed on or near a beach on Saturn's frigid moon Titan, based on these initial raw images.

I look forward to seeing the rest of the images, especially after they have been processed.

Posted by: JohnL at 09:01 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I've been pruning and revising the blogroll. Since these aren't really blogs, I'm moving them to here, so they'll be readily accessible from my archives.

• Space.com


• Wickman Spacecraft and Propulsion


• Pratt Hobbies Rocketry Catalog


• Scale Model Rockets


• Beginner's Guide to Model Rockets


• SpaceDaily

Posted by: JohnL at 07:09 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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The early space visionary and scientist Konstantin Tsiolkovsky famously stated: "The earth is the cradle of humanity, but one cannot remain in the cradle forever."

James Muncy describes two important political baby-steps out of the cradle: the Congressional funding of the President's Vision for Space Exploration and the passage of the Commercial Space Launch Amendments Act.

I would argue that the latter, together with the successful flights of SpaceShipOne to win the X-prize, represents a much larger step than pouring yet more money into NASA, new "vision" or not.

Posted by: JohnL at 09:53 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Though I've updated my earlier entry, it's worth noting here that, upon additional analysis, Asteroid 2004 MN4 does not present as great a risk as initially thought. The riskiest orbit now appears due in the year 2051, again on my birthday, but that orbit only ranks a zero on the Torino impact risk scale and a minus 1.93 on the Palermo.

Posted by: JohnL at 09:36 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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