August 13, 2005 [LINK]
Heavenly news & views
The safe landing of the space shuttle Discovery was a relief, but after a quarter century in space, it really should have been routine. Yet another piece of foam insulation debris during liftoff suggests that the shuttle design was flawed from the beginning. In the future, we can expect much more efficient space flights by private firms that are much better suited than government bureaucracies to manage the ubiquitous risk factor.
On a brighter note, NASA launched a Mars Explorer probe from Cape Canaveral yesterday. It contains the largest telescope ever sent to another planet. It will be used to make detailed photographs of the planet's surface, and look for water.
A firm in Virginia is offering a ride to the moon (without actually landing on it) aboard a Russian Soyuz capsule for the amazing low price of only $?? million. It's hard to tell how serious this offer is, and it smells like a publicity stunt. The Soyuz space capsule that they are still using was originally designed for a lunar mission, just like the U.S. Apollo space capsule was, but the Soviet space program pretty much stalled at the end of the 1960s. A more pressing question is, What are the Chinese up to? They launched a man into orbit nearly two years ago, but we haven't heard much else lately.
Our household got a brand new telescope this week (a Bushnell "Deep Space" model), and we have been spending a lot of time learning how to use it. I took this shot of the moon on Thursday evening, at the optimal phase of the lunar cycle for seeing the shadows of the craters. It's rather fuzzy around the edges because of the distortion caused by the warm, humid air. Things will look a lot better in October. I especially look forward to seeing the rings of Saturn clearly, plus the four major moons of Jupiter. The Perseid meteor showers were peaking this week, but we were not up to staying awake after midnight to get the best views. Maybe next year.