The Moon, Europa

The Moon, Europa

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Lasers and Orora...Aroruh...The Northern Lights

NASA is gearing up to test their new laser communications system. The test will last for several years and will, hopefully, lead to the implementation of a system that will enable the transmission of a much larger data stream between mission control and mission locations. It will be a complicated process with a lot of links in the technical chain that will have an opportunity to fail. The test platform will contain "telescopes, lasers, mirrors, detectors, a pointing and tracking system, control electronics, and two different types of modems." What does all this mean? It will give them much faster data downloads from probes and rovers: "It currently takes 90 minutes to transmit high-resolution images from Mars, but NASA would like to dramatically reduce that time to just minutes.It  Read the complete article at the NASA website: laser-comm


Also, here are a couple of nifty videos featuring the Aurora Borealis:
As seen from the ISS: Northern Lights from the ISS
Aurora explained: Earth's Aurora

Friday, September 16, 2011

Chicago Comic Con Pictures

It's a little late for a review of Chicago Comic Con. It was a lot of fun and I met some great folks. My only regret is that I did not take more pictures...















That's what I said!

The space probe that NASA launched recently has sparked some interesting comments.  And I'm not saying I always knew that but srsly, I always knew that.  See also, "Europa" by J.A. Sanderlin.

I tweeted this one when I got it the first time but I think it bears re-blogging the tweet.  This is just cool stuff and I'm putting it out there so maybe one more person can take a peek.  

The Kennebec Journal printed an opinion post about that which I have been raving about for some time now.  And since I agree with it, I'm posting the link here so you can read and agree as well.  And let me just say once more AMEN.

Another upside to brown outs (can't remember what any of the other positives might be just now) is that you can see the night sky better.  

I wonder if they'll ask me what I think?  Doubt it.  But hopefully it will bring more press to the book & to space exploration in general.

Live pictures of Europa you say?  Got em right here!  You have to look pretty hard though but beggars ... etc.

Happy News Day folks!  

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Time is Relative

...to whom, I don't know. But it has gotten away from me this past month. I have been furiously working on a new project that I hope everyone will enjoy and as usual I'm only going to drop a tiny hint of what it is about: concept art. Okay that was a big hint. I'm looking forward to getting some visual references out there for people and heck myself too! Hope to have this project wrapped up by the end of the year.
If there are any artists out there who are interested, send me a Europa concept sketch or other work and I will certainly consider you for the project.