NASA Video of Jupiter

http://www.theguardian.com/science/video/2015/oct/14/jupiter-in-ultra-high-definition-nasa-video

See Justin's "Bieber"

Just kidding.  Blurred photo assaulted me from some Inside Edition type show and saw more than ever cared to see of Justin.  Jeezus, can't we give me and he some damn privacy?

Howzabout celebrating perhaps greatest achievement of the human race, landing men on the moon, instead?

CNN ran a story with link to archive of NASA Apollo images: "....The images themselves aren't new, but they were shared en masse recently on the Project Apollo Archive Flickr account.

The archive is maintained by space enthusiast Kipp Teague and includes Apollo-related digital images released into the public domain by NASA. It contains more than 12,000 photos."

And oh my dear Lord I find these stunningly beautiful.

(Well, obviously copying from a Flickr acct, even with attribution failed.  So, let's go to NASA, w/out detracting from yeoman work done by Mr. Teague.

Famous photo from Apollo 8

This and following from Information Week

View of Suez Canal and Nile Delta.

Now don't you feel bad for wanting to see Justin's "Bieber?"

flickr
-embed="true"  href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/projectapolloarchive/21329966194/in/album-72157659453355752/" title="AS08-13-2344"><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/626/21329966194_548c7412d0_k.jpg" width="1959" height="2048" alt="AS08-13-2344">
And this one shows the freaking earth from the moon, and don't all the problems of the world look so small and insignificant?
flickr
-embed="true"  href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/projectapolloarchive/21764833108/in/album-72157659453355752/" title="AS08-13-2329"><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/704/21764833108_0df675fa35_k.jpg" width="1959" height="2048" alt="AS08-13-2329">
Apollo 11:
flickr
-embed="true"  href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/projectapolloarchive/21692650001/in/album-72157658638144538/" title="AS11-37-5466"><img src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5652/21692650001_f82f979f6b_k.jpg" width="2048" height="2048" alt="AS11-37-5466">

NASA Finds New Winter Vacation Paradise: Planet Pluto

"‘It’s gorgeous': NASA discovers frozen water and blue skies on Pluto."


[Pluto has blue skies and patches of frozen water, according to the latest data out Thursday from NASA’s unmanned New Horizons probe, which made a historic flyby of the dwarf planet in July.


Never before has Pluto — a resident of the distant Kuiper Belt, a frigid region of the solar system beyond Neptune that is home to many comets and asteroids — been observed in such detail.


“Who would have expected a blue sky in the Kuiper Belt? It’s gorgeous,” said Alan Stern, New Horizons principal investigator from Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado.]

Nasa News: Maven Rover arrives at Mars

For years now, the tea baggers and their preferred party, the Repubnorants, keep yammering and whining big government can't accomplish anything. 

Well, morons, NASA can go to Mars, with 1 Rover on the surface still exploring and now with MAVEN probe designed to study the Martian atmosphere arriving today.

Would it surprise anyone if the current thin atmosphere of Mars resulted from global warming eons ago?

Repubnorants actively fight science by, among other things, slashing the budget of the space agency.  Don't want to hear facts about climate change and melting of polar ice caps?  Slash the budget of NASA programs that study our Earth.

Dipwads.

Let's hope all those marching today actually vote.  


[NASA's Maven spacecraft is on track to reach the red planet late Sunday night following a journey spanning 10 months and 442 million miles.

If all goes well, the robotic explorer will slip into Martian orbit for a year or more of atmospheric study. It's designed to circle the planet, not land.

Maven will be the first spacecraft to focus on the upper atmosphere of Mars. Scientists believe the Martian atmosphere holds clues as to how Earth's neighbor went from being warm and wet billions of years ago to cold and dry. That early wet world may have harbored microbial life, a tantalizing question yet to be answered.]
NASA's Maven explorer arriving at Mars after year

Picture courtesy NASA, view from Mars Rover, this is freakin' Mars, people.  Mars!  It's Mars, bitches!

Super Duper Secret Plane

A Robot may not...allow a human being to come to harm

["There's a relationship between human and robotic science exploration right now," said John Connolly, NASA's acting chief exploration scientist. "The robots we put down on Mars are our avatars right now. They are our eyes, our feet, our hands on the ground that inform us before we get there. Without these robots doing this work, it would be a very risky endeavor getting to Mars."

He added that sending humans to Mars largely depends on the information that robotic rovers and the Mars orbiters send back about the planet's geology, mineral makeup, water reserves and atmosphere.

"The robotic missions on Mars are helping us to handle these big questions," said Connolly.

During a news conference at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington today, Connolly added that Curiosity's discovery of evidence of ancient water flows as well as water in the Martian soil now is the most exciting find NASA has made yet.

"Finding water is like finding gold," said Connolly. "It's the stuff of rocket fuel. It's what astronauts will need. Finding that there are large amounts of water on Mars is the one find that's changed our way of thinking about human exploration of Mars."]
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9245227/NASA_robots_blaze_the_trail_for_humans_on_Mars

WISE Telescope

[The new photo reveals a leggy cosmic apparition called IC 342, sometimes known as the "hidden galaxy," and was snapped by the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE). The WISE space telescope is mapping the sky in unprecedented detail to find previously unseen asteroids and other objects.]

http://www.space.com/8260-hidden-galaxy-photographed-peeping-space-telescope.html

Hey Republican'ts, We're on Mars, Bitches!

Yes We Can!

[Nasa is showing off a high-resolution colour picture sent back by theMars rover Curiosity, detailing the mountain where scientists plan to focus their search for the chemical ingredients of life.

The image reveals distinct tiers near the base of the three-mile-high mountain that rises from the floor of Gale Crater, where Curiosity landed on 6 August.

Scientists estimate it will be a year before the rover reaches the layers of interest at the foot of the mountain, 6.2 miles from the landing site.]
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2012/aug/28/mars-curiosity-high-resolution-pictures

Neil Armstrong Passes

Neil Armstrong, first human to set foot on the moon, dies at age 82.  I'd say he had full and productive life.

[(Reuters) - Former U.S. astronaut, Neil Armstrong, the first man to set foot on the moon, has died at the age of 82, his family said on Saturday.

Armstrong underwent a heart-bypass surgery earlier this month, just two days after his birthday on August 5, to relieve blocked coronary arteries.

As commander of the Apollo 11 mission, Armstrong became the first human to set foot on the moon on July 20, 1969. As he stepped on the dusty surface, Armstrong said: "That's one small step for (a) man, one giant leap for mankind."

Those words endure as one of the best known quotes in the English language.

Neil Alden Armstrong was 38 years old at the time and even though he had fulfilled one of mankind's quests that had loomed for centuries and placed him at the pinnacle of human achievement, he did not revel in his accomplishment. He even seemed frustrated by the acclaim it brought.

"I guess we all like to be recognized not for one piece of fireworks but for the ledger of our daily work," Armstrong said in an interview on CBS's "60 Minutes" program in 2005.

He once was asked how he felt knowing his footprints would likely stay on the moon's surface for thousands of years. "I kind of hope that somebody goes up there one of these days and cleans them up," he said.]
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/08/25/us-usa-neilarmstrong-idUSBRE87O0B020120825

Mars Curiosity Descent

http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2012/08/the-complete-mars-science-lab-descent-in-hd-video-1.html

Actual NASA Engineering Drawings of Mars Curiosity Landing

http://www.rubegoldberg.com/?page=home

(Used while waiting for permission.  All rights remain with copyright holder.)

First Picture from Mars Curiosity

Found at Earthbound Misfit who wrote it came from George Takei's web page

It's Mars! Yes, We Did!

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/msl/multimedia/PIA15691.html

Yes We Can!: Mars explorer Curiosity lands successfully

"NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has touched down on the surface of the Red Planet, completing a 154-million-mile journey, and marking the beginning of a new era in planetary exploration."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/06/mars-rover-curiosity-landing-live-updates_n_1742499.html?utm_hp_ref=daily-brief?utm_source=DailyBrief&utm_campaign=080612&utm_medium=email&utm_content=NewsEntry&utm_term=Daily%20Brief

[They have the pictures to prove it: NASA successfully landed the Mars Curiosity Rover, its largest and most advanced unmanned exploration vehicle on target on the surface of the Red Planet at a time of 1:14 a.m. ET on Monday, August 6.

A few minutes later, the rover sent back its first images, one from a rear-facing black and white hazard avoidance camera (hazcam) on the rover’s body and the other from a front-facing one.

The rear-facing camera showed the rover’s wheel on Mars while the front-facing one showed its shadow across the surface of a shallow area of the planet where the rover landed known as Gale Crater. See both of them below in a composite image from NASA:]

http://idealab.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/08/mars-curiosity-rover-lands-first-images.php

Mars Craft to Land 1:31 AM EST Monday

Whether it works or not, the Curiosity will land.  Gravity is funny like that.

[Computerworld - When NASA's newest and largest robotic rover lands on Mars early Monday morning, it will use a supersonic parachute, a tether and rockets to safely alight 350 million miles from home.

Seven minutes will elapse between the time the spacecraft enters the Martian atmosphere and the time it touches down on the planet's surface. NASA engineers say this will be the seven scariest minutes of the mission.

"Entry, descent and landing is referred to as the 'seven minutes of terror' because we've got literally seven minutes to get from the top of the atmosphere to the surface of Mars, going from 13,000 miles an hour to zero in perfect sequence, perfect choreography and perfect timing, and the computer has to do it all by itself with no help from the ground," said Adam Steltzner, a NASA engineer, in a video interview. "If any one thing doesn't work just right, it's game-over."

After a journey of more than eight months, NASA's SUV-sized robotic rover -- the Mars Science Laboratory, also known as Curiosity -- is set to land at 1:31 a.m. Eastern time on Monday in a 96-mile-wide crater.]
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9229925/NASA_s_Mars_rover_heading_toward_7_minutes_of_terror_?source=CTWNLE_nlt_dailyam_2012-08-03

NASA Outsourcing Space Travel to Russia

"Dismantling of the shuttle program is right on track." Replacement not so much.

Unfortunately with a clueles Cheney administration, NASA has no replacement ready and needs a waiver to law to buy Russian launch vehicles, [A little-known law intended to prevent the sale of nuclear technology to Iran would also bar NASA from buying Russian Soyuz spacecraft after 2011..."

"It takes 36 months to fulfill an order," said Yevgeny Khorishko, the Russian Embassy spokesman in Washington. "So if U.S. Congress does not grant a waiver by the end of September, it means your astronauts in 2012 will be preparing for their missions on the ground and will not be flying."](emphasis added)

So after 50 years of NASA exploring space and making Americans proud, Pres. Cheney has reduced the US to paying Russia for reaching orbit.

One can argue the US space shuttle program has become broken beyond repair and requires replacing, basically because it got built for unrealistic aims: building a totally reuseable spacecraft.

So what does NASA do to replace the shuttle? Retire it before any US made alternative becomes ready and try to privatize US space travel.

This administration tried privatizing US space travel..

So while jobs at NASA and contractors get cut, taxpayers pay millions of $ to private companies to try to develop spacecraft, including 1 company, SpaceX that built a rocket that "fizzled" on the third test rather than reach orbit.

At least that company, Space X, launched and failed. Planet Space hasn't actually built a damn thing.

Let's lay it out: Tried to privatize US space flight.

Failed.

(For irony, SpaceX launches from U.S. Army's Reagan Test Site in the central Pacific Ocean.}

Americans get laid off and the US has to pay Russia to fly to space

For those too young too remember, the space race with Russia became one of the dominant themes in the 60's and 70's, not just for the US but the civilized world.

Now we gotta pay the godless commies to fly. Despicable

[In April, NASA said more than 8,000 space contractor jobs -- including 1,300 at Michoud and 6,400 at KSC -- could be eliminated after the shuttle is retired to make way for the Constellation program, which is developing the next-generation rockets to go to the moon and later to Mars.

But whereas the Constellation program is encountering technical problems and some schedule delays, the dismantling of the shuttle program is right on track.]http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/news_space_thewritestuff/2008/08/a-taste-of-thin.html

[(Former astronaut and senator John)Glenn used the hearing as chance to lash out at the Bush administration for failing to provide leadership on space, and failing to request adequate funding for his Vision for Space Exploration. He accused the administration of “cannibalizing” research on the international space station to pay for NASA’s next generation moon program, called Constellation.

Glenn, who has expressed his anger before at various events, said he was deeply upset by the administration permitting a gap between the end of the shuttle program in 2010 and the first launch of the Constellation program, now scheduled for 2015 at the earliest. He said the decision made America dependent on the Russians to get American astronauts to the space station until Constellation was ready. He said he never thought “we’d have to pay for a ticket to fly on a Russian vehicle.”]emphasis added
http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/news_space_thewritestuff/2008/07/glenn-bush-moon.html