Not Mars

Ixt>>>

Thanks for that article link. It bodes well with [link]

yt
dx

Your welcome DX and thanks for the link back .
Heres another interesting story:

Dust ‘comes alive’ in space

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article2241753.ece

Ixt,

Look at this:

[link]

Thruster May Shorten Mars Trip

http://www.photonics.com/content/news/2007/September/7/88894.aspx

A virtual tour of the International Space Station.

http://www.nasa.gov/externalflash/ISSRG/

A flashlight is a very low thrust photon drive: it shoots a beam of light, composed of “photons”. Each photon has momentum, so a flashlight with really long-lasting batteries, left on, would eventually pick up a LOT of speed, in the direction opposite to the beam. Not practical, because there are no batteries long-lasting enough.

But if you have two parallel mirrors with a beam traveling back and forth between them, a single photon can make maybe 1,000 reflections between the two mirrors before dying out. And each time each photon is reflected, it exerts a tiny force on the mirror. So the “thrust” of our flashlight spaceship is theoretically increased by 1,000 times, IF THERE IS ANOTHER MIRROR to reflect off of.

I think this is somehow the basis of Bae’s invention. But it seems to me that, unless the “outboard” mirror is discarded frequently, when it gets too far away to contain the beam any longer, this is not a practical enhancement to the thrust of the photon drive.

I’m probably missing something. It will be interesting to follow the continued claims of Bae.

Thanks for the feedback Henry I don't pretend to understand any of this but heres a bit more information .
http://pdf.aiaa.org/preview/CDReadyMSPACE07_1808/PV2007_6131.pdf

World’s First Image Taking of the Moon by HDTV

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation) have successfully performed the world's first high-definition image taking by the lunar explorer "KAGUYA" (SELENE,) which was injected into a lunar orbit at an altitude of about 100 km on October 18, 2007, (Japan Standard Time. Following times and dates are all JST.)

[link]

Moving image of the Moon shot by the HDTV camera (no audio)

[link]

Space Defense Program Gets Extra Funding

[link]

Judging by the failures of 911 imagine how these space weapons could go wrong I am convinced the lunatics are in charge of the asylum ,
Wouldn't it be nice to be able to get away from this war torn planet where people keep finding more sophisticated ways to kill each other I shall be booking my Mars ticket it looks reosonably peaceful there, no traffic unless you count the rovers as traffic.

Mars Rover Investigates Signs of Steamy Martian Past

SAN FRANCISCO - Researchers using NASA's twin Mars rovers are sorting out two possible origins for one of Spirit's most important discoveries, while also getting Spirit to a favorable spot for surviving the next Martian winter.

The puzzle is what produced a patch of nearly pure silica -- the main ingredient of window glass -- that Spirit found last May. It could have come from either a hot-spring environment or an environment called a fumarole, in which acidic steam rises through cracks. On Earth, both of these types of settings teem with microbial life.....

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2007-144

Is a New Solar Cycle Beginning?

The solar physics community is abuzz this week. No, there haven't been any great eruptions or solar storms. The source of the excitement is a modest knot of magnetism that popped over the sun's eastern limb on Dec. 11th, pictured below in a pair of images from the orbiting Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2007/14dec_excitement.htm

Yes it is time for the new cycle I shall wait a few years and treat myself to an arctic trip and see the lights oh well things could be worse:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7148671.stm

Thanks KPM I found some simulations of colliding galaxies here.

[link]

This is an interactive java applet which allows you to model galaxy collisions on your own computer

[link]

There is also a story linked from the page you posted

Greenhouse clue to water on Mars

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7153646.stm

The chance of a football field-sized asteroid plowing into Mars next month has been increased to 4 percent, scientists said Friday after analyzing archival data.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071228/ap_on_sc/mars_asteroid

Thanks Ixt,

I have heard about this asteroid many are excited about the prospect if the impact being captured by Oppy however it would even though north of our MER friend might kill it due to dark skies. A half a mile of crater would kick up some dust for sure.

[link]

Additional position observations for asteroid 2007 WD5 taken on December 29 through January 2 have been used to improve the accuracy of the asteroid's orbit. As a result, the range of possible paths past Mars has narrowed by a factor of 3 and the most likely path has moved a little farther away from the planet, causing the Mars impact probability to decrease slightly to 3.6% (about one chance in 2 . The new positional observations were made using the 2.4 meter telescope at New Mexico Tech's Magdalena Ridge Observatory and reported by astronomer Bill Ryan. It seems likely that as additional observations further shrink the uncertainty region of this asteroid, the region will no longer intersect Mars and the impact probability will quickly drop to zero.

Since our last update, we have received numerous tracking measurements of asteroid 2007 WD5 from four different observatories. These new data have led to a significant reduction in the position uncertainties during the asteroid's close approach to Mars on Jan. 30, 2008. As a result, the impact probability has dropped dramatically, to approximately 0.01% or 1 in 10,000 odds, effectively ruling out the possible collision with Mars.

[link]

In this new three-part series, leading theoretical physicist and futurist Dr Michio Kaku explores the cutting edge science of today, tomorrow, and beyond. He argues that humankind is at a turning point in history. In this century, we are going to make the historic transition from the 'Age of Discovery' to the 'Age of Mastery', a period in which we will move from being passive observers of nature to its active choreographers. This will give us not only unparalleled possibilities but also great responsibilities.

Visions of the future is now online here

http://bulletins.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=bulletin.read&messageID=5176698667&MyToken=d9f388b6-aaf5-4d77-b485-db4616f612b4

or you can track the episodes on youtube starting here

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDfwpA-iYnI&feature=related

First look at side of mercury not seen by pioneer 10

messenger website.
http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/

Threat as 10-ton satellite set to crash back to Earth

A LARGE American spy satellite has lost power and is expected to crash back to Earth sometime late next month.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/science/article3258166.ece