To many of us, space travel seems a very long way off indeed. Increasingly, we are being told that we should not fly and that we should be very aware of our carbon footprint.
Everywhere we turn, we are getting the message almost too often that we need to think about how we travel and what we do. We are also being told that oil prices are going to continue getting higher and basically some people may not be able to afford the gas for their automobiles.
All this talk about the environment and how we must all collectively work together to save it, may make space travel seem like a distant dream, however, it may happen sooner than we think and within the next few years.
And if space travel happens then space travelers will need some money to use, when they undertake their journeys to the final frontier. As a result, scientists have actually developed a brand new currency, which is designed to be perfect for any inter planetary traveler.
The new currency is called the Quasi Universal Intergalactic Denomination. This is commonly referred to by the acronym QUID or as it has been written, Quid.
The British often refer to their British pound as the quid and it is a commonly used expression throughout the British Isles. If you ask somebody how much something costs, they may reply “50 quid”. There is no plural for quid; something can be 1 quid or 50 quid. But the name ‘quid’ is actually the only thing that the British pound and the new Quasi Universal Intergalactic Denomination have in common. The new ‘quid’ is a completely different concept and is very much the space age version of money.
The new Quid is actually a coin. It has been very carefully designed, so that it can actually tolerate the conditions in which it will be used. Since the coin is specifically designed for space travel, it is round and has no sharp edges. Obviously any sharp edge could be very hazardous in space, mainly because if it fell and hit someone, then a sharp edge could cause a serious amount of damage, despite there being no gravity in space.
The lack of gravity also means that the coin has to be heavy enough to be handled by someone. It cannot be too wispy, but conversely, it cannot be too heavy. So even this aspect of the coin took a long time to design.
Why will coins be used in space?
Developing coins to be used in space may seem like a retrograde step. After all, we are now living in a very developed age and we have all kinds of electronic means that we can use to make payments or to acquire cash. If space travel happens, then we will have even developed the technology to enable this to happen, so why go back to using a system of currency that has been around for all of history?
Wouldn't it be better to have some kind of cashless society in space rather than having to rely on some kind of money?
Well, herein lies the problem. Obviously you would think that it makes sense to have some kind of electronic swipe card that you could use in space, in order to make any purchases or charge something up to your account. But the reality is that when you were in space you would find that the cosmic radiation you would encounter, would actually render the magnetic strip in a credit card or debit card, completely useless.
The anti-counterfeiting techniques used in the production of paper banknotes, would also potentially be wiped out by cosmic radiation (which is a bit of a scary thought) and so a whole new currency had to be devised or at least was devised to counteract this ‘problem’.
One of the main problems faced by scientists was the fact that so few people have actually traveled to space, that it is difficult to know exactly what happens ‘up there’. It is very easy to read the theory, but there are always some differences between the theory and the reality of any situation and once people are introduced to situations, they tend to act in ways that you would not anticipate.
This means that it is extremely difficult to be able to design something that can take into account all the possible scenarios that may be encountered in space.
Scientists even had to think about how and when the money would actually be used, to give them some idea about how best it should be progressed.
So this was no currency that was designed overnight, by someone who just thought that it was a good idea. It was a long process that had to take various factors into account and some of them were relatively unknown. The work was actually undertaken by scientists from the University of Leicester in England and scientists from the National Space Centre. Travelex, a foreign exchange company actually commissioned the new currency, because it wants to be ready and waiting when space travel happens. It did not want to wait until people were actually going to space, instead it wanted to equip them with the money that they would need when they are in space.
The concept began after work began in the US, on a new space hotel, which will be inflatable. This was combined with the British entrepreneur, Richard Branson, actively starting work on his Virgin Galactic space ship, known as Spaceship 2.
He has very confidently stated that space travel will be much more accessible by the year 2012 and even more readily available by 2015. In addition, the National Space Centre has indicated that it too, feels that space travel will become more accessible by 2012 and it even confidently predicts that there will be a full range of tourist facilities available on the Moon by 2050.
So, if people were going to start travelling to space then they would need something to spend up there and the concept of credit cards and cash was simply out of the question, so it posed quite a challenge for the scientists who came up with the idea. They really didn’t know just how they were going to set about doing it.
Perhaps the scariest concept that they had to deal with, is what would happen if the coin was accidentally lost and left the spaceship or space hotel? Would it end up acting like some kind of mini meteor and come hurtling through space and hit some poor old Martian or human as it re-entered?
So, even the materials for the currency had to be carefully chosen. Eventually scientists decided on polymer, because polymer is not too heavy so it wouldn’t ‘hit’ someone as a free floating coin, but it was firm enough that it could be held by people.
This may sound like the scientists were being somewhat pedantic, but in fact this is quite an issue. If you have something that is lightweight enough not to cause a hazard, there is still a risk that it would be very difficult for a human to hold onto when they are in space and they are holding it and getting used to all kinds of things, zero gravity being just one of them. So the last thing that scientists wanted was for all the ‘space money’ to simply fly away whenever people wanted to pay for something. Hence the use of polymer.
Polymer may seem like a new concept to most of us, but it is a surface well known to all of us, because it is used in non-stick pans.
The coins then had to be designed in terms of their shape. They could not be square or rectangular, because obviously these would have very sharp edges and would present a very real danger, if one of the coins hit someone. It is actually very difficult for scientists to know just how much damage would be inflicted by the edge of a coin hitting someone, but on the other hand any accident that happens in space would be very difficult to deal with, because the nearest hospital is obviously a very long way away. In addition it would be very difficult to take someone back to earth if they had been injured. Space travel is difficult enough for people who are fit and well, but for people who may be losing blood or are injured, it is potentially quite dangerous.
So it isn't a straightforward case of just designing something that you think looks good, it has to be practical as well.
The decision for the currency to be round was a fairly obvious one since this would negate the risk of a sharp corner. However, even a round coin can do damage if it were to hit someone, so eventually someone came up with the idea of making it with moulded edges and in this way, it could safely be used in all conditions.
What do the coins look like?
The coins vary in size. They are basically transparent and each has its denomination clearly marked on them, for example 5 quid and so on. They don't resemble standard coins, because they have been made from polymer and they are basically translucent.
These scientists have not yet indicated whether or not they have incorporated anti-counterfeiting measures into the new coinage. We can only hope that they have done so, because if space travel does take-off in the next few years and the coins are used, it is likely that someone will try to counterfeit them.
In 2007, the quid was valued at $13.50 to 1 quid.
Publicity stunt or demonstrable need ?
Many people felt when the quid was launched in 2007, said it was simply a publicity stunt on behalf of Travelex, who obviously got quite a lot of publicity as a result of the launch.
They have launched the new quid as a means of highlighting some of the issues that may well arise, if and when space travel actually happens.
However, the new quid has been launched by a private company and there is no reason why other companies or governments may not launch their own space money. Although Travelex would want every traveler going to space to use their currency, other countries may wish to use their own particular space money.
Space is obviously a difficult area in terms of legality. Do patents apply on the Moon and other such strange questions arise on this kind of subject.
Some people felt that the introduction of a new space currency was actually an irrelevance. They argued that it would be perfectly reasonable for people to pay their space travel company a sum of money prior to travel. This money would then be used whilst up in space and a tally could be kept by the resort staff on the Moon. When people returned to Earth, they would receive a refund on any money that they had not spent and if they owed money, then they could simply pay it upon their return.
This would alleviate the need for any cash and would actually be a much more straightforward system, since people would be paying in advance and to some extent it would be an all-inclusive deal. So people did not really need to use cash.
Given that space travel may well happen in the next 5-10 years, it could well be the case that people are venturing into space for the first time. However, it will actually be a very expensive process for some time to come. Early indications are that flights may cost as much as $200,000.
This price may
actually escalate given, the fact that oil prices are going up and the
cost of space travel may be forced to rise.
In addition, the accessibility of space travel for almost everyone was first mooted prior to the credit crunch hitting the United States and subsequently most of the rest of the world. So people, who may have been able to afford $200,000, by making a few cutbacks and generally being prudent with their money, may well not be able to afford it now.
As a result, it is reasonable to think that whilst space travel may happen, it is likely to remain exclusive for some time to come. Thus Russian billionaires and American millionaires may well be able to afford space travel, but for ordinary people, it will be some time in the future before a trip to the moon is possible.
The fact that space travel will be an exclusive activity for the foreseeable future, actually alleviate the need for money to be used in space. If someone can pay at least $200,000 for a flight into space, then surely it would be reasonable to ask them for a deposit of $10,000, as a down-payment, to cover their expenses once they are in space.
There is however, some kind of psychological appeal with regard to the new quid. Although the people who may be travelling into space will be quite wealthy, if tourist facilities are developed, then they may want some loose change to be able to buy a postcard and send it back from the moon.
However, this may require even further development for the scientists at the National Space Centre, because a postage stamp may be required to send postcards back.
So to some extent, the development of the new quid does seem to have an air of publicity seeking about it. But on the other hand, it has raised some serious issues about how people will actually be able to cope in space and some of the issues that may arise about safety and space travel generally.
Despite environmentalists’ concerns, space travel in at least some form may well happen within the next 5 to 10 years. It may be that only the super wealthy can afford it, at this point. However, experts are confident that once trips into space start, demand will increase and as demand increases, then the cost of each flight will go down, which eventually will make it far cheaper for everyone.
Whether or not this happens, has yet to be seen. Certainly there are no physical or technological reasons why it may not happen. And environmentally? Well environmentally, there is also no reason why it cannot happen. Although current methods of space travel may not be the most environmentally friendly means of travel, it is likely that scientists will be able to come up with some form of fuel that can safely launch a space ship and take it to the moon and back. Thus environmental reasons should not be viewed as a barrier to space travel, they just pose different ways of looking at things. After all, if more people are working on the moon by 2050, then couldn’t this ease the overcrowding problems we have on Earth? Just as long as everyone who is up there looks after their quids!


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1. What sort of star is the sun?
The sun has a place with a group of around 100,000 millions old stars in our System. Some are a lot more sweltering than the Sun, while others are cooler. Some are a lot bigger, and some are more modest. The Sun is an extremely common star, and there are a great many different stars like it.
2. How hot is the Sun?
The sun is the hottest and brightest at its centre, where the temperature is believed to be about 15 million degree centigrade. By the time this heat has worked its way to the surface, it has fallen and decrease to 6000 degrees about four times as hot as a steel furnace. There are many more stars that are hotter than the sun.
3. What is Sunspot?
A sunspot is a dark area on the suns brilliant surface. It appears dark because it is cooler, and so gives out less light sunspots are particularly common every 11 years or so, and this is known as the sunspot circle.
4. What is the suns corona?
The corona is often called the suns atmosphere but is not at all like our own atmosphere. It has a temperature of a million degrees centigrade and is a million times thinner than air. The brilliance of the sun hides it from view except during the total eclipse.
5. What types of Galaxy are there?
No two galaxies look exactly alike, but there are three main kinds. Some are irregular, with no particular slope, others are spiral, with trailing arms of stars and nebulae. The commonest are elliptical, like a smooth swarm of stars.
6. What is the age of the Universe?
The galaxies in the universe appear to be expanding away from each other. If we work backwards, we find that they were close together between 15,000 and 20,000 million year ago.
7. Which is the nearest galaxy to our own?
Our galaxy’s closest neighbour is the large Magel panic cloud which is about 150,000 light-years away. It is only one third the diameter of our galaxy and contains only a tenth of as many stars.
8. What causes Aurorae?
At about 200 kilometres above the earth’s surface, the air is very thin and its atoms are widely scattered. Tiny electric particles from space, known as electrons, can penetrate the air at this height. If one strikes an atom, a flash of light is given out. An aurora is a glow caused by countless millions of these flashes, produced when the sun is very active.
9. What are solar prominences?
A prominence is a fountain of glowing gas rising up from the sun’s surface. Some prominences escape into space, but most last for a few hours or days, and then fall back into the sun.
10. When did the first man fly in space?
The Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin made the first orbit of the Earth on 12 April 1961, in a Vostok spacecraft. The trip lasted 108 minutes, and he landed in a field within ten kilometres of the planned descent point.
11. When did the space shuttle make its first flight?
The first space shuttle launch took place on 12 April 1981, using the space shuttle Columbia which was only a test flight, it made 36 orbits of the earth during its 54 hours stay in space. It took off exactly 20 years after the first orbital flight by Yuri Gagarin to the space. The main problem encountered during the maiden flight was the loss of some of Columbia’s 29,000 heat resistant tiles. In January 1986 Challenger blew up shortly after takeoff, killing the crew of seven.
12. Why were the asteroids formed?
The asteroids consist of countless thousands of tiny planets left over from the solar system’s early history when the sun and the planets were being formed.
13. Why are giant planets gaseous?
The sun and the planets of the solar system were formed from a huge cloud of gas and tiny solid particles about 4600 million years ago. Most of the gas was hydrogen. Small planets such as the Earth lost a lot of hydrogen into space, but the giant planets kept all of theirs.
14. Why do comets appear unexpectedly?
Most comets take thousands or even millions of years to go around the sun, and their orbits are so elongated or eccentric’ that they travel from beyond Pluto. Very few become bright enough to see until they are as close as Mars. This is why some comets appear without warning every year. Some comets pass close to the sun every few years. The famous Halley’s Comet, which has a period of 76 years, has been observed regularly since 239 B.C. Comet. West, which was visible in daylight in 1976 will not return to the sun for about a million year.
15. Why do meteors occur?
A meteor is a streak of light high up in the atmosphere. It occurs when a tiny solid object, smaller than a marble, plunges through the air at a speed of many Kilometres per second. The body is burned up by friction, leaving a white-hot trail.
16. Why do the eclipses of the sun occur?
A solar eclipse can be seen only at New Moon when the Moon is between the earth and the sun. On average, a total eclipse is seen from the same site every 350 years.
17. Why is the setting sun red?
The world’s air resembles a light red channel and makes all the light coming from space become marginally rosy however an article which is extremely low in the sky needs to radiate through considerably more air than one high in the sky. This implies that its light infiltrate through a greater amount of this red channel and its color is more profound.
18. Why does the sun keep shining?
Even the tiniest object you’ll see with a microscope contains variant atoms. Each atom contains much tinier particles still. Inside the sun atoms are being pulled to pieces and put together again during a different way. this offers out heat and keeps the sun shining
19. How do stars twinkle?
Out in space, stars don’t twinkle. But when their light passes through the Earth’s atmosphere, it’s made to flicker by the new and cold ripples of air. you’ll see the effect by gazing an overseas view over a hot road in summer, or across a bonfire.
20. How do stars die?
A star sparkles by transforming its hydrogen into another component called helium. this modification gives out heat and keeps the star hot. At the point when its hydrogen fuel runs down, the star starts to kick the bucket.
21. How big is that the Sun?
The sun measures 1,392,530 kilometres across, or 109 times the diameter of the planet. If the sun were the dimensions of a football, the planet would be only two millimetres across.
22. How are stars formed?
Stars begin their lives as very thin clouds of hydrogen gas. As each cloud shrinks, the centre grows highly regarded because of the atoms of gas being squeezed together. Eventually, the clouds become so hot that they start to shine as stars.
23. How may be a spacecraft launched?
To escape from the world, a rocket must travel at 11 km per second. one craft couldn’t carry enough fuel to succeed in this speed, it’d be too heavy to go away the bottom. So a spacecraft has separate stages, which jump clear because the lower ones burn up their fuel. Smaller rocket engines may have more stages.
24. How does Rocket Motor work?
On the world, we usually move by pushing or pull ing against something fixed. But in space, there’s nothing to push or pull against, so movement must be a reaction. A bullet fired from a gun kicks the hearth backwards. Hot gas leaving a rocket kicks the spacecraft forward.
25. How does a satellite stay in orbit?
To stay in orbit near the planet, a satellite must travel at about 8 kilometres per second. Once it’s gone into orbit, it’ll remain to circle almost indefinitely. However, if it’s but about 200 kilometres above the planet, the slight dragging effect of the earth’s outer atmosphere will cause it to lose speed and height, and after some years it’s going to use up sort of a meteor.
26. How does a spacecraft return to Earth?
All spacecraft must find the simplest way of slowing down from a speed of the many kilometres per second to relinquish the crew, or cargo, a sucker down. The landing is sometimes done by parachute, but the space vehicle glides down.
27. How do astronauts suspire space?
Our air contains several different gases. the foremost important one is oxygen since this is often what we must inhale order to measure. So astronauts must take an oxygen supply in their cabin and in their spacesuits. Another problem is a way to get obviate the waste of CO2 that’s breathed out. It may be absorbed by chemicals, but on a really long flight, it’d be essential to extract and recycle the oxygen so it may be used again.
28. How do astronauts speak to every other?
If they’re outside the spacecraft or on the Moon’s surface, they need to talk by radio, since sound cannot travel in empty space. However, if they’re
within the atmosphere of the cabin, they will talk normally to every other.
29. How does astronaut make Space Walks?
A person can walk as long as he’s on the surface of a planet where gravity pulls his feet down onto the bottom. In space, an astronaut can only float alongside his spacecraft to which he’s tied by a security line.
30. How will we measure the gap to the moon?
The speed of sunshine is extremely accurately known. It is 299,792 kilometres per second in space. If a lightweight the beam is aimed towards the Moon and reflected back, the space to the moon may be puzzled out.
31. How do unmanned space vehicles work?
Several different forms of unmanned spacecraft are sent to the moon. Some went into orbit around it and took detailed photographs. Others have landed on the surface and tested the conditions there sending messages by radio to the planet. they need television cameras to let the operators see where they’re going. It can start and stop at will, turn corners, and take samples of the lunar dust.
32. How did Apollo get to the Moon?
Apollo which made the primary manned landing in 1969, had to travel piecemeal. First, it had been shot up into Earth orbit then it flew to the Moon and went into lunar orbit. The space vehicle then descended to the surface, leaving the module awaiting its return.
33. How did the Apollo astronauts explore the Moon?
The astronauts most vital task was to gather samples of the lunar rocks and soil. within the first three missions, they explored by foot. within the last three, they used a lunar rover.
34. How did the Lunar Rover work?
The lunar rover was a four-wheeled buggy driven by electric batteries. Its top speed was about 12 kilometres per hour, and it had enough power to travel about 65 kilometres before its batteries dried-up. The last three Apollo flights took a rover.
The rover could carry two astronauts and about 180 kilograms of cargo. It had several cameras and televisions fitted to its frame.
35. How is the space shuttle launched?
The shuttle is launched into space attached to two booster rockets and a huge fuel tank. As it reaches a height of about 43 kilometres, the two booster rockets parachute back to earth. To return, the shuttle fires its engines to head earthwards and glides down.
36. How is the space shuttle used?
The space shuttle is a workshop it carried the space lab into the orbit. Its job is to carry the astronauts, or cargo else both, into orbit around the earth. It can carry or hold six passengers at a time and has a cargo bay 18.3 metres long and 4.6 metres in diameter.
37. Who discovered Jupiter’s Moons?
Galileo Galilei was one of the first people to point a telescope to the sky, making several very in important discoveries. Turning his instrument to the planets he saw that Jupiter has four bright satellites.
38. Who discovered how planets move?
Johannes Kepler 15711630 discovered the true shape of the planets’ orbits around the sun, which are not circles but ellipses. An ellipse has two points within it, each one called a ‘focus’. The sun is situated at one focus, the other one being empty
39. Who discovered Uranus?
William Herschel built the largest telescope of the age 17381822 and discovered the planet Uranus as well as thousands of new objects inside our own galaxy and other galaxies far away.
40. Who was Laika?
Laika, a small Eskimo dog, was the first living thing to be sent into orbit around the Earth. She was launched from the Soviet Union in Sputnik 2 on 3 November 1957.
41. What is Comet?
A comet is an icy body just a few kilometres across orbiting the sun. Particles the size of dust and sand are mixed with the ice. When the comet passes near the sun, the heat turns the ice to gas and the dust pours out into space, making the comet look hazy and perhaps giving it a long tail as well.
42. What is a variable star?
A variable star changes in brightness. Some take a few hours, while others may take many years. Most are swelling and shrinking, becoming brighter and fainter as they do so. Others are pairs of stars, which seem to change in brightness when one passes in front of the other.
43. What is a binary star?
A binary star consists of two stars revolving around each other. The closer they are the faster they revolve. Some binaries take just a few hours to go around once, while others take thousands of years.
44. What are Red Giants and White Dwarfs?
When a star is born, it usually shines steadily for hundreds of millions of years. But eventually, many stars start to puff outwards as a fiery mist. This is the red giant stage. Finally, they shrink into a very hot globe, the size of a planet-a white dwarf.
45. What are Novae and supernovae? Both of these objects are exploding stars, which erupt almost overnight. Several Novae occur our galaxy every year, and some can be seen with
the naked eye.
46 What is a pulsar?
After a supernova explodes, all that is left of a star is a very hot ball of matter a few kilometres across, spinning at a tremendous rate. It sends out a beam of light or radio waves like a revolving searchlight so that it seems to ‘pulse’ on and off. It is called a pulsar,
47. Why can’t we see other solar systems?
The nearest star is over a quarter of a million times as far away as the sun. At this distance, even a large planet would be invisible in the biggest telescope.
48. Why is there life on earth?
All living beings from human beings to bacteria will die if it becomes too hot or too cold, or if there is no air to breathe. No other planet in the solar system has favourable conditions for Earth-like life.
49. Why is there no weight in space?
Weight is the force you feel when the floor, or a chair, stops you from falling towards the centre of the earth. If a hole opened in the ground, you would be weightless while falling down it. This is known as a ‘free fall’. Flying through space everything is in free fall.
50. What is the difference between a planet and a moon? A planet is a dark body orbiting a star. It can only be seen by the starlight it reflects. Almost all the planets in the solar system reflect light from the sun. A moon (or satellite) also shines by reflection, but it revolves around a planet.
51. Why do the moon wax and wane?
The sun can shine (bright) on only one half or hemisphere of the moon. Since it orbits the earth every month, our view of this hemisphere changes. At New Moon, it is turned away from the Earth, and cannot be seen, while at the full moon it is turned towards us. After full, the moon’ waves” or shrinks to invisibility once more.
52. Why is the moon covered with craters?
The lunar craters were probably formed during the first few hundred million years of the moon’s 4500 million year history. They are practically unchanged today because the lunar globe cooled down quickly and preserved them and there is no atmosphere to produce winds and weather, which could have worn these features away.
53. Why is the new moon invisible?
The true new moon lies almost between the Earth and the Sun. The sun is so dazzling that nothing can be seen near it. Also, the night hemisphere of the moon is turned towards the earth.
54. Why is there no life on the Moon?
The life forms that are familiar to us need air and water, as well as protection from some dangerous rays sent out by the sun. The moon has no atmosphere, no water on its surface, and it is completely exposed to space. Also, the temperature of atmosphere at midday is higher than that of boiling water.
55. Why is Mars a dead world?
The two Viking spacecraft which reached the planet in 1976 and examined its surface did not find any sign of life. They also discovered that the temperature is always below freezing point, and the atmosphere is thin and unbreathable.
56. Which planet spins the fastest?
Jupiter, which is the largest of the planets in the Solar System, spins on its axis in the shortest time, only 9 hours and 50 minutes.
57. Why is Mars red?
This red dusty material covers to the planet’s surface and in sometimes blown into huge dust in of the reason storms.
58. Why is Venus so hot?
Although it is always cloudy, enough sunlight breaks through to heat, the ground during its four-year ‘day’.
59. Why is it difficult to see mercury?
These appearances are known as ‘elongations’. At eastern elongation, it is low in the western sky after sunset. At western elongation, it rises in the dawn sky. At these times it looks like a star.
60. What is the Milky Way?
This band is caused by distance stars, which cannot be separated with the by the naked eye.
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Contact me to purchase, print, or use commercially.
From the Sunrise Center it's easy to get right next to the massive Mount Rainier. On this early morning I had already been up all night watching the stars and Milky Way over the mountain, and watching the night time ascent of many headlamps. The sun was just starting to peep up in the East, creating a sweet purple and pink hue in the sky.


...Like A Record, Babies, Right Round, Round, Round...
Or maybe you spin me right round like the way the earth rotates on it's axis.
This week and next are dedicated to the theme of "Constellations, Space & Our Solar System" at Mauren and Zoe's preschool. And I love it! I am simply bursting, brimming, my cup is runnething all over the floor and I don't care... I am impressed! Mauren and Zoe came home from school yesterday just filled with so much knowledge. With a couple of geeks for parents, it'll likely be difficult for all our 'apples' to fall far from our nerd trees. We spend a lot of time talking about science concepts at home, but we've not gone into a lot of depth when it comes to the solar system.
Some reportings on the day's learning:
-The girls know the creation myths about the constellations of Hydra, Ursa Minor and Leo. They also 'mapped' these constellations.
-Each girl was able to design and create a myth story about their own constellation. Mauren's is called 'The Magic Carpet' and Zoe's is called 'Ariel, The Mermaid' (they probably owe royalty rights to Disney for creating these constellations!).
-The girls now know that the Moon is a trickster. It seems like she makes her own light, but really she just reflects the sun's light back to us.
-The girls can act out the elliptical path the earth takes around the sun. They know the sun is our 'star' and that it is very hot. They know we are the 'third planet from the sun' and can recognize the names of the planets when I list them, but not recite them...yet. They also can act out the path the moon takes on it's path around the Earth. And they know that this path is called an 'orvit'...I tried to convince them it was called an orbit, but doubt remains...their teachers are pretty smart, I don't know mom, you might not be right about that.
I've long enjoyed how filled with wonder, enchantment, imagination and ideas my kids are upon spending a day surrounded by other kids and nurturing teachers at their school--and today I am filled with wonder at the capacity to learn my kids each have.
Our weekend homework project is to create a model solar system. This should be interesting and I think it will be best to divide and conquer so each girl doesn't overly influence one another's interpretation. I'll update our progress on our attempts at [mildly] intelligent designers next week. Is this project the gateway to dioramas and science fair projects? Already? Bring it on!


Me four 5 de Mayo !!!
DC Comics & Marvel iPhone Chara-Covers, $28 each, available on Fab
Fab is currently having a sale on the much anticipated DC & Marvel iPhone Chara-Covers right now, which were previewed at San Diego Comic Con 2012. They Chara-Covers will be in stores early Spring 2013, but grab one on sale from now till Tuesday!
This 3,400-square-foot Mylar solar sail was tested in 2005 in a vacuum chamber at NASA’s Plum Brook Station in Sandusky, Ohio. NASA plans to launch Sunjammer, a probe with a sail four times as big, on a yearlong cruise toward the sun in 2014.
Buzz Aldrin announces the Axe Space Academy:


Sir Isaac Newton (December 25, 1642 – March 20, 1726) was an English mathematician, astronomer, and physicist (described in his own day as a “natural philosopher”) who is widely recognised as one of the most influential scientists of all time and a key figure in the scientific revolution.
His book Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica (“Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy”), first published in 1687, laid the foundations of classical mechanics. Newton also made seminal contributions to optics, and he shares credit with Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz for developing the infinitesimal calculus.
Newton’s Principia formulated the laws of motion and universal gravitation that dominated scientists’ view of the physical universe for the next three centuries. By deriving Kepler’s laws of planetary motion from his mathematical description of gravity, and then using the same principles to account for the trajectories of comets, the tides, the precession of the equinoxes, and other phenomena, Newton removed the last doubts about the validity of the heliocentric model of the Solar System and demonstrated that the motion of objects on Earth and of celestial bodies could be accounted for by the same principles. Newton’s theoretical prediction that the Earth is shaped as an oblate spheroid was later vindicated by the geodetic measurements of Maupertuis, La Condamine, and others, thus convincing most Continental European scientists of the superiority of Newtonian mechanics over the earlier system of Descartes.
Newton also built the first practical reflecting telescope and developed a sophisticated theory of colour based on the observation that a prism decomposes white light into the colours of the visible spectrum. Newton’s work on light was collected in his highly influential book Opticks, first published in 1704. He also formulated an empirical law of cooling, made the first theoretical calculation of the speed of sound, and introduced the notion of a Newtonian fluid.
In addition to his work on calculus, as a mathematician Newton contributed to the study of power series, generalised the binomial theorem to non-integer exponents, developed a method for approximating the roots of a function, and classified most of the cubic plane curves.
Newton was a fellow of Trinity College and the second Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge. He was a devout but unorthodox Christian, who privately rejected the doctrine of the Trinity and who, unusually for a member of the Cambridge faculty of the day, refused to take holy orders in the Church of England.
Beyond his work on the mathematical sciences, Newton dedicated much of his time to the study of alchemy and biblical chronology, but most of his work in those areas remained unpublished until long after his death.
Politically and personally tied to the Whig party, Newton served two brief terms as Member of Parliament for the University of Cambridge, in 1689–90 and 1701–02. He was knighted by Queen Anne in 1705 and he spent the last three decades of his life in London, serving as Warden (1696–1700) and Master (1700–1727) of the Royal Mint, as well as president of the Royal Society (1703–1727).


The Indian National Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is the space agency of the Government of India headquartered in the city of Bengaluru. Its vision is to “harness space technology for national development while pursuing space science research and planetary exploration.”
Formed in 1969, ISRO superseded the erstwhile Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRC) which was established in 1962 by the Government of India. ISRO launched India’s first satellite, Aryabhata, in 1975. It was named after the mathematician Aryabhata.
In 1980, Rohini became the first satellite to be placed in orbit by an Indian-made launch vehicle, SLV-3. ISRO has successfully launched more than 100 satellites, including India’s first Mars orbiter, Mangalyaan, making it the fourth space agency to reach Mars, as well as the first Asian nation to do so.
The first Indian to travel to space is Rakesh Sharma an astronaut from the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). He has also been honoured with the Hero of the Soviet Union title. Sharma was part of the STS-51-L mission, which was conducted by the United States space agency, NASA.
He is a former Indian Air Force pilot who flew on the Soyuz T-11 mission in 1984. He spent 7 days, 21 hours, and 40 minutes in space. He is a retired Air Force pilot and currently works as a commercial pilot.
Rakesh Sharma is one of the most famous astronauts in India. He was the first Indian to journey into space, and his stories of his time in space are truly inspiring. Sharma has said that his time in space was an amazing experience, and that he felt a great sense of accomplishment when he returned to Earth. He has also said that he is proud to be an Indian and to have been the first Indian in space.
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NASA’s uncrewed Orion capsule passed its final exam today, surviving a fiery atmospheric re-entry and splashing down in the Pacific Ocean at the end of a round-the-moon test flight.
The 25.5-day Artemis 1 mission set the stage for future moon trips with astronauts aboard, 50 years after the last Apollo moon mission.
“From Tranquility Base to Taurus-Littrow to the tranquil waters of the Pacific, the latest chapter of NASA’s journey to the moon comes to a close,” NASA spokesman Rob Navias said as Orion settled in the waters off the coast of Baja California at 9:40 a.m. PT.
Orion’s odyssey began in mid-November with the first-ever launch of NASA’s giant Space Launch System rocket and traced a route that came as close as 80 miles to the lunar surface and ranged as far out as 40,000 miles beyond the moon. Orion traveled 1.4 million miles in all.
On the way back to Earth, cameras mounted on the spacecraft’s solar array wings sent back spectacular imagery of our planet looming larger in Orion’s metaphorical windshield.
Mission managers said Orion’s descent ranked among the sternest tests of the mission. As the spacecraft hit the top part of the atmosphere at a velocity of nearly 25,000 mph, Orion’s heat shield had to weather temperatures around 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit. After that trial by fire, parachutes slowed the descent further, allowing the spacecraft to hit the ocean at about 20 mph.
Navias said it was a “textbook entry.”
A recovery team — including Navy personnel aboard the USS Portland, an amphibious transport dock ship — went out to pick up the capsule and bring it back to shore.
Over the weeks and months ahead, NASA’s Orion team will evaluate the data collected during the flight. Three mannequins were strapped into the seats of the capsule, wired up with sensors to record temperature levels, radiation exposure and the stresses of flight.
Those readings will help mission managers prepare for the Artemis 2 mission, which aims to send astronauts around the moon in the 2024-2025 time frame. That flight, in turn, is meant to pave the way for the first crewed lunar landing in more than a half-century, during an Artemis 3 mission that’s planned for no earlier than 2025.
Artemis 1’s finale came 50 years after Apollo 17 headed toward a landing in the moon’s Taurus-Littrow valley for the Apollo program’s final lunar mission.


In-Stock NOW! Thank you for supporting the Perky Nerd!
Gamora arrives on Torndune, a once-lush planet, with a mission: collect the heart of the planet. She doesn't know who sent her, why they want it, or even what the heart of a planet looks like. What she doesn't know is that her sister Nebula is in hot pursuit. Nebula has followed Gamora to Torndune in hopes of claiming the planet's heart first and shaming her sister as vengeance for the part she played in Nebula losing her arm. As they closer they get to the heart of the planet and to each other, the closer they get to uncovering the truth of what brought them there and the role may they unknowingly be playing in a twisted competition with galactic consequences.
Young Adult Novel. 400 Pages


In space, nobody can see your sheen.
As part of a new global promotion supporting the launch of its new Axe Apollo line of personal grooming products, Unilever is offering a chance for 22 people – including one Canadian – to travel to outer space with the Amsterdam-based Space Expedition Corporation (SXC).
To promote the Apollo launch, Unilever has created the Axe Apollo Space Academy and appointed famed astronaut Buzz Aldrin – who piloted the Apollo 11 spacecraft that first landed on the moon in 1969 – as its figurehead.
Global creative developed by London’s Bartle Bogle Hegarty (BBH) and adapted for the Canadian market by Union, will drive people to AxeApollo.com, where they are being asked to create an “astronaut profile” and write a submission explaining why they deserve to go to space.
The people whose submissions receive the most votes will be invited to the Axe Global Space Camp in Orlando, where the final 22 participants for the space flight will be selected based on their performance in a series of space simulation challenges.
In addition to TV, social media and experiential marketing, the Canadian campaign will feature in-store elements and a partnership with Cineplex that uses the movie chain’s D-Box motion-equipped seats during pre-roll advertising.
Other Canadian agencies involved with the campaign include Bob (experiential), Harbinger (PR and Facebook content) and Mindshare Canada (media).
Axe Apollo is the biggest brand launch in the personal grooming product’s 30-year history, said Kyle Marancos, senior brand building manager with Unilever Canada in Toronto. The product line features body spray, shower gel, deodorant and a two-in-one shampoo and conditioner.
“The brand is about helping guys look and feel their best, and nothing makes a guy look better than having a great story,” said Marancos. “This campaign is about giving guys that story.”
Axe – which is also known as Lynx in some parts of the world – has secured 22 seats aboard SXC’s suborbital spacecraft, known as the Lynx, which attains heights of more than 100 kilometres. Each seat costs a reported $100,000.


Cycle of Universe
I took inspiration from “The Last Question” by Isaac Asimov – a short science fiction story published in 1956 about humanity’s inability to prevent the eventual heat death of the universe. I was blown away by the story’s ambitious setting along with its philosophical approach in exploring the limits of existence on a cosmic scale.
Inspired by Asimov's story, my project is an interactive simulation of a universe where the user can initiate the "Big Bang" of their own universe, then look around while modifying attributes of their universe before it reaches the end of its life span. The simulated microcosm of the universe provides an opportunity to consider our existence on a cosmic scale - a perspective not often conjured up when preoccupied with the routines of day to day living.
This project was created using P5.js with WebGL. It is best experienced in full screen with the sound turned on, as the music will react to the user input alongside the visual elements, formulating an immersive interactive experience.
Documentation Link: https://www.jackchen.art/post/icm-final-project


a division or contrast between two things that are or are represented as being opposed or entirely different.
Science and religion form what is called a false dichotomy. They are represented as being opposed to one another by our own choices, not by their own attributes. Did you notice in my last post (Day 4) that the astronomer I referenced is a vatican astronomer? We sit in a place now where the church embraces and commissions its own scientific endeavors. But we also find ourselves still believing that science and faith are irreconcilable. After centuries of religion and science being in fruitful conversation with one another, we are still painting these two things as opposing forces.
Few people can understand this false dichotomy better than Galileo (link to his Wikipedia page below).¹ He was both devoutly catholic and devoutly curious. His work put him in the center of controversy. An astronomer, physicist, mathematician, philosopher, and engineer, Galileo Galilei disrupted the cherished tenants of both academia and the Roman Catholic Church.
His discoveries and subsequent publications began pulling at the threads of a tightly woven understanding of how the world (and the universe) worked. These threads, woven into the fabric of all scholarship, were adopted philosophies of Ptolemy and Aristotle and so engrained that their origins and flaws were indistinguishable. Galileo began questioning things that scholars inside and outside the church never thought questionable.
There are a few dimensions of early interpretation of the cosmos that Galileo’s work challenged. First, there is what was understood about “the heavens.” If the place where all of these objects are “the heavens,” then these objects are “heavenly bodies,” and therefore must be both perfect and immutable. The heavens can’t change, so it was thought, and the heavenly, spherical bodies could only possibly be perfectly spherical and unblemished. “And it is like the face of the Earth itself,” Galileo wrote, “which is marked here and there with chains of mountains and depths of valleys.” His observations were seen as blasphemy.
Galileo also observed what was then called a “nova” in 1604, a new star. According to Aristotelian order, the elements on the earth underwent constant change, but not so with the heavens. The heavens themselves were the unchangeable “fifth element,” incorruptible. This birth of a new star directly challenged the idea that the heavens were unchangeable.
The church’s interpretation of the Cosmos also hinged on the earth itself. Our place in the universe is at its center. This seemed a necessary position if we are to understand ourselves as the crown of God’s creation. We can hardly blame anyone for coming to this conclusion prior to telescopic observation (the exception being Copernicus). Standing on the earth and observing the motion of the “heavenly bodies” gives one the impression that the earth is static while constant motion is taking place “out there.” Galileo’s work posited that the universe was not geocentric after all, but heliocentric. You can imagine the backlash of being one of the first people to claim that humans are not the center of the universe!
One can sympathize with the immediate resistance to some of Galileo’s work. The revelations did violence to doctrinal construction held almost worldwide, by academia and the Church. These discoveries required a complete paradigm shift, a reimagining of who we are and where we are. These beliefs are wrapped up in identity, tradition, and God.
It is good to consider how far we’ve come: we once thought the earth was the center of the universe and completely unique in creative character and purpose. Now we know that the infinite number of galaxies probably contain another planet much like ours, carrying with it the possibility of intelligent life. But it also would do us well to consider how little we’ve learned from the conflict between Galileo and the Church. Galileo did not see any disparity between Scripture and scientific discovery at all. What Galileo and those who came after (and some even before) proved was not that Scripture was wrong, but that the purpose and function of Scripture was not scientific exposition.
The story of Galileo and the church has been handed down to us as a story about an epic battle between science and the Church. But it is not that at all. As I said before, Galileo was both Catholic and curious. This is the story of a man who did not find these things mutually exclusive, thus changing the way we read Scripture and changing the way humans will forever view the world.
As with all dichotomies, there is always more to the story. If you are interested in exploring the long and storied history of the “debate” between science and the church, I would highly recommend the book, Galileo’s Daughter: A Historical Memoir of Science, Faith, and Love by Dava Sobel.² Human lives are behind these big ideological concepts that we pit against one another, and human lives are intricate and complex. Sobel helps us rescue the debate from dichotomy and generalization by inviting us into the story of the person Galileo.
 Dava Sobel, Galileo’s Daughter: A Historical Memoir of Science, Faith, and Love (New York: Bloomsbury, 1999), 31.
 Sobel, 52.


The UK Space Agency is providing a £2m funding boost for organisations developing space exploration technologies, including a Rolls-Royce space reactor and the Open University’s Mars imaging technology.
The 13 projects backed by the government agency aim to accelerate space exploration by improving technology in areas such as energy, communication and resources.
Rolls-Royce will receive £249,000 of the funding to develop its space power station project. The power station would be used to power the generation of water, oxygen and rocket fuels.
“The support of the UK Space Agency has been instrumental in enabling the continued progress of the Rolls-Royce Micro-Reactor development programme,” said Abi Clayton, future programmes director, Rolls-Royce.
Rolls-Royce will use its previous expertise in nuclear to build an autonomous Micro-Reactor. The technology could also be used on Earth. It builds on Rolls-Royce’s existing partnership with the UK Space Agency to develop nuclear propulsion engines designed to halve the time it would take to travel to Mars.
Science and Innovation Minister George Freeman unveiled the funding boost as part of British Science Week, taking place 11-20 March.
“In addition to discovery breakthroughs, these projects will also ensure that people here on Earth benefit from new technology, including micro-reactor technology with the potential to support our Net Zero commitments,” said Freeman.
Other space projects to receive government backing include £100,000 to Glasgow-based Braided Communications to develop a delay-free communications tool between Earth and Mars.
Another project is Moon-RISE, which has been allocated £222,000 to create a robot that will look for oxygen and water in rocks on the Moon. The robot will use LIDAR (light detection and ranging) to map the Moon’s surface and a LIBS (laser induced breakdown spectrometer) to examine mineral composition.
The UK has invested £180m in the five years prior to 2019 in the European Space Agency’s global exploration programme and is expected to build parts of the Lunar Gateway space station.


Stargazing, ghost stories, and music at The Matchless
Experience the Matchless Mine in a whole new way!
The Matchless Mine has one of the best views of the night sky due to low light levels in the area. Join us for stargazing, ghost stories, music, and smore cookies around the "campfire". Saturday, July 13th, 8:00 pm. Please bring a cash donation to benefit the restoration and preservation of the site's hoist house.
About the Museum
Explore our 25,000 sq.ft. of interactive and informative exhibits!


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Clubs & Societies Directory
CU Spaceflight is a student run society developing space and near-space projects. We've launched high altitude balloons to over 36km and high power rockets to 8km, collaborated with the European Space Agency to test parachutes and are designing a balloon-launched rocket to reach outer space (100km). This year we're working on refining the rocket design, testing the rocket engines, developing the embedded electronics and software for the rocket system and designing a new balloon flight computer, among other projects.
We're always excited to meet new people, especially if you're interested in space, rocketry, electronics, programming or hanging out in cool basement labs! We've got a website (cusf.co.uk), twitter (@cuspaceflight) and email (firstname.lastname@example.org) so get in touch if you want to find out more or come to our secret meetings or anything.
technology and innovation


August 9, 2012
In 2011 Wolfe Air & Gyron teamed up with JPL and NASA for a couple of months in places like Edwards Air Force Base, Furnace Creek and our base at HawthorneAirport. The purpose of the operation was to test various parameters of the landing profile for Mars Curiosity. The actual antenna array that’s now up on Mars was mounted to the nose of Wolfe Air’s A-Star helicopter for almost two months. Jim Montgomery, part of the JPL Curiosity team, said that “everybody at Wolfe Air should be proud of helping to enable a safe landing on Mars for Curiosity!”
We are indeed proud to have supported some of the nicest and smartest people on this planet while they gathered the necessary data to make the miraculous Mars landing the flawless achievement it ended up being.
CONGRATULATIONS, CURIOSITY TEAM!
Director of Marketing
Wolfe Air Aviation / Gyron Systems International


YES, VIRGINIA, THE ANCIENT GREEKS REALLY DID DISCOVER THAT THE EARTH ISN’T FLAT
SCIENCE AND CARL SAGAN’S “COSMOS”
Just finished reading Carl Sagan’s “Cosmos.” We have, here in Good Karma Homestay, a small library consisting mainly of Tom Clancy and Michael Creighton novels, several Krishnamurti biographies, a couple of ayurvedic cookbooks and a host of spiritual tomes, the last being the largest category by far. Searching for something to read the other day, I spotted Sagan’s book, a paperback at over 300 pages, and immediately waxed nostalgic recalling the excitement and awe I felt exploring the cosmos with Sagan through his PBS television series of the same name. The wonder of the beautiful colors and shapes of the galaxies, the awe of the vast distances between stars, the gorgeous nebulae of expanding universes, the mind blowing re-discovery of the science of the ancients: the Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, Persians, Mayans and the Ottomans and how much the ancients knew about the stars, the planets and the universe with not a Hubble Telescope in sight.
But what impressed me more than anything in my reading, was the science. Astronomy, Mathematics, Physics, Biology, Chemistry, Statistics – all there, all underpinning and illuminating the magnificence of the cosmos, all brought in and explained in understandable and awe inspiring terms. It’s been a long time since I thought about the fact, the scientific fact, that we and the many distant stars we see in the night sky are of the same substances. That in itself is pretty awesome and sends shivers down my spine. Plus the fact that Eratosthenes, working in the scientific center of the world at the time, Alexandria, Egypt, around 300 BC – yes, that’s right folks, 1,800 years before Columbus – proved that the earth wasn’t flat, but curved. Not only that, which to my mind is pretty damned great, he also determined that the circumference of the earth was 40,000 kilometers or 25,000 miles. Pretty much right on the money. How did he discover these facts? Through scientific investigation and experimentation involving sticks – one in Alexandria and one up in Syene about 800 kilometers up the Nile River. Pretty damned amazing!
The television program upon which the book is based, was a late 1970’s production that took the country by storm and was eagerly anticipated and watched by yours truly. The printed version of “Cosmos” was published in 1980. This is the same year that another storm shook the country, this one a political one; the election of Ronald Reagan. (You knew I would get here.) And while I would love to say that the mistrust that’s rampant around the country today towards science has nothing to do with the election of Ronald Mr. Communicator Reagan, I won’t. Because, indeed, the election of Reagan was not only the start of the conservative economic and political revolution, it also heralded the beginning of the nation’s slide into belief, opinion, conjecture and just plain bullshit as substitutes for reason, facts, data, analysis and, yes, science.
Climate change is an easy one. For thirty years we ignored the obvious. But it’s not the only arena in which the right wing culture wars have eroded methodical investigation, the weighing of alternatives, the proofs and disproofs that science and we rely on to make the decisions we need to make to ensure the health, well-being and, indeed, the survival, of our society. Today we are having national “discussions” about the age of the earth. Now that wouldn’t be so bad if such discussions were based on rational thinking or empirical data. But they are based on unscientific, ideological and religious interpretations that put the age of the earth at 4,000 or 6,000 years as opposed to the scientifically determined age of five or six billion years. Not even close. Then there is the “discussion” of how a woman can self-prevent a pregnancy due to rape. Or we could cite the ongoing argument that Darwin’s theory of evolution is bogus, because it is a theory and not fact, not that anyone has come up with a better idea, religious creationism and simultaneity notwithstanding.
I’m not a scientist. I do believe in science and the methods science uses to explore and uncover the secrets of nature and develop the products of science that we use every day. I recall when the whole “Darwin’s theory of evolution is a scientific hoax” first hit the scene back in the 1980’s and I basically thought: “Who cares? They are only religious nut cases who don’t know what they’re talking about.” I thought that all the anti-science and anti-intellectual “fads” would soon disappear like hula hoops or The Twist. Fast forward thirty years and we have state legislatures who are mandating the teaching – or “the consideration of” - alternate narratives about the age and creation of the earth as well as about Darwin’s theories of evolution. This, if you’ll pardon my French, is just fucking insane. If this “alternative” universe had been introduced by some teacher when I was in public school, he or she would surely have been fired on the spot.
From the day President Kennedy pledged that we would land a man on the moon and return him (a “her” astronaut was unthinkable) safely to earth within a decade, the entire country was hooked on the space program and the scientific study of space. We watched every launch, terrorized that something would explode, crossing our fingers until the white plume of the ascending booster rocket was no longer visible. The entire nation was glued to their living room television sets when Neil Armstrong planted his space boot on the surface of the moon and uttered “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” So can someone tell me where our space program has gone? Is NASA secretly preparing a manned mission to Mars that they haven’t told us about? No? Then where is it? We get piddly mechanical probes rather than the truly big, exciting adventure voyages space exploration should be all about that, in turn, excite people about science. NASA’s budgets keep getting smaller as time goes on since it appears that the exploration of space is no longer of interest compared to the building of $8 billion dollar apiece Eisenhower Class aircraft carriers. And the privatization of the space program hasn’t gone that well either, given that Reagan told us the private sector can always do it better; after a decade the privatized space program hasn’t really gotten off the ground yet. Yes, there is the International Space Station where we rotate trips and astronauts with Russia on Russian made rockets. Yawn!
So in reading through “Cosmos” I came to the realization that the introduction of Faith-Based- Science in our classrooms is not benign nor some passing fad as I once thought. It is symptomatic of the larger consequences of substituting conjecture and opinion for hard, scientific fact. Now, I have no problem with the teaching of religion, pseudo-scientific religion included, but not in our public schools. Private religions schools, Saturday religious classes, Sunday Summer School – absolutely. Teach away. But the erosion of confidence in science and the substitution of “notions” for facts has the greater effect of eroding confidence in ourselves, in our ability to meet the challenges that life throws at us on a daily basis. I often use the examples of why Europe, China and Japan have high speed trains and we don’t, to say nothing of China and Japan’s mag-lev trains. Why them and not us? Why is our infrastructure so badly deteriorated when this is not the case elsewhere in the high-income countries around the world? Why do Europeans have cheaper, faster internet service than we do?
Why is there even the slightest hint of a discussion that vaccinations cause autism? It’s been proven scientifically that this is not the case. And yet this “notion” persists.
Science is not the be all and end all of life. But if you take a look at the history of the world, the ancient civilizations that lasted the longest, like China, Greece, Egypt, Rome, the Ottomans, they all had very inquisitive natures and exhibited a high level of scientific inquiry. In a way, it makes a great deal of sense – if you want to ensure that your civilization is a long and productive one, then your people had better be curious about what happens around them and strive to find out what’s up so that you don’t suddenly find your civilization blown away by a virus you didn’t take heed of and failed to investigate its life-cycle. Or you self-destruct because you still believe that comets are messengers from the gods that portend the end of your divine monarch’s reign.
I do so hate blaming the entire collapse of American society on Ronald Reagan. Well, let me restate that. As a matter of fact, I love blaming the entire collapse of American society on Ronald Regan. But not because I believe he was the cause, at least directly. But it was during his Administration that the seeds of the conservative revolution were planted and took swift root. And these seeds included the anti-science, anti-intellectual seeds that have pretty much come into full flower today. The really scary part of this anti-science, anti-intellectualism meme, is that it might just be intentional since if you can’t prove through facts and data that “cutting taxes creates jobs” but no one cares because to do so would involve some sort of objective inquiry and analysis and no one can be bothered about such pesky nonsense, then you’re home free aren’t you?
As Sagan points out, we quite possibly, if not probably, are living on a unique planet populated with unique animals we call human beings. And this despite the billions upon billions of potential solar systems with planetary systems encircling one or more suns out there in the cosmos. From the most common of the cosmic elements, hydrogen and helium, worked and wrought by storms of radiation, the detritus of stars exploding, worlds collapsing upon themselves, waves of elementary particles shooting through the endless cosmos, we - our planet and us - were lucky enough out of the billions upon billions of possible combinations to have of been given the gift of life on the precious, fragile world that we call Earth. And we know this through science, not religion, not mythology, not conjecture or opinion but hard, tough, methodical science. It’s time we put science back into its proper place in our lives and our society and tell those anti-science, anti-intelligence, ignorant humans that they are just plain wrong.
So tonight, if it’s not too cold or hot where you are and the sky is clear, go outside. Stand out in the open. Gaze up to the dark night sky filled with distant stars billions and billions of miles and billions and billions of light years in time away from us and take in all its wonders. And know that, no, you didn’t make that, but it surely did make you.
PS: Although Al Gore is probably third on the conservative’s list of greatest Satanic influences on America after Obama and Hillary, his book “The Assault on Reason” is worth reading. In it he describes the long descent into this age of anti-science and anti-intelligence, the impacts of this “movement” and how we got there.
PPS: I just discovered that Seth MacFarlane has created a docuseries called “Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey” in tribute to Carl Sagan. Will definitely catch it.


Australian Association Of Radiation Mitigation Professionals have conducted 44 years of research with AUSI, Australien Universal Space Industries & various national space agencies around the world.
From this research it has been concluded that the year (666 x 3), 1998 was the end of the fifth Sun & the beginning of the sixth Sun, for this is when our Sun began to expand into a Red Giant.
Our star, the sun, was born in the heavens about 4.5 billion years ago. Our sun is about 1/3 of the way through its expected life. Scientists are now predicting the following events during the remaining life of our star. In the next 1.1 billion years, its brightness will increase by 10%. This will super-heat our planet as a result of a severe greenhouse effect. All of the oceans on earth will boil away and all life will be destroyed. In approx 8 billion years the expanding Sun will swallow & incinerate planet earth. Apparently planet Mars will not be incinerated by the expanding Sun, so it is possible that humanity can live on Mars for many billions of years where as all life on planet earth will be extinct in 1 billion years due to Solar radiation.
The very large global population of humanity is placing alot of strain on the earths biosphere & it is quite possible that if not appropriate action is taken, then humanity could become extinct somewhere between 7000 years into the future to 500 million years into the future or definitely 1 billion years into the future humanity will become extinct due to solar radiation.
There are a number of ways to remedy the situation . . .
 The primary way to remedy the situation involves the global construction of renewable energy infrastructure using robotics, this is called RREIC, Robotic Renewable Energy Infrastructure Construction. Alot of work has been done all round the world developing prototype renewable energy technology & most of these prototypes have been tested & put into use, achieving good results in energy outputs. Now is the time to begin to implement RREIC, Robotic Renewable Energy Infrastructure Construction & it will take awhile for the basic systems to be outlined by collectives of renewable energy experts from all round the world. We have seen what can be achieved but actually implementing the technology will require robotic systems. The following basic outline of renewable energy technology has already put into use & note each of the following can be broken up into many forms of different technology.
Marine current power
Ocean thermal energy conversion
RREIC, Robotic Renewable Energy Infrastructure Construction . . .
Robotic Biofuel cultivators . . .
Robotic Biomass cultivators . . .
Robotic Geothermal energy infrastructure construction . . .
Hydroelectricity expanded using robotic construction methods . . .
Robotic Solar energy infrastructure construction . . .
Robotic Tidal power infrastructure construction . . .
Robotic Wave power infrastructure construction . . .
Robotic Wind power infrastructure construction . . .
Robotic Osmotic power infrastructure construction . . .
Robotic Marine current power infrastructure construction . . .
Robotic Ocean thermal energy conversion infrastructure construction . . .
Transport & machinery can then be powered by renewable energy & there will be a surplus of energy produced which can then be used for outerspace colonization.
 The secondary method to remedy the situation is to build spacecraft not cars, we want to live on mars, this will involve massive retooling & spacecraft will be constructed to transport very large numbers of people to the Moon, Mars & other places in our solar system & possibly foreign solar systems as well.
See attached PDF Files for further information . . .
[EOF] End Of File . . .


I have thoroughly enjoyed my journey being in the Science Technology Engineering Math (STEM) Education field since 2010. It was quite a novel idea back then and it fueled my passion for doing something different, unique and not following the trend.I am more of a leader and a trendsetter.
My new venture is an exciting derivative of STEM Education that is Space Science Education. My partner, Nahyan Farooq, and I co-founded the Pakistan Space Science Education Centre (PSSEC) 3 years ago in March 2015. Nahyan is the Chief Design Officer (CDO) at PSSEC and he came up with the idea of pioneering Space Science Education in Pakistan.PSSEC is a specialist space-themed educational initiative providing activities, in the context of Space Science principally around the exploration of MARS. PSSEC provides access to practices of specialized and unique laboratory experiences and scenario-based activities. PSSEC is a strong proponent of women empowerment and all our experiences have catered to girls from all socioeconomic backgrounds equally at all the places we have been including students and educators alike.
PSSEC has introduced a novel concept involving a simulated Mars Surface made out of the red sand, rocks involving asphalt, limestone, and mudstone imitating the cracked up surface of Mars, covered inside a domed structure. A stream of pebbles is laid out in the middle of the surface to show the signs of dried up river bed imitating the Martian topography.
Our flagship experience is Mission to Mars 2025 in which we offer experiences like Scientific Research, Rover Engineering, Astronaut Suit Designing, Astronaut Healthcare Training, Smart Lander Engineering and others.
With PSSEC my mission is to cater to the scarcity of Space Science Education related facilities providing knowledge-based experiential learning and hands-on opportunities to the children at the primary, secondary and high school level. Since its onset PSSEC has trained 756 students and 80 teachers in three different cities including Tharparkar, known to contain the world’s 7th largest coal reserves.
STEM Education Professional | FIRST Global Award Judge | FIRST Lego League Coach | World Robot Olympiad (WRO) National Organizer ROBOTICS | STEM EDUCATION | EDTECH | SPACE SCIENCE


Gemini Full Moon
Note: Due to DSL internet problems, this is posting a couple of days late. The Gemini full moon was Friday. Thanks for understanding.
Tonight we are experiencing the Gemini full moon. When the moon is full, the sun and moon are in opposition to one another, relative to the Earth; the Earth is between them. We know, then, that whatever sign the sun is in, the full moon will be in the opposite sign. The sun is in Sagittarius, and so tonight the moon is in Gemini. Full phase lasts about two and a half days, though the opposition is mathematically exact, within one degree, for about two hours. This was Friday afternoon.
The full moon is known to be an intense time. Bartenders, cops, ER docs, cabbies and waitresses can't all be having paranormal delusions, noticed by anybody except the editor of the Skeptical Enquirer. And why wouldn't it be an intense time, with the Earth dangling between the sun and moon, and with all its people feeling the polarity of gravity and other forms of energy? Don't ask modern rational thinking, which says that nothing matters except for guns and money. Ask a witch instead.
Astrological signs work as polarities; there are twelve signs in the zodiac, and six polarities, and the opposing signs don't so much contradict as contain one another. Once you get into that kind of subject matter, studying the meaning of the opposite signs, you're really doing astrology -- and it's easy.
The astrological signs are illustrated in the ancient Tarot, but in none so well as the Thoth Tarot by Aleister Crowley and Lady Freida Harris. Crowley, the notorious occultist and magus, proudly hated equally by the secret orders and the Christians, designed his deck through much of his life. In the 40s, Lady Freida was commissioned to paint it, a job which took five years. It was finally published decades later, around 1969, long after Crowley had died. Along with the Rider-Waite deck, it is one of the most influential modern interpretations of an ancient oracle and game. (Most modern decks follow the path of Crowley's deck, or Waite's.)
Crowley puts a lot of astrology into his cards, making the deck an essential tool for any student of astrology. So to illustrate the Gemini/Sagittarius polarity, I will use his cards that represent those signs, The Lovers (for Gemini) and Art (sometimes called Temperance, for Sagittarius).
The Lovers, representing Gemini, is the sixth card in the Major Arcana. (There are two decks in the Tarot, the Minor Arcana, comprised of the suits, such as pentacles and wands, and the other, comprised of major figures, archetypes, angels, etc., called the Major Arcana). Art is the fourteenth of the majors.
The Lovers represents the principle of duality; polarity itself, generally, the most important polarity in the world, that between self and other. In other ages, this card was called The Brothers and both figures were male; in modern decks they are usually male and female, though old Therion (Crowley) never hesitates to toss us back to earlier traditions, depicting both figures in his card as women. Their opposition quality is depicted by one being black and the other white; the same is true for the two children, but notice their positions.
Note also that there are a lion and an eagle, symbols of Leo and Scorpio, respectively. These are not exactly opposites, but they are a strong contrast of symbols (representing two of the fixed signs). Note the figure behind them, blessing their sacred union. Crowley tells us that this is another form of the Hermit (from Trump IX), or Mercury, the ancient planetary ruler of Gemini. Above is Eros, or Cupid.
There is, in this card, the attempt or initiation of the integration of opposites in a true meeting, with the gods smiling on them. We know that Gemini people are genuinely dualistic, that they work in this kind of inner polarity relationship, be it good/bad, masculine/feminine, light/dark, whatever. Leatherboy biker dude might show up at the Oregon Country Fair in a dress, if he's a Gemini. Let's hope the two or four or eight attributes can find time in their busy day to talk to one another.
Bikers in dresses aside, Crowley says that the bottom line on this card is the creation of the world, this world being made almost entirely of dualities.
Art, or Temperance, representing Sagittarius, is the image of these opposites being fully integrated. It is a new world. The process, now complete, has taken on a creative life of its own. There is one being, involved in the process of alchemy. The one is seen as having many facets. The card is comprised of many of the same elements, including both women (now one, with four breasts, said by Crowley to be a form of Isis), and the lion and eagle, who have joined in the alchemical project, though having reversed colors -- they thus contain one another. The presence of the gods is no longer necessary; divinity has been attained through conscious integration of what seemed to be separate soul and personality, light and dark.
There is an inscription, which reads, "Visit the interior parts of the Earth; by rectification, though shalt find the hidden stone." In Latin, the initials of this statement make the acronym VITRIOL, the Universal Solvent (occultism is full of these games). The "hidden stone" is the Universal Medicine. Do we have the notion here that by going to the core of ourselves and rectifying what we find, we can acquire a solvent that dissolves all problems, and a medicine that heals all ills?
Looked at another way, we move from the creation of the world in The Lovers to the creation of the universe in Art. The theme of universality is very much a keynote of Sagittarius, whether you take this on the level of Sagittarius being the location of the center of our Milky Way galaxy (the local universe), or Sagittarius being the sign associated with knowledge, or the knowledge of self, or of world culture: the esoteric sign of the Earth, which I will get to when this series continues next week.
Full moon blessings at moonrise, from Puget Sound.


Over the years, more and more Arizona towns, cities and national parks have received a certification from the International Dark Sky Association (IDA), bringing back clear night skies.
On Monday, the Cave Creek Dark Skies Initiative will be holding an event at the Desert Foothills library from 7- 9 p.m. to inform residents of light pollution and the benefits of dark skies, in hope of Cave Creek becoming a certified town.
“It’s (event) is going to be fascinating, really,” Bruce Arlen, co- founder of the Cave Creek Dark Skies Initiative said. “Cave Creek has been playing around with being a dark skies community for a long time.”
Arlen stated he hopes to add Cave Creek to the strategic map of the Dark Skies in Arizona, along with: Flagstaff, Sedona, Tucson, Fountain Hills, Camp Verde and the Grand Canyon.
However, the steps to becoming a certified town will be rigorous.
“We will be part of the chess board for dark skies,” Arlen said.
The event will include special guest speakers, such as: the mayor, the director of the Maricopa County Parks and Recreation department and local astronomers, Dr. John Barentine of the IDA and Dr. Jeffrey Hall, Director of Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff.
“It’ all about education,” Arlen said.” It’s primarily self-compliance through education, through knowledge.”
The event will also have an extensive Q&A to give attendees an opportunity to ask experts any questions they have about the effort.
“We are opening up to the public to show our intentions and to become transparent,” Arlen said. “I want everyone who has questions to be able to ask an expert.”
Arlen added he is very excited to introduce the idea of dark skies to the Cave creek community.
“I’ve been dreaming about this for a long time,” Arlen said. “We moved to Cave Creek for the dark skies.”
One of the major concerns of the Dark skies initiative is how the light pollution from Cave Creek is affecting the Tonto National Forrest.
“Cave Creek is the last bastion in the northeast section of Maricopa County holding back the light pollution going into the Tonto National Forrest.
Robert Hughes, co- founder of Cave Creek Dark Skies, along with Arlen, said dark skies will not only benefit our national parks, but also the merchants in the area.
Hughes added that while many merchants have not been open to the idea of dark skies because they want to keep their lights for advertisement, the movement will actually help people see their businesses and signs better.
“If you go to Fountain Hills at night, you can see all the businesses and signs very clearly,” Hughes said.
Both founders have expressed their excitement for exposing local residents to all the benefits of being a dark skies community and hope after the event, the process of making changes in the community will speed up.
“If we are going to become a dark skies community, there is going to have to be some changes,” Hughes said.
Emily Ditmasso is a senior, student journalist at Arizona State University.


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Watch live as SpaceX launches another 23 Starlink satellites into orbit on Sunday (19 November).
Today’s launch follows on from SpaceX’s launch of its Starship aircraft, the world’s most powerful rocket, on Saturday.
The two-stage rocketship blasted off from the Elon Musk-owned company’s Starbase launch site near Boca Chica in Texas on Saturday, helping boost the spacecraft as high as 148km (90 miles) above ground on a planned 90-minute test mission to space and back.
The rocket’s Super Heavy first stage booster, though it achieved a crucial manoeuvre to separate with its core Starship stage, exploded over the Gulf of Mexico shortly after detaching. Meanwhile, the core Starship stage boosted further toward space, but a few minutes later mission control lost contact with the vehicle.
Eventually, SpaceX hopes that Starship will fly to the Moon and help with missions to Mars. But first it must undergo a series of uncrewed tests to ensure it is safe.
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Sahara by MoonlightPhotographer: Jason Hill
Looking east into Algeria, this photo was taken from the top of a dune in the Sahara Desert near Merzouga, Morocco at midnight on April 27, 2015. Moonlight makes the dunes visible, while the Milky Way can be seen in the sky.
Pentax K-3, Sigma 10-20mm 4-5.6 @ 10mm, bulb, 88s @ F4, HDR


In Johnston County, NC the peak of the eclipse event will take place at around 2:30PM-2:45PM. This means that around that time on this coming Monday the 21st, about 93% of the sun will be covered by the moon. This total eclipse, though not quite total in our area, is a once in a lifetime event that will be celebrated at eclipse viewing parties across the county (which we have linked below).
Selma’s Eclipse Viewing Party – Selma Parks & Rec are organizing this “Get Mooned” party to be held on the lawn of the Harrison Center for Active Aging from 1:30PM-3:30PM. This particular spot was deemed optimal for viewing. People are encouraged to bring their own chairs and viewing glasses as none will be made available. Kona Ice will be on hand selling snow cones and there will be music and games provided.
The “All-American” Eclipse Viewing Party in Clayton – Bring a blanket or a chair to the Town Square in Clayton from 1PM-4PM where the Hocutt-Ellington Memorial Library will be hosting an eclipse event. There will be eclipse maps, games, and experiments for everyone to enjoy. In addition, the library will have official eclipse viewing glasses to hand-out at the event while supplies last. If the weather is bad on Monday the library will have an indoor viewing party of the eclipse event live from NASA.
End of Summer Eclipse Party in Four Oaks - Come celebrate at Four Oaks Barbour Grove Park Gazebo End of Summer, Back to School and Total Solar Eclipse Celebration with hot dogs, drinks,and a movie. Bring your own chairs, blankets and eclipse glasses. Start at 1PM and goes until.
Solar Eclipse Party at the Smithfield Recreation and Aquatics Center - Starting at 10AM and going noon, celebrate the Solar Eclipse with swimming, crafting, and enjoying some snacks before the big event! Smithfield Residents: $3, Non Residents: $5 SRAC members are FREE!
An eclipse event is a strange spectacle to experience. As the sky grows dark birds sing nighttime songs, the air grows cooler, and stars will appear. It is this darkness in the middle of the day that makes the eclipse both fascinating and dangerous. There are two specific safety areas to discuss during the eclipse. One is viewing safety and the other is travel safety.
If you have not been able to secure eclipse glasses, those are not the only safe way to view the solar eclipse. The idea is not to look directly into the sun even through camera lenses or sunglasses. Below we have included a link to a tutorial on how to build an eclipse viewer using an old shoe box. This also doubles as a fun experiment/craft activity for children.
To those visitors, tourists, and motorist traveling I-95 on Monday please be aware and alert of changing light and traffic conditions. If your car does not have automatic headlights, please turn them on as it grows darker so that cars on the road can easily see you. In addition, be on the look-out for slow moving or stopped vehicles whose drivers may be trying to view the eclipse and drive at the same time (not advisable). In addition, do not pull over on the side of the highway to view the eclipse. Be vigilant and smart when driving during the eclipse event. Also, be aware that parts of I-95 in South Carolina are in the path of totality and will get completely dark during the eclipse event.
We want everyone in Johnston County, and traveling through the county, to stay safe while enjoying this momentous event.
P.S. Waiting on this eclipse to get here has us like...


Earth was not always an oxygen-rich world. Researchers believe that the atmosphere will return to a methane-rich, low-oxygen state in the future.
This is unlikely to happen in any of our lifetimes. In fact, this is not possible for at least a billion years or so. But according to research published in Nature Geoscience earlier this year, when this happens, the change will happen faster. This change will return Earth to the same state it existed before the 2.4 billion year old Great Oxidation Event (GOE).
The increased solar radiation will eliminate the aquatic atmosphere from our planet’s surface in about 2 billion years. The researchers used a comprehensive model of Earth’s biosphere to derive their discoveries, taking into account fluctuations in the Sun’s brightness. Less carbon dioxide causes fewer photosynthetic organisms such as plants, which means fewer oxygen-producing species.
Furthermore, the scientists behind the current study say that atmospheric oxygen in general is expected to be a persistent feature of Earth-like planets. These are the results of human efforts to find evidence of further life in the universe.
Researchers believe that we may need to look for biosignatures other than oxygen to be most likely to find life. Their research is part of NASA’s NEXSS (Nexus for Exoplanet System Science) initiative, which looks at the habitability of planets other than Earth. According to their estimates, Earth may only survive 20-30% of the planet’s total lifespan, with microbial life continuing long after humans and other large species have disappeared.


You want edge computing? How about 250 miles straight up? HP Enterprise has announced that the Spaceborne Computer-2 (SBC-2) on the International Space Station (ISS) has successfully completed 24 research experiments in less than a year.\nThe SBC-2 is the first in-space commercial edge computing and AI-enabled system to run on the ISS, according to HPE, and was installed in May 2021. The experiments involved real-time data processing and testing of new applications to prove reliability in space to increase autonomy for astronauts. HPE said the experiments reduced the time-to-insight from days and months to minutes.\n\nSBC-2 consists of HPE\u2019s Edgeline Converged EL4000 Edge system, which is designed to perform in harsher edge environments, including space. SBC-2 is also made up of the HPE ProLiant DL360 high-performance server designed for workloads like HPC, and AI.\nThe supercomputer is designed to help astronauts avoid the need to send data down to earth for processing, and just process it in space. This will be especially useful as humans travel beyond Earth orbit to the moon, Mars, and beyond.\nFor example, HPE described how it previously needed 12.2 hours to transfer 1.8 GB of raw DNA sequence data to Earth for initial processing. With SBC-2, researchers on the ISS could process the same data in just six minutes to find meaningful insights, compress it to 92 KB, and send it to Earth in just two seconds, representing a 20,000X speed-up.\n\u201cBy introducing edge computing and AI capabilities to the International Space Station with Spaceborne Computer-2, we have helped foster a growing, collaborative research community that shares a common goal to make scientific and engineering breakthroughs that benefit humankind, on space and here on Earth,\u201d said Mark Fernandez, principal investigator of Spaceborne Computer-2 at HPE in a statement.\nThe SBC-2 has also run experiments for researchers developing space exploration capabilities, including Axiom Space, Cornell University, Cumucore, Microsoft, NASA, and Titan Space Technologies.\nOther experiments included:\n\nScanning space suits for natural erosion, rips, and cuts, that can present potential safety concerns to rapidly look for signs of damage. If damage is detected, an AI-annotated photo highlighting areas for further review by NASA engineers is generated on the space station and sent to Earth, .\nNASA\u2019s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) observes Earth from space to study science and climate, as well as support disaster response. Using SBC-2, NASA JPL tested several deep learning inference networks to automatically interpret remotely sensed images.\n3D printing in space: together with Cornell University, HPE developed a modelling software that can simulate 3D printing of metal parts and even predict failure and deformation that may result when printing in space.\nCumucore, a private mobile network, tested its 5G core network and radio-access network emulators and other features, on SBC-2, to emulate current capabilities on the base station and end-user devices in space. The experiment showed the potential to install 5G capabilities on satellites and spacecraft.\nHPE opened up SBC-2 to students in India involved in Codewars educational community to create code to calculate how much fuel is needed to go a given distance through space.