Your Name Can Travel to Titan

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Credit: NASA

You have until January 15, 2027 to share your name with NASA so it can be placed on the Dragonfly rotorcraft being sent to Saturn’s moon Titan in 2028. More than 48,000 individuals have already added their name to the mission, but there is plenty of room for more names.

The Dragonfly rotocraft is expected to arrive at Titan in 2034. The mission will last more than three years and entail many miles of travel across the moon’s surface to collect and study samples. NASA hopes to learn more about Titan, including whether the planet has any evidence of water-based or hydrocarbon-based life.

Nicky Fox, NASA’s associate administrator in its Science Mission Directorate, stated:

By flying the first-ever rotorcraft science mission, NASA will explore Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, as we search for signs of habitability on a distant world that is most similar to our own. We are excited to bring humanity along for the journey of a lifetime, and we invite everyone to send their names on this small but mighty rotorcraft that will unlock the secrets of the universe in what is widely considered one of the most exciting space missions of our lifetime.

Go to this NASA site now to add your name.

Pic of the Week: Star Trek’s Patrick Stewart

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Actor Patrick Stewart. (Eric Carter/Los Angeles Times)

This week’s image is in memory of Patrick Stewart, who died yesterday at the age of 86 at his home in Los Angeles.

Mr. Stewart will be remember for many of his roles, but his most iconic was his role as Captain Jean-Luc Picard on the starship USS Enterprise. His talents brought the Star Trek series to a whole new level that has yet to be matched.

Born in Yorkshire, England, he joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1966, the same year that the first Star Trek series premiered on television. Little did he know then, but 21 years later he would find himself on the bridge of a starship exploring the galaxy. Even Shakespeare would be impressed with this career path, yet it was just as he wrote in Twelfth Night:

Be not afraid of greatness: some are born great, some achieve greatness and some have greatness thrust upon them.

Mr. Stewart came to see his role on Star Trek as something akin to a religious ministry:

It was about truth and fairness and honesty and respect for others, no matter who they were or what strange alien creature they looked like…And if they needed help, Jean-Luc Picard and his crew, his team, were there to give it. So, yes, in a sense, we were ministers. And I have heard now so many times from individuals who have been honest enough and brave enough to tell me aspects of their life, of their health, of their mental health, and how it was all saved and improved by watching every week.”

George Takei, who played Hikaru Sulu in the original Star Trek series, had this to say about Mr. Stewart:

Fans across the world mourn the passing of a true and irreplaceable legend…As Captain Jean-Luc Picard, Patrick Stewart took the starship Enterprise to places it had never gone before, and he inspired a whole next generation of star-gazers who looked longingly ahead to a brighter future for all humanity.

You can read more on Mr. Stewart’s life and career at these sites:

National Public Radio
ABC News
BBC News

Rest in peace.

Movie: Final Trailer for Dune: Part Three

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Scene from the film Dune: Part Three. (Warner Bros.)

The final trailer for Dune: Part Three is out. The film itself will be available on December 18th.

It is a long and revealing trailer at 2 minutes and 40 seconds. Combined with the earlier trailers, we now have a broad swath of the film available to us. This will be red meat for all of the fans that want to dissect and explain each frame and compare it to the books.

One of these fan sites, Marvelous Videos, already has a video out titled “10 Hidden Details & Major Changes You Missed In Dune 3 Final Trailer.”

We still have two more months to prepare for this film and speculate about all of its content. I am fine waiting for the final product without clouding my mind with maybes. In the meantime, I plan to go back and watch the first two films again, and again.

RIP: Star Trek Actor Walter Koenig

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Walter Koenig playing Ensign Chekov about the USS Enterprise. (CBS)

Last Sunday Walter Koenig, well known for his character Ensign Pavel Chekov on the Star Trek television series, passed away at the age of 90.

Born in Chicago to a family of Russian heritage, Mr. Koenig carried of a Russian accent for years as the ensign on the USS Enterprise, representing a hopeful future at a time that the US and Soviet Union were stuck in a Cold War. He learned his accent from his father, who was an immigrant from the Soviet-bloc.

In addition to the original Star Trek series, Mr. Koenig played Chekov in seven Star Trek films that followed that series. With his passing, the only two of the original cast are still with us – William Shatner (Captain James T. Kirk) and George Takei (Hikaru Sulu).

William Shatner had this to say about his fellow Star Trek actor:

What I observed, and what so many fans have expressed over the years, was a man who genuinely loved the Star Trek community. At conventions, Walter was rarely content to remain behind a signing table. He preferred to be among the people who had kept Star Trek alive for so many decades. That kind of genuine connection is rare, and it will be remembered by everyone who came into contact with him.

You can read more on Mr. Koenig’s life and career at these sites:

Associated Press
Variety
USA Today

Rest in peace.

Space Stories: A Swift End, ESA Considers New Approach, and a Real 3-Body System

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Artist’s rendering of the Swift space telescope in orbit. (NASA)

Here are some recent space-related stories of interest.

—LiveScience: “NASA’s Swift Observatory Ends 22-year Mission to Study the Most Powerful Explosions Since the Big Bang“

A pioneering NASA space telescope is no more. In sad news for Swifties everywhere, the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory has officially ended its mission after more than 20 years of tracking the most powerful explosions in the universe since the Big Bang. According to a NASA announcement, the Swift team shut down the telescope’s science operations Tuesday (Oct. 20) after the observatory fell too low in its orbit to continue taking reliable measurements of the cosmos. In the coming weeks, Swift will drop even further, eventually passing a point of no return and taking a fiery plunge through Earth’s atmosphere.

—EuroNews: “Europe Weighs €10bn Plan to Launch Its Own Astronauts Ahead of Rome Space Summit“

Europe wants to stop depending on others to send its own astronauts into space. The next key date for deciding how to do that is 15 December in Rome, when the member countries of the European Space Agency (ESA) will meet to discuss the future of space exploration. On the table are multi-billion-euro investments, new technologies and one strategic issue: ensuring that Europe can reach Earth orbit with its own means, without relying exclusively on services provided by foreign companies. The summit, officially the Intermediate Ministerial Meeting 2026, comes at a time of transformation in the sector. Member states will have to assess proposals to strengthen Europe’s role in low Earth orbit, prepare for the post-International Space Station era and build the continent’s presence on the Moon, while also looking towards Mars. The aim is not to abandon international cooperation, but to take part in it with greater autonomy

—South China Morning Post: “Chinese Astronomers Find Real 3-body System. It Is Not What Liu Cixin Thinks“

In author and computer engineer Liu Cixin’s science fiction hit The Three-Body Problem, three suns throw a doomed world into chaos. Chinese astronomers say they have found a real three-star system that is far better behaved. Using FAST, the world’s biggest single-dish radio telescope in southwestern China, the researchers found two dead stars and a “living” one locked in a steady cosmic dance about 7,000 light years from Earth. One of the dead stars is a pulsar that spins more than 300 times a second, about as fast as the blades of a kitchen blender. It whirls around its partner, a white dwarf – the dim, burnt-out core of a smaller star – every eight days.

Note: Here is the podcast version of this post.