Movie: Dune III Returns in December 2026

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Credit: Warner Bros. Pictures

With all eyes on the Moon mission, it is worth revisiting the musings of Frank Herbert as he provided one possible path for mankind.

While the Dune: Part Three movie is not set to premiere until December, the first trailer is out to prepare us for what is to come, and it is a powerful two-and-a-half minutes. You can see bits of our favorite characters as well as new ones, including Timothee Chalamet, Zendaya, Javier Bardem, Rebecca Ferguson, Josh Brolin, Anya Taylor-Joy, Robert Pattinson, Florence Pugh, and Isaach de Bankolé.

This is a mind-bending, beautifully crafted, yet bleak story about the will to power, where one man leads his followers in a war that killed sixty-one billion humans, sterilized ninety planets, and wiped out the followers of forty religions. From this wisp of a teenager in Dune: Part One, we witness him becoming the whirlwind that darkens the galaxy.

Frank Herbert explained his fears in the introduction to his story story collection Eye:

Dune was aimed at this whole idea of the infallible leader because my view of history says mistakes made by a leader (or made in a leader’s name) are amplified by the numbers who follow without question. That’s how 900 people wound up in Guyana drinking poison Kool-Aid. That’s how the U.S. said “Yes, sir, Mister Charismatic John Kennedy!” and found itself embroiled in Vietnam. That’s how Germany said “Sieg Heil!” and murdered more than six million of our fellow human beings.

What Mr. Herbert left for us is an amazing story that continues to live on in the careful work of Denis Villeneuve. He has created a piece of art that not only entertains us but also warns us, like all good story-telling.

One of the comments from someone viewing the trailer was:

[M]y grandfather had the original star wars trilogy, my father had lord of the rings, [I] have dune.

Fortunately, all of us now have all three.

Space Quote: OMB is Just in Time to Ruin the Moon Party

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Credit: Planetary Society

“The Planetary Society is deeply disappointed by this budget proposal. The White House’s budgeting office has put forward the same budget cuts to NASA and NASA Science that were rejected by overwhelming bipartisan majorities in Congress last year. This proposal needlessly resurrects an existential threat to U.S. leadership in space science and exploration.”

-Statement from a Planetary Society press release after the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) released its proposed NASA budget for Fiscal Year 2027. The proposal would cut the overall agency budget by 23 percent and reduce the Science Mission Directorate by 47 percent. You may remember a similar attempt at cuts that was later reversed by the Congress. It appears everyone will be playing this game again this year.

Note: The budget picture above may look like a lunar landing, but it is a full-scale crash if allowed to stand. We can call the impact site “Trump Crater” filled with the remains of our space program if it cannot be reversed.

Pic of the Week: The Artemis II Crew

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Credit: NASA

This week’s image shows the Artemis II crew – NASA Commander Reid Wiseman, NASA Pilot Victor Glover, NASA Mission Specialist Christina Koch, and Canadian Mission Specialist Jeremy Hansen. It looks like a movie poster, which makes sense given that it is one of the better shows this year and lasts for 10 days.

You can find this poster and many others on the NASA images website.

You can follow the status of the mission on the main NASA page for the duration of the mission (shown below).

Credit: NASA

The Artemis II Mission is Underway

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): NASA’s Artemis II mission lifting off from Launch Complex 39B at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Wednesday, April 1, 2026. (NASA/Joel Kowsky)

The second phase of our return to the Moon, Artemis II, is underway after a successful launch from the Kennedy Space Center earlier today. Three American astronauts as well as one Canadian astronaut will circle the Moon in a 10-day mission to iron out any bugs in the Orion spacecraft.

Here is a day-by-day schedule for the 10-day mission, with a graphic version below (provided on the Planetary Society’s website):

  • Day 1: Over 24 hours in Earth orbit, the astronauts perform a proximity operations demo with the ICPS and make sure various spacecraft systems are working (water, toilet, carbon dioxide removal, communications). The crew sleeps in two four-hour periods.
  • Day 2: Orion engines fire for several minutes, accelerating the spacecraft to escape velocity and sending the crew toward the Moon on their free-return trajectory. The crew also works out on a flywheel and do video calls with people on the ground.
  • Days 3-5: Orion performs three trajectory corrections to fine-tune its approach to the Moon. The crew tests the medical kit and performs a CPR demo. On day 5, they test their spacesuits.
  • Day 6: The crew flies by the Moon, coming within 6,400-9,600 kilometers (4,000-6,000 miles) of its far side. Their maximum distance from Earth is between 370,000-450,000 kilometers (230,000-280,000 miles), depending on their launch date. This may exceed the current human record set by Apollo 13. The crew takes photographs and videos of the Moon’s far side.
  • Days 7-9: Orion performs three trajectory corrections to fine-tune its return to Earth. On day 7, the crew rests off-duty, and on day 8, the crew demonstrates the construction of a radiation shelter construction demo and performs manual piloting tests.
  • Day 10: The crew dons spacesuits and compression garments to prepare for reentry. About 122,000 meters (400,000 feet) above Earth, Orion’s service module separates from the crew module, and Orion reenters Earth’s atmosphere at 40,000 kilometers per hour (25,000 miles per hour). Two drogue parachutes slow Orion to roughly 480 kilometers per hour (300 miles per hour). Then, three pilot parachutes, followed by three main parachutes, slow the capsule to 27 kilometers per hour (17 miles per hour). Artemis II splashes down off the coast of San Diego, California.

If you want to track the mission in real time, you can visit this NASA site.

Credit: NASA

Space Stories: Stories from Apollo 8, Dealing with Space Weather, and a Militarized Moon

Posted on by onespaceman2000

Here are some recent stories related to the upcoming Artemis II launch.

—Associated Press: “Apollo vs. Artemis: What to Know about NASA’s Return to the Moon“

NASA’s Apollo moonshots are a tough act to follow, even after all this time. As four astronauts get set to blast off on humanity’s first trip to the moon in more than half a century, comparisons between Apollo and NASA’s new Artemis program are inevitable. The world’s first lunar visitors orbited the moon on Apollo 8. The Artemis II crew will play it safe and zip around the moon in an out-and-back slingshot. Another key difference: Artemis reflects more of society, with a woman, person of color and Canadian rocketing away.

—Scientific American: “How NASA Will Keep the Artemis II Astronauts Safe from Space Weather“

The hazards that the Artemis II crew must navigate during their 10-day flight are plentiful, starting from the second they launch aboard the most powerful rocket to ever carry humans and continuing all the way through their return to Earth nestled inside the Orion capsule. Many threats the crew will face are obvious, but not all of them are. Take, for example, radiation, which with moderate exposures can increase an astronaut’s long-term risk of cancer and with heavy doses can cause acute sickness. The Artemis II crew will be the first humans in decades to travel beyond low-Earth orbit, fully discarding the protection of Earth’s magnetic field. And while most aspects of cosmic radiation are straightforward to plan for, the outlier is space weather.

—Ars Technica: “NASA is Leading the Way to the Moon, But the Military Won’t Be Far Behind“

Today, potential conflict zones in space are limited to a region between low-Earth orbit and geosynchronous orbit, from a few hundred miles altitude up to 22,000 miles. The Space Force is in the final stages of developing a roadmap for the next 15 years, identifying where the service needs to grow and evolve to respond to changing threats and priorities. The document hasn’t been released publicly, but Pentagon officials have said it will address the possibility of the the Moon or cislunar space, the region of space around the Moon, becoming a theater for military operations.