Television: Murderbot is Almost Here

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Credit: Apple TV+

After all the speculation, the Murderbot television series from Apple TV+ premieres on May 16.

If you are a fan of The Murderbot Diaries books by Martha Wells, you know what you are in for. And if you are new to this story, you have missed out on some great storytelling. I can only hope this new television series can do justice to the books.

Apple TV+ has this description:

“Murderbot” is a sci-fi thriller/comedy about a self-hacking security construct who is horrified by human emotion yet drawn to its vulnerable clients. Played by Skarsgård, Murderbot must hide its free will and complete a dangerous assignment when all it really wants is to be left alone to watch futuristic soap operas and figure out its place in the universe.

That is a very small part of what makes this series tick. The most important part of the books is the murderbot’s internal dialogue second guessing every move and cursing itself every time it helps bumbling humans.

The writing is both quick and fun, yet may be difficult to bring to the screen.

I will not miss this television series. Of course, I will also be the first to criticize it (or murder it) if it ruins the magic of the books.

Pic of the Week: Very Different Neighborhoods

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Hubble Space Telescope image of a sparkling spiral galaxy paired with a prominent star, both in the constellation Virgo. (ESA/Hubble & NASA, S. J. Smartt, C. Kilpatrick)

This week’s image is from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. It shows what appears to be two close neighbors – a star and a galaxy – but looks can be deceiving.

Here is more from NASA about this image:

This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features a sparkling spiral galaxy paired with a prominent star, both in the constellation Virgo. While the galaxy and the star appear to be close to one another, even overlapping, they’re actually a great distance apart. The star, marked with four long diffraction spikes, is in our own galaxy. It’s just 7,109 light-years away from Earth. The galaxy, named NGC 4900, lies about 45 million light-years from Earth.

This image combines data from two of Hubble’s instruments: the Advanced Camera for Surveys, installed in 2002 and still in operation today, and the older Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2, which was in use from 1993 to 2009. The data used here were taken more than 20 years apart for two different observing programs — a real testament to Hubble’s long scientific lifetime.

What’s Next for Boeing’s Starliner?

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): NASA’s Crew-9 prior to departing the ISS earlier this week. Top left, NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, followed by bottom left, Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov and NASA astronaut Nick Hague. (NASA)

With the first Boeing Starliner crew now back on Earth after an extended stay on the International Space Station (ISS), it is time to ask whether there will be a third Starliner attempt.

According to Reuters, NASA is currently considering a third uncrewed attempt. Steve Stich, chief of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, stated the following yesterday:

We’re … looking at some options for Starliner, should we need to, of flying it uncrewed…When we look forward, what we’d like to do is that one flight, and then get into a crew rotation flight.

That sounds like a safe bet to convince everyone that the Starliner is ready, even though it did return to Earth safely while the crew remained on the ISS.

Boeing has both the ISS and future space missions to consider. Walking away now would abandon the field to SpaceX just as private sector space stations are the hot topic.

Regardless of all the chaos on Earth right now regarding the future of NASA, it is still a safe bet that the U.S. will continue to build a space industry in need of reliable partners to bring cargo and crew into Low Earth Orbit and beyond.

Space Stories: JWST Exoplanet Images, Nearby Exoplanets Located, and Exoplanet Biosignatures,

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Infrared view of the multi-planet system HR 8799. Colors are applied to filters from Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera). A star symbol marks the location of the host star HR 8799, whose light has been blocked by the coronagraph. (NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, W. Balmer (JHU), L. Pueyo (STScI), M. Perrin (STScI))

Here are some recent stories of interest related to exoplanets.

—Webbtelescope.org: “NASA’s Webb Images Young, Giant Exoplanets, Detects Carbon Dioxide“

The first planet outside our solar system was discovered in the 1990’s, but it wasn’t until more than a decade later astronomers actually obtained a direct image of one. It’s extremely difficult to image an exoplanet, as stars in other planetary systems can be thousands of times brighter and bigger than their planets. NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope is equipped with a highly sensitive coronagraph, a tiny mask that blocks the light of the star, allowing Webb to image exoplanets. Webb’s new images of two iconic systems, HR 8799 and 51 Eridani, and their planets have stunned researchers, and provided additional information into the chemical make-up of the young gas giants.

—ABC News: “Several Planets Found Orbiting Star Less Than 6 light-years Away“

Astronomers have confirmed the existence of four planets orbiting a star less than 6 light-years away with help from some of the world’s most powerful telescopes. Research published in October 2024 revealed that one planet was rotating around Barnard’s Star, the second-closest single star system to Earth. But a combination of telescopes all over the world confirmed the presence of four small exoplanets, according to a study published last week in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

—Universe Today: “Astronomers Think They’ve Found a Reliable Biosignature. But There’s a Catch“

The search for life has become one of the holy grails of science. With the increasing number of exoplanet discoveries, astronomers are hunting for a chemical that can only be present in the atmosphere of a planet with life! A new paper suggests that methyl halides, which contain one carbon and three hydrogen atoms, may just do the trick. Here on Earth they are produced by bacteria, algae, fungi and some plants but not by any abiotic, non biological processes. There is a hitch, detecting these chemicals is beyond the reach of current telescopes.

Blue Ghost: Mission Accomplished

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Image (Credit): Blue Ghost’s shadow on the lunar surface with the Earth on the horizon.(Firefly Aerospace)

NASA and Firefly Aerospace plan to have a news conference tomorrow at 2pm to discuss the end of the Blue Ghost mission on the Moon. The lunar lander set down on March 2. It began its mission immediately, knowing the disappearance of the Sun on March 16 would mark the end its work.

Those speaking at tomorrow’s news conference are:

  • Joel Kearns, deputy associate administrator for exploration, Science Mission Directorate, NASA Headquarters in Washington;
  • Jason Kim, CEO, Firefly Aerospace;
  • Ray Allensworth, spacecraft program director, Firefly; and
  • Adam Schlesinger, Commercial Lunar Payload Services project manager, NASA Johnson.

In a press release earlier today, Firefly stated:

Firefly Aerospace…today announced it met 100 percent of its mission objectives for Blue Ghost Mission 1 after performing the first fully successful commercial Moon landing on March 2, completing more than 14 days of surface operations (346 hours of daylight), and operating just over 5 hours into the lunar night with the final data received around 6:15 pm CDT on March 16. This achievement marks the longest commercial operations on the Moon to date.

After a number of issues with the first commercial missions, this is very good news.