In Case You Missed It: A Mystery Beneath the Ice

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Camp Century in Greenland. (NASA)

We live in a time of conspiracies, as the newspapers demonstrate everyday.

One conspiracy from the World War II era related to Hitler maintaining a secret base in Antarctica. While that story has been debunked, have you heard the one about the secret U.S. base hidden beneath the ice?

Last May, Newsweek told this story in an article titled “Map Shows US Nuclear Base Hidden Under Greenland’s Ice Since Cold War.” It discusses a NASA “discovery” last year during the test of new radar equipment – the (Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar (UAVSAR) – to peer beneath the ice.

The NASA team rediscovered Camp Century, a secret U.S. base constructed in the late 1950s during the Cold War. The U.S. was testing the idea of building nuclear-missile launch sites beneath the ice. The effort proved fruitless, causing the abandonment of the secret base in 1967.

While Greenland is again on the tip of many tongues, the idea of joint military operations between the U.S. and Greenland is nothing new. The U.S. signed a treaty with Denmark back in 1951 that permitted U.S. military facilities throughout Greenland. The story notes that the U.S. has as many as 17 military bases in Greenland hosting close to 10,000 troops. Today, the U.S. has only one military base left with about 150 Air Force personnel.

Camp Century is not really a big secret today, and you can find many articles about it over the years, but it was an interesting discovery for NASA, and proved the value of the new radar equipment.

Maybe NASA needs to make a pass over Antarctica next just to put to rest any remaining rumors about that Nazi base. Better yet, we can check out some sites on the Moon to be certain the Nazis did not build a base there as well.

Note: This Newsweek story was originally reported in The Wall Street Journal, but the newspaper’s firewall would have prevented many from reading the story. You can find another good summary of NASA’s Camp Century encounter in this Smithsonian magazine article.

Space Stories: 25 Years of Humans on the ISS, Life in Outer Space, and Astronomical Interference

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): NASA astronaut Mike Hopkins space-walking outside the International Space Station (ISS) on December 24, 2013. (NASA)

Here are some recent space-related stories of interest.

—NASA: “Celebrating 25 Years of Continuous Human Presence Aboard the International Space Station “

NASA and its partners have supported humans continuously living and working in space since November 2000. A truly global endeavor, the International Space Station has been visited by more than 280 people from 23 countries and a variety of international and commercial spacecraft. The unique microgravity laboratory has hosted more than 4,000 experiments from more than 5,000 researchers in more than 110 countries. The space station also is facilitating the growth of a commercial market in low Earth orbit for research, technology development, and crew and cargo transportation.

—Max Planck Institute: “The Evolution of Life May Have Its Origins in Outer Space“

Using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), a team of astronomers led by Abubakar Fadul from the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy (MPIA) has discovered complex organic molecules – including the first tentative detection of ethylene glycol and glycolonitrile – in the protoplanetary disc of the outbursting protostar V883 Orionis. These compounds are considered precursors to the building blocks of life. Comparing different cosmic environments reveals that the abundance and complexity of such molecules increase from star-forming regions to fully evolved planetary systems. This suggests that the seeds of life are assembled in space and widespread.

—Curtin University: “Interference to Astronomy the Unintended Consequence of Faster Internet“

Curtin University researchers have undertaken the world’s biggest survey of low frequency satellite radio emissions, finding Starlink satellites are significantly interfering with radio astronomy observations, potentially impacting discovery and research. Unintended signals from satellites – leaked from onboard electronics – can drown out the faint radio waves astronomers use to study the universe.

Many Departures at NASA, No Clear Path Forward

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Credit: Image by Mohamed Hassan from Pixabay.

The problem with a poorly-planned downsizing of an organization is that you may lose too many people in key positions and the disarray demotivates those who remain. Hence, it should be no surprise that this is what we are seeing at NASA as well as other agencies.

NASA is now looking at losing about 20 percent of its workforce, or about 4,000 employees, who have been harassed and prodded towards the door. That represents the loss of an amazing amount of talent. Of course, the White House doesn’t seem to care given its proposed budget cutting NASA’s 2026 budget by about 24 percent.

It will not be long before we have a blame game about “Who lost the Moon?” once China surpasses us in the race to the Moon. We may even be asking “Who lost Mars” now that we have abandoned retrieving a Mars soil sample while China and Japan have plans to bring back Martian soil. All of this is foreseeable to the average person, but for some reason no light seems to penetrate the persistent fog in Washington, DC.

We already read stories about whether Boeing even knows how to build a new airplane, Will we soon have stories about that nation that once put men on the Moon but lost its way?

The United States was behind the Soviets in the space race when it found the will to dream big. I am seeing no signs of dreaming in this nightmarish dismantling of science in this country. We have to work hard to remain ahead of this latest space race, and should we stumble there are plenty of other countries waiting to fill the void.

We are making the same mistake that Russia did when it invaded Ukraine and put its space hopes on hold. The difference here is that we have trained the guns on our own space and science programs.

Musk: Let Them Eat Burgers

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): The Telsa Diner in Hollywood, CA. (Tesla)

So, what is the next step for Elon Musk now that he decimated NASA and the federal government in general? A trip to the Moon? A trip to Mars?

No, his next goal is serving burgers and fries. That’s right, Mr. Musk is now proudly selling diner food at his Tesla Diner in Hollywood where you can charge your Tesla (if you have not given it away), talk with a robot (because employees are expensive), and get your food served to you by someone on roller skates (most likely these employees will also replaced with robots to eliminate any lawsuits).

For $13 you can get an All-beef Snap-o-Razzo hot dog and fries. None of that freeze-dried food they would be serving on a trip to Moon should that ever happen.

I just hope that Mr. Musk is still working on his space-related projects in addition to all of his other companies, his new political party, and now his restaurant chain. Otherwise one might start to think this guy is starting to loose his focus.

Now hand me one of those fried chicken and waffle thingies, please.

Image (Credit): Menu item from the Tesla Diner. (Tesla)

Television: A Second Season for Murderbot

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Credit: Apple TV+.

If you had a chance to watch Murderbot on Apple TV+, then you will not be surprised to learn that it has been green-lighted for a second season. If you missed it, then you should add it to your watch list.

While I was a little nervous about the casting and ability to bring to story to the screen, it all worked out well. It was not because the first season closely followed the book, because it did not, but because it followed the spirit of the book.

The characters were fun and likable, while Alexander Skarsgård was just plain enough to be believable in his role as the robot. I also liked the development relationship between Murderbot and fellow augmented human Gurathin. An additional subplot involving the soap opera The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon also helped to take the edge off of all the violence.

Overall, it’s a tight-knit crew that you would follow anywhere, no matter what Murderbot has to say about it. I only wish the episodes were longer so that we had more time together. You just get comfortable with the storyline and then the episode is over.

Fortunately, Martha Wells, the author of The Murderbot Diaries, has already written seven books and has an eighth due next year. That should be sufficient to keep the television series going for some time. When that ends, we can always go through the endless episodes of The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon.