Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) is very interested in obtaining some additional observational data from NASA regarding the interstellar comet known as 3I/ATLAS. In her letter to NASA (shown below), she said the information is “…of great importance to advancing our understanding of interstellar visitors and their interaction with our solar system.”
It appears this interest follows comments from Harvard scientist Avi Loeb about the object possibly being an alien spaceship.
All of this is starting to sound the plot in Arthur C. Clark’s book Rendezvous with Rama.
At 7:05 a.m. EDT, the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft docked to the forward port of the International Space Station’s Harmony module. The spacecraft carried over 5,000 pounds of scientific investigations and cargo to the orbiting laboratory on SpaceX’s 33rd commercial resupply services mission for NASA. The mission launched at 2:45 a.m. on Aug. 24 atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
Longtime readers will recognize the name Dean Regas, astronomy contributor to The Enquirer and former cohost of the PBS series “Star Gazers,” but they may not know that Regas is also the author of seven books about astronomy. His latest foray into the world of writing, “All About Orion,” is a children’s book focused on its namesake, Orion, with a twist: the book features braille writing and textile constellations as well as large print for blind and visually impaired children.
The JWST’s latest exoplanet atmosphere target is GJ 3929 b. Astronomers discovered it in TESS data in 2022. “Our analysis confirms the planetary nature of the transiting planet GJ 3929 b,” the authors of the 2022 paper wrote. “Its mass and radius (~ 0.43 Earth masses and ~1.15 Earth radii) put it into the regime of small Earth-sized planets.” Earth-like planets attract attention for obvious reasons. Now the JWST’s results are in, and the once-promising planet appears to be barren.
One of the stories he tells is about the US “planting nukes on the moon.” Is this true?
Yes, it was a top secret effort called Project A119, with the goal of exploding a hydrogen bomb on the Moon. And believe it or not, Carl Sagan was involved in the calculations related to this zany idea.
This was in the late 1950s during the Cold War when the US and Soviet Union were doing everything they could to trump one another. It also was right after Sputnik, when the US felt it was losing the space race. In this case, the US would make a clear demonstration of its power through this distant explosion.
Fortunately, the US decided to take a better route by going into orbit and eventually to the Moon. If we had blown up the Moon, Carl Sagan would have been remembered in a very different way today – less as the educator, and more as Dr. Strangelove.
Just never underestimate the ability of the government to go down some dark roads. We needed guardrails then like we need them now.
If you are a foodie and still looking for a holiday gift or just a fun gift, you might want to check out these two space-related books.
The first book by Vickie Kloeris, Space Bites: Reflections of a NASA Food Scientist, discusses the thinking that goes into the food prepared for NASA’s astronauts. In this case, Ms. Kloeris worked with the food eaten by astronauts on the space shuttles and the International Space Station.
Former NASA Astronaut Mike Massimino stated:
During her decades-long career at NASA, my friend and colleague Vickie Kloeris made sure my fellow astronauts and I were well-fed and healthy while in space. Space Bites is not only a compilation of stories of her amazing career but also a behind-the-scenes look at the evolution of human space travel. Read this book to be inspired and to learn, and don’t be surprised if it also leaves you hungry for some space food.
It might be the perfect book after holidays if you want some insight into the space program.
However, if you want to sample the astronaut food, you might want to check out this older book by Charles T. Borland and Gregory L. Vogt, The Astronaut’s Cookbook: Tales, Recipes, and More. It contains recipes allowing you to create astronaut-worthy meals without the freeze drying.
The book covers a lot of territory: Appetizers, Beverages, Bread and Tortillas, Cookies, Sandwiches, Desserts, Main Dishes, Soups and Salads, Vegetables, and Future Space Foods.
Charles Bourland has just retired from his job as NASA’s ‘director of space foods’, and Gregory Vogt was an astronaut trainer. They have provided us with a fascinating insight into the job of the space dietician and nutritionist, as well as a wondrous collection of recipes for the meals that were served on Skylab, Apollo, thespace shuttle and the International Space Station. … This an intriguing book, well written, and colourfully reproduced with a host of appetising pictures.
It may not be fantastic food, yet you can eat like an astronaut (and maybe suffer like an astronaut). When you sit down to dine on this strange fare, you can be pretty certain that no one else in your neighborhood will have such a dinner that evening.
On this day in 1928, American science fiction writer Philip Kindred Dick was born in Chicago, IL. He would go on to write some of the best known books on science fiction, including:
The Man in the High Castle (1963), which won the Hugo Award;
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1968), later made into the film Blade Runner; and
Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said (1974), which won the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel and was nominated for both a Hugo Award and a Nebula Award.
Mr. Dick had a troubled life with multiple wives, yet he created some of the most memorable characters and fiction. You may recall some of his other books and stories that became films in recent years, including Total Recall with Arnold Schwarzenegger, Minority Report with Tom Cruise, and A Scanner Darkly with Keanu Reeves.
Many writers had left the field. We could not make a living. I had gone to work making jewelry with my wife. I wasn’t happy. I didn’t enjoy making jewelry. I had no talent whatsoever. She had the talent. She is still a jeweler and a very fine one, making gorgeous stuff which she sells to places like Neiman-Marcus. It’s great art. But I couldn’t do anything except polish what she made.
Fortunately, he returned to writing, thereby provided all of us with amazing stories that live on today.
Our Awesome Universe 