NASA “Ask An Expert” Chat

Today, I participated in NASA’s “Ask An Expert” chat with Dr. Bill Cooke, the head of NASA’s Meteoroid Environment Office, about the study of asteroids, comets, and meteors. Since I was at school and couldn’t dedicate much time to the chat, I was only able to ask two questions:

Me: Do we know the chemical composition of comet Hartley 2’s jets?
Dr. Bill Cooke: Suspect they’re water vapor, carbon dioxide gas, mixed with dust – but don’t know for sure. We’ll have to wait for science team results.

Me: How many periodical comets (long- or short-period) are we aware of in the solar system?
Dr. Bill Cooke: Our periodic catalog now has well over 200.

If you’d like, you can download a full transcript here [PDF].
Or, you can view the official NASA transcript here.

Science Saved My Soul

This video is not by me but it is simply amazing. My hair seriously stood on-end when he talked about how vast the universe is.

As a warning to those who still believe in one of the various mythologies out there, I’ll be nice and let you know ahead of time that this video is based in scientific facts, presenting an atheistic point of view and outright addressing several flaws within religion.

Having said that, you should still watch it. Maybe you’ll see the light. –:)

Video by YouTube user philhellenes

The Year of the Solar System (Video)

Original NASA Article: http://goo.gl/sKsv

SLACKER!

I apologize for being a slacker. I have no excuse. I’ve just been too lazy to blog. However, I do have a plan in the works for my YouTube channel – youtube.com/RattUT – just educational space-related stuff but it’s something to do.

Of course, I will be updating here as well, not only with spacey news-ness but also my YouTube videos that I intend to start this week (expect the first episode Wednesday or Thursday).

Excuses, Excuses

Sorry I haven’t updated for a bit… but I have a few good excuses. Not only did both of our computers take a crap within days of each other but I became a dad for my first time on September 11 and started going back to school. It’s been a whirlwind of excitement, exhaustion, fun, and stress over the last couple of weeks and my blog really hasn’t been a priority.

Now, though, as the dust beginnings to settle I hope to get back to blogging. To the few people who actually read this blog, thank you for your patience! I’ll see you later.

International Burn a Qur'an Day!

The Dove World Outreach Center of Gainsville, FL, is encouraging people to send in copies of the Muslim holy book (the Qur’an or Koran) to be burned “in remembrance of the fallen victims of 9/11 and to stand against the evil of Islam.” This event will be held on September 11, 2010, on the church’s property.

The response to this in the Islamic countries is, of course, the typical US-flag-burning and standard hate speech against America and the usual threats and actions against Americans. In general, it’s the expected swirling vortex of hatred and bigotry.

First off, I support this “International Burn a Qur’an Day” because it is a form of protest, ie. Freedom of Speech/Expression. It is being held on private church property and is not directly harming anybody – assuming they are safe in their Qur’an burning activities. I support this in the same way that I support the freedom for people to burn the US flag should they so choose, or burn the Bible, or whatever else, so long as it doesn’t directly or deliberately infringe on the Rights of others.

Secondly, I condemn “International Burn a Qur’an Day” not only because it is an insult to the memory of those who died in the terrorist attacks of 9/11 but it is a blatant, irresponsible act of intolerance that potentially places others at risk from Islamic extremists fighting to “protect” their mythology.

My last point; if this church decides to go ahead with this event, we should not interfere. It could be argued that this activity places others in danger due to the high likelihood of violence in “retaliation” from Islamic extremists. However, if we force this church to not hold this event, not only are we infringing on their Freedom of Speech but we are telling the world that we give into terror and the extremists will have that much more resolve knowing that we can be so easily bullied.

If we stop this event we let the terrorists win.

--That’s my 2¢. If you have anything to say on the topic, please comment!

Medal of Honor Banned by AAFES, GameStop

EA’s new Medal of Honor game doesn’t come out until October 12 but it has already been banned by the Army and Air Force Exchange Service and at several GameStop locations. Why? The Taliban are playable in multiplayer mode.

Amanda Taggard, EA’s senior PR manager, told AOL News, “Most of us having been doing this since we were 7 -- if someone's the cop, someone's gotta be the robber, someone's gotta be the pirate and someone's gotta be the alien. In Medal of Honor multiplayer, someone's gotta be the Taliban.”

The official statement from EA Games’ President, Frank Gibeau: “At EA we passionately believe games are an artform, and I don't know why films and books set in Afghanistan don't get flack, yet [games] do. Whether it's Red Badge of Courage or The Hurt Locker, the media of its time can be a platform for the people who wish to tell their stories.”

Playing as the Taliban on a video game doesn’t make you a real life terrorist, just like an actor in a movie doesn’t become the character they portray. Get over it people – it’s just a game.

Medal of Honor is © Electronic Arts

A Plan to Colonize Mars

A good portion of the debate going into a manned mission to Mars is exactly how to get our astronauts back.

I wonder, why do they have to come back – at least in the short-term?

My wife and I have had this discussion on a couple of occasions and she remains unnerved by the idea, however astronomically unlikely it may be, that if the offer were ever extended in my direction to travel to Mars, even if it were a one-way trip, I could not – literally could not – say no.

Considering that I have no special skills or qualities, including not being in the best of shape, this would never happen. However, I am sure that there are plenty of people with the skills and ability to undertake such a task who would, like me, jump at the opportunity to do so.

Even if it meant leaving their entire lives behind on Earth.

This is how I would imagine a “wagon train” to Mars. It may be oversimplified, as I am sure there are details I have not considered, but it seems to be a fairly plausible plan.

• Step 1: Launch a caravan of unmanned vessels carrying supplies – enough food and water to last a number of years, plus equipment and components to construct a long-term base camp.
• Step 2: Launch the crew aboard 3 or 4 ships, each carrying, in addition to their crew, additional supplies as well as at least 2 all-terrain rovers.
• Step 3a: At each launch window, send additional supplies and/or crew.
• Step 3b: The crew would arrive and land on the surface of Mars, immediately collecting the supplies from the unmanned ships sent earlier and building the base camp.
• Step 4: Once the camp is established, scientific expeditions could begin as well as construction on a permanent, self-sufficient outpost using materials sent from Earth but, more so, materials that could be mined from Mars itself.

This would obviously be a long and extremely dangerous process but there are people out there who understand that the benefits to the human race far outweigh the risks. Nothing worth doing is easy, especially of this magnitude.

In the simplest measure, our survival will someday depend on our colonizing of Luna, Mars and beyond. Right now, we are terrifyingly vulnerable to extinction. All it would take is one errant asteroid of significant mass and everything the human race has worked for – everything we have become – would be gone.

We need to stop dragging our heels. Somebody needs to step up to the plate, make the decisions and take the risks necessary to ensure the survival of the human race.