NASA – Forecast: partly sunny with a chance of cataclysms

Voyager 1: (almost) never say die

As you read this, the first human-made artifact to enter interstellar space is receding from us at a speed of 10.6 miles per second (50 times the speed of sound at sea-level on Earth). It is currently (the morning of March 16, 2018) about 141 times farther from the Sun than the (average) distance of Earth from the Sun. Impeded only by clouds of gas that are tenuous in our region of the galaxy, it should keep up this rate of speed for millennia. That sounds fast, but at astronomical scales it’s barely crawling—17,500 years to cover one light-year. Since it will probably not completely escape the Sun’s gravity until two light-years out, it won’t “really” exit the Solar System for another 35,000 years or so. For the finer points of what constitutes “interstellar space” check out: https://scitechdaily.com/new-data-confirms-voyager-1-interstellar-space/

(You may not be too surprised, if you went to that link, that the determination of Voyager 1’s official interstellar status depended partly on the readings of the “tsunami waves” that have smacked Voyager three times as a result of Coronal Mass Ejections from the Sun. CMEs are those random ejections of solar plasma that pose a serious threat to our increasingly electrified way of life here on Earth, as discussed in my earlier post https://www.markheinickewrites.com/2017/11/04/uncertainty-part-two-when-comes-the-big-shock/ . )

Continue reading “THE MOST AMAZING YEAR IN SPACE, EVER (2017), PART 5: Voyager 1 Aces Another Test”

Bridenstine Edges toward Confirmation as NASA Head

Recently I circulated an email warning of the potential for non-scientist, non-engineer Congressman Jim Bridenstine to be confirmed as NASA chief administrator. This is yet another Trumpian poke in the eye of the science community, and more seriously it would put a tool of the mining industry in a position to prioritize NASA’s missions.

Now, the Washington Post (September 12) reports that Bridenstine’s route to confirmation is being eagerly groomed by industry groups and key members of Congress. See: Bridenstine Advancing, Science in Retreat I recommend you let your Senators know it matters to you that this man not only is lacking in scientific and engineering credentials, but also has an agenda to shift NASA’s priorities away from space exploration and toward space exploitation. To wit:

What Bridenstine Wants: New Kinds of Craters on the Moon

The Post reports Bridenstine as saying, “From the discovery of water ice until this day, the American objective should have been a permanent outpost of rovers and machines. . . .” To what end, pray tell, Congressman? We can get some clues from a report under the aegis of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory on “The Lunar Gold Rush: How Moon Mining Could Work.” See: JPL on Mining the Moon

Continue reading “Just Say NO to Bridenstine – and Slow the “Lunar Gold Rush””