LATEST SPACE & SCIENCE NEWS!

• 5/11/08:  DRAGONCON SPACE DIRECTOR RAIN, ROCKS QUANTUM TELEPORTATION!! For all you Space and Science buffs out there, let me clue you in to a wonderful weekly radio show devoted completely to the wide range of both topics. "Science Fantastic", hosted by Dr. Michio Kaku, airs live on Saturday evenings from 5:00pm and 8:00pm. In the last hour of the show, Dr. Kaku, opens the phone lines to take calls and gives out a list of questions and challenges his listeners for the answers. One of these questions Dr. Kaku holds out for a grand prize and if correctly answered will award that listener with an autographed copy of his latest book, the New York Times bestseller, Physics of the Impossible.
• 3/25/08:  NASA is sending mixed messages on the future of Mars Rovers Spirit and Opportunity. In a memo sent to JPL, which manages the Rovers' mission, made public Monday, March 24, 2008, NASA said that the funding for the Rovers' mission would be cut by $4 million to cover cost overruns on the latest edition of a Mars rover which in still is under construction. This cut in funding would most likely mean putting Spirit into permanent 'hibernation' and Opportunity would probably only be sent commands every other day or so.
  That brought tears to my eyes!! Literally! Yes, everyone knows that rain is as sentimental and overly emotional as anyone can be and still be a functioning member of society but this is HORRIBLE news! While it's true that both Spirit and Opportunity are way beyond their expiration dates and they both have sustained some slightly crippling malfunctions, each Rover is still very capable of continuing their science missions. This is very reminiscent of what NASA originally tried to do with the Hubble Space Telescope - let a still functional and valuable asset go to waste rather than spend the money to keep it going; thereby losing an asset completely instead of adding to the science gathering arsenal. Not to mention raising the ire of millions of enthusiasts when the mission to have its funding cut is very popular with the general public and has brought NASA immensely positive PR.
  The 'mixed message' is that on Tuesday, March 25, 2008, NASA administrator, Michael Griffin, said that memo had been 'rescinded' and neither of the Rovers would be shut down. What that actually means is still unclear. Will there be a funding cut of some kind for the Rovers continuing mission? Will one or the other be sacrificed for the new 'hummer sized' rover? I know that NASA's budget is limited and there isn't nearly enough money to complete even half of the proposed ideas out there (wouldn't it be nice to have even a quarter of the trillions of dollars that have been spent on the war in Iraq???). I also understand that NASA must keep moving forward and new missions bring new understandings but think of Voyager, 30+ years on and it's still providing information that scientists would not be able to get if NASA had simply turned off the receivers after Voyager II went beyond Neptune. Besides, I just love those two little Rovers!! lol
• 3/18/08:  Very sad news today. Arthur C. Clarke, giant of science fiction and future thinker, has died. No further details were given and the news was released by his aide. It will be many, many years before humanity sees his like again.
• 2/22/08:  CONGRATULATIONS SPACEWORKS ENGINEERING, INC. (SEI)!!
  SEI, along with their partners SpaceDev, have just been announced as the winners of the Planetary Society's Apophis Mission Design Competition. This competition, with a $50,000 purse, is to design a mission that would intercept and track asteroids posing an impact risk to Earth. This case in particular, for the Apophis asteroid which has been in the news in recent years as possibly impacting the Earth in 2036 if on its pass in 2029 Earth's gravity deflects the asteroid sufficiently.
  SEI is an Atlanta based space-industry consultancy group and long time participants of Dragon*Con's Space and Science track. Dr. John Bradford and A.C. Charina have done multiple panels for our track each year since 2003 when jonnyX and I took it over. Mr. Charina's 2007 panel, "ASTEROIDS: Defense of the Planet from Regional & Global Devastation" spoke directly on the efforts of SEI towards discovering ways to protect our planet from asteroids who have the Earth in their sights at some time in the future.
  Judged by members of the Planetary Society and experts from NASA and the European Space Agency, proposals from over 37 groups were reviewed. SEI and SpaceDev submitted a proposal on their 'Foresight' mission to win the $25,000 first prize. Foresight focuses on the economics of this type of project; keeping costs to about one-third of the costs of the other proposals. This is done by the use of off-the-shelf technology and their focus specifically on the primary objective of tracking an asteroid.
  We dare anyone to say that Dragon*Con's Space and Science tracks aren't bringing our attendees the cutting of edge of the industries! Props to SEI and we thank them for their support of Dragon*Con Space and Science tracks.
• 12/12/07:  One of the ways my personal space obsession manifests is a very sentimental attachment to the Voyager 2 space probe. Yes, we all know that I'm is a little off the wall to begin with, but my attachment to Voyager 2 does have a rational foundation. Back in the summer of 1989 I was working at Turner Broadcasting, in a special documentary unit. The summer of 1989 was also when Voyager 2 made its swing by the planet Neptune. If you're as quick as I believe all our S & S people are, you've put those two facts together and come up with a special documentary of Voyager 2 at Neptune (or you could have just remembered the show). Bingo! That summer TBS - SP put together a live special with Carl Sagan and his wife, Ann, that aired while JPL was receiving pictures from Voyager 2's closest pass by Neptune. It was a very cool show and we even had Chuck Berry there since his song 'Johnny B Goode' is one of the selections on the gold record. Doing the live documentary was great but what really makes Voyager 2 special to me is the full scale model and the third gold record. In the months before the special we got JPL to bring the model and record to us to use in our taped pieces. As you might imagine this model is worth quite a bit and there were some very specific rules required by the insurance company. so when it was time for the model to be returned to JPL it had to be personally escorted and could not be put in the cargo hold!! I got to escort all the cases, with their own seats in the main cabin of a regular Delta passenger jet. It was a really strange feeling knowing that the responsibility for this one of a kind, if you disregard the other two out in space that will never be seen again, amazing piece of space history was completely on me. Getting it to the airport, explaining why I needed to purchase separate seats, all together for big, heavy duty black cases, getting them onto the plane and into the seats, getting them off the plane and across the LA airport, getting them into a rental car, trying to figure out where I was going (it was my first trip to CA) and getting stuck in I-5 late afternoon traffic and finally delivering it all back into the hands of JPL. It truly was surreal. I bonded with that model and gold record!!
  Okay, so why did I just go on and on about my adventures with Voyager? Mostly, because I do have this 'thing' about Voyager 2 but also because Voyager 2 is in the news this week for a scientific discovery that was just announced. When you think about how old the Voyagers are and how much they've gone through, that they are still sending back significant data is pretty wild. It was announced this week that Voyager 2, now in the heliosheath of our solar system, has discovered that our solar system is squashed. Scientists have long suspected that this fact but Voyager 2 has sent back the proof. Keep going Voyager 2!
• 12/08/07:  Now this is amazing news for any of you that have been coming to DragonCon for years. The 2008 GUEST APPLICATION is already online!! Considering that last year it wasn't available until April, this is almost unbelievable. Anyway, click here for the online guest application. For any of you wanting to perform at the 2008 DragonCon here is the link for information on the Band/Performer Submissions.
  Please remember that if you are submitting a guest application for the Space and/or Science tracks, that the online application does not come to your hard working S & S track directors; so PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE - save a copy before you hit the 'send' button and send a copy to Track Director jonnyX and/or Assistant Director rain.
• 11/30/07:   Remember our Live Astronomy sessions at DragonCon this year? For those of you who didn't attend any of our late night astronomy sessions with the Kitt Peak telescope, well, you didn't miss much. At least you didn't except for Sunday night! Arizona had weather issues on Friday and Saturday nights which put a damper (bad pun but it fits) on our viewing. Sunday night was a different story. We finally got good weather in Arizona and we imaged planets, moons, galaxies, planetary nebulas, star clusters and Dr. Keel's favorite, gravitational lensing until about 4:30 in the morning. As impressive as it was to see these astronomical sites while we were imaging them, we now have wonderful, cleaned up images thanks to Dr. Keel's expertise. To see these images and their descriptions, go to: Live Astronomy - Kitt Peak
• 10/11/07:   Hi space fans. I recently heard about a very cool convention that will be happening the first weekend in November at Kennedy Space Center. World Space Expo runs from November 1st through 4th and has something for all space enthusiasts. Mercury astronauts John Glenn and Scott Carpenter will be there. Various aircraft of all types including a Russian Vostok 3KA2 will be there. The USAF precision flying team The Thunderbirds and the Army's Golden Knights will also be putting on a show. NOAA will present the educational "Science on a Sphere" and there will be an entire pavillion dedicated to commercial space flight. Advanced tickets are $28 for adults and $18 for children; tickets at the door are $38 for adults and $28 for children. This will be a great event. Check into it!!
• 09/26/07:   Update to the July 8, 2007 Dawn Probe news - Dawn is still on schedule for a September 27, 2007 launch (after a one day delay due to possible weather issues). Less than 24 hours from now the Dawn Probe will lift off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, aboard a Delta 2 rocket to begin it's journey to the asteroids Vesta and Ceres. For those of you who don't know or don't remember what makes this mission different from other probe missions (besides the destination, of course), the Dawn Probe will be using ion propulsion to make it's way to the asteriods. Information on this mission and ion propulstion was to have been one of the talks on the Space Track at DragonCon this year but a family emergency forced Ginny Mauldin-Kinney to cancel her appearances at the last minute. Hopefully, Ginny will be able to give an update on the mission at DragonCon 2008. In the meantime, you space freaks can watch the launch on the NASA TV beginning at 5:15 a.m. The launch window is between 7:20 and 7:49 a.m.
• 09/5/07:   48 hours after the end of DragonCon 2007, jonnyX and rain, your beleaguered Space & Science tracks directors, have recovered sufficiently enough to pass along a big THANK YOU to our incredible volunteer staff, our amazing cast of guests and our F A B U L O U S   A T T E N D E E S! After a very rough start that had jonnyX and rain running from the Hilton to Hyatt and back again like spastic tiddly-winks and our phones ringing more frequently than spam faxes can send; we managed to pull off TWO great tracks of programming and some awesome out of room and late night fun.
  Unfortunately, the Sun didn't cooperate much during the day so the solar telescope was down more than it was up and the weather in Arizona kept the Kitt Peak Observatory dome closed for Friday and Saturday nights. We made up for all that though with the amazing Singing Tesla Coils of The Geek Group. They were so impressive that Gordon Michael Woolvett a/k/a Seamus Zelazny Harper of Andromeda fame not only spent a good hour watching the show but went on to tell a slew of other people about them. This sparked interest all the way to the DragonCon top management who made the Sunday night performance into an official DragonCon event. With the weather in Arizona finally cooperating and Hacking 201 in full swing, Sunday night with the Space and Science tracks was the place to party. We're fairly certain that everyone will be able to enjoy The Geek Group's Singing Tesla Coils at DragonCon next year.
  
  As the countdown begins to DragonCon 2008, jonnyX and rain will keep working to make the tracks even better. You can help by letting us know what you liked, what you didn't and what we should bring in next year. We can promise more live astronomy and liquid nitrogen ice cream; you can help us with the rest. We do this track for YOU!
• 08/28/07:   IMPORTANT INFORMATION!!!There is a change in the Science schedule regarding the MYTHBUSTERS' panel. In the Pocket Program put out by DragonCon, it shows the MythBusters' panel at 11:30am instead of 1:00pm as we were originally lead to beleive. Because of this we are swapping the two panels involved, MYTHBUSTERS and SCIENCE, SKEPTICISM AND SLEIGHT–OF–HAND. This means that the Science schedule will follow what is in the Pocket Program. MythBusters' will be at 11:30am in Regency 6-7 at the Hyatt and Science, Skepticism & Sleight–-Of–Hand will be at 1:00 pm in track room (Henry) at the Hilton. Sorry for the confusion; we wouldn't want anyone to miss the MythBusters'!
• 08/25/07:   THE DRAGONCON POCKET PROGRAM IS NOW ONLINE!   Repeat - The DragonCon Pocket Program is now online. Check the DragonCon Website for the link to download the Program.
  Of course, as far as the Space track schedule is concerned, the Pocket Program - is Wrong. If you've been reading our updates you know that Cheshire Catalyst and Michael Laine have had to cancel this year and we've added Les Johnson and Richard Jakiel. All of that made us change the Space track schedule around a good bit. The Space Track Schedule on our this website is correct and completely updated. The Space track schedule in the Pocket Program has 6 changes as follows:
  • Friday, 8:30pm - Was: LiftPort: Tethered Towers - Michael Laine; it is now: The Shortest Step: The 1st 200 Miles - Andrew Clark
  • Saturday, 10:00am - Was: How to View Space Satellites From Your Own Backyard - Cheshire Catalyst; it is now: Striking Ancient Skies - Richard Jakiel
  • Saturday, 11:30am - Was: The Shortest Step - Andrew Clark; it is now: The Great Observatories - William Keel
  • Saturday, 7:00pm - Was: The Great Observatories - William Keel; it is now: Living Off the Land in Space
    - Les Johnson
  • Monday, 11:30am - Was: LiftPort: The New Robot - Michael Laine; it is now: Reviving Our Sense of Optimism For the Future Through Science, Technology, and Rational Thought - Richard "Hawk" Altstatt
    & Les Johnson
  
  
  The Pocket Guide only needs 1 change for the Science track: MythBusters Build Team is Saturday at 1:00pm NOT Saturday at 11:30am
  We're looking forward to seeing you all!
• 08/24/07:   5 days and counting! We hope you've put all your affairs in order and are ready for a non-stop weekend.
  There's a rumor going around that the Space and Science tracks are cooking up something with liquid nitrogen this year. We can neither confirm nor deny any such rumor but we've also hear the rumor that WE started the rumor! Now why would we do that?
• 08/20/07:   Good news and bad news, Space Freaks. The bad news first. Michael Laine of LIFTPORT, our stalwart Space Elevator guru, has had to pull out of DragonCon this year. Very sad news as Michael's Space Elevator panels have consistantly been one of S & S track's most popular. Unfortunately, Michael and the Space Elevator Group have had some tough times this year but are working hard to put things back on track. The commercialization of their Tethered Towers has garnered some very high level interest. To keep up with what Michael and the Space Elevator Group are doing, check in with them on jaiku.com/channel/SpaceElevator.
  Now for the Good News. LiftPort's removal from the Space Track schedule allows us to schedule Les Johnson without taking anything away from our other track guests. A little schedule rearranging and Les Johnson's Living Off the Land in Space talk will be on Saturday, September 1st, at 7:00 pm. We've also asked that Les and our Supreme Evil Genius, Richard Altstatt, team up for another panel on Monday, September 3rd, at 11:30 am. It's almost frightening to think of the risk we take in allowing those two minds to be let loose!
• 08/17/07:   There are changes coming to the Space track schedule. As happens every year – things happen. We have added to our guest list this year and as of today we have lost one. I'm sorry to announce that Cheshire Catalyst, who was scheduled to do the Saturday morning, 10:00 am talk on How to View Space Satellites From Your Own Back Yard, has had to cancel due to job responsibilities.
  Cheshire is a very interesting guy. You can find out more about him here and read about how he came to have his own area code, here. We hope Cheshire will be able to join us next year.
  Taking over the Saturday morning, 10:00 am slot will be, Richard Jakiel, a new addition to the Space track this year. Richard is an astronomer who has published more than 50 articles in a wide variety of astronomical/scientific publications - including several dozen for Astronomy and Sky & Telescope magazines and recently co-authored the book "Galaxies and How to Observe Them". Richard will be doing a fascinating talk on Archeo–Astronomy. Want to know what that is? We'll see you Saturday, September 1, at 10:00 am in the Space track room.
• 08/15/07:   Pricing for 'day passes' for DragonCon have finally been announced. For any of you that are only interested in attending DragonCon on a specific day probably don't want to spend the money for the full weekend membership (which will be $85 at the door). So if you just want that specific day, the price at the door will be:
  
  
  • Friday          -       $30.00
  • Saturday       -      $40.00
  • Sunday         -      $30.00
  • Monday       -       $25.00
  
  There will also be 3 day passes (Saturday, Sunday & Monday) for $70.00 and 2 day passes (Sunday & Monday) for $50.00. Check the DragonCon website for more information on where and when you can buy these passes.
• 08/13/07:    For any of you long time Space & Science track attendees (long time as in since jonnyX became the track director in 2003), if you cast your memories back to that year of 2003 you might remember attending panels given by Les Johnson. Les is the Manager of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center's Space Science Programs & Projects Office and one of those guests that everyone asks when we're getting back. Well Space & Science fans; we finally got him back!!
  An unexpected break in his schedule has allowed Les to make his way back to DragonCon this year. He will be speaking on the topic of his book, Living Off the Land in Space. We haven't worked out yet when, in our very full schedule, Les' panel will be so keep checking our Space Track Schedule page for updates before the start of Con.
  A big WELCOME BACK to DRAGONCON to Les Johnson.
• 07/12/07:    As if the Space track didn't have enough to offer, we're adding LIVE ASTRONOMY all day and night - weather permitting, of course. During the days we'll have a solar telescope onsite; here are a couple of images taken through it: raging sun     &      sun spots. Once the sun sets, we have exclusive access to an instrument at KITT PEAK OBSERVATORY all night long, every night! Thank you, Dr. Keel! Thank you, remotely-controlled stuff on the intarweb! And when we say 'access,' what we mean is YOU, space junkie, get to decide where to point the sucker! Start thinking of astronomical vistas you want to see.
• 07/08/07:    The Dawn probe has been delayed until September 2007. NASA's probe to the asteroids Ceres and Vesta, called Dawn as scientiests are looking to find information on the 'dawn' of our solar system, was due to be launched July 8, 2007. NASA spokesman George Diller, explained that there was some concern that the launch of the Dawn spacecraft, which had already been delayed until July 15, might ". . . conflict with preparations for the August launches of the space shuttle Endeavour and a Mars lander mission."
  The $344 million probe was cancelled last year due cost overruns and NASA's budget 'realocations' but JPL's appeals to NASA Administrator Michael Griffin got the mission revived.
• 07/02/07:    Phil Platt, of BadAstronomy.com fame, has written of the latest advance in Loop Quantum Gravity which appears to allow mathematical predictions of times BEFORE the Big Bang!! Check out Phil's explanation of What Happened Before the Big Bang? Unfortunately, Phil had a prior commitment and will not be joining us this year but he wants to come back, so look for the BadAstronomer's return in 2008.
• 07/01/07:    MAJOR NEWS!!
  DragonCon's Space & Science Track has expanded (or as jonnyX would say "we've mutated insanely!"). At DragonCon in 2007 there will be a Science track and a Space track and you'll have a choice. Do you want to see/hear about MRIs of consenting adults taken during -ahem-? Strictly in the name of science, of course. Or do you want to learn how NASA and JPL are using ion drives to reach the asteriods? Do you want a laugh while the experts debunk all those crazy astronomical urban legends on the Space track, or do you want to help the Science track make certain 'psychics' sweat? Isn't it great to have choices?

Copyright © 2008. All Rights Reserved.