Musk's Mars Plan

During a one hour speech at the International Astronautical Congress in Guadalajara Mexico, on September 27, Elon Musk, laid out his plan to colonize Mars. 

Musk described the giant rocket that will allow this project to happen. Said rocket would be about 3.5 times more powerful than the current biggest rocket ever. 

For more click HERE

NASA Has a Near Perfect Launch of the The OSIRIS-REx Spacecraft

      

The Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) spacecraft, started it's mission 7:05pm EDT Thursday September 22nd. The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft  is designed to rendezvous with, study, and return a sample of the asteroid Bennu to Earth. Asteroids like Bennu are remnants from the formation of our solar system more than 4.5 billion years ago. Scientists suspect that asteroids may have been a source of the water and organic molecules for the early Earth and other planetary bodies. 

NASA's first asteroid sampling mission could revolutionize our understanding of the early solar system.

OSIRIS-REx separated from its United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket at 8:04 p.m. The solar arrays deployed and are now powering the spacecraft.

For more, please click HERE

Beam Me Up Episode 473 is online

Welcome to episode 473 of Beam Me Up.

This week is a David Scholes episode.

I open with David's Feeding Time, Then from the blog a review of the latest Captain America movie, troubles with China's space station, a possible SETI class radio signal plus others. 

The closing story is Not So Brave New World. Plus other odds and ends I hope you enjoy. 

To listen to the program, please click HERE

China's Tiangong 1 Comming Down Early

(China's go at a permanent space presence) may come down earlier than originally thought. 

As it stands now, Tiangong 1, China’s first space laboratory, will come to a fiery end in late 2017. however  during a Sept. 14 news conference Chinese officials came close to admitting that they had lost control of the station, and as such have no control as to when the lab will enter Earth's Atmosphere or even impact the surface. (though in truth have not formally admitted the failure and in the opinion of satellite tracker Thomas Dorman, China will wait until the last minute to let the world know it has a problem with their space station.

more here

Review: Captain America: Civil War

Captain America: Civil War

Directed by Anthony and Joe Russo

Budget 250 million Box office 1.153 billion 

Starring

Chris Evans - Steve Rogers / Captain America

Robert Downey Jr. - Tony Stark / Iron Man

Scarlett Johansson - Natasha Romanoff / Black Widow

Sebastian Stan  - as Bucky Barnes / Winter Soldier

Anthony Mackie - Sam Wilson / Falcon:

Don Cheadle - James "Rhodey" Rhodes / War Machine

Jeremy Renner -  Clint Barton / Hawkeye

Chadwick Boseman as T'Challa / Black Panther

When I first had this film (dvd) I wondered if it would hold well in comparison with the previous Captain America movies.  But then there it was and I as pleasantly surprised.  It foremost added some debth to the characters.  This took the shape of out and out anamosity between members.  Stark continues to be abrasive as always which goes quite far towards alienating other members.  

The conflicts and the motivation are not to believe. Downey reprises his role as Tony Stark / Iron Man as does Evans as Steve Rogers / Captain America, Scarlett Johansson - Natasha Romanoff / Black Widow, Stan  - as Bucky Barnes / Winter Soldier, Mackie - Sam Wilson / Falcon, Cheadle - James "Rhodey" Rhodes / War Machine, Renner -  Clint Barton / Hawkeye

Boseman as T'Challa / Black Panther as well as others.

This lends itself to a much more three dimentional character.  Overall I give the film an 8.  The returning heroes add a confort level that I had not been aware of in earlier.  Fans of Cap will not be disapointed. 

Possible Extra-terrestrial Signal Discovered

SETI Astronomers have pointed their instruments on a star  94 light (A light-year is apx 6 trillion miles) years from Earth after a very strong signal was detected by a Russian telescope.

An international team of researchers is now examining the radio signal described in a paper by Italian astronomer Claudio Maccone as a "strong candidate for SETI" -- in the hopes of determining its origin.

Astronomer Douglas Vakoch notes that The signal is intriguing, because it comes from the vicinity of a sun-like star, and if it's artificial, its strength is great enough that it was clearly made by a civilization with capabilities beyond those of humankind. 

Thanks to listener Barry for the heads up URL HERE   and check the url for type 2  civilizations and Dyson spheres.