Beam Me Up episode 318 is now online

For some reason the program seemed protracted, but it ran the same length. I suspect that it was the excellent stories this week. I open with Steven R. Stewart’s “Metal and Flesh” Which demonstrates a friendship that knows few if any boundaries. When one friend will go the extra mile, despite adversaries to give of him or herself. Stewart’s Metal and Flesh is truly a great experience. I close the program this week with part 2 of Edward McKeown’s There was a wild colonial boy. This week we are introduced to the antagonists of the tale. There is no question that Ed is a very eclectic writer, this story is an excellent demonstration of his talents.

For the BMU blog, I start off with a review of the dvd movie The X-files / I want to believe. I hope I account for myself with this review. Then a rave about a budget cut proposed for nasa, and a most unusual way to protest the move! Astronomers again find some of the oldest structures in the universe. And it seems the older they are the stranger they are! Finally the question floating around as are we ready for a tourist trip to the moon! How about exploitation? will any of this be possible?  Great article this week.

Will We Ever Live On The Moon?

 Kallamis writes in a great question of Moon habitability in an article he found on BBC future:

Finally someone that somewhat agrees with me. At least to the point that he is actually thinking about this. The article is actually too long to sum up here, but here is the basics of it. We could live on the moon, and use it for many applications. Mining, research into science, medicine, and even the history of the solar system. We could also have tourism, and mining H3 would provide a strong fuel source. Add in asteroid mining, and the best place to be is a massive space station, or a base on the moon. Landings and takeoffs would be easy from the moon. (Personally I still feel we could launch from the moon by magnetic rail launch.) I can think of nothing better than a large moon base, and work from there for the station. Mine the asteroids, run vacation tourism ships, and you watch how much better the economies or the world would be, (provided they and we can all give up our own ignorance and prejudices, distrusts, etc), not to mention the overall satisfaction of the entire planets peoples. I still feel that space is the answer to world peace and prosperity. 

   Not to mention that in theory, asteroids could be brought to the moon to be mined, or at least into an orbit that could be easily reached, maybe even by building a mining base in orbit connected by a space elevator. 

  Works great in my game, but there I don't have the world hating each other problem. Here's an idea. Everyone just stop. Just for 10 minutes, everyone stop, and do nothing. Amazing what it would be like with 10 minutes of true peace across the earth, everywhere. I'll be covering that concept soon, from Morgan Freeman's through the wormhole on the subject of is the universe alive.

Here is the link to the article on moon living.

Hubble Finds Two Galaxies Lined Up For Who Knows What!

Kallamis writes....  

Found this on Space.com. There is no article, just one statement.

   Apparently galaxies NGC3314A and NGC3314B are not on a collision course, but are actually separated by thousands of light years. No real info there but that, but watching it is relaxing, even though it only lasts about 2 minutes, and you of course have an ad first. Here's the link for anyone interested in watching it. They have a lot more there as well.

Video link here

Universe's 1st Objects

Long time fan Courtney sends in this article from Yahoo News, concerning what may be the very first objects created after the big bang.

NASA's Spitzer space telescope, seen in the infrared, might be hugely massive stars or black holes, but are too distant to see individually. These object are estimated to have taken shape about 500 million years after the big bang. At this time, the first stars, galaxies and black holes began to take shape.

Though they can't be confirmed for sure, the objects seem to date from the early universe.

One thing that is also worthy of a thought is how tremendously bright these objects are to be seen at such vast distances. Alexander "Sasha" Kashlinsky of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., said in a statement "We can't yet directly rule out mysterious sources for this light that could be coming from our nearby universe, but it is now becoming increasingly likely that we are catching a glimpse of an ancient epoch."

to read more click here for the complete Yahoo news item.

Astronomer Protest NASA With Bake Sale

XNewsman sends in an article from the New York Daily News concerning a rather unusual bake sale! According to the article astronomers at a Florida university and others have found themselves and NASA space exploration budget facing almost 300 million in cuts. Sounds like a massive amount of money does it not. Well let put it into perspective, the military budget for 2010 was $680 billion. Billions MORE than was requested by the executive branch! So 300 million is what...less than half of 1%?!! 300 million is not a deduction, it's a distraction. However 300 million buys a LOT of space science. In protest students, professors and scientists at the University of Central Florida will be holding a protest bake sale consisting as the article points out: super nova brownie cookies, Milky Way cupcakes and other earthly delights.

Tracy Becker, a graduate student in planetary science pointed out that the lose will take the form of a loss of satellites and their ilk that explore other planets. The bake sale is meant to hi-lite losses of whole missions, but also students to carry on the research as well as scientists will be lost due to job loss.

Becker currently works on the Cassini Saturn mission points out that it is these type of programs that create high tech jobs and new tech.

Alan Stern a researcher at Southwest Research institute (who also helped organize the event) That if cuts like these go through it becomes impossible for the US to maintain leadership in these critical areas!

For me what is even more disconcerting is the blatant waste in NASA! Recently NASA said that it has decided to halt work on a new x-ray telescope. A telescope to study deep space and black holes. Work already done and paid for, wasted because to finish would exceed NASA's budget.

The bake sale can help inform the public as to the importance of the work but also how relatively speaking, how inexpensively it does it!

Read more at the New York Daily News artile site here