http://blogs.earthsky.org/dsfportree Space, environment, history. Tue, 19 Jun 2007 04:25:05 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Well, gosh. My post last week on "Commercial Spaceflight" generated a lot of interesting comments. Thanks to Jeff, Clark, Colin, Ferris, and a few others for thought-provoking inputs. This post is not for them (well, it is a little, but I know that you'll be able to handle it). When a ... http://blogs.earthsky.org/dsfportree/space-exploration/061917/commercial-spaceflight-2/ In some ways, I'm a tremendous optimist when it comes to spaceflight. I believe, for example, that it should be possible to launch an automated probe to another star within the next 50 years. In other ways, I'm quite pessimistic. I believe, for example, that the current hoo-hah over space ... http://blogs.earthsky.org/dsfportree/space-exploration/061214/commercial-spaceflight/ Yesterday I wrote that the California & Carnegie Planet Search had announced on Monday that they found 28 new planets around other stars. It turns out that only five of the 28 are actual new discoveries. The Monday announcement was really a review of California & Carnegie Planet Search discoveries ... http://blogs.earthsky.org/dsfportree/astronomy-outreach/053013/28-new-worlds/ What do Machu Picchu, L'Anse aux Meadows, Hadrian's Wall, Lady Liberty, Victoria Falls, Mesa Verde, Brugge's old heart, Macquarie Island, the Ming and Qing Imperial Tombs, Timbuktu, and the Grand Canyon have in common? They're all on the UNESCO World Heritage List, that's what. In all, the List includes 830 ... http://blogs.earthsky.org/dsfportree/earth/052611/special-places/ I'm preoccupied with finishing the manuscript of the second edition of Humans to Mars, so here's another brief pointer to one of my favorite websites. The Speculative Dinosaur Project is rollicking great fun, not least because its participants don't take themselves too seriously. It seeks to answer the question in the ... http://blogs.earthsky.org/dsfportree/asteroids/05179/what-if-dinosaurs-still-ruled-the-earth/ I'm a big fan of J. H. Crawford's book Carfree Cities and the website that goes with it. Crawford updated his online newsletter Carfree Times this past Monday, and it's worth a look. http://blogs.earthsky.org/dsfportree/carfree/05168/carfree-cities/ Enjoy the Milky Way while you can. Our home galaxy and the Andromeda Galaxy are the main members of the Local Group of galaxies; you can think of them as the anchor stores of the Local Group mall. Unlike Sears and JCPenney, however, our galaxy and Andromeda are moving closer ... http://blogs.earthsky.org/dsfportree/deep-future/05147/andromeda-and-the-milky-way/ Never mind going to see the latest horror flick at the cineplex - if you want to scare yourself, check out the U.S. Census Bureau's U.S. and World Population Clocks website. The U.S. adds a new person every 11 seconds. The world adds a new person every 2.5 seconds. My grandfather ... http://blogs.earthsky.org/dsfportree/sustainability/05146/popclocks/ Every so often I become worried about whether we'll have a future in space. Right now my thoughts run this way because we're sacrificing so much to go boldly where we went 40 years ago. The robotic Mars exploration program has been truncated, the Terrestrial Planet Finder and Europa Orbiter ... http://blogs.earthsky.org/dsfportree/moon/05085/saving-spaceflight/ The Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) announced on April 25 that Hayabusa (formerly called MUSES-C) has begun its long-delayed return to Earth. Though the spacecraft still has a long voyage ahead of it - it won't reach Earth until June 2010 - JAXA engineers and flight controllers deserve praise for ... http://blogs.earthsky.org/dsfportree/asteroids/04283/hayabusa-is-coming-home/