A Post Card from Opportunity

Cassini Mission

More on Mitchell's Alien Comments

From Florida Today a blog here.
From Best Syndication here; Astronaut Claims US Government Covered Up UFOs

A blurb from Jerry Pournelle here:

In any event, I came upstairs to get something (flashlight and magnifying glass to examine the dog's foot, actually) just as Hoagland was coming on Noory's show, and he seemed a bit skeptical; which is intriguing. But I had to get back downstairs and missed it. I presume the show is on the web somewhere and I'll try to make time to listen: it should be in the first quarter hour of the show's beginning; and I would be interested in Hoagland's take. When he's not overcome by his beliefs, Dick Hoagland can be informative (and he's almost always interesting).

Dr. Ed Mitchell's website

With the UFO hoopla, here is the link to Dr. Mitchell's web site. I listened to Coast2Coast last night and Richard C Hoagland was on as I predicted chiming in on the evil NASA!
On the lighter side, I really like Dr. Mitchell. He is a believes in God and World Peace.

World peace is an idea simple in principle but difficult to achieve in practice because, as individual members of our species, we have not found peace within ourselves. Societies cannot be peaceful societies until the members of the society look peacefully toward each other. But, it is impossible to look peacefully toward each other under constant threat for one’s survival.

The quest for peace must be carried out on many fronts, the most important of which is for each of us to contribute our portion toward an environment in which humans can labor and enjoy the fruits of their labor without fear that aggressive neighbors and oppressive governments will confiscate their gain. Commensurate with this freedom from fear is the responsibility to respect the ecological systems of the Earth, which gives us sustenance.

We must be able to seek communion with our God without fear that individual beliefs will be ridiculed or oppressed by others. Finally, the tide of world events, over which individuals seemingly have no control, cannot pose an irredeemable threat to the safety and security of individuals.

While it is true that the world has become so complex and so technologically oriented that individuals no longer believe that they count nor that they can do anything to effect world events, it is precisely the opposite. For only when individuals take total responsibility for their own lives, find within themselves communion with the Creative Force and live in peace with their neighbors and environment, only then will forces be set in motion that will eventually bring about world peace.

No power can create peace when humans have fear, anger and hate in their hearts, however insignificant those individual humans may think they are.

Edgar Mitchell

AMEN!

NASA Alien cover up

I must be listening to Coast2Coast too much lately! I thought Richard C Hoaglan was just hogwash! But now Former NASA astronaut and moon-walker Dr. Edgar Mitchell — a veteran of the Apollo 14 mission — claims aliens exist!

...that sources at the space agency who had had contact with aliens described the beings as 'little people who look strange to us.'

He said supposedly real-life ET's were similar to the traditional image of a small frame, large eyes and head.

Chillingly, he claimed our technology is "not nearly as sophisticated" as theirs and "had they been hostile", he warned "we would be been gone by now".

I'm just besides myself on this one. I do believe that life elsewhere does exist in the universe. But I don't think we've had any contact with alien life yet on Earth.

Anyway, I do respect the former Astronaut. I remember Apollo 14 mission with Alan B. Shepard. It was a great mission and both Alan and Ed held the longest Moonwalk so far.

Dr Mitchell, along with with Apollo 14 commander Alan Shepard, holds the record for the longest ever moon walk, at nine hours and 17 minutes following their 1971 mission.

HT Fox News here.

Carbon Dioxide Map( the Vulcan Project)

Bret over at Acuweather Global Warming blog has the Vulcan Project map of Carbon Dioxide emissions over the USA. It is interesting the heavy population areas show more emissions than lesser populated areas. And Bret notes the summer months as the highest emissions while the winter/spring months are the lowest. Read more here at NASA's earth observatory here.

Hello Dolly!

Great coverage at a new blog at Pajama's Media Weather Nerd here.

'Apollo 11: Remastered' - An Orbiter Film

As You Remember It: The Lift-Off of APOLLO 11

Apollo 11 Moon Landing

We Choose To Go To The Moon

About the Mission of Apollo 11

About The Apollo 11 Mission here.

It took 6 hours to prepare to exit the Lunar Module. At 10:56 p.m. EDT on July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong became the first human to set foot on the Moon, marking the occasion with these words, "That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind." Unfortunately, a minor break in communications caused the entire world to hear and remember the statement as "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." The Apollo lunar surface camera, mounted on one of the LM legs, broadcast this event to the world.

Aldrin joined Armstrong on the surface about nineteen minutes later, calling it "Magnificent desolation". As he left the LM, Aldrin said, "Now I want to back up and partially close the hatch - making sure not to lock it on my way out." "A particularly good thought." laughed Armstrong.

Asked later on why they bothered closing the hatch, Armstrong said it was to avoid having someone ask "Were you born in a barn?"

A catalog of Mission videos here.

Where were you 39 years ago

HT from Transterrestial Musings here. Where were you July 20, 1969.

Brightest star

A contender for the title of brightest star in our Milky Way galaxy has been unearthed in the dusty metropolis of the galaxy's center.

Nicknamed the "Peony nebula star," the bright stellar bulb was revealed by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope and other ground-based telescopes. It blazes with the light of an estimated 3.2 million suns.

The reigning "brightest star" champion is Eta Carina, with a whopping solar wattage of 4.7 million suns. But according to astronomers, it's hard to pin down an exact brightness, or luminosity, for these scorching stars, so they could potentially shine with a similar amount of light.

From NASA here.

View from outer space

Here's a view of Earth-Moon from Deep Impact.

NASA's Deep Impact spacecraft has created a video of the moon transiting (passing in front of) Earth as seen from the spacecraft's point of view 31 million miles away. Scientists are using the video to develop techniques to study alien worlds.

"Making a video of Earth from so far away helps the search for other life-bearing planets in the Universe by giving insights into how a distant, Earth-like alien world would appear to us," said University of Maryland astronomer Michael A’Hearn, principal investigator for the Deep Impact extended mission, called EPOXI.

Sahab 3B

The final Shuttle flights

SHUTTLE FLIGHTS IN 2009

Feb. 12 -- Discovery (STS-119 / 15A) will kick off a five-flight 2009
with its 36th mission to deliver the final pair of U.S. solar arrays
to be installed on the starboard end of the station's truss. The
truss serves as the backbone support for external equipment and spare
components, including the Mobile Base System. Lee Archambault will
command the 14-day flight that will include four planned spacewalks.
Joining him will be pilot Tony Antonelli and mission specialists John
Phillips, Steve Swanson, Joseph Acaba, Richard Arnold and Japan
Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Koichi Wakata. Wakata will
replace Sandy Magnus on the station as a flight engineer. STS-119
marks the 28th shuttle flight to the station.

May 15 -- Endeavour (STS-127 / 2JA) sets sail on its 23rd mission with
the Japanese Kibo Laboratory's Exposed Facility and Experiment
Logistics Module Exposed Section, the final permanent components of
the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's contribution to the station
program. During the 15-day mission, Endeavour's crew will perform
five spacewalks and deliver six new batteries for the P6 truss, a
spare drive unit for the Mobile Transporter and a spare boom assembly
for the Ku-band antenna. Mark Polansky will be Endeavour's commander
with Doug Hurley as pilot. Mission specialists will be Christopher
Cassidy, Tom Marshburn, Dave Wolf, Tim Kopra and Canadian Space
Agency astronaut Julie Payette. Kopra will become a station flight
engineer replacing Koichi Wakata, who will return home with the
STS-127 crew. It will be the 29th shuttle flight to the station.

July 30 -- Atlantis (STS-128 / 17A) launches on its 31st flight, an
11-day mission carrying science and storage racks to the station. In
the payload bay will be a Multi-Purpose Logistics Module holding
science and storage racks. Three spacewalks are planned to remove and
replace a materials processing experiment outside the European Space
Agency's Columbus module and return an empty ammonia tank assembly.
The mission includes the rotation of astronaut Nicole Stott for Tim
Kopra, who will return to Earth with the shuttle crew. The remaining
crew members have yet to be named. STS-128 marks the 30th shuttle
flight dedicated to station assembly and outfitting.

Oct. 15 -- Discovery's (STS-129 / ULF-3) 37th mission will focus on
staging spare components outside the station. The 15-day flight
includes at least three spacewalks. The payload bay will carry two
large External Logistics Carriers holding two spare gyroscopes, two
nitrogen tank assemblies, two pump modules, an ammonia tank assembly,
a spare latching end effector for the station's robotic arm, a spare
trailing umbilical system for the Mobile Transporter and a
high-pressure gas tank. Canadian Space Agency astronaut Bob Thirsk
will return home aboard Discovery with its crew, which has yet to be
named. STS-129 marks the 31st shuttle mission devoted to station
assembly.

Dec. 10 -- Endeavour (STS-130 / 20A) will close 2009 with its 24th
mission to deliver the final connecting node, Node 3, and the Cupola,
a robotic control station with six windows around its sides and
another in the center that provides a 360-degree view around the
station. At least three spacewalks are planned during the 11-day
mission. The 32nd station assembly mission by a shuttle does not yet
have a crew named.

SHUTTLE FLIGHTS IN 2010

Feb. 11 -- Atlantis (STS-131 / 19A) begins its 32nd mission as the
first flight in 2010, carrying a Multi-Purpose Logistics Module
filled with science racks that will be transferred to laboratories of
the station. The 11-day mission will include at least three
spacewalks to attach a spare ammonia tank assembly outside the
station and return a European experiment that has been outside the
Columbus module. It will be the 33rd shuttle mission to the station.
The crew has yet to be named.

April 8 -- Discovery's (STS-132 / ULF-4) 38th mission will carry an
integrated cargo carrier to deliver maintenance and assembly
hardware, including spare parts for space station systems. In
addition, the second in a series of new pressurized components for
Russia, a Mini Research Module, will be permanently attached to the
bottom port of the Zarya module. The Russian module also will carry
U.S. pressurized cargo. The first Russian Mini Research Module to go
to the station is scheduled to launch on a Russian rocket in the
summer of 2009.

Additionally, at least three spacewalks are planned to stage spare
components outside the station, including six spare batteries, a boom
assembly for the Ku-band antenna and spares for the Canadian Dextre
robotic arm extension. A radiator, airlock and European robotic arm
for the Russian Multi-purpose Laboratory Module also are payloads on
the flight. The laboratory module is scheduled for launch on a
Russian rocket in 2011. The mission marks the 34th mission to the
station. The STS-132 crew has yet to be named.

May 31 -- Endeavour's (STS-133 / ULF-5) 25th mission will carry
critical spare components that will be placed on the outside of the
station. Those will include two S-band communications antennas, a
high-pressure gas tank, additional spare parts for Dextre and
micrometeoroid debris shields. At least three spacewalks are planned
to be carried out by the crew, which has yet to be named. The 15-day
mission will be the 35th to the station.

Buzz in Space

Buzz makes it to the ISS!