Yep--here it is

Did an ancient nuclear war kill life on Mars? Conspiracy theorists claim to see a 'mushroom cloud' on the red planet

*shakes head*

Having some toast

with butter and blackberry spreadable fruit. I made some scrambled eggs over toast for YKWIA tonight, and it just looked great. I haven't had toast in awhile. In fact, for years I did not own a toaster, and I usually use it for bagels. But toasted bread is nice, too.

I came in pretty late last night, so I didn't blog. Wednesday morning I had an endocrinology appointment, then I went to a webcast on data management at UK in the afternoon, and took my friend to an appointment. We watched some syndicated 'Big Bang Theory' and then 'iZombie'. We are convinced that the latter will be cancelled because, well, we both like it, and that often happens to the shows we like. But it's pretty fun.

Today I had a visit from an outreach librarian with the Greater Midwest Region of the National Network of Libraries of Medicine's office in Chicago. We met for about an hour and a half, and it was very nice. She was down for a conference and when I was up in Chicago we'd made arrangements for her to stop by. After work, I ran over to the pharmacy and then over to my friends' house, where I took one to get something he needed from the store. We visited for quite a while.

Tomorrow I have to be at work by 7:30 am, then I have to iron out an issue for a friend during lunch, and then I'll get off work early for my allergy shot. 'Grimm' is on tomorrow night.

Saturday is a trip to an appointment and a grocery run. Sunday will (hopefully) be the game, assuming Brenda is feeling better. At least I already have the game notes finished.

Okay, I think I'll check the news. YKWIA was telling me about a scientist who is asserting that Mars' condition is the result of a nuclear attack and that we are the Martians' descendants. Um...oh, dear. I should probably go look for myself. If I don't blog any more tonight (and I can tell it's almost time till sleep becomes imperative), have a good night.

Science fiction becoming reality

Sleeper spaceship could carry first humans to Mars in hibernation state

Six astronauts lie motionless in a row of compartments with medical monitoring cables connected to their bodies, as their space ship cuts through the silent blackness that separates Earth from Mars.

They're sound asleep and will be for the extent of their six-month trip, having been placed in an artificially induced state of hibernation called torpor.

This is the way a NASA-funded study sees space explorers traveling to Mars -- unconscious, with their metabolism switched into slow motion.

Sending astronauts that far into space would be too challenging, costly and grueling without it, says space engineer John Bradford, whose Atlanta-based company SpaceWorks wrote the study for NASA.

"Ultimately, it's what we'll have to do," he says.

Can I just say, wow, cool?

Woke up in time

To see everything from the entry to touchdown to the first image sent back after the Mars landing. It took me back to the old Apollo and Viking days of my youth, that same excitement. Congratulations, NASA, and thanks for the ride.

Good luck, guys!

5 Questions (and Answers) About Tonight's Mars Rover Landing

I know my friend Tracy (who's on the Juno project to Jupiter), her husband Ted (who helped create the navigation system for the rover mission, according to the description on YouTube of the video below) and the other folks at NASA are going to hold their collective breath tonight. Here's wishing Curiosity great success.

Here's a look back 9 months ago...

Interesting

What's that on Mars? It just might be liquid saltwater: Researchers make case to explain mysterious clusters of dark, narrow lines

Saltwater could be running down some slopes of Mars every spring, researchers suggest.

Such a finding would suggest new directions to search for any life that still existed on the Red Planet.

Clusters of dark, narrow lines that periodically emerge and lengthen on slopes in the warmer regions suggest briny water on Mars might still be flowing in a few rare places on the planet's surface.

Some of the news I'm reading

Chimps kill chimps ... for their land: Rival gangs murder each other in turf wars, scientists say

Chimp-on-chimp attacks in the wild are very common, especially among small packs of males on patrol. Now research suggests the motive for these crimes is to gain territory.

Ancient Egyptian city located in Nile Delta by radar

An ancient Egyptian city believed to be Avaris, the capital of the Hyksos people who ruled 3,500 years ago, has been located by radar, Egypt's culture ministry says.

Lucy's 'great-grandfather' found

Anthropologists say they have discovered the 3.6 million-year-old partial skeleton of a creature that came from the same species as Lucy, but was 400,000 years older and at least as good at walking upright.

Cassini Skims Through Titan’s Upper Atmosphere

The flyby took Cassini within 547 miles of Titan’s surface, about two and a half times the altitude of the International Space Station. Although this distance shaved only 43 miles off the next nearest approach, the flyby was the first to take the spacecraft below Titan’s ionosphere, a layer of charged particles in the upper atmosphere. The ionosphere shielded the spacecraft from Saturn’s much larger magnetic field, allowing scientists the first hints of whether Titan has a magnetic field of its own.

Archaeologists find remains of Nevern Castle in Wales

Archaeological excavations on the site of Nevern Castle in Wales has revealed a large group of buildings thought to date from the 12th century. It is hoped that the discovery will provide new details on the history of the Norman fortress that was built in 1108.

7th-graders discover mysterious cave on Mars

The 16 students from teacher Dennis Mitchell's 7th-grade science class at Evergreen Middle School in Cottonwood, Calif., found what looks to be a Martian skylight — a hole in the roof of a cave on Mars.

The intrepid students were participating in the Mars Student Imaging Program at the Mars Space Flight Facility at Arizona State University. The program allows students to frame a research question and then commission a Mars-orbiting camera to take an image to answer their question.

E-Reader Prices Are Slashed

Barnes and Noble started a price war by slashing its 3G Nook to $199 and its Wi-Fi-only Nook to $149. Amazon has responded by reducing the Kindle from $259 to $189. I so want a Kindle, and this only increases the temptation. But for now, I'm concentrating on bills....

Still stuck, but limping on far past its original mission

Unlucky Mars rover faces worst jam yet: Spirit starts its seventh year on Red Planet still stuck in a sand trap

Though the prognosis of getting Spirit out looks bleak, scientists are not ready to give up yet. But if they exhaust all escape options, they will switch to Plan B and try to tilt the rover to the north where it can get more sunshine to keep running so that it can continue to do science in one spot.

“If we can’t get the rover unstuck, it will become a Mars lander,” Callas said.

Unlike a rover, which performs science experiments as it roams, a lander studies its surroundings while stationary.

I really do hope they can get Spirit unstuck, but even if not, it's done remarkably well considering it was meant for a three-month mission and it's entering it's seventh year. It's really a sort of 'little rover that could'.

You can keep up with Spirit and her sister rover Opportunity at http://twitter.com/MarsRovers.

Two crafts: one dying, the other revived but trapped

First of all, the solar probe Ulysses:

Farewell, Ulysses: Lights Out for Solar Probe

Ulysses Hears the Siren's Song


[Design by Emil Petrinic - http://www.strangegoat.com/ - merchandise at http://www.cafepress.com/strangegoat]

There are videos that show efforts to free Spirit, but my attempts to embed the videos didn't work very well; the original wouldn't work and the update played automatically and had to be turned off. Sorry about that. I've included the links, though, and here's a story about what Spirit is doing in the meantime:

Spirit Rover Begins Making Night Sky Observations

Another concern about one of the Mars missions

NASA rover low on power from Martian dust storm

The solar-powered Spirit produced only 89 watt-hours of energy last weekend, half the normal amount it needs to function. The culprit was a dust storm that moved over Spirit's site near the Martian equatorial plains, blocking sunshine from reaching its solar panels.

To prevent Spirit from depleting its batteries, ground controllers commanded the rover to turn off heaters that warm various instruments. Engineers also instructed the spacecraft to cease communications with Earth until Thursday.

"This is a very dangerous time," said project scientist Bruce Banerdt of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which manages the mission. "If we don't hear from it on Thursday, we'll be extremely concerned."

Oh :( The little probe that could has faded to oblivion

Nasa Mars mission declared dead: Nasa says its Phoenix lander on the surface of Mars has gone silent and is almost certainly dead

It lasted two months longer than planned, found water ice in the soil, sent back over 25,000 pictures, filmed a dust devil, and found chemicals that are capable of harbouring microbes. I followed it on Twitter during the better part of its mission. Located in the high latitude near Mars' northern polar region, its systems were expected to shut down due to temperatures reaching -212 degrees Fahrenheit and the fading light, made worse by a dust storm.

As a mission, it was a great success, especially coming after two failures. See the graphic below for locations of the various missions. Click the pictures to enlarge them for better reading.


Goodnight.

This is pretty neat

Watch a dust devil spin in Martian arctic

YKWIA saw it on his news gadget yesterday, and then it popped up on my reader, too. I can't get the animated picture to run on Blog*Spot, so if you want to watch it without reading the news story, go to the source at:

http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/273145main_15996-browse.gif

Yay, Tracy and Company

A friend works at the Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena, California. Here's some great news for them today:

Mars Craft Succeeds in Soft Landing: Phoenix to Begin Search for Signs of Life Beyond Earth

And as an interesting footnote:

In addition to its sophisticated cameras, soil retrievers and mini-laboratories, Phoenix carried on its journey a mini-DVD created by the Planetary Society called "Visions of Mars." It holds a library of science fiction stories and art, as well as the names of more than 250,000 people.

The DVD, featuring the likes of Carl Sagan, Arthur C. Clarke and Ray Bradbury, is made of material designed to last for hundreds, if not thousands, of years.

PS Tracy's big project has been the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which arrived at Mars in 2006. I'm not sure if she's part of this project or not, but I always think of her when I hear of this sort of thing. I came across this feature on Tracy. She's very talented, and probably the most driven of the lot of us.

Beautiful, I'm sure; I'm looking forward to it

Red Planet Outshines Red Nose: Mars Shines Its Brightest Around Midnight