Space
broadcasts and webcams expand.
Seems that every launch can now be seen over the web if you know
where to find the connection. Beside the
NASA-TV streams, private commercial launches such as Sea
Launch from the Pacific, are also commonly available.
Several new sites
that often provide links to lived streamed videos of launches include
Space.com
, SpaceRef , Arianespace
, and SpaceflightNow
.
Space conferences,
Congressional space committees ,
and other space events are also often available live or by archived
files.
Slowscan spacecams
showing various activities such as the construction of the [--Error
[--Time Out--]--]X-33 are becoming more common. Recently,
Perceptual Robotics
opened links to a webcam located at the press box at Cape Kennedy
and to one at the Hubble service mission control at Goddard. These
webcams are unusual in that you can pan, change the zoom,
etc.
For more info,
see the SpaceCasts
section.
Build
your own gravity
detector
to detect the pull of
the Moon and Sun. The January issue of Scientific
American describes a $100 device built by Roger Baker of Austin,
Texas that can do just that. His [--Link Dead--]Hi-Q
Seismograph senses the minute forces on a floating magnet.
The variations over weeks will show the same forces that move the
ocean tides.
December
10, 1999
If
robots can't do the job, send the astronauts.
Sign the Mars Petition
to support a crewed mission to Mars. Sponsored by the MIT ThinkMars
student group. Over 9000 signatures as of Dec. 2, 1999.
News
briefs....
Spaceday.com sponsors program
to send student signatures on a Shuttle flight. These now include
Braille signatures - ...Charles Chafer is starting Space4Real.com
to offer space activities for the public. Over 40000 have signed
up for his Millennial Voyage
to send messages, photos and DNA on a small spacecraft in 2001....
November
25, 1999
The
European LunarSat
project reaches out to students and the public.
The LunarSat spacecraft is intended as a lowcost microsat that will
carry several instruments to study the moon, especially to verify
the presence of water ice at the polar regions.
The project is
also making a special effort to involve students and the public.
This includes a MoonCity
& MoonCivilization programs in which students design
moon colonies. Over 300 students at the University
of Innsbruck , for example, have been working on the design of
a lunarbase for over 2000 people.
See their page
on [--Link Dead--]educational outreach.
Download their neat [--Link Dead--]Space Pinball
game
News
briefs...Cinefex
, the movie special effects journal, plans several articles in the
upcoming year about space movies. See the outline in the movies
page ...
The Japanese duo
Aquamarine wrote a song to celebrate the recent Leonids meteor shower.
Jewel in the Sky was chosen as the Leonids'99 theme song.
See the Music
page ...
The trailer to
Brian DePalma's Mission
to Mars , which comes to theaters in March, is now online.
November
23, 1999
Artemis
Magazine now available. The
Artemis Project , which seeks
to establish a permanent lunar base, is sponsoring the new publication
that will offer "Science and Fiction
for a Spacefaring Age".
The first issued
has "a cover by Apollo 12 astronaut Alan Bean, and content
by Grand Master Jack Williamson and 20-time Hugo nominee Stanley
Schmidt, among others." See the table
of contents .
You can subscribe
by mail or online.
November
22, 1999
SpaceFlori
offers a space ride for your tokens such
as "business cards, light items". The Florian Noller's
space memoribilia site is currently having one of his periodic sales
of autographs, photos, covers, etc. A new SpaceFlori offering is
the opportunity to [--Link Dead--]fly your
items to Mir on the last flight, which launches Dec.12,
before it is deorbited.
"All items
will be postmarked and signed onboard and delivered with a certificate
of authenticity." A similar offer is for sending items to the
International Space Station to which regular flights will resume
next year.
See also Token
Travel in the Space
Tourism section.
[SpaceViews
Article: Dealer Offers to Fly Memorabilia on Mir - Nov.24.99 ]
November
15, 1999
Join
the party at Planetfest'99!
The Planetary Society is holding a 3 day event to celebrate the
landing on Mars of the Mars Polar Lander scheduled for Dec. 3. The
event will happen Dec. 3-5 at the Convention Center in Pasadena,
California and on the Web as well. It is also sponsored by Touchstone
Pictures' Mission to
Mars .
A large screen
monitor will present pictures from the lander. Also, it will be
include " hands-on activities in A Child's Universe, speakers,
space exhibits, a film festival, and holiday shopping at the Space
Emporium." See Press
Release .
When the Mars
microphone, a project sponsored by the Planetary Society, will be
activated the sounds will be broadcast to the gathering.
Listen with the
Marsinator how the thin Mars atmosphere would alter the sound of
voices of several famous space celebraties .
[Ed. The Planetfest
links have disappeared - just like the spacecraft did!]
News
briefs...Space.com
has added a new site called SpaceKids.com
with educational, interactive activities and [--Link Dead--]games
related to Space ...
A commercial module
is proposed for the International Space Station that could possibly
be used for tourist lodging - Potential
step toward a space hotel - MSNBC - Nov.14.99 ...
Space
Adventures has purchased Zegrahms
space tourism division. See SpaceViews
Article: Space Adventures to Acquire Zegrahm Space Voyages - Nov.13.99
* [--Link Dead--]Space Adventures Acquires Zegrahm Space Division
- Space.com - Nov.13.99
The ESA
X-Ray Multi-mirror (XMM) Telescope orbiting observatory will
be launched in December and will be seen by students who won several
competitions
sponsored by ESA. Students 8-12 submitted their drawings of telescopes
and ages 13-15 submitted essays on the benefits of space and astronomy.
November
11, 1999
Mars
Needs Songs! The Mars Society's music contest is looking
for songs to inspire the heart and soul for the great planetary
challenges ahead. Music in all styles is welcome and Prometheus
Records has indicated that winning songs may be included on
a special Space CD. The deadline is March 1, 2000.
[--Error--]Mars Song
Contest Begins in Earnest - Mars Society - Nov. 9.1999 *
HobbySpace Music .
November
6, 1999
Dole
sponsors space tourist contest. The company more famous
for its pinapples than its space activities, is sponsoring a contest
to win a ride on the Zegrahm/Vela
Technologies suborbital space vehicle win it launches in 2002.
Get your entry info at Dole's Win
a Trip to Outer Space Contest .
Also, checkout
the report at [--Link Dead--]Yahoo - Men are Braver Than Women
When It Comes to Exploring Outer Space - Nov. 4.99 - about a
survey of the public about whether they would like among the first
to travel in space as tourists.
Hams
to particpate in Space activities. Amateur radio enthusiasts
have some upcoming opportunities to do interesting space related
investigations:
November
3, 1999
Watch
the Leonids strike Earth and the Moon.
The Leonid meteor shower will reach its maximum on Nov.18. You can
watch the Leonids from your backyard as well from the stratosphere.
NASA will launch a balloon with a camera that will broadcast over
the web. - NASA
Meteor Balloon Rises Again . See also [--Link
Dead--]Balloon Astronomers Prepare for Leonids - Space.com - Nov.3.99
.
See the www.leonidstorm.com
site for more info about Leonids.
[*NASA
wants you! (to help observe the Leonids) - NASA Space Science -
Nov.11.99
* Nov.5
A surprise November meteor shower -- the Linearids - NASA Space
Science News
* Heads
up! NASA to help satellite operators watch ups and downs of Leonids
- NASA Space Science - Nov.9.99 ]
Upload your photos
of the Leonids to the NearLive
Leonid Watching System .
It will also carry
an INSPIRE
VLF radio receiver in hopes of picking up sounds from the Leonids
ionization trails. (See the HobbySpace
section on Natural
Radio .)
Also, amateur
astronomers can look for flashes on the Moon when a Leonid hits
the lunar surface in the un-sunlit area. See Leonids
on the Moon - NASA Space Science .
Scientists will
also be investigating "glowworms in the sky" - longlasting
trails that have been reported during previous showers - [--Link
Dead--]ABQjournal: Mystery Follows Meteors- Oct.26.99
October
30, 1999
MyHome
and Space
Island
develop space hotel living quarters.
The interior design company MyHome and the Space Island Group, which
is developing plans for a space hotel, have partnered to design
the interior living quarters of such a space lodge.
They assume a
rotating station that provides partial gravity. However, there can
periodic disturbances due to orbit changes. These and other considerations
are taken into account in the plans.
See their website,
which includes some [--Error--]blueprints
and images.
[Ed. most of the
MyHome links about this project are gone. -April.19.00]
More information
on space hotel developments in the HobbySpace
Space
Tourism section.
Planetary
society sponsors Mars microphone
naming contest. The Mars Polar Lander, due to
land on the south pole of Mars in December, carries a microphone
developed by the Planetary Society. It will provide the first true
audio signals from another planet.
The microphone
project logo includes a green penguin and now the Society wants
someone to think up a great name for their mascot. Entries must
be in by Dec. 15, 1999.
October
23, 1999
Amateur
astronomers spot Moon mystery. Observations
of flashes of light on the Moon have long been claimed but not confirmed.
Now there is some hard evidence.
A group of amateur
astronomers were organized to continuously observe the Moon during
the mission of the Clementine
lunar orbitor, which was mapping the surface.
The ground observers
spotted on April 23, 1994 a "possible obscuration over the region"
near the Cobrahead feature on the Aristarchus plateau. JPL researchers
have now looked at the Clementine images before and after this date
and they, in fact, see a change in the color of the area.
Speculations for
the source of the colors include escaping gas trapped in pockets
of ancient lava tubes.
[--Link
Dead--]Moon Mystery Emerges From The X-files - SpaceDaily
- Oct. 21 .99
BBC
News | Sci/Tech | Moon not quite dead - Oct.21.99
SpaceViews
Article: Clementine Data Provides New Evidence for Unusual Lunar
Phenomena - Oct. 26.99
October
15, 1999
Students
build picosatellites for November launch.
The all-female seven member team of seniors, in a blow
against the male nerd engineer stereotype, from Santa Clara University
built three sub-kilogram satellites. They will be part of a test
of satellite formation flying. Stanford University's 15kg
Opal
satellite will serve as the mother ship, which releases and communicates
with the picosats.
Two of the picosats
are quipped with sensors to pick up the electromagnetic spikes from
lightning. By flying at a given distance from each other, the system
will have the resolution of a much larger, and much more expensive,
single satellite.
The third picosat
has a transmitter that simply broadcasts in Morse code the web site
for the Artemis project. Amateur radio enthusiasts who come across
the signal would therefore go to the site and see that they've picked
up the satellite.
Artemis
web site * Team
awaits launch of student-designed satellites - EE Times Oct.11.99
* Students
Make Mini Satellites - ABC News Dec.16.98
October
11, 1999
An
Ariane 5 will carry the Phase
3D amateur satellite
into space next year. After many years of delays, the
most advanced AMSAT spacecraft ever built should finally get into
space in the year 2000 as a piggyback payload.
The spacecraft
will be put into a highly eliptical orbit
(apogee of 47714km and perigee of 4000km) and will be the first
AMSAT outside of low earth orbit.
The project, led
by the German AMSAT-DL ,
involved AMSAT
groups from around the world.
The 400kg payload
is large for an AMSAT and its 60 watts of continuous solar power
will drive the advanced digital
communications system. A high resolution camera
will also be included.
October
1, 1999
Experience
Mars colonization
via ActiveWorld
's virtual universe. The online
ActiveWorld phenomena has grown to hundreds of thousands of participants
and 1000's of sites and sub-worlds in its artificial universe. Begun
as a NASA project, there is now a thriving Mars
virtual world with spaceports
and colonies
spread over its surface. Download your ActiveWorld [--Link Dead--]browser
and begin your Mars experience.
See also MultiMedia ,
Simulators .
Art
will travel to the surface of Mars in 2003 aboard the
European Beagle 2 lander
vehicle, which will be ejected from the Mars
Express orbiter. To calibrate it's camera, a painting from the
controversial artist Damien Hirst has been commissioned. The use
of carefully chosen colors and materials in his dotted styled painting
will provide a standard to which the camera can be adjusted, thus
providing the true colors of the Mars surface. See Space
Art - Art in Space section .
September
19, 1999
Christie's
sells moon dusty nametag for $310,500 in an auction that
sold nearly 300 space memoribila artifacts. Other high priced items
included a spacesuit worn by Neil Armstrong ($178,500) and a pair
of Gemini gloves ($14,000). ABCNEWS.com
: Christie's Auctions Space Memorabilia Sep.18.99 * BBC
News | Americas | Cosmic collection under the hammer Sep.18.99 *
[--Link Dead--]CNN - NASA tag coated with moon dust sells for $310,500
- September 19, 1999 * [Sep.21: [--Link Dead--]Yahoo - Moondust:
High-Ticket Auction Prize Today, Household Item Tomorrow - Sep.21.99
* SpaceViews
Article: Memorabilia Auction Fetches Sky-High Prices - Sep.21.99
]
Space memoribilia
collecting is becoming more and more popular. Check out the Collecting
Space section for more info.
News
briefs...There will
be a 1.5 day symposium called 15th
Day of Space Flight in Neubrandenburg Mecklenbourg - Western
Pommerania, Germany 30- 31 October 1999. Speakers will discuss the
history of spaceflight and its future. Side events will include
a space collectibles sale and a model rockets workshop.
September
17, 1999
Space
controversies ,
such as humans vs
robots, the Space Station, Cassini, etc, always swirl around any
discussion of Space and how to go about its exploration and development.
As part of the Activism
section, there is now a list
of such issues, with overviews and links to relevant
sites.
Read about these
and then go to one of the space
newsgroups or forums , where there is almost always at
least one or two ongoing arguments about these controversies, and
jump into the debate.
Note, you will
find that many, if not most participants, skip the reading part
and go straight to arguing without the bother of knowing anything
about the issues.
Send
your name to Mars! Add
your name to the CD that will land on the surface of Mars in 2002.
The Mars 2001 Surveyor lander will launch in April 2001 and land
on Mars in Jan. 2002. You can use the easy online signup service
to include your name on a CD that will be included in the landers
payload. - Signup !
See Token Space Tourism for more opportunities to spacetravel vicariously.
Internet broadcasts...Enjoy
Judy Collins' performance of Beyond
the Sky , her song in honor of Eileen Collins flight as first
woman commander of a shuttle, provided in RealVideo by the Space
Chronicle ...
Also watch Eileen
Collins' speech to the Washington Press Club via ConnectLive ...
Space
Imaging 's Ikonos satellite launch will be broadcast live on
the Internet. The launch is scheduled for Sept.
24 on a Lockheed-Martin Athena rocket. An earlier attempt failed
when the rocket shroud failed to separate properly and the payload
failed to reach orbit. Watch the launch at ConnectLive
. Afterwards, the video will be on file . [--Link Dead--]Yahoo -
Sept. 24, 1999 IKONOS Satellite Launch to be Broadcast On Internet
September
9 , 1999
News
briefs...Support
for Space is still strong according to a new survey - Space.com
Survey Finds Broad Support for Current Spending Levels on Space
Program . - 69% say that the current level of spending by US
government is the right amount or too little.
September
7 , 1999
Final
Frontier magazine
has been the space publication closest in spirit to HobbySpace.
It often presented articles about space related hobbies such as
amateur satellites, space art and music and it had a strong catalog
of space collectibles.
Unfortunately,
it suffered from financial problems and several turnovers in ownership
through the years. Subscribers stopped receiving issues several
months ago.
According to a
letter published from Tom Ivicevic, a Final Frontier representative,
on a space newsgroup, a new owner called Spacefrontiers.com plans
to relaunch the publication soon. It will extend subscriptions to
make up for lost issues. A new website is planned. There has been
some delay due to negotiations with others interested in purchasing
the magazine and its space collectibles business.
September
5 , 1999
A
Blur heard on Mars.
The rock group Blur is writing
a song to be broadcast from the European Mars probe Beagle 2 after
it lands on Mars in 2003. See [--Link Dead--]ITN article - Out
of this world: Blur play on Mars .
News
briefs...The
New York Times Sunday Magazine (Sept. 5-1999) has a article on the
vast geo-political effects of commercial high resolution imaging
satellites: Private
Eyes . Will they prevent wars or start them?
Check out the
Martian weather at Scientific
American: Exhibit: Martian Weather Report: August 30, 1999 .
Mars not be lively but its certainly not a static place either.
Mars Week at MIT's
[--Error--]ThinkMars will explore
ways that exploration of Mars can be commericialized to help pay
for it. Director James Cameron and Buzz Aldrin are
among the speakers. CNN
- Mars: the next generation's Apollo - September 3, 1999
The Space
Frontier Foundation continues to be one of the most active of
the activist organizations
as shown by its recent announcement of two grants to "astronomers
involved in the search for Earth-orbit-crossing asteroids."
This comes from their Watch
project to look out for possible earth threatening asteroids. See
also the article at [--Link Dead--]Space.com - Keeping Track
of All Those Asteroids.
September
2 , 1999
News
briefs...The
Christies space collectibles auction on Sept. 18 (see the collection
at [--Link Dead--]Christies | Events (Space Exploration) gets more
attention. See
[--Link Dead--]Christie's
To Hold $1.1M Space Sale - Space.com - Sept.2.99
CNN
- Space memorabilia: One giant sale for Christie's - August 31,
1999
[--Link Dead--]Glenn's trip makes space items hot at auction -Aug.29-99
Need
a Used Spacesuit? Here's Your Chance - NY Times Aug.24-99
....Mars makes
it big in Hollywood. Two movies in production, an Imax film and
a mini-series. Read all about it in [--Link Dead--]FoxNews: Hollywood
Forms Wagon Train to Red Planet September 2, 1999.
September
1 , 1999
News
briefs...A
group of cadets at the Air Force Academy are building a sounding
rocket as their senior project. They have offered the Mars Society
to fly a 5.5kg (11lb) payload and the Society has responded with
ideas of several possible payloads. Space.com - [--Link Dead--]Cadets
Offer to Launch Mars Society's Payload - Aug. 31.99.
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