Check out this awesome spacecraft playroom simulator built by Jeff Highsmith for his young son : Making Fun: Kid’s Room Spacecraft – MAKE
And a mission control console/desk goes with it : Making Fun: Mission Control Desk – MAKE
Category Archives: Space participation
Copenhagen Suborbitals updates
Copenhagen Suborbitals releases a Newsletter – July.28.14. And here is an extended blog post about developments and plans: Time to get real… – Copenhagen Suborbitals
Japanese artist’s flowers and bonzai tree pose on the edge of space
JP Aerospace has taken many interesting items to high altitudes with their balloon systems but a small pine tree and a floral arrangement must be among the most unusual.
- What A Bonsai Tree Looks Like Suspended In Space | Co.Design | business + design
- A Japanese Artist Launches Plants Into Space – New York Times
- Exobiotanica – Botanical Space Flight – photo gallery
- Mission Success! – JP Aerospace Blog
- JP Aerospace in the New York Times! – JP Aerospace Blog
A bonzai tree from Japanese artist Azuma Makoto
reaches high in the sky.
And a flower arrangement as well.
IAU decides exoplanet naming by the public is OK
Uwingu was attacked by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) when it started a program to allow the public to select names for exoplanets :
- Uwingu Responds to the IAU, and Extension of People’s Choice Contest to Choose a Name for the Planet Orbiting Alpha Centauri – Uwingu – Apr.15.2013.
- Uwingu’s Board of Advisors Responds to the IAU – Uwingu – Apr.9.2013
And this year when Uwingu opened a program to name craters on Mars, the IAU attacked that as well.
Now, however, the IAU has created its own exoplanet naming program for the public:
- NameExoWorlds: An IAU Worldwide Contest to Name Exoplanets and their Host Stars – IAU
- Finally, Really, You’re Invited to Help Name Distant Planets – Popular Science
The Popular Science article uses the word “official” a lot but assigning “official” to whatever the IAU management endorses is purely subjective. IAU is just one of many astronomy and science organizations. (I’d guess that only a minority of professional astronomers and space scientists belong to it.) It is neither a global nor intergalactic governmental organization. It’s main job is to organize conferences. Acceptance of the IAU’s space nomenclature system is voluntary. It’s clear that the IAU is merely fighting to protect and expand its turf and to maintain an aura of space officialdom. It wants to keep organizations like Uwingu from trespassing on its turf and dulling its aura.
Uwingu makes no claim that the names selected in its programs are “official” or will become broadly accepted names in the future. Users are informed of the limited domain for the names they choose. The primary goal is to give people a sense of participation and connection to real places off of earth and in the process raise some money for research.
The IAU’s exoplanet naming program will do little to limit Uwingu’s activities and I expect will instead encourage more organizations to get into the space place naming biz.
Space United opens ExploraLab Kickstarter campaign
SpaceUnited is a “nonprofit humanitarian space agency“. One of their projects is ImageGryphon, which provides high resolution satellite images to assist efforts to deal with natural and man-made disasters.
Space United has opened a crowd-funding campaign to fund 50 ExploraLab 3D printed containers for student experiments that will be taken to high altitudes by balloon: ExploraLab: Affordable, Edge of Space, Science Experiment by SpaceUnited — Kickstarter.
This video gives the details: