Some space policy related items for today:
That gold in your rings probably didn’t come from a supernova but from the big super collision of two neutron stars:
Composer Simon Lacey points me to his new music video, The Thought of Floating In Space with Jack Liebeck on solo violin. It combines marvelous views of earth taken from the International Space Station with gorgeous music.
The work is part of Lacey’s project A Quarter Of A Million Miles, which was inspired by Michael Collins’ famous book Carrying The Fire in which Collins described his role as the Command Module pilot during the Apollo 11 mission.
Collins’ poetic and eloquent account conveys the infinity and beauty of space and tells the story of humans pushing themselves up to (and possibly beyond) what was thought possible. The style and sound of the music is an attempt to evoke this story – melodic classical influences combined with a modern, cinematic production, half of the pieces featuring a classical soprano and the others having a solo violin at the forefront. Real instruments are combined with sound effects, atmospheres, synths and snatches of speech from the Apollo mission to give the pieces a unique flavour.
The status of the album:
The first recording sessions for A Quarter Of A Million Miles took place in London in December 2012 with some very exciting and talented collaborators and the album is scheduled to be completed in 2013. The soprano parts are sung by classical chart topper and Classical Brit nominee Natasha Marsh and the violin solos were performed by Jack Liebeck, who was recently featured on the soundtracks to the films Jane Eyre and Anna Karenina and was a Classical Brit winner in 2010 for Young British Classical Performer.
In what has become an annual tradition, Rand Simberg and Bill Simon came on the Space Show to discuss the Evoloterra ceremony they created to celebrate when humans landed for the first time on another world. Rand Simberg, Bill Simon, EVOLOTERRA, Tuesday, 7-16-13 | Thespaceshow’s Blog
TheEvoloterra program
remembers and honors the first time humans left Earth for another planet. Apollo 11 launched for the Moon on July 19, 1969 and landed on the Moon on July 20, 1969. You can learn more about Evoloterra and actually do the ceremony this Saturday evening, July 20, with your friends and families by visiting www.evoloterra.com. Click on the astronaut’s helmet to go to the pdf of the Evoloterra ceremony.
They also discussed Rand’s new book, Safe Is Not an Option and various aspects of space policy and history.
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In the latest Hotel Mars segment on The John Batchelor Show, the plans for the Mars 2020 rover (see earlier post here) were discussed: The John Batchelor Show Hotel Mars, Wednesday, 7-17-13 | Thespaceshow’s Blog.
A happy XCOR Lynx LEGO model owner – Twitter / KristenFitzpat1:
My
@XCOR Lynx model is exactly as awesome as I was hoping. Thanks again!#socoolpic.twitter.com/jWLMCpIgcq
See also this squadron of XCOR Lynx models at the recent NSRC 2013 meeting in Colorado.