Space Music

Space Music: ‘Planet’ by Sensory++

Joost Egelie of Sensory++ points me his latest album: ▶ Planet

Planet. That rock we live on. We think we’re so significant, but we’re merely a cosmic hickup. In a timespan of 100 cycles of this planet around the Sun, we think we already killed it.

Nothing is less true. Nature will overcome us, like <snap> that. With or without us. We still don’t get it; Nature adapts as it always had… A rock weighing a ton couldn’t eradicate Nature. A vulcanic eruption blowing an entire island off the map couldn’t, either.

And the cosmos will spin on and on… We’re just stardust walking and talking.

Time to put things in perspective.

Science and Technology

Sci-Tech: LPP focus fusion update

I recently listed updates on five fusion power projects. There are an number of other such alternative projects underway that stand a good chance of beating the big tokamak and laser fusion programs that eat up all the government fusion funding. (Similar to the way NASA’s SLS/Orion boondoggles eat up funding from useful space projects that would get us into space far faster.)

Here, for example, is an update from Lawrenceville Plasma Physics on the latest developments with their focus fusion project : LPP Fusion Report October 17, 2014 –

  • ARPA-E allows aneutronic fusion applications
  • Tungsten anode installed in FF-1; aluminum cathode model checked out
  • Crowdfunding rewards shipped out

(Link via nextbigfuture.com)

Living in Space, Space Systems, SpaceCasts

Video: ‘Space to Ground’ report on ISS activities – Oct.17.14

This weeks NASA report on activities aboard the Int. Space Station:

Events, Space Music

Orchestra to debut composition inspired by the Voyager spacecraft

Composer and musician Warren Greveson will debut his work, Voyager for Orchestra and Four iPads, Sunday, Oct. 19th in Mount Dora, Florida: Music for orchestra and iPads debuts in Mount Dora – Orlando Sentinel .

The composition will be performed by the Stetson University Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Anthony Hose.

The work is inspired by the two NASA Voyager spacecraft. The performance will be accompanied with a film by Maurice Lock.

History, Space films and videos

Video: ‘Women in Space’ – PBS Makers documentary

PBS has posted a video of the documentary aired this week about the history of women space travelers:  Women in Space | MAKERS Season 2 | PBS –

Makers: Women in Space traces the history of women pioneers in the U.S. space program. Some, like aviators Wally Funk and Jerrie Cobb, passed the same grueling tests as male astronauts, only to be dismissed by NASA, the military, and even Lyndon Johnson, as a distraction. It wasn’t until 1995 that Eileen Collins became the first woman to pilot a spacecraft. The program includes interviews with Collins, as well as Sally Ride’s classmates Shannon Lucid, Rhea Seddon and Kathryn Sullivan, and features Mae Jemison, the first woman of color astronaut, and Peggy Whitson, the first female commander of the International Space Station. The hour ends with the next generation of women engineers, mathematicians and astronauts—the new group of pioneers, like Marleen Martinez, who continue to make small but significant steps forward.

Everyone can participate in space