Mars One is on the Space Show agenda today – Twitter / SpaceShow:
Bas Lansdorp of Mars One today, 2-3:30 PM PDT (5-6:30 PM EDT). Listen @ http://www.thespaceshow.com . Call Bas @ 1-866-687-7223
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This week David Livingston and guests celebrated the 2000th episode milestone for The Space Show: Space Show 2000th Program & 12th Anniversary Tribute, Tuesday, 5-7-13 – Thespaceshow’s Blog.
Now that the Curiosity rover is out from behind the Moon, operations are ramping back up. Here is a brief report on upcoming activities: Curiosity Rover Report (May 9, 2013): ‘Spring Break’ Over: Commanding Resumes
The movie Gravity stars George Clooney and Sandra Bullock as astronauts on the International Space Station. An accident leaves them stranded. The first trailer for the film has jut been released. ‘Gravity’ Trailer: Watch George Clooney Get Lost In Space – MTV.com
Here is a synopsis of the movie:
Academy Award® winners Sandra Bullock (“The Blind Side,” “The Proposal”) and George Clooney (“Up in the Air,” “Syriana”) star in “Gravity,” a heart-pounding thriller that pulls you into the infinite and unforgiving realm of deep space. The film was directed by Oscar® nominee Alfonso Cuarón (“Children of Men”).
Bullock plays Dr. Ryan Stone, a brilliant medical engineer on her first shuttle mission, with veteran astronaut Matt Kowalsky (Clooney) in command of his last flight before retiring. But on a seemingly routine spacewalk, disaster strikes. The shuttle is destroyed, leaving Stone and Kowalsky completely alone—tethered to nothing but each other and spiraling out into the blackness.The deafening silence tells them they have lost any link to Earth…and any chance for rescue. As fear turns to panic, every gulp of air eats away at what little oxygen is left.
But the only way home may be to go further out into the terrifying expanse of space.
“Gravity” was written by Alfonso Cuarón & Jonás Cuarón. Alfonso Cuarón and David Heyman (the “Harry Potter” films) are the film’s producers. Stephen Jones (“Knowing”) served as executive producer with Nikki Penny (“Clash of the Titans”) co-producing.
The behind-the-scenes team includes multiple Oscar®-nominated cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki (“Children of Men,” “The New World”), production designer Andy Nicholson (supervising art director “Alice in Wonderland”), editor Mark Sanger (VFX editor “Alice in Wonderland”), and costume designer Jany Temime (the “Harry Potter” films). The effects were handled by Oscar®-nominated visual effects supervisor Timothy Webber (“The Dark Knight”) and Oscar®-winning special effects supervisor Neil Corbould (“Gladiator”).
“Gravity” was filmed entirely at Shepperton Studios in London, England.
A Warner Bros. Pictures production, “Gravity” will be released in 3D and 2D and distributed worldwide by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment company.
Bob Zimmerman reports on the latest space news during regular weekly slots (usually Tuesday and Thursdays) on the John Batchelor radio program. See the iTunes free Podcast for links to the latest shows.
Tuesday’s segment: Space:
Thursday’s segment: Climate:
Tornadoes at their lowest in U.S. in 50 years.
[ Update: Bob made a special appearance on the Friday night program to discuss the ammonia coolant leak on the ISS and other issues regarding the Station:
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Charles Lurio, spoke on the John Batchelor Show on Wednesday during the weekly Hotel Mars segment with David Livingston. They talked about the Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo, suborbital spaceflight, and space tourism: The John Batchelor Show Hotel Mars, Wednesday, 5-8-13 | Thespaceshow’s Blog.
An uplifting talk by a young engineer about the promise of space and humanity’s place in it: Mars and the Euphoria of Human Exploration: Tim Ellis at TEDxTrousdale (via Spaceports blog):
From the caption:
Tim Ellis is a current graduate student and undergraduate alumni of the University of Southern California’s Viterbi Engineering School with both degrees in Aerospace Engineering. His primary involvement on campus is centered around the Rocket Propulsion Lab, a purely student-run group dedicated to designing, building, and flying research-scale rocket vehicles and engines.
He was the conceptual design and dynamics team leader in the planning and development of USCRPL’s “Traveler” rocket, slated to be the first ever launched by a university to international space at over 400,000 ft altitude. Beyond “Traveler”, Tim was also a lead designer of the Silver Spur 3 project, which successfully flew to 60,000 ft and over 3,000 mph.
Currently, he is working on developing USC’s first bipropellant rocket engine, aimed to discover ways to drastically lower the cost and difficulty of access to space without sacrificing performance. Additionally, as an undergraduate, Tim was an active member in the professional leadership fraternity Delta Omicron Zeta.
Outside of school, Tim will be returning for a third consecutive internship with the private space group Blue Origin, LLC, a startup founded by Amazon.com owner Jeff Bezos, to advance the presence of humans in space.