Webcast: NASA Innovative Advance Concepts Symposium – live updates on latest projects

NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) funds studies into all sorts of cool and often “crazy” ideas that just might work. This week  (Mon-Wed) at the NIAC Symposium in Denver, Colorado, leaders of funded project will give updates on their studies. The presentations are being webcast live at 2017 NIAC Symposium on Livestream –

Here is the agenda (pdf).

The Space Show this Week – Sept.25.2017

The guests and topics of discussion on The Space Show this week:

  • Open Lines for Monday | Monday 25 – Sep 20170  7:00 pm PT (10:00 pm ET)
    Dr. David Livingston hosts an Open Lines show with “The topics you want to talk about”.
  • Robert (Bob) Zimmerman | Tuesday 26 – Sep 2017 – 7:00 pm PT  (10:00 pm ET)
    Robert Zimmerman returns for space news and event updates.
  • Hotel Mars | Wednesday 27 Sep 2017 – 3:30 pm PT  (6:30 pm ET)
    John Batchelor, Dr. David Livingston – TBD
  • Dr. Gil Levin – Friday 29 – Sep 2017 – 9:30 am PT  (12:30 pm ET)
    Dr. Gil Levin returns with Mars life updates, Viking, and more.
  • Michael Listner – Sunday 01 – Oct 2017 – 12:00 pm PT  (3:00 pm ET)
    Michael Listner space legal news developments and more

See also:
* The Space Show on Vimeo – webinar videos
* The Space Show’s Blog – summaries of interviews.
* The Space Show Classroom Blog – tutorial programs

The Space Show is a project of the One Giant Leap Foundation.

The Space Show - David Livingston
David Livingston

Video: Atlas V launches spysat from Vandenberg

Early Sunday morning, United Launch Alliance sent the US spysat NROL-42 into orbit with an Atlas V rocket blasting off from Vandenberg AFB in California. Here is a nice photo taken during the launch by Anthony Galván III:

Atlas V launch from Vandenberg AFB, California, 9/23/17 @22:55 hr. NROL-42 mission Image made from Goleta, California, 50 miles SE of the launch site.

Here is a ULA video with highlights of the preparations for the mission and of the launch:

 

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Space music: “The Mission” by Styx takes listeners on the first mission to Mars

Styx in June released The Mission, their 15th studio album since the progressive rock band started out in the early 1970s. The concept album depicts the first human mission to Mars.

[Tommy Shaw]’s cosmos-themed language reflects the story line that he and producer Will Evankovich created for The Mission. It takes place in 2033 and deals with the first manned mission to Mars via Khedive, a nuclear-powered spaceship, underwritten by the Global Space Exploration Program (GSEP). The three singing members of Styx — Shaw, James “JY” Young and Lawrence Gowan — play the roles of the Pilot, First Officer and the Engineer, and the other three — Chuck Panozzo, Todd Sucherman and Ricky Phillips — serves as the ship’s crew.

“The Mission is one of those once-in-a-lifetime opportunities to be a part of something unique and special that’s happening in real time right in front of you,” Evankovich said of working on the project, which took two years to record. “It is one of those albums that musically and cosmically showed you the next right thing to do every step of the way. I will forever be grateful and proud of what we did in this body of art.”

As Panozzo said, “The Mission is a sincere and honest representation of how Styx built upon where we were in the 20th century in order to go somewhere new in the 21st century.”

Here is an interview with Styx’s Tommy Shaw about the album:

And Shaw recently sang a brief tribute to the late great Cassini spacecraft: Styx Sings Touching Farewell to Cassini Probe Before It Crashes into Saturn

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Video: Marvelous imagery from Juno’s latest low pass over Jupiter

The Mission Juno spacecraft recently completed its 8th low pass over the clouds of Jupiter.  Images from Perijove 08 can be found on the JunoCam site, including images that have been enhanced by amateur astro-imaging whizzes.

This video of enhanced imagery from the 8th pass displayed with a musical soundtrack is quite spectacular:

Here is a more interpretive approach to Juno’s data:

A multimedia project based on an image of Jupiter I processed that was captured by Juno spacecraft. Illustration, animation and special effects by Rachel Richards. Music composed and performed by Rachel Richards.

A Perijove 08 image “Heavily processed via Photoshop” by RichDaMann:

RichDaMann

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