Well folks, I’m back and since you last heard from me I’ve done many things that includes nearly surviving a semester of college (not quite done yet) and joined a fraternity as well getting my dad hooked to the xbox which is probably my crowning achievement tied with joining the fraternity and surviving a senior seminar class as a sophomore.

Now back history to all this is my dad is one of those outdoor type of guys. A master plumber and avid fisherman we last heard from him in my post reviewing an iPod Touch Fishing Game and he wasn’t too impressed. So, yesterday I was sitting down and playing Assassin’s Creed Two, which you’ll soon be hearing a post about cause it’s insanely good, and my dad walks in. After we talk for a couple minutes I asked him if he wanted to play and he said video games weren’t his thing. Now he says that a lot and either he’s saying that or reflecting how violent video games are. Well, I wasn’t going to be defeated that easily this time especially by a guy who usually strongly dislikes my gaming habit.

Speaking of gaming, this is  great time to mention that he’s not the only one who thinks my habits odd. You see, when people think of gamers they tend to think of overweight highschoolers with a Warcraft T-shirt on and really thick glasses. And you know what? They’re right, those kids usually are gamers, but I’d like to make the distinction that those aren’t the only gamers. That’d be like saying the only type of poet you have is the one with the long goatee, red berett, and empty stomach. There’s a lot more then that. There’s actually about as many different types of gamers as you have game types and that’s no coincidence (that’s marketing!). Take Rockband for example, got a group of normal looking (and more imporantly normal acting) friends who play it? Guess what? Gamers. How about all those ROTC guys and girls who play Call of Duty in their spare time? Gamers too. All a gamer is is someone who plays a videogame on a regular basis. Hey here’s a plottwist. Do you play Farmville on Facebook? Guess what. Ah huh, you’re a gamer too. Scary isn’t it?

So that’s my point. Anyone can play a videogame and it doesn’t make you fat to sit down and try one, even one you’re not use to. You get fat by not getting enough excercise and as Wii and DDR (remember when that was popular?) demonstrated you can definitely get excercise gaming. As for my dad? Well, he’s an Asteroids fan and if you don’t know what that is, ask your parents. “Hey I see my son play enough of these games,” my dad explains to my mom as he restarts for the n-teenth time, (because on the XBox there are no quarters), “now he can see what it looks like.”

Later we’re in the kitchen after I accidently unplugged the thing while trying to find my laptop charger. He’s convinced I did it on purpose. (The jury is still out.) I laughed and talked about this blog post. “Let me remind you, kids,” he says to me as he reaches below the counter, “that we invented video games.” He pulls out a plastic wrapped, microwaveable popcorn bag and begins to open it. “You’re just along for the ride.”

About ten minutes later, as I add tags this blog, I hear my parents in the living room. “How do I get it to start?” my dad asks aloud as he fumbles with the XBox controller. “Hit A,” my mom suggests. “I’m hitting X,Y,Z, B, and A,” my dad says with probably a couple extra letters you won’t find anywhere on the XBox,  “nothing’s happening.”

“Andy,” my mom yells from the living room, “come fix it.” My dad’s generation might have invented videogaming, but its the kids along for the ride that have kept up with the pace. On a final note, I keep with what I said, anyone can play a videogame, the trick is simply finding what they like.

Like it? Digg it!

Il est possible de jouer en ligne à des jeux tels que :Adventure, Asteroids, Battlezone, Cyrstal Castles & Yar’s Revenge.

accéder au site

Jeśli zawsze chcieliście zagrać w oryginalne automatowe hity Atari, których większość doczekała się już dziesiątek kontynuacji, rozwinięć itp, właśnie macie okazję.

Na swojej stronie Atari udostępniło szereg klasyków, które na pewno znacie z wczesnych lat waszego grania. Można je też pokazać, nie wiem, na przykład dzieciom .

Co więcej: “You can play them all here online, any time and free of charge.” – nic tylko zabierać się do bicia rekordów w Asteroids .

Klik_mi

ps. Za info dziękuję Konradowi

Hello Good People who surprise me by still reading this blog during my long absences.

This post was originally half written over four weeks ago and was never finished, I was interrupted by the ‘flu,the Cultural Revolution and Revolutionary Operas and then had to recover from the exhaustion of all three!

Anyway, I am now myself again and am greatly excited at the prospect of seeing the Steve Hillage Band and Gong live at The Forum in London, this Friday (on the 27/11/2009 in case you read this at some point in the future).

Talking about some point in the future, before the Cultural Revolution, or sleeping or reading about East Asian pop music compulsively once  again, I will get straight to the point and illustrate Gong’s new album entitled 2032 with a short clip. I have to admit that I think this music video is amazing. It was made by the Japanese animator team Mu-0C Magic , who I believe are Hibari Hoya,Haruka Sakota, and Akira Watanabe.

Gong- How to Stay Alive ( 2009)

Is the album entitled 2032 because an asteroid is due to hit Earth in that year?

Answers in the comments section please, the song is certainly cheerfully apocalyptic. But then the first ever song by Gong that hit me lyrically in the centre of my brain was You Can’t Kill Me, a song about killing off the rest of the family, symbolic and  psychologically strange.

( preceded appropriately by Radio Gnome Prediction) released in 1971 from the album Camembert Electrique:

The tracks on the new album 2032 sound definitely like the old Gong, although on occasion I can hear a bit of old Hawkwind and The Ozric Tentacles too. However considering that without both Hawkwind and Gong , there wouldn’t be any Ozric Tentacles ..I’ll let you do the maths…

Here is Pinkle Ponkle from the new Gong album, starting off sounding a bit techno, then a bit middle-Eastern but then definitely just like Gong’s unique style with echo unit orgasmic sighs by Gilli Smyth , Daevid Allen’s poetry, psychedelic spacy effects by Miquette Giraudy, Steve Hillage’s uniquely wonderful  guitar sound ,with Mike Howlett on bass,Chris Taylor on drums and Theo Travis on flute and sax.

See the Gong website (http://www.planetgong.co.uk/) for further guest players on the album including the original Didier Malherbe.

Gong and Steve Hillage surreptitiously introduced me to Gamelan, free form jazz , Middle-Eastern and Indian classical music and musical concepts like drones on Miquette’s synth,and modes from the East on Steve’s guitar, when I was only fourteen and “World Music” was not generally heard in London’s mainstream media, apart from a bit of Indian Classical music.

In recent years of course, Steve Hillage has been creating music with Miquette as System7, but even with dance/trance/techno music he was still playing his guitar live.

Now with the reemergence of The Steve Hillage Band , he is playing his old stuff again, something many of us had wished and prayed for during the past two and a half decades and never dared to hope would come true.

I will end with some video clips as it’s late and I need to go to bed! One last piece of info, I phoned up a ticket agency today ( Keith Prowse) and there are still tickets available for this Friday (tomorrow) at the Forum in Kentish Town…

but only because every Steve Hillage fan in London does not realise he is playing yet. If you are one of them, get yourself a ticket by whatever means , it’s not too late. Or you could go and see The Steve Hillage Band and Gong , on Saturday the 28th at The O2 Academy in Oxford,  and Sunday the 29th of  November at The Corn Exchange in Brighton.

I have already put up so many of my favourite Steve Hillage tracks up on this blog along with my favourite youtube video clips so forgive me if I am repeating myself .

Om Nama Shivaya from the album “L” (1976)

Salmon Song ,this is a clip from the fantastic video of Steve Hillage playing in Canterbury from the truly excellent DVD  Steve Hillage LIVE in England 1979.

and from the same DVD here he is with Hurdy Gurdy Man

and here they are in 2009 in Bonn playing  Searching for The Spark ..they need a bigger audience to bounce their musical vibes off, so get down there , if you are in London, Oxford, or Brighton and dance your hippie dance.

See you all on Friday or online sometime.

Love and Peace

Born2rant

“Tente pensar em um elefante. Agora tente pensar em outro. Adimita: os dois eram o mesmo elefante, não eram?”

Resolvi não colocar imagens neste artigo. É melhor que você vá até o site e veja por si mesmo. Neave é um site criado pelo designer londrino Paul Neave  que dispõe de treze inusitadas, interessantes e diversificadas maneiras de se passar o tempo ocioso, se divertir ou fazer o que mais você descobrir ser possível. É provável que você se surpreenda, não só com a criatividade de Paul Neave, como também com a sua própria. A seguir um resumo do que se pode encontrar no site:

1. Flash Earth coloca à sua disposição imagens de satélite da Terra adquiridas através de múltiplas fontes, incluindo a NASA e a Microsoft.
2. Planetarium vai lhe mostrar um belo céu estrelado pelo qual você poderá rodopiar à vontade, identificar constelações e, quando tiver curiosidade, passar o mouse por cima de uma estrela para saber seu nome, sua constelação, sua magnitude e sua distância de nós.
3. Games disponibiliza remakes de jogos clássicos como Space Invaders, Tetris N-Box, Asteroids, Snake, Simon, Jogo-da-velha, Hexxagon e Frogger.
4. Imagination fará com que linhas de luz e fumaça saiam da ponta do seu mouse em um fundo preto, formando texturas e desenhos interessantes.
5. Fractal te levará em uma viagem de zoom eterno que segue os princípios de um complicado conceito matemático (sobre o qual você pode tentar saber mais aqui e aqui)
6. Television é uma televisão sem contexto. Entre color bars e chiados você assistirá a trechos randômicos de uma coisa qualquer.
7. Strobe te fará ver tudo de uma forma diferente da que você costuma ver. O Mushroom não recomenda que você dirija nem opere máqunas perigosas logo após a experiência.
8. Anaglyph dará utilidade àquele óculos 3D que você roubou de algum filme ou ganhou junto com aquela revista de dinossauros quando tinha dez anos. Com ele você poderá desenhar e escrever em três dimensões, girar e aproximar/afastar sua imagem. Se você não tem um óculos 3D, faça um: vale a pena.
9. Bounce deixa bolinhas coloridas de diferentes tamanhos na sua tela. Coloque uma música ou fale algo (requer microfone) e as bolinhas vão pular de acordo com o som.
10. Light segue o mesmo princípio de Bounce, exceto que, nele, o show é de luzes.
11. Dandelion consiste num dente-de-leão virtual que você pode soprar (requer microfone) e sacudir eternamente, pois ele sempre se renova.
12. Webcam é um conjunto de gravações interessantes feitas pelos internautas através de suas webcams com alguns efeitos que o site disponibiliza. Além de assistir, você pode se divertir com os efeitos fazendo, você mesmo, gravações (requer webcam).
13. Voting questiona e estuda o ato de votar. Nele, você se deparará com perguntas estranhas (e potencialmente engraçadas) como:

Armpit hair?

• Long and dangly
• Short and matted
• Fashioned into a small hat

que exploram fatores como a influência que a construção da pergunta exerce sobre sua resposta.

Enfim, vale muito a pena conferir o Neave, a não ser que você esteja estudando para algum vestibular ou tenha algum projeto importante para entregar no trabalho por esses dias, pois o site tomará uma parcela razoável do seu tempo. Confie no Mushroom.

]]> http://brunocunha.wordpress.com/2009/11/25/classicos-da-atari-online/ Wed, 25 Nov 2009 13:08:42 +0000 darktbone http://brunocunha.wordpress.com/2009/11/25/classicos-da-atari-online/

Nunca esquecemos onde tudo começou, ganhei de natal, do Papai Noel hehe a febre do momento, tinha 6 anos quando ganhei o Atari e até hoje, passando por vários consoles, não largo essa paixão que tenho pelos jogos. Podem falar mau, dizer que é bobagem, besteria, não ajuda uma pessoa socialmente etc.. não ligo para essas coisas até por que os fatos justificam os meios e os jogos, hoje em dia, estão quase chegando ao patamar do cinema e até ajudando as pessoas da terceira idade.

Mas, deixando a história de lado, trago hoje uma notícia muito maneira, a Atari colocou a disposição 6 jogos clássicos da época, são eles:

• Adventure
• Asteroids
• Battlezone
• Crystal Castles
• Lunar Lander
• Yar’s Revenge

E pode ser jogado Online, pelo Flash..

Matem a saudade desses clássico, que eu jogo até hoje. Acreditem, eu ainda jogo “Keystone Kappers” o famoso “Pega Ladrão”.

Site: Atari

Zwei Farben und ein simples Gameplay – Asteroids ist einfach Kult!

>> Asteroids jetzt for free online spielen

No, my friends, unfortunately I still lack the time to feed this blog properly, with the long posts I plan to write. But in the meanwhile I may as well call your attention to a couple of posts in a blog called Daily Kos, which gather together a very, very nice set of photos (mostly) of pretty much all of the Solar System planets, satellites and minor bodies that have been imaged by spacecraft thus far.

You can find the first part here, showing us the planets Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Ceres, Jupiter and Saturn, the planetary moons Luna, Io, Europa, Ganymede, Callisto, Mimas, Enceladus, Tethys, Dione, Rhea and Titan, the minor moons Phobos, Deimos, Amalthea, Thebe, Pan, Daphnis, Atlas, Prometheus, Pandora, Epimetheus, Janus, Telesto, Calypso and Helene, and the minor bodies Itokawa, Eros, Ida (and Dactyl), Gaspra, Mathilde, Šteins, Annefrank, Borrelly, Wild 2, Tempel 1 and Halley.

The second part, found here, features the planets Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, Haumea, Makemake and Eris, the planetary moons Iapetus, Miranda, Ariel, Umbriel, Titania, Oberon, Triton and Charon, the minor moons Hyperion, Phoebe, Puck, Larissa and Proteus and the minor body (albeit dwarf planet candidate) Quaoar, plus a bunch of schematics and plots.

Wonderful stuff. Enjoy.

http://www.colonyworlds.com/2009/11/the-7-future-wonders-of-the-solar-system.html

I stumbled across this post listing possible future wonders of the solar system. A lot of their really great ideas are based on current ideas in Science and Technology. Too bad I am alive now because I would really like to visit the Bio Gardens of Luna Maria…

“The Augustine Commission for Dummies”

(Part 1. Part 2. Part 3. Part 4. Part 5. Wrap Up.)

Given the intent of the politicians to fight for the funding their districts currently receive from the Constellation Program (CxP – the current program developing the Ares I and Ares V rockets) as well as go begging for more, and given the budget constraints the NASA faces, it is instructive to see where this course will end up. In the Senate, Richard Shelby has announced his intention to fight for Constellation and will try to increase funding to the Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama. Senator Bill Nelson of Florida is fighting for Kennedy Space Center and all the jobs and funding there. In the House, Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona and Pete Olson of Texas have dug in their heels and reiterated their backing of the Constellation program (See Space News, 21 November 2009).

All this is taking place against the backdrop of the Augustine Commission’s Final Report, which has made it clear that Ares I is over budget and underpowered. As Jeff Greason said at the Committee deliberations, if Santa Clause gave us Ares I and Ares V tomorrow, we would have to scrap them immediately because they would be too expensive to operate.

The Forum at NasaSpaceFlight has been for many years the authoritative site for information on all things NASA. It has been home to the rebel alliance of NASA and industry engineers that have advocated the in-line shuttle derived launch vehicle for the past four years.

The source of this concern was former Administrator Michael Griffin’s decision in 2005 to replace the dual-launch, in-line shuttle derived architecture recommended by NASA engineers, with his personal choice of a small Ares I and a very large Ares V. Instead of building one rocket using existing shuttle components as Congress had directed, he would build two brand new rockets. This decision came just two weeks before the scheduled release of the NASA document on the Constellation program.

Now, four years later in 2009, when the in-line shuttle derived launch vehicle should have been making its first flight, we are five or six years away from Ares I making its first flight. The Shuttle is scheduled for retirement next year and America will have to buy seats on the Russian Soyuz to get to the International Space Station. And the International Space Station is scheduled for de-commissioning in 2015 and would be de-orbited into the Pacific Ocean.

This reality gave birth to the Augustine Commission and its Final Report. We have covered in detail the findings of the Committee. Now we look to consider the possible outcomes.

Philip Metschan (writing as ‘Phoegh’), a long time contributor to the Forum at NasaSpaceFlight, has produced a marvelous interactive series of graphics available at directlauncher.com that illustrate the options identified by the Augustine Commission.

The Budget and Time Line for these options are given in the following table. Included are destinations beyond low Earth orbit (LEO) and the impact of each option on the existing workforce.

We can draw the following conclusions, which are illustrated in the Graphics mentioned earlier and shown below. We start with Option 1, the Program of Record (POR – Constellation) and the funding level provided in FY 2010:

• Option 1 – Ares I crew vehicle is ready a year after the ISS is de-orbited (2015) and Ares V is completed in 2028 with no funds to conduct exploration. There is no Moon in the picture.
• Option 2 – Scrap Ares I and substitute Commercial Crew Access to LEO. The money saved is used to keep the ISS operating until 2020. Ares V is completed in 2028 with no funds to conduct exploration. There is no Moon in the picture.
• Option 3 – Add $3 Billion per year to the existing program. Ares I crew vehicle is ready a year after the ISS is de-orbited (2015) and Ares V is completed in 2019. The Moon is reached in 2025, but no other destinations beyond LEO can be funded.
• Option 4 – Add $3 Billion per year to the existing program. Scrap Ares I and substitute Commercial Crew Access to LEO. The money saved is used to keep the ISS operating until 2020. Ares V is completed in 2023. The Moon is reached in 2030, but no other destinations beyond LEO can be funded.
• Option 4B – Add $3 Billion per year to the existing program. Extend the Shuttle to 2015. Scrap Ares I and substitute Commercial Crew Access to LEO. The money saved is used to keep the ISS operating until 2020. Ares V is completed in 2023. Develop the Propellant Depot by 2026. The Moon is reached in 2030.
• Option 5A – Add $3 Billion per year to the existing program. Scrap Ares I and substitute Commercial Crew Access to LEO. The money saved is used to keep the ISS operating until 2020. Scrap Ares V in favor of a smaller Ares V Lite, which is completed in 2023. Visit EML-1 or EML-2 in 2026. Visit a Near Earth Object (NEO) Sometime in the Future.
• Option 5B – Add $3 Billion per year to the existing program. Scrap Ares I and substitute Commercial Crew Access to LEO. The money saved is used to keep the ISS operating until 2020. Scrap Ares V in favor of a commercial heavy launch capability, which is completed in 2021. Develop the Propellant Depot by 2024. Visit a Near Earth Object (NEO) in 2026 and Phobos in 2028. Return to the Moon in 2029.
• Option 5C – Add $3 Billion per year to the existing program. Scrap Ares I and substitute Commercial Crew Access to LEO. The money saved is used to keep the ISS operating until 2020. Scrap Ares V in favor of a the Direct Team’s Jupiter 241, which is completed in 2022. Visit EML-1 or EML-2 in 2023. Develop the Propellant Depot by 2024. Visit a Near Earth Object (NEO) in 2027 and Phobos in 2029. Return to the Moon in 2030.

Those are the options explored by the Augustine Commission in their Final Report.

Notice, however, that there is one more slide, Option 5D. This is the architecture that was presented to the Augustine Commission during their first public session on 17 June 2009 by the Direct Team. It provides for:

• Add $1 Billion per year to the existing program.
• Extend Shuttle until 2012.
• Scrap Ares I and develop the Jupiter Core (Jupiter 130) for carrying crew on Orion to LEO and ISS by 2014.
• Develop Commercial Crew Access to LEO to replace the Jupiter 130 by 2015. Use Jupiter 130 for ferrying the few large payloads needed by ISS.
• Continue ISS operations until 2020.
• Scrap Ares V in favor of the Upper Stage for the Jupiter Core (Jupiter 241 or Jupiter 246), which is completed in 2017.
• Visit EML-1 or EML-2 in 2018.
• Orbit the Moon in 2019.
• Visit a Near Earth Object (NEO) in 2022.
• Visit Phobos in 2025.
• Develop the Propellant Depot by 2028.

The key here is that the goal of expansion of human civilization into the Solar System is better served, is accomplished sooner, and costs less. Indeed, even without the additional $1 Billion per year, only the extension of the Shuttle operation need be eliminated.

Final Conclusions

• Options 1, 2 and 3, which are favored by the politicians with space flight facilities, get us nowhere and cost far too much.
• Options 4 and 4B get us to the Moon, but neither builds infrastructure for support of future exploration.
• Options 5A, 5B and 5C builds the skills and infrastructure for space exploration, but leave us a crew to LEO gap of five to six years.
• Option 5D builds the skills and infrastructure for space exploration, reduces the crew to LEO gap to one or two years, and gives the international community the ability to descend to the surface of the Moon and Mars.

Time is of the Essence

Finally, this note about the political realities. First, if a decision is delayed for four to six months while the politicians fight for every last bit of funding they want, the infrastructure on which the Jupiter program builds will be dismantled and Options 4B, 5C and 5D will be eliminated.

Second, Congress will likely decide that the Constellation program as currently envisioned is too costly for what will be developed and not worth throwing more money down the drain. Options 1, 2, 3, 4B and 5A will be eliminated.

Thus, only commercial crew and cargo capabilities will be funded. NASA will be reduced to research and contracting for services. The Marshall Space Flight Facility will have little purpose. And the politicians will lose most of the jobs and funding that their districts currently enjoy.

(Part 1. Part 2. Part 3. Part 4. Part 5. Wrap Up.)

Alice and Jeremy

My head is spinning somewhat. Under our roof, the search for detail, that detail which provides the colour and shading for the outline that the common or garden Nativity provides, continues and is ever-dizzying. I mean, of course, that the study of the asteroids is ongoing and all-consuming.

Today he tells me I have a Cazimi Cora in Cancer. Cora is an alternate name for the Greek Goddess Persephone, daughter of Demeter. (Also known, of course, as Proserpina and Ceres.) She is the embodiment of the Earth’s fertility, so it should be no great surprise that I have four children and only stopped because I “had to”.

More importantly, however, she was abducted by Hades, Lord of the Underworld and separated from her mother. (Cazimi Cora in Cancer, ruled by the Moon which, coincidentally, I have in the 8th so something I have to give up?) Wikipedia, I might mention, also has this to add: “This myth also can be interpreted as an allegory of ancient Greek marriage rituals. The Classical Greeks felt that marriage was a sort of abduction of the bride by the groom from the bride’s family, and this myth may have explained the origins of the marriage ritual.“

I have previously mentioned the fact that Jupiter is transiting my natal Odysseus, Odysseus being exile, ex-patriate, feeling rootless or homeless, a stranger in a strange land, being sent away from “home”. I have mentioned that I am exiled from my family.

And here we have the illuminating piece of the puzzle that has enabled my family to project onto my lovely astrologer the personification of Hades (and those of you who know him will be laughing aloud by now). No protestation can dissuade them – indeed any protestation appears to be protesting too much. I have been abducted by the evil Lord of the Underworld. So here we are, Persephone and Hades (or Proserpina and Pluto), in exile.

And again the cry goes up: Nothing in this astrology lark, is there?

(Part 1. Part 2. Part 3. Part 4. Part 5. Wrap Up.)

In Part 1, we looked at the pieces strewn about our living room floor. In Part 2, we examined the Goals and Destinations in Chapter 3.0. And in Part 3, the three current Human Space Flight programs were reviewed (International Space Station, the Space Shuttle and the Constellation Program). In Part 4, we looked at the launch vehicles examined by The Augustine Commission.

Chapter 6 of the Augustine Commission Final Report deals with Program Options and Evaluation. This is one of the many contentious issues commentators have with the Commission. While they did select five possible exploration programs (Chapter 6), and while they did evaluate various launch vehicles (Chapter 5), the Committee seems to have ignored the possibility that different launch vehicles have greater or lesser ability to cover the five exploration programs. This failure may in the end, prove to be disastrous for human space exploration. As we write, the Space Shuttle infrastructure is being actively dismantled. The end result of failing to evaluate the physical infrastructure and the human infrastructure capable of supporting a Shuttle derived architecture may be that the United States is left with no heavy lift human space flight capability for at least the next several decades. We may have surrendered our space faring capability to Europe, China, Russia, India and Japan.

6.1 Evaluation Criteria

As noted by the Commission:

The Committee did not intend that the evaluation would generate a single numerical score; rather, it would provide a basis for comparison across options, highlighting the opportunities and challenges associated with each. Assigning weights to individual figures of merit is within the purview of the ultimate decision-makers.

Three primary evaluation dimensions were identified:

• Benefits to Stakeholders
• Risk
• Budget Realities

These three dimensions were expanded into 12 criteria for comparing the options.

• Exploration Preparation
• Technology Innovation
• Science Knowledge
• Expanding and Protecting Human Civilization
• Economic Expansion
• Global Partnerships
• Public Engagement
• Schedule and Programmatic Risk
• Mission Safety Challenges
• Workforce Impact
• Programmatic Sustainability
• Life-Cycle Cost

6.2 Key Decisions and Integrated Options

6.2.1 Key Decisions

1. What should be the future of the Space Shuttle?
2. What should be the future of the International Space Station (ISS)?
3. On what should the next heavy-lift launch vehicle be based?
4. How should crews be carried to low-Earth orbit?
5. What is the most practicable strategy for exploration beyond low-Earth orbit?

6.2.2 Integrated Options

The Committee identified five basic options: One based on the Program of Record (POR – Constellation – Ares I and V, Orion and Altair), and four alternatives. Options 2 and 3 were budget compatable alternatives to the POR. Option 4 was a Moon First program (with two variations), and Option 5 was the Flexible Path (avoiding the gravity well of the Moon).

6.2.3 Methodology for Analyzing the Integrated Options

Two budgets were used. The “Constrained Budget” used the FY 2010 budget, while the “Less Constrained Budget” allowed for an increase by 2014 of $3 Billion per year higher than FY 2010.

6.2.4 Reference Cases of the Entirely Unconstrained Program of Record

The Program of Record was evaluated and found to be a total of $45 Billion over the FY 2010 budget by 2020, wherein it is $5 Billion a year over FY 2010 in 2016 and $7 Billion per year over FY 2010 in 2019.

6.3 Integrated Options Constrained to the FY 2010 Budget

6.3.1 Evaluation of Integrated Options 1 and 2

Option 1 was found to allow for rocket development, but lacked funds for exploration. Option 2 extends the lifetime of the ISS, delays rocket development, and has no funds for exploration.

6.3.2 Examination of alternate budget guidance

The Committee found no alternatives to Options 1 or 2 that were viable under the FY 2010 budget. This conclusion has been disputed.

6.4 Moon First Integrated Options Fit to the Less-Constrained Budget

6.4.1 Evaluation of Integrated Options 3 and 4

Option 3 was to execute the POR under a less constrained budget. The ISS is de-orbited in 2010, and the Shuttle flies the remaining missions into 2011. Human lunar return occurs in the mid 2020s and the lunar base becomes operation late in the decade. An alternate extending ISS to 2020 was found to push these dates out by three to four more years.

Option 4 uses the less constrained budget, scraps Ares I and substitutes commercial crew services by 2016 It extends the ISS to 2020. Ares V is scrapped in favor of a dual-launch Ares V Lite vehicle for lunar missions.

Option 4A retires the Shuttle in 2011, while Option 4B extends the Shuttle to 2015 and develops a Shuttle Derived Heavy Lift vehicle in place of Ares V Lite.

6.4.2 Examination of the key decision on the ISS extension

Given the International Partnerships that have been developed, and the fact that the extension to 2020 would only delay the lunar return by a few years, the Committee found that the extension provides greater value than ending the ISS mission.

6.4.3 Examination of the key decision on Ares V vs. Ares V Lite dual launch

Baseline Ares V has more launch capability than the Saturn V, but current NASA studies show that when used in combination with Ares I, it does not have enough launch capability to robustly deliver the currently planned landing and surface systems to the Moon.

The Committee concluded that Ares V Lite represents less development risk, likely will reduce costs and provides more substantial margin for the lunar mission.

6.4.4 Examination of the key decision on the provision of crew transport to low-Earth orbit

Commercial crew services, based on a high-reliability rocket with a capsule and launch escape system could significantly reduce development costs, as well as lower operating costs.

6.4.5 Examination of the key question on Shuttle extension

The Committee favored early retirement of the Shuttle (2010 or 2011), although they noted several advantages to Shuttle extension to 2015, including up-mass and down-mass capability and workforce retention.

6.5 Flexible Path Integrated Options Fit to the Less-Constrained Budget

6.5.1 Evaluation of Integrated Option 5

Option 5 operates the Shuttle into 2011 and extends the International Space Station mission until 2020. A variety of destinations beyond low earth orbit are possible. The Committee developed three variants of this option.

• Option 5A develops the Ares V Lite, visits the Lagrange points, near Earth objects, on-orbit refueling and achieves a lunar return by the end of the 2020s.
• Option 5B develops commercial heavy lift capability, restructures NASA, and follows a similar mission profile as 5A, but on a slower time line.
• Option 5C scraps Ares V Lite and develops a Shuttle Derived Heavy Lift vehicle. 5C follows a similar mission profile as 5A, but on a slower time line.

6.5.2 Examination of the key question on Ares V family vs. Shuttle-derived heavy launcher

While the Shuttle derived in-line launch vehicle (SDLV) with two four-segment solid rocket motors (SRM) and the 8.4 meter external tank (ET) was the 2005 ESAS candidate for the cargo vehicle, it was forced to evolve into the Ares V due to the problems encountered with the underpowered Ares I. For some reason, the Committee decided that in order to match the capabilities of the Ares V, or the Ares V Lite dual-launch mission, that there had to be three SDLV launches. Therefore, operations would be more costly.

This is a clear Committee miss, as the current planned lunar return missions can be accomplished with good margin by a dual-launch SDLV program, thus costing less than the Ares V Lite. There is no need for the enhanced capabilities of the dual-launch Ares V Lite.

6.5.3 Examination of the key question on NASA heritage vs. EELV-heritage super-heavy vehicles

The Committee considers the EELV-heritage super-heavy vehicle to be a way to significantly reduce the operating cost of the heavy lifter to NASA in the long run. It would be a less-capable vehicle, but probably sufficiently capable for the mission. Reaping the long-term cost benefits would require substantial disruption in NASA, and force the agency to adopt a new way of doing business.

6.6 Comparisons Across Integrated Options

6.6.1 Cross-option comparisons

The Flexible Path program (Option 5A) scores more highly than the Baseline (Option 3) on 9 of the 12 criteria outlined in section 6.1 ( See figure 6.6.1-1). The higher rankings include:

• Exploration Preparation (due to much more capable launch system)
• Technology (due to investment in technology)
• Science (because of more places visited)
• Human Civilization (due to the ISS extension)
• Economic Expansion (because of commercial involvement in space elements and crew transport)
• Global Partnerships (gained by extending the ISS)
• Public Engagement (by visiting more new locations, and doing so each year)
• Schedule (exploring beyond low-Earth orbit sooner)
• Life-Cycle Costs (due to commercial crew services)

6.6.2 Examination of the key question on exploration strategy

Three exploration strategies were examined in Chapter 3. The choice of Mars First was found not to be viable due to technological problems. Two strategies remained:

• Moon First on the Way to Mars, with surface exploration focused on developing capability for Mars.
• Flexible Path to Mars via the inner solar system objects and locations, with no immediate plan for surface exploration, then followed by exploration of the lunar and/or Martian surface.

The Moon first is favorable to lunar science and exploration (although much can be done robotically). The Flexible Path missions explore more of the Solar System, while initially doing less on the Moon. Flexible Path has the advantage of developing infrastructure for deep space exploration, including the moons of Mars and Mars itself. The Committe notes that:

Considering that we have visited and obtained samples from the Moon, but not near-Earth objects or Mars, and also that the Flexible Path develops the ability to service space observatories, the Science Knowledge criterion slightly favors the Flexible Path. Broadly, the more complex the environment, the more astronaut explorers are favored over robotic exploration. In practice, this means that astronauts will offer their greatest value-added in the exploration of the surface of Mars.

Final Scoring

Although the Augustine Commission did not publish a final tally of the scores (for reasons they made clear), the following table does compare and tabulate the scores.

Option 5D: We will have more to say about this proposal in our final segment: “Wrapped Up” or “The Augustine Commission for Dummies”.

(Part 1. Part 2. Part 3. Part 4. Part 5. Wrap Up.)

He had me in tears today, my lovely astrologer.

They bubbled up, out of nowhere, and flowed down my cheeks to splash on the notes on my desk.

His latest passion is Asteroids and Trans-Neptunians and his reasearch exhaustive. Greedily, he devours books, pores over charts, identifies personality traits, deep-rooted problems, potential pitfalls.

Jupiter, right now, is at 19° 18′ Aquarius and is transiting my Odysseus. So he looks up Odysseus. Odysseus is the asteroid for one who is sent into exile. “This sense of exile is to be seen as poignant because there is a longing for home; one has been banished and yet yearns to go home, to have a home, to find a place that offers what they idealise as home.” The tears, by now, are streaming unbidden down my face. “There is the perception that one doesn’t have a place to call his own.”

Then, of course, having punched this asteroid into the software, we discover that it is conjunct my Mars in the 9th – the lure of the open road, eh? And Odysseus conjunct Mars, to quote the pertinent paragraph: “Angry scenes in connection with being sent away” from ‘Go to your room’ as a child to “later in life, anger, independence or criticism carry the potential for echoes of banishment – being driven out.”

He is, inadvertently, enormously good at summoning my pain, dredging it up from its hiding place deep within my soul, standing it in front of me and saying: “Here it is. Confront it. It will make it better.” Or put another way, as he often says: “With awareness comes relief.” I suppose it is some small relief to know that it is there, in black and white, in my Nativity.

I am exiled from my family.

More than that, whenever I have dared speak out, rock the boat, step out of line, I have been royally punished for it. And (conjunct Mars in the 9th, remember?) hauled my cookies abroad and lived there for a good long time. Since I can remember I have longed to live far away from the family home. I have left and found it bittersweet because from a distance I can pretend that home is perfect. I can miss it. And if I stay away too long, I run the risk of forgetting that it isn’t what I believe it should be.

My whole life I have been mystified by the discrepancies between my understanding of home and family and the reality. Don’t misunderstand me, I have had a privileged and comfortable life, upbringing. On the surface of it, you would consider me the luckiest in the world. But it is about appearances, doing and saying the right thing. The substance of it, the meat of it, the depths of it… they have been conspicuous by their absence. Behaviours have been so utterly not what I expect of a family.

And, with what my lovely astrologer calls “The Jupiter Effect”, Jupiter is magnifying this conjunction. No wonder it hurts, huh?

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His research is not exactly painless for him either, you know.

Inevitably, he uses his own Nativity as a test or control case (and mine follows on as the live-in guinea pig), and turns up aspects and placements that have him drawing in his own breath in recognition, wonder or pain.

The latest example of such was his discovery, yesterday, of how Psyche plays out in his own chart. Apart from Daedalus, the Sun’s conjunction with Psyche is the closest aspect it makes. It is a massively sensitive point, arising mostly from one’s own pain “the excessively present trauma of the past”, which creates a hypersensitivity. It can be nigh on crippling “as one identifies oneself in terms of one’s ‘pain’ and the emotional complexes of the childhood. One may feel that what they are, at root, is the sum total of their pain and damage”.

As the tears rolled off his cheeks and into his beard, I began at last to understand from where his unsettling, extreme sensitivity and deep anxiety stem.

Surely only one with such levels of insight into pain and damage is qualified to help others overcome theirs?

On a cool fall evening while observing the stars with his Giant Reflecting Telescope,  Copernisaurus Rex, The Greatest Dinosaur Astronomer Of All Time  (pause for effect)… discovers Asteroid X, a planet killing space rock,  hurtling towards Earth and threatening to destroy the dinosaur civilization of Pangea….  Racing against time , Copernisaurus must convince the Pangean government of the danger. His plan: combine the fledging Saurian Space Program and  Pangea’s nuclear arsenal to split the asteroid in twain to avoid a planet killing strike! Will bureacracy and the ignorance of his fellow Saurians stop the mission before it even begins? Only time will tell.

The moment of discovery...

The National Reporter
During the last two weeks of August,  residents of Enid Oklahoma had been coming under attack by mysterious boulders falling from the sky.
“We didn’t know where they were coming from.” Life long Enid resident James Claver told us. “We would know when the damned things were coming because we could hear them whistling through the air, and then a second later all hell would break loose.”
Residents theorized that the boulders may have been meteorites that were coming into the Earths atmosphere at a very low angle and skiffing along the nearby lake cooling the surface, which of course would explain why they were not red-hot as meteors usually are.
While the meteor skiffing on the lake theory was the most widely accepted theory, some of the towns folk believed that evil spirits were at work. 

“I ain’t falling for none of that scientific clap trap.”  86-year-old Greg Haspen said. “I’m telling you this is evil powers at work.”
Greg’s wife, Arlene had a different idea as to where the mysterious boulders were coming from.
“They’s rolling down the mountain because of avalanches.” She said.
“There ain’t no damned mountains around here!” Greg snapped.
Other residents had some unusul theorys, unfortunatly The National Reporter  did not have enough time to interview everyone.

Clockwise from top left. Kitchen wall damaged by ten pound boulder in first reported attack. 11,000 Lb. Boulder crashed through this man’s roof and sliced his sofa in half. 700 Lb. boulder smashed into the rear end of a car. Massive boulder crashed into the front of this residence sending the homeowner to the emergency room.

“It all started out looking like typical kid stuff.”  Sheriff Mack Futotrile said. “I answered the first call which I just assumed was vandalism.  A ten pound boulder had crashed through a woman’s kitchen window and ripped a big hole in her wall.”
The National Reporter -When did the more serious attacks begin?
“Two days after that first attack, a massive boulder fell from the sky and tore through an elderly gentleman’s roof and ended up embedded in his living room floor after it sliced his sofa in half.”
The National Reporter- Is it true that someone was severely injured when boulder crashed through the front of their house?
“Yes, Marvin Young, a retired electrician.” He said. “The boulder crashed right into the front of his house while he was watching television. He was hospitalised in very serious condition.”
The National Reporter – We also heard a report that flaming bundles of wood fell from the sky and caused a few fires.
“Yes,. one home burned to the ground as a result of the burning wood.”

Top left; House struck by three ton boulder is on the verge of collapsing.
Top right; Giant boulder came from out of nowhere and smashed into this concrete wall.
Bottom; House on fire after being struck with an enormous bundle of flaming wood.

On the night of September 7th, Sheriff Futotrile and his department got a break on the origins of the mysterious boulders.
They received an anonymous phone call instructing them to stake out Peach St. around noon the next day and to keep their eyes peeled for boulders flying up into the sky.
The next day Sheriff Futotrile and his deputy’s concealed themselves along Peach street and watched the sky.
At around 1:30 pm their lucky break finally came.
They spotted a huge boulder streaking skyward from the back yard of a nearby house and the deputy’s quickly converged on the property.
They immediately spotted two teenagers hastily trying to hide a homemade wooden contraption of some sort in their garage.
It was later confirmed to be a a catapult.

Arrested for destruction of private property, attempted murder, arson and reckless discharging of a lethal weapon, were two 17-year-old high school students, Ben Garner and Thomas Greenspan.
Both are being held without bond at the Oklahoma youth detention facility.

Top; Ben Garner and Thomas Greenspan.
Bottom: Homemade catapult that terrorized the town for weeks.

Plague Hits China Thousand Quarantined

The Pneumonic Plague is spreading in Northwestern China. One man has already died, 11 have been infected and thousands of others are in quarantine.

A 32 year old farmer in Ziketan, a Tibetan area of Qinghai province, has died from the pneumonic plague. The other 11 people are relatives of the dead farmer and are in stable condition in hospital. Over 10,000 others who live in the Ziketan area, which covers about 1,000 square miles, have been quarantined and a team of medical experts have been dispatched to the area.

Pneumonic plague is highly lethal and doea respond to antibiotics in most cases. It is an airborn bacteria that is spread through coughing and sneezing. It is similar to bubonic plague which killed 25 million people in Europe in the Middle Ages.

2 deaths in September 2008, a married couple, have been attributed to the pneumonic plague according to the Chinese health ministry.

He’s well and truly into his asteroids, my lovely astrologer. Like the thirstiest of sponges he’s soaking up this information as though his life depended on it.

My life, right now, is punctuated with such gems as:

“You have a Cazimi Cupido. Barbara Cartland had a Cazimi Cupido. You could make a fortune writing romance novels.”

Or bodice-rippers as my mother used to call them…

I tell him, a little spooked, “Barbara Cartland was born on the 9th July, like me.” (I have told him before how I used to skive my P.E. classes at school and hide in my dorm reading Mills & Boon – all too Venus/Pluto as well, methinks…) Seems my birthday and the delightful Ms Cartland’s aren’t all we have in common, then. But in spite of the life I live punctuated with blue (oh, so many sons) I refuse to wear fluffy pink, keep a lapdog or glue on false eyelashes every morning. You can go too far, in my humble…

He also tells me, in the next breath, that I have Asclepius conjunct Hygeia on the astrologers’ degree of Leo. Allegedly, that means I should be more than capable of being a fabulous medical astrologer, aiding those with health and weight problems.

How does that sit with weaving tales of unrequited love? Sigh… Decisions, decisions.

Decisions, decisions...

I did, of course, put this conundrum to him and he kindly obliged with this pertinent information. The Cupido in my astrology is not quite the same as the delightful Barbara’s. Mine is Cupido A which, apparently, relates much more to the appearance. You see where I’m going with this? Perhaps they are not such very different things after all?

How long will the Universe as we know it survive? Take a 10 and add 100 zeroes, if Stephen Hawking’s theory checks out. SpaceRip TV in collaboration with Space.com.

So today we will try a soup, cookin poor Asian style. I found this recipe online oddly enough and spiced it up Jew style. It was an inexpensive hit at my place, let’s hope it works for you:

4 cups chicken broth
4 eggs (beaten)
1/4 cup of fresh chipped chives (green onions)
Ginger spice to taste
1-8 tsp salt
1 small can of sweet corn

Now prep is simple. Bring broth to a rolling boil, cut off the heat and very slowly pour in the eggs from at least a few inches above the lip of the pot. Make sure as you’re doing this that the soup has some swirl going, otherwise the eggs will clump into an unattractive mess.
Once all the eggs are added, throw in your chives, corn and spices. Let it all simmer a bit and you’re ready to go.
At this point you can also add some corn starch, this will thicken the soup considerably, making a great consistency.

So our ingredients were chicken stock $2.50, eggs $.17 each, chives $.50, and canned corn $.50. This will make 2 servings, so per serving our cost is $2 per meal. Not bad at all, and rather tasty.

A newly discovered asteroid designated 2009 VA, which is only about 7 meters in size, passed about 14,000 km from the Earth’s surface on November 6, at around 16:30 EST. This is the third-closest known (non-impacting) Earth approach on record for a cataloged asteroid.

Image Credit: NASA, Near Earth Object Program

The two closer approaches include the 1-meter sized asteroid 2008 TS26, which passed within 6,150 km of the Earth’s surface on October 9, 2008, and the 7-meter sized asteroid 2004 FU162 that passed within 6,535 km on March 31, 2004.

On average, objects the size of 2009 VA pass this close about twice per year and impact Earth about once every 5 years.

Asteroid 2009 VA was discovered by the Catalina Sky Survey about 15 hours before the close approach, and was quickly identified by the Minor Planet Center in Cambridge MA as an object that would soon pass very close to the Earth.  Only thirteen months ago, the somewhat smaller object 2008 TC3 was discovered under similar circumstances, but that one was found to be on a trajectory headed for the Earth, with impact only about 11 hours away.

JPL’s Near-Earth Object Program Office also computed an orbit solution for this object, and determined that it was not headed for an impact.

Source: NASA JPL’s Near-Earth Object Program Office

On Friday  November 6^th there was an asteroid near miss.  This was a small asteroid that came within 14,000km of Earth.  It was only spotted a short time before it made its pass at Earth.

Asteroids of a certain size could cause real problems for we Earthlings.  Much bigger issue than global warming.  There are people scanning the skys for Asteroids.  When one is found, calculations are made to determine if they present a real danger  —(I am not very confident that we are prepared to deflect the body away from Earth if it were a danger).  You might be interested in some observations about the most recent miss, and a longer ranged view of the consequences of a strike.

If so,  look at this one for comments about the Nov. 6^th asteroid  here.

This site charts the close ones every day,   click here and page down to near the bottom of the site to see Near-Earth Asteroids.

And click here for a site that give some history and a cool video of the consequences of a major asteroid strike

Cbdakota

Cutting-edge stories about the origins of the universe, black holes, exploding stars, the search for ET life, and the nature of the planets. Original productions from SPACERIP TV and Space.com.

How Large is the Universe?

More episodes
Crashing into the Moon / Attack of the Sun / Saturn’s Mysterious Moons / The Asteroid that Flattened Mars
Super Hurricanes / The Largest Black Holes in the Universe