Ken Murphy / 11:38 am July 3rd, 2008

Mang’s Bat page hosts a special Tunguska edition in honor of the 100th anniversary of the event.

Another great round-up of space stories for this week’s Carnival of Space.

Ken Murphy / 7:18 pm June 29th, 2008

Regular readers know that I’m something of a fan of Japanese comics, called manga in comic form and anime in cartoon form, but only of the stuff that deals with quasi-realistic near-Earth, near-future stories. They are few and far between in DVD and book releases, but they are out there.

Royal Space Force: Wings of Honneamise is often cited as a classic. A cautionary tale of civilizations teetering on the brink of savagery and war, and the first launch of a man into space in spite of all the hating going on. Released in 1987, I kind of see it at the tail end of the Gen X round of anime that was probably kicked off with Battle of the Planets.

The next round of anime and manga started in the late 1990s, which is when I remember little anime shops opening up around the East Village and Little Tokyo in NYC. In Japan it was the time of the Cowboy Bebop. I never really got into it at that point as I was up to my eyeballs in other interests in the city and just didn’t have time for it. Then I was off to Strasbourg for a year at ISU, to come back to the second worst job market in recent decades (the worst being the early 90s when I got out of undergrad). So I basically skipped the last round.

It was not until recently, whilst searching for additions to the Lunar Library (LL), that I found Planetes. Wow. A richly visualized story centered around the very real problem of debris in orbit, and replete with philosophical underpinnings, an exploration not only of the majesty of space but also the richness of the human soul. It was at times goofy, but always spoke to every individual’s desire to contribute in some way to the betterment of humanity, sometimes in ways that are quite explosive. The manga for the series, published by TokyoPop, revealed a vibrant medium for tales of the near-future, near-Earth. Both series were quickly added to the LL.

This sparked a search for other titles that might be of interest. There’s a lot of manga out there, as a visit to any major bookseller can attest, and that’s part of the problem. There are a lot of slow-moving titles where booksellers carry the whole set. This takes up a lot of shelf space, and until the booksellers move the product that’s taking up space they’re disinclined to add more titles. However, there are a few of interest:

Earthlight (manga)

This title appeared in October 2006, set in 2068. Technically it’s a manga-sized graphic novel since it is read from front to back. It’s a story of a young man involuntarily moved to the Moon when his Dad becomes the new Base Administrator and his Mom the new teacher. Damon is certainly surprised to find out at the end of book one that his Mom is a terrorist mole who does her terrorist thing at one of the power sats.

Book two, from July 2007, resolves this, and the repercussions that reverberate throughout Earthlight Colony. The kids decide to make a video to show how important Earthlight Colony is and why past events should not be used to shut down the base. This is used as an educational tool back on Earth, leading to an elucidation of one of the most potent reasons we have for going to the Moon. So important that I’ve reproduced a couple of the last pages in volume two as thumbnails throughout this update (click for larger size).

Apparently since this one was not really manga, it wasn’t listed with the manga titles, and some of the specialty anime stores weren’t aware of it. The main bookboxes carried it, but it sold out pretty quickly here in the metroplex. The next volume isn’t due until November of 2008. A preview was offered in the manga Project D.O.A., hinting that corporate interests may be coming to the fore in the next tale. Published by TokyoPop

Freedom

This title appeared sometime in late 2007, set in the 23rd century. It’s a loving tale of a boy and his bike living amongst the last vestiges of humanity who fled to the Moon to escape an ecologically devastated Earth. Strange events start him questioning the Freedoms that the the Lunar Republic of Eden grants him. Young Takeru has bullies to race, and once he gets a hint of what’s really going on he also has the authorities to outrun.

The third DVD appeared in early February 2008, published by Bandai Visual. It also had an HD-DVD version, which is a bit of a problem, as the HD format was abandoned, and Bandai Visual has since been folded into Bandai Entertainment. When will the fourth through sixth DVDs appear? A little research shows that a batch of Vol. 4 may have been released back in February, but I didn’t see it. July 5th may be the next time they become available.

Moonlight Mile

This title started appearing in 2008, and the story starts in 2009. Be forewarned - it is for adults.

Goro and Lostman are climbing to the peak of Everest. At the top, they wonder what challenges could possibly face them now. Then they see the ISS, framed by the Moon. They both know in an instant that they’ve found their new peak to climb, one at the cutting edge of human endeavor.

This series started appearing in manga form in 2001, and was later adapted to anime. The series is currently up to 16 volumes in Japan. In France, where they have translated the manga from the original Japanese, they’ve published 10 volumes to date (a ripping good read, too). Given the issues noted previously, and the fact that the manga (like the anime) would only be sellable to adults, there’s probably no reason to hold your breath waiting for the comics. The distributor of the DVDs here in the U.S. has also been having some issues, so there’s some uncertainty there as to when the next one will be available.

Those are the main titles available right now within my particular area of interest. Expanding the scope to include comics from the rest of the world, we find there are even more items of interest, including:

2001 Nights

Back in the mid-1990s, Yokinobu Hoshino scripted and illustrated a trilogy of space graphic novels exploring humanity’s steps out into the Solar system, and then to the galaxy beyond. Published by Cadence Books in 1995, it’s over 750 pages of exploration of the bounds of space but also the human heart.

Two Faces of Tomorrow

This graphic novel is based on a 1979 James Hogan story, with Yukinobu Hoshino as illustrator. It was published in the late 1990s by Dark Horse Comics, and gathered together on 2006 for a big 572 pages of graphic novel overload. It starts in the year 2028 on the Moon.

Astronauts in Trouble

Long one of my favorites, This 1999 comic series told of the long tradition of investigative journalism and the Moon. A passé form of jounalism in this age of corporate media feed reproduction, it is a reminder of how journalism used to be. It has since been gathered in a variety of reproductions. ‘One Shot, One Beer’ is my favorite.

Orbiter

In 2003, Warren Ellis and Colleen Doran gave us an almost hallucinogenic look at a post-space program world that gave up when a shuttle orbiter disappeared while on orbit. That orbiter has now returned, a treasure trove of the future waiting to be unlocked.

Ministry of Space

Warren Ellis is back, with Chris Weston and Laura DePuy, with this 2001/2004 tale from image comics of a ruthless British plan to dominate space using an unorthodox revenue stream. The influence of the old Dan Dare comics is evident in this one.

Full Moon Fever

This graphic novel from 2005 transplants the werewolf legend to a Moonbase, with ample opportunity for violence and gore.

30 Days of Night: Dead Space

If werewolves aren’t enough for you, this tale from the first quarter of 2006 takes the gore factor a step beyond with a tale of some kind of vampire that is of course an unstoppable, inhuman killing machine that makes for some very bad times for the shuttle and space station.

Ocean

In this 2006 graphic novel from Wildstorm from the 2004/05 comic series, Warren Ellis returns, with Chris Sprouse and Karl Story. The time is 100 years from today. Humanity has stretched to the outer Solar system, and a station has been set up to study the oceans beneath the ice of Europa. A startling discovery sends a UN weapons inspector to Europa to face a threat to Earth older than mankind.

Dan Dare

A tradition in English comics that I remember from my time there as a kid in the 70s, they have been rejuvenated by Richard Branson of Virgin Galactic fame, perhaps as a means to develop an increased popular culture interest in space (and therefore his products). It involves aliens, which may be why I have only a marginal interest in it. Currently up to issue number six.

So as can be seen, there is a fair variety of relatively current near-Earth, near-future stories told in cartoon and comic form. This should by no means be seen as an exhaustive list, and your Lunar Librarian is always on the lookout for more.

Enjoy!

Ken Murphy / 11:46 pm June 26th, 2008

Verily doth each week lead to a new adventure!

This week the Big Tent is set up for its 60th big show over at my preferred style of star-gazing: Slacker Astronomy.

Nono liked it and sez ‘Check it out!’

Ken Murphy / 3:27 am June 23rd, 2008

Howdy everyone!

There’s been a lot of work by Rob and myself going on behind the scenes here at OutoftheCradle.net in anticipation of a big announcement at the end of this month. Part of that has been a lot of updating and streamlining of the Lunar Library (LL). Here are a few items of note:

1) Bonnie Cooper, of Oceaneering Space Systems, forwarded a CD-ROM of the four year publication run of Space Resource News. These pdfs have been uploaded to the High Frontier Resources section of the LL and are filed by date. (1992-95) The December 1995 issue is an index with short summaries.
High Frontier Resources, page 1
High Frontier Resources, page 2

2) Given some of the books published at around the same time, it appears that the early 1990s were a particularly fertile time for space ISRU studies. Just as The Lunar Sourcebook is the definitive reference for Lunar rock hounds, Resources of Near-Earth Space is the definitive work for Asteroid rock rats that want to mine the heavens. Like the Sourcebook, it’s hard to find and expensive when you do find it. I recently discovered that the University of Arizona has done a huge service to the space community by making the text available online.

3) NASA’s Innovative Partnerships Program (IPP), which also publishes Tech Briefs, has made all of the old Spinoff magazines available online, the older ones pdf, the more recent ones as web pages. Some folks dismiss spinoffs as a poor reason to spend money on space, which of course misses the entire point, which is that research in the space field for space purposes nevertheless offers opportunities to advance the state of the art in other fields. I know this for a fact, since I did a project for the GSFC Technology Transfer Office (TTO) as part of my work at the NASA Academy in ‘02 that analysed 10 years of DDF projects and tried to identify good transfer candidates that others may have overlooked. This means I looked at the Project Summaries of a LOT of high risk space-application technology research, and saw all kinds of wonderful possibilities. Some panned out. Others didn’t. That’s the point of bleeding-edge technology research.

The Spinoffs have been filed in the Space Biz section by year. There’s also an entry filed around May 2007 which logs the various issues that the Lunar Library holds in hard copy.
Space Biz, page 1
Space Biz, page 2

4) The Moon Society has made various back issues of the Moon Miner’s Manifesto available online. The only way to get access to all of them is of course to join. These have been filed in the Moonbases section of the Lunar Library.
Moonbases, page 1
Moonbases, page 2
Moonbases, page 3
Moonbases, page 4

5) I’ve added a lot of older Moon Fiction stories to the LL, and so have gone through and reordered the titles by their date of appearance, rather than the publication date of the hard-copy I have in the physical LL. This makes the flow of stories backward through time much more interesting as to the types of stories published when. Unfortunately, the software won’t let me file Lucian of Samosata’s Trips to the Moon at 160 A.D., so I’ve settled for the publication date of the academic study accompanying the text, 1887.
Moon Fiction, page 1
Moon Fiction, page 2
Moon Fiction, page 3
Moon Fiction, page 4

6) I’ve linked to the first ten editions of Selenology Today, which are filed, obviously, in the Selenology section.
Selenology, page 1
Selenology, page 2
Selenology, page 3

7) I’m a big fan of paper books, but I also appreciate advances in technology. Back when I was a banker in NYC I used to load text files of old books onto my Palm Pilot to read on the subway during the 30 minute ride to 59th & Lex. Nowadays the Kindle seems to be the next new thing. Your Lunar Librarian doesn’t have one yet (hey Amazon, a review copy would be greatly appreciated! ;-), but for those who want to create a LunaKindle full of Moon references, both fiction and non-, I’ve added Kindle chiclets to all of the available titles I’ve been able to find so far. I’ll be checking for newly available titles from time to time.

8 ) I’ve fixed the directories for the international titles, in Chinese, French and Spanish:
La Luna
La Lune
Yueh

9) There’s a new section in the Youth area - Educator Materials. This is devoted to curriculum materials and props that can be used by educators to better teach the youngsters about the role of space in our future.

So as you can see, we’ve been hard at work here at Out of the Cradle to make sure that you have all the tools and resources you need to be an informed citizen regarding the Moon and the High Frontier. While nefarious forces, both natural and human, may conspire to hold humanity to the Earth, humanity is awakening to the realization that we are in a cradle that has nurtured us to this point in history, and the time is coming when we will climb out of that cradle to fulfill our destiny as a species - that of carrying the life of Earth to the Solar system, bringing the force of life to where there is none, and carrying the seeds of Earth ultimately to the stars.

Ken Murphy / 1:51 am June 20th, 2008

Destination: Green Gabbro. Be sure to check it out!

Librarian’s Note: Gabbro is a petrology term for a group of dark-colored, intrusive igneous rocks with granular texture,composed largely of basic plagioclase and clinopyroxene. In the context of the Moon these are mainly plagioclase feldspar and high-Ca pyroxene. From McGraw-Hill Dict. of Scientific & Technical Terms and The Lunar Sourcebook respectively

Ken Murphy / 6:13 pm June 14th, 2008

Librarian’s Note: This is a reprint of a blog post that I wrote for Selenian Boondocks, where I guest blog. I haven’t really needed to change the text, but I have updated it with some pictures and weblinks.

25 Good Reasons to Go to the Moon

1) Hydrogen

Whether in water form or not, we do know that there is hydrogen at the Lunar poles. This can serve a minumum of two ends: water for a base, fuel for rockets.

2) Oxygen

The heavy part of the LH/LOX fuel mix is the oxygen, about 7/8ths of the weight. Instead of launching all the fuel for cislunar maneuvering from Earth, launch 8x the hydrogen from Earth and mix it with the Lunox.

3) 1/6th gravity

This will provide engineering fun and challenges for future generations of engineers. How does one design an extensible tower for a solar mirror with 1/6th the force of gravity?

4) No weather

This goes hand-in-hand with #3. Engineering design will be significantly different in a vacuum environment with no water, wind, rain, hurricanes, or tornadoes. Corrosion takes a different form.

5) Vacuum

A critical part of many of the engineering processes used here on Earth, requiring the expenditure of large amounts of energy to create a vacuum. The Moon has about 15,000,000 square miles of it.

6) Glass

A good proportion of the Lunar soil returned by astronauts was in the form of glass. Lunar glass has the distinct characteristic of having formed in a water-free environment, making it anhydrous. What advantages this may offer in the field of optics is largely Luna Incognito. Then there’s fiberglass, composites, etc.

7) Human factors

Having 1/6th of Earth’s gravity, the heart doesn’t have to pump as hard to supply oxygen to the brain. While for a youth this would have an atrophy-type effect, for those advanced in years it can serve a rejuvenative effect, as the heart is suddenly relatively stronger. This allows for longer productive lives for our citizens. And you can fly in a large enough space.

8 ) Crater history

The Moon is the best record in our local neighborhood of the history of bombardments from space. Earth is too dynamic to sustain a record, but the Moon is perfect. By establishing an impact history in size and time we can look for any cyclicality in the timing of impacts, and if so, where are we in the cycle?

Addendum: Dr. Paul Spudis has pointed out that the Moon also provides a historical record of the Solar System’s journey around the galactic core as well.

9) Cold-traps

At the Lunar poles, there are places the sun never shines. These everdark craters seem to hold the bulk of the hydrogen detected at the poles. Excavations outside the craters can create additional cold-traps for later industrial use.

10) Solar mirrors

Mounted on extensible towers, mirrors can be placed in perpetual sunlight to illuminate selected areas. This requires the high-technology capability to turn the mirror. No batteries required.

11) Solar power towers

Extensible towers at the poles will allow the placement of solar cells or films in constant sunlight. It doesn’t matter so much hitting the perfect peak for one’s ground-based system as making the tower high enough to peek over the horizon, which on the Moon is very short.

12) Radio silence

While not a perfectly radio-silent environment, the far side of the Moon is far better than anything on Earth or even in orbit. Large arrays can allow for a leap in precision for radio astronomy and SETI.

13) Solar cathedral

A number of religions and cultures around the world still use the Lunar calendar in the conduct of their affairs. Part of this involves determining the beginning of each lunar month. Building a Solar cathedral on the Moon will allow an unprecedented degree of precision in making that determination. It’s also a good way of getting different faiths to work together.

14) Neighborhood watch

The orbital scopes like Hubble get all of the credit for cool deep-space discoveries, but no one’s keeping an eye on our local neighborhood. That’s why we’re finding more and more asteroids after they’ve passed the Earth. The Moon provides the kind of dull, stable platform for the astronomy that no one else wants to do.

15) Greenhouses

Lunar regolith can’t really grow plants by itself, but the addition of humus (not hummus), other nutrients, and careful recycling does allow for plant growth. Plants grown in Lunar soil may provide new fragrances, flavors, and vintages. Spices were one of the early high-value, low mass/volume goods that helped create the trade routes of old.

16) Metals

Vacuum-processed ultra-pure aluminum. Vacuum-processed ultra-pure titanium. Vacuum-processed ultra-pure iron. Vacuum-processed ultra-pure magnesium. You want it? We’ve got it.

17) Volatiles

The Sun has been burying light elements in the Lunar soil for aeons. All it takes is a little baking at about 1100 K, a little shaking to agitate the particles, and a place to liquefy the output. Cold-traps are particularly useful for this.

18) Extreme sports

Imagine bicycle races at 250 kph. Imagine regoboarding the southside of Copernicus. Imagine flying in a large underground cavern. Imagine high-jumping in 1/6th G. Or long-jumping.

19) Spaceships

Some items, like advanced electronics, will be shipped from Earth for a very long time. But things like spacecraft structural elements (and fuel) can easily be done on the Moon, obviating the need to waste the lift mass from Earth’s gravity well.

20) EML-1

Having such a large neighbor so close by creates a warp in Earth’s gravity well. There are certain areas of relative stability, and one lies on the line connecting the center of the Earth and Moon. Putting a station at that point (or rather in a halo orbit around it) allows for all kinds of unexpected benefits.

21) GEO assets

We have billions of dollars of orbital assets in geosynchronous orbit. It’s cheaper in fuel to go from EML-1 to GEO and back, than to go just from LEO to GEO. Over time, this will allow for a huge decrease in the cost of refueling, repairing, and upgrading, as well as building larger and more capable platforms.

22) Solar power satellites

Placement of large solar arrays in GEO orbit allows for the collection and transmission of energy to fixed points on Earth, such as military bases. This will also provide a long-term source of energy, as the Sun is not expected to expire for another 4.5 billion years or so. Besides, most of the energy we use here on Earth is second or third-hand solar power anyway. Pieces of the solar power satellites, like PV cells and structural elements, can come from the Moon.

23) Free-flyer platforms

Another consequence of the warping of Earth’s gravity well is that trajectories can be created that sort of wander out from EML-1, and then wander back (like the Genesis mission which went via EML-1 to SEL-1 and back). This affords materials scientists and companies the opportunity to send free-flyer platforms on long-term, jitter-free production runs. Results can be studied on the station and new production runs undertaken quickly.

24) Constant access

The entire Lunar surface is accessible 24-hours a day from EML-1 for about the same delta-V (~2.5km/s). From EML-1 most inclinations of LEO are accessible for less than 1.0 km/s (with aerobraking and time, ~3.77km/s for a direct burn). GEO is constantly accessible, as is deep space.

25) A true space-faring civilization

The Moon is the ideal location to get our feet wet, and getting there can lay the foundation for a civilization that can go beyond the Moon to Mars and the asteroids and other destinations of interest.

Image Credit: True Kelley, from “What the Moon is Like” by Franklyn M. Branley

Ken Murphy / 12:56 am June 14th, 2008

over at Universe Today.

A bit light on Moon stuff, but over a score of space stories to thrill and delight. Get Thee Hence

Ken Murphy / 4:18 am June 5th, 2008

Howdy everyone! Welcome to this week’s spectacular Carnival of Space!

I’m your host Ken, the Lunar Librarian here at Out of the Cradle.

We don’t have to go far this week to find space. This last weekend in Washington, D.C., the National Space Society held their 27th annual International Space Development Conference. As the largest citizen space conference in the world it is open to all, even internet bloggers. And blog they did, extensively, over the three day period. The conference was even on C-SPAN! I’ve rounded up most of the links for the Lunar Library, which can be found here:

Day 1
Day 2
Day 3

The Space Cynics want you to be sure to get a dash of cold-water reality in the face, because, well, that’s their job. Several of them were at the conference and they did some recruiting in A Gathering of Cynics, which led to a very interesting discussion and an upcoming radio show on The Space Show.

Everyone’s favorite Babe…in the Universe was there for the Space Investment Summit as well as the main conference. She’s put up a number of blog posts on the event, starting with “ISDC”. Her latest post, Convergence, has her in slightly more traditional garb. As she summarized the event:

Aloha Carnival!

Thursday saw Elon Musk and announcement of the first Space Solar Power demonstration. At Friday’s dinner, a lifetime award was given to Burt Rutan. Saturday an enthusiastic crowd saw a documentary on Apollo and live coverage of Discovery’s launch to ISS. We end at the Air and Space Museum, seeing humanity converge on a future in Space.

Thank you for hosting this week’s Carnival.

Well you’re certainly welcome Ms. Riofrio, we’re always happy to see you here at the Carnival of Space.

One of the bloggers noted in the round-up, Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit fame, and who also happens to be the co-author of the space law book “Outer Space: Problems of Law and Policy”, noted the increasing balance between the genders at these space conferences, something that I’ve noticed myself. In light of that fact, this week’s Carnival of Space is dedicated to:

The Women of Our Space Future

Proceeding forthwith (sort of) into space, our first stop is cislunar space. The Oxford Dictionary of Astronomy defines cislunar as “Between the Earth and the Moon.” While the deep space stuff gets most of the headlines, cislunar space is where the space economy is to be found, from satellites to space stations. The first step is getting there, a task proving problematic here in the U.S. The private sector is slowly putting the pieces together to do so (some more investment capital would be a nice way to help speed things up). Over the next two years we should see some very exciting developments as some longer-term projects near fruition. nextbigfuture looks at two very contrasting ways of tackling the space transport problem in “Propellantless propulsion experiment explodes, latest SpaceX Falcon 9 does not”. He summarizes:

“Under simulated orbit conditions a lorentz force propulsion device had explosive arcing. It is a setback but researchers hope to solve the issues. SpaceX Falcon had a five engine test firing and is on track for launching Falcon 9 in the first quarter of 2009 and to start earning a billion dollar NASA contract from 2010-2012.”

Clark Lindsey over at SpaceTransportNews.com provides us with a video of the Falcon 9 five-engine test. Tests of a full array of 9 engines are expected a few months from now.

One of the reasons we’re moving out into space is so that we can get some better instrumentation in place to keep an eye out for Big Rocks from Space. Along these lines, Music of the Spheres muses on research that may help solve some of the mysteries of the 1908 Tunguska Event in Tunguska Possibilities. I do want to note that Music of the Spheres also provided last year’s ISDC round-up for Carnival of Space #6

The Inner Solar System

Beyond the nearest-Earth space lies the inner Solar System. Typically delineated from the outer Gas Giants by the Asteroid Belt, this is the domain of the rocky planets, and the heart of our existence, the Sun.

Mars is top of the news this week. The lovely Ms. Lakdawalla over at the Planetary Society blog gives us the inside scoop with ‘Report on Phoenix Sol 9 activities: Ready to get samples; but Odyssey is in safe mode’. She notes:

“Again this week I’ve been almost totally focused on the daily operations of Phoenix. Here’s the latest news: Phoenix is ready to dig, but it’ll be at least two days before the first sample is tasted by the chemical analysis instruments because Mars Odyssey burped and didn’t deliver Phoenix’ instructions today.”

She’s been providing thorough coverage since the landing, so be sure to visit the main blog page after you’re done with the story.

Cumbrian Sky looks back on what’s happened so far and wonders why space enthusiasts and the public alike are so entranced by the newest arrival at Mars in “Phoenix: The Roxie Hart of Mars”, while The Martian Chronicles takes a look at the landscape around the landing site in Phoenix’s Neighborhood (Part I): The Basin.

The fraud conspiracists have too much time on their hands and have now discovered Phoenix. Phil over at Bad Astronomy has to waste his time debunking them, so he takes them out to the woodshed for a good lashing in The Real Phoenix in Black & White.

Altair VI reflects further back in time, with a piece about Clyde Tombaugh and our understanding of Mars way back when in “Mars - a world for exploration (1959).

The Outer Solar System

Here there be Giants!

Woo-Hoo! Movie Break! Space Feeds brings us “a film 35 years ahead of its time”, one that explores a link between environmentalism and space in a dystopian corporatist future, a film that your host also recommends, Silent Running.

In other media news, Bad Astronomy is asking if any one has seen a movie entitled ‘Star Party’, in Star Party… OF DOOM!

Gateway to the Galaxy

Even further out from Earth is the mysterious domain of the Kuiper Belt (KB) and the Oort Cloud (OC) beyond, our gateway to interstellar space and our first steps into the Milky Way Galaxy. These KB/OC objects are generally considered to be the source for the comets, those mysterious harbingers of Really Bad Things (sometimes). There has always been the question of what has sent those comets in towards the Sun. A popular suggestion is that there may be some dim body out there somewhere, orbiting the Sun and occasionally knocking stuff loose. Astroblogger looks at one comet that didn’t survive its encounter with the Sun in Kamikaze Kreutz Comet.

Another explanation for the errant objects has been that of galactic bodies, perhaps dim stars too faint to be resolved by our feeble Earthbound instruments, passing nearby in their passage around the galactic core. Centauri Dreams provides some speculation on Brown Dwarf stars in “The Brown Dwarf Incentive”

“This one looks at an unusual Sun-like star that is itself orbited by a binary system of brown dwarfs. The recent finding of a ’super-Earth’ around a brown dwarf suggest that Earth-sized planets may not be uncommon around such stars. In the post, I speculate that the presence of nearby brown dwarfs would be an incentive to any local civilizations to push into nearby interstellar space to give these tempting targets a look.”

Scout David Gamey of the 433rd Toronto Scouts, Canada, wants to know about everybodies favorite asterism. Given the theme of this week’s Carnival, I’m going to have to go with the Seven Sisters for my choice. Quite striking, both at a distance and up close.

astroENGINE peers deep into the cosmos to ponder the consequences of “Collapsing Wolf-Rayet Stars and Inverse Compton Scattering of Stellar Photons”. Luckily, I don’t think there are any Wolf-Rayet stars nearby.

Orbiting Frog surfs the question of how gravity propagates through the Universe. LIGO is a space probe looking for perturbations in these waves, and Orbiting Frog tells us about ‘My Beef with Gravity Waves’, a response to the false-alarm-discovery of gravity waves this week.

Hold up, we have a late entry. Dynamics of Cats has finally herded a story into the inbox, with a note on a low mass planet discovered through microlensing.

Why does everything seem to spin in space? Stars, planets, asteroids, black holes, galaxies, ice skaters… Starts with a Bang takes us on a spin around the question of “What Spins the Fastest in Space?” My vote’s on the ice skater.

Paying our respects to the past, the Discovery Channel’s high-def TV series, ‘When We Left Earth’, has had blogger Irene Klotz interviewing NASA folks about the agency turning 50. This week, she catches up with Ed Weiler and why he feels the agency’s best days are still ahead.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, brings us to the end of this week’s phenomenal Carnival of Space!. If you’ve enjoyed the Carnival, please be sure to stop by the Carnival of Space Logbook over at Universe Today to visit past Carnivals. There’s a universe of treasure to be found therein. If you have a blog post about space that you want to share, send the details to carnivalofspace@gmail.com. Hosting a Carnival of Space is a lot of fun, too! You can tell by the smiles on all their faces that the women are having fun in space. If you’d like to join the fun and host a Carnival send an email to Fraser at info@universetoday.com.

Thanks for stopping by. See y’all next week…

Image Credits

In order:

Vitruvian Woman - graphic from “Living in Space” by Giovanni Caprara

Ms. Louise Riofrio, A Babe in the Universe, from “ISDC”

Conference Coordinator Cassie flirting with Pixel at the 2007 ISDC, found here

Barbie is copyright and trademark by Mattell, Inc., and don’t you forget it. The image is from the book “Barbie: Shooting for the Stars” by Karen Stillman & Victoria Saxon

“The Ultimate Sandbox” by Michael Wheelan, one of my favorite Moon images

Emily Lakdawalla, her blogger photo

Extract from the cover of the March 1955 edition of “The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction”

“Unknown Planet” by Peter Kovalev and Olga Kovaleva, from the book “In the Stream of Stars: The Soviet/American Space Art Book”, edited by William K. Hartmann et al.

A color-composite image of the Pleiades from the Digitized Sky Survey. Credit: NASA/ESA/AURA/Caltech.

You’ll have to ask Starts with a Bang about the ice skater Momentum image

Irene Klotz, her blogger photo

I apologize about the last one, which I’ve entitled “Seeds of Earth”. I could not find any artistic credits in NASA SP-413 - Space Settlements: A Design Study. It’s found on the page facing the Recommendations and Conclusions. Dr. Astropixie made me do some research, and it looks like Rick Guidice is the artist and ‘View to the Future’ is the title.

Ken Murphy / 9:06 pm May 23rd, 2008

“Moonlight Mile” by Yasuo Ohtagaki. Exec. Dir. of Animation is Isao Sugimoto. Volume 3, “Conspiracy of Honor”, comprises episodes 9-12 of what appears to be the first season.

We open in NYC. The paparazzi are hounding Lostman, looking for a scoop. He’s not pleased at the helicopter hovering outside his window, Goro is back on Earth and back in Japan, a hero for his work in saving Sydney, Australia from certain destruction at the hands of the errant Doner Kabob. He’s working on the robot units that will be used to aid in the construction of the Nexus project on the Moon to harvest Helium-3 for power for Earth. The giant walkers seem to be a nod to some kind of Mecha fixation in Japanese manga and anime. These, mechas, however are more like Ripley’s cargo loader in ‘Aliens’ than any kind of mecha-fantasy like ‘Gundam’. They’re being tested on the seabed off of Japan, and tests are not going well. They exhibit a tendency to tip. Goro meets Kosuke Sawamura, a supervisor of the engineers on the project, and his cute sister. Bipedal robotics is a tough technology, and an accident takes out a diver. It looks like Goro is going to be one of the fall guys, his space career over. Or was it really an accident? There’s a ‘formal’ investigation, but will Goro be able to figure out what’s really going on?

Meanwhile, the paparazzi continue to hound Lostman, who’s out and about with his woman du jour. Wait, who’s that he’s talking to in the restaurant? That’s a buzz cut, not a blonde. They track him to Vegas, and see him climb on one of the secret commuter flights to Area 51. Despite a run-in with security, the paparazzi are hot on the trail. Lostman is introduced to the kind of future technology that only a military budget can provide. He meets the evil genius from the Skunk Works who is developing the technology, and even gets to see some telepresence robots. The paparazzi know they’re on to a serious scoop, and invest in some technology of their own. They set up and wait for their prey. It looks like they are going to be some very rich men.

The pursuit of the Moon continues in this third and final DVD of what is apparently the first season of Moonlight Mile. We’re still not at the Moon, but both of them are back in space, and Lostman considers it a race to get to the Moon ahead of Goro. Which approach will prevail - civil or military? Lostman is driven, and has the tech of the military to his advantage. Happy-go-lucky and carefree Goro seems to live a charmed life, in part because Riyoko has revealed herself to be a human woman after all. The characters are larger than life, but this is fiction. A recent review (‘Miles to go before the Moon’) derided this sort of near-Earth, near-future anime storytelling as “depict[ing] pretty things that don’t exist in the real life and it is ultimately bad for the soul” and “space geek pornography”.

(Update: He still doesn’t like it)

I disagree. I don’t consider it to have a high level of ‘art’ (in the pretentious sense), but I do consider it to be a well-done form of popular entertainment. I also like it because it gives ideas for near-future developments in space. This sort of thing doesn’t get enough play in the modern arenas of media. Depicting a near-Earth, near-future that isn’t implausible. This particular story taps into deeper themes of competition, but also cooperation. Of navigating the eddys of life over the near-term to reach longer-term goals. Given that the Mature Adult rating means that the lowest age for a target market is college-level person, I don’t think it’s entirely inappropriate for that audience. In reality high-schoolers will get their hands on it, but only the brightest will pick up on the subtler elements.

As a means of advancing the idea of a space future in the near-term, I think it can have appeal to a larger audience. In conjunction with other ‘Solar SciFi’ of similar and recent vintage, such as ‘Planetes’, ‘Earthlight’, ‘Freedom’, and even older vintage like ‘The Wings of Honneasmise’ or ‘Cowboy Bebop’, you start to have a foundation to popularize our expansion into space. Who knows how it will really turn out, but gosh what an adventure it’s going to be…

The rating stays at Full Moon at apogee until I get more Moon action.