Meanwhile, In the Solar System

Hey, it's August. What's up for robotic explorers this month?

Clarke's Craft

With the publication of the Alastair Reynolds–Stephen Baxter collaboration of The Medusa Chronicles, itself an expansion of a story by Arthur C. Clarke, co-author Baxter looks at the spacecraft of Arthur C. Clarke.

As a side note, David S.F. Portree has recently done a multi-part article on the craft of 2001 which is worth a look: Could the Space Voyages in the Film and Novel 2001: A Space Odyssey Really Happen? Part 01 here. Part 02 here. Part 03 here.

COINing Games

A profile of CIA analyst and game designer Volko Ruhnke, who has been sparking something of a revival (at least from my limited perspective) in gaming that combines history, politics, warfare and more.

The US military (especially the Army) has the unfortunate habit of forgetting lessons learned, figuring whatever happened won't happen again. I think games like these (plus books, movies and more) help to preserve those lessons. If distributed widely enough, maybe we'll start learning not to forget?

Evolution

The evolution of an iconic fictional spaceship through the years.

Ron Miller

Two items by Ron Miller, space artist and space art historian (and science fiction historian as well!). First, an article on io9 on Chesley Bonestell. Second, via Air & Space, he speaks about some of the art in his book, The Art of Space.

Bruce Pennington and Gene Wolfe

An interview with Bruce Pennington, who, next to Don Maitz, has done the most to create the iconic "look" of Gene Wolfe's world of the New Sun.

The Eagle Has Landed

We went to the Moon nearly fifty years ago. We haven't been back, other than by our surrogates, but it is clear that the journey inspired and continues to inspire. On the anniversary: explore the landing of Apollo 11 "interactively" and explore the Apollo 11 command module.

Reasons to be Cheerful

Hey, a little light reading with my morning coffee!

Back to the Moon (Privately)

Are the US and Russia working (privately) to go back to the Moon? Some speculation (building off other speculation), no money (yet), but it would be great to see!

Caravan

The collision between cars and the outdoors with the start of camping "for fun". For a good view of this, see Leslie Peltier's Starlight Nights (available for free in an earlier edition, here).

Beyond the Infinite

A semi-random accumulation of links about my favorite movie!

A Look Beyond the Future (Look Magazine looks at 2001).

Cinephilia looks at 2001. The same site has Arthur C. Clarke's 2001 "diary".

28 behind-the-scenes pictures from the movie. A even bigger archive of images on Flickr.

Supposedly a collection only of the artwork of Brian Sanders, but there are Robert McCall (and other artists works) mixed in.

Online friend David S. F. Portree looks at the reality of 2001's vehicles (Part 01).

Holy heck, where are my lottery winnings? Simon Atkinson's limited edition prints of vehicles.

If this volume is as good as the first volume, it is a required buy.

Creative Review on Harry Lange and a new book covering his design work.

Typeset in the Future on 2001 (one of many excellent posts on the site about films).

The archives of Arthur C. Clarke are available to the public (details on how to apply for use).

Conjunction

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day brings us a "close" encounter between the Moon and Jupiter (with four moons visible).

Spacecoach

How about a reusable spacecraft that never has to enter the atmosphere? What might you be able to design?

Wisp

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day shows noctilucent clouds over the skies of France.

Pulses

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day shows, in visible light, the chaos swirling around something we first discovered in radio light: the swirling chaos around the pulsar located in the Crab Nebula.

Curry Takeaway

How long has curry been a dish in London? Would you believe 1773? That's a lot of spice!

What We Have Lost

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day is a good example of what we have lost thanks to light pollution.

Cosmic Interaction at a Distance

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day shows Arp 286 in the constellation of Virgo. Part of Halton Arp's Catalog of Peculiar Galaxies, we see a good example of how galaxies interact with each other on a vast (to mere humans) scale.

Clouds and Globulars

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day shows the rich star and nebula fields of Rho Ophiuchi. Embedded here is a much more distant object, the globular cluster Messier 4. Are the Humanoids lurking in those clouds?

Transit Image

The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter is imaged by "Flow", one of the duo making up the Gravity Recovery and Interior Recovery mission.

Is It Served With Grits?

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day shows IC 4628, found in the crowded (and wonderful) region of Scorpius. Popularly known as "The Prawn Nebula", I'm finding a desire for some good eats.

Restored

The U.S.S. Enterprise, NCC 1701, as used in the original television series, has been restored to pristine condition and is now back on display at the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum.

Big Cat

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day is an image from the hard-working Hubble Space Telescope of NGC 6543 in Draco, popularly known as the Cat's Eye Nebula.

Stars Above (and Below)

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day shows stars above, and the arch of the Milky Way, and stars below (fireflies in the summer night).

It Ain't Easy

Watch this video if you still think big complex machines always run perfectly.

July's Solar System

What's up in solar system exploration for July?

Spinoff

What will happen to the International Space Station when it reaches the end of use? Russia plans to spinoff portions into a new station (caution: similar plans were made for Mir, but scuttled due to lack of funding).

Webcomics

SF (and NF) author David Brin takes a deep look at webcomics (Part 01, Part 02, Part 03). I read several of these titles on a regular basis (and am way behind on several more).

On Approach

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day is a snapshot from Juno as it approaches Jupiter.

Off the List

According to the Near Earth Object Program, a few potential BFR's are off the list of objects that would cause us a very bad day.

Shockwave Rider

Alvin Toffler has passed away. The man who introduced us to the concept of future shock. That book was one of those moments when you read something and your whole perspective changes.

It has been argued in some quarters, by the way, the future shock does not exist. I disagree: I think we're all suffering from future shock PTSD at this point.

(Addendum: The New York Times Science/Technology section on carrying on with Toffler's work. The SF Encyclopedia entry on Alvin Toffler.)

(My very worn copy had a green cover, as below. Man, that book went through a lot of printings and updatings!)