The Art Neuro Weblog

Here We Go!
SpaceShipOne is ready for her maiden voyage.

SpaceShipOne will rocket to 62 miles (100 kilometers) into sub-orbital space above the Mojave Civilian Aerospace Test Center, a commercial airport in the California desert. If successful, "it will signal that the space frontier is finally open to private enterprise," explained a Scaled Composites release.

Allen, founder and chairman of Vulcan Inc, is financing the project. Along with Allen, Vulcan's technology research and development team -- which takes the lead in developing high impact science and technology projects for Allen -- has been active in the project's development and management.

I like how they haven't announced who the first non-Government Astronaut is going to be. It's just as momentous a step as when Yuri Gagarin made it to orbit, but we won't know his/her name until it's done. This is one for the Common Man as opposed to one for the Supermen with the Right Stuff. Maybe we should be popping champagne on the 21st?

When You're On To A Good Thing, Keep Going
The two Mars Rover probes have now accomplished what they have been slated to do. This means they are now into bonus time, doing extra bits of roving.

Earlier in their mission, both Spirit and Opportunity found evidence that salty seas once covered parts of the Red Planet.

Opportunity has skirted the rim of a stadium-sized crater nicknamed "Endurance," searching for a way to examine an outcropping of bedrock near the lip.

Scientists said they want to examine the outcrop before a crucial instrument -- the mini-Thermal Emission Spectrometer -- begins to malfunction during the subfreezing Martian nights.

The JPL team knew they would eventually lose the mini-TES, which determines rock composition, but a heater malfunction that has sapped the rover's solar power supply has sped the inevitable, mission manager Matt Wallace said.

So it's been a good news day for the spacefreak frontier. :)

- Art Neuro