Category: science fiction
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You Can Still Read NASA’s Deleted “First Woman” Graphic Novels
With thanks to Keith Cowing of NASAWatch.com Credit: https://nasawatch.com/education/you-can-still-read-nasas-deleted-first-woman-graphic-novels/ ____________________________________________________________________ The following is mainly taken from NASAWatch.com‘s page about this story. In 2021 NASA issued the first of two interactive comic books/graphic novels (“First Woman: Dream to Reality”) depicting young women dreaming of – and then training for – a future that would comprise the…
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Space elevator news #1
Who doesn’t love a space elevator?! Rhetorical question! Everyone does! Space Elevators are the Green Road to Space. They do this safely, routinely, inexpensively, and daily; they are environmentally neutral. Here starts an occasional blog on space elevators. With much thanks to the International Space Elevator Consortium (ISEC) and to my loyal readers. ____________________________________________________________________ Let’s…
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“As I take man’s last step from the surface, back home for some time to come – but we believe not too long into the future – I’d like to just (say) what I believe history will record.”
– Eugene Cernan (14 March 1934 – 16 January 2017) Eugene Cernan was the last man on the moon and as he stepped into the lunar module to return to the command module in lunar orbit he said these final words: “Bob, this is Gene, and I’m on the surface; and, as I take man’s…
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“The first principle is that you must not fool yourself—and you are the easiest person to fool.”
– Richard P. Feynman (11 May 1918 – 15 Feb 1988) In 1974, Feynman delivered the Caltech commencement address on the topic of cargo cult science, which has the semblance of science, but is only pseudoscience due to a lack of “a kind of scientific integrity, a principle of scientific thought that corresponds to a…
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“Planetary Chauvinism.”
– Isaac Asimov 2 January 1920 – 6 April 1992 As quoted by Gerrard O’Neill: In a roundtable TV interview, Isaac Asimov and I were asked why science-fiction writers have, almost without exception, failed to point us toward that development. Dr. Asimov’s reply was a phrase he has now become fond of using: “Planetary Chauvinism.”…
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“We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.”
— Oscar (Fingal O’Fflahertie Wills) Wilde, 16 October 1854 – 30 November 1900 To many this quip, as spoken by a character in Wilde’s play Lady Windermere’s Fan subtitled A Play About a Good Woman, represents humanity’s need to aim higher and do better. It doesn’t matter where you are (or even, who you are)…
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“I am a child of the Milky Way. The night is my mother. I am made of the dust of stars. Every atom in my body was forged in a star.”
― Chet Raymo, The Soul of the Night: An Astronomical Pilgrimage Probing the depths of science and faith, scientist Chet Raymo investigates the mysteries of human spirituality and meaning contained in astronomy. Ranging through the stars and the myths humans have told about them for millennia, Raymo delves into “a pilgrimage in quest of the…
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“As for me, I am tormented with an everlasting itch for things remote. I love to sail forbidden seas, and land on barbarous coasts.”
― Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Chapter 1 (http://www.literaturepage.com/read/mobydick-16.html) “For all its material advantages, the sedentary life has left us edgy, unfulfilled. Even after 400 generations in villages and cities, we haven’t forgotten. The open road still softly calls, like a nearly forgotten song of childhood. We invest far-off places with a certain romance. This appeal,…
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“Sometimes we focus too much on our differences, but when we all look up into space, we see the same stars and we see the same sun. It really can be unifying.”
– Anne Charlotte McClain, a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army, engineer and a NASA astronaut During an interview with We Are The Mighty, McClain said, “You get this overview effect where you realize how small we are and how fragile our planet is and how we’re really all in it together,” she said. “You…
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“Space is big. You just won’t believe how vastly, hugely, mindbogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it’s a long way down the road to the drug store, but that’s just peanuts to space.”
– Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is one of the classic science fiction novels. Its the original book, BBC radio and then TV series and an average movie version. I’ll leave you to discover the joy … ____________________________________________________________________ PS: I love coffee. BuyMeACoffee, leave a message with…
Stargazing Guy 