Space Exploration « Doug’s Darkworld

Space Exploration

“A religion old or new, that stressed the magnificence of the universe as revealed by modern science, might be able to draw forth reserves of reverence and awe hardly tapped by the conventional faiths. Sooner or later, such a religion will emerge.”

Carl Sagan (1934-1996) American astronomer

I love space exploration, what can I say, way too much Star Trek in my formative years. Star Trek, Lost in Space, and cheesy fifties sci fi movies. And my long forgotten childhood favourite, It’s About Time. Science now knows that children’s exposure to such things needs to be severely limited, but it’s too late for me and my lost generation.

Back then the planets were just fuzzy dots in the greatest telescopes, all we knew about them could be summed up in a few pages. Today we are exploring what my generation only imagined as children. And are finding that our imaginations pale before what we have found, wonder and variety undreamed of by earlier generations. We haven’t found any Vulcans yet (and we won’t, they are about as likely as finding a MacDonalds on Mars,) but what we have found just in our own solar system is beyond what anyone imagined. And the little we are starting to find in other solar systems is already outside the range of what anyone ever thought possible.

And even better, the primitive early days of solar system exploration are over, a golden age of space exploration has begun with new and ever more sophisticated probes being launched every year. Now we don’t have to look up in the sky to see the heavens, images are beamed to our homes from robotic spacecraft exploring the solar system! Does it get any better than that? Nope.

Exploring Mars:

A snippet about Russian Mars exploration research.
Martian News.
The amazing Mars Rovers, and some unscientific ramblings.
Mars Exploration News (kind of dated really.)
Terraforming Mars?

Exploring Titan and Saturn:

Rivers on Titan? (and some random weirdness.)
Early images of Titan’s surface.
Fishing on Titan…an amazing image.
Giant space sponge threatens Earth…

Exploring the rest of the Solar System:

Pluto is a planet!
Pluto demoted? The debate continues.
Pluto is not a Planet, the last word.
SMART I hits the Moon!
The Digital Moon Archive, Moon photos to be available on line.
A nautical tour of the Solar System.

General Space Exploration:

Bad news for future astronauts.
I take a dim view of the Space Shuttle.
The search for Alien TV shows.
Hubble Telescope Saved!
Earth II discovered?
Are we alone in the Universe? The Rare Earth Hypothesis.
Beam me up Scotty…a Memorial.

Doug’s Darkworld