When astronauts in orbit stress out, they call Earth to chat with a NASA psychiatrist. But transmitting messages to Mars and beyond would take 20 minutes or so, requiring new approaches to mental health in space. So researchers are developing self-help software that allows space travelers to carry their counselors with them on a DVD.
Fans of extraterrestrial life may have been disappointed when Internet-fed rumors of Martian life ended in a NASA press conference on soil composition. But they can take solace in a newly popular theory that suggests the rest of space may teem with microbes.
In yet another powerful showcase of Twitter’s potential power as a disseminator of information, today several people received the first information via the service that NASA has confirmed that its Phoenix Mars Lander has, in fact, found water on Mars. It’s still not on CNN.com, not on MSNBC.com, not on Fox.com. But a Twitter search query reveals it’s all over Twitter.
As a result of the news spreading quickly through Twitter, it’s also now all over FriendFeed, where some discussions are taking place on the subject. This is the kind of stuff these services are built for.
The water was found in ice-rich soil. Tests confirmed the ice was water-based.
Talk about cross-promotion.
One of the closest things to Disney World’s Orlando, Fla., home, is NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, and this is relevant because on Friday, it was announced that among the objects expected to be blasted into the sky with the planned Saturday launch of the Space Shuttle Discovery is a figurine of Toy Story space ranger Buzz Lightyear.
Disney World, of course, is where the new Toy Story Mania ride has just opened.
People got very excited in 2004 when NASA’s rover Opportunity discovered evidence that Mars had once been wet. Where there is water, there may be life. … What could be more fascinating than discovering life that had evolved entirely independently of life here on Earth? Many people would also find it heartening to learn that we are not entirely alone in this vast, cold cosmos. But I hope that our Mars probes discover nothing. It would be good news if we find Mars to be sterile. Dead rocks and lifeless sands would lift my spirit.
While most of us slept on the morning of March 19, hours before the death of famed science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke was announced, a shot rang out in the Universe the likes of which are unknown in human history. By a preliminary analysis, this object was visible to the unaided human eye in the constellation Bootes, and at an estimated 7.5 billion light years, it was the farthest object ever observable by the human eye in all of recorded history. In addition, it was 2.5 million times more luminous than the most luminous supernova ever recorded, making this event, according to a NASA news release, “the most intrinsically bright object ever observed by humans in the universe.”
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