Comments on: A science comedian’s love affair with space

By: Eve

Eve — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 04:41:46 +0000

This is the most romantic thing I’ve ever seen.

By: Jonathan Latimer

Jonathan Latimer — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 18:16:48 +0000

@ 12. Quiet Desperation

LOL…no. My wife hadn’t told me she was trying for the Shuttle lottery, and we hadn’t planned a trip at all this year. She managed to snag them at 3;15am, and woke me telling me we were going. Everything seems magical at three in the morning.

By: chris j.

chris j. — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 15:01:23 +0000

i got thrown off for a few seconds with the covers to various SF books, as that picture of the andromeda galaxy just happens to be my desktop picture!

By: QuietDesperation

QuietDesperation — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 14:26:07 +0000

This just in: flowery words *still* don’t pay the bills or reduce the cost per kilogram to orbit.

My wife and I were able, magically, to make it to the last shuttle launch

What, did you Apparate there?

By: Outdoor recreation store

Outdoor recreation store — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 07:11:33 +0000

Very funny video, congratulations to Tara and Brian!

By: Jonathan Latimer

Jonathan Latimer — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 04:04:54 +0000

@Brian

Thank you for posting!

I do remain cautiously optimistic — it’s my nature — and I will await all atingle to see if private enterprise really does fill in the void NASA will be leaving.

I just worry, sometimes — as it seems that most corporations nowadays aren’t interested if they won’t see profit in as little as three years, and though I think space will be profitable, I think it will take a mite longer than that.

Still, hope abounds. You put a very good video, a very good proposal, and keep teaching people while making them laugh. I can think of fewer higher callings.

Jonathan

By: Kevin R. Bridges

Kevin R. Bridges — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 02:47:06 +0000

Thanks for the heads up that there is a science comedian. Funny stuff.

By: Tim G

Tim G — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 21:32:14 +0000

Congratulations to Brian and Tara!

By: Gary Ansorge

Gary Ansorge — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 20:16:48 +0000

5. Grand Lunar

“sort of a quest to return to our origins”

We come from star dust and return to star dust or, more poetically perhaps, “The wheel is turning and you can’t slow it down. You can’t let go and you can’t hold on. Every time that wheel turns round, you’re bound to cover just a little more ground.”

We’ve stuck our toes in the sea of space. Now it’s time to go swimming,,,

Gary 7

By: Grand Lunar

Grand Lunar — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 19:14:33 +0000

That was an excellent video, and a greate message!
Congress ought to see it.

Does make a good point too; our urge to explore is sort of a quest to return to our origins.

By: Brian Malow

Brian Malow — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 18:59:11 +0000

Thanks, Phil! and MTU and Jonathan!

Full-spectrum emotions on that day! All we can do now is hope Congress doesn’t destroy what’s left – and watch for exciting developments at the intersection of NASA and private enterprise. Elon Musk says his rockets can take payloads to Mars in 5 years or so. And there’s Branson and Bezos and Bigelow and Boeing and Orbital and others…

By: mike burkhart

mike burkhart — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 18:41:45 +0000

I,m getting off topic: An important Astronomy tool is 100 years old ,It’s the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram.Made by Astronomers Ejinar Hertzsprung and Henry Russell, it plots stars by luminosity and surface temperatue and can be found in most Astronomy books .Also its an improtant educational guide about the stars it is to Astronomy what the Periodic table is to Chemistry.The magizen Scientific American has a H.R. Diagram poster.

By: Jonathan Latimer

Jonathan Latimer — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 17:16:12 +0000

My wife and I were able, magically, to make it to the last shuttle launch, all the way from Hawaii. It was quite the sight to see, heartbreaking and uplifting at the same time. A terrific place to propose.

But I did come away from the launch feeling that the golden age of my country is over; and has been for quite some time.

Jonathan

By: Messier Tidy Upper

Messier Tidy Upper — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 14:35:13 +0000

Aww.. What a great and sweet video. Loved it. Nostalgic and funny.

You two are *so* lucky.

It also really reminded me of this famous quote :

*****

“Earth is the cradle of humanity, but one cannot live in a cradle forever.”
– Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, Russian rocket pioneer.

*****

My congratulations go to Brian Malow & Tara – best wishes to both of you, [Raises beer and toasts your health and happiness] the skies the limit! Oh wait, it isn’t any more!

By: Messier Tidy Upper

Messier Tidy Upper — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 14:08:43 +0000

Off-topic, sorry but in breaking news I’m sure some folks would like to know :

DAWN has successfully entered orbit around Vesta, the brightest asteroid.*

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-14160135

http://www.space.com/12321-nasa-spacecraft-orbits-asteroid-vesta-space-success.html

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/dawn/main/index.html

My congratulations and thanks to all the Dawn people out there. Well done.:-)

I’m sure the Bad Astronomer and Emily Lakdawalla’s Planetary Society blog will have more on this topic soon but I just wanted to let y’all know and break this news for those who haven’t already heard. Hope that’s okay, BA.

* Indeed Vesta is the only asteroid visible to unaided human eyes and is the third largest world in that asteroidal zone of our solar system behind only Ceres and Pallas.