SpaceShipOne flew to space this morning, for the second time in less than a week; this time it won the Ansari X-Prize! Pilot Brian Bennie (the 2nd pilot for these tests) took off from the Mojave Spaceport in California. The flight was completely smooth, with no barrel rolls. Maybe test flights SHOULD be made by the young! LOL… Monday’s flight beat records set by NASA’s X-15 aircraft 40 years ago.
Terrestrial Human
When tweaking my computer, I always look for some good graphics to set the tone for the desktop. I thought I should pass a few of the places I like to go to find them your way…
First off, we have the JPL site. This week, they are featuring the Cassini images; every week, they have the best of Space image wallpaper, at all resolutions. Then there is the Minds Eye site, worth your time even if you skip the Wallpaper. And for the really good stuff, be sure to check in with the Hubble Site!
After a year with no episodes, tonight saw the return of Odyssey 5! While scary in truly disturbing ways, it is also science fiction of the first order. And if you have any doubts about it’s humor content, be sure to check the Harry Mudd (Ted Rami) episode, number 12 from the first season. Put this on your must see list, and let me know what you think!
Also returning with new episodes is Andromeda on the SciFi channel. If I followed this right, the Canada company who made this series (and a few others, like the never-to-be-lamented MutantX) went belly up. Scifi channel stepped in with funding to keep the good show out of their collection running, and am I glad!
All in all, a quality week for SF on TV. Hope we get some more like it soon!
A true-to-the-book version of Frankenstein is coming to The Hallmark Channel on October 5th and 6th. If you get the channel, don’t miss this one!
Also, Anonymous Rex has been made into a movie for the SciFi Channel, airing on 13Nov04. The story is actually from Casual Rex, the prequil to Anonymous Rex, and the start of the series of books. Since they named it after the next book, there may be some hope that if it does well in the ratings, they will continue through the rest of the stories.
There is a Science And Fiction Symposium being held from 29Sep04 through 2Oct04 in San Francisco. What sets this apart from the average scifi Con is the fact that it is sponsored by 2 museums, and the guest speakers are both scifi writers and scientists. The list includes David Brin, Greg Benford, Dave Grossman, François Junod, Kim Stanley Robinson, Rudy Rucker, and a lot more. The museums behind it are the Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame in Seattle, and the House of Elsewhere in Switzerland. If you are anywhere on the Left Coast, try to make this one, and send me back a report!
Just a reminder that the new Radio Plays from the Hitchiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series hits the airwaves (including Webcast mode) starting on Tuesday 21 September at 6.30pm. That’s GMT or Universal Time, be sure to adjust for your timezone. They will repeat on Thursdays if you miss the Tuesday run. This will be the first of 6 all-new episodes, for more info check BBC Hitchiker’s and Above The Title.
The first Webcast link above takes you to their embeded player on the BBC web page, This One takes you to their stand-alone realplayer link. If you haven’t listened to the BBC Online before, you want to hit the site and test it before the event. You may have to download and install a player, or tweak your firewall or router settings to pull it in; and you don’t want to miss any of it because you were doing that when you could have been listening!
A serious run for the X-Prize money will be made on 29Sep04 by Paul Allen’s SpaceShipOne. This will be the first launch for the prize, and the second launch for SS1 after it’s suborbital flight in June. Their 2nd Prize launch is set for October 2nd.
The Ansari X-Prize is $10M, to be awarded to the first team that puts the equivalent of 3 men in orbit, lands, and repeats the feat in 2 weeks in the same vehicle. No governments need apply; this is strictly for real people and private organizations or companies. The Romanian Team had a successful test launch on the 13th (yesterday as I write this); the Da Vinci Team has a launch for the prize set up on October 2nd of their Wildfire; and there are 23 more teams in for the prize.
Right now, SpaceShipOne and Wildfire are neck-and-neck, and I am rooting for Da Vinci. Allen is financing SS1 with his Microsoft earnings, using a radical new engine developed by SpaceDev, and launching from the back of a modified aircraft. Da Vinci is an all-volunteer team from Canada, financed by an online casino, and launching from a balloon! Now there is my kind of space program, by the people, for the people!
If you want to learn more about the X-Prize and the attitude behind it, here are a few more links you can look into. For attitude, the best story I have seen comes from Space Daily. To learn more about the engine behind SS1 (and their satellite launch vehicle) check out Universe Today.
If you want to check out all the Teams involved in the contest, XPrize Primary is your best bet. If you want to get directly involved, either as a Teacher looking to fire up your student’s, or a participant looking to enter, be sure to look into Build A Rocket. And if you are a teacher, be aware there is a prize (the EGGs prize) for the middle school team who can meet the criteria!