Happyblox

Mars Needs Women... & Ice. We Send A Phoenix To Find... The Ice?

This is the first image beamed back today from the Phoenix space craft which is presently chillin' on Mars. That is right, the good folks at NASA have done it again proving that smart people can do more with smaller budgets these days. I know 200 million dollars sounds like a lot but think about it, John Travolta has 200 million dollars, so he bought a few planes and joined a cult that digs aliens, the folks at NASA built a space ship and ARE aliens. They are on another fucking planet! Looks like John joined the wrong party. This Phoenix space craft is a piece of work. It deploys 2 Japanese fan type solar arrays as soon as it lands to kick on it's power. After the violence of landing I find there is a nice elegant touch to that. I see it from a Mars alien life forms point of view.... "wow, that is some cool shit! I wonder how it tastes?" When I first set eyes on this image I was half expecting to see a Transformers shadow. I will have to Photoshop that one soon. This sucker landed near the North pole of Mars to look for Santa  ice. Where there is ice there is most likely some kind of tiny tiny life. Hey, the Doozers were tiny and they ruled so don't be all not exited now. I hope all goes well for the rest of the mission and stay tuned for periodic Phoenix posts when it does something cool, like break dance or find Spock's coffin.

Godspeed ACC.

R.I.P. Arthur C. Clarke. You were a great man.

Via Gizmodo.com.

Gravity: The Original G.

Check out this amazing footage from a camera mounted on one of the Space Shuttle's Solid Rocket Boosters during it's decent back to Earth. It's like the worlds best, however unlikely, free fall sky dive. It would be hard to survive you know not made of metal and all. You are traveling near the speed of sound for most of this ride. It amazes me how far of a reach gravity has. Technically you know that it extends far past Earth but when you watch something get sucked back in from outside the atmosphere it is still awe inspiring. A few things to watch for are around 2:45 you can see not only the trail your creating but the residual trail left from the launch, still hovering in the upper atmosphere. Also dig the sounds. You can hear both how fast your going and how much stuff is getting vaporized and knocked off, flailing past you in a blur of metal confetti. In many ways this video describes our current space program in a nutshell. Yes, it is amazing what we can do and the physics of the whole thing is mind boggling but at the same time our process is outdated and for lack of a better word, unsophisticated. Sophistication comes with simplicity in such matters and the Space Shuttle doesn't really have any simplicity. The only simple part is the concept.... attach flammable shit to a flying bus and let it glide home. But thats where the simplicity ends. It is by far the most complicated piece of machinery ever constructed and I don't think it needs to be. I think the Virgin Spacecraft is a much simpler idea, just as an example. Less stuff to break. I am not suggesting it is easy, I am just suggesting that instead of fixing foam problems we should eliminate the foam necessity. Enjoy the ride.

Dear Alien Civilizations.

Dear Alien Civilizations,
Sorry for all the noise, were trying to quiet it down. 
We called ourselves smart when we proved our planet was round.
But we acted like fools despite science and knowledge,
regardless of churches, laboratories and college.
We value life but too much our own. Our problems remain while our goals have grown.

The more we learn the more we don't know.
Our time line is short here so eventually we must go.
We have traveled to planets on the edge of our system.
Pointed dishes in the sky with ears open to listen.
Launched probes to take pictures, satellites to gauge weather,
cellular technology to communicate better.

The data keeps compiling collecting all we've ever known,
as we contemplate the vastness we feel all alone.
So this message goes out beyond where we can see,
in hopes of some answers and good company.

We may be destructive, masters of horrible things but we have understanding hearts, 
us human beings.

Your neighbors,
-the Humans.

Plans For Virgin Space To Be Violated By Virgin Spacecraft.

Virgin, the company that brought you the first non government funded out of atmosphere people carrying machine, Spaceship One is at it again. This time it's making public it's plans for Spaceship Two, yes I know, terribly creative. There is a giant close up of a human eye on the bottom though, unless that is just re entry burn marks,who knows. Check out the video called "Virgins New Spacecraft Design" on CNN's tech video page. I am all for this type of shit. Look at it this way, it is the everyman in space, IN OUR LIFETIME! Course your everyman would have to be someone with about 200 grand to spend. Maybe not everyman, maybe everyotherman or everyfewmen. At any rate this is probably just a scheme by Virgin to fund construction of a death star but it will be red and have a giant white V on it. Whatever the case may be I will sell my apartment, I don't care, I'm uh gunna get me some SPACE! Oh, and the company's space specific name is "Virgin Galactic", how freakin' cool is that?