If you haven’t seen this yet, it’s worth a view. Astronaut Chris Hadfield posted this video of him singing David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” aboard the International Space Station. It’s well done, and surprisingly touching.
Space News
Fermi Paradox
Nice short piece on the Fermi Paradox in NYT, here. Named after physicist Enrico Fermi, who in 1950 pointed out that if there are billions of suns in our galaxy, and if even a tiny fraction of those suns have Earth-like planets, and if only a tiny fraction of those planets could develop human-like intelligent life, well, then our galaxy ought to be teeming with life, right? Fermi asks: Where is everybody?
Like, for example, this Orion Slave Girl:
NASA Wants to Lasso an Asteroid, Tow it Home
This news last week, as reported in, among other publications, Florida Today:
Plans are in the works for astronauts to capture an asteroid, tow it into orbit around the Moon, and then visit it for an asteroid-walk.
Here’s an artist’s rendition of the lassoing procedure:
Which of course puts one (or at least me) in mind of this, from the movie It’s a Wonderful Life:
