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The Space Log
Space for Everyone - September 2005

September.4.2005

2:45 pm: HS upgrades ... As you can see, the move to the new server gave me an excuse to create a new and, I hope, improved layout for the web pages. It would have been nice to have it all ready and complete but the site has gotten too big for that. Most of the pages are still a mix of old and new styles. (See Near Space and TVRO for where I'm headed.)

So please bear with me over the coming weeks as I update the pages and continue to experiment with menus, color schemes, and the organization of the pages, subsections, and link lists. I hope to make the site easier to navigate and also less amateurish looking. Until now I have focused primarily on expanding content but to grow my readership I need to make the site more inviting to newcomers.

My new host also provides weblog software. Plan A is to have "real" blogs in action within a couple of days. The database archiving and browser interface will make it a lot easier for me to maintain RLV News and this HobbySpace Log. The name for the latter has become Space for All to reflect more clearly what it is about. I will also gradually transition RLV News name to Space Transport News since a true spaceship is inherently reusable just like an airliner and we don't call the latter reusable takeoff vehicles.

My primary goal remains that of convincing more people to become involved in space related activities. I firmly believe that the only way to build a large and vibrant community of space enthusiasts is get more and more people to participant in those space hobbies and activities that appeal to their individual interests and can sustain lifelong devotion.

Bringing together all of these people with their diversity of interests under a single big tent (or "habitat") in support of progress in space would provide a much larger and more effective constituency to help make space development happen than just the limited space activist community.

At the same time as I try to appeal to the general public, I also want to provide a source of news and information on the growing entrepreneurial space industry (i.e. the so-called alt.space or alternative-space world.) It is this industry that will provide the means by which the general public can actually go to space or, at least, become far more directly involved with it.

Many people involved in the alt.space movement, or who follow it closely, are definitely not hobbyists but serious engineers and technical folk. So it's a bit ironic that RLV News became my most popular page. I think, though, that most of the alt.space participants understand that attracting more of the general public to become involved in space activities is important for building and sustaining a market for the alt.space industry.


September.2.2005

5:35 pm: HS Outage ... I plan to move HobbySpace.com to a new hosting service this weekend. So you may find it unavailable during the transition, which I'm told can take up to 24 hours. I hope things will be back to normal by Tuesday morning.

10:15 am: News briefs ... More great pictures and details about the ascent of Spirit up Husband Hill (see map): NASA's Durable Spirit Sends Intriguing New Images From Mars - NASA - Sept.1.05. Other links:

... Alan Boyle reports on satellite and aerial views of the Gulf coast disaster: Before and after Katrina - Cosmic Log / MSNBC.com - Sept.1.05 ...

... Space Frontier Conference 14 will take place in Los Angeles during October 21-23: The Next Space Age is Coming! Space Frontier Conference in Los Angeles to Focus on Revolution in Space - SFF PR - Sept.1.05.


September.1.2005

11:10 am: Space mitigating earthly disasters ... As I mentioned yesterday, satellite phones are especially useful for emergency situations like that caused by Katrina when cell phones and other communications systems either fail or are unreliable. Satphones should be stocked as standard emergency equipment for police, fire, and rescue personnel.

Space systems help to mitigate disasters in other ways too. For hurricanes, the most obvious benefit of our space resources comes from weather satellites, which track the storms and usually provide sufficient warning time for people to evacuate or to seek local refuge. Since they first began flying in the 1960s, weather satellites must surely have saved tens of thousands of lives.

Advanced remote sensing satellites provide data on storms that will assist the development of techniques that give more precise predictions for the paths of storms and perhaps even lead eventually to ways to reduce the intensities of storms: Satellites spot "hot towers" in Hurricane Katrina - New Scientist - Aug.31.05.

High resolution satellite images help in assessing the damage wrought by a disaster. They also are used to monitor how a situation develops over time such as, for example, showing how the extent of flooding varies. Satellite images will be quite useful for governments in developing reconstruction plans.

You can check out some satellite images of the areas impacted by Katrina at:

11:10 am Filk spotlight ... Wired magazine has an interesting article on the Filk music scene: Filk Music for Nerd People - Wired - Sept.1.05. It includes several useful links such as those to Filk.com and Filk Radio and to the upcoming Ohio Valley Filk Fest 21, October 21-23, 2005.

11:10 am: News briefs ... Ben Huset has posted a large set of images taken at the recent Mars Society Conference held in Boulder, Colorado in August: Mars Society Conference 2005 - freemars.org ...

... The final installment of the essay by Monte Davis on realism in space advocacy: Thinking Clearly About Space Part IV: The Virtuous Cycle - SPACE.com - Sept.1.05 ...

... Greg Olsen can hardly bear the wait for his flight to the ISS: NJ entrepreneur almost ready for trip to space - WVEC.com [Hampton Roads, VA] - Aug.31.05 * Third Space Tourist Prepares for ISS Flight - SPACE.com - Aug.31.05 ...

... The Saturn system continues to present surprises and mysteries to Cassini: Enceladus continues to intrigue scientists - 999 Today - Aug.31.05 * Cassini finds venting at south pole of Saturn moon - Spaceflight Now - Aug.30.05



Continue to August 2005 articles in archive

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