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Space
for All - The HobbySpace Weblog
September.5.05
Permalink
2:15
pm: Space
for All - The HobbySpace Weblog
has
now become a standard CMS database generated blog.
September.4.05
Permalink
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.2.05
Permalink
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.1.05
Permalink
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
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