Just reading in the new Planetary Society magazine that they submitted all the members names to be included on a CD that will be part of a spacecraft that will intercept comet Tempel I in 2005. Kinda cool, still not too late to add names to the list at http://deepimpact.jpl.nasa.gov/sendyourname/.



This Mars thing that's coming up in a couple of weeks sounds cool, too. Geoff Landis gave a talk at Boskone a year or two ago about a previous mission and showed a short video of what the whole landing process looks like with the spacecraft going through some elaborate and split-second deployments of heatshields and parachutes and thrusters and airbags in order for it to land safely. The fact they can get something there in one piece is almost more impressive than what it's supposed to do once it's there.



It even sounds like there's some modicum of renewed interest in manned space exploration since the Columbia disaster in February. Much like how we chose to rebuild the World Trade Center into the world's tallest middle finger pointing straight at bin Laden, I think it's equally appropriate to respond to losing seven astronauts in space by concocting a multi-decade, multi-billion dollar program to do more of the same. It's ironic that defeat is what seems to motivate government to move forward quickly in both cases, but, much like the cold war in the '60's, it doesn't matter what the motivation is so long as it does the job. I was too young to truly appreciate the Apollo program as it was happening, so I'm all for working towards a manned mission to Mars to galvanize us jaded humans now in the 21st century. Heck, it can't cost more than the Big Dig, and look how excited everyone is about that now that it's finally almost done.