Main Article: Alien World Discovered.
Poll Results: Third in our series of Progressive Democrat's "Americans in Space" Polls. What happened in the poll? Another one bites the dust.
Star Trek: In the News.
Well everyone knew it was only a question of time. New images were releaseed of an alien planet in an alien star system. Not as sexy sounding as Ceti Alpha VI but for the first one it will do, "Fomalhaut b, at between one and three Jupiter masses, is the lowest-mass planet yet found outside our solar system,Eugene Chiang. said, and its discovery brings the day closer when researchers might be able to find Earth-like planets."
"Earth seems to have its first fuzzy photos of alien planets outside our solar system," Seth Borenstein
Seth, a writer for the associated press, wrote in his recent article "First pictures of extra-solar planets" that "In the past 13 years, scientists have discovered more than 300 planets outside our solar system, but they have done so indirectly, by measuring changes in gravity, speed or light around stars."
Think about that, a picture of the first "alien" world. Do visions of a planet like Jupiter dance into your mind, or the mysterious worlds of the science fictions novels of your youth.
"It's almost science fiction," said Berkeley astronomer Eugene Chiang. "I didn't think this day would occur until years from now."
"We've been trying to image planets for eight years with no luck and now we have pictures of three planets at once," said Bruce MacIntosh, an astrophysicist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
How long before a Scope goes up that can start detecting for atmosphere and industrial pollutants around a terrestrial planet in the habital zone of an alien Star. NASA has one on the drawing board the TPF.
"The Terrestrial Planet Finder Inteferometer is a mission concept currently under study by NASA. TPF-I would study all aspects of planets outside our solar system: from their formation and development in disks of dust and gas around newly forming stars to the presence and features of those planets orbiting the nearest stars; from the numbers at various sizes and places to their suitability as abodes for life."
ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST! Luna landings lose to Mars in latest Poll.
Mission profiles that have not recieved votes at the time of posting have been dropped from the poll. What does that mean? Good bye Luna Landings (0%) HELLO Luna Alpha One Base (40%).
No one voting would like to see a return to the moon with just landings, considered a "been there done that" mission, it is like a popular poker game, Texas Hold-em. If there is a return the moon, voters are going "ALL IN" with a Lunar Base or nothing.
Coming in second with 29% of the vote was a LEO Fuel Depot, new propusion, FTP system. ( fly to point, see terms )
Third place was a Mars Base (18%), once again showing the strength of space advocates for not just putting boots on the ground on a new world but building at actual habitat and science station.
The least favorable focus for American space is a Mars landing (10%), seen by a lot of space watchers as a "stunt" and would not like to see happen on Mars with what happened with Apollo.
If you have been following the polls, they started with 15 questions in three broad Catagories. We are down to Landings and surface operations and a Fuel depot and FTP. I look forward to results for this poll.
Past results in a series of Progressive Democrats "Americans in Space" polls.
Poll #1 Mars Base 34%
Poll #2 Moon Base 30%
Poll #3 Moon Base 40%
STAR TREK: In the News.
"The arrival of the theatrical trailer has answered quite a few questions about the new Star Trek movie, and it has also created a number of new mysteries, especially with all those images going by so fast. No worries as TrekMovie goes shot by shot and explains, based on our research, what is going on in each shot."Trek Movie Goes Inside The Star Trek Trailer - Shot By Shot
TERMS
As I have stated before, I am not a rocket scientist, I studied economics in college and am mearly a space; fan, junkie, watcher, zealot, advocate. So a recent post, by DrConrad, caught me off guard:
"I'd also suggest that in future diaries if you're going to refer to these or especially if you're going to have poll questions including them, you include a key like the one above, and maybe a link to the Wikipedia article on Lagrange points or other relevant articles. That will help include people who aren't space nerds in the discussion."
For someone who reads a lot of reports on space, it would be safe to say, reading some of them is like having to learn a foreign language. So recieving a comment that I am to arcane when talking about space came as a surprise. I am now including a "TERMS" section to help readers know what is being talked about.
When commenting on astronauts these are the four types of space sailors:
Astronaut.PVT = Private astronaut, works with a privately owned space vehicle's operations.
( Burt Rutan and Scaled Composites - Space Ship One, )
Astronaut.COM = Commercial astronaut, works with a commercially owned space vehicle's operations.
( SPACE X - Dragon, Bigelow Aerospace - Sundancer, Virgin Galtic - Space Ship Two )
Astronaut.CIV = Civilian astronaut, works with a civilian owned space vehicle's operations.
( NASA, ISS - STS)
Astronaut.GOV = Government astronaut, works with a government owned space vehicle's operations.
( Military Space Place)
Someone asked, "do we have to continue with the astro?"
Well without astro, being a "naut" would be nothing. It helped build the mystical theme of being an ASTRONAUT. Having that Astro attached to your name is therefore special.
These are the three so far; Astrotech, Astrogator, Astrotourist.
The Current List of space titles used in this Diary.
Astronaut.PVT
Astronaut.COM
Astronaut.CIV
Astronaut.GOV
astronaut = Astronauts are the Space Sailors working on and piloting space vehicles.
astrotech = Astrotechs are the builders and mission specialists.
astrogator = Astrogators are the space investigators, the research scientists.
astrotourist = Astrotourists are the vistors to space.
-- OTHER TERMS --
FTP = Fly to point, is piloting a space vehicle to a point in space, like a Lagrange point, or as a fly by: moon, mars, asteroid. There is no landings involved with a fly to point mission but crew can do an egress. For example, a mission to a Lagrange point, dock with the James Webb Telescope and make repairs.
LEO - Low Earth Orbit
GEO - Geosynchronous Earth Orbit
GTO - Geosychronous Transfer Orbit
EMLP - The Earth-Moon Lagrange Point
ESL1 - Earth-Sun Lagrange Point 1
ESL2 - Earth-Sun Lagrange Point 2
LL0 - Low Lunar Orbit
SM1 - Sun-Mars Lagrange Point
TODAY'S POLL: Progressive Democrats, 'Americans in Space' - Poll #4