Carnival of Space 265

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The Carnival of Space 265 is up at Vintage Space.

Weird warp – The Mars science lab (nicknamed curiosity) has a laser! It is not for self defense but for analyzing rocks. It has fired nearly 500 shots so far and it has produced strong clear data about the Mars surface.

There were many articles about Neil Armstrong.

Centauri Dreams looks at the life and accomplishments of Neil Armstrong, and notes that landing on the Sea of Tranquility was not the only reason space-minded people can take pride in the man.

The Spacewriter eulogizes Neil Armstrong.

As you may have noticed Neil Armstrong died a few days ago. This could turn out to be a good thing! It seems to have brought up the fact that our attempts to continue space exploration are just pathetic at the moment.

Nextbigfuture – NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) mission has led to a bonanza of newfound supermassive black holes and extreme galaxies called hot DOGs, or dust-obscured galaxies. They have found millions of black holes

Nextbigfuture – Lunar Space Elevator Kickstarter is over seven times its first $8000 goal. The Lunar space elevator kickstarter is over $55,000 and still increasing. The Kickstarter will run until September 13, 2012.

The different funding levels :  $30,000 - at least 3 to 5 kilometer
$50,000 - new robot and at least 3 to 5 kilometer
$75,000 - transition from altitude to endurance
$100,000 - back in business for real
$250,000 - try for to climb to the limit of balloon technology , about 20 miles / 30 kilometers

Nextbigfuture – Lunar space elevators are flexible structures connecting the lunar surface with counterweights located beyond the L1 or L2 Lagrangian points in the Earthmoon system. A lunar space elevator on the moon’s near side, balanced about the L1 Lagrangian point, could support robotic climbing vehicles to release lunar material into high Earth orbit. A lunar space elevator can be made with current materials which exist in sufficient commercial quantities and an entire system could be delivered in one rocket launch. The materials and rocket launch will provide benefits that will pay for themselves by supporting lunar development and to lower costs for operating in earth orbit by delivering fuel and supplies from the moon at lower cost than materials from earth going to earth orbit.

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