Hist 491

2004-04-02T09:11:00.000-08:00

NASA budget

For where NASA stands right now go here

2004-03-26T06:23:00.000-08:00

oral history

Interviews with key space program leaders are available on the web from the National Air and Space Museum.

2004-03-23T07:55:00.000-08:00

around the blogs

Jeff has found some interesting information on current shuttle safety procedures.

Jamel has several interesting news stories.

Seth has a thoughtful post on NASA technology to monitor earth resources. I would comment that sometimes it is hard to know what the high tech sensor data means. Ecologists were excited about using satellite data to measure something called the vegetation index, because nice clear variations showed up. But for a long time they didn't know what the vegetation index meant on the ground. They thought if an area showed up with a high vegetation index it meant that there was a lot of standing biomass there, but it actually turned out to be something more like a measure of how fast the vegetation was growing.

Kacy has some more thoughts on how much basic science NASA should support.

2004-03-22T06:55:00.000-08:00

search for extraterrestrial life

The role of finding life as a goal of the space program is suggested by a new SETI project.

2004-03-01T11:24:00.000-08:00

small nuclear weapons

Here's an article on small nuclear bombs and current debates about whether we should develop them.

2004-02-23T06:42:00.000-08:00

military space ambitions

Does this article on Air Force space plans sound familiar? Some other studies are available here.

2004-02-17T12:28:00.000-08:00

around the blogs

Jeff discusses an article in the Tiger and says politicians use the space program to get votes. Kennedy didn't decide to go to the moon until after he was elected, but he certainly used claims of a missile gap in the campaign. But do you think these days proposing an expanded space program gets you many votes? Kacy has some other thoughts on politics.

Jamel has interesting information on funding issues for Bush's space plan.

Joseph found a source for an explanation of the film 2001, if you are wishing for one. Nick would have preferred to watch a movie that was more historical. I admit 2001 is a weird movie, but what interests me, historically, is how people thought the space age was going to transform the world. So far it has turned out to be a lot more mundane than expected.

2004-02-09T10:46:00.000-08:00

Mars blogging

A detailed blog on the Mars results is here.

2004-02-02T14:59:00.000-08:00

NASA History Office

The NASA History Office has lots of useful resources, including lots of complete books available online. I just got an announcement for the newest one:
Humans to Mars: Fifty Years of Mission Planning, 1950-2000. by David S. F. Portree (NASA SP-2001-4521). This is the full pdf version of monograph 21 with all the graphics and the text search feature. It is at http://history.nasa.gov/monograph21.pdf.

2004-01-30T09:16:00.000-08:00

politics

If you are voting in the democratic primary Tuesday and aren't sure whom to vote for try this selector. Jamel has the information on the opinions of the candidates on the space program.

2004-01-26T09:19:00.000-08:00

humorous songwriter

Tom Lehrer lyrics. The Werner von Braun song is here.

2004-01-21T10:39:00.000-08:00

no mention

I did a quick search in the text of the State of the Union address and it doesn't look like space plans are mentioned.

2004-01-20T12:22:00.000-08:00

internship

Anyone interested in applying for a paid internship in space policy in Washington DC for this summer? The deadline Is Feb. 16.

2004-01-19T12:01:00.000-08:00

some humor that came in by email

The first picture from the Mars rover:

2004-01-16T06:57:00.000-08:00

Etzioni

Sociologist Amitai Etzioni, who used to be a major comentator questioning the space program, has a blog. He hasn't yet commented on Bush's Mars announcement. For more on Bush's announcement see Space Daily, CNN, and an MSNBC interview with John Glenn. An earlier CNN article talks about how much of what was done in the 1960s is no longer available to build on.

2004-01-13T13:23:00.000-08:00

robots

Since I offered extra credit for the play about robots, here is an article about using robots rather than humans for space exploration.

2004-01-11T14:57:00.000-08:00

I'm back

Pictures of my trip are here.

Don't forget to read Burrows chapters 1 and 2 before Monday's class.

2003-12-28T06:09:00.000-08:00

Welcome

Welcome to the professor's blog for Hist 491. I am out of the country (in the Galapagos islands!) until Jan. 10, but you can find out more about me at: my home page. For a good example of a space related blog check out: Spacecraft. Notice also that the right hand panel of that blog provides links to other space-related blogs.