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Showing posts from August, 2012

2312: A Review

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I recently had the good fortune of being asked to review Kim Stanley Robinson's newest novel 2312 . He sent me a personally signed copy of the thick book, which I have been digesting slowly for the past couple of months. An excerpt of my review is below. For the full review, please see Moonandback.com . Imagine a future where people have escaped a crowded, environmentally ravaged Earth to inhabit the entire solar system. From vulcanoids near the Sun to Pluto in the Kuiper Belt and everywhere in between, your passport to this inspiring reality is Kim Stanley Robinson’s newest book 2312 . In it, he masterfully paints a utopian picture where humanity has terraformed almost every world possible and used the technological advancements made possible by space exploration to extend human lifespans and liberty. However, poverty, greed, and strife still exist in this brave new future, especially on Earth, which has never been able to shake its historical baggage like the space col

Curiosity has landed!

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As the Mars Exploration Rovers Spirit and Opportunity start to wind down their immensely successful 8+ year mission , NASA's newest and most capable robotic planetary mission the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) rover, dubbed 'Curiosity', has safely landed on the surface of the Red Planet. Packed with ten science instruments to explore geology and detect the building blocks of life, Curiosity is a six-wheeled radioisotope-powered vehicle about the size of a car. On the way down, its Mars Descent Imager ( MARDI ) impressively captured the rover's descending the surface in this time lapse video  and high-resolution image . Even more remarkable was the fact that the  HiRISE camera in orbit snapped a photograph of the rover and its parachute during their descent and later found the discarded heat shield, parachute, and sky crane in their final resting places on the martian surface. The sky crane , by the way, was the most unusual and risky part of this mission. No obj

I am a pilot

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With the Olympics currently unfolding, we are reminded how athletes train very hard for their one chance at nailing a performance to achieve their long-sought goals. I have been undergoing my own intensive training regime for the past several months to earn a Private Pilot Certificate . Like those athletes, I too have been gearing up for the one performance that really counts; in my case that means passing the FAA checkride with a Designated Pilot Examiner who has the authority to grant me the pilot license. That checkride happened earlier today, and I am proud to say I am now a Private Pilot. For me, this achievement is like winning the gold medal, vindicating months of hard work and sacrifice. I am grateful to my CFI Scott and the entire staff of Galvin Flight Services Hawaii for their tutelage, but most of all, I thank my wife for her patience throughout this intense training period. Aviation goes back a few generations in my family to my great-grandfather who flew in t