A post at Centauri Dreams suggest that instead of building very large interstellar probes (and their inherent logistic problems), we could look into building a swarm of very small ones. There are probably a whole bunch of story indeas incorporated in this very interesting post.
This coming Friday, 5 August, the Juno spacecraft takes off for a mission to Jupiter. Believe it or not, there are Lego figures aboard. One can only wonder at what the aliens (or future humans) are going to think when they find it. As aside here is a picture of the Lego figures in question.
New dwarf planets and other objects continue to be discovered in the vicinity of Pluto.
Astrobiology Magazine examines the influence of the absence or presence of a moon on a planet’s stability.
Scientists announce they have found signs of liquid water on Mars. Watch this space. There have already been models that suggest that in small micro-environments liquid water could exist on Mars. We may well find it sooner rather than later.
And this is just too silly to be true, but it seems it is: a man builds a nuclear reactor in his kitchen. Somewhere on my hard drive, I have a story about some Ethiopian thugs cobbling together a fusion reactor that ends up working a little bit better than they expect. I shelved it a while ago as being ‘too stupid’. Maybe it’s time to pull it out again…
Must Use Bigger Elephants 