|
General Astronomy
and Space Links
My Observatory.
Now I live in a place that must have about the worst "seeing"
on the planet, and I dream of owning a place in the mountains
of New Mexico and having a BIG light bucket there. Someday
there will be a link here to my observatory plans and then ...
someday, an on-line archive of stuff from my own scope. For now,
this spot just holds dreams.
Space News:
- "today@nasa" is a good place to check current events
in space exploration and observational astronomy. The site has
links to other basic NASA web sites and is well worth regular
visits.
- Starport.com:
Another slick space site
- The Universe Today:
General space and Astronomy news.
- SkyViews:
Jay Respler's excellent monthly observer's
guide.
|
- Space Daily. Lots of good news and links. An excellent
source of current events, developments and links.
- Space.com:
Slick space news site. Good up-to-date
news (but not a lot of depth and few outward-bound links).
- Spaceflight Now:
A very good space news and background portal
- SpaceRef.com:
Good news and background site.
|
Organizations
- National Space Science
Data Center. Superb repository of a
lot of information about space, some raw, some processed.
- The Planetary Society. I've been a member of the Planetary Society
for years and find its balance of science and space advocacy
to be just right. I encourage any space enthusiast to join and
support the Planetary Society.
- National Space Society: The largest U.S. space advocacy group. "NSS's
vision is people living and working in thriving communities beyond
the Earth. NSS members promote change in social, technical, economic,
and political conditions to advance the day when people will
live and work in space."
- SEDS:
Students for the Exploration and Development of Space
- The Archimdes
Institute: "The Archimedes Institute
is a policy research organization devoted to the efficient and
equitable development of the solar system. The Archimedes Institute
is working to improve the regulatory climate through the generation
and dissemination of reasoned policy analysis, the enhancement
of communication between government, academia, the commercial
sector and the general public, and the implementation of private
policy initiatives such as the registry for private claims to
solar system resources."
- The First Millennial
Foundation: "Colonizing the Galaxy
in 8 Easy Steps."
- Distant Star: The Millennial Foundation's electronic magazine
- The
Space Studies Institute: What's left
of pioneer Gerard K. O'Neil's grand vision for colonization of
the solar system
- Space Policy Digest:
High-level discussion of space policy issues
- FAS Space Policy
Project: "The Space Policy Project
promotes American national security and international stability
by providing the public and decision-makers with information
and analysis on civil and military space issues, policies and
programs. The Project is dedicated to increasing international
cooperation in space as a means of improving global cooperation
to solve problems on Earth -- promoting space as a domain of
collaboration rather than conflict. The Project also focuses
both on specific policy questions related to advanced technology
weapons, such as ballistic missile proliferation, commercial
space development, and military space systems."
- ProSpace:
Describes itself as "The CITIZEN'S Space Lobby. ProSpace
is a grassroots organization of American citizens dedicated to
opening the Space Frontier to ALL people as rapidly as possible."
- The Space Frontier
Foundation: "The Space Frontier
Foundation is an organization of people dedicated to opening
the Space Frontier to human settlement as rapidly as possible.
. .[G]oals include protecting the Earth's fragile biosphere and
creating a freer and more prosperous life for each generation
by using the unlimited energy and material resources of space.
. .[The Foundation's] purpose is to unleash the power of free
enterprise and lead a united humanity permanently into the Solar
System.
- Dephi Commercial
Space Place forum: Web-based discussion
forum for commercial space.
Images and Simulations
- Nasa Image Exchange. NASA's growing searchable archive of space-related
images, organizing images from multiple NASA web servers.
- NSSDC
Image Database: National Space Science
Data Center's collectioon of images of astronomical objects
- Hubble.
Although earth-surface-based telescopes are getting better and
better all the time, for right now the best (in most ways) and
surely the coolest telescope is Hubble. To take a look at the
product of this wonderful instrument, go to The
Space Telescope Institute. Check this
out! Lots of great images (although proceed with caution if you
are bandwidth-challenged).
- Journey
into the Heavens: A graphics-intensive
site devoted to introductory material concerning space exploration
- J-Track
3D: Incredible Java applet that displays
the current positions and orbital tracks for a huge catalogue
of spacecraft in Earch orbit. Well worth the download time
- TERRA: NASA's
EOS-AM1 satellite, with continuously updated images of our home
planet
- Dance of the Planets is a great solar system simulator that I have
spent many hours exploring. Until I get that big scope, Dance
satisfies much of my desire to explore the heavens.
- Earth
and Moon Viewer: A cool online program
that allows you to image the Earth and Moon from any angle or
altitude.
- Pat Rawlings
Space Art Gallery
Directories, Links Pages and Miscellaneous
Stuff
Planetary Science
(... space is a
place ...)
Planetary Probes. We have finally re-entered a golden age of
robotic planetary exploration after the drought that followed
Voyager and Viking..
- NSSDC
Chronology of Lunar and Planetary Exploration:
Exhaustive catalog of every known (or suspected) planetary probe.
- Galileo. To me, one of the most exciting things happening
in space science right now is the mission of the Galileo probe.
Despite the tragic failures of the original mission plan and
the antenna problems, this project is some of the best of which
the human species is capable, circa late 20th Century. Galileo's
homepage and the associated web is well worth regular visits,
as it displays a lot of real-time mission data.
- The main Galileo homepage gets a lot
of hits during mission milestones, so try these mirror sites
as well:
- Mars. The
planetary science community, with the Jet
Propulsion Laboratory (which has nothing
to do with jets any more) in the lead, is in the process of investigating
our nearest planetary neighbor with an unprecedented array of
probes. This site contains links to the JPL probes in this series.
- MARS:
Pathfinder/Soujorner and Global Surveyor.
MPF was a small and cheap spacecraft that was a complete success.
Pathfinder/Soujorner is an example of the new direction in space
exploration: Simpler spacecraft that can be built in larger numbers
and deployed more quickly and with less program risk. The record
level of web access to the MPF sites during mission milestones
in the Summer of 1997 was a very encouraging sign, reflecting
(I hope) a continuing deep public interest in space exploration.
Having successfully inserted itself into Martian orbit and now
engaging in an economical aerobraking program to circularize
that orbit, MGS will make a complete photo and spectrographic
survey of Mars begining in the Spring of 1998.
- The Whole Mars
Catalog: The best collection of Mars-related
links and information on the Web.
- The Mars Society:
The premier "Martian advocacy group".
- New Mars: A Journal of
the Martian Frontier: The Mars Society's
E-zine.
- Mars News: More
Mars news and links.
- The
Mars Web Ring
- Marsbugs: Good site devoted to exobiology in general
and Martian life and terraforming in particular.
- Cassini. Probably the last of the massive "mega-probes",
Cassini's 7-year transit to Saturn began without incident in
October of 1997 and is now in its complex slingshot phase,picking
up speed by swinging past Venus and Earth before its 2004 rendezvous
with Saturn. Once there it will release a lander on Saturn's
mist-shrouded moon Titan and then engage in a multi-year orbital
survey of the Saturnian system. Before the launch, the "anti-nuclear
movement" and other, more overtly Luddite groups and individuals
took opposition to Cassini as a cause. It has been said that
one's
attitide toward lightning rods was a test of rationality in the
18th Century. One's attitude toward
the Cassini "nuclear threat" may well be a test of
rationality in the last decade of the 20th Century.
Lunar and Planetary Institute
Extrasolar
Planets: A catalog of all known or
suspected planets circling other stars. Consider this a real
estate listing..
Terraforming:
An excellent collection of information
about transforming planetary environments into more hospitable
places.
Spaceflight, Manned
and Otherwise
(... getting there
... being there ...)
HUMAN SPACEFLIGHT AT
NASA
- Space Station. With the dramatically successful launches
of the first components and first assembly flight (STS-88), on-orbit construction of the.International
Space Station ("ISS" as the facility is now called)
is now underway. Although criticized for lacking a clear-cut
rationale, ISS is one of the great engineering projects of our
time and is an important step in the right direction, in my opinion.
Its progress can be tracked from this site as the 20th Century
closes.
- NASA Shuttle
Web. Love it or hate it, the big
black and white bird is just about all we have for now.
Keep your fingers crossed that it'll keep
flying until we have something to replace it (see "New Booster
Technology" immediately below).
New
Booster Technology. The single-stage-to-orbit
prototypes being developed (and flown!) now are the next steps
on the way out. This is happening faster than a lot of people
thought it would (for once) and, as I point out above, is being
driven primarily by the increase in demand for launch services
by the ambitious and very real plans for constellations of low-Earth-orbit
communications satellites, Iridium and Teledesic. In the last few years many new initiatives,
most in the private sector, have been undertaken. Most of these
probably won't pan out, but they evidence a flowering of engineering
and entrepreneurial creativity:
- NASA RLV/Space Transport
Program: A new site that appears to
be NASA's attempt to bring all of it's plans and ideas for future
transportations systems together in one place.
- Rotary Rocket Company
(Roton): An innovative design (construction
by Burt Rutan's famous company, Scaled
Composites) employing "rotary"
technology in both the boost phase (a rotary fuel pump) and in
the recovery phase (an ambitious autorotating rotor system).
- Pioneer Rocketplane: One of a number of plans for winged spaceplanes, the
Pioneer is a manned, orbiter that is refueled in flight from
a 747 tanker.
- Kelly Space & Technology: the Kelly design calls for use of unmanned
an orbiter towed behind a 747 in the boost phase and return assisted
by jet propulsion for increased cross-range capability.
- Kistler
Aerospace
Project
Apollo Archive: Good collection of
resources and links about man's first extraterrestrial adventure.
US Space Command
The most significant military command off
Earth.
NASA Dryden Flight Research
Center: The place for cool things
with wings.
NASA
history
Encyclopedia Astronautica: Mark Wade's Great collection of
space history materials.
Deep
Cold: Unfinished military
space projects of the 1960s.
Other Private Space Ventures
Apollo Lunar Surface Journal. A great historical
resource, this site holds transcripts of most of the communication
between the lunar surface and Houston MSC.
The
Moon Project: Great interactive
site focusing on the Apollo era, but also has lots of other great
lunar resources.
SpaceBank: A space "news"
site, with special emphasis on Japanese space programs and projects.
SpaceViews, a monthly publication
of the Boston chapter of the National Space Society and an electronic
newsletter of the NSS
Romance to Reality: moon & Mars
expedition and settlement plans.
Warp Drive When? A NASA site dedicated
to explication of te possibilities of real superluminal spacecraft.
Exobiology
(... life, the
universe and everything ...)
Astrobiology: A very well put together electronic magazine.
SETI.
The search for extraterrestrial intelligence is a worthwhile
enterprise, no matter how small the chances of success in any
given year. The day we make Contact, this will be a great link
to have. It's still worth having in the meantime, come to think
of it.
SETI@Home: An interesting and ambitious project to distribute
the computing requirements of a deep SETI program to PCs over
the Web.
SETI:
Sky and Telescope's
collection of articles about the Search for Extraterrestrial
Intelligence.
Life on Mars? In August of 1996, NASA researchers announced
what they called "compelling evidence" of fossil microbiology
in a meteorite of definite Martian origin. This Federation of
American Scientists site tracks developments in this story. If
confirmed, this is one of the most important scientific discoveries
in history, so stay tuned.
The
Fermi Paradox. Where are they? Don't
answer too quickly, as some of the most intelligent people in
the world are stumped by this one:
|
Space Books
Countdown:
A History of Space Flight, T. A. Heppenheimer
Living in Space
by G. Harry Stine
$15.37 Hardcover - 1997
Reducing
Mission Cost
Wertz and Larson (Editors)
$39.95 Paperback - 1996
Reusable
Launch Vehicles
Richard Hartunian (Editor)
$27.00 Paperback 1996
Small
Spacecraft Technology
$27.00 Paperback - 1994
Spaceflight
in the Era of Space Planes
by Russell J. Hannigan
$74.50 Hardcover - 1994
Space
Vehicle Mechanisms
Successful Design
Conley, Packard and Purdy
$99.95 Hardcover 1997
Rain
of Iron and Ice
John Lewis
$17.50 - 1996
Mining
the Sky
John Lewis
$18.20 - 1996
Science
With a Vengeance
by David H. Devorkin
$43.95 1993 Springer
Plowshares
and Power : The Military Use of Civil Space
by Bob Preston $14.00 1994 National Defense University Press
Military
Space
Dutton, De Garis, Winterton, and Harding $25.00 1990 Brasseys
Solar System Evolution - A New Perspective
by Stuart Ross Taylor
$59.95 Hardcover 1992 Cambridge Univ
Atlas
of Neptune
Hunt, Moore and Hunt
$28.95 1994 Cambridge
Exploring
Planetary Worlds
by David Morrison
$32.95 1993 Freeman
The
Grand Tour
Miller and Kartmann
$12.76 1993 Workman
Exploring
the Solar System
by Nicholas Booth
$24.95 1996 Cambridge
The
NASA Atlas of the Solar System
Greeley and Batson
$108.50 1996 Cambridge
Planet
Quest : The Epic Discovery of Alien Solar Systems
by Ken Croswell
$17.50 1997 Free
Rain
of Iron and Ice
The Very Real Threat of Comet and Asteroid Bombardment
Hardcover - $17.50 - 1996
Mining
the Sky
Untold Riches from the Asteroids, Comets, and Planets
Hardcover - $18.20 - 1996
New Book of Mars
by Nigel Hawkes
$7.96 1998 Copper Beech
Strategies
for Mars
by Carol R. Stoker (Editor)
$45.00 1996 Univelt
The
Rivers of Mars
by Piers Bizony
$11.96 1997 Aurum
Mars
: The Living Planet
Digregorio, Levin and Straat
$17.50 1997 Frog
Mars
: Uncovering the Secrets
by Paul Raeburn
$24.00 1998 NGS
Mars
Pathfinder: Faster, Better, Cheaper
Pritchett and Muirhead
$10.85 1998 Pritchett
The
Hunt for Life on Mars
by Donald Goldsmith
$19.96 1997 EP Dutton
The
Case for Mars
Zubrin and Wagner
$17.50
Hardcover 1996 Free $10.40
Paperback
Physics
and Chemistry of the Solar System - 1997
Extended science texts on planetary science
Hardcover - $69.95
Resources
of Near-Earth Space
The A-Z of asteroid and cometary
science
Hardcover - $82.00 Special Order |
