Powers of Ten is a really cool Java app (basically a timed slide show) that shows successive images from the Milky Way down to the subatomic level. Lots of cool images on this site, including microscopic pictures of beer. Another related website I need to check out: Powers of Ten. [Via Ken Coar]
Today’s Mercury News reports that the wind tunnels at NASA/Ames Research Center in Mountain View are closing.
Updated 2003-12-11 with new URL for Balloon 1.0 project report. Balloon v1.0 — “This is the story of how I designed, built, launched, and recovered a high-altitude weather balloon.” This “weather” balloon project is really fascinating. I was especially interested in its ability to take pictures, reminding me of an old bookmark I’ve got for Kite Aerial Photography (Google search). Now if I just had more spare time… [Via Q Daily News]
BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Deep space probe says farewell — “After more than 30 years in space heading away from Earth, Pioneer 10 has sent its last signal home.” The full article is a great summary — launched in March 1972, it’s official mission ended 25 years later in March 1997, but NASA and JPL have continued to receive signals from it. For further reading, it looks like the Pioneer mission home page on Nasa.gov would be a good start. (However, at this time their server is not responding.) Via [Dave]
FLORIDA TODAY: STS-107 Columbia landing journal gives regular updates during the shuttle landing, including this unsettling entry: 9:20 a.m. EST, Feb. 1, 2003: NASA has lost communication with the orbiter and has no tracking data. NASA Space Shuttle Launches gives the complete list of all shuttle missions. If I’m reading it correctly, STS-107 was the 113th shuttle mission. Columbia (OV-102) was the first shuttle ever built and participated in flight STS-1 on 4/12/81. President Bush’s remarks on the loss of the shuttle. [Christian Science Monitor]