Bringing the Universe to Earth

At the end of last week SpaceX corporation successfully launched the Falcon 9 rocket from NASA's Cape Canaveral facility. After a number of postponements the rocket successfully launched and reached a low Earth orbit a short while later. The launch consisted of a separation and firing of two separate stages to demonstrate and test the full rocket capabilities.

Credit: SpaceX

Falcon 9 is an impressive launch vehicle. It is a two stage vehicle using a combination of liquid oxygen and rocket grade kerosene propellants capable of launching sizable payloads into both low Earth and geostationary transfer orbits. Standing around 55m tall it is comparable in size and performance to many other common launch vehicles such as the Atlas V and Ariane 5.

There is an interesting story on the NASA homepage, and circulating in various media channels about the possibility of life existing on Titan. Depending on your point of view that is all it is - an interesting story - and yet it raises many interesting intellectual and philosophical questions.

Life on Mars is something that we are, on the whole, comfortable with. While it would be a sensation should life ever be discovered, it would not be a shock. For well over 100 years the concept of Martian lifeforms has, at various times, dominated both the scientific and science fiction realms. Any postulated lifeform is essentially similar to Earth type lifeforms adapted for the relative harshness of the Martian environment. With this, we can cope.

It was always a long shot that the NASA Mars Phoenix Lander would survive the harsh Martian winter. Recent images sent back by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter indicate ice has damaged the lander's solar panels making it no longer possible to power the adventurer.

Summertime is always a dilemma for me as an astronomer. I love the deep dark nights of winter and the brilliance of the stars in the cool crisp air. But I also enjoy the splendour of a long linger twilight under the watchful gaze of a waxing Moon.

I remember the first launch of the Space Shuttle in 1981. Even at the tender age of eight, I was already hooked on all things space. I was born not long after the last men set foot on the Moon, and I vaguely remember Skylab, but that first launch of the Shuttle stands out in my mind.

It was a warm Sunday in April, and if my memory is right (and frankly who knows these days) the launch had been pushed back a couple of days from the Friday.