GONG GONG GONG GONG

You want to hear how I pronounced Karatepe before I heard Steve say it

Doug

Again - you've confused the British media, and the British. They are not one and the same. The British MEDIA may enjoy 'sticking it' to the US wherever possible, but us Brits actually have a little more intelligence and a lot more respect than our newspapers and television reporters.

I agree, however, that an end to manned spaceflight would probably shaft the whole program all together. There is a balance, and whilst I dont think have got that balance in the right place - they're not doing TOOooo bad. It's an old adage, but robots dont have ticker tape parades ( infact, does anyone any more? ) - so they have a roll, but we still need hero's, one's that run on something other than ones and zeeros.


Doug

Just as a heads up - I think some people might have got confused between the two different updates

It's a whole lot of Q'n'A in not a lot of time ( cumulatively, almost as much as the Steve one from last year )

We'll have one thread for each new Q'n'A for people transcribing and discussing what was said IN the Q'n'A - and then we'll keep that one other thread for new questions from people here, as well as Q's submitted via TPS.

Got it

Good.

Doug

hmm - PC with voice recognition software

JUST about skirts around those descriptions

Doug

It's not great, but there's something there....

How much is a flight from the UK

It's when I read line-ups like that that I want to throw in the medical e-learning town and enjoy the thrills of conference coffee and space reporting. Damn you mortgage - damn you to hell!

Doug

The f0006 is still similar to the 'FS Commanded' but the others I'm not sure of - I've emailed him in a hope he can get back to me before he heads off for a few days of meetings

Doug

(Attached, two end of drive mosaics - PC and NC - Taken, downlinked, online, mosaic, and posted - 3hrs 51 minutes)

Indeed - it would be - BUT - he's away for a few days so I cant really ask him, I might drop him a line and ask what it's all about in the meantime though

Doug

Do you think it's worth setting up www.savelondonplanetarium.com or something? - Get a little sign-the-guestbook thing going, a little one-section-forum and a bit of background info on it?


Doug

I just have ultimate rage on this issue - I want to go and slap some people.

Doug

I wish I were able to do more about the UK space budget - but I just got utterly blanked by every govenement official I asked. It's like shouting at a big, fat, lump of lard. It doesnt do anything.

It's disgracefull.....next thing they'll be closing The London Planetarium - that really would be a disgrace...

oops

Doug

An utter disgrace. How idiotic. Of COURSE only 30% of the people who visit MT's go on to the Planetarium.

How many readers of OK magazine also read Sky & Telescope?

If they were to offer an entry to the Planetarium alone, at something less than the £23 they charge for the MT's entry, then they would see an increase in visitors.

I am appauled.

I've emailed the Tussauds Group, the Sky at Night (longest running television series in the world I believe) , and I'm hoping the Planetary Society can look into it as well.

Doug

Well - it's with the L8 filter - so it's not going to be a star or a meteor - particularly given that it's the middle of the day Cosmic Ray most likely

Doug

Were you using an LCD Projector thingie? Did the Anaglyphs look OK - or did they look like the left eye was really dark? I have a major problem with that at the moment, it's really annoying.

Kudos on getting some kids excited about all this - they deserve to know what's going on!

Doug

Spot on.

Doug

I wanted to go to the Planetarium a few months ago - really really wanted to go - but there's a problem.

You can't just go to the Planetarium. You HAVE to pay to go to Madame Tussauds as well. I dont want to look at room after room of wax people, I just want to go to the Planetarium, but you can't do that - and given the frankly shocking price of entry to M.T's ( £22.99 at the moment , £50 for just Helen and I - Mum, dad, plus two kids - £70 ) - I'm not going to pay that much JUST for the Planetarium - it's the way MT's have run it. The only way in to the Planetarium is out the end of MT's. And you've had 4 hrs of looking at wax people - how thrilled are you going to be about a 40 minute show about stars ( speaking generally ) - so many people probably just ignore it and leave.

I wouldnt be suprised if the planetarium gets taken down - it should be run seperately to MT's anyway - talk about opposite ends of the spectrum. Wax models of 'celebs', vs the awesome sight of space. The two shouldnt be run in the same 'ticket.

I've not heard that it's coming down - but if it is, then I'll be paying that stupid price and going, as I want to see another show there ( i saw one as a child) before it goes.

Doug

Well - haiting STS isnt a British thing, you'll find that in many media around the world.

However - I find that the British media just likes to criticise anything that fills these two criteria

1) is expensive.
2) isn't a new hospital/police force/etc.

That's all you have to do to be guarenteed of being hated by the media. There's no point moaning about someone from another country criticising the US Space program - that's always going to happen. Criticising the US is the 'in' thing at the moment anyway, criticising it's Space Program ticks that box AND the two above.

It's nothing particularly space specific. Nothing particularly Brit specific to be honest. The media likes to lambast things. It's what they do best. There's no story in "The shuttle is nice, isnt it. It launch some people last years." There IS a story in criticism.

What is sad is that the media wont criticise the, as you say, pitiful UK spending on space. I've written to my MP (who just send some crap back to me about how the UK's space budget is split.....I didnt care - I just wanted to know why it is so small), I've written to the PM ( no response ), I've written to the Science Minister ( no response ) - there's nothing I can do to get a justification for our embarrasment of funding in this field.

But if they did spend an extra, say, $1B a year on space, then they'd get roasted in the press - because you could build a few hospitals for that, or X police men, Y firemen etc etc.

There is no "talk about YOUR country first" in international news media anymore. NASA is the largest space agency, so it get's the largest share of criticism.

It's just the media - we can't really ignore it, but we don't have to take it seriously.

MEDIA

MEDIA

Media and Public Opinion are very very rarely one and the same. That passion regarding exploration still exists within the public - their reaction to Beagle 2 DESPITE it being a failure was astonishing. If Beagle 2 had worked - I wouldnt have time to run this place, I'd be doing talks every night, across the whole country - people would be dying to hear about their mars lander. Even now - people realise I'm a space nut and ask "whatever happened to that Mars lander of ours?"

Remember - the voice of the media is not the voice of the people.

Doug

They're not sure how they'll park the arm for longer drives, but according to JB ( check the new Q'n'A ) they'll use this current parking position for short bumps, and perhaps a hybrid parking postition for the longer drives - they're stilll working on that though.

Doug

Ritchie "Thank you Geoffrey, that's the forth set of keys of mine you'd got stuck into the pitch. Infact my lovely gold pen is about 6 inches under the popping crease"

I'm sure there was a comedy sketch about that at some point.


/english humour

Doug

The Stardust people seemed quite bold and confident when suggesting such a follow on. I agree - DI is more likely to get an extension that Stardust, but given it's shielding, Stardust could be sent on a fairly do-or-die flyby of another nucleus in a few years. No reason why they can't just hibernate the thing as they have now for 4, 5 years, and wake it up in the way they did for Giotto for another flyby. Even just an imaging sequence would be another set of images of a small body.

Doug

I'd hope they do it on the dark side so that we can all get out our binos and watch for it.

Doug

I think British documentary making for our subject peaked with 'The Planets' - it's gone very downhill ever sicne. 'Space' was terrible, and the recent 'Voyage..' was more drama and documentary.

Doug

and...AND...according to Jim - Venus at some point. That would make Mars, Venus, Earth and Jupiter visible in a single image

Doug

"This Crater © B.Moomaw 2018"

Wind is good..Spirit's looking a bit dirty With a good clean, we might get an extra week or two at HP before running off to sunbathe!

Doug