So how are we gonna get there?

Here's a good expose from Physorg.com detailing NASA's philosophy for getting us back to the moon:

Building on the best of Apollo and shuttle technology, NASA's creating a 21st
century exploration system that will be affordable, reliable, versatile, and
safe.

Personally, I think it is a great idea to 'use what we've got' as it were, instead of trying to build heavylift and exploration vehicles from scratch--especially in these times of economic insanity...

Either way, with all the recent hooplah about advances in nanotube production, I'm wondering why I'm not hearing more about space elevators.

Spaceship Earth is in Trouble!

Whew! Has it really been that long since a post?

Well we (as in my friends and I) have all been talking about global warming and Katrina for some time now--so here are some web resources that some may find interesting: http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1099102,00.html
http://www.katrinanomore.org/

It makes perfect sense that an increase in ocean surface temperature would increase both the ferocity and frequency of hurricanes in the coming years.

What is even scarier is when I think about how rapidly we are approaching the "knee" of the exponential global climate curve, and the ramifications that has for rapid ecosystem change. It has been projected that within the next few decades much of the Siberian tundra and the Arctic will be thawed--releasing billions of metric tonnes of methane into our atmosphere.

I have a friend Dave who owns a tropical fish tank. When that puppy goes off in temperature a couple of degrees, or if the chemical balance is off on some miniscule scale, stuff starts dying. So think about the rest of the planet! When we start killing off life on planet Earth in a more exponential (versus "linear") fashion, what is going to be around to produce the necessary and sufficient conditions for life to go on sustaining itself? The Earth isn't just inhabitable to life... It is made that way by life.