friday space nerd dump

mars was the closest to earth last night that it will be until 2012. 2012! OMS! i would've given many things to have had a powerful telescope and be up on my roof staring at the red planet with some chex party mix and a glass of scotch for an hour. alas, all i have at the time is a pair of binoculars with a dead fly in one lens and a pretty vivid imagination. you know, they now think mars used to be a "second earth" at one time? ah well, another post.
living in a city with a lot of lights in a winter with a lot of clouds, it's pretty easy to forget what's up there every night. on a dark hill down in santa cruz the other night, it stopped me in my tracks as i walked to the car. it's been a good while since the sight was so bright and spectral that it was distracting. i got all hypothetically weepy and adamant again about finding a telescope to get a bit closer to all of it - and make me look particularly interesting and intelligent when it's parked in my living room. the dirty binoculars just make me look like a run-of-the-mill pervert.
then there was an article today revisiting barry's decision to not include funding for a manned return to the moon by the US in the budget. while i think there will always be tremendous value in funding particular efforts of NASA, i still feel it's pretty much common sense that we have more pressing needs with our tax dollars than to fund a trip back to the moon.
still, while it's a speculative quote from one man - albeit an astronaut - there remains sizable intrigue and prospects up there:

"Extracting helium-3 from the Moon and returning it to Earth would, of course, be difficult, but the potential rewards would be staggering for those who embarked upon this venture. Helium-3 could help free the United States -- and the world -- from dependence on fossil fuels," Schmitt writes.

For a very good time, click on the image to the right, size it all the way up and scroll down.