Space
The word is MGS (Mars Global Surveyor) has fallen silent. It's sad to see it go, but it has served us well and far exceeded expectations for the last 10 years. Thinking back to the time when it was launched (1996), we were recovering from the loss of Mars Observer (1992) and restarting the planetary exploration of our solar system (before Magellan (1989), it was Pioneer Venus (1978)). And you have to go back to the days of Viking (1975) to find the last mission to Mars. So what happened between 1978 and 1989? The Space Shuttle. Now with the retiring of the Shuttle fleet and the development of the replacement underway, I hope planetary exploration won't suffer again like in the 80s.
Now back to MGS and Mars. MGS was there for the popular Mars Pathfinder mission (1996), all the way up to the arrival of MRO (Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter). In between there were highs and lows. Who can forget the twin disappointments in 98/99 of MCO (Mars Climate Orbiter) and MPL (Mars Polar Lander). Those losses led to the cancellation of the 2001 lander, though the 2001 orbiter, Mars Odyssey, was given the go ahead and functioned as a relay for the hugely successful Mars Exploration Rovers (Spirit and Opportunity) in 2003. Today, Mars is a crowded place. Even after this apparent end of MGS, we still have Odyssey, Mars Express (of the ESA), and MRO in orbit, and both rovers on the ground. On top of that, Phoenix (the resurrected 2001 lander), is slated to launch next August and the big rover MSL (Mars Science Laboratory) is planned for 2009. Mars sure is getting a lot of attention, and I think a bit too much attention. Each of the other planets in our solar system has at most one dedicated US mission since 1989. MESSENGER is on its way to orbit Mercury in 2011. Magellan ended its mission at Venus in 1994. Galileo ended its mission at Jupiter in 2003. Cassini has been in orbit around Saturn since 2004. And if you're in the Pluto is a planet camp, New Horizons is on its way to flyby Pluto in 2015. Uranus (1986) and Neptune (1989) had just one mission between them (Voyager 2). I think we should expand our horizons and not focus so much on Mars. Each planet is interesting in its own way.
What else?
- The second flight of Delta 4-Heavy on 2007.01.31 .
- Rosetta's flyby of Mars on 2007.02.25 on its way to a comet.
- New Horizons' flyby of Jupiter on 2007.02.28 on its way to Pluto.
Old PC news?
- Quad core CPUs from Intel. As if dual core isn't enough....
- GeForce 8800 from NVIDIA. Another dual slot solution, eech.
- AMD buy out of ATI. Hopefully this won't reduce our video card choices.
- USB missile launcher from kleargear. Too bad the cubicle walls may be a bit too high for these launchers.
