The first Carnival of Space

Welcome to the first Carnival of Space. We have a selection of recent blog posts focused on space. I hope you enjoy the carnival.


Many people interested in space and getting into space grew up on early science fiction authors. We lived and breathed the adventures of our heroes braving the unknown. One of the earliest authors is Jules Verne. In From the Earth to the Moon he wrote:

“In spite of the opinions of certain narrow-minded people, who would shut up the human race upon this globe, as within some magic circle which it must never outstep, we shall one day travel to the moon, the planets, and the stars, with the same facility, rapidity, and certainty as we now make the voyage from Liverpool to New York.”

In the short term getting off the earth will be done by rockets. Jonathan Goff writes about the Benefits of Orbital Propellant Transfer: Adaptability, Capability, Etc. on Selenian Boondocks, providing a brief introduction to some of the advantages of orbital propellant transfer and storage.

Once we get into space, there will be a number of problems to solve. James at Surfin' English writes about Obstacles to Space Exploration: The Return. He looks at some of the problems involved with manned space travel, focusing mainly on issues involving food.

Farther down the road we will have other methods of navigating space. A Babe in the Universe has a Vision of several Space Elevators rising from her seas, connected by an artificial Ring in geosynchronous orbit. With this approach billions of people might be able to live in space.


The next couple decades may witness an explosion into space. Arthur C. Clarke said:

“The Shuttle is to space flight what Lindberg was to commercial aviation.”

As the price of travel into space becomes cheaper, new opportunities will open up, new businesses will be founded. Clark writes on Space Transport News about Microgravity Manufacturing Returns. There is new interest in pursuing commercial applications of materials processing in microgravity conditions on the ISS and the Bigelow Aerospace orbital habitats.

The recent Space Access ‘07 conference focused on private business efforts to get into space. I was surprised by just how close we are to being able to buy a “reasonable” ticket into space. At Why Homeschooling is the agenda with links to my 50 pages of summaries on the various presentations.

Space may be what saves mankind. At Music of the Spheres is a post on Space and the Uncertain Future. A brief review of SF writer John Barnes' near-future "Century Next Door" leads to a discussion of the roles that government and commercial space activities may play in helping humanity to survive into the complicated and uncertain future, including the role of inspiring a few of our kids to do the deep thinking and hard work it will take to get us there.

There are plenty of resources to provide more information about space. From Out of the Cradle is Ken’s Lunar Library which has a list of books and other resources available to learn more about our Moon and the high frontier of Near-Earth space. There is a section for Youth, and another section on Fun and Games.


It appears that Larry Niven may have said:

"The dinosaurs became extinct because they didn't have a space program. And if we become extinct because we don't have a space program, it'll serve us right!"

For many NASA has become a dinosaur. Some of the newer smaller organizations see themselves at the more effective mammals.

From the Curmudgeons Corner are some thoughts on NASA Funding Update: The Funding Gap for Space Exploration. The post links to a long article examining the funding problems for the Vision for Space Exploration brought on by the new Congress.

The Robot Guy explains What NASA Should Be Doing, But Isn't: DARPA's Orbital Express program is everything that DART should have been, and more – and is exactly the sort of thing NASA doesn't do anymore, due to budget constraints. (Some cool graphics.)

Brian Wang, who blogs at advancednano, writes that Possibly the last NIAC studies are being released. He reviews two of the more interesting recent concepts from NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts, NIAC. One is the space bubble concept where bubbles up to 1000 kilometers (!) in size are created and then made rigid. The other concept is using two lightweight lunar Winnebagos to provide a mobile base camp for lunar exploration. Check out the pictures!


I hope you have enjoyed the Carnival of Space.

If you are interested in submitting a post for a future carnival, click here for information.

If you are interested in hosting a future edition of the Carnival of Space, go here for the guidelines. If you are still interested, contact me.

I thank everyone who has helped out with bring this carnival together, and to the participants in this carnival.


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Technorati tags: space, rockets, moon, orbit, NASA