Thursday, 28 August 2003

Mars Direct: Last night my lady-love surprised me with a visit to the Sydney Observatory, which—for the first time in 60,000 years—had a line of people waiting to get in.

Thank you. I'll be here all week.

In all seriousness, though, we waited over an hour to enter the observatory grounds, peer through one of the half-dozen telescopes they'd set up, and see the planet Mars up close. There's something warmly reassuring about the idea of a thousand Sydney-siders lining up for a peek at the heavens, and the observatory undoubtedly had their best fund-raising night in years. I have to admit that I didn't get to see much; it was a big round ball with a faint orange tint, for as much time as I got to look through the scope. If we had wanted a really good view we'd have needed to get further away from the city lights and rented our own telescope, if that's even possible.

Speaking of the possible, Phil at The Speculist has an interview with Robert Zubrin, the man who's been trying for 20 years to tell everyone that we have all the tools and equipment we need to make permanent settlements on Mars, right now and on less than NASA's annual budget. Zubrin came up with a brilliant and creative plan that uses Mars's atmosphere and high school chemistry to make rocket fuel on the cheap, allowing an expedition to arrive at Mars with empty tanks and refuel once they get there; for decades he's been trying to break through the haze of bureaucracy that has settled around our space program, and find a leader visionary enough to lead America back into genuine space exploration. Here's hoping we find one. Go read the interview.

- Posted by Scott Forbes at 11:31 am. comments.