Sylvia Earle: Here's how to protect the blue heart of the planet

Sylvia Earle is one of the great explorers of our time. Oceanographer, aquanaut, author and lecturer she has been exploring Aquatica for decades. Please watch the video below and hear a remarkable woman tell us why we must protect our oceans:

Major Matt Mason -The Motion Picture

For those of you who were fortunate to be a child in the 1960s during the great heyday of the Space Race, chances are you spent most of your time playing with Space toys. Lots of space related toys started popping up all over the place in the late 60s. Leading the pack, and my all time favourite, was a courageous and intrepid astronaut by the name of Major Matt Mason. I still have many fond childhood memories of joining Major Matt and his other action figure buddies in the exploration of the mysterious lunar landscape of my living room floor.

Major Matt Mason will always be for me the quintessential hero of the space age. The astronaut who led the charge forward as humanity blazed a trial forward in its conquest of space. If you are part of the forty something set and a member of the Major Matt Mason generation you will be happy to hear that Universal Pictures is bringing the good Major to life in all his glory to the silver screen.

And, who will be playing the bold and courageous Major? Why that quintessential astronaut of the silver screen and long time fan of the great Major – Tom Hanks.



According to Variety, the toy line originated in 1966; Mason led an astronaut team that worked on the moon and lived in a space station. The toy was a hit in the buildup to the first manned moon mission. Mattel retired the line in the 1970s.

When Mattel execs Tim Kilpin and Barry Waldo came to Playtone for a meeting, they brought an arsenal of the Matt Mason figures. Hanks came armed with his own.


To paraphrase the closing line of the following Major Matt Mason commercial, I wonder how far this major motion picture will go. With all the current planning and discussion of returning to the Moon, establishing a Lunar Base, manned missions to the Asteroids, and pressing on to Mars, isn't it only fitting that the good Major lead the charge in the conquest of these worlds himself?

A Visit to an Alien World

Just imagine the following exciting and wonderful possibility - the Kepler automated astronomical observatory or the Terrestrial Planet Finder, slated for launch sometime in the year 2015, finds a planet capable of supporting life in orbit around another star a mere six light years away named Darwin IV.

Life on Earth was shaped by the inexorable laws of evolution through natural selection. Today on Discovery Enterprise we will investigate the wonderful and exotic life forms of Darwin IV and see one of the many possible ecosystems that have arisen in Darwin’s Universe of life.

Alien Planet


Alien Planet is a 94 minute special on Discovery Channel about two internationally built robot probes searching for alien life on the fictional planet Darwin IV. It was based on the book Expedition, by sci-fi/fantasy artist and writer Wayne Douglas Barlowe, who was also executive producer on the special. It premiered on May 14, 2005.

Fins for Aquaticans

Inhabitants of the undersea will need some form of mobility outside their habitats. SCUBA gear is an obvious answer but while conventional fins are far more efficient then no fins they are no where near as efficiant as a dolphins fins. The answer may be to copy the dolphin. That what the creators of the Lunocet have done:

Culminating decades of research, engineer and inventor Ted Ciamillo, an inventor and engineer in Athens, Ga., who made his name (and fortune) building high-performance bicycle brakes, created what he has dubbed the Lunocet, a 2.5-pound (1.1-kilogram) monofin made of carbon fiber and fiberglass that attaches to an aluminum foot plate at a precise 30-degree angle. With almost three times the surface area of conventional swim fins, the semiflexible Lunocet provides plenty of propulsion. The key to the 42-inch- (one-meter-) wide fin's speed: its shape and angle, both of which are modeled with scientific precision on a dolphin's tail.

These sprinters of the sea can swim up to 33 miles (53 kilometers) per hour and turn up to 80 percent of their energy into thrust.

"The mechanism functions like a wing to generate a lift force," which is directed forward and turned into thrust, says Frank Fish, a marine biologist at West Chester University of Pennsylvania. "This propulsive mechanism is extremely efficient compared to conventional rigid marine propellers." Fish, a specialist in the swimming morphology of marine mammals, provided Ciamillo with data from CAT scans of dolphins' tails that he used to design his fins, which went on the market last year for $1,800 each.

(thanks to fellow League of the New Worlds member Sarah Jane Pell for the tip)

Arthur C Clarke’s Mysterious World - The Great Siberian Explosion

To continue our commemoration of the life and work of Arthur C Clarke I would like to offer for your viewing pleasure the following episode from Arthur C Clarke’s Mysterious World - The Great Siberian Explosion.

This episode concerns the Tunguska impact event of June 30th, 1908 and first aired on British television on October 14th , 1980 and has to rank as one of my all time favourites along side Carl Sagan's Cosmos Episode 4: "Heaven and Hell".

It was through these television programs that I developed a life long fascination with the mystery posed by Tunguska and a major concern with the possible threat asteroids and comets pose for human civilization. I first learned about the eyewitness account, recorded in the chronicle of Gervase, of a lunar impact event seen by Canterbury monks on June 18, 1178 that some researchers believe resulted in the possible formation of the lunar crater Giordano Bruno through these particular documentaries. The possible connection of these two events with the Beta Taurid meteor shower and other impact events in human history remains a particularly interesting area of research to me personally and can be traced to the undeniable influences of Arthur C. Clarke and Carl Sagan in my late adolescence.

So without further adieu dear readers and if you would allow me the pleasure of a bit of youthful nostalgia I would like to present for your viewing pleasure:



Arthur C Clarke’s Mysterious World - The Great Siberian Explosion

Terrafugia

The Skycar people have completed their expedition but it appears thet have some competition in the flying car business. Terrafugia have just successfully flown their prototype:

Remembering Sir Arthur..................

It was one year ago today that Arthur C. Clarke went on his final odyssey into the infinite. Today on Discovery Enterprise we would like to pay homage to the Man who inspired three generations of men and women to pursue careers in science and space with his visionary writings.

Sir Arthur was and will always remain the…….

The Man Who Saw the Future

Referred to as a genius, this one man think tank is considered the ultimate futurist by his devoted fans. How is it that Clarke's views of the future, as described in his many novels, have often become very present realities, such as videophones, laptop computers, E-mail, the space shuttle and cloning? One thing is for sure, Arthur C. Clarke is one of the most celebrated science fiction authors of our time. His novels 2001: A Space Odyssey and most recently 3001: The Final Odyssey, as well as more than 60 other titles have inspired generations of people, propelling us into the future, setting our minds free to explore.

You can purchase this wonderful documentary from AMAZON.COM

And, for your viewing pleasure and in order to honour Clarke’s contributions to the genre of science fiction we have:

The Martians and Us -From Apes to Aliens Episode 1.

A series about the history of British science fiction. This edition looks at our relationship with aliens, from Wells' invading Martians to the Daleks, via 2001: A Space Odyssey, the Midwich Cuckoos, and the Mekon. It also explores the genre's preoccupation with the big questions of evolution, and includes interviews with Arthur C Clarke, Brian Aldiss, Doris Lessing and Steve Jones.

Exploring and Colonizing Mars - The Human Factor

Today on Discovery Enterprise we continue to celebrate humanity's enduring love affair with the planet Mars with the fourth instalment of the Discovery Channel's landmark television series Mars Rising -The Human Factor.

The human spirit may be the Achilles' heel of the Mars Mission. Mental breakdown, sexual tension, near-suicide and mutiny have already taken place on shorter space missions. The crew knows there is a 50 percent failure rate in Mars landings.

Mars Rising -The Human Factor

Evolution - Great Transformations

Today on Discovery Enterprise we continue our year long celebration of the life and work of the naturalist Charles Darwin with the second episode of the landmark PBS television series “Evolution” - Great Transformations.

What underlies the incredible diversity of life on Earth? How have complex life forms evolved? The journey from water to land, the return of land mammals to the sea and the emergence of humans all suggest that creatures past and present are members of a single tree of life.

Evolution - Great Transformations

Living, Loving and Dying in Space

"Lovers in Space" - OUT OF THE CRADLE by Pamela Lee from Out of the Cradle; copyrighted material 1984. Many thanks Pam for your kind help.

Someday humanity will leave its planetary abode and will eventually embark on the grand enterprise of humanizing the high and final frontier of space. This will be a venture that will benefit humanity and transform it into a multi-planetary species. As humankind expands its presence beyond the confines of its single planet it will face high adventure, make new and exciting discoveries and confront many new challenges and dangers. 

Giovanni Schiaparelli and Humanity’s Love Affair with the Planet Mars

March 14th, 2009 marks the one hundred and seventy-fourth birthday of Italian Astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli the man who along with the American Astronomer Percival Lowell was responsible for our long and enduring love affair with the enchanting and mysterious planet Mars.

Giovanni Schiaparelli set into motion a series of events when he announced that:

He observed a dense network of linear structures on the surface of Mars which he called "canali" in Italian, meaning "channels" but mistranslated as "canals".

While the latter term indicates an artificial construction, the former indicates the connotation that it can also be a natural configuration of the land. From this incorrect translation, various assumptions about life on Mars derived, as the "canals" of Mars soon became famous, giving rise to waves of hypotheses, speculation and folklore about the possibility of life on Mars.

Among the most fervent supporters of the artificial canals was the famous American astronomer Percival Lowell who spent much of his life trying to prove the existence of intelligent life on the red planet.

This was to was to bring forth the romanticised vision of Mars of H.G. Wells, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Ray Bradbury and Robert Heinlein and culminate with humanity’s exploration of space and an active program of robotic Martian planetary exploration in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. It is our fondest hope that one day humans will follow in the wake of their robotic explores and one day explore and settle this world. In the meantime until that day dawns, join us today on Discovery Enterprise as we explore humanity’s continuing fascination with the red planet and commemorate Schiaparelli’s memory with today’s video features. Happy birthday Giovanni Schiaparelli!


Mars and Beyond

From Disney Series of Man's Conquest of Space Made in the 1950s. For its time this particular television feature presented a wonderful survey of humanity's love affair with the red planet and our future prospects there. Not to be missed.



Mars Rising - Part 01 - Journey to The Red Planet

Dr. James Garvin, lead scientist for Mars and Lunar Exploration at NASA, and Dr. Paul Delaney, Professor Physics and Astronomy at Toronto's York University, outline the extraordinary challenges and obstacles faced by the international space community in sending a manned mission to Mars ... and bringing it back. William Shatner narrates "Mars Rising"





Mars Rising - Part 02 - Rocket Power


The spacecraft that will take a crew to Mars will be assembled—in space. Up to 10 rockets will be required to carry equipment and the astronauts to the mothership. The 56-million-kilometer journey to and from the Red Planet could take up to three years. Will the fuel be thermo-nuclear or super-heated charged particles? Engineers must get it right the first time—or the astronauts will die.



Mars Rising - Part 03 - Staying Alive

Preparing and protecting the human body in deep space may be a greater challenge than all the technological factors in planning a mission to Mars. Living together in a confined environment for up to three years, the six astronauts will become each others' caregivers. They will face zero gravity with its debilitating effect on muscle and bone mass; solar storms; and cosmic radiation—microscopic particles piercing the skin of the spacecraft and penetrating the bodies of those inside can cause brain damage and cancer.





The History Channel's UFO Files-Alien Hunters

The planet Mars will forever be linked to the Search for Intelligent Life In the Solar System and Beyond.

Five Ways To Save The World

How will humanity survive the coming century if our global civilization never manages to overcome its addiction to fossil fuels, curb carbon emissions and global warming continues unabated? What effect will a four degree Celsius rise in temperature have for our planet and the future prospects of our world’s ability to support and sustain a global population of some nine billion people?

According to a recent article by Gaia Vince in the weekly science magazine New Scientist the human species is facing a major existential risk that places our long term future into question. We face a nightmarish scenario:

ALLIGATORS basking off the English coast; a vast Brazilian desert; the mythical lost cities of Saigon, New Orleans, Venice and Mumbai; and 90 per cent of humanity vanished. Welcome to the world warmed by 4 °C.

The Earth of the year 2099 may be so altered by global warming and sea level rise that the carrying capacity of our planet is debilitated to the extent that we may see a massive die off of the human species and may face the prospect of a massive relocation effort of its surviving members to the few remaining slivers of land that can sustain them.

If humanity does indeed face such a bleak prospect then it has clearly reached the point in its history where it must take a more active role in managing its planet and all its life sustaining resources as well as the activities of its inhabitants on an unprecedented scale.

Clearly this is a vision of the future that no one wants, but it might happen. Fearing that the best efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions may fail, or that planetary climate feedback mechanisms will accelerate warming, some scientists and economists are considering not only what this world of the future might be like, but how it could sustain a growing human population. They argue that surviving in the kinds of numbers that exist today, or even more, will be possible, but only if we use our uniquely human ingenuity to cooperate as a species to radically reorganise our world.

Climate change is being felt the world over and if global warming continues to increase the effects could be catastrophic. Some scientists and engineers are proposing radical, large-scale ideas that could save us from disaster. Although these ideas might have unknown side effects, some scientists believe we may soon have no choice but to put these radical and controversial plans into action. Will we have to engage in a massive program of Planetary and climatic engineering, in essence a program of Terraforming the Earth, just to help maintain the natural life support systems that sustain humanity and the other life forms that call this Earth home?

Five Ways To Save The World





Watch Five Ways To Save The World View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

Space nappy

When you have to go you have to go. Here's how the Japanese propose to handle the matter:

The proposed toilet is designed to be worn by the astronauts at all times with sensors detecting when the wearer relieves himself or herself. This will automatically trigger a rear-mounted suction unit to draw the wastes away through tubes to a separate container and the device will wash and dry the wearer afterwards. For astronauts who have been indulging in space curry the unit will also incorporate features to eliminate unwanted sound and odor. The research group hopes to develop the next generation space toilet within the next five years with plans to test working prototypes in Japan’s Kibo lab aboard the International Space Station (ISS) – hands up for that job. The team believes the new toilet could also have earthbound uses such as in hospitals for bedridden patients...

The Search for Earth-like Planets orbiting other Stars Begins

A new age of exploration and discovery has just begun. Humanity has ushered in a new age of discovery with the launch of a new automated astronomical observatory designed specifically to search for Earth-like planets orbiting distant suns. Our species is poised to answer the age old questions of its place in the Universe and whether or not we share this Cosmos with other inquisitive life forms asking and perhaps knowing the answer to the same thought provoking question – Are we alone in the Universe?

The Kepler telescope launched aboard a Delta II rocket on Friday March 7th, 2009 at 3:49am UTC.

The Kepler Mission will use a space photometer developed by NASA to search for Earth-like planets orbiting other stars. It will observe the brightness of over 100,000 stars over 3.5 years to detect periodic transits of a star by its planets (the transit method). The mission is named in honour of Johannes Kepler.

Kepler is a mission under NASA's Discovery Program of low-cost, focused science missions. NASA's Ames Research Center is the home organization of the science principal investigator and is responsible for the ground system development, mission operations and science data analysis. Kepler mission development is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. is responsible for developing the Kepler flight system.

Stay tuned to future issues of Discovery-Enterprise as we follow this trail blazing mission into the unknown and explore nothing less than the Universe, Life and everything else.

The Launch of the Kepler Astronomical Observatory






Kepler Mission Update

Is Another Siberian Apocalypse Close at Hand?

As my good friend Ralph Buttigieg has recently written the Earth had another close encounter with a Tunguska sized body a week ago today. It is becoming more and more apparent that the issue of Near Earth Objects must be seriously addressed before some city or other densely populated area falls victim to a Celestial 9/11 event. It is my personal belief that another Siberian Apocalypse very much like that which befell the Tunguska region of Siberia a little more than a century ago is very close at hand.
The object that came dangerously close to us last week goes by the mild mannered and rather obscure designation of 2009 DD45. But as the British weekly science journal New Scientist reported in its March 7th, 2009 issue:

An asteroid about the size of the one that levelled the forest in Tunguska, Siberia, a century ago flew past Earth on Monday - well within the Moon's orbit. The risk of a future impact with the object is not yet known.

The asteroid, dubbed 2009 DD45, whizzed just 72,000 kilometres above the Earth's surface. That is less than a fifth of the distance to the Moon and just twice the distance to geosynchronous satellites.

The video shown here was taken Canberra and it shows NEO 2009 DD45 moving at about 500"/minute. 

NEO Asteroid 2009 DD45 from Canberra

NASA and the space agencies of the major spacefaring nations of the world have to step up their efforts at early detection and draw up plans for early mitigation. The defence of our planet is the primary concern of every citizen of this planet. The time has come to take the threat of a possible impact from even a modest size asteroid more seriously.

If you still are not concerned about the possibility of the possibility of massive devastation ruining your day just watch today’s second video offering and see what such a rock falling from the sky can do to my old home down of New York City. This isn’t another cheap thrills Hollywood disaster blockbuster folks. This is real science with a capital “S” :


Siberian Apocalypse
It was the biggest explosion to rock planet Earth in the history of civilization. A blast that devastated sub zero Siberia. It was an assault more powerful then a thousand atomic bombs and one that destroyed everything in it's path. The century old catastrophe remains one of science's most terrifying and hotly debated mysteries. Now NASA and others race against time to stop the next planet killer before it ignites Armageddon.


Siberian Apocalypse

The Great Library of Alexandria

Today on Discovery-Enterprise we will wander through the halls of the Great Library of the Ptolemaic-Egyptian city of Alexandria. It was once the greatest centre of research and learning of the ancient world and served as the home of the greatest minds of classical civilization. Hipparchus, Euclid, Galen and Hypatia strolled through its magnificent galleries and made use of its fantastic collection of half a million papyrus scrolls encompassing the knowledge of classical antiquity.


The Library of Alexandria was the citadel and epitome of the Ionian Awakening that held the promise of creating a brilliant scientific civilization two thousand years ahead of schedule. But, alas it was not to be, for it had fallen victim to the ignorance and intellectual decay that destroyed the great civilizations of classical antiquity and plunged the western world into a dark age lasting a thousand years. And, it was the rediscovery of much of this lost knowledge that would usher in the Renaissance and the great age of enlightenment that would give rise to the modern scientific age we live in today.







Watch The Library of Alexandria (1996).avi in Interesthings! View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

My Pet Dinosaur

What if the Cretaceous-Tertiary impact that ended the reign of the Dinosaurs never occurred? Would these magnificent creatures, which could only be described by superlatives, still be walking the Earth? Would these creatures have gone on to evolve intelligence and perhaps a technological civilization? It is perhaps the greatest question concerning an alternative evolutionary history of life on Earth. Today on Discovery Enterprise we explore this alternative evolutionary history with the BBC Horizon documentary – My Pet Dinosaur.

It's a palaeontologist's dream: the chance to live in a world where dinosaurs are not something to be dug out of the ground but are living among us. It may sound far-fetched but dinosaurs were actually rather unlucky. The meteorite impact that doomed them to extinction was an event with a probability of millions to one. What if the meteorite had missed?


Had dinosaurs survived, the world today would be very different. If humans managed to survive alongside them (very unlikely), we wouldn't have the company of most, if not all, of the mammals with which we are familiar today. Giraffes, elephants and other mammals wouldn't have had space to evolve.

Would we be hunting Hadrosaurs instead of elk? Or farming Protoceratops instead of pigs? Would dinosaurs be kept as pets? And could the brighter dinosaurs have evolved into something humanoid?

My Pet Dinosaur

Dinosaurs on the news - Horizon - My Pet Dinosaur - BBC


A satirical news report featuring dinosaurs nosing through rubbish bins on a residential London street. Great short video from BBC show Horizon - My Pet Dinosaur. Watch more high quality videos on the BBC Worldwide YouTube channel here: BBC World Wide On YouTube.

Heres just the thing to explore Aquatica and visit undersea colonies:

The Deep Flight Super Falcon looks like a fighter jet, with its thin body, two seats, two sets of wings and two tail fins.

"We just had to tear up everything we knew about submersibles and start again on winged subs -- underwater flying machines," Hawkes said.

He said Deep Flight submersibles are designed to be more agile than any creature living in the ocean -- with the exception of dolphins. The company says that because of the wings, the Super Falcon can go barrel-rolling with dolphins while traveling at speeds much faster than other private submarines.

The craft can stay underwater for up to five hours and travel at speeds up to 6 knots, the company says on its Web site.

Prices start from $350,000 so I better start saving now.

Asteroid Opportunity

A few days ago another small asteroid whizzed by the Earth:

Sky-watchers in Asia, Australia, and the Pacific islands welcomed a surprise guest Monday: an asteroid that passed just 41,010 miles (66,000 kilometers) above Earth.

Discovered only days ago, asteroid 2009 DD45 zipped between our planet and the moon at 13:44 universal time (8:44 a.m. ET). The asteroid was moving at about 12 miles (20 kilometers) a second when it was closest to Earth.

"We get objects passing fairly close, or closer than this, every few months," Timothy Spahr, director of the International Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Center in Massachusetts, said in an email.

"Also, though, note these are only the ones that are discovered. Many more pass this close undetected"—as asteroid 2009 DD45 nearly did.

Astronomers didn't notice the oncoming asteroid until February 28, when it showed up as a faint dot in pictures taken at the Siding Spring Observatory in Australia.

At that point the asteroid was already a mere 1.5 million miles (2.4 million kilometers) from Earth, and closing in fast.

Which got me thinking... wouldn't it be good if a small space probe could be sent to explore such asteroids and leave a radio beacon behind to track them. The problem is that there's usually only short notice of a close approach , far to short a time frame to plan and launch a spacecraft. So why not park several small space probes in orbit and when the next asteroid approaches send one off to follow? I doubt they would need to wait long for the opportunity. The L4 or L5 orbits would be a good place to store the spacecraft as they could use the gravitational fields of the Earth/Moon system to help accelerate them to the asteroid.

Other Worlds

This Thursday, just down the road from here a few miles away, the Kepler spacecraft will launch toward orbit on a mission specifically designed to search for Earths in the habitable zone of other stars.

When I was in high school, the science textbook we used said there were nine known planets – period. Since that time, in our own own solar system, we have discovered more than a handful of others, such as the very distant Sedna orbiting more than twice the distance from the sun as Pluto with a single solar year lasting up to 12,000 years and a surface temperature hovering just above absolute zero. There are others.

But as the Kepler spacecraft will look outward to other star systems, it will begin to add to the catalogue of more than 340 extrasolar planets we have also, relatively recently discovered. Here is an example of the catalogue description of the extrasolar planet, Gliese 581C:

Gliese 581 C marked a milestone in the search for worlds beyond our solar system. It is the smallest exoplanet ever detected, and the first to lie within the habitable zone of its parent star, thus raising the possibility that its surface could sustain liquid water, or even life. It is 50 percent bigger and 5 times more massive than Earth.

After a successful Kepler mission, there should be many more such as these added to our catalogue of known planets as the mission is designed ot examine more than 100,000 candidate star systems simultaneously.

Finally – the most remarkable thing about all this is that in today’s classrooms, there is a catalogue of planets much larger than the textbook I used that made relative brief mention of only nine!