Friday, May 30, 2008

Concerning the Final Frontier

Antimatter

Star Trek...here we come! Particles making up normal matter also have opposite versions of themselves called anti-matter. An electron has a negative charge, for example, but its anti-matter equivalent, the positron, is positive. Matter and anti-matter annihilate each other when they collide and their mass is converted into pure energy by Einstein's equation E=mc2. Some futuristic spacecraft designs incorporate anti-matter engines. I know that Dr. Stephen Hawking has said that he is working on warp drive...I wouldn't put it past this brilliant fellow to at least get a start on it.


Space Station

The one and only commode on the Space Station went out early in the week. I haven't heard, but I am assuming that it has been fixed.


Mars

The Phoenix Lander has sent back some dazzling images of the surface of Mars. The surface has a checkerboard look to it, as the ice that lies just beneath the dirt and sand has cracked into certain "square" formations. But, I refuse to be impressed by Phoenix's work until I see some hard of evidence of Martians :-).


Don (no, I am not a space topic, although some might think so...just signing off ;-).

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hi Don- I marked your blog. I'm a bit of a space "trekky" myself. :-) but I'll probably be more interested in your spiritual posts.
Fran