Tag: space

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4th Planet from the Sun: Mars

Xaviar Xerexesby Xaviar Xerexes

I just finished Kim Stanley Robinson‘s 2132 so space and Mars is already on my mind.  Robinson is probably best known for his Blue/Green/Red Mars trilogy.  All of those books touch on terraforming Mars, the concept that we might alter the atmosphere — the entire planetary system — of Mars such that ultimately it could be inhabitable by humans.  Here’s a video on the idea from Michio Kaku, a Professor of Theoretical Physics at CUNY and Science-Person-On-TeeVee: [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrvhOepio4Q&w=560&h=315] But today, we haven’t even sent a human to Mars.  Still in my lifetime the most exciting part of the space program has …

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Pop Culture Rewind: Contact

Xaviar Xerexesby Xaviar Xerexes

Pop Culture Rewind: writing about pop culture years after it was current. So I watch the movie Contact the other night. First off, I read the novel by Carl Sagan almost 10 years ago. I have fond, but mixed memories of that book that watching the film actually clarified (although I am not really sure how closely the film follows the book – obviously the film condensed the book’s plot considerably). The book’s strength is Carl Sagan’s account of how a “first contact” with an alien civilization might occur. Not what the aliens would be like or what they would say to …