Mining the Heavens

TO BOLDLY GO: This morning was interesting, to say the least. Off and on, but mostly on, we spent well over an hour watching a press conference from The Museum of Flight. (You can see a video of it here: Planetary Resources presser. The presentation included a pretty cool trailer explaining who they are and what they hope to do. Their intention is to start mining asteroids for resources, including mineral$ and water (which is huge, for if humans are to push space exploration further, we need not only water to drink, but the hydrogen and oxygen within to both fuel our rockets and breathe).  For over 60 years, it's an idea that's been bandied about in sci-fi stories. Now, Planetary Sciences hopes to turn fiction into fact.

Bellevue-based Planetary Sciences says they mean business. They are well funded and plan to start launches withing a couple of years. It was made clear today they are not simply an ideas only or "paper company." The plan is to use robotic missions to harness resources on relatively near-to-Earth asteroids.

The press conference was absolutely fascinating - potentially a game changer/paradigm shift when it comes to space, the next great frontier. Listening, one couldn't help but conjure up images of a Klondike-style gold rush - people risking their fortunes and futures in hopes of cashing in on caches to be discovered. Exciting times, to be sure.

Of course just watching the action via the Internet wasn't enough. We wanted to get our piece of the pie, so to speak. So, we headed for the Museum of Flight early afternoon. We arrived a bit after 1 p.m. for what was advertised as a 1:30 book signing start time. It started a little after 2, but that's OK. We know how to kill time in line, and there's lots to look at at the museum. For instance, while we were there, we had to visit CJ's favorite map.

Here's a photo of Annabelle watching Dr. Peter Diamandis sign a copy of his book Abundance: The Future Is Better than You Think.  Just to Diamandis' right is Astronaut Tom Jones, a veteran of four space shuttle missions. He asked Annabelle what she wanted to do when she's older and without hesitation she said, "Be an astronaut." At that, Jones flipped open his book to the photo section and was kind enough to point out to Annabelle the female astronauts he'd flown with on missions.

DO THE PONY: This morning, thanks to a MPA reader (hi Undine!), CJ and Annabelle were thrilled to discover the existence of the General Zoi's Pony Creator, a cool, customizable My Little Pony Generator.

They each wasted no time in creating their own little ponies, complete with "cutie marks" on their haunches. Here's Annabelle's creation ...

And "brony" CJ's creation ...

Pretty fierce, no? That's the "Anonymous" clan's flag as the cutie mark, in case you were wondering.

SOUTH CENTRAL: The kids continued work in a book about geography that's very U.S. heavy. Today's lesson was about the South Central U.S. We learned all sorts of things today, including that the magnolia is the state flower of Louisiana.

We also learned that Magazine Mountain in got its name from when French explorers who were travelling through the area when a landslide occurred on the mountain. Apparently the noise from the landslide was so great that one explorer described it as the sound of an ammunition magazine exploding.

I tried to provide a fitting soundtrack as the kids worked. While they toiled on the state of Texas it was "Deep in the Heart of Texas." As they learned about Oklahoma, I relied on Rogers and Hammerstein's song of the same name, of course. After that, I thought I heard Annabelle say they were reading up on Kansas, so I played "Dust in the Wind" by Kansas (I know, a bit of a stretch). When I heard her talking about Little Rock, I realized she had pronounced it ArKansas, so I apologized and told them I didn't know any Arkansas-y songs. I need to look into that.

TO THE ARCTIC: I keep forgetting to post that last week we went to a members only 3-D IMAX preview of "To the Arctic" at the Pacific Science Center. The 45-minute documentary features beautiful photography and a haunting soundtrack by Sir Paul McCartney and Steve Wood. You can see a lovely trailer here, and "To the Arctic's" corresponding Web site gives you a good sense for what it's about.

You can read an article recently published by "To the Arctic's" writer and photographer Florian Schulz here.

The takeaway from the movie: Unless they miraculously adapt at an unrealistic rate, polar bears are screwed. Their ice is disappearing, and with their ice goes their lives. Naturally, many other species will be screwed, too, due to the whole domino effect.