How many alien civilizations exist? - Ecuatia Drake

In 1960, Frank Drake conducted the first search for radio signals from extraterrestrial civilizations at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Green Bank, West Virginia. Soon thereafter, the National Academy of Sciences asked Drake to convene a meeting on detecting extraterrestrial intelligence. The meeting was held at the Green Bank facility in 1961. The equation that bears Drake's name arose out of his preparations for the meeting: As I planned the meeting, I realized a few day[s] ahead of time we needed an agenda. And so I wrote down all the things you needed to know to predict how hard it's going to be to detect extraterrestrial life. And looking at them it became pretty evident that if you multiplied all these together, you got a number, N, which is the number of detectable civilizations in our galaxy. This, of course, was aimed at the radio search, and not to search for primordial or primitive life forms.

BBC a pus la dispozitie un calculator dinamic pentru ecuatia Drake: http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20120821-how-many-alien-worlds-exist

NASA animation temperature data 1880-2011

Space Station Blues

Turul statiei spatiale internationale (ISS) si putina muzica.

Pamantul cu aurore si furtuni

Earth | Time Lapse View from Space, Fly Over | NASA, ISS from Michael König on Vimeo.

Nu au fost adaugate culori sau efecte speciale.

Thanks Didy!

Mars rover "Spirit" - intreaga misiune

La sfarsit se impotmoleste in nisip. Acolo este blocat si acum.

Cosmic Journey

Thanks Calin!

The lost astronauts

Then, on 28 November 1960, the Bochum space observatory in West Germany said it had intercepted radio signals which it thought might have been a satellite. No official announcement had been made of any launch.
“Our reaction was to immediately switch on the receivers and listen,” said Achille. After almost an hour of tuning in to static, the boys were about to give up when suddenly a tapping sound emerged from the hiss and crackle.

“It was a signal we recognised immediately as Morse code – SOS,” said Gian. But something about this signal was strange. It was moving slowly, as if the craft was not orbiting but was at a single point and slowly moving away from the Earth. The SOS faded into distant space.

As the brothers listened, the cosmonaut experimented with zero gravity. They lost the signal as the cosmonaut prepared for re-entry while whistling a communist hymn. It was only then that President John F Kennedy was awoken at 2am to be given the news that Yuri Gagarin was the first man in space.
Five weeks later, on 19 May 1961, the brothers picked up what is now their most infamous recording, which they claim is of a woman cosmonaut whose ship burned up on re-entry. Then, a few days after this, they picked up a tantalising few seconds of another transmission: “Conditions growing worse, why don’t you answer?” Both recordings are clear and accurately translated.
One fatality that we do know about from those early days was that of Valentin Bondarenko. At 24, he was the youngest cosmonaut. He met his terrible end on 23 March 1961, while in a pressure chamber as part of a 10-day isolation exercise. Bondarenko dropped an alcohol-soaked cotton swab on a hot plate, which – in the oxygen-rich environment – started a fire that ignited his suit. It was 20 minutes before the pressurised door could be opened. Bondarenko was pulled out barely alive, crying “It was my fault”, and died eight hours later, comforted by his best friend, Yuri Gagarin. News of the accident was hushed up until 1986.

Este fascinant articolul.

http://www.forteantimes.com/features/articles/1302/lost_in_space.html

Software for Apollo

Pe vremea mea maica iti tricotai softul din 0 si 1!

Earth-like planets are common

Wow big surprise...

Efervescenta in 0G

Checking in on Saturn - The big picture

Galerie completa: http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/05/checking_in_on_saturn.html

Peisaje martiene

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/11/martian_landscapes.html