Among the hotels included are:

• Majestic Colonial
• Bahia Principe
• RIU
• Iberostar
• Ocean Blue
• Caribe Club
• Paradisus
• Bavaro Princess
• Occidental Flamenco
• Fiesta
• Ocean Bavaro
• Melia
• Barcelo

To view the full list of hotels, please go to to the Punta Blanca Golf Club hotel transfer list.

Please note that this shuttle service is EXCLUSIVE to The Tee Time Shop clients. The shuttle service is not available if you purchase your rounds locally or through a hotel.

Photo: Aaron Cooper, CNN

When you first walk into the Buran building you could easily mistake the shuttle for its American counterpart.  It looks almost identical to NASA's fleet, but the museum points out it's not just a Soviet copy.  They explain the similarities saying both design teams were governed by the same laws of physics, had similar goals, and Soviet designers drew on NASA's publicized research but the end products were substantially different.

The Technik Museum already had a large collection (everything from a Boeing 747 mounted high in the air, to a Cold War U boat, fire trucks, typewriters and model trains) but museum director Hermann Layher dreamed of adding a space shuttle.

The U.S. shuttles are still in use, but the Soviet Union's Buran shuttles were mothballed when funding was cut shortly after the collapse of communism.  Only one had ever been launched (unmanned in 1988), but that was destroyed in 2002 when its hanger collapsed.

One of the test models was available.  Buran OK-GLI, like the U.S. Space Shuttle Enterprise, was built to test aerodynamics for landings.  Unlike it's American counterpart the OK-GLI had 4 jet engines attached to its tail so it could take off for its test flights (the Enterprise had to be carried aloft by a Boeing 747.)

The Buran OK-GLI had been displayed at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, then was taken to Bahrain to be exhibited, but got mired in a legal battle between its owners and the exhibitors.  The Technik Museum was able to buy it and after a long legal battle brought it to Germany.  It was first shipped by sea, then pushed on barges up the Rhine River to the city of Speyer.

In all the museum spent about 10 million Euros (about 15 million dollars) to buy the shuttle, bring it to Germany, and put it on display in it specially built hangar.  Friday a steady stream of museum visitors, including me, flooded into that hanger to see exactly what a Soviet space shuttle looks like.

--CNN Producer Aaron Cooper in Speyer, Germany

]]> http://projectsmall.wordpress.com/?p=352 Wed, 01 Oct 2008 12:06:12 +0000 projectsmall http://projectsmall.nl.wordpress.com/2008/10/01/uvd2%e3%81%8c%e3%83%95%e3%83%ab%e3%81%ab%e5%88%a9%e7%94%a8%e3%81%a7%e3%81%8d%e3%82%8b%e5%b0%8f%e5%9e%8bpc%e3%81%af%e3%81%a9%e3%81%86%e3%82%88%ef%bc%9f/ 「UVD2が利用できるPCが欲しい。」という記事を7月上旬に投稿したのだが、
昨日、Radeon HD 4550/4350が発表されてみると、ミドルレンジ以下のRadeonでは、
UVD2機能のひとつ、ダイナミック・コントラストが使えない事が判明した。

そこで今回は、全てのUVD2機能を利用できる、
すなわちハイエンドRadeon搭載の、メーカーPCを紹介する。

Shuttle XPC P2 4800（メーカー直販BTOはコチラ）：

筐体サイズは22cm（横幅）x21cm（高さ）x32.5cm（奥行）。
標準的ミドルタワーと比べると、横が同じで高さは半分、
奥行きは2/3程度。

BTOでは、CPUはCore 2 Quad Q6600（65nm / L2 8MB / 2.40GHz）固定だが、
ベアボーンは45nmのCore 2 Quad / Extremeにも対応する。

グラフィックは標準でRADEON HD4850（512MB）を搭載するが、
排熱、電源容量からして、HD4870でも問題ない。

マザーボード基盤上のコンデンサは全て、
耐久性の強い固体コンデンサだし、
PCとしての凝縮感は本物である。

しかし、BTOで選択可能なHDD3台（最大2.2TB）ってのには、
流石に無理がある。この筐体はHDD放熱が弱いので、
2プラッタHDDx2台くらいが限度で、それもミラーリング用と考えた方が良い。

この筐体は基本的には静音で、騒音はグラフィック次第だろう。
ファンレス・カードは無理としてもその辺、
定評があるものを選んだ方が良いかも知れない。

それにしても、プレゼントキャンペーンのXPC専用バッグってのは、
意味不明だなぁ・・・ コレ、持ち運べってか？

The Hubble Space Telescope. Source: NASA

In the mean time, the Space Shuttle Program will be making forward plans over the next couple of weeks.  Most likely, they will decide to remove the Hubble payload from Atlantis and eventually roll that shuttle back to the Vehicle Assembly Building.  Endeavour would then move to launch pad 39A and could be ready to launch as soon as November 14.

4PM UPDATE:    NASA has confirmed the launch will be delayed.   A new launch date has not been announced, but it will likely slip to January or February 2009.

Regarding the malfunctioning computer on the telescope: for an unknown reason, the principal channel on the on-board scientific data download system stopped working over the weekend.  Efforts to troubleshoot the problem have failed.  Later this week, telescope operators will try to activate a redundant downlink channel.  That "B-side" channel has never been switched on in orbit -- it was last activated during ground tests in the late 1980's or early 1990.  Even it it works, the computer system will be left without redundancy.  Scientists and engineers will need time to study the problem, and determine whether that system can be replaced during the upcoming mission.  It would also take time for engineers to configure replacement hardware for flight, and for astronauts to train for a removal and replacement task.

Sources tell CNN the space shuttle Atlantis mission to conduct the fifth and final servicing mission for the Hubble Space Telescope will very likely  be delayed until early next year.

An additional technical problem has cropped up with the telescope's on-board scientific data downlink computer. Scientists and engineers will need time to study the problem, and determine whether additional repair tasks will be added to the mission.

Atlantis has been targeted for launch October 14. The next shuttle mission in the queue is a shuttle Endeavour mission to the International Space Station. It is currently targeted for launch on November 16.

--Kate Tobin, Sr. Producer, CNN Science & Technology

]]> http://thetraveldoctor.wordpress.com/?p=163 Sun, 28 Sep 2008 03:44:06 +0000 thetraveldoctor http://thetraveldoctor.nl.wordpress.com/2008/09/27/delta-to-add-first-class-to-shuttle-flights/ Delta will begin adding first class seating on their MD88 Shuttle fleet starting December 1, 2008. The Delta Shuttle flies between Boston, New York LaGuardia and Washington DC. The new two class of service will seat 14 passengers in First Class and 128 in coach. Delta will continue the "Open Seating" policy in both classes on all Shuttle flights. If you decide to buy a First Class ticket, it will cost you $679 as opposed to $164 for coach. Currently The Delta Shuttle offers 30 daily between the three airports. Well, at least Delta still does not charge for your first checked bag.

Chapter 1/The Letter

It was just a regular day on Pluto like always, where all the pencils live. In fact several pencils would be rewarded that day. Mr. Pencil is one of them. He received a letter in his mailbox. It said:

Dear Mr. Pencil,

You have been chosen to be deported to Mercury, where the

new space station has been built. I hope you can join in on the trip with your family.

Sincerely,

President Pencil

So that was that, the famous Mr. Pencil would be going to Mercury! He was so excited that he ran into every wall in his apartment.

“I am going to Mercury! I am going to Mercury!” shouted Mr. Pencil.

Mr. Pencil then went to the Crater Pits to look at the wonderful scenery of Pluto for the last time.

Chapter 2/Crater Pits

Mr. Pencil finally got to the Crater Pits looking at the distant sun. Pencil Shuttles were flying above his head to different planets. Mr. Pencil then decided to write his name in the soil; he did and went back to his apartment.

When Mrs. Pencil and Mr. Pencil Jr. heard that they were going to Mercury, they jumped in mid air happily. The next day would be great day for the Pencil family, because the Pencil Shuttle would be taking off for Mercury. Who knows what kind of adventures Mr. Pencil will have.

-CPMAN 8)

]]> http://uconnstamfordlibrary.wordpress.com/?p=622 Thu, 25 Sep 2008 18:54:52 +0000 jrllibrarians http://uconnstamfordlibrary.nl.wordpress.com/2008/09/25/new-shuttle-bus-service-tofrom-stamford-train-station-effective-92908/ The UConn Stamford Campus will offer the FREE shuttle service to and from the Stamford Train Station with a new 24 passenger shuttle bus, effective Monday, September 29.  The new shuttle bus will offer service on Monday through Thursday, beginning each day at 7:00 a.m.  with pick up at the train station, and concluding each day at 10:30 p.m., with a last run to the train station.  The new shuttle bus replaces the shuttle van that is currently offering rides to and from the train station.

Note: The bus driver will ask each rider to present a UConn ID card.  Please be prepared to show your UConn ID card to the driver as you enter the vehicle.  The shuttle bus makes stops ONLY at the Stamford Campus and the Stamford Train Station.  

I have never in the long history that I've watched pro-Starcraft seen such an epic opening round of 128.  Why is this surprising?  In tournaments, the last seasons top 32 players are almost always seeded in the round of 64, leaving only 32 slots for newcomers.

Basically, that leaves the round of 128 on upward to the new and damaged players, which tend to leave the fans with mediocre games.  yet the opening night for this season was anything but dull.  In addition to Nick "Tasteless" Plott receiving a co-commentator(the one and only Lilsusie, associated with Teamliquid.net) who fit in perfectly, we were introduced to several new up and coming players.

The one that stands out most in my mind was Ssak.  He had the greatest challenge of all in the round of 128 by facing off with Shuttle.  Shuttle last season completely surprised the pro-gaming scene by battling his way to 4th place from the round of 256.  He was eventually taken out by Jaedong but just getting to that point unseeded was an epic show of skill unto itself.  

This season though he was unfortunately paired with Ssak who is new on the scene.  Confident, calm and very aggressive, Ssak harassed Shuttle with vultures, mines and tank drops from beginning to end.  A last ditch push by Shuttle mid-game ensured Ssak's win when he managed to overcome it and counter with a fatal push of his own.

In the second game Ssak played more conservatively, letting Shuttle break his army upon his defenses until SSak was ready to push out.  In the end Ssak showed us a solid game once again from beginning to end.  I was very impressed to see that he possessed fantastic micro AND macro.  An all-around solid player in my mind, he actually most resembled Stork more than Flash(who is also a fantastic Terran player).  Stork is best known as being an overall great player, with no apparent weakness but weak when under pressure.

Hopefully we will not see the same failing in Ssak if he manages to fight his way to the round of 64, where he will face off against the legends of the Starcraft universe.

Είναι συμβατό με επεξεργαστές τύπου Intel Core 2 Duo,Core 2 Duo της σειράς E4000, με Pentium Dual-Core της σειράς E2000 ή με επεξεργαστές Celeron της σειράς 400 (FSB 800/1066/1333(65W) MHz). Υποστηρίζεται μνήμη τύπου DDR2-667/800 έως 4GB (2 x DIMM) και εξακάναλος ήχος (μέσω του Realtek ALC662). Περισσότερα για τις προδιαγραφές του μπορείτε να διαβάσετε εδώ.

Wyświetlacz oferuje użytkownikowi rozdzielczość 800x480, więc nie może być alternatywą, która mogłaby zastąpić standardowy monitor biurkowy. Może natomiast być idealnym rozwiązaniem w przypadku używania komputera jako centrum multimedialnego.

Shuttle D10 można kupić już za około 500$.

Źródło & Obrazek: 4press.pl

First of all, installing Mac OS on a PC is something that one should undertake at their own risk. Installing the Mac OS can be questioned legally. Also the software used is not from Apple, so do not expect any support. I installed Mac OS as the only operating system on my PC. These instructions are for that. It is also possible to have Mac OS coexisting with other systems. I recommend a quick googling for more info on that.

What you need

There are a few ISO images that can be used to install Mac OS, the popular ones being Kalyway and iATKOS. I chose Kalyway because the forums had a lot of information on it and apparently its the distribution of choice for most. There is no direct link from where you can download the Kalyway image. So torrent sites are your best bet. I used the Kalyway Mac OS 10.5.2 for Intel/AMD SSE2/SSE3 image. Here are some things that you would be needing:

• The Kalyway ISO image : This contains the patched Mac OS software
• GParted live cd : GParted is a partition manager. This CD helps you partition your drives using a nice GUI frontend
• Quite a few blank DVDs : For backups and some extra ones just in case
• Loads of patience : The most important thing

Hardware requirements

I installed the Mac OS on a Shuttle XPC (SG31G2). Its a standard Intel Core 2 Quad machine, with 4GB of RAM, a Phoenix BIOS, one 150GB SATA hard drive, one 650GB SATA hard drive and a SATA DVD writer. I use the integrated sound and video drivers that come with the system. Pretty standard. I guess any system with similar configurations should work fine. There have been issues with IDE drives and there is a lot of information on that in the forums. Be sure to check them out before you attempt the installation.

Pre-installation

Take backup of all your important data and programs because you would need to delete all partitions on your drives.

Download and burn the Kalyway image onto a DVD. Use a lesser burn speed(I used 8x). The image file is about 4GB in size. Downloading from torrents does take time and you have to be patient with it. Once burnt, the DVD will show only two files taking a meagre amount of space. Stay calm. That's how it is. Rest assured that all the software is there. 

Burn the GParted ISO image to a seperate DVD.

Both the DVDs are bootable. Make sure that your first boot device is the DVD drive. This can be setup using the BIOS. Different BIOS-es have this option under different menus. So check out the documentation for your BIOS. It should be fairly easy.

Installation

Slot in the GParted disk and reboot your PC. GParted should boot up a spartan flavor of Linux and drop you into a GUI with the GParted software already running. The software is quite intuitive to use. I had two disks on my system and both showed up in the drop down box at the top-right corner. I recommend you delete all partitions on all disks using GParted. I had a few failures when I tried to format the disks to FAT32 or ext2 formats. Both times Mac OS failed to install. So just go ahead and delete all partitions on all disks. GParted should show all your drive space as unallocated. Alternatively, if you have more than one disk, you can opt to delete all the partitions in the one on which you intend to install the MacOS. Once you are done with this step, reboot your PC. (Use the Exit icon on the top left corner of the GParted Linux shell). 

GParted ejects the DVD before rebooting. When this happens, just slot in your Kalyway DVD and reboot the PC. The Kalyway DVD is also a bootable disk so your PC should try to boot from it directly. Now the fun begins. ;)

On my PC, after booting from the DVD, I got a 'boot:' prompt. There was a message on top of it that says "hit enter to begin booting". I did that but the prompt kept on appearing with a brief flashing message that complained about some com.*.Apple.plist file not being found. (Checking the forums brought me to a posting where there was a patch for this. I installed the patch into the Kalyway ISO image, burned a fresh disk and tried the installation, but got the same results. The image from which I successfull installed Mac OS did not have this patch and so I don't think this is necessary)

However, before the 'boot:' prompt appeared, there was a timed message asking the user to "press any key to continue booting from the CD or press F8 for more options". This message appears for about 5 seconds and then the system proceeds to the 'boot:' prompt. Before this message expires hit any key on your keyboard to start booting from the DVD. 

Once the boot process starts, you would see a whole lot of text messages scrolling up the screen. Be patient it takes some time. The process changes the display so that the fonts become smaller but brighter. The messages pause after some time. At this stage, on my PC, I had either of the two following messages at the bottom of the screen:

• One saying SAM Multimedia Read or Write failure
• One saying some flag was cleared with p41[configd]

The system virtually hangs at this point. Be patient now. It's seriously testing your patience. There are numerous messages on the forums that say that the SAM message is due to bad DVD. But in my case, I received this message while using about 4 different DVDs that I had burnt at speeds ranging from 2x to 16x. 

It's a good time now to take a coffee break. The system stays in limbo for quite some time but then things start happening. :)

The screen turns grey with Apple's revolving multi-colored ball which I came to know later is referred to as the beach ball. The Apple logo appears and then a screen showing up the language selection window. Hurray! But wait we are still not out of the woods.

Follow the prompts on the screen until the window to select the disks on which to install the OS comes up. On my PC it just listed my DVD drive and nothing else. If this happens, to go to the Disk Utilities software by clicking on the 'Go' option on the menu bar that appears at the top of the screen. The Disk Utility software lists all your disks on the left pane. Select the one where you want to install the OS, on the right pane specifiy a name (if you are using a USB keyboard through a PS2 port using a USB-PS2 adapter, it won't work. Try using it through a USB port) and select the file system type (I used the extended Mac FS with journal support) and click on Erase. This prepares your disk for installation. Quit the Disk Utility. This returns you to the media selector screen and this time your disk should show up. :)

Just select the disk and follow the prompts and you should have your system installed in a few minutes.

Post-installation

Once the installation was completed, I removed the DVD and rebooted the system. The 'boot:' prompt came up. I just hit enter there. A gray screen with the Apple logo showed up with a revolving loading icon. This icon kept of revolving and nothing seemed to happen. So I reset the PC. This time at the boot prompt I checked the other options available (type in ? and hit enter for a full list). I used the -v option. This sets the system in a verbose mode. Again a flurry of text messages and then the system paused at a message complaing about some index problem. I had no idea what that meant. So I reset the PC one more. This time at the boot prompt, I tried the '-x platform=X86PC' flags. Voila! It booted and brought to the screens where I had to create my account, choose the keyboard layout, etc. Finally I was into my Mac OS. I played around a bit and then tried a reboot. This time at the prompt I did not specifiy any flags and it still booted me into the system. Looked like things were working fine. 

Anyway since it was getting late, I decided to quit for day and hit shutdown. The dock, the menu bar and the desktop icons all disappeared and were replaced by the revolving icon. But the system did not shutdown. The PC became very quite but the screen still showed the revolving icon thing. This was frustrating. I again rebooted in verbose mode and then tried to shutdown. This time I could see what was happening since there were messages on the screen. The final message that I saw was "CPU halted". But the machine was still on. Frustrated I gave up and just switched off the PC.

Final words

Even though it was tiresome and frustrating, it was a great feeling when finally I could get into my Mac OS. I am yet to get a feel of the system since I have no prior experience with Macs.

Still to do

• Fix the shutdown problem
• Get my wireless USB adapter working. This adapter was recognized by Kubuntu and worked right out of the box. But with MacOS it was not recognized.
• Get drivers for my display system

Acknowledgements

Hackingtoshes are possible because of the following people/organizations:

• The OSX86 project that made Mac OS on the PC a possibility
• The guys at Kalyway have a made it easier for users through their DVD images
• The InsanelyMac forum helps the first timer with a wealth of knowledge

A big thanks to all of them.

My friend Meagan needs a ride on THANKSGIVING THURSDAY TO WHISTLER FROM SEATTLE.. CAN SHE BUM A RIDE!????.. EARLIER IN THE AM WOULD BE IDEAL!

Wanna stay in some of Whistler's nicest hotels... for under $100/nt?.. This site has screamin' deals... hotels.com or visit http://www.hotels.com/property.do?searchMtmPropertySupplierId=&propertyIdsToCompareString=&COMonth=11&PSRC=OT2&TSRC=1&numrooms=1&searchType=&selected=rte&usertypedcity=Whistler%2C+British+Columbia%2C+Canada&acDestinationId=76432F14-BCF2-4209-B9E9-B3FAB87E06CF&allPropertyTypesSelected=true&COYear=2008&CODay=29&paging=1&acDestinationType=1&searchID=AC102644-1A53-C891-1C82-9441BB09758C&CIYear=2008&mtnHotelID=285767&destination=76432F14-BCF2-4209-B9E9-B3FAB87E06CF&roomOccupancyString=1%7C%7C2%7C0%7C0&CIDay=26&sortBy=HCOMPICK&CIMonth=11

Check out this site to find 4 night / 3 day ski packages and more! http://www.whistlerblackcomb.com/whistler_ski_deals/index.htm?crmcontact=12533866&crmldg=CRM_WB_LDG_01_E4_080916_B

INTERESTED IN GETTING A SHUTTLE FROM VANCOUVER DIRECTLY TO WHISTLER.. (2 and 1/2 hour ride).. $69 !! http://whistlerdirectshuttle.com/rates.html

Suspension of services notice on the Eurostar website

(click on image to go to the Eurostar website)

If one was superstitiously minded, one might think the BTWT editorial team clairvoyant. On Thursday 4 September, we announced that our services would be temporarily suspended and we carried an illustration of a train stopped by water on the track. A week later, Eurostar announced that the UK's most famous train service, which normally goes under water, is suspended by a fire in a lorry on the Euroshuttle freight service. Of course, this is only a coincidence.

For 130 years, from 1856 to 1986, the idea of a railway link under the channel was promoted. It met with official hostility and indifference. There were actually two attempts to build the tunnel in 1881 and 1974. The 1881 attempt was linked to Sir Edward Watkin's plan for a high speed railway route from Manchester to the continent. The 1974 attempt was a government funded project which was still primarily a link between the railways of Britain and France.

BTWT is apolitical and does not care a toss about party politics. However, we do not hesitate to name politicians who play an important role in shaping transport policy. When the idea of building the Channel Tunnel was revived again in 1981, it was Mrs Thatcher who insisted that it's main purpose was to be a shuttle for road vehicles. The extra size of the tunnel's main bores, to accommodate road lorries carried on special rail vehicles, added considerable to the project's cost and complexity. While the tunnel itself received no public funds, two massive motorways, the M20 and M2, were cut through the South Downs to funnel road traffic to the tunnel's shuttle terminals.

These political decisions left Eurotunnel with a large bank debt and a preference for running its own shuttle services for lorries rather than providing paths for freight trains. An Anglo-French safety commission only allows a limited number of certified railway vehicles to run through the tunnel. The result of all of these constraints, and the withdrawal of UK-French government subsidies, is that the Channel Tunnel's full potential to carry rail freight has never been realised, and that only a handful of freight trains work through the tunnel.

The total cost of yesterday's fire in the Channel Tunnel will run into hundreds of millions of pounds. It's ironic that the three fires that closed the Channel Tunnel (on 18 November 1996, 21 August 2006 and 11 September 2008) all took place in road vehicles, or more specifically the HGV lorries, whose carriage by the tunnel shuttle Mrs T had insisted upon. It's also unfortunate that Eurostar, the high speed train operator between England and France that has been doing so well, will be taking a hit from a disaster on an operation - the Eurotunnel Shuttle - over which it has no control or influence.

]]> http://xegon.wordpress.com/?p=9 Tue, 09 Sep 2008 21:57:16 +0000 سيد علي http://xegon.nl.wordpress.com/2008/09/09/ares-or-shuttle/ حتما تا به حال اسن فضا پيماي غول پيكر شاتل را شنيده ايد . فضا پيمايي كه تقريبا شامل يكفضا پيما ي اصلي و دو موشك پيشران برنده و يك موشك بزرگ است . اين فضا پيما ي غول پيكر هم تا سال 2010 منسوخ خواهد شد . بگذاريد كمي بيشتر از اين فضا پيما از زبان ويكي پديا برايتان بگويم ...

شاتل فضایی امریکا که اولین بار در سال ۱۹۸۱ پرتاب شد. نخستین سفینه قابل استفاده مجدد جهان بود. سه بخش اصلی آن مدارپیما، موشکهای تقویت کننده، و مخزن بیرونی سوخت (تنها مخزن سوخت آن که بعد از هر مأموریت قابل استفاده نیست) می باشد. کاشی‌های ویژه مقاوم در برابر گرما مانع از سوختن مدارپیما به هنگام بازگشت به جو زمین می‌شوند. بازوی قابل کنترل از راه دور تعبیه شده در مخزن محموله مدارپیما، می‌تواند ماهواره‌ها را در فضا قرار دهد؛ و همچون سکویی ثابت برای کار فضانوردان عمل کند.

پس از فضاپیماهای مرکوری، جمینی و آپولو (که ماه را فتح کرد)، امریکایی‌ها به سراغ سفینه های رفت و برگشتی رفتند و بدین سان، شاتل های فضایی متولد شدند. شاتل‌ها تا ۷ مسافر و ۲۵ تن تجهیزات را در خود جای می‌دهند و زمان طولانی‌تری را در مدار زمین به سر می برند. آن‌ها همچنین به یک بازوی روباتیک مجهز هستند که به کمک آن می توانند ماهواره‌ها را به دام انداخته، اقدامات لازم را در مورد تعمیرات یا انتقال آن صورت دهند.

تاکنون هفت شاتل به نام های انترپرایز، راه یاب (پث فایندر)، کلمبیا، چلنجر، دیسکاوری، آتلانتیس و اِندِور ساخته شده که دو شاتل نخست، ناکامل و برای آزمایش‌ها و بررسی‌ها ساخته شده‌اند. از میان پنج شاتل بعدی نیز چلنجر و کلمبیا دچار سانحه شده‌اند و فقط سه شاتل دیسکاوری، آتلانتیس و اندیور مشغول فعالیت هستند. به دلیل دو سانحه که باعث کشته شدن ۱۴ فضانورد و از دست رفتن ۲ فضاپیمای شاتل شد، ناسا اعلام کرده که ناوگان شاتل را تا سال ۲۰۱۰ میلادی بازنشست خواهد کرد.

اما از سال 2010 سازمان فضايي آمريكا فضا پيمايي به نام آرس را وارد ناوگان هوا پيمايي خود مي كند . در حقيقت ارس و اريون كه مجموعا يك فضا پيما را تشكيل مي دهند به گفته مقامات ناسا امن تر و قابل اعتماد از شاتل هستند در ضمن اين كه هزينه هر رفت و برگشت ان از شاتل به مراتب كمتر است .

توجه داشته باشيد كه آرس وي ares v موشك هاي جلو برنده اي هستند كه اريون را به مدار خواهند برد . فضا پيماي اريون احتمالا 3 سرنشينه خواهد بود و از نظر ايمني به مراتب قوي تر از فضا پيماي دلتا شكل شاتل خواهد بود  .

البته يك نكته ديگر هم ناگفته نماند و از ما هم نشنيده بگيريد كه كه :

ايران تا 10 سال اخير به فضا ، فضا نورد مي فرستد ..

For the last 9 business days, there's also been no toilet paper.  Actually, they've been switching buses on us, and even the "new" bus is toilet paper free.

About 2 to 2.5 weeks ago, we started getting a new driver ... he started in the afternoons.  The man is a combination of nervous and, well, not the brightest bulb on the string of Christmas Lights, if you catch my drift.

His opening day performance, we get on the bus, and one of my coworkers, greeted him, and tried to be really nice, saying how glad he was he was there.  "Well, I'm not," he says.  "I missing out on my free sandwiches.  On my other route, they bring me free sandwich.  And I'm not getting them now.  This isn't my regular route ..."

On and on and on ... it would have be freaking hilarious if he weren't so rude to someone trying to be nice to him.

That first day, he didn't know how to get from San Jose to SF.  I had to give him directions, as I was foolish enough to sit behind him.   When he didn't know what to do and just barked out "Where do I go?".  He still doesn't know the correct stops in the morning - each day is an adventure, seeing whom he almost flies by in the morning, and where he'll stop in the afternoon.

Today, howver, it went to a whole new level.  The bathroom on on the shuttle is good to have, but its condition is always marginal.  There is no sink, and there's been no TP for days.  Whenever the back of the bus crowd gets on, they open the roof vent near the back for air.

So, the driver arrived about 5 minutes early today - heading in the wrong direction, but he does come up from SJ.  We saw him pull away, and turn the corner, like he was coming around the block.

2 minutes go by ... then 5 ... I started wondering where the guy was ... then 8 minutes.  Finally, my stop-mate says, "Okay, where did this guy GO."

Within *seconds* the bus, appeared ... the door opened, and honey ... let me tell.  We knew where he'd gone ... RIGHT IN HIS PANTS.

Okay, probably not, but when I got a whiff after my first step up on the bus, I knew he smelled bad, and then I got up to seat level ... and I knew what horrors had happened in the back cubicle.  It brought a tear to my eye.  All I could think of was that SCTV or SNL imitation of the then famous kitty litter commercial, where the woman comes in and says, "CHRIST!  Did a  COW Shit in HERE????!!!"

Maybe it was just me, I thought.

Then others started getting on ... I won't repeat the commentary, but I will say the guy who usually sits in the back and opens the vent said, "Hell, I'm not sittin back there!"  He put his stuff, down, took a deep breath near the front of the bus, held it ... RANNNNNN to the back and opened the vent ... then RANNNNNNN back to his seat in the third row.

Usually, almost everyone gets two seats to themselves.  Today, the regulars were sitting doubled up in the front.

The kicker to all this is ... another shuttle had failed to pick up people from another division of where I'm contracting ... just didn't show up.  By the time we got to the last stop, there were 3 seats left.  It wasn't pretty.

I wonder what horrors await this afternoon's ride ... if I'm not back soon, it's because I'm being treated in some hospital for inhalation related injuries.

In testimony before Congress in 2004, Griffin stated his vision for the future of the manned space program as "the human settlement of the solar system, and eventually beyond. I can think of no lesser purpose sufficient to justify the difficulty of the enterprise, and no greater purpose is possible."  Just a year ago he said he regretted the 1970s post-Apollo decision to move from planetary exploration to low earth flight, and said NASA planned to put a man on Mars by 2037.  "I spent some time analysing what we could have done had we used the budgets we received to explore the capabilities inherent in the Apollo hardware after it was built. The short answer is we would have been on Mars 15 or 20 years ago, instead of circling endlessly in low Earth orbit."

The guy speaking there is from an agency that failed to manage a single robot landing on Mars between 1976 and 1997, and in 1999 crashed an orbiter into the planet because NASA worked in SI units and its contractor, Lockheed-Martin, worked in Imperial units.

But never mind, nobody was on board.

What hads got Michael's dander up, in an email obtained by the Orlando Sentinel at the weekend, is that the White House has botched the plan to replace the aging Space Shuttle with the more versatile Ares/Orion system.

Writing to a senior space policy advisor, Griffin says: "In a rational world we would have been allowed to pick a shuttle retirement date to be consistent with Ares/Orion availability, we would have been asked to deploy Ares/Orion as early as possible (rather than 'not later than 2014') and we would have been provided the necessary budget to make it so."

The Shuttle is due to retire in 2010, leaving a long window during which NASA will have no launch vehicles.  Current icy relations between the US and Russia over the Russian invasion of Georgia and South Ossetia make it unlikely that Soyuz systems will be able to take up the slack.  This leaves US commitments to the International Space Station in jeopardy.

"They will tell us to extend Shuttle. There is no other politically tenable course... Extending Shuttle creates no damage that they will care about, other than to delay the lunar program. They will not count that as a cost. They will not see what that does for US leadership in space in the long term."

Meanwhile Japan, ESA and Russia have or are developing automated supply robots for use on the low earth orbit environment.

Griffin's letter seems to be mainly political in thrust. He is concerned that without US presence the space station will effectively become a Russian project.

"There are actions we could take to to hold ISS hostage, or even to prevent them using it - power management stuff, for example. We will not take those actions... the Russians can sustain ISS without US crew as long as we don't actively sabotage them... we need them. They don't 'need' us. We're a 'nice to have'."

I wonder whether they're going in the right direction with this.  The costs of manned space flight are obscenely high, even for low earth orbit.  Real science can be done without human presence.  Unmanned space flight has produced spectacular results at minimal costs and without these political shenanigans.

Non che la NASA sia la migliore agenzia spaziale, il sovietici prima e la Russia poi hanno dimostrato nel tempo di non essere secondi a nessuno, nè sotto il piano tecnologico e nemmeno su quello scientifico. Ricordiamo infatti la lunga lista di primati che l'agenzia sovietica detiene alla faccia del "cugini" americani: il primo satellite: lo Sputnik, il primo essere vivente nello spazio: la cagnetta Laika, il primo uomo nello spazio: Yurj A. Gagarin, la prima passeggiata spaziale: Alexey Leonov, la prima stazione spaziale permanente: la Mir, e così via.

Ma rimane immutato il fatto che, nel mio immaginario di bambino, come in quello di tantissimi bambini di oggi, la NASA era "l'esplorazione spaziale", solo in età più avanzata ho saputo come stavano effettivamente le cose ed ho scoperto che loro non erano certo nè i migliori nè i leader.

La NASA comunque ancora oggi detiene grandissimi primati: su tutti spicca l'esplorazione umana della Luna con il programma Apollo; per chi fosse interessato, soprattutto per i non tecnici segnalo la magnifica serie televisiva "Dalla Terra alla Luna", prodotta da Tom Hanks che in guisa di telefilm ripropone l'entisiasmante cammino che portò l'umanità a scendere sulla Luna insieme a Neil Armstrong quella notte del 20 Luglio del 1969.

Come poi non ricordare l'entusiasmante primo volo dello Shuttle Columbia o i ben più tragici momenti delle esplosioni del Challenger e del Columbia stesso o ancora l'incendio di Apollo I?

A tutti quelli che hanno perso la loro vita inseguendo un sogno di conoscenza, a tutti coloro che vi lavorano oggi e che vi hanno lavorato in passato rendendo possibili con la loro immaginazione e capacità le meravigliose imprese come quella dell'Apollo o delle sonde Viking , Pioneer e Voyager dedico questo post ringraziandoli per la conoscenza e le emozioni che ci hanno dato.