I have been relaxing this Saturday night watching Cats 101 on Animal Planet and surfing the internet. Jennifer has been working on an art project and is watching the show as well. We are suckers for cats and have been enjoying the show. I ran across a few interesting articles. One that really caught my eye came from Popular Science…
http://www.popsci.com/gadgets/article/2009-10/why-astrophotography-worth-trouble-and-sometimes-disappointing-results
It is very special kind of photography but would be fun to accomplish. Photographing planets would be very tough and would require a small amount of planning. I would like to attempt it once I am able to. The equipment I currently have would not be able to do anything like it. It is surprising what an amateur astronomer can accomplish with the technology out there.
http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2009-11/space-hotel-already-has-paying-guests-2012-debut
This article also caught my attention. As technology advances the commercialization of space is a given and this is evidence of such. While not very practical or economical at the present time colonization of space will be inevitable. As resources become scarcer than they currently are and the world population continues to increase mankind will have no other choice but to inhabit space. There is seemingly unlimited resources in space. A few that I can think of off the top of my head include the asteroid belt, and the various moons orbiting the gas giants. The asteroids have a high content of heavy precious metals. The soil of Mars also contains all the elements for advanced polymers as well as evidence of water. The moons orbiting the gas giants are also impressive. Titan orbiting Saturn contains more hydrocarbons than all the reserves on Earth. I would like to think once we inhabit space we wouldn’t need the hydrocarbons for propulsion and basic energy needs, however we would have enough for every person for what ever need they had. On top of that we wouldn’t have to fight over the resources on the planet. That could be wishful thinking though based on the history of mankind. We as a species are far off from that at the present time. The future is fast approaching though. In my lifetime I will most likely see the start of the process with bases placed on other bodies in the solar system. Plans are already in order for a moon base for the expanded focus of manned exploration of Mars. Who knows what the future will bring.