Anoushey…T minus 8 hrs to launch…thank you Yoda…

So Anousheh Ansari’s big day has finally arrived. She is all set to launch in eight hours for the stars as part of a crew on board the Russian built Soyuz. This space vehicle has become the worlds most used space launch vehicle and has been taking astronauts and cosmonauts into space for the last five decades.

Another interesting find, these days the hottest blog on wordpress is Anoushey’s space blog. No surprises there…

When she touches down around October, which is also the month of the previous Ansari X prize winner, Space Ship One’s. second anniversary, she will unveil Ansari X Prize for 2006, Weblink here., titled “X PRIZE CUP ’06 – Moon 2.0”.

We all wish Anoushey a safe and pleasant journey.

Want to thank our mentors:
Also interestingly, if you want to thank the higher intelligence “alien” beings for transferring such technologies such as the internet, space launches, and other cool gadgets to us over the past 50 years, you can do so now. National Geographic has set up a website called Humans Need Help. to show our appreciation to all they have done for us. Through this project, anyone can compose a short message for our alien friends and beam it into space, from where our historical mentors are proudly watching us at this time. I bet it would be a proud moment for our space venturing mentors…

Also, check out the funky music video that National Geographic is playing these days in tribute to the aliens :P…

–Live well and prosper…ZOINK…

— Tashfeen.

Of gods, cylons, and stars..

“There are those who believe… that life here… began out there. Far across the universe. With tribes of humans… who may have been the forefathers of the Egyptians… or the Toltecs… or the Mayans… that they may have been the architects of the Great Pyramids… or the lost civilizations of Lemuria… or Atlantis… Some believe that there may yet be brothers of man… who even now fight to survive… somewhere beyond the heavens.”

Excerpts BattleStar Galactica Website

This is one heck of a show. It brings together some very scientific, mythical, religious, and historical beliefs that we as humans adhere to in a very thrilling and edge-of-the-seat entertainment. A very interesting concept brought forth. Questions such as where do we come from. Are we really an amnesiac race. Forgotting our technologically advanced past through all the wars fought over the past few millennia. Questions not directly shown in the show but one thinks about later on. Such as the building of Egyptian Pyramids, the myth of Atlantis, and the civilization of the Mayas. The artefacts these civilizations left…their purpose, their design, their significance wrt the cosmos and constellations, etc. I would like to talk more about the pyramids and their history but thats another lengthy post, so I’ll stack this idea somewhere for later and adhere to WHY I love this show.

To bring these questions to life, the authors have linked our age old mythical beliefs about our birth stars. The planets that humans are shown to inhabit, called colonies, are based in our constellations ie Planet Caprica in the Capricorn constellation, Planet Arron in aries, Planet Sagitton in Sagitarius etc. Smart analogy. Twelve colonies in total. Twelve human tribes. Spread across the cosmos. A thirteenth tribe is said to exist called Earth. Its location unknown. Its existence, a myth. The thirteenth tribe is shown as being us, humans on this planet. This is the thirteenth tribe that BSG is looking for throughout space….

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Pakistani ‘daughter of the soil’ to go on VSS Galactica..

“Cap’in Archer. The Andorian ship is hailing Enterprise. What should we do”…”Hello Pink-skin…”…

This looks like an early episode from the first season of Star Trek (Enterprise). Since my last post is tagged in the ‘space‘ category, my interest in the dark expanse has been reignited. I recently learnt that a Pakistani artist Namira Salim, is part of the crew of seven people who will head into space in Virgin Galactica’s and Scaled Composite’s  “VSS Enterprise” in 2008. This is the first commercial venture taking people to space and will mark as a forerunner to the space age tourism.

Last year, I was hooked on a documentary on Discovery Channel titled “Black Sky: Winning the X Prize“. ”

— Pluto stripped of title, watch out Goofy

Here’s a question that has baffled me ever since I was young. Mickey is a mouse, Donald is a duck, Pluto is Mickey’s pet dog…then whats Goofy. Isnt the spot for the clumbsy dog already taken :o. And how come Goofy is a bipod, talks, and wears clothes while Pluto is left on all fours, sniffing, and barking :P. Sounds like this judgement has affected astronomers and scientists in the past as well…but no more.

Just this week, astronomers and scientists from The International Astronomical Union (IAU) finally passed a verdict defining what ‘planets’ are. And in the process, unravelled that our heavenly body, Pluto, is no longer categorized as a planet  (remember Steven Spielberg’s  E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial – thats what ET was trying to tell us when he pointed to the solar system mde of stress balls and the geometry set in the movie). Finally someone listened to the alien. 

Look at him, so dumbfounded. I feel for you Pluto ol’ boy.

                       

Pluto, the lovable Mickey Mouse dog, the Greek God of the underworld, the controversial planet X now finds itself amongst the smaller celestial bodies of the solar system ie asteroid… ”