Just in time for the weekend: seven reasons to believe that life just keeps getting better.
Item 1
SpaceShipOne makes third rocket-powered flight
With pilot Mike Melvill at the controls — following release from the White Knight turbojet-powered launch aircraft high above the Mojave, California desert — SpaceShipOne punched through the sky today boosted by a hybrid propellant rocket motor. According to sources who witnessed the flight, SpaceShipOne appears to have reached an altitude of a little over 200,000 feet.
The good news:
It looks like NASA is going to have to do something really impressive (like build a space elevator) to stay ahead of the private sector.
The downside:
Time is running out for X-prize competitors. The Ansari X Prize expires January 1, 2005. The X Prize requires that a vehicle capable of carrying three people reach a height of 330,000 feet and then return safely to Earth, and repeat the flight with the same vehicle within two weeks.
Still, it appears that Burt Rutan is determined to meet the deadline. Today's flight to over 200,000 feet is almost double Rutan's April 8 flight. I'm betting that Rutan wins the X-prize in autumn. Any takers?
UPDATE: It's official. This flight took them to space.
Item 2
World's First SpacePort
Given all the rocket plane activity at the Mojave Airport, steps have been taken to have the facility certified as a spaceport.
Stuart Witt, General Manager of the Mojave Airport, envisions the site busily handling the horizontal launchings and landings of reusable spacecraft.
Witt said the FAA's Office of Commercial Space Transportation is reviewing an application to license Mojave Airport as an inland spaceport. In fact, the airport is already a natural center for research and development and certification programs, such as the rocket plane work of Scaled Composites and XCOR Aerospace.
The good news:
Glenn's quote comes from the same story we cited in Item one, above, but we felt this item deserved its own entry. The opening of the world's first spaceport follows close on the heels of the FAA issuing its first license for a commercial space flight. As someone recently commented, the space age has truly begun.
The downside:
Now that we have them, it's only a matter of time before we find spaceports as annoying as airports. Mark my words. In a few years, you'll be no more thrilled about having to to go to the spaceport to catch the red-eye (get it?) to Mars than you currently are about being re-routed through Newark on your way to Detroit.
But on the other hand...
It's going to be way fun until we get so jaded. (And by then, maybe the starships will be flying.)
Item 3
Quote of the Day
(From The Incipient Posthuman)
All that the human mind has ever accomplished is but the dream before the awakening.
H. G. Wells
Item 4
Brain Scans Show Money Gained From Good Performance More Meaningful
(From FuturePundit)
Money that comes as a result of reasons unrelated to one's own performance causes less activity in the area of the brain associated with reward processing than when the money comes as a result of good performance.
The good news:
The research cited in the linked article reveals something significant about what makes human beings tick. By and large, we'd all like to have a million bucks, but we would feel very differently about a million that we'd earned than we would a million that we found/inherited/won in the lottery.
Sure, we want to see to it that our material needs are met, but there's apparently something else at work, too. We are hardwired to take satisfaction from adding value. If, has been asserted, human beings are primarily and inherently problem solvers, then it only makes sense that we find the accomplishment of our goals more much more satisfying than stumbling upon (or being handed) the things we want.
The downside:
Of course, this is terrible news for the "From each according to his abilities; to each according to his needs" crowd, but then they've been having kind of a tough time of it for the past 50 years or so, anyway.
Item 5
Seychelles Scraps Plans for Hotel on Remote Atoll
Seychelles Thursday scrapped plans to build a luxury hotel on the world's largest raised coral atoll, Aldabra, bringing relief to environmentalists concerned about the impact of tourism on the atoll's ecosystem.
Home to giant tortoises, huge robber crabs, marine turtles and the last surviving flightless bird in the Indian Ocean, the white throated rail, Aldabra is considered to be one of the world's greatest surviving natural treasures.
The good news:
We're usually pretty pro-development around these parts, but if you've ever seen a coral reef killed off by industry or tourism...well, it's not pretty. Let's chalk one up for the tortoises, crabs, turtles, colorful fishies and, above all, the Aldabra — long may she, um, walk.
The downside:
It's bad news for the developers, who were only trying to make an honest buck, after all.
Anyway...
There are plenty of other prime resort sites left on the planet. Get crackin', folks.
Item 6
EU to Approve Genetically Modified Corn
The European Union's head office said Friday it would approve a type of genetically modified corn for human consumption, ending a 6-year biotech moratorium that the United States has challenged at the World Trade Organization
The good news:
Science triumphs over enviro-superstition.
The downside:
Ill-founded environmental "protections" are still rampant, causing tremendous damage.
Anyway...
That genetically modified corn has made it through is very encouraging. Let's see more of this kind of progress.
Yesterday, we reported on the touching love story of J-1 and Aurora — two star-crossed, eight-tentacled lovers in Anchorage, Alaska. Astute reader (and M104 member) Andrew Salamon pointed out a downside to this story that we overlooked:
I think you missed a slight drawback on Item 7, at least from Aurora's point of view:
"She will weaken and die soon after they hatch."
It's true: this is a possibility if Aurora is carrying an excessive number of...children. What a strange saga hers has been since being found in a tire in front of the Sea Life Center. Now she has love, celebrity, and an uncertain future.
Hang in there, Aurora. With J-1getting on in years, the kids are going to need their mother.
Better All The Time is compiled by Phil Bowermaster and Stephen Gordon. Viva la future, dude!
I read a Stephen Baxter story once involving a squid who was "trained" to be part of the artificial intelligence/ computer array for a long term space mission. But they underestimated her intelligence and fierce drive to bequeath her genes to the next generation ... intelligent squid life soon appeared on one of the moons of Jupiter.
It's a long way from a tire, I realize, but, never underestimate a mother.
Posted by: Kathy at May 14, 2004 07:05 PMRe: Item 7:
Slight typo, my name is Andrew not Robert. :)