Yesterday, 28 January 2010 was the day that NASA paused to remember all those whom have fallen in their pursuit of human ambition.

There are no great limits to growth, because there are no limits to the human imagination, intelligence, and sense of wonder.

It takes a lot of gumption to put your trust into the workings of a barely controlled man-made directed explosion, much more so if that explosion is attached to unique, ahead-of-the-curve technology in the most sophisticated piece of equipment ever built. However, the crews of Apollo 1, Challenger, and Columbia had done just that. They placed their complete and total trust into a mechanical monstrosity designed and built by the greatest minds and the lowest bidder, respectively. They placed their very being into the hands of friends and colleagues, knowing full well they were living and working at the edge of human knowledge, the point in which the unknown becomes known; the edge of science. With science, ignorant darkness begets declaratory light, knowledge transcends incomprehension, and the unknown is peeled back to reveal the grains of knowledge hidden deep within the beauty of Nature.

Science isn’t always simple, or safe. No-one intended for the men and women of NASA to die, but they all knew it would be a risk. Everyone knew that with complex systems, there were many unknowns, and although we, as scientists and engineers, can account for many of them, there are many more that simply cannot be comprehended. These unknowns are quantified as risk, and as such, as pioneers, we have to take those risks. We take them, and learn from them. We take them, and wrestle with them. We take risks, because the payoff is so great. The pursuit of truth is littered with the bodies of brave men and women, scientists and common folk alike. It is a tragedy when people die, and so, to you, the memories of all whom have died in the pursuit of science; to you, the crews of Apollo 1, Challenger, and Columbia, I raise my glass.

The crew of the space shuttle Challenger honored us by the manner in which they lived their lives. We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for their journey and waved goodbye and ’slipped the surly bonds of earth’ to ‘touch the face of God –Ronald Reagan

While I am not old enough to remember either Apollo 1, or Challenger, I do remember the Columbia accident quite clearly. I was in a Red Cross CPR class through the Boy Scouts of America, and like many of the people in the class, it was nothing more than a refresher course. So, I was talking to the instructors and other students, all old friends, when one of the fellow students walks in, looking quite shell-shocked.

“Did you hear that Columbia blew up?”, she asked. We all looked at each other, waiting for the punch-line, which never came. “Yeah, it disintegrated in the air over Texas, and it is presumed everyone aboard is dead.” With that, the instructors turned on the TV, and we watched the news briefly, then began the class. I was unable to concentrate on the material, just going through it by rote, not really paying attention, or even caring. My mind was with the Columbia, wondering if there were any survivors, what happened, and why the shuttle had failed to protect its precious cargo of flesh and knowledge.

Despite the setbacks in the NASA program, despite the difficulties, despite the risk, I still want to be an astronaut.

From this article comes news that the self guiding, infrared, plane mounted telescope SOFIA has begun in flight testing.

SOFIA, short for Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, is a giant telescope attached to a plane. The telescope searches infrared wavelengths at an altitude of at least 15,000 feet, above the safe veil of water vapor ensconced about the Earth. It is far cheaper to launch and maintain a plane then it is to launch a telescope into space; although vibrations are expected to put a damper on things.

The newest American Astronomical Society meeting will be taking place in D.C. January 3rd through the 7th. If you are in the area, there i an open lecture being given by Brian Schwartz that will talk about the role of the scientist as portrayed by various media. It promises to be quite an interesting lecture.

On New Year’s Night, there will be a rare blue moon. By definition, a blue moon is a moon that is full twice in a month, not an actual blue moon. :p

With a tide locked rotation, the moon undergoes all it’s phases in a 28 day (27 day, 7 hour, 43 minute, to be more exact) cycle, starting from New Moon, engorging itself through Waxing Crescent, to a half filled First Quarter then to the rotound Waxing Gibbous and finally to the beautiful Full Moon. Once the full moon begins to die down, it becomes a Waning Gibbous, then slowly emancipates itself to a Last Quarter, then to the waif of a moon Waning Crescent, then it continues to slim down until it disintegrates completely in the New Moon phase. After a few days, the moon is reborn as a sliver of light, and the cycle begins anew.

A New Years blue moon is extremely rare, with the last one happening back in 1990, almost twenty years ago! Holy crap I feel old.

If you went stargazing at any time this year, please head on over to the Japanese Space Agencies Stargazer website.

JAXA is trying to get an (unscientific) count of the number of people who went stargazing any time this year, the International Year of Astronomy. The site also has photo mosaics to look through, as well as reports to fill out, and read.

Even though we are in the waning days of the year 2009, please help this project reach their goal of ten million people whom have stargazed. After all, if you are in the northern hemisphere, the winter months have far more interesting objects to see.

From Science Daily comes word of the Hubble space telescope’s newest, and smallest find.

Using the Fine Guidance Sensors on the Hubble, the 3/5 mile wide Kuiper belt object was located 4.2 billion miles away. The magnitude 35 object, (5 orders of magnitude lower then what Hubble can detect) was discovered as the object occulted and diffracted the stars behind it.

In looking at over 12,000 hours of data, and over 50,000 stars, the Caltech team discovered a single 0.3 second long occultation event.

Straight from the BBC comes a report of seas upon another heavenly body. Cassini, the space probe in orbit around Saturn, has taken a picture of Titan, Saturn’s largest moon, and in that picture, one can see a hydrocarbon sea.

Back in 2005, when Cassini first appeared on the scene, it carried with it a probe, Huygens, which was dropped onto Titan. The Huygens mission provided beautiful images of a shoreline, rounded rocks, and amazing indicators of flowing liquid on the satellite of Saturn. A slide show of images is located on the ESA Cassini-Huygens page.

Although the data returned was ground-breaking, they Huygens probe ran out of power a few hours into its mission, thus forcing astronomers to use Cassini for more exploration of Titan.

Now, that dearth of information may be laid to rest. The Titan Mare Explorer (TiME) probe is being planned as the first lunar sailing ship. At a relatively inexpensive $400 million, the TiME boat will fly to Titan, land, and perform spectroscopic analysis of Titans lakes, depth sounding of basins, and help understand the geology and evolution of Titan.

If funded, the ship is currently planned for a 2016 launch, and a 2023 arrival date. I, for one, wish it clear skies, and smooth sailing.