Huffy Flounce

And I, for one, salute our new acidic and gaseous overlords.

Even going by our Terrocentric(?) definition of life, there are all sorts of opportunities for life in our system. Not necessarily walking, talking, reality-show watching life, but simple carbon based organisms.

I have seen The Jeremy Kyle show. If that is life, you can keep it!

Also, we might not be interested in finding other types of life forms because what we're really interested in is finding a world where we could survive so we could exploit its resources.

Life would be life, a big deal gassy or otherwise!

You're no longer getting it.

I know, we broke up.

I figured you'd been in a relationship long enough to have outgrown sex with one another. I assumed you'd be getting tons of it *thanks to* the breakup. What kind of Moneybags are you, anyway?

I am still in that fragile in-betweeny place where I am trying to dampen the pain with a series of meaningless hook-ups with completely inappropriate girls.

It's hell.

Now you're getting it.

That's what she said.

I find this somewhat terrifying:

NASA is now accepting applications from companies that want to mine the moon

Makes me think of this:

Makes me think that we need our favorite artists to band together, 80s style, and do a protest album called 'Never Mine the Moon'.

This would just invite the creation of an anti-protest parody called Never Mind the Moon.

Here's the Sex Pistols?

I think Europe's "The Final Countdown" was already protesting the protest of exploring and colonizing outer space.

Will things ever be the same again?

Erm..... how is the moon in any way NASA's to grant mining rights on?

WE PUTTED URR FLAAAAAG YUPON IT!

Yes. Doesn't count.

Space is a place, not a program. Should be open to all, within reasonably regulated limits.

It seems misleading to call this a language issue. Sure, it's a communication issue, but not because NASA has forgotten the language needed to communicate with the satellite - they just don't have the equipment anymore.

The more appropriate analogy would be to say that we need a rotary telephone to call ISEE-3, but nobody has one anymore... and for some reason, it's too expensive to build one again.

Yeah, I'm sure it would not be too daunting a task to restore communications. There is simply no perceived need to do so.

Still, there's something wistful about the thought of an aging probe wandering the Solar System for decades to come. Perhaps someday the technology will exist to return America's fleet of robot ships to earth as museum pieces. Or some future generations of space tourists will pay good money to see them in person.

So I gotta another space type question. Kinda...... with a Star Trek link.

Whilst I was building flat-packed Swedish furniture, the nation of Skoglund's 3rd best contribution to modern society out of 4, Star Trek V was on the TV in the background.

In it, the Kilngons shoot down an ancient Earth space probe. But that space probe was Voyages wasn't it? Which has kind of already been used just a little bit in Star Trek!!

I think it was Pioneer 10 or 11. It was meant to be a shot at Star Trek: The Motion Picture, which was an infinitely better movie.