*brrring brrrrrrrring*
maca: “Talk to me!”
Prez: “Maca, it’s the President”
maca: “Awright big lad, what’s the craic?”
Prez: “Maca, we have a rock, it’s a big one, we need your help”
maca: “Have me shuttle warmin up, i’m on my way”
*muffled*
“Nora, can ya make a few hang sangwiches an’ a flask a tae … now love, i’m in a hurry …”

p.s. Just wondering, many of these asteroids have been floating around for yonks. They have carved out a nice little path for themselves over time, cruising around the solar system. Then we pop off a wee blast sending the asteroid off on a new course. Do we know where it’s going to end up or what effect a tiny deflection might actually have?

“The test run, conducted earlier this week, is seen as a precursor experiment intended to flight validate equipment and methods to construct a space elevator.”

The test was only performed to an altitude of 1,000 feet (305 meters), so they still have a bit of a ways to go … roughly 62,000 miles! Still, it’s a start.

The space elevator would allow for the lifting of large fragile structures, such as solar energy satellites which would provide clean renewable energy to Earth, inflated stations for manned activities, factories for pharmaceuticals, and payloads for exploration of space. Lifters can be tested easily — to insure reliability and brought back if there is a problem. The reliability and safety of the space elevator is calculated to be much better than any rocket-based launch system. A second generation, larger space elevator (100,000 kg capacity) would allow for extensive human activities in space including a large geosynchronous station (hundreds of permanent residents) and settlements on Mars within the first few years of operation.

Very interesting stuff. Some related reading;
The Space Elevator Comes Closer to Reality, Wikipedia: Space Elevator, The Space Elevator Reference.

Life On Mars
David Bowie

It’s a god-awful small affair
To the girl with the mousy hair
But her mummy is yelling “No”
And her daddy has told her to go
But her friend is nowhere to be seen
Now she walks through her sunken dream
To the seat with the clearest view
And she’s hooked to the silver screen
But the film is a saddening bore
For she’s lived it ten times or more
She could spit in the eyes of fools
As they ask her to focus on

Sailors fighting in the dance hall
Oh man! Look at those cavemen go
It’s the freakiest show
Take a look at the Lawman
Beating up the wrong guy
Oh man! Wonder if he’ll ever know
He’s in the best selling show
Is there life on Mars?

It’s on Amerikas tortured brow
That Mickey Mouse has grown up a cow
Now the workers have struck for fame
‘Cause Lennon’s on sale again
See the mice in their million hordes
From Ibeza to the Norfolk Broads
Rule Britannia is out of bounds
To my mother, my dog, and clowns
But the film is a saddening bore
‘Cause I wrote it ten times or more
It’s about to be writ again
As I ask you to focus on

Sailors fighting in the dance hall
Oh man! Look at those cavemen go
It’s the freakiest show
Take a look at the Lawman
Beating up the wrong guy
Oh man! Wonder if he’ll ever know
He’s in the best selling show
Is there life on Mars?

The UB313 discovery team “have also obtained spectra of the smaller mini-planet 2003 EL61, which was reported on July 28, 2005 by two independent teams: one from the Sierra Nevada Observatory in Spain and the Brown, Trujillo and Rabinowitz team. This object is smaller than Pluto, but shows strong water-ice features, similar to what is seen on the surface of Pluto’s moon Charon.”

UB313:

Update: Will we lose Pluto? *sniff*