Roscosmos the Russian Space Agency has approved funding for a Phobos sample return mission called Phobos Grunt (soil). The mission´s goal is to launch in October 2009, the same year as NASA´s Mars Science Laboratory and two years before the European ExoMars.

Phobos has long fascinated Russians scientists and in 1988 they sent a mission there that succeded in getting close and observing the satelite of Mars but did not reach its final goal of rendevouz and sendig small landers to the surface. Returning a a sample of Phobos to Earth would be a major achievement and perharps a precurssor to the long sought Mars Sample Return Mission.

A hazy ring of dark matter spawned by a colossal cosmic crash eons ago offers the best evidence to date that vast amounts of this mysterious stuff reside in the universe, scientists said on Tuesday.

This undated image from the Hubble Space Telescope shows a ghostly ring of dark matter in a galaxy cluster designated Cl 0024+17. Astronomers call the ring one of the strongest pieces of evidence to date for the existence of dark matter, an unknown substance thought to pervade the universe.

A group of scientists and engineers are in northeastern Mexico this month to test an autonomous underwater robot, DEPTHX. The goal of their project is to create a comprehensive 3-D map of the worlds deepest sinkhole, Cenote Zacatón, and to collect water samples to learn about its chemistry and biology. The current activity is a test run in a smaller, nearby sinkhole, in preparation for deploying DEPTHX in Zacatón.

Europa’s Subsurface Ocean

“We were camp and pretended to be sleazy and we were very drunk. Vaselines rehearsals involved meeting in the pub and talking about. James would often turn up and realise his bass was locked in a bar we used to drink in. Charlie turned up once without drum sticks and then constructed some from bamboo sticks, two nails and lots of tape.”Eugenius K.

The Vaselines – Monsterpussy (mp3)
The Way Of The Vaselines: A Complete History
Sub Pop – 1992
Cómprenlo@Waterloorecords

“Also known as the “Dumbo octopus”, the Grimpoteuthis is a benthic mollusc found on the ocean floor at depths of 300-400 meters. Dumbo octopuses, which can grow to up to 20 centimeters, are soft-bodied or semi- gelatinous octopuses with a pair of fins located on their mantle and webbing between their arms. Grimpoteuthis swim by moving their fins, pulsing their webbed arms, pushing water through their funnel for jet propulsion, or all three at once. They can swim up off the bottom and hover a bit just above the seafloor looking for snails, worms, and other food.”-MBARI

Esta fotografía fue extraída del libro“The Deep:The Extraordinary Creatures of the Abyss” de Claire Nouvian.

En 1945, 12 años antes de que la URSS lanzara el primer satélite al espacio, Arthur C. Clarke calculó que un satélite en una orbita ecuatorial ubicada a 35,787 kilómetros sobre el nivel del mar giraría al mismo tiempo que la tierra y estaría en un punto fijo en el cielo.

Esto, Clarke imaginó, sería muy útil para la comunicación al enviar señales a grandes distancias. En 1964 fue lanzado el primer satélite geoestacionario, el Syncom 2.
60th Anniversary of Clarke’s Communication Satellite Idea

“The first International May Day was proclaimed by the socialist Second International in 1889. However, the origins go back decades before this. The link between May Day and the use of the red flag as a symbol for socialist workers is close, perhaps above all in France.The British angle is that not just of a demonstration, but of a workers’ festival based on miners‘ galas. So that first May Day already inherited some complex traditions–a demonstration of working class power which had to be respected, and was respectable, but, again as Hobsbawm notes, combined with beer and skittles”

Billy Bragg – To Have And To Have Not (Live) (mp3)
The Internationale/Live and Dubious
Yep Rock Records 2006 (re-issue)
Cómprenlo@waterloorecords