Fri, 30 March, 2012 | Submitted by: Las Cruces Sun-News | in commentaries

Getting $7M Extension, Spaceport America Runway 

Concrete work being done at New Mexicos's Spaceport America. Credit: Judd Bradley

Officials of New Mexico spaceport have approved a $7 million extension of the Spaceport America runway by about 600 meters to address safety concerns from Virgin Galactic, the Las Cruces (N.M.) Sun-News reports.

Virgin Galactic, which plans to offer suborbital spaceflights for tourists launching from Spaceport America in 2013, recently told officials that the heat and wind there would restrict the company’s ability to operate safely year-round, according to Rick Holdridge, chairman of the New Mexico Spaceport Authority.

Holdridge said the authority assigned one of its members, former NASA astronaut Sid Gutierrez, to check into whether the proposed extension of the 3,000-meter runway was merited, and he concluded it was.

Satellite Fleet Operators Protest Indian Tax Proposal

1. Peter B. de Selding
 
2. 04/5/12 10:39 AM ET
 
3. in Policy

A group including many of the world’s biggest commercial satellite fleet operators has written the Indian government to protest a proposed new tax that would slap a 10 percent royalty fee on foreign satellite communications services and make the fee retro ...

How do you build a telescope?

Note that you can buy a Dobsonian telescope (really a super kit that needs some assembly, principally the mount) for about the same price as you can buy the components to make one, unless you step back from the "buy a mirror, mirror cell, etc." like I did and make some of these components yourself. This was the John Dobson idea with his telescope design.

The first link is to a book I used to understand part of what I was doing. It is available at the site below or at Amazon, and maybe at a local library.

The third link is to another book I used even more heavily so that my telescope could be disassembled and transported when we go camping or traveling.

Consider a Yahoo or Google search for "Dobsonian Telescope building"

Source(s):

http://www.willbell.com/tm/dobtel.htm
http://www.birchardvilleobservatory.org/…
http://www.tomclarkbooks.com/tomclarkboo…
Yahoo or Google search results includes plans by San Francisco Sidewalk Astronomers, among other things.

How does space expand and what does it expand into?

Some pompous twit told me that the Big Bang was not an explosion but an expansion of space. Said twit then blocked me from replying. Well upon reading that "an expansion of space" bit the first question that came to mind was..How do you expand a cubic inch? Then the two on the question line popped up.

The theory is that all the matter in the universe was originally compressed into a lump which then expanded suddenly (exploded -- bang!), with the matter and energy released continuing to spread out in all directions throughout the existing universe, a limitless empty void, so it's thought.

Can we see the surface of the moon using telescope?

Yes, you can see the surface of the Moon with a telescope or even with the naked eye.
No. There is no one on the Moon.

If is difficult to get a feel for how far away the Moon is or how large it is. In the night sky, it doesn't seem large or far. Even with a very large telescope you can't see something as small as a person on the Moon from Earth.

Is it illegal to go to the moon without informing to NASA?

You don't need NASA's permission. You do need FAA permission to launch a rocket through US airspace just so they can coordinate airplanes out of the way.

No one is sending people out to the Moon secretly. Any country launching people into orbit or beyond publicizes it in the event they need rescue or recovery assistance, if they value their people!

How far away is the constellation scorpius in light years?

The constellations are not astronomical objects -- they are figures we have drawn to help us map and find our way around the sky. It is therefore not possible to state the distance to Scorpius, but each of the stars, the star clusters, nebulae, and other celestial bodies within the constellation do have a distance. Antares, the red giant star in Scorpius is a double star about 550 light years away. M4, a incredible globular cluster very near Antares, is about 7 to 7.5 k light years (7000 to 7500 light years).