MoonPop: Transformers 3: Dark of the Moon Trailer December 15, 2010
Posted by Nick Azer in : MoonPop, poll , 1 comment so farAs we get ever closer to regular commercial access to the moon, Luna figures to be making more and more appearances in the pop culture as interest waxes back into the public eye.
Lunar miners, mall developers, and aspiring villainous owners have made big Hollywood appearances over the past couple of years, but now it’s a heavyweight franchise’s turn to take the trip: Transformers 3: Dark of the Moon!
Here’s the Transformers 3 trailer, which plays around with some Apollo history…something a lot bigger than an Eagle landed, apparently:
The clever setup of the trailer has generated some buzz (excuse the pun), and seeing a Michael Bay budget’s worth of lunar CG should be a blast (rather literally).
What do you think of the trailer? Do you think this’ll be good to stir up some space interest, or will the history rewrite confuse people on details? Vote below, and take your takes on it to the comments :)
Loading ...
SpaceX’s Dragon Takes Wing (and Touches Down) with Successful Flight! December 10, 2010
Posted by Nick Azer in : Dragon, private sector, private space, SpaceX , 1 comment so farOn Wednesday, SpaceX successfully made the first launch (and return) of their Dragon capsule, making them the first commercial company to ever recover a spacecraft from orbit!
Launched aboard their historic Falcon 9 rocket, the Dragon’s recovery via splashdown is a feat that’s only been achieved previously by six governments/agencies.
SpaceX already has in hand a contract to resupply the International Space Station—a role previously handled by the Space Shuttle— using the Dragon, so having such a smooth flight is a big step towards really having the private space industry touch down.
Check out the Spacevidcast.com webcast of the launch below:
Google Lunar X PRIZE Roundup #38 December 2, 2010
Posted by Nick Azer in : Google Lunar X Prize, Google Lunar X Prize Roundup , add a commentThe Google Lunar X PRIZE is a $30 million competition challenging private space enterprises to land a rover on the Moon. Each week, I round up all the latest developments as the teams rocket forwards and upwards…
This site is Apture-enabled, so highlight any phrase to find out more about it :)
Now that we’ve all recovered from the feasting and shopping, it’s time for a Thanksgiving-sized GLXP roundup. So, here goes with three weeks (Nov 8th-29th) of goodness, including a flurry of activity from SELENE and a number of new partnerships all around:
- Team SELENE announced the winner of their spin stabilized rocket contest (and posted outtakes from the competition)! They also became sponsors of a Sugar Shot to Space team, and blogged about starting design on a four-wheel-drive rover; on design of a land-rover-rocket; on testing of a rocketed mini-DV camera; and about a design that comes full circle :)
- Team Part Time Scientists revealed their lander design! They also blogged about software failures.
- Team Rocket City Space Pioneers announced a partnership with the Hunstville Center for Technology! They also blogged about a satellite launch party at Dynetics :)
- Team FREDNET announced a new COO!
- Team SYNERGY MOON added a new partner: AU Vidulini!
- Team Astrobotic featured their rover’s mission control user interface design, as well as motor control for its camera and head!
- Team ARCA video blogged about propulsion installation!
- The official GLXP blog posted a video (complete with 80′s music) reminding that the deadline for team registration is near :)
- Evadot posted an update to their unofficial GLXP Scorecard!
- Team White Label Space’s Australian partner Lunar Numbat gave a TED talk on returning to the moon! The team also announced their new chief blog-o-naut :)
- Aspiring team Puli featured Hungarian scientist Zoltan Bay and his Moon radar experiment :)