COOL LINKS

Cool links to different space, science and skepticism websites. You have, of course, all the great NASA links as well as to some of the most stunning space pictures imaginable. Read about a lawsuit brought to an Italian court alleging fraud by the catholic church by promoting the life of Jesus Christ as truth! Links to topics such as physics, nanotechnology, forensic anthropology, the real science of some favorite sci-fi novels, cryonics and lasers ("Frickin' lasers, man!"). You will also find links to the websites of many of our current and previous Space & Science track guests. Enjoy and learn something new!!

antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod Astronomy Picture of the Day - The number one site for the most stunning astronomical pictures ever.
www.nasa.gov NASA Online Online home base for every thing NASA related.
www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasa tv NASA TV! Watch all the major happenings live.
phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu Reaping success from the ashes of the cancelled Mars Surveyor mission; The Phoenix Lander is currently active on the North Polar region of Mars. Carrying instruments to scoop, look, heat and analyze the polar soil (which is believed to contain water ice) one of it's main functions will be to search for the presence of carbon based compounds which is an essential clue in the search for life - past or present.
messenger.jhuapl.edu The Mercury Messenger Probe made it's first flyby of Mercury on January 14, 2008. There will be further flybys of Mercury, as well as Venus and Earth, until Mercury orbit insertion which is expected on March 18, 2011. Messenger will be the first probe to actually orbit the planet Mercury.
pluto.jhuapl.edu New Horizons, the probe to Pluto and the Kuiper Belt launched on January 18, 2006. Planned before Pluto's demotion from planetary status, it's mission to study objects in the outer solar system will provide the most complete data since the Voyager missions.
saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm The Cassini Probe is still going strong and sending back stunning pictures. Word from Dr. Kevin Grazier is Cassini's mission has been extended through 2011 and he and 2007 Space track guest, John Smith, are working on the proposal to extend the Cassini mission even further. We shouldn't for the ESA's part in the Cassini mission. Check out the ESA Cassini-Huygens site for more information.
marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/home JPL's Mars Rovers site. Keep track of those amazing rovers Spirit and Opportunity.
http://stardustathome.ssl.berkeley.edu Check in on the progress of the StarDust project. How many mini movies did you do?
genesismission.jpl.nasa.gov Genesis Project - After a spectacular failure in its crash landing, you'll be amazed at the science that has been recovered. They captured solar wind!
www.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/missiondetails/deepimpact A deep space hole in one. How NASA & JPL flew millions of miles to hit an asteroid with a probe the size of a bus. Worth staying awake all night on the 4th of July to see.
slsd.jsc.nasa.gov NASA's Space and Life Sciences Directorate There's a lot of human science going on at NASA too.
history.nasa.gov/timeline NASA history timelines - What happened, when and who did it.
www2.jpl.nasa.gov/ambassador JPL's site for information on their 'Ambassador' program.
hubblesite.org The Hubble Space Telescope - enough said.
heritage.stsci.edu Hubble Heritage Project - Another site for fabulous pictures but all taken by the Hubble Space Telescope.
www.nasa.gov/mission pages/chandra/main/index.html The Chandra Observatory is one of NASA's Great Space Observatories. Chandra looks at the universe through x-ray vision. Harvard University shares responsibility for the Chandra telescope and maintains their own Chandra website.
solarsystem.nasa.gov/missions/profile The Spitzer Telescope is the last of the originally planned Great Obeservatories and searches the skies in the infrared wave lengths. The infrared spectrum allows Spitzer to look through the most obsure space dust to see what's going on behind it. It also means Spitzer is able to peer into the distant past by searching out the farthest objects in our universe. Some of the most spectacular pictures that are released to the public are those that combine the same image from the Hubble, Chandra and Spitzer telescopes together, providing more detail than any of them can do separately. As with most of NASA's missions, the Spitzer telescope has a collegite partner. CalTech helps oversee the mission and keeps their own Spitzer website.
kepler.nasa.gov With a beautiful night launch on March 6, 2009, Kepler, the first space telescope specifically designed to search for exo-Earths, was launched. With an initial mission length of 3.5 years, Kepler's telescope will be solely pointed at a single star field in Cygnus-Lyra region. Scientists have chosen the length of Kepler's initial mission so that suspected exo-Earths' orbits can be tracked and verified over a multi-year period.
www.directlauncher.com The Shuttle fleet is due to be retired in 2010. NASA's follow–up human flight operation, Constellation/Orion, originally would have left the USA without the capacity for human space flight until at least 2014. Problems with the Ares I design have pushed that option back to optimistically 2016, but at this point, most likely even further. Direct 3.0, is the latest version of an alternate follow–up to the Shuttle program. Direct proposes a rocket system that makes more use of current designs and is supposedly cheaper and could be operational as early as 2012. Safer, Simpler, Sooner - that's the mantra of DirectLauncher.
www.nasaspaceflight.com Easily the best, most accurate site for what's happening in and about NASA's Space Flight programs. Reading through the forums, you know you're often reading comments from real NASA engineers and scientists. They just won't/can't give their real names for fear of losing their jobs for possibly disagreeing with NASA's 'official line'. Fascinating stuff!
www.astronautix.com NASA's own history office refers people to this site. An amazing grouping of anything and everything having to do with space history.
www.astr.ua.edu/keel The man responsible for all those great astronomy pictures given away during each year, Bill Keel's site has a link to more of those gorgeous views.
www.badastronomy.com Bad Astronomy - Website of 2006 guest Phil Plait. He can debunk the myth that the moon landing was real.
www.jb.man.ac.uk/~pulsar Pulsars make noise too! Want to know what one sounds like?
www.lesjohnsonauthor.com Les Johnson, DragonCon Space & Science guest and Manager of NASA Marshall Space Center's 'Space Sciences Programs and Projects Office', has setup his own website. Keep up with Les' life away from NASA. You will find information on his popular science books and check out where he has been speaking and where you can see him in the future – besides DragonCon, of course.
www.nsbri.org National Space Biomedical Research Institute This group is learning how humans can live and work for long periods of time in space.
www.orbitalcommerceproject.com George Tyson's Orbital Commerce Project website - he's the guy with the great sub-orbital simulators.
www.sei.aero SpaceWorks Engineering, Inc. - A.C. Charania and Dr. John Bradford are long time Space & Science track guests.
www.seti.org The Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence Institute. SETI has been involved with this search for over 25 years. Most recently, Paul Allen, co–founder of Microsoft, invested millions of dollars to begin the building of SETI's own array of radio telescopes dedicated completely to searching the multitude of radio frequencies Dr. Seth Shostak, a senior scientist with the Institute was a guest in 2009 promoting his latest book Confessions of an Alien Hunter.
www.scirealm.com Everything from quantum phases and science puzzles to Kryptos, ambigrams and pantheist poetry. A look into the mind of an amazing man.
space.com Space news, Space images, Space trivia and an online store.
spacetelescope.org This is the European website for the Hubble Space Telescope. Hubble news. Hubble pictures. Hubble projects for kids and teachers. If it's Hubble - it's here.
www.spaceweather.com/aurora Gorgeous pictures of Aurora Borealis.
www.spaceweather.com .../nasa meteor radar They're not just cool to look at, they make noise too! Listen to sound of meteors.
www.amazon.com/Science of Dune The Science of Dune - Dr. Kevin Grazier's latest venture. JPL just can't seem to keep him busy enough and BattleStar Galatica is not in production. Eureka and Zula Patrol still leave him too much time. So what does Grazier do? He writes a book Dune; what else?
www.amazon.com/Science of Michael Crichton The Cassini probe is doing great. Eureka and BSG are on mid-season break. Dr. Grazier needs something else to keep him busy. The Science of Dune was fun so he decided to do it again.
www.alcor.org Dr. Merkle is an advisor and Director for this cryonics company. Find out how you can live in the future!
www.merkle.com Dr. Ralph Merkle, our long time expert on nanotechnology and cryonics.
www.luf.org LUF - This is the website for John Savage, author of The Millennium Project.
www.physorg.com Great science site covering a multitude of topics.
sciencedaily.com This site has it all! If it touches on science in any way, you'll find here. Anything from cell biology to black holes – and – it updates 24/7.
www.scifidimensions.com An Online Sci-Fi Magazine edited by John C. Snider, a 2007 guest.
www.zyvex.com/nano Dr. Merkle explains nanotechnology.
madsci.us Space and Science tracks' own Evil Genius himself, Richard (Hawk) Altstatt, has set up a blog for all you mad scientists out there who want to exchange ideas for how to destroy, or even just control, the world.
ArcAttack.com Favorite entertainment of the Space and Science Tracks crowd; if you have seen/heard ArcAttack you are missing out! These guys build tesla coils and then they make them SING. We keep bringing them back to DragonCon hoping that one of these years they will realize that singing tesla coils are just the kind of entertainment that DragonCon attendees would love.

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