9.16.2005
Friday Flybys (vol. 18)
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Jeff Foust (who knows everything that happens in the Washington space arena and everybody who makes it happen), is following Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Richard G. Lugar's (R-IN) bill to amend the Iran Nonproliferation Act to allow NASA and U.S. corporations to buy Russian space equipment until 2012. More to come.
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The lunar exploration plan rolls on... NASA has briefed the White House on its new exploration architecture (yes, the Exploration Systems Architecture Study). Monday the thing goes public. Keith Cowing has these updates. Meanwhile, Keith says, "As to what it will look like: think Apollo - both for what it will feature - and what it will not feature - as well as how things will look- and how they will work. Mars is only a footnote - a distant one at that."
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Space Law in Nigeria . . . Jim Volpe sent me a reminder about the United Nations/Nigeria Workshop on Space Law, titled, "Meeting international responsibilities and addressing domestic needs," scheduled for Abuja, Nigeria, November 21-24, 2005. (The organizers make reference to a registration deadline of Sept. 12 but that date appears to have been extended already, so if you are interested and missed that apparently arbitrary date, let them know.)
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So how much would you invest in start-up 4Frontiers' vision to put a human settlement on Mars in 20 years? (AP via BusinessWeek Online)
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Alrighty... Ed Minchau aka robot guy, sent me (in response to this Space Law Probe post) a heads-up about a 1981 movie called Outland starring Sean Connery -- a murder-mystery set in a mining colony on Io. I'm off to try to get my hands that video. (Since nobody asked me out tonight to see Magnificent Desolation.) And by the way, if you get the chance this weekend, whip up a batch of Sen. Barbara Mikulski's famous crab cakes -- they're scrumptious.