Rockets!

I'd like to start by admitting that this is filler. It's awesome filler, but filler nonetheless. But this project has been sidelined by a couple of things, and is probably a little over-ambitious on my part, so be patient. I promise a HILARIOUS, and undoubtedly embarrassing video.

In the news lately, Armadillo Aerospace just won the Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander X-Prize! I'd explain it, but this video does it better:



Apparently, in the second phase of the test, it crashed and burned. Which is actually pretty funny. But this is really awesome, a success for a small-scale space entrepreneur. Between that and the success of SpaceX's Falcon 1 late last month, the independent space industry is beginning to take off, which is super exciting.

In awesome news that I didn't know about beforehand, it looks like NASA is gearing up to launch another awesome rover to Mars! It's called the Mars Science Laboratory, and it's the size of an SUV, nuclear powered, and is expected to operate for a solid martian year (687 terrestrial days, 669 Martian days/sols). Which, given that the last ones were designed to last ninety sols, and are currently operating seventeen hundred sols later, so it's safe to expect that this bad boy will last until we're walking around on Mars to take over.