When is Earth not an Earth?

When it's a super-Earth. Don't get me wrong, the planet we live on is pretty super, but Ohio State University thinks that it's not the only type of planet that could support life.

I'm not sure if it's "thinking outside the box" or wishful thinking. Assume that there's other life out there in the galaxy. Most of the sci-fi I've read assumes that life is only going to develop on planets similar to earth. Now, a few scientists are moving in a different direction.

They think that if a planet has a liquid ocean, it can support life, so they came up with the name "super-Earth" to describe planets that could support life. This new super-Earth description can be applied to a number of larger, colder planets that are much more common than planets like ours. Super-Earths might even be present in about one-third of all solar systems. So we might actually find life out there after all.

Or it might find us first.

Space Mafia Flummoxed By Space Cement Shoes

Do you think about concrete as much as I do? Probably not. I bet you never concerned yourself with the fact that traditional concrete needs to work with a binder that's usually cement and water, but water is hard to come by in outer space. When you find it, you're better off using it for other things, like survival.

That means that when we go to the moon and beyond, we're going to want to rethink our plans to build permanent structures out of concrete. (I know, the science fiction books all have us using plasteel, or crazy super plexiglass, or some other space-age polymer mumbo jumbo, but we haven't invented those yet, have we? Seriously. Have we? I'd like to know. But I digress...) Not to mention the mafia will have a tougher time fitting people with cement shoes out there in the void.

I guess we could still use concrete, if someone figured out how to make concrete without water, like they did at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. I guess that they think about concrete as much as I do.

In a way, I'm kind of heartened to see so many scientists trying to figure out how to build things on the moon. I mean, we're not planning on landing there anytime soon, and I'm pretty sure that the space budget isn't going to be a priority until well after we're out of this current financial crisis, but it shouldn't be totally put on the back burner.

If you were going to build a space city, what would you use as your construction material?

Water Pirates from Outer Space: One Step Closer to Reality

The University of Alabama in Huntsville envisions a future where microwave ray guns harvest water from the moon and possibly Mars. The idea is to collect water in those locations so that our space missions don't have to bring their own water with them, but it's just a short step of the imagination to imagine unscrupulous privateers looting the water reserves of planets across the galaxy.

There is ice buried just under the surface of the moon and Mars, but digging for it is risky and could damage the equipment. However, melting the ice with microwave radiation can turn it into water vapor that is then captured and re-condensed as water. I'm not really sure what happens if the ice that gets turned into vapor was actually a significant part of the surface that the ray gun was resting on, but I'm sure that the scientists have thought it through.

They actually want to take it further, imagining a "robotic, roving device powered by a nuclear generator," irradiating huge stretches of the moon's surface to get at the water underneath. They also want to melt the moon's surface into a solid, dust-free crust, which could be used as a landing pad or to bake bricks or blocks that can be used in the construction of lunar structures.

Sure, the idea of fusing the lunar surface with concentrated bursts of radiation sounds like a bad idea, but it's already getting irradiated by the sun, and it's not like there's an ecosystem up there to be destroyed. I say go nuts.

Houston, We Have Some Prozac

First of all, we're going to send astronauts to Mars, and it is going to be awesome. That's just a given.

Now, the problem is how to help astronauts on their mission after they've left Earth. That's why they're developing computer programs to help astronauts diagnose and treat depression on their own.

So now I'm excited about the trip to Mars, and I'm excited about this new, self-serve depression treatment. After all, once they start using it on astronauts, it's only a matter of time before they adapt it for use here on Earth.

If you could design a computer program that could diagnose and treat an illness without the intervention of a doctor, which illness would you pick?

The Sun Is a Ramblin' Kind of Star

Stars move a lot more than previously expected. University of Washington has run some simulations showing that stars like the sun could actually move a great deal withing galaxies like the milky way.

It's thrown a wrench into scientific calculations because previous models contained "habitable zones" withing galaxies that are more conducive to developing and supporting life. If stars can move, then those zones can move as well. It looks like it's time to rethink the development of life in our galaxy.

Will OnStar Work on the Moon?

Well, no. But an an Ohio State Researcher wants it to. Ron Li is already helping NASA rovers navigate on Mars, and now he wants to get a Global Positioning System (GPS) working on the moon.

NASA is providing $1.2 million for the project over the next three years, which will be a challenge because the moon won't have the same satellites we use for terrestrial GPS. However, the moon system is supposed to be able to use signals from lunar beacons, stereo cameras, and orbital imaging sensors.

I have mixed feelings about this. I am in favor of moon exploration, but when was the last time anyone was actually done on the surface of the moon? 1972? I guess I'm just depressed that even if this system goes online, we still don't have any planned missions to the moon coming up in the near future (although we'll have to test it somehow...).

And don't even get me started talking about the international space station...