Saturday, April 6, 2013
OBAMA’S $100 MILLION PLAN TO LASSO AN ASTEROID
WASHINGTON (TheBlaze/AP) — NASA is planning for a robotic spaceship to lasso a small asteroid and park it near the moon for astronauts to explore, a top senator said Friday.
The ship would capture the 500-ton, 25-foot asteroid in 2019. Then using an Orion space capsule, a crew of about four astronauts would nuzzle up next to the rock in 2021 for spacewalking exploration, according to a government document obtained by The Associated Press.Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., said the plan would speed up by four years the existing mission to land astronauts on an asteroid by bringing the space rock closer to Earth.
Nelson, who is chairman of the Senate science and space subcommittee, said Friday that President Barack Obama is putting $100 million in planning money for the accelerated asteroid mission in the 2014 budget that comes out next week. The money would be used to find the right small asteroid.
“It really is a clever concept,” Nelson said in a press conference in Orlando. “Go find your ideal candidate for an asteroid. Go get it robotically and bring it back.”
This would be the first time ever humanity has manipulated a space object in such a grand scale, like what it does on Earth, said Robert Braun, a Georgia Institute of Technology aerospace engineering professor who used to be NASA’s chief technology officer.
“It’s a great combination of our robotic and human capabilities to do the kind of thing that NASA should be doing in this century,” Braun said.
Last year, the Keck Institute for Space Studies proposed a similar mission for NASA with a price tag of $2.6 billion. There is no cost estimate for the space agency’s version. NASA’s plans were first reported by Aviation Week.
While there are thousands of asteroids around 25-feet, finding the right one that comes by Earth at just the right time to be captured will not be easy, said Donald Yeomans, who heads NASA’s Near Earth Object program that monitors close-by asteroids. He said once a suitable rock is found it would be captured with the space equivalent of “a baggie with a drawstring. You bag it. You attach the solar propulsion module to de-spin it and bring it back to where you want it.”
Yeomans said a 25-foot asteroid is no threat to Earth because it would burn up should it inadvertently enter Earth’s atmosphere. These types of asteroids are closer to Earth – not in the main asteroid belt between Jupiter and Mars. They’re less than 10 million miles away, Braun said.
“It’s probably the right size asteroid to be practicing on,” he said.
A 25-foot asteroid is smaller than the size rock that caused a giant fireball that streaked through the sky in Russia in February, said Apollo 9 astronaut Rusty Schweickart, head of the B612 Foundation, a nonprofit concerned about dangerous space rocks.
The robotic ship would require a high-tech solar engine to haul the rock through space, something that is both cutting-edge and doable, Braun said. Then NASA would use a new large rocket and the Orion capsule – both under development – to send astronauts to the asteroid.
There would be no gravity on the asteroid so the astronauts would have to hover over it in an extended spacewalk.
Exploring the asteroid “would be great fun,” Schweickart said. “You’d have some interesting challenges in terms of operating in an environment like that.”
Nelson said the mission would help NASA develop the capability to nudge away a dangerous asteroid if one headed to Earth in the future. It also would be training for a future mission to send astronauts to Mars in the 2030s, he said. But while it would be helpful for planetary defense, “that’s not your primary mission,” Schweickart said.
George Washington University Space Policy Institute Director Scott Pace, a top NASA official during the George W. Bush administration, was critical of the plan, saying it was a bad idea scientifically and for international cooperation.
Instead, NASA and other countries should first join forces for a comprehensive survey of all possible dangerous space rocks, Pace said.
The government document describing the mission said it would inspire because it “will send humans farther than they have ever been before.”
Money well spent or more wasteful spending from Washington?
Friday, April 5, 2013
N.Y. DAD’S PISTOL LICENSE SUSPENDED OVER SOMETHING HIS 10-YEAR-OLD SON SAID — AND IT COULD BE 8 YEARS BEFORE HE GETS IT BACK
A New York father has had his firearms all but confiscated after the Suffolk County Pistol License Bureau suspended his pistol license indefinitely over a perceived threat made by his 10-year-old son and two of his classmates at school.
John Mayer, of Commack, N.Y., told TheBlaze that the incident occurred on March 1. It was like any other day, the father explained. He put his son on the bus and sent him off to school.
Later that day, Mayer got a call from school officials at Pines Elementary School informing him that his 10-year-old son and two other students were talking about going to a boy’s house with a water gun, “paint gun” and a BB gun. There had reportedly been a school yard pushing incident the day before involving the boys, excluding Mayer’s son, and they were seemingly talking about getting even in some way.
Mayer told TheBlaze that a teacher overheard the students talking and informed the principal, who then immediately called police and filed a report. He said the principal told police something to the effect of, there’s a “kid with a gun, ready to go.” Mayer maintains that no serious death threats were made by the students. The Hauppauge Public School District has not returned several messages left by TheBlaze, therefore, it is not clear what they are claiming was said.
School officials then “interrogated” the boys, Mayer explained. It was later determined that the 10-year-old boys did not have access to a BB gun, paintball gun or any actual firearms.
The school’s principal later informed the father that his son would be suspended for two days for the incident. But the ordeal was far from over.
Mayer said police officers were then deployed to his home where he was advised by officers that they might have to confiscate his firearms, which he says were all properly stored and secured. “I just couldn’t believe what was happening,” he told TheBlaze.
The following Monday, Mayer got a call from the Suffolk County Pistol Licensing Bureau. He was reportedly told that his license would be suspended and police would arrive at his house the next morning to retrieve his handguns. Acting quickly on the advice of his attorney, Mayer transferred all 15 of his handguns to his friend to prevent them from being confiscated. He also transferred his long arms to a local gun store out of fear that police would attempt to confiscate them as well.
However, that hardly fixed the problem.
Mayer’s pistol license has been suspended until further notice and he says officials have informed him that the suspension could last until his son moves out of his home. His son is only 10-years-old, meaning it could be eight years or longer before his license is restored.
“All my handguns are gone,” Mayer said, letting out a sigh of exasperation.
“We’ve grown to such an absurd point now with firearms where kids can’t even be kids,” he added. He also brought up the fact that there are now students getting suspended for pointing their fingers like “firearms.”
A spokesperson with the Suffolk County Police Department told TheBlaze that the incident is still under investigation.
“The Suffolk County Police Department Pistol License Bureau is conducting a complete and thorough investigation into the matter. Based upon the investigation, his license has been suspended,” the spokesperson told TheBlaze in an email. SCPD declined to provide any additional information.
Mayer’s lawyer, New York firearms attorney James Murtha, told TheBlaze that Mayer does not have any history of mental illness or criminal behavior. He also noted that Mayer’s son does not have a history of violent behavior.
“We understand that in this day and age things can get perceived wrong,” Murtha said. “But we are talking about a child making silly comments. And now a man’s constitutional rights have been dramatically violated.”
Gun rights “mean nothing at all in New York,” Murtha lamented. “Firearms are thought to be some really evil thing here.”
In New York, he explained, a citizen can be a denied a pistol license if the pistol licensing department determines that person doesn’t have “good moral character,” an undefined term:
Eligibility requirements for the issuance of a pistol license in New York are set forth in Penal Law §400.00(1). Briefly, an applicant must (1) be twenty-one years of age; (2) of good moral character; (3) have not been convicted of a felony or serious offense; (4) state whether he has ever suffered from mental illness or been confined to an institution for mental illness; and (5) not had a pistol license revoked or who is not under a suspension or ineligibility order issued pursuant to CPL 530.14 or Fam. Ct. Act 894-a.
“A clear message has to be sent that the government can’t treat citizens this way,” he added. “Firearms are not frightening. Not a single one of my firearms has ever put on a pair of shoes, run down the street and killed somebody.”
Mayer is now pushing for New York to adopt legislation similar to Maryland’s S.B. 1058 or the “Reasonable School Discipline Act of 2013.” He says it would protect the rights of students and parents.
The legislation prohibits a principal from “suspending or expelling a student who brings to school or possesses on school property a picture of a gun, a computer image of a gun, a facsimile of a gun, or any other object that resembles a gun but serves another purpose.”
The bill also prohibits a principal from suspending or expelling a student for making a “hand shape or gesture resembling a gun.” The law does, however, reinforce a principal’s right to discipline students for performing “a direct act of violence against another student.”
Mayer first brought his story to the popular firearms website LongIslandFirearms.com, where he is a respected member, according to the site’s operator. The website is currently accepting donations to help cover Mayer’s legal fees.
Because we have not heard the police or school officials’ whole side of the story, this story may be updated. TheBlaze will continue monitoring and investigating this developing story.
Original Story:
Nice T-Shirt...
"We're going to do for blacks exactly what blacks did for the revolution. By which I mean: nothing." -Che Guevera
"The Negro is indolent and lazy, and spends his money on frivolities, whereas the European is forward-looking, organized and intelligent."- Che Guevara
"Mexicans are a band of illiterate Indians." - Che Guevara
"Given the prevailing lack of discipline, it would have been impossible to use Congolese machine-gunners to defend the base from air attack: they did not know how to handle their weapons and did not want to learn," - Che Guevara
Che Guevara also railed against "long hairs," "lazy youths," and homosexuals.
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